Englishmen Playing Abroad.

phrase

phrase

Tactician
12 December 2002
Little Mancunia
I did not do this with depth but here it is.I realised a trend that popular players during the late 80's and mid 90's tends to have a big foreign club in their CV somehow.Did they do this by merit or through a feeder club sponsorship?

Players like Gary Lineker, Mark Huges,David Platt,Ian Rush,Glenn Hoddle,Ray Wilkins and Paul Gascoigne...ALL has a big foreign club in their CV somehow,the likes of Barcelona,Juventus,AC Milan,Lazio,AS Monaco!

This is very rare now,for a premiership player to prove their merit abroad with a big club.Robbie Keane went to Inter Milan in the 2000/2001 season,securing 6 miserable appearences without any goals.

David Beckham....Real Madrid is arguably the biggest club in the world,the lad went there,became a starter amongst the Galacticos and notched 116 appearences with 13 goals in 4 seasons.

The best english import so far has got to be Gary Lineker.During his stint at Barcelona from 1986 to 1989, notching 103 Appearences with 43 Goals!

I cannot see any other English players going abroad since David Beckham and I wonder why...

Discuss.
 
matherto said:
Our players are seen in Europe for what they really are. Average.

It's that simple.
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some of them, but not all of them.
ince was a great asset at inter ;))

today english players average transfer fees are really high, compared to the spanish and italian market, so maybe that's the reason why many of them don't move through the Manica (the english channel).

nobody in europe would have spent what english clubs spent for players like walcott or bent, just to make an example.

moreover the quality of premiership increased a lot in the last 10 years, so probably the players tend to stay "at home" more than before :))
 
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I agree with lo zio - they're far more expensive in transfer fees and wages than their foreign counterparts.

I think it's fair to say that on average, an English players technique is weaker than in Continental Europe, but I don't think that is the reason. I think players like Dawson, Kirkland, Bentley, Downing and Ashton would appeal to a lot of European clubs but the expense would be ridiculous compared to what they could get for their money at home.
 
Hmm I don't think English players are particularly suited for continental football, but I think we need to see more of it personally.

I thought Owen did brilliantly at Madrid considerng how little games he was given because of Raul being undroppable.

I think alot of English players DO believe that the premiership is the best league to play in, so even if they are wanted, they may not go.
 
Other than we pay our players too much so that puts clubs abroad off.

I think it's simply because we are appalling at learning other languages, when you see U21's from abroad being interviewed most with speak fluent English where as our players struggle to talk to the media in any language !
 
I came to thinking that English players are too afraid to prove themselves elsewhere,considering the fact that not many were able to do that in the past.

Beckham and Owen proved that if you have what it takes,you will make it...Not many rated Becks and Owen as players but look where they have gone and they made headlines.

In context,players whom are likely to go abroad next season would be the likes of Steven Gerrard,Frank Lampard and Joe Cole.All three are the best England have produced so far and they should make it if they want to.

Should be interesting if they do move abroad.
 
T Butcher fan said:
I agree with lo zio - they're far more expensive in transfer fees and wages than their foreign counterparts.
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I completely agree. english teams pay too much money for average players. I still cant understand how tottenham paid 25 million for bent.

I could give tons of examples how to get a better player for less money.

we paid only 3,5 mio. € for carew 3 years ago.
hamburg paid 5 mio. for van der vaart! so you can see the difference between england and the rest of europe.

another point to be mentioned is the salary issue. you get more money in england.
 
phrase said:
This is very rare now,for a premiership player to prove their merit abroad with a big club.Robbie Keane went to Inter Milan in the 2000/2001 season,securing 6 miserable appearences without any goals.
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Wow I completely forgot about that, the mind boggles...
 
What lozio is saying is very similar to the point I was making about having 11 subs.
Because English players are so overpriced, the subs bench will end up being filled with better and cheaper foreign players.

