Topic: Sudden influx of foreign players after a take over?

[LiamG]

I was having a discussion with someone the other day and we somehow ended up talking about teams that have been taken over by "dodgy" foreign owners and then that team has been filled with players of the same nationality?

Has it actually happened or was i dreaming it? i first thought Watford? did they get taken over by italians and then all of a sudden had a team full of italians or was it a club lower down the leagues???

[B0151?]

I was having a discussion with someone the other day and we somehow ended up talking about teams that have been taken over by "dodgy" foreign owners and then that team has been filled with players of the same nationality?

Has it actually happened or was i dreaming it? i first thought Watford? did they get taken over by italians and then all of a sudden had a team full of italians or was it a club lower down the leagues???

Wolves with Portugese players perhaps? Although that's not because of their (Chinese) owners directly, but because of the owners relationship with super agent Jorge Mendes.

[OsirisMVZ]

Was it actually happened or was i dreaming it? i first thought Watford? did they get taken over by italians and then all of a sudden had a team full of italians or was it a club lower down the leagues???

Watford are owned by a family that own both Granada and Udinese so there is a lot of subtle player-swapping between those three teams.

[CraigDS]

Yeah the Watford one is the only one I can think of but that was mostly due to cheap transfer fees and loan deals from other clubs they owned in Italy more than them being Italian.

Can’t think of many others.

[rafathegaffa83]

Didn't Hearts have an influx of Lithuanian players during Romanov's ownership

[Max_powers]

Dont' think Watford is a great example of this. Udinese has a good scouting system in South America and Africa from where they sign a lot of players. Watford and Granada were just used as clubs to get the fringe players from Udinese some game time.

They obviously got an influx of Italians but in general they got players from all over the world that were loaned or sold to them by Udinese or Granada.

Hearts is a good shout.   

[Drinks Sangria]

Stoke City around the late 90s/ early 2000s were  owned by an Icelandic group. Following the takeover they installed Gudjon Thordason as the manager and signed loads of Icelandic players. They were in the modern equivalent of league one at the time.

Eidur Gudjohnsen was the biggest name, but off the top of my head they had Rikardur Dadason, Bjarni Gudjohnsen, Hannes Sigurdson, Gudmundsen, Gislason, Gunnarsson and Danielsson. That’s just to name a few.

Really strange experiment that and at a time when Iceland were a true minnow and not nearly as highly ranked as they are now. They did get Stoke up into the Championship though, although as time went on and following the exit of Thordarson, the Icelandic players dwindled. They had at least 15 in the squad at one point though.

[Garrus]

Didn't Hearts have an influx of Lithuanian players during Romanov's ownership

Romanov also owned Kaunas (Lithuanian club). Probably saw a chance to get some of his players a chance at a higher level and maybe unearth a couple of decent players for cheap at Hearts.

[Red Beret]

When Houlier was in charge, we targeted a lot of French players; under Rafa, we targeted a lot of Spanish players.

I dont think there's any particularly dodgy in it; just that a club being taken over is a big cultural shift, so maybe those in charge just go with what they know.

Te haphazard nature of our signings under Brendan and the TC showed  what can happen when management isn't unified and pulls in different directions.

That said, Klopp seems to love signing players from Africa.

[Jm55]

I seem to remember Ivanovo at Chelsea being heavily touted as a signing which was as much about his nationality as it was his ability and that Abramovic was very keen to get a Russian player on board - obviously he turned out to be an excellent player anyway.

[Drinks Sangria]

I seem to remember Ivanovo at Chelsea being heavily touted as a signing which was as much about his nationality as it was his ability and that Abramovic was very keen to get a Russian player on board - obviously he turned out to be an excellent player anyway.

Branislav Ivanovic? He is Serbian. He did join from a Russian club though. Maybe you’re thinking of Yuri Zhirkov, a bang average Russian full back who was apparently a hand-picked Abramovic signing but then didn’t feature much because the Premier League was seemingly beyond his capabilities. Alexey Smertin was another they picked up at Abramovic’s behest but I can’t remember how that one turned out. Can’t have been that good.

[elsewhere]

Wolves with Portugese players perhaps? Although that's not because of their (Chinese) owners directly, but because of the owners relationship with super agent Jorge Mendes.

That came to my mind first too. Was it because of the agent or the manager preferred Portugese players?

[_00_deathscar]

I seem to remember Ivanovo at Chelsea being heavily touted as a signing which was as much about his nationality as it was his ability and that Abramovic was very keen to get a Russian player on board - obviously he turned out to be an excellent player anyway.

Yea always thought he was a bit underrated outside probably Chelsea fans. Good player, him.

[PaulF]

Stoke City around the late 90s/ early 2000s were  owned by an Icelandic group. Following the takeover they installed Gudjon Thordason as the manager and signed loads of Icelandic players. They were in the modern equivalent of league one at the time.

Eidur Gudjohnsen was the biggest name, but off the top of my head they had Rikardur Dadason, Bjarni Gudjohnsen, Hannes Sigurdson, Gudmundsen, Gislason, Gunnarsson and Danielsson. That’s just to name a few.

