English players greedy claims Edwards

English non-league players are unfit and only interested in playing for money, according to Hednesford manager Dean Edwards.

He has already started recruiting foreigners because, he claims, English players demand too much money.

The Pitmen have signed Portugese Decio Gomes and Guadeloupe internation Ludovic Quistin, the cousin of Arsenal’s William Gallas.

They are giving trials to Brazilian Orlando Junior and another Portugese player Fernando Santos Guimeras.

Former Willenhall boss Edwards said: “I spoke with Terry Brumpton (managing director) and we were discussing players in the area. We came to the conclusion the lads around the Midlands are outpricing themselves and we are not prepared to pay it.

“English players just play for the money, I would say some 75 per cent of them do and they are very average players. They want to take the money and not work hard enough to earn it.

“I went to watch a match and there were two players on the pitch who must have been 18 stone.

“I said to the manager ‘how can you allow them to put a shirt on?’ It’s an embarrassment to the club.

“A lot of English lads are not fit enough and dedicated enough to go and play football.

“It’s worked all the way down the system (from the Premier League). You speak to any manager and most of them will tell you the same.

“I have heard every excuse in the book, from I have to babysit to I have lost my contact lenses, for why they don’t want to train. It is a disgrace.”

Edwards claims some of the sums being demanded were almost on a par with League Two clubs.

He said: “They earn enough to pay off their mortgage each month and should be giving 110 per cent.

“You get players coming in who are saying ‘put a package together for me.’ I am thinking ‘who do you think you are’?”