The most successful Arsenal side of the Arsene Wenger era, the Invincibles who won the 2004 Premier League title and went unbeaten throughout the season, contained two English regular starters: Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole.
Bayern Munich, set to be the first team in a major European league to win their league this season, usually start with six Germans in their line-up.
Does it help to have more local players in your team, or does diversity lead to greater chances of success? Researchers at the Research Institute for International Management at the University of St.Gallen (Switzerland) have spent three years pondering this question. They have analysed the performance effects of team composition and diversity in top-level teams, and produced some interesting results, which you can see here.
They studied seven seasons of Bundelisga football (from 2005-2012) and concluded that if the players on the field during a Bundesliga season have more diverse international career backgrounds, then the team is more likely to win games and ultimately finish in a higher position. Their prime example was Borussia Moenchengladbach finishing fourth in 2011-12, with a starting eleven that had among the most diverse international career backgrounds in the league.
By diversity, the researchers don’t just mean non-local; they mean with international experience of other leagues, and ideally from Europe’s top leagues – though they point out that is more likely for the teams that have the financial resources to recruit players from top leagues, as they should be in a strong position to take advantage anyway. Moenchengladbach, for example, started with five Germans, three South Americans, full-backs from Austria and Holland and one Norwegian midfielder: between them, they had played in leagues in 12 different countries (see flags next to players in the research document).
They also found that coaches who have been at a club for longer periods are are better able to create performance advantages from diverse international player backgrounds. “This finding,” their study goes, “indicates the importance of leadership continuity to make the most out of a complex resource. Recruiting new players with diverse international backgrounds is not a quick-fix solution after a run of poor results. It needs to be part of a long-term strategy that emphasises perseverance and continuity in order to make diversity work.” That said, Lucien Favre, the 55-year-old in charge of Moenchengladbach, was in his first season at the club when they came fourth. (This season they are eighth, and four points from fourth.)
There is also the argument that long-tenured coaches want players with new experiences to bring in some freshness to the team; or that because the coach has more stability in his position, he is able to pick and choose the players that he wants to boost the team.
The report suggests that teams who chop and change their coach a lot might be better off with players with less diverse international backgrounds, as it is harder for a new boss to come in and work with them. In today’s modern game, though, that just comes with the territory.