Morning all.
Not often have English players played abroad and certainly not in Germany. It’s been the other way around since the late nineties when the English Premier League was the place to go. For Arsenal, Dennis Bergkamp was the first real success story but the following year, after the arrival of Arsene Wenger, the number of overseas players in the squad largely increased. We’ve been lucky to have watched so many great players don the club’s colours. The way Arsene Wenger built the team though didn’t come without criticism. Jealousy I always thought as he snapped up players for a good price. Blaming him for the demise of the England national team was simply absurd. Cream will always rise to the top as the saying goes but when it came to English footballers, what we saw was more like skimmed milk. A few top class individuals were always around but never enough to make a great international team.
I can’t think of many Englishman who have played abroad. Gazza, Keegan, McManaman, Beckham, Platt, Waddle, Cole, Gerrard, Lampard, Owen, Ince and Linekar spring to mind but to come up with any more, I’d have to search the Internet. I’m sure you guys will come up with a few more names but I think it’s fair to say that far fewer English players have gone abroad compared to the number of overseas players who have played in England over the last twenty odd years and certainly in my lifetime. Not just in the Pemier League either as right through the divisions you’ll see non English footballers on show.
But I wonder if times are changing with so many younger English players heading abroad, often despite being offered a deal by their club at the time.
La Liga
Patrick Roberts – Girona but once of Fulham and then Man City before finally settling abroad.
Marcus McGuane – Barcelona, yes, he was at Arsenal before moving to where the sun shines.
Ronaldo Vieira – Sampdoria from Leeds Utd.
Stephy Mavididi – another ex Arsenal youngster who ventured overseas with Juventus.
Bundesliga.
Jadon Sancho – Borussia Dortmund from Man City.
Reiss Nelson – Hoffenheim, although only on loan as we know.
Chima Okoroji – Freiburg and has never played for an English club.
Keanan Bennetts – Borussia Monchengladbach from Totts.
Mandela Egbo – Borussia Monchengladbach but originally a Crystal Palace player.
Danny Collinge – Stuttgart having gone through the MK Dons Academy.
Denzeil Boadu – Borussia Dortmund, another from Man City.
Ligue 1.
Sheyi Ojo – Stade Reims from Liverpool.
Reo Griffiths – Lyon. Despite scoring 33 goals for Totts Under-18s last season, including four hat-tricks, wasn’t deemed good enough.
Jonathan Panzo – Monaco from Chelsea.
Eredivisie.
Jake Clarke-Salter – Vitesse, again from Chelsea.
Max Clark – Vitesse from Hull City.
Marcus Edwards – Excelsior. On loan from Totts.
Dan Crowley – Willem II. You don’t need me to tell you.
Greg Leigh – NAC Breda. A Man City escapee.
Easah Suliman – FC Emmen from Aston Villa.
Chelsea are right now desperately trying to get as much money as they can keep hold of Callum Hudson-Odoi who is wanted by many top European clubs. He’s just 18 years old yet figures in excess of £30 million are reported to have been offered and declined despite having made just four first team appearances.
It’s ridiculous really but it does make me wonder how long it’ll be before our younger players are in demand and if offers of £35 million come in for them, will the club be able to reject them.
Have a good ‘un guys….
Morning all.
Back in the day:
John Charles Juventus
Jimmy Greaves Milan
Denis Law Torino or were they the other way round?
The big Scots feller who does saturdays with SSN went to Bayern from AstonVilla
Liam Brady can’t remember where he hauled up first
Gordon Cowans from Villa to ???
There have always been a few who escaped these shores, some were hugely successful others not so. greaves and Law only lasted a year, they probably didn’t like the beer or ate too much pasta!
But, you are right Rico the Brits are on their way to Europe at least, until the Brexit transition is still in place. Euro movement may become more challenging in the years to come as we nationalistically ‘secure our borders’! And UEFA later their rules to dis accommodate non-European citizens. Still, we’ll see. I’m sure it won’t come to that, as back in the 50’s and 60’s the very best players moved abroad without difficulty. So we’ll see!
Bright blue skies here but it’s proper chilly, above freezing point, but only just!
