2024 January transfer window - hopes, needs, expectations and rumours.

[OCD]

Players from certain leagues tend to adapt well...Spain, Portugal, France. Often they can hit the ground running.

I'd say players coming from Italy, Croatia, Serbia are slower to adapt, if they do.

[brontebilly]

Almost no players from serie A have done well in England for about 15 years now, possibly a couple of exceptions

Spurs got in four decent ones recently! The same 'fact' is thrown out about Bundesliga players too but it doesnt really stand up to scrutiny.

I guess traditionally the PL would have been seen as more athletic and physical. Refereeing definitely more tolerant of tackles and physical contests in midfield particularly. The likes of Veretout and Sanson, despite being good footballers, struggled to mix it physically but did well elsewhere. I actually think Sanson could have done ok under Emery as we play a lot more patient football these days and he would be a better fit than the Donk maybe. But he was never going to be as dynamic as Ramsey or McGinn.

[paul_e]

Almost no players from serie A have done well in England for about 15 years now, possibly a couple of exceptions

Spurs got in four decent ones recently! The same 'fact' is thrown out about Bundesliga players too but it doesnt really stand up to scrutiny.

I guess traditionally the PL would have been seen as more athletic and physical. Refereeing definitely more tolerant of tackles and physical contests in midfield particularly. The likes of Veretout and Sanson, despite being good footballers, struggled to mix it physically but did well elsewhere. I actually think Sanson could have done ok under Emery as we play a lot more patient football these days and he would be a better fit than the Donk maybe. But he was never going to be as dynamic as Ramsey or McGinn.

4? You're going to have to qualify that because I'll give you Udogie and Kulusevski (although both have had some pretty ropey moments as well). Counting Vicario would be a stretch given this is clearly about out field players and Bentancur is the only other player I can think of and he's clearly struggled with the pace and physicality of the league, which is a big part of why he's had so many injury problems.

The Germany thing is pretty clear to me as well so please provide the scrutiny, will it be similar to your player ratings where you just seem to make up ridiculously low numbers for shock value?

[brontebilly]

Almost no players from serie A have done well in England for about 15 years now, possibly a couple of exceptions

Spurs got in four decent ones recently! The same 'fact' is thrown out about Bundesliga players too but it doesnt really stand up to scrutiny.

I guess traditionally the PL would have been seen as more athletic and physical. Refereeing definitely more tolerant of tackles and physical contests in midfield particularly. The likes of Veretout and Sanson, despite being good footballers, struggled to mix it physically but did well elsewhere. I actually think Sanson could have done ok under Emery as we play a lot more patient football these days and he would be a better fit than the Donk maybe. But he was never going to be as dynamic as Ramsey or McGinn.

4? You're going to have to qualify that because I'll give you Udogie and Kulusevski (although both have had some pretty ropey moments as well). Counting Vicario would be a stretch given this is clearly about out field players and Bentancur is the only other player I can think of and he's clearly struggled with the pace and physicality of the league, which is a big part of why he's had so many injury problems.

The Germany thing is pretty clear to me as well so please provide the scrutiny, will it be similar to your player ratings where you just seem to make up ridiculously low numbers for shock value?

Goalkeepers are players, believe it or not. Their ability to keep the ball is crucial these days. Vicario has been a key addition for them. Bentancur was excellent for them before injury, it's a contact sport so such things so happen, likely he will be come good again once fit. Udogie and Kulusevski both have been very good. There's your four successful Seria A signings at one club.

Bundesliga...there's a few guys maybe you havent heard of them but....Haaland, he's a striker for Man City, scored a few. Son at Tottenham has done alright, Firmino remember him, he did ok at Liverpool too. There are others like De Bruyne, Auba, Gundogan, Kompany, Dzeko, Ballack, all seemed to do ok in PL. Might not have passed your clearly superior scrutiny, mind

[Monty]

I'd also say the French league has been poorer than the English for longer, meaning we've got a lot more examples to choose from of players from there working out (arguably going back to Vieira, even Cantona).

[AV84]

How does Giroud look when he's playing for France?

Is he in Italy because everything is slower and that's his level now? Or does he play slower because that's how the team plays?

[enigma]

Almost no players from serie A have done well in England for about 15 years now, possibly a couple of exceptions

Spurs got in four decent ones recently! The same 'fact' is thrown out about Bundesliga players too but it doesnt really stand up to scrutiny.

