[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.