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Mook

Foreigners

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I''ve said it before and I''ll say it again. We have no foreigners at this club now Nielsen''s gone, and he was Danish and therefore in the "English" mould anyway.

Foreigners (particularly South European and South American) are usually better schooled (ball skills as opposed to marathon running), have a better touch, more flair and we need some variety and spark. They would also open our players eyes to new cultures and new styles of football and methods of training.

I''m not accusing Worthy of bias, but I think.... actually, maybe I am accusing worthy of bias. Since he''s been here every foreigner we''ve had has departed. Although he did sign Libbra I suppose.

But I think everyone will agree we need more than just another workhorse at this club, we need someone with skill, vision and flair to channel the play through. Perhaps we should be looking further afield than just northern Ireland.

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Not entirely convinced by your argument Mook, but i can see the point you are making.

Firstly we would really struggle to sign South American players due to work permit regulations.

Secondly, Div 1 is a tough place to be, and I doubt whether we could find suitably qualified european players at a price we could afford, who could withstand the famed ''away trip to Grimsby''!! Look at Anselin. A quality player, who had benched in Europe and been in the French U21 set-up. Just couldn''t take the pace and hustle and bustle of Div 1! To get us out of this league we are, i am afraid to admit it, going to have to mix in your war-horses!! Arguably our best player so far this season is Damien Francis. A bruising midfield player in the same mould as Robbie Earle! It is these types of players we need. Lets get to the Prem first and then think about flair player acqusitions!

And as for all the foreigners leaving under Worthy! Well would you really want a line-up on Sat incorportaing Messrs Derveld, De Waard, De Blasiis, Anselin and Libbra? Nedergaard was the only foreigner who really performed well in Div 1, and it is a great loss that he has now departed.

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To be fair to NW I think that after replacing Hamilton a good deal of ''dead wood'' needed to be cleared to find the best City team. Unfortunately for the foreign players at Norwich a lot of them came under this bracket.

To understand why NW doesn''t seem to go for continental or American players means to appreciate his philosophy. I think that NW likes to have an intimate squad forged together by mutal graft and passion. Perhaps NW wants to have an all British side with no cultural or language divides. He wants a united and compact squad that will work hard and grind out the maximum points available. Because of this perhaps we do lack a little flair/invention/creativity at times and perhaps this is also why the goals rarely flow. Perhaps a foreign player could freshen things up a bit but I think that NW doesn''t see it that way. He would rather spend his cash (how ever much that is) on an honest British grafter than a potentially tempermental trickster who could upset the delicate balance NW is trying to perfect.

Keep it low

PC

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What about Jim Brennan or does Canadian not count??? It can take a lot for foreign particularly south americans to fit in. For all the Ozzie Ardieles, Faustino Asprilla, and Ricky Villas, there are also the Juan Veon, Juan Pablo angel, Diego Forlan, Gilberto Silvas who have struggled to fit in.

You can also look at what happened to our neighbours when they bought ''continental''. Ulrich le pen, Mateo Sereni, Fenidi George.

There is a big culture shock between continental and in the english first division, its much safer and more reliable to go with home grown.

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i think nigel just wants the best players he can get, the fact is buying a player proven in england is a lot less risky than buying players abroad also transfer dealing can get complex espcially when your lookin at non-european players with problems such as work permits. Also lets not forget that sucess abroad doesn''t always mean sucess in england not to mention language problems. Finally lets not forget that there aren''t a huge amount of quaility forgeign playerswho would want to play in the hustle and bustle of the first divsion opposed to the glamourous premiership, one of the things that norwich have goin for them is is a fantastic team spirit forgeign players could disrupt that so nigel would have to be very careful, which may suggest why nigel is wary to buy abroad, but with proper research we could see foreigners emerge.

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I think Worthington is anti-foreigners. A perfect example was Jean Yves de Blassis. An proven success in English football. Forced out, like others, who didnt agree with Worthington and still not replaced with anyone remotely as good.

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[quote user="Iwans Front Teeth"]What about Jim Brennan or does Canadian not count??? It can take a lot for foreign particularly south americans to fit in. For all the Ozzie Ardieles, Faustino Asprilla, and Ricky Villas, there are also the Juan Veon, Juan Pablo angel, Diego Forlan, Gilberto Silvas who have struggled to fit in.

You can also look at what happened to our neighbours when they bought ''continental''. Ulrich le pen, Mateo Sereni, Fenidi George.

There is a big culture shock between continental and in the english first division, its much safer and more reliable to go with home grown.[/quote]

 

rather a veron than a hughes

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I''ve said it before and I''ll say it again... THANK GOD!  Now is not the time to be taking risks with foreign players who take months to adapt to the English game.  Worthington cocked it up with Helveg and Jonson and he''d be stupid to do it again.

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Crikey, since the post was made in 2003 we have had any number of foreigners play for us, mostly Scandinavians, somewhat disproving the theory put forward; in addition to the ones mentioned from our current squad, there''s also: Etuhu (Nigerian) and MLJ (French)... so with the others, that is a fair few.

PS whatever happened to De Blassiis??

