GLENN HODDLE: Fernandinho is not a better player than Ryan Mason... even if he did cost £35m 

• Premier League clubs not failing in Europe because of their Englishness
• Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City had five English players in their starting XIs 
• Fernandinho is not better than Ryan Mason even though he cost £35m 

The mouth-watering prospect of the Clasico at the Nou Camp does put the Premier League into perspective in a week of European failure. On Sunday night we have Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema against Luis Suarez, Neymar and Lionel Messi. 

Meanwhile our own version of a clasico wil be taking place at Anfield — but no club in the Premier League has a forward line like those in Spain. Increasingly we’re a stepping stone to better things, having lost Bale and Suarez to Spain.

What is obvious, however, is that the failure in the Champions League was not a failure of English clubs. It was a failure of clubs with owners from Abu Dhabi, the USA and Russia. In those Champions League games there were five English players in the three starting XIs. 

And the managers were from Chile, France and Portugal. The Premier League may be failing but it’s not its Englishness letting it down. So now that even a huge influx of global thinking and talent at both executive and playing level at football clubs has failed, perhaps we can rethink the premise that we need to keep bringing in players and directors from abroad. 

Of course, there will always be room for the best imports. But you can’t tell me Fernandinho is a better player and better prospect than Ryan Mason. They do a similar job, the only difference being he is a £35million transfer and therefore deemed worthy of a place at a top-four club.

It’s time to ensure that some of the proposals from the FA commission, which I sat on, come into place, not least the tightening up of work permits on foreign imports so that only the best from outside the European Union can play here. We’re failing in Europe anyway so the Premier League need to ensure we’re not forever looking overseas for solutions.