PETER Russell (Letters, July 18) prefers to attribute Croatia’s success in the recent World Cup to the fact that their players play in the biggest leagues in Europe, rather than, as Ian Brown (Letters, July 14) argued, that, while a small country, Croatia is independent. “The message is that the bigger the stage, the higher the level of achievement”. This is a clever and well-constructed argument, from Mr Russell’s perspective, until we realise that some of the countries that left the World Cup early – Germany or Spain for instance – would be included in any list of "big stages". Italy, another very significant league, did not even qualify for the finals. The players in their international squads don’t play anywhere other than on "the big stage".
Moreover, the competition to even get on "the big stage" is intense. One only has to consider the English Premiership, where it is not unusual to see two teams playing with very few English players on the pitch. For instance, when Manchester City played Chelsea last March, Kyle Walker and Danny Drinkwater were the only UK players for either side. When the somewhat less well-resourced Newcastle United played Stoke City last season, only eight of the starting 20 players were from the UK. According to Sky Sports in January last year England’s Premier League had the highest proportion of foreign players at 69.2 per cent of any top league. Even in the dugout the presence of an English manager is increasingly scarce in the Premiership, as of the 20 teams in next season’s competition only six are from the UK.
Thus, it is more likely to be proof of the inherent qualities of the Croatian players that they play on "the big stage" at all. While playing at that level may have further developed their skills, they must have already possessed sufficient skills and qualities at a level high enough to attract such as Barcelona (Ivan Rakitic) or Real Madrid (Luka Modric). As Professor Brown argues, this could well be attributed to their small country, rather than evidence that bigger is always better.
Alasdair Galloway,
14 Silverton Avenue, Dumbarton.
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