I guess traditionally the PL would have been seen as more athletic and physical. Refereeing definitely more tolerant of tackles and physical contests in midfield particularly. The likes of Veretout and Sanson, despite being good footballers, struggled to mix it physically but did well elsewhere. I actually think Sanson could have done ok under Emery as we play a lot more patient football these days and he would be a better fit than the Donk maybe. But he was never going to be as dynamic as Ramsey or McGinn.

4? You're going to have to qualify that because I'll give you Udogie and Kulusevski (although both have had some pretty ropey moments as well). Counting Vicario would be a stretch given this is clearly about out field players and Bentancur is the only other player I can think of and he's clearly struggled with the pace and physicality of the league, which is a big part of why he's had so many injury problems.

The Germany thing is pretty clear to me as well so please provide the scrutiny, will it be similar to your player ratings where you just seem to make up ridiculously low numbers for shock value?

Bentancur has been very good for Spurs though.

[paul_e]

Almost no players from serie A have done well in England for about 15 years now, possibly a couple of exceptions

Spurs got in four decent ones recently! The same 'fact' is thrown out about Bundesliga players too but it doesnt really stand up to scrutiny.

I guess traditionally the PL would have been seen as more athletic and physical. Refereeing definitely more tolerant of tackles and physical contests in midfield particularly. The likes of Veretout and Sanson, despite being good footballers, struggled to mix it physically but did well elsewhere. I actually think Sanson could have done ok under Emery as we play a lot more patient football these days and he would be a better fit than the Donk maybe. But he was never going to be as dynamic as Ramsey or McGinn.

4? You're going to have to qualify that because I'll give you Udogie and Kulusevski (although both have had some pretty ropey moments as well). Counting Vicario would be a stretch given this is clearly about out field players and Bentancur is the only other player I can think of and he's clearly struggled with the pace and physicality of the league, which is a big part of why he's had so many injury problems.

The Germany thing is pretty clear to me as well so please provide the scrutiny, will it be similar to your player ratings where you just seem to make up ridiculously low numbers for shock value?

Goalkeepers are players, believe it or not. Their ability to keep the ball is crucial these days. Vicario has been a key addition for them. Bentancur was excellent for them before injury, it's a contact sport so such things so happen, likely he will be come good again once fit. Udogie and Kulusevski both have been very good. There's your four successful Seria A signings at one club.

Bundesliga...there's a few guys maybe you havent heard of them but....Haaland, he's a striker for Man City, scored a few. Son at Tottenham has done alright, Firmino remember him, he did ok at Liverpool too. There are others like De Bruyne, Auba, Gundogan, Kompany, Dzeko, Ballack, all seemed to do ok in PL. Might not have passed your clearly superior scrutiny, mind

Do you honestly think that a goalkeeper has the same pressures over how quickly players close down, etc? Surely you can't believe that.

Bentancur I stand by the fact that he's shown quality but has looked far too slow and that is a big part of why he's been injured, he also, like many others, came in and hit the ground running and then dropped off after a couple of months because the relentlessness of how little time you get on the ball is the problem.

As for the others I gave you both but I still find it funny that they often put in the sort of performances you'd be dishing out 4 or 5 out of 10 to if they were Villa players.

The list of German signings is even better, by including Ballack you covered 17 years and named 9 players, I agree with you, they all did pretty well (although a few of them took a while to settle still) but 9 out of what must be 100 or more doesn't really prove your point.

Joelinton, Haller, Sancho, Bailey, Can, Havertz, Werner, Hwang and Mateta - there's a match for your 9 of players who either failed or weren't good enough for at least a year.

[Monty]

Joelinton, Bailey, Hwang, Mateta and now even Havertz to an extent have all been fine!

[Risso]

Havertz? £65m for a failed striker who is only getting a game in midfield until Partey is fit again?

[Monty]

He's been good recently. Who knows if it'll keep up, but he has actually become perfectly fine (if not exactly justifying the price tag).

[eamonn]

Vicario might be a good distributor but he doesn't look any less shakey to me in terms of keeping the ball out of the net than Lloris showed in the last couple of seasons.

[AV84]

Havertz? £65m for a failed striker who is only getting a game in midfield until Partey is fit again?

Rumours have Partey on his way out of Arsenal, possibly due to other rumours.

[paul_e]

Joelinton, Bailey, Hwang, Mateta and now even Havertz to an extent have all been fine!

but they weren't for 12-18months, which I said.

[Monty]

Joelinton, Bailey, Hwang, Mateta and now even Havertz to an extent have all been fine!

but they weren't for 12-18months, which I said.

Ahhhh it all makes sense.