Attilio Lombard : One of Palace's more successful import's ? (Photopress)

It wasn't so long ago every top football team in the country had its fair share of bogstandard Englishman in it.

Normally at least one Smith, a Wilson and maybe a Butcher. Now, with the possible exception of four or five teams, including Arsenal who seem to have had the same defence since 1897 never mind 1987, that has all changed.

The much publicised influx of foreign players has caused many to question the impact on the future of English football.

And while most welcome the arrival of the undoubted class of Bergkamp, Zola, Ginola and Schmeichel, others fear for the knock on effect for the future development of our young players particularly as lesser known foreign stars continue to flood our shores.

Crystal Palace are one of the most interesting examples. Having invested in several foreign stars to ensure Premiership survival, relegation hit the club hard.

Italian star Attilio Lombardo has surprisingly agreed to soldier on and far from seeing an exodus of Palace's foreign contingent the drop down a division has seen incoming manager Terry Venables use his wealth of worldly footballing contacts to the maximum.

He has recruited Australians Nicky Rizzo, Craig Foster and Craig Moore thanks to his spell as national team manager. Argentinian Walter Del Rio is in England till the end of the season, Italians Lombardo and wantaway striker Michele Padovano are still here from last season, as are Frenchman Valerien Ismael and Yugoslav Sasa Curcic. Mathias Svenson who recently joined from Austria and of course Chinese duo Fan Zhiyi and Sun Jihai complete the line up.

While Palace fans are yet to see the best of many of these players, few question Venables' judgement of a player. And the Chinese pair are desperate to be a success and prove El Tel right. The south Londoners' recent match with Sheffield United was broadcast live in China - and attracted a staggering one billion viewers.

"Football is the number one sport in China," said Zhiyi. "But our league is not nearly as big as in England. We have 14 premier league teams and 20 first division clubs.

"Chinese fans always say I am a superstar there, which is nice. Terry Venables is very famous in China. Everybody knows him, everybody knows English football. We are here and we want to do our best for him.

"Sun is one of the best players in China. We can cope with the pace of English football and get used to the homesickness."

Chelsea's outspoken chairman Ken Bates is one who defends the number of foreign players coming to England but then with his team's make-up he has no choice!

He says players like Jody Morris, Mark Nicholls and Michael Duberry can only learn from training with Leboeuf, Desailly, Vialli, Zola, Flo and Laudrup.

But the warning signs are there and many fans fear young players will be deprived of first team chances and the resulting effect on the national team. Palace fan Mike Reeves said: "To be fair to Venables he has given youngsters like Steven Thomson, Sagi Burton and Clinton Morrison a chance but although they are getting chances in the short term, if they can't make the first team they are not going to stick around.

"Chelsea, West Ham, and Derby have undoubtedly got too many foreign players and because foreigners are cheaper then you can't blame teams for looking abroad. With the greatest of respect, who wants to pay £4.5m for Chris Armstrong when you can get Gianfranco Zola for the same amount?"

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.