This week, England international Wayne Rooney looks set to put pen to paper on a £300k a week contract at Manchester United – a figure which illustrates just how much the game is running away from reality.

That any player is being paid £300k a week is, quite frankly, ridiculous. That it is Rooney being paid such an amount is even more insane.

Even in the context of the money crazy world of football, paying Rooney £300k a week is foolish, despite United’s desire to want to retain him as a player. Just recently, the club bought Juan Mata – a player who plays best in the same number 10 role that Rooney occupies – only to play him on the wing, a positions where he was reportedly unhappy to be occupying at Chelsea.

Are we honestly saying that Rooney is worth more money a week than Robin van Persie, Sergio Aguero or Luis Suarez? I’d argue that of that quartet, Rooney is way off the same level of talent. Granted, Rooney is an effective player, but I don’t even think he is the best United player, thus making him the highest paid one is crazy.

At this point, you’ll probably be wondering what the point I’m making is, so I’ll state it now – English players are overpaid, overpriced and poor value.

Perhaps this is why Aston Villa have found themselves shopping in Europe and the lower leagues given such ridiculous prices given to players who are English or British. Villa’s highest paid player – Darren Bent – is English, and few would place him as the best player in the squad.

Now, yes, there is a value to retaining English players because of rulings on foreign players and the importance of home-grown talent in teams but, and this is being honest, I struggle to think of an English player I’d buy given any amount of money – large or small – when we can see what else can be got for the same cash.

In the past, Villa have been guilty of over-indulging in British players, particularly under Martin O’Neill. However, Paul Lambert also has made significant attempts to buy British too so it is clearly part of the club’s future.

As I stated before, some of this is down to league rulings which state that there should be home-grown talent at clubs, largely to stop the erosion of the national football team. However, when we look at the Premier League, how many of the very best players are English?

Looking further, how do we work out why things are the way they are? Are English players poor quality or poor value?

The truth is that it is likely a combination of both. As I’ve discussed previously, the coaching of youngsters in the UK is not the best in terms of quality, but that alone can’t explain why the top teams prefer foreign talent.

All of this points back to value again, and a situation not too different from the wider economy – the reliance on cheaper imports.

I should state categorically that I don’t believe that there is a universal principle implying that any foreign player is better than any English player. In fact – and likely due to price differences – we’ve seen the Premier League filled with imports who aren’t of the calibre of Suarez or Aguero.

At that level, there’s a strong argument for British players – or at least home-grown players who have a British passport – though only at a level of training them in from academies.

If I had my way – and I obviously won’t – I’d do one or two things. The first is to remove any restrictions on who you can play in the league meaning every player in the squad can be foreign with no penalty.

The second is to force the price of English/British players down. This may appear hard to do in the abstract, but the reality is that removing restrictions on who should and shouldn’t be in a squad means that English/British players would no longer have a price premium – they wouldn’t be a necessity to meet squad guidelines.

All of this would likely leave the English/British player situation resolved, meaning that – at least comparatively – the likes of Rooney should, at least, be paid in line with pure quality rather than getting more money just because he’s from this country.

The big question here is what do you think? Does Rooney deserve £300k a week? Are British players overpriced? Would you be happy if we removed the rules on home-grown players? Let me know below.

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