I would love to see more British players giving this a go, especially here in Spain. Why do people on here think British players abroad are such a rarity? Money, the culture, other reasons?
There are a handful who have done well: Beckham, Lineker, McManaman, Bale to a degree (though he never seems to have fitted into the lifestyle). Then for every one of these there is an Ian Rush, Michael Owen or Ashley Cole, who all didn't last long. Who else has done well and who didn't do much in their stints abroad?
It would also clearly be good for the national teams, to have players with more experience of playing in different leagues.
Why doesn't it happen much and will it ever change?
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I’d also say that they are so ridiculously well paid in the PL that they would need to take a hefty pay cut to play outside if the top La Liga sides.
So in summary.....a combination of lack of talent and greed are the main reasons in my opinion.
Language is a factor whereas overseas players often speak English, a lot of our boys don't speak foreign
Eric Dier was at Sporting Lisbon for a while.
More need to follow.
In the 80s Ray Wilkins and Mark Hateley had spells abroad. And of course Hoddle at Monaco.
Gazza at Lazio in the 90’s.
I think the above point is valid; British people don't tend to speak / pick up other languages and adapt to other cultures well.
Michael Mancienne gave it a fair go at Hamburg but he ultimately he wasn't good enough for Bundesliga 1.
Oliver Burke went to RB Leipzig for a reported £13m after 25 appearances for Forrest then 25 appearances later westbrom pay a reported £15m.
Wonder how many would have bothered had that not been the case?
Gerry Hitchens is probably the most successful
Archibald, Keegan and waddle also did well
Shame he had such a short England career despite scoring 5-goals in 7-games
Ones who are well remembered here are Laurie Cunningham and Jonathan Woodgate who despite his ridiculous injury problems became a cult hero. Both embraced the culture and were much happier as a result.
One of the reasons we are so tactically inept internationally is because British players generally have no idea of tactics outside of their own game. As an example in Italy youngsters are taught and study what different tactics do and how moving certain players around can affect shape and direction of a game. It's probably why there has been so many very in demand and successful Italian coaches. The same applies in Holland.
The English game is played at such a frenetic pace and has been for years it tends to be foreign players who are able to adapt and understand what a coach speaking another language is telling them to do tactically.
Any number of the glut of decent kids at Chelsea and Man City's player farms should be really pushing themselves abroad, as it is they will stay with those clubs earning very decent money until their contracts expire and having earnt the amount they will have done I doubt will be very motivated to up sticks and move to enhance themselves. Shame, because I think it would help the national side out enormously.
Des Walker, Chris Waddle, David Platt, Paul Gascoigne, Glenn Hoddle, Mark Hately, Gary Lineker, David Beckham, Mcmanaman have all done well abroad but I am led to believe they all embraced life in a different country.
Andrea Pirlo mused in his book how he would have loved to play in Spain because of the players he would have been alongside and how he would enjoy riding his bike along a Spanish coastline.
But in the past i think it's come down to mainly money. Look at Josh McEachran, he turned down Real Madrid to stay at Chelsea and was given a 5 year, 30k a week contract when he'd barely played a first team game.
There is a language problem, a lot of British players have trouble speaking English!!!
Knowing his old man, I would guess that Jamie is a pretty smart cookie, and is definitely good with languages, has picked up some Slovak. So not the average footballer, but not the average family background either.