Those are before me Wavy.. lol
I remember Brady of course but he’s not English.. 😜
Very interesting post there Rico and good morning to you.
Morning Gooners.
From an England perspective it’s brilliant and a massive compliment to the academy system in England, we now arguably have the best academies anywhere and the best crop of youth players in the World.
Personally I haven’t a problem with how it’s going, Brexit might affect it but overall I find it positive, as there’s more and more young talent coming along and if we export some of our youngsters as well it gives Gareth Southgate and his successors a much bigger pool to choose from.
Arsenal’s reputation will only rise during this period as our financial situation will prevent us from spending on foreign talent, so the best kids will see an opportunity at Arsenal where they may not see it at Chelsea or Man City.
Liam Brady – Juventus
Tony Woodcock, Luther Blissett, Mark Hateley
Monreal has had his contract extended by one year.
Chelsea and Bournemouth remain the only Premier League clubs to have spent any dough.
Morning Kev, thank you.
My only concern is for our own club. If, and it’s a big if, we are hard up, how many of these youngsters coming through will be sold?
I wonder if Monreal staying gives hope to our younger left backs coming through. If he can stay fit, keeping him is positive imo.
I’m still confident we’ll buy one or two real soon..
Monreal can cover a few positions Rico and as you say we have a promising young left back developing and training regularly with the 1st team, so keeping Nacho buys him another year to progress his game and gives us cover at left back and centre back.
I wonder who Emery would pick if both Nacho and Kolasinac were fit given recent events?
I see there’s a rumour coming out of an Armenian ‘source’ that AC Milan are interested in Mkhitarayan, which is unlikely as he’s not liable to be fit till after Jan 31st and all depending on us signing Suarez. It’s all underwhelming to be honest with you…
Exactly Kev.
Good question, I guess it would depend on who were playing. Against City etc, I’d probably go with Monreal…
Afternoon all and thanks Rico for another good `un !.
News from Arsenal is that this lot are back in FULL traning !………………………..
✅ Hector Bellerin
✅ Mesut Özil
✅ Laurent Koscielny
✅ Nacho Monreal
✅ Shkodran Mustafi
✅ Dinos Mavropanos
Joe Baker ………………Arsenal legend …………….100 goals in 150 games . My first real Arsenal hero.
Mine too Potter along with Alan Skirton !………………………53 goals in 145 appearances, not bad for a winger !…………comparable to Robert Pires !…….62 goals in 189 appearances !
Yeah, Skirton, Pires, Helder, great memories….
Samir Nasri playing for West Ham should be entertaining…
Perez as well, I wonder if Jack is fit, it’ll be like an old boys reunion over by Westfield Shopping Centre, Fabianski also, I won’t know who to cheer for, luckily I’ll be at work…
Not won an away game in the Premier since November 25th at Bournemouth, so we’re due a positive result.
Joe Baker, Alan Skirton, Geoff Strong, George Eastham and Geordie Armstrong just breaking in to the team at that time. All very good players. Why didn’t we do better in those days. I remember Skirton scoring the winner against the Spuds just before Christmas (62, 63?). Made my Christmas that year and shut all my idiot mates up.
I think that Geordie Armstrong put an end to Alan Skirton`s Arsenal career, not as good a goal scorer as Skirton but my god the workrate of Geordie, he would be great in todays high workrate teams !
Think that Geordie was my reason for always wanting a high work ethic in players and why I didn`t shine to some like Arshavin who used to stand watching with hands on hips !
Ok, ok, he’s not English but who can forget Ian Rush’s move to Juventus in the 80’s, a season later he was back at Liverpool, “it was like living in a foreign country” he was quoted as saying, I’m sure our Welsh wizard will have a ball of a time over there !
Thanks Lc, great to see so many back in training..
Was in Italy last year for a Lazio game, not many English players make it abroad but the banner in the home end was a sight to behold, covered the whole stand, must be some 25 years since Gazza last played for the club but they still hold him in high regard.
That’s funny re Rush Micko. What a chump.
Not the brightest rico lol.
Bumped into him at a bar in Colindale a couple of years back, think he was training kids at a local academy.
More delays at The New Swamp! It will not be open before March.
New post up now.