How much do Premiership managers know about Foreign players ?

denirobob

denirobob

IBERIAN PRIMERA
28 June 2002
Henley, Oxfordshire
This thread is the result of watching Steve Bruce this morning on Sky Sports, moaning about the lack of players that he could buy for Birmingham.

Whilst Bruce was bemoaning the fact he couldn't buy Bowyer, said there were too many clubs after Scott Parker and didn't think Bellamy would come, in contrast his opposite number at Bolton is keen to take South African hitman Collins Mbesuma from Kaizer Chiefs and was obvioulsy watching the African Nations Cup last year which saw him bringing in The Atlas Mountain man Jaidi. He's also been very keen on Yossi Benayoun and a host of other players that show he is well intuned with what's going on in Europe & beyond.


Anyway the point (if there is one) of this is not to slate Bruce or Birmingham as I felt the arrivals of both Dugarry & Pandiani were good but i think a good number of people on this board could name 5 or 6 decent players (in each position) that could enhance the Blues squad currently plying their trade around Europe/the World.


Maybe Bruce thinks that Birmingham are above shopping around like Bolton,who try and unearth a player that has slipped through the bigger clubs radar - but when you consider where they finished in the league last year that argument doesn't really hold water. In fact as a potentially big club they should have less problem in attracting decent players than Wanderers do.


For an example - how about Felix Ettien at Levante.



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There is a player that I've no doubt could do a good job in the Premiership, he's strong as an ox, powerful and a great athlete. He was regarded as one of the best midfielders in Spain last year and despite a dip in form torwards the end of the season (when the whole team dipped) he is far too good to be spending a season in Liga B.


I bet Big Sam knows about him, but I honestly can't say the same about Bruce.

It seems to me that reading World Soccer magazine, watching Eurogoals, Football Mondial etc... and checking out a few websites - Uefa.com etc... should be pretty much mandatory for a manager thesdays.


Id be interested to know what your thoughts are........

cheers db
 
Some managers prefer to stay closer to home, it's kinda risky bringing in foreign players.

Plus there's the language barrier, Bruce doesn't seem like a guy who could speak many different languages.
 
j4y3m said:
Some managers prefer to stay closer to home, it's kinda risky bringing in foreign players.

Plus there's the language barrier, Bruce doesn't seem like a guy who could speak many different languages.
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Hi mate

yeah thats true, but thats why I wanted to contrast him with Allardyce. I can't imagine he's any more succesful linguistically but seems to have a different mentality.

He's already got Tebily whose from the Ivory Coast like Ettien is, although I agree Birmingham probably have attempted to sign players who speak English - Lazaridis, Gronjkaer, Forssel, Melchiot etc..

db
 
Milanista's got a fantastic point, English Managers might be able to pick up some quality players in Europe for bargain prices, but j4y3m's point bout the risk is also worth noticing. Even Heinze, arguably the player this season who has taken on the EPL like a duck to water said the pace was frightening. The league's totally different to all others, and whilst some players from abroad could settle quickly, or have the ability, it can take a huge amount of time that no club is prepared to take the risk on. A big club wants that player to immediately make an impression, win the trophies, and if they don't, its a huge waste in money. A small club's fighting relegation, it needs players that can immediately slot into its team to gain the maximum amount of points to stay up. Imports to the EPL are like a game of Russian Roulette, it's a huge risk, which few clubs are prepared to undertake!
 
hi homan_7, great post that!


I wouldn't disagree with anything said on here about the potential pitfalls, but it still seems to me as if some managers are more willing to make that 'leap of faith' and possibly have a more developed network of scouts/contacts across the globe.

I see Mbesuma has actually joined Pompey, not quite sure why Bolton didnt secure his signature as Allardyce reckons he needs about 8 players.

In the latest World soccer mag theres quite an interesting interview with David Moyes re: scouting - he went off himself to Denmark recently to check out Kroldrup after his scout couldnt get there. I wonder how many other managers would do that sort of thing.

cheers all

db
 
Cheers denirobob. On to the point of managers that take the initiative to scout abroad and also a better scouting network, these are are very true. Ajax for example have employed some of the best talent spotters in the world, and even have a sort of feeder club in Ajax Cape Town in South Africa. It is also interesting to note that teams that do look all around the world for new blood are usually continental sides, and that the teams in the EPL that do the majority of foreign scouting are the bigger sides, Man Utd (Rincon, Pique, Rossi & Mbuyi), Arsenal (Lupoli, Owusu Abeyie, Skulason etc.) and Chelsea (Nuno Morais, Makalambay), and maybe Tottenham, before Frank Arnesen defected to Chelsea. These are the clubs that do the majority of looking at players from abroad. I suppose I could back this up with what Arnesen labelled as one of the reasons for such a controversial switch, when he said he could actually get the youth talents he wanted at Chelsea, because Tottenham did not have the prestige or money to compete with the bigger clubs.
 
I think its a bit unfair on Bruce. You also have to look at the scouting system of the clubs. Bolton might have better scouts than Birmingham.
 
It's the British mentality which is a problem.

Wenger has been bringing in foreign players for a long time but gets slagged off for doing it. The thing is English players are always overpriced and overrated.
 
Thats true but Man Utd has had a few good signings and thats because of their great scouting system.
 
Yeah I can understand getting in there early but when you have a team like Chelsea paying what was it £10 million but Geln Johnson who had only played about 20 games for West Ham you know it's a waste of time even bothering.
 
RuneEdge said:
Thats true but Man Utd has had a few good signings and thats because of their great scouting system.
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Not in the last few years or maybee even longer, but you might have different scouts now?
 
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