David Platt's Villa Dream Team

[dave shelley]

IIRC, when BFR took over,  he asked Platt what his intentions were regarding leaving as he had to make his own plans.  Platt then went to Bari leaving BFR with more than a few quid to spend.  That's how I remember it anyway. 

[Risso]

My god Steve Bull was at Italia 90.

didn't he score in the Home Internationals against Scotland in the build up to Italia 90?

He did, came on for Fashanu.  Anyone expecting a little bit of sublety from those two would have been disappointed.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

Did we have to fend off big clubs from buying Platt after Italia 90? And why was it that only a small South Italian club came in for him 12 months later?

I read somewhere that Fiorentina bid £5m for him that summer, not sure if anyone else did though.

Italian clubs were spending crazy money compared to anyone else at that time. The summer we sold Platt to Bari for 5.5 million Dean Saunders was breaking the British transfer record by going to Liverpool for 2.9 million. With the money we got for Platt we bought Staunton, Teale, Richardson, Mortimer, Atkinson, Kubicki and Parker.

And Ugo, though he didn't cost much.

[eamonn]

5.5m...blimey, a lot of wonga in 1991 in football. Did that make us darkhorses for the title especially with the hapless Dr Jo be being replaced by a British manager with clout and charisma?
 
Also, the fee from Bari can't have been too far off the world record at the time? Alhough I think Milan bought a winger from Torino called Lentini around then or in '92 for about double that ...obviously this is all Google-able, but I prefer to cast my mind back to what I was seeing and reading as a kid.

[PeterWithesShin]

I think Baggio broke the world record the same summer. Pretty sure Platt remained the transfer record involving a British club for 3 or 4 years until Cole went to Man Utd.

[rob_bridge]

Baggio was year before - about £8m + the clean up costs in Florence of 2 days rioting. Lentini the year after for about £13m

[LeeB]

Baggio was year before - about £8m + the clean up costs in Florence of 2 days rioting. Lentini the year after for about £13m

I remember the Lentini transfer seeming like a batshit crazy amount of money at the time.

[Kimaster1976]

5.5 million in 1991 in todays money is just a little over 11.5 million.

Id imagine if we had Platt in his prime right now on our books it would cost the best part of 70-80 million to take him from us in todays absurd transfer fee world.

[Dave P]

Baggio was year before - about £8m + the clean up costs in Florence of 2 days rioting. Lentini the year after for about £13m

I remember the Lentini transfer seeming like a batshit crazy amount of money at the time.

Wasn’t Lentini the one who was involved in a car crash not long after he joined?

[Damo70]

Did we have to fend off big clubs from buying Platt after Italia 90? And why was it that only a small South Italian club came in for him 12 months later?

I read somewhere that Fiorentina bid £5m for him that summer, not sure if anyone else did though.

Italian clubs were spending crazy money compared to anyone else at that time. The summer we sold Platt to Bari for 5.5 million Dean Saunders was breaking the British transfer record by going to Liverpool for 2.9 million. With the money we got for Platt we bought Staunton, Teale, Richardson, Mortimer, Atkinson, Kubicki and Parker.

And Ugo, though he didn't cost much.

I think we nicked Ugo for nothing or for a nominal fee because Albion had let his contract run out. For some reason I have a figure of about £40,000 in my head but I might have just made that up.

[Damo70]

Baggio was year before - about £8m + the clean up costs in Florence of 2 days rioting. Lentini the year after for about £13m

I remember the Lentini transfer seeming like a batshit crazy amount of money at the time.

Wasn’t Lentini the one who was involved in a car crash not long after he joined?

Yes, he had serious injuries and although he went on to have a reasonably good career he was never the same again.

[eamonn]

A year after signing for Milan, at the age of 24, Lentini was involved in a serious car crash whilst driving home from a pre-season tournament in Genoa, in August 1993. He fractured his skull and damaged his eye socket and he spent approximately 2 days in a light coma.

After the crash he never fully recovered his mercurial dribbling skills. Plagued by 'memory loss', periods of blurred vision, and 'dizzy spells' he was tormented by the spectre of what his career once was, when he returned to the pitch at the end of the 1993–94 season. His teammate at the time, Marcel Desailly, was compelled to confess that “You could see the skills, how he was before the accident and after the accident, the balance was completely different”.

His career in Milan fizzled out and culminated in a European Cup medal and another Serie A title that season, but this was merely for filling the bench; a paltry return for the world's most expensive signing at the time. The next two seasons would see him make few appearances, although he collected another Italian Supercup with the club, as well an UEFA Super Cup, in 1994, also receiving runners-up medals in the 1994 Intercontinental Cup and the 1995 UEFA Champions League Final. During his final season with the club, he won a third Serie A medal.

In 1996, he moved from Milan to Atalanta for a season, helping the club to a mid-table finish alongside Filippo Inzaghi, and he went on to play for six further clubs.

[Nastylee]

Arguably did the best of all England's exports.

[Damo70]

Arguably did the best of all England's exports.

He did well in a struggling Bari side and also in a good Sampdoria side but in between that he never fully established himself at Juventus. Brady (yes I know he isn't English but he was brought up in and exported from the English game) was far more successful at Juve than Platt.  Lineker also made a far bigger mark at Barca that Platt did in Italy. Keegan also made a far bigger impression at Hamburg than Platt did in Italy. Wilkins and Hateley at AC Milan and Hoddle and Hateley at Monaco also made a bigger splash than Platt ever did. So personally I think our old mate Dave is a fair way down the list of England's best football exports.

[SoccerHQ]

Easily  the best English player to go abroad and actually learn the language properly (with a bit of an Oldham twang):

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Gazza not quite as coherent although still seems to know a fair bit: