I hate agreeing with rivals, but perhaps they had a point when they said we insist on buying overpriced overrated British players. This "buy British" policy hasn't exactly worked so far when it's come to the performance of Downing and Carroll, our 2 most expensive British players (who are also both from the north east, co-incidence? I think not!) who have failed to perform in the team. I feel for Carroll, he doesn't always get the service he should, and often when he does he's hauled down by aggressive defenders and passed off as "just another tackle against big Andy Carroll." Which isn't really an excuse that should be used, just because he's big. But despite that, his overall play hasn't been good enough at all. He constantly has his back to the defence; looking for the pass rather than the through ball. Downing on the other hand only has himself to blame. The pace is there, the skill is there and occasionally you get the glimpse of the type of service he can provide - but he continuously tries to cut inside, or run it too far down the line... or mess up the opportunity somehow. He needs to be reminded his job is to get away from the fullback enough to get a cross in, he's not a striker - if he wants to be a striker then he has to learn how to score ****ing goals. Henderson and Adam have both been decent buys in my mind. Hendo more than Adam though, as I've seen some great stuff from him and although he came here with a large price tag and lots of stick from the Sunderland supporters, he's proven to be a small gem in a sea of average players. Whilst he's not yet the finished article, I see him very much as a Lucas type player in that he will continue to progress and learn throughout his time with us. Adam is being utilised as a first team player, but I don't think he can cope with the small games - he just isn't active enough. We're used to Xabi Alonso who was everywhere at once feeding in a pass; Adam feeds in 1 long ball and that's his "major" contribution for the next 30 mins. Overall, the evidence is there that British is not the way to go, and if there are any gems out there in Britain that need to be unearthed - LET ANOTHER TEAM HAVE THEM! Why should we fork out over the odds for British youth, when foreign youth is much cheaper and often better. I know it may sound like a rant; but in fact this article was produced as a debate to whether you think we could have spent much more wisely in the summer by investing in foreign talent rather than British.
I don't want to knock Carroll and I expected a bit more from Downing this season...but there is no doubt that these signings have turned out to be a bit embarrassing. People mention Hendo in the same breath but he is actually doing well and I don't think rival fans see him as we do.
The unfortunate thing is, everytime I look at them I see £55m that we could have spent on Mata and Aguero! (Well, a bit over £55m..)
I agree to be honest, It doesn't even have to be big names.. I mean look at players like Van Persie, Ba, Cabaye, Enrique.. All players bought for under 10m and are great quality in the prem at the moment, to buy a player of similar quality who is British you're looking at 20m+ I mean look at the price that Bent moved to Villa for. I'm not saying British players are bad, but there is no point in buying some one for 10m+ more just because they're British But luckily for us we have a good squad already to build on and there is no harm in having a British core, we just need to add to that core with flair and quality
I still can't believe we spent the same amount on Carroll as City did on Kun. And Manure managed to get young for 4m less than Downer cost us. Unbelievable Jeff
Yeah but that was more to do with their respective contracts than anything else. Also if the rumours were to be believed then our first choice was Young anyway but unnfortunately he chose the Mancs
I suppose, but still. Better players were available. Maybe not for Carroll as it was such short notice, but Mata, Turan, Cazorla even were available at the time we went for Downing. Quite frustrating when most fans seem to know more about what the squad needs than the club staff do
Yeah but been available and willing to join a team not in the champs league is another thing! Mata went to Chelsea possibly because of the champs league and probably higher wages too, its easy to identify players like us fans do but it is entirely different actually securing their services like staff must! Like I said in another thread if the signings Dalglish made were intending to see us challenging for the title then he has failed, if however they were meant to get us to the next level(champs league) then that is still possible and you could argue that we have played well enough to merit that.
Turan and Cazorla joined Athletico Madrid ( not in CL, Turan) and Malaga ( lots of money, not in CL Cazorla). Also, Falcao went from FC porto, in CL to Athletico Madrid, not in CL for 35 million. It is possible to land the players if you want them, a la Suarez. Will be an interesting January that is for sure.
I have to say that for me similar could be said of Henderson! He starts games very well, Fulham chance against post, Wigan shot saved by Habsi, City great pass to Downing etc... all very early in the game but he largely then becomes anonymous. Not criticising but I think Adam gets targeted a little unfairly and I think some people are seeing him being replaced by Gerrard and taking that has a sign of poor contribution. For me Henderson should be making way, he is not taking the initiative as much as he should in the middle of the park; often simple sideways passes with very little penetration or risk taking. At least with Adam he is trying to be ambitious and to get things going, a couple of times today Henderson also backed out of challenges. Maybe people are expecting more from Adam because he is a senior player but I don't think he has been as poor as some are suggesting, admittedly his deliveries from set pieces have not been as good as they should be!
100000% agree The best quality footballers on the planet are from Spain,Argentina and Brazil, thats where our scouts should be doin most of there work A player costing £25m from this country cost £10m less, of the same ability when bought from abroad I will be annoyed if we buy any brits over the age of 20 in this window
I think the difficulty may be in securing players from overseas at reasonable prices, who want to play for the club outside of the CL and (when looking in South America) there are work permit issues for young talent...
While I agree it's not the best policy, you can certainly understand the rationale in the British thing. No major (language, culture) issues with settling into the area, and no issues adapting to the league. However, what you can rarely, if ever, account for is how the player adapts to your specific team. It appears Downing isn't sure of his own ability when in the red shirt. We know he can go past players at pace, we know he can provide a good cross - we've seen him do both - but for some reason he's scared to do either on a regular basis. There aren't many fullbacks who will be faster than him (apart from Tony Hibbert, obviously) so he shouldn't be doing all this cutting in business. Bellamy, on the other hand, doesn't really care who he's up against, and will have a go at taking them on whenever he can. You may have two players with equal ability, one foreign who plays in Europe, one English who has spent all his career in the PL, and decide that the English guy is therefore the better option. But I certainly think character is a bigger issue than nationality and PL experience in this instance. If the English guy is going to turn up and lose all his confidence when things don't go right, I'd rather have the foreign guy who is happy to keep trying things rather than shy away.
