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 . Lionel Messi , Luis Suarez and Neymar Jnr will be in action for Barcelona on Sunday night . Cristiano Ronaldo , Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema will be hoping to fire Real Madrid to victory in the Clasico . Fernandinho was signed by Manchester City for £35million from Shakhtar Donetsk in 2013 . Manchester City became the last English team to be knocked out of the Champions League last week . Manchester City 's players leave the Nou Camp looking glum after being eliminated by Barcelona . Tottenham 's Ryan Mason has enjoyed an impressive season after breaking into the first team . 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 .
Premier League clubs not failing in Europe because of their Englishness . Chelsea , Arsenal and Man City had three English players in their starting XIs . Fernandinho is not better than Ryan Mason even though he cost £35m .