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I thought it was interesting last year after the controversy of Arsenal''s (?) all-foreign lineup for one game and they had a table on Sky Sports of the makeup of all the teams. Norwich had one of the highest % of English (maybe British?) players, the top teams had the least...

I think its just maths. If you put together the 11 best players in the world, its highly unlikely they''d all come from one country.

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Its less about nationality than ability - Worthy prefers navvies whereas I want my football played by talented ball players pepared to graft.

Give me Helveg, Jonson,Safri, Svenson ahead of a leon, eddy, hughes or etuhu any day.

PS the original post is dated 2003...

 

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DD- did he cock up because they were bad players or because he scandalously mismanaged them? Helveg looked pure class at the end of the season when given a decent run and Jonson was played out of position and even he came across as distraught at the end of the season knowing that he had done his masters bidding where he couldn''t show his talents. Lets face it, NW has difficulties with many players but it doesn''t seem to be based on whether they are foreign or not.

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It would be good to have a bit more foreign spark, but worthys experiences in getting rid of the crap when he arrived has probably put him off, and brennan/colin will have hardlt tempted him to get a scout on the next plane to holland/canada. Also louis jean is french so we have 4 foreignesr though not the nobody someone said. Also spillane and doherty are ROI so technically foreign. The experiences with Derveld and de waard (who were signed by rioch, on recomendation, no norwich staff had seen them play). de blasis and libbra the french muppets, the latter a 1 trick pony, and can anyone remember tyhe awful segura and that diop we had who had a bad temper. I will not have a bad word said against anselin who was badly troubled by injuries, badly treated by worthy and is only just back in footy after a serious illness or some sought of problem. He was a very good player on his day.

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Is it the fault of the Foreign players who come here or, is it as with our other signings, the fault of the management who do not know what to do with them?

 

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[quote user="percyvarco"]

This is as far back as you can go with the posts.........

Still rings true

[/quote]

umm I think that answers the questions, percyvarco resurrected the old post to prove that even 3 years on Worthy is still anti-foreigners, but I think he forgot:

Brennan, Helveg, Svensson, Jonson, Louis-Jean, Safri, Etuhu, Francis and Colin.

Of all those I would say:

Brennan - only ever a squad player - successful business

Helveg - not given a decent run in his preferred position until it was too late - unsuccessful business, but only because he wasn''t utilised properly.

Svensson - was decent enough and would rather still have him over Thorne (whom I have nothing against). - successful business

Jonson - plenty of chances, but none in his proper preferred position.  Didn''t really make it, but agian would rather still have him on the right wing than Etuhu - successful business given the price we paid and got back in return and the job he did whilst here.

Louis Jean - yet to show his stuff

Safri - quality, just a shame Worthy didn''t notice it sooner last season. - very successful business

Etuhu - yet to show his stuff

Francis - well had his time hear and we were right to let him go - successful business

Colin - would rather have kept Eddy, but should grow into a better player, solid enough.

Therefore on balance Worthy''s dealings with foreign players has been quite positive, even though he let go 3 players that could still be here doing a better job for us (Sven, Helveg and Jonson), the money he got for them and the job they did when given a chance means we gained more than we lost.

 

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De Blasiis unfortunately had to retire after leaving Norwich.

The injury he had pretty much ended his career and he is now coaching. A real shame because him and Fuglestadt we the best two left backs we have had at the club at any one time.

Worthington''s Foriegn army ins and outs have been (not including uk countries):

Nielsen - Denmark, Helveg - Denmark, Jonson - Sweden, Svensson - Sweden, Colins - Dutch, Louis-Jean - French, Libra - French, Etuhu - African (cant remember which country - Nigeria I think), Safri - Morroco, Brennan - Canadian,

Those he released after taking over, not all instantly:

De Ward - Dutch, Develd - Dutch, Ancelin - French, De Blasiis - French, GG - Swiss, Nedergaard - Danish

That is all I can think of off the top of my head although you also have to remember the youngster we have whose name escapes me - playing in the reserves/youth team.

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"Brennan - only ever a squad player - successful business"

cant agree with this one, spot on with most of the others however.

What do you consider a foreign player??

I dont really consider say Brennan, MLJ or Svensson as real foreign imports as they had played in this country so long before we signed them. if you understand my meaning.

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[quote user="Paul Rankin"]"Brennan - only ever a squad player - successful business" cant agree with this one, spot on with most of the others however. What do you consider a foreign player?? I dont really consider say Brennan, MLJ or Svensson as real foreign imports as they had played in this country so long before we signed them. if you understand my meaning.[/quote]

No, we didnt have to look abroad for these. Also, someone said de blasis was a left back, i thought he was a midfielder.

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I did not forget the Foreigners that we have I just wanted to hear the thoughts now that the transfer window. Makes a change from the WO - KTF stuff

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[quote user="percyvarco"]I did not forget the Foreigners that we have I just wanted to hear the thoughts now that the transfer window. Makes a change from the WO - KTF stuff[/quote]

Im sure he would just find a dutch clogger, or a spanish clogger, or a lazy hungarian clogger. Its worthy we are talking about here.

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