I agree and this won’t happen anyway! I’d much rather keep Kane anyway if it was a choice between the two. I cannot see us signing martinez and keeping Kane it just won’t happen
So if Inter say Martinez is indispensable (which they were saying about Lukaku last week...) who do we look to nick off them instead? Barella is a very tempting shout, but there's also taking our pick of Skriniar or De Vrij - or the usual Brozovic link...
Nuno when asked about Martinez: "Nothing to say. I will only speak about Spurs players." Pep when asked about Kane: "Act 1, Scene 1: 'Soliloquy'."
Players nationality has nothing to do with how they will get on and if they will fail or succeed. I don’t understand why these (lazy) comparisons are always brought up.
Because different countries have different traditions and different ways of playing the game. You seem uncomfortable with any form of difference being described in whatever field. It's not lazy it's awareness. If you look at the PL it's now an international league with players from all over the world. We are generalising when we talk about players from a particular country and the differences are reducing as they are in everything because of the internet and communications in general but they are still there and to ignore them is to have your head in the sand. The world contains many cultures with their own foods and beliefs and ways of doing things and football is no different.
OK I'll try to explain. Your posts tell me that you are coming from a position that supports fairness and equality which are good positions to adopt. I too support those ideals but not from the same perspective. I recognise differences and think they should be celebrated. You appear not to want to draw attention to differences because you equate them with prejudice. I think we share some values here but, probably due to age differences, we have a different way of dealing with them. (The head in the sand ) I am suggesting that not to recognise differences is to ignore real life situations.
Thanks for the explanation. I appreciate differences but I only talk about football on here (except the trans debate the other day- guessing you’re on about that) I just don’t see how a player’s or even manager’s nationality has any effect on if they will succeed in the PL. For example, you’ve posted a lot about Portuguese managers and players not being suited but you could argue the best player in the history of the PL was Portuguese and love him or not (I don’t) Mourinho is one of the best managers in the history of the PL. obviously they are plenty of duds who are Portuguese but I don’t think that is down to their upbringing or footballing culture.
Except that it does, as the way football is played in various leagues does accentuate different parts of a player's skillset Remember when there were a lot of Scandinavian players thriving in the Premier League in the mid 90s, such as Henning Berg, Ole Solskjaer, Tore Andre Flo, Allan Nielsen, Anders Limpar, Bjarne Goldbaek etc etc? That's because the Scandinavian leagues always put a lot of value in strength and workrate, which is exactly what the Premier League was about at the time Similarly, the reason so many Argentines do well in Serie A (i.e. Maradona, Batistuta, Crespo, Zanetti, Ayala, Higuain, Lamela, Martinez etc etc etc etc) is because the Argentine game has a very distinct combination of skill, physicality, and ****ehousery that is tailor made for the Italian game Meanwhile, the Dutch game is about pace and skill which is why players in some positions succeed in other leagues but not others, which is why that pundit Narratie about Eredivisie strikers not being cut out for the Premier League exists because for every van Nistelrooy or van Persie there's three Kezmans, Janssens, Depays, Tadics, de Jongs (both of them), van Ginkels and countless other names
That's not nationality, though. I agree with both your and King's general points, though. Nationality doesn't necessarily indicate anything about a player. If a player has successfully performed or been brought up in a certain league, then it can tell you things. I think it's harder to adjust to the Premier League from Serie A than the Bundesliga, for example.
What I have said refers to the style of football used by Portugal which I have watched for many years. They have many individual players who are brilliant and as you say are among the best in the world I am not talking about that. The Portuguese national team has adopted a defensive style for many years I have never liked it. Rather like I criticised Southgate and his defensive England perfomances. The influence of the continental European game has spread to the British Isles. We never used to play football in that way. English clubs used a more aggressive physical style and much of this type of football has been outlawed by changes made by among others, Platini, whose French team had suffered some very robust tactics during internationals. So the game changed and then we had AVB and Jose managing Spurs both bringing a similar very defensive form of the game which has always been alien to Spurs.
Are you suggesting Maradona would only have flourished in Italy. He would have been a superstar in any league. Sure there are national characteristics but if we are going to stereotype players then I cannot agree. The game is so international now that a lot of this is meaningless. Mourinho has flourished in Portugal England Spain and Italy. I don't see how he was held back by his national identity.
Leagues tend to reflect how the local players not just play the game, but physically developed The best example of this is the slow decline of Scottish players in the Premier League. Back when the English game was focused on strength and workrate there was always a place in teams for Scottish players as the Scottish game has similar traits, which is also why Scandi players adapted well to both those leagues. But since the late 90s the English game has become more focused on a combination of strength and pace which was reflected in the influx of talent from France since their game does produce a lot of players with that combination which is also why a lot of West African players flourish in Ligue 1 (i.e. Drogba, Essien, Adebayor) which gets them on the radar of Premier League teams...and also leads to (IIRC) Laurent Blanc making comments about French youth teams that sounded more than a bit Rod Liddle
The style of game, the climate/culture a player has played/lived in all their life, has a general effect. That is why we have the modern day joke about Messi ( "can he do it on a wet wednesday night in Stoke' ) . Which is why so many top players from Argentina/Brasil went to Italy and Spain before the PL became a financial juggernaut. Conversely few of the good UK players who also ventured there during that time, fared same/better than their UK time.
It's not about individuals they can be quite different in the way they play football. Some players could succeed anywhere others not. neither Greaves or Gascoigne were happy in Italy for example but it doesne't mean that they might not have suceeded in other Italian teams with different managers. It's not stereotyping players it is about teams. Mourninho had a Spurs team with some of the finest attacking players in the league but he stifled them IMO by his defensive tactics. I am talking about general national differences in the way football is played. The Dutch do not play like Italians but some individual Dutch players would thrive in Italy. Just because you are English does not mean you only play football in one way but the English culture is where you will learn the game.
The Scottish league has also declined badly during that period. Souness, Dalglish and the like would still have made it easily in the Premier League at a later date.