Our country's game is run by money and our players are overpriced and more interested in the style and image than the game.
They get overpriced and cannot move abroad, so they lose out on valuable technique and experience and we fall short in international competition.
It's a bit of a vicious circle but isn't really exclusive to England.
I mean, many top Italians do not play abroad and they won the World Cup!
But this is because they naturally have the technical and tactical ability anyway! :lol:
 
There is still a 'big' name english player playing abroad at Elche that nobody has mentioned!

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Gifton Noel Williams
 
Former Man United reserve player Terry Cooke plays in the US as well I think. He was in the same youth team as Becks and co.
 
yeah that would be great/helpful for England national team If the likes of Gerrad lamps or even Ronney played abroad.
I remember when France won the world cup 98 Didier Deschamps saying that playing in Italy(at this time there were a lot of players playing in Italy,thuram,deschamps,zidane,Boghossian,candela...)was very helpful Tactically and Mentally
 
why has nobody mentioned Chris Waddle. He was awesome for Marseille and it is a real shame that most people in England never mention his name when talking about English players being a success playing abroad.

But yeah you don't see many players playing in Europe as technically they are not good enough. It is simple as that!!
 
kobashi said:
why has nobody mentioned Chris Waddle. He was awesome for Marseille and it is a real shame that most people in England never mention his name when talking about English players being a success playing abroad.

But yeah you don't see many players playing in Europe as technically they are not good enough. It is simple as that!!
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I don't think it's a case of players not been not being talented enough, british players are very reluctant to move abroad because there's so many contributing factors, such as the amount of money a player can earn in top flight british football, having to learn a new a language as well having their family to consider as well.

But i hope that we'll begin to see more british players playing in mainland europe, although i wont hold my breath.
 
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hayabusa85 said:
I don't think it's a case of players not been not being talented enough, british players are very reluctant to move abroad because there's so many contributing factors, such as the amount of money a player can earn in top flight british football, having to learn a new a language as well having their family to consider as well.

But i hope that we'll begin to see more british players playing in mainland europe, although i wont hold my breath.
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Yeah but seriously I don't see top european clubs making big attempts to sign british players. I think Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard are the only two english players Europe's elite would be interested in buying.
 
This isn't a comment on the quality of the two players you mention, but I think they would be well down the 'wanted' list. You're talking about maybe two of the five most expensive players in world football. You could pick up Kaka, Robinho, Eto'o, Ronaldinho for cheaper.

Obviously every club in the world would be interested in signing them, but not for the price Liverpool and Utd would want for them. Same with a lot of English players.
 
kobashi said:
Yeah but seriously I don't see top european clubs making big attempts to sign british players. I think Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard are the only two english players Europe's elite would be interested in buying.
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rio? Terry? hargreaves? im pretty sure madrid could use terry or rio over pepe,
yeah well i guess outside that, not too many..
 
Oh yeah, you all forgot about Hargreaves at Bayern München. He was not bad at all.
McManaman wasn't too bad for Real either, but didn't have too much appearences.

Like people have been saying, I guess the main reason would be really the price you would have to pay for the likes of Rooney, Gerrard, Terry, etc.

But recently Lampard has been linked with Barcelona. Besides being an excellent midfielder, I read that his wife is from Catalunya and that could help. Anyone heard this?
 
hayabusa85 said:
I don't think it's a case of players not been not being talented enough, british players are very reluctant to move abroad because there's so many contributing factors, such as the amount of money a player can earn in top flight british football, having to learn a new a language as well having their family to consider as well.

But i hope that we'll begin to see more british players playing in mainland europe, although i wont hold my breath.
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A couple of quotes that support this...

'I couldn't settle in Italy,' Ian Rush said, 'it was like living in a foreign country.'

"I'd like to play for an Italian club, like Barcelona" Mark Draper

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:)


In all seriousness I really wish could get back to a stage where a number of English players were plying their trade abroad. As an example, I think Alan Smith mentioned the possibility on leaving Man U but didnt pursue it.

Just think how much more he'd of developed as a player at St Etienne, Fiorentina, Hamburg etc... than treading water at Newcastle.



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