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SOCCERVOICE.COM,
26.11.2009
Foreign
signings, overrated and waste of money ?
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English
football opened the borders for foreign players back in 1978. In the
first years not many managed to influence the English game. Most of the
imports have in real made it difficult for British talent to flourish
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A number of foreigners
have been good signings for their clubs, and the names Osvaldo Ardiles,
Peter Schmeichel, Eric Cantona and Gianfranco Zola are legends at their
clubs. But most of the foreign imports have not been that successfull.
When the borders opened for foreign players in 1978 it was only allowed
to have two players in each club.
Dave Sexton was in charge of Manchester United, Terry Neill had the
manager job at Arsenal. Brian Clough managed Forest and Liverpool had
the legendary Bob Paisley in charge.
All of them had brought great success to their clubs with simple rules
and regulations. Foreign football affairs was not part of their football
filosophy and they didn't recruit foreigners in the beginning.
Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricardo Villa became the first big stars to arrive
when they joined Tottenham Hotspur after the 1978 World Cup.
Both of them must be described as good signings. Ardiles stayed for ten years.
Ricardo had a five year spell at White Hart Lane.
English football never really attracted the best players in the first
years and it was not many big names joining.
Liverpool's first major foreign signing was Avi Cohen. Cohen joined
Liverpool in 1979 from Tel Aviv club Maccabi. He played just 18 games,
before leaving the club in 1981.
Manchester United also showed reluctance towards signing foreign players.
They did their first foreign signing in 1980 when Yugoslavian defender
Nikola Javanovic joined from Red Star Belgrade.
Javanovic never managed to impress and left the club in 1982. He only
played 21 league games and was also loaned out during his two seasons at
Old Trafford.
Arsenal made no foreign signings until 1982 when Vladimir Petrovic
joined the club from Red Star. Petrovic never settled and left after
only one season at Highbury.
When England opened the borders, they were not able to attract the best
players. Top clubs in England was not used to doing business outside the
UK.
The fact that English clubs had dominated Europe and won the European
Cup, Cup winners cup's and UEFA Cups made most managers believing they
didn't have to go abroad.
Ipswich Town had a bit of luck with their foreign imports recruiting
Arnold Muhren and Franz Thijssen. Both players managed to evolve and was
a great success while at Portman Road.
But after five years with foreign players allowed, very few managed to
influence much.
Wolves, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, West Ham, Tottenham
and Everton won the domestic trophies and the teams had more or less no
foreign imports.
Ardiles and Villa experienced the thrill of winning the FA Cup with
Tottenham. Franz Thijssen and Arnold Muhren was in the Ipswich team that
won the UEFA Cup.
The big flow of foreign players came in the start of this century when
clubs such as Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal appointed foreign managers.
Chelsea was the first team to play with 11 foreigners (non-british).
Eric Cantona is another example of a player that have made a difference. His
way into English football was a bit odd. He had a trial at Sheffield
Wednesday, and played very few games for Leeds before ending up at
Manchester United, the rest is history.
There are of course a number of great foreign names who have impressed
in the Premier League and been very influential for their clubs, but it
must be a warning sign when your reserve team have more foreign players
than british born.
The impact of players from N Ireland, Wales and especially Scotland is
reduced to a lower scale than before.
Most of the foreigners that comes to England last one or two seasons.
More foreign influence and ownership will in the future see more foreign
players joining. This is allready shown over the last 10 years.
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