http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2332475/The-Footballers-Football-Column--Sam-Tillen-John-Terry-helped-injuries-Chelsea.html

 

 

Really interesting piece from this guy, didn't make the cut here so moved to brentford, and now plays in iceland

 

probably of most interest is the generosity of JT and Lamps to the youth team player, JT in particular, it's a shame the media don't like to show this side of him

 

A good read.

That is a good read :)

What rings most true to me, apart from his sentiments about JT and Lampard, is his advice for more British players to go abroad. This is 100% true. A lot of English football is stuck in the dark ages and percentages count more than quality. My experiences of playing abroad, only at Sunday league level, is that teams play out from the back a lot more making it more enjoyable to play in. Since playing abroad, I struggle to enjoy 11 a side here as the game is completely kick and rush. If sunday league teams just took a little more time improving the quality of their play, standard overall will increase.

i agree, something about english players loving their comfort zone so to speak.

 

David Beckham is the only real notable english player to go abroad for  a number of years and be succesful, Owen also went however only for one season despite being quite popular in madrid, the same with Barton to marseille

 

the experiences of moving abroad from a footballing point of view would do wonders for our national team IMO but not alot of  players take it up, i'm not certain of the finances of other leagues but imagine one reason is the wages they recieve here, I would have thought the experience of a new culture itself would be an amazing challenge and one i think quite a few players would embrace if they had the balls to do so

I do love to hear stories like this. I have never understood why more players or young managers dont go to lower league countries. Take Hodgson for example went to abroad to manage didnt he and now hes England manager.

If i was alot younger and had my time again it is something i would like to think i would try.

Aside from probably getting much higher wages is the reluctance of British people to learn and embrace foreign languages. I don't have a lot of time for Joey Barton but at least he's making an effort to learn French so he can converse more freely with both his team mates and other people at Marseille. Gary Lineker prospered when he became quite fluent at Spanish plus our very own Ray Wilkins became quite adept at Italian (which probably served him well when Carlo came here). If players are willing to make the effort then there is a whole new world waiting out there for them.

Can't have your cake and eat it.

 

You can't sell the idea that this is the best league in the world, the championship is the best second division in the world and then expect English people to leave it. Obviously wages play a big part too, scrubs like Norwich paying wages on par with the likes of Dortmund and Juventus is just ridiculous. 

Good article, Iceland does look like a really nice place but the language scares me, looking at Icelandic words gives me a migraine.

Can't have your cake and eat it.

 

You can't sell the idea that this is the best league in the world, the championship is the best second division in the world and then expect English people to leave it. Obviously wages play a big part too, scrubs like Norwich paying wages on par with the likes of Dortmund and Juventus is just ridiculous. 

I'm not sure exactly who is selling the idea the the Premiership is the best league in the world (probably the FA), but it has long been my theory that part of the reason why the England team haven't won anything since 1966 is that English players don't go abroad. Look at much smaller countries with Mickey Mouse leagues: some national teams do better in international tournaments than England. I think it might be because so many of their players have experienced foreign competitions. I'm sure it helps their development.

Good article, Iceland does look like a really nice place but the language scares me, looking at Icelandic words gives me a migraine.

 

Most Icelandic people speak very good English, so in a way it's probably easier for a monolingual Brit to get by than somewhere like France/Italy/Spain.