In an interview with Danish TV3, former Danish international and Liverpool star Jan Mølby, commented on Bendtner's loan deal with Sunderland and whether the club and the team is good match for Bendtner. "As a club I believe Sunderland has the right profile for Bendtner. It is a big club and it has ambitions. The board knows what it takes to be succesful", Jan Mølby said. However, his response regarding the player material in the team, was quite another matter. "If you look at the team, that could easily be a problem for Bendtner.The player material is not good. The team lacks profiles. Clearly Bendtner has been brought in as the star man. He is the one who needs to show the way. He is the one who has to score the goal. Fingers crossed that he kan pull it off. We will see", Mølby ends. Pretty spot on to be fair
That's a savage indictment from a respected neutral viewpoint, regarding the state of our club after 2 years and 5 transfer windows under Bruce. Makes you think what does the world of football really think about our status, even though we may think these are decent players.
how many teams have players with international recognition, outside of the top 6? mainly International recognition comes through playing in big name international team or being a star man in a small national team. Many teams outside top 6 have players who play in "small" national teams, but I bet this Molby wont recognise any of them. Hell, how many people outside of the UK and Denmark would say Bendtner has a big profile? Talk to my friends from France about arsenal players, and most will say "Bendtner, who?". The other way is to play for the top 4 teams, or be a striker and get into the premier league top ten scorers. We had players, but lost both of them. Bent plays in a big national team (at least a couple of games) and scored 20+ goals in the premier league, and Gyan was the star man for Ghana. Before having another pop at Bruce, maybe you should have compared us to teams in same level as us (Stoke for example).
I would say its the same as every division in the world (well the big ones) Spain have household names, but they play for Barca and Real, I have just been having a look at a few squads, and i dont recognise 90% of the players in them, Real Betis, Malaga to name but 2. Germany same. Bayern Munich but get down to Wolfsberg etc and its who for me. A lot will know them, because they watch the League, NFL is on the same time as the Spanish football, so NFL wins 99% of the time for me, Or others will know them from playing football manager (i was the worlds greatest scout in 00/01 Championship Manager, and knew players from all over, never actually seen them play though in real life). Dont get me wrong i have heard off all the teams, but the players are a hmm, never heard of them for the most part.