[mkempe]

Do you believe that there is no difference between having a national team with zero players who thrive in foreign leagues vs having 4-5 key players who do?

In 2007 Liverpool reached the UEFA Champions League Final, and lost to Milan. In 2008 they reached the semi-final, and lost to Chelsea, whose opponents in the final were Man U, making it the first all-English final in the competition's history. How is that "not very internationally competitive"?

For the love of Jove, look at the squads this year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_FIFA_World_Cup_squads

England is clearly apart from all other teams in its insularity; even Russia manages to include two players with foreign-league experience in their selection.

Or look at the EURO 2016 squads: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2016_squads

Your thesis that the best teams from the "larger" football countries don't have a lot of key players in foreign leagues is plainly wrong.

[pvg]

Since you were kind enough to remove the grump from your comment:

Do you believe that there is no difference between having a national team with zero players who thrive in foreign leagues vs having 4-5 key players who do?

I don't believe that, it's not really what I'm saying. On the other hand, this is the winning squad of the 2006 World Cup.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_FIFA_World_Cup_squads#Ita...

It's tricolore all the way. I don't think foreign league participation is what keeps English fans from having to endlessly update the years of hurt count.

[mkempe]

Indeed, that was then. Italy's team has slowly shifted since, to include a few ex-pats, following the trend of other national teams -- except for England, which hasn't shifted at all. Note that Italy didn't even qualify for this World Cup.

We'll soon see whether the unimaginative style of England's team, which my hypothesis attributes to their insular spread and consequent recruitment of top players, is a match for other national teams. I expect them to struggle against both Panama and Tunisia, and to completely fall apart against Belgium unless the latter already feel comfortable with the group results to date.