Milans new megastar

The first English man to ply his trade in three of the "big 5 league"
I am sure we all know who I am on about, David Beckham.
Amongst all the top leagues there is hardly any English players among the top teams, why is this?
Are English players afraid of not being able to adapt to the new country?
Is it our style of football or do other countries consider our players inferior to their own?

Just hoping the Euro's and the English posters could answer my question.

It may have something to do with wages as well. While EPL pays well, why would they leave unless they have to? That said they don't adapt very well abroad with some exceptions. It takes time to adapt to new countries, language, culture and football philosophy of new club in foreign country. If they don't do that well they will suffer. Also they need to be given time. It is the same for any foreigner in a league outside their own.

For me there are two reasons for this. The first one is that the EPL is the richest league and thus it makes financial sense to stay there. The only time a player can make more going abroad is if he's leaving a mid-table English side for a Real Madrid, Barca, Milan, Inter, etc. There aren't many English who are good enough to do this, and those that are good enough will be snapped up by Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool, etc.

The second reason is that once a quality English player ends up on a Man Utd, Chelsea or Liverpool they quickly become fan favourites and they're not likely to leave said club until they can't cut it anymore. This is hardly unique to England either. You rarely see the really good Spanish players leave Madrid or Barca or the really good Italians leave Milan. And there aren't so many top English players that the big four won't need them. Any top English player can easily find a spot on a top four side so naturally, they'll stay in England.

King Pipita wrote:For me there are two reasons for this. The first one is that the EPL is the richest league and thus it makes financial sense to stay there. The only time a player can make more going abroad is if he's leaving a mid-table English side for a Real Madrid, Barca, Milan, Inter, etc. There aren't many English who are good enough to do this, and those that are good enough will be snapped up by Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool, etc.

The second reason is that once a quality English player ends up on a Man Utd, Chelsea or Liverpool they quickly become fan favourites and they're not likely to leave said club until they can't cut it anymore. This is hardly unique to England either. You rarely see the really good Spanish players leave Madrid or Barca or the really good Italians leave Milan. And there aren't so many top English players that the big four won't need them. Any top English player can easily find a spot on a top four side so naturally, they'll stay in England.

pretty much said it all. There aren't really any top Italians in the EPL and the Spanish players at Liverpool were all signed from non-CL sides (I think) while their English equivalents would cost twice as much and already have much higher salerys. Xabi Alonso cost £10m while Michael Carrick went for £18m. Riera was £8m while Stewart Downing is being bid for at around twice as much.

Perhaps with former EPL managers taking charge of high profile La Liga and Serie A clubs we may see more English players in the other top leagues, but Jermaine Pennant turning down Real Madrid for Stoke or Wigan isn't really a great sign of things to come.

&#1044&#1080& wrote:

King Pipita wrote:For me there are two reasons for this. The first one is that the EPL is the richest league and thus it makes financial sense to stay there. The only time a player can make more going abroad is if he's leaving a mid-table English side for a Real Madrid, Barca, Milan, Inter, etc. There aren't many English who are good enough to do this, and those that are good enough will be snapped up by Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool, etc.

The second reason is that once a quality English player ends up on a Man Utd, Chelsea or Liverpool they quickly become fan favourites and they're not likely to leave said club until they can't cut it anymore. This is hardly unique to England either. You rarely see the really good Spanish players leave Madrid or Barca or the really good Italians leave Milan. And there aren't so many top English players that the big four won't need them. Any top English player can easily find a spot on a top four side so naturally, they'll stay in England.

pretty much said it all. There aren't really any top Italians in the EPL and the Spanish players at Liverpool were all signed from non-CL sides (I think) while their English equivalents would cost twice as much and already have much higher salerys. Xabi Alonso cost £10m while Michael Carrick went for £18m. Riera was £8m while Stewart Downing is being bid for at around twice as much.

Perhaps with former EPL managers taking charge of high profile La Liga and Serie A clubs we may see more English players in the other top leagues, but Jermaine Pennant turning down Real Madrid for Stoke or Wigan isn't really a great sign of things to come.

Wasn't Reina signed from Villarreal, who were there or thereabouts regarding CL.

ok, they were all signed from Spanish sides other than Real Madrid and Barcelona. It doesn't really change my point.

Luis Garcia

Belletti

And er, Jurado


But don't worry, I get your point

There's another reason, which is that English clubs are currently doing well in the CL.

If you go back 15-20 years, when there were (relatively speaking) a lot of Englishmen abroad (Waddle, Hoddle, Gazza, Lineker, Rush , Walker etc) they went for 3 reasons

1) more money/ their clubs couldn't turn down the transfer fees
2) they had more chance of winning a European trophy outside of England. And that was true for the 90s as well.
3) I clearly can't count

EMP wrote:

&#1044&#1080& wrote:

King Pipita wrote:For me there are two reasons for this. The first one is that the EPL is the richest league and thus it makes financial sense to stay there. The only time a player can make more going abroad is if he's leaving a mid-table English side for a Real Madrid, Barca, Milan, Inter, etc. There aren't many English who are good enough to do this, and those that are good enough will be snapped up by Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool, etc.

The second reason is that once a quality English player ends up on a Man Utd, Chelsea or Liverpool they quickly become fan favourites and they're not likely to leave said club until they can't cut it anymore. This is hardly unique to England either. You rarely see the really good Spanish players leave Madrid or Barca or the really good Italians leave Milan. And there aren't so many top English players that the big four won't need them. Any top English player can easily find a spot on a top four side so naturally, they'll stay in England.

pretty much said it all. There aren't really any top Italians in the EPL and the Spanish players at Liverpool were all signed from non-CL sides (I think) while their English equivalents would cost twice as much and already have much higher salerys. Xabi Alonso cost £10m while Michael Carrick went for £18m. Riera was £8m while Stewart Downing is being bid for at around twice as much.

Perhaps with former EPL managers taking charge of high profile La Liga and Serie A clubs we may see more English players in the other top leagues, but Jermaine Pennant turning down Real Madrid for Stoke or Wigan isn't really a great sign of things to come.

Wasn't Reina signed from Villarreal, who were there or thereabouts regarding CL.

Don't think Villarreal were a 'big club' then.