Technically gifted and with the potential to be world class if given the right support, there is no doubt bringing in players such as Mamodou Sakho, Blaise Matuidi, Yvann M’Vila, Eden Hazard (Belgian) and Dimitri Payet could reap the benefits in the future. If we look at the players listed they are look like exciting young prospects:
Mamadou Sakho – Made captain of PSG at just 17, the young centre back made an impressive debut for France against England at Wembley
Yann M’Vila – Rennes defensive midfielder, still only 20 but played very well for France against England.
Blaise Matuidi – Another defensive midfielder, 23 year old Matuidi is the captain of Saint-Etienne already.
Eden Hazard – Lille’s Belgian attacking midfielder, dubbed the “New Messi” and very highly rated by French legend Zinedine Zidane. Got a 9/10 by French newspaper L’Equipe for his performance against Monaco last weekend, not a mean feat as only five other players have achieved full marks.
Dimitri Payet – Saint-Etienne winger, aged 23, who has been on fire in front of goal this season with 8 goals in Ligue One.
Certainly there are a lot of players here to be excited about, but there are always negatives. The cost for some of these players will be very high. M’Vila has been rated at £9m while Hazard will be a great deal more than that. Spending a great deal of money on young foreign players can be a risk. Nobody needs reminding about the £10m spent on a player from Ligue One, El-Hadji Diouf, or the purchase of Bruno Cheyrou to know it can backfire. Comolli, Hodgson and the scouting team must be sure that these players are capable of playing in the Premier League before any offers are made.
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Lemmy and his band Motorhead at a French bar
This week it is even more of former Liverpool WAG Edita Hortova.
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If Liverpool want to sign French players why don’t they sign Nzogbia from Wigan. They should also put Mavinga in at leftback.
Deuf was not French though. I think, France produces the most young talents in midfield & defence in Europe. French players have hardly disapointed in England. Mostly, French players of similar value are technically far superior & skillful than their English counterparts. Moreover they are physically much more suited for epl than the Latin or even Spanish players. Investing on young French players hardly has gone wrong in epl (Chheyru may be one odd example, but few french boys were unluckey at lfc due to a change in manager). Over the last few years, France has finished among top 4 for almost every Euro age group tournaments & there are so many talented youth in French legue that, if targeted logically, it’s hardly going to fail.
Now, wheather the French connection is good or bad, depends on what players they are targeting & how the manager is planning. Almost entire Arsenal recent success is build on French & Dutch players, MU probably had their best ever EPL player from France, apart from Maluda & Anelka, Essien & Drogba are from legue 1.
i do think it’s just lazy journalism picking players that St. Etienne were linked with.
there may be some truth to a story (perhaps a scout, roy or kenny watching) but just because they are watching doesn’t mean a bid is imminent. As Commolli said, the scouts pass on recommendations to Commoli – he watches them, then kenny, then roy and the proposal is put to the board.
Would sooner trust the judgement of Macia to be honest. We had a load of French youngsters that came to nothing. Now, we have some promising Spanish youngsters who Roy won’t play.
I think the NESV philosophy goes against Roy has ever been. He’s never been into developing youth players – ask Fulham fans, apparently he NEVER even went to the youth academy during his two and half year spell.
Just makes me think Roy is on borrowed time. His style of play is negative and seems content with one half decent performance in every 5-6 games. True mid-table mentality. Before long, we will have sold all our great players and have the entire Fulham first team if he gets his way.
If we are looking to get young players who have potential to be world class then we should be looking at Hazard, N’Zogbia and Stocker. Hazard is a highly rated winger who will no doubt become a top class player, N’Zogbia has proved his quality in the Premier League and can play in a number of postions in midfield and has a excellent left foot while Stocker can play out wide and in the centre and would only cost around 5 mil.