.....as Del Boy would say. Belgium.....the next International Suprise? I was just thinking about some of the recent signings for Chelsea: Hazard (21), Lukaku (19), Courtious (20) & De Bruyne (21) and noticed they all represent Belgium. Add to that Kompany (26), Vermealen (26), Witsel (23), Fellaini (24) and even Dembele (25) and it looks like they might have a fairly decent team in the next couple of years - I'm sure there are others, these are just the more obvious ones. Anyone else considering taking a little punt on them for the next 3 tournaments (Euro x2, WC x1)? Surely there has to be some fairly decent odds on them right now. Plenty of potential there, let's hope that the Chelsea boys fulfill it in every way.
I've been saying this for a while, they have some cracking players at the moment and mostly young and up and coming. Could be a good shout for the next euros.
Yes--its a bit surprising really, as Belgium have never really been up there football wise1 Before I got married I had a Belgian girl friend and I went to watch the local top division side quite often (Racing White) v Anderlecht , Bruges etc and I thought it all looked 4th division stuff really! Something has dramatically changed!
Maybe there will be some more, good, cheap players to come through. I say cheap in today's terms. £25m is not OTT for Hazard, when numbers like £40m are being banded about for Modric. I'm guessing, as in the 1st pre-season, Robbie is looking at 4-2-3-1 set-up with 3 of Hazard, Lampard, Marin, Mata & Sturridge being behind Torres......which was nice.
OK name just one famous Belgian apart from ........ Hercule Poirot, Tin Tin, Eddy Merckx, and some bloke called Bosman.
They've got a new manager now, but he's totally unproven. Decent side on paper, though. You forgot Vertonghen, by the way.
Once upon a time Belgium were regular European and World finals semi finalists. FIFA ranked fourth year after year. Antwerp, Standard Liege, Anderlect, Brugges all big European clubs. Then as the Italian league grew to eminence in the late 80's and into the 90's Belgium with many other countries suffered a talent drain as all the top players wanted to be paid in Lira. Some more names I remember , Scifo, Pfaff, Cuelemans, Gerets.
I remember going to Bruges once when we were drawn against them in the Cup winners cup in the late 60's! We lost 2-0 and there was a bloke called Raoul Lambert who scored a goal direct from a corner ! It was a banana that didn't conect with anyone else! We got them 4-0 at the Bridge though so it was all smiles in the end!
