Possibly. I think he's a bit of an unsung hero in open play, as SD was. A lot of what jhe does goes unnoticed immo. He could definitely benefit from better players around him, but you could say that of all our players. Which is perhaps another way of saying that two or three genuine quality players would really lift our squad.
Okay. But as a French player brought to England by a French manager, he still goes down as a French success in the PL.
Henry and Vieira didn’t come direct from the French league Drogba and Petit are ones that worked out. I did say majority not all
Well I could always get frantically googling, but honestly cba. <cough> Cantona <cough> <ahem> Desailly <etc>
Was Cantona good at Leeds? Before my time Desailly came from AC Milan It’s interesting you haven’t named a signing in the last 20 years though (Drogba aside and even he was in 2004), maybe the league has declined since the 90s
I like it spread on a piece of toast topped with runny brie and some bacon bits then flashed under the grill and served with lashings of HP sauce. Also use it in cooking stews, sauces and gravy. Mrs Jab finds it a bit salty for her taste. Edit: I'm still a Rinster, I wonder if he's a marmite man?
In addition to the above, add at a minimum Lloris, Kante, Giroud, Evra, Sagna, Sissoko, Nasri, Anelka...you could build a pretty darned good team out of players that went directly from Ligue 1 to England over the past couple decades.
Yep, I got that - I just think in Burnley's case they would have picked up anyway, as Everton and them are in a straight shoot out (plus Leeds), so the motivation also kicked in, so we don't know how much of that is down to a manager change and how much down to pure backs-to-the wall, us vs them motivation. Is probably a bit of both. We don't need to make that change or generate that approach to save ourselves, so not sure why we would want to do it when we have a manager like Ralph. I also think Saints *could* do fine - better, even - with a new manager, but odds would be stacked against us to find someone with the commitment, experience, and vision of Ralph. Someone with a recognisable style of play, and a blueprint for what he wants. Managers like that usually go to the top teams, and when they struggle to implement that style, they usually get sacked, yes. I just think that when trying to implement what he is, is always going to be hard on our budget. There will be periods of success, as there has been this season, and periods of abject failure. We're basically staying up, we have new owners, hopefully he'll get some spending funds over summer, and if we do, are not many other managers (of the pool we could attract) that I'd want working their magic. I'm optimistic for next season, and as frustrated with the end of this one as anyone else on here. I also wouldn't be surprised if this does end suddenly, but there is no surprise that Ralph's name even got linked in early with the Man U job. People know what he brings and where his ideas are at, and his inconsistencies are what means a small club like us get to keep him, even if we are forced to put up with those inconsistencies.
Yeah, there's probably a bunch more. I just brought up the list of French national players and picked out the ones that I remember making the move straight to the PL, so there's probably some of those I missed, plus plenty who aren't French national team members.
And you can build a much larger squad of players who were ****. So far there have been about 12 players mentioned in the last 25 years who have come direct from Ligue 1/Ligue 2 (Kante I think came from the second division). How many players have been signed in that time from those leagues? If I can be bothered I may have a look at say the last 5 years and see the number but I’m going to assume well over 100 players have been signed in 25 years across all PL teams, so yes the majority haven’t worked out. I’m not sure on the strike rate from other leagues, this info might be available somewhere already. Looking at Saints in isolation since their return to the PL their big successes have almost exclusively come from the smaller leagues or other English leagues Scotland - VVD, Wanyama, Steve Davis, Armstrong Austria - Mane Holland - Tadic, Pelle Championship - Clyne, Rodriguez There’s probably others I’m missing who could be included that was just off the top of my head. Lovren (who came from Lyon ironically!) should probably be included. Alderweireld if you want to include a loan.
Counterpoint, part deux: Petr Cech, William Gallas, John Arne Riise, Joseph Yobo, Sylvain Distin, Essien (did I miss him before?), Adebayor, Malouda, Koscielny, Cabaye, Remy, Azpilicueta, Zouma (before he was demonstrated to be an awful human being), Origi, Gueye, Doucoure, Jordan and Andre Ayew, David Luiz, Lacazette (until this season), Bernardo Silva, Lucas Moura, Yves Bissouma, Fabinho, Joao Moutinho, Said Benrahma, Tielemans, Saint-Maximin, Ismaila Sarr, Raphinha, Gabriel, Fofana, Meslier... Probably still missing a few.
