He played 8 games in a different league so what's your point? Why on earth people say "buying foreigners is where we went wrong, English lads only!" is beyond me. Bye Hooiveld, see you Guly, off you trot Morgan, we've no need for you.
True, but RLGB didn't say "players already playing in England/Britain", he said "English/British players".
Thomas Ince wasn't an option in the poll, but I'd have voted for him he had been. I think he's got real talent and is definitely the type of player we could use. He looked far more dangerous against us than phillips, and a great workrate
We need to hit the ground running this year, and we need established players not those who will take a while to settle in
Would love us to get Butland, would show real ambition to buy a young England squad member, and such a coveted one at that. Some of the players at the Euros have impressed me too, though many are obviously unobtainable. At the risk of repeating myself, someone like Simon Kjær would be an inspired signing I think.
Think Kjaer would cost far to much money tbh and his wages would be high. If the right foreigner comes along then why not by him?, look at Aguero he had never played in the english league before. Look at how many he scored. Don't want Green and his 50k a week wage demands thanx.
I cannot be arsed to get into examples - but we've seen plenty of players of foreign origin adapt well, and perhaps better, than British/English players signed at a similar time.
I have a confrontational one...I am just going to put it out there.... Jamie O Hara. Quality midfielder, way to good for championship and was out injured for a long while must be nearing fitness!
Yeah that Schneiderlin guy is crap. So Hooiveld, Fonte (okay may have not been great this season), Guly (10+ goals) and Lee are all dreadful. Out of interest, our relegated team from the 2005 season, example used is United in the final game: Southampton: Niemi, Telfer, Lundekvam, Higginbotham, Bernard (Davenport 78), Prutton (Phillips 71), Redknapp, Quashie, Le Saux (Delap 71), Camara, Ormerod. Unused subs: Smith, Oakley British Players in Matchday Squad - 12/16 = 75% Other Nationalities: One from Finland One from Norway One from France One from Senegal
And another example, this time in 2009, the 08-09 season which we were relegated in: (Example is final game vs Forest) Southampton: Davis; James, Perry, Saeijs (Lancashire 76), Surman; Euell, Gillett, Schneiderlin (Gobern 80), Lallana; McGoldrick, Wright-Phillips (Gasmi 71). Unused subs: Forecast, McNish. British Players in Matchday Squad - 12/16 = 75% Other Nationalities: Two from France One from Holland One from South Africa
One final comparison, from our final game of this season, the season we returned to the Prem - against Coventry: Southampton: Davis; Butterfield, Fonte, Hooiveld, Fox; Do Prado, Schneiderlin, Hammond (Cork 37), Lallana (Puncheon 82); Sharp (De Ridder 76), Lambert. Unused subs: Bialkowski, Harding. British Players in Matchday Squad - 10/16 = 62.5% Other Nationalities: One from Poland One from Portugal One from Holland One from Brazil One from France One from Belgium Not quite sure your "Foreign players is where we went wrong last time..." point really has any legs at all. We've got more foreign players in and around the regular starting places/bench now than in either season when we were relegated, and the last 3 seasons have been 3 of the best.
Nah I am not a saints fan, but I always follow you a lot, I have a soft spot for you due to my siblings being born in Southampton and brought up there for a few years.
No wonder we were relegated. Now we return to the Premier League with an ambitious Chairman willing to invest money into the first team... I cannot wait to see if we finally fulfill our potential.
Tadanari Lee started his saints career better than Billy Sharp and in terms of language & culture you'll find nothing more different to Southampton than Doncaster
