With the prem. full of foreign players, i found this article on british players abroad, hits and misses, Please add if you can think of any more... Michael Mancienne has sealed a move to Hamburg from Chelsea and signed a four-year contract. He obviously isn't the first player to go overseas and while there has been some real Brit hits there has also been some real misses. We hope the 23-year-old blows them away. MISS DES WALKER Sampdoria boss Sven-Goran Eriksson paid Forest £1.5m for the superstar centre back. âYou'll never beat Des Walker!â fans of England and Forest claimed, but his move to Italy put an end to all that and he lasted just one season before he moved to Sheffield Wednesday. After his return, his form was gone and one of England's stars of the 1990 World Cup was the never the same. Jonathan Woodgate It was a debut to forget for the centre back when he turned out in Real Madrid colours for the first time in 2005. The injury-prone defender had waited a year to make his appearance after joining from Newcastle in a £13.4m deal and managed to score an own goal and get himself sent off against Athletic Bilbao, though Madrid won 3-1. Woody managed nine games before the management sent him on loan to 'Boro in 2006, which was eventually made permanent. LUTHER BLISSETT He couldn't stop knocking in the goals for Watford during the 1982/83 season and, as a result of his exploits, earned a move to AC Milan in a £1m deal. He couldn't continue his form in Italy â five goals in 30 appearances â and after one season was flogged back to Vicarage Road. IAN RUSH By his own admission, Juventus was the right club at the wrong time for one of Liverpool's all-time greats. He did manage 13 goals in all competitions in his only season in Turin in 1987, making him the top scorer at the club but it was the negative approach that he couldn't get on board with. He was homesick and was soon back on Merseyside, though often gets stick for supposedly saying: âI couldnât settle in Italy, it was like living in a foreign country.â Mark Hughes Sparky, for all his prowess in the box, was unable to do it for Barcelona when he signed for Terry Venables' team in 1986. After a season in Spain where he netted just four times in 28 games, he left for Bayern Munich on loan. His goal record improved slightly in Germany but he was back at Man United before long. HIT JOHN CHARLES Il Buon Gigante: the Gentle Giant, the name given to him at Juventus after Leeds sold Welsh legend Charles to the Turin club in 1957 for £65,000. In Italy he scored 93 times in 155 games over five years, while he was voted the country's footballer of the year in his first season. England captain Billy Wright once said he was both the best centre half and centre forward he had ever played against, having started his career at the back. TREVOR FRANCIS England manager Fabio Capello said he was the best English player to grace Italy's Serie A after Francis' time with Sampdoria, following a move from Man City in 1982. He won the Italian Cup in 1985 and notched up 17 goals in 68 league games including seven in 14 in his first season. PAUL LAMBERT Norwich manager Lambert became the first Brit to win the European Cup with an overseas club when he joined Borussia Dortmund from Motherwell in 1996. In the 1997 final against Juventus, the current Norwich manager's cross resulted in Karl-Heinz Riedle putting the German side ahead. After the match, he was highly praised for dealing with Juve's Zinedine Zidane. CHRIS WADDLE In three seasons with Marseille, he won three French championships and was also a European Cup runner-up in 1991, while Arsenal's Samir Nasri has cited him as a magician, saying: "When I was a kid in Marseille, he was magic." When he joined from Tottenham in 1989 for £4.5m, the Diamond Lights singer became the third most expensive player of all time, though when he knocked in goals like the one below against PSG, he more than justified the price. What a mullet, too. KEVIN KEEGAN With Hamburg, whom he joined in 1977, Keegan won the European Player of the Year in 1978 and again in 1979 where he was part of the team that won their first league title for 19 years. Mighty Mouse, as he was known back then, joined Southampton in 1980 after Hamburg had lost that year's European Cup final to Nottingham Forest. Doesn't seem like we export to well. Beckham hit Owen miss
