Not many of the foreigners in England are world class. Correct me if I am wrong but who of the current greats have had a transfer to England at their peak level? Neymar? Messi?Lewandowski?Benzema? None of them...
Yes there was Cristiano but he was brought in as talent and left when he was world class, same for Suarez, same for Henry, same for Van Nistelrooy, same for Forlan etc
The only way you get world class players in the EPL is when they're looking for a final grand paycheck. Cristiano, Zlatan, Vialli, Shevshenko, Gullit, Schweinsteiger, Klinsmann when they have already dropped a level or two in quality etc
When foreign players reach their peak they're off to Barca or Real and when they were still great the big Italian teams.
This is just for the last 20 years. Before that foreigners were a rarity in England. Uncomparable with the Serie A for example who were able to attracts all the big stars in the world during the 80s and 90s (I'm not even starting a list of names there are just too many of them) just like what La Liga was doing but to a somewhat lesser extent. I remember at least 4 players of the mighty 1950s Hungarian national team that played in Spain, there was Di Stefano, Kubala, Breitner, Cruyff, Rep, Butragueno, Stoichkov, Laudrup, Simonsen, Litmanen, Kempes...
I mean I can go on, the list of names is endless. It is thanks to the incredible talent of British players over the years that English clubs have always maintained their competition for the big Spanish and Italian teams and not because they could attract world class foreign players because they clearly couldn't or were not willing to do so.