Really strange experiment that and at a time when Iceland were a true minnow and not nearly as highly ranked as they are now. They did get Stoke up into the Championship though, although as time went on and following the exit of Thordarson, the Icelandic players dwindled. They had at least 15 in the squad at one point though.

You can remember Stoke players at the turn of the century off the top of your head ? Rain Man.

[FiSh77]

You can remember Stoke players at the turn of the century off the top of your head ? Rainy Tuesday night in Stoke Man.

[Drinks Sangria]

You can remember Stoke players at the turn of the century off the top of your head ? Rain Man.

I'd love to say that this is representative of my knowledge across all football, but that coincides with the time when I was playing in Stoke's academy (aged 7 through til around 14) so I had a more intimate knowledge of the club back then. You ask me to name a similar occurrence at pretty much any club I won't be able to, outside the obvious.

Was the only lad at the training not in a Man Utd or Stoke kit. Always rocked the black reebok away with Kewell on the back or the red home with Litmanen. Liked a flawed creative player, me. 

[rafathegaffa83]

Branislav Ivanovic? He is Serbian. He did join from a Russian club though. Maybe you’re thinking of Yuri Zhirkov, a bang average Russian full back who was apparently a hand-picked Abramovic signing but then didn’t feature much because the Premier League was seemingly beyond his capabilities. Alexey Smertin was another they picked up at Abramovic’s behest but I can’t remember how that one turned out. Can’t have been that good.

Zhirkov had been excellent at the Euros. Smertin was absolutely average

[Drinks Sangria]

Zhirkov had been excellent at the Euros. Smertin was absolutely average

Yeah maybe I was a touch harsh on Zhirkov because he did have a very good career and performed well for Russia. But he made less than 30 appearances for Chelsea over a three year spell and never played outside of Russia before or after. Average may have been hard, but he was evidently not good enough to take minutes from the excellent defenders Chelsea had at that time.

[Larse]

Leipzig and austrian players

[ScouserAtHeart]

Ha. This is not what I thought this thread would be like when I first saw the topic

[classycarra]

Didn't City sign a few Thai players under Thaksin Shinawatra? In their despot-lite days

[Big Red Richie]

Houllier and Benitez were just as guilty as anyone for doing this as well.


Dosen't mean any thing dodgy was at hand, just shows the respective managers were buying from the marketplace they understood the most.

French and Spanish players respectively.




Edit: I just saw Red Berry, beat me to it. ^^^

[classycarra]

But Rafa and Houllier didn't own the club. We haven't signed any US players

[Big Red Richie]

But Rafa and Houllier didn't own the club. We haven't signed any US players

Oh. Put your logic away.

[ChaChaMooMoo]

We haven't signed any US players

If we were not for that idiot Henderson, Dempsey would've played for us.

[jackh]

They mentioned during the Europa League commentary last night that Shakhtar have got 13 Brazilians in their squad, which seems a high number for a Ukrainian side!

Yea always thought he was a bit underrated outside probably Chelsea fans. Good player, him.

A safe pair of hands, for sure.

Zhirkov had been excellent at the Euros. Smertin was absolutely average

Was going to post the same - that Russian side had an excellent 2008 campaign, and some really talented players.

[Drinks Sangria]

They mentioned during the Europa League commentary last night that Shakhtar have got 13 Brazilians in their squad, which seems a high number for a Ukrainian side!

It very much is, but this is a deliberate tactic to earn money rather than some ploy by an owner who wants similarly-registered footballers purely due to nationalistic links.

Shakhtar plumb a lot of money into their Brazilian scouting and really, given their track record, who's to blame them? They've made unbelievable amounts by selling on their Brazilians. Willian, Douglas Costa, Fred, Alex Teixeira etc just to name a few.

[PaulF]

Players following a manager seems to be a stronger trend. Wenger at arsenal?

 Thanks for the info sangria. I feel slightly less memory impaired now.

[rob1966]

I was having a discussion with someone the other day and we somehow ended up talking about teams that have been taken over by "dodgy" foreign owners and then that team has been filled with players of the same nationality?

Has it actually happened or was i dreaming it? i first thought Watford? did they get taken over by italians and then all of a sudden had a team full of italians or was it a club lower down the leagues???

As has been mentioned with Ged and Rafa, its probably more to do with the staff, either manager/coach or scouts, going with what they know best than anything else. Klopp has also dipped into German football with Matip, Karius and Keita.

[Ghost Town]

Ha. This is not what I thought this thread would be like when I first saw the topic

He he, yes, same here. I charged in ready to be vituperative and a proper old school SJW. But it's all quite harmless and interesting

[Flaccido Dongingo]

They mentioned during the Europa League commentary last night that Shakhtar have got 13 Brazilians in their squad, which seems a high number for a Ukrainian side!


A safe pair of hands, for sure.

Was going to post the same - that Russian side had an excellent 2008 campaign, and some really talented players.

Quite a few of Shakhtars Brazilian born players have ended up declaring for the Ukrainian national team.