What is our obsession with Yanks

[spaldy]

That's a very good point on the scouts. I think it's New Castle that has a player that was working at a grocery store before the season began. They are out there but they are hard to find and it's an expensive process. However given the transfer money spent it could pay itself off very quickly if you even found a couple of hits.

UK players seem quite a bit more expensive than other countries players. Not a reason to avoid them. Just confirming that there might be a good reason to go light on huge signings. They can get very expensive. Doubt any of us disagree that we really can't afford to get into bidding wars with the top teams in the prem. They just have too much money at this point. we may catch them someday but it will take a while.

Might be interesting to see what happens with some of the top teams financially in the near term. Chelsea's the most obvious but there are some other teams that have a lot of Chinese, Russian and other countries in turmoil's money. Obviously, the middle east countries are floating in money right now and that's not going to end for some time. Citeh and the Geordies can probably afford anyone they want.

[spaldy]

I (currently) live in the US and have had a fair bit of exposure to developing (and developed) players here and my general observations would be:

It's going to be hard for other countries to compete against the systems in place for the female game as it is clearly the number one team sport for girls here and there is plenty of encouragement from all quarters for girls to both play and seriously compete from an early age.

It's definitely better than it was, but "soccer" still tends to be well behind the so-called American sports for adolescent boys (their football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey and, at least in this part of the country, lacrosse) and any inherent athletic talent tends to be siphoned off elsewhere before players get a chance to learn and play the game beyond the basic level.

There are always going to be individual players at the school level with talent, but the teams they play in are often diluted because the athletic kids are simply playing different sports. This makes development more of a challenge.

I'm probably being a total snob, but I rarely bother watching the professional football played here (there is excellent coverage on TV of the Premier League).

This doesn't mean that there aren't decent male players here, it's just that there are probably fewer than you might expect there to be given the size of the population.

Orgs,

well stated. Could not agree more but you stated it much more articulately. Especially about the best athletes choosing other sports. It dilutes the talent pool so much.

[Orgoner]

One other thing I have definitely noticed here is that there are quite high levels of individual skills and ball control, but it's quite rare to come across players with the gamecraft needed to bring others into play or operate as a unit.

Again, in general, the girls tend to have a better grasp of it being a team sport (there are laws in place for equal funding of grass-roots level sports - most of the female side seems to get put into football) where cohesive play will nearly always beat a bunch of one-trick ponies.

Maybe it's better in other parts of the country, but that's my take on football in the North East of the US.

[cherrypie7]

The other guy is supposedly Sergino Dest, player at Barca (so obviously superior to all the others mentioned in other posts, just like Casilla was better than all the other GKs even though he (like Dest) couldn't get a game there). Not saying there is truth in the rumour, but we have form in such things.

Yes, it is Sergino Dest. He is American only because 1 parent is American. Has not lived in the States at all. He is a product of the Ajax academy so his technical skills are more than decent. As for playing, he is a right back, and can play further up the field or even at left-back. He is only 21, and has started for Barca in La Liga, Europa League and Champions League. Unfortunately has just got injured. Picked up a hamstring injury during a La Liga match 2 weeks ago. So he has and is playing 1st team football. Valued at around 20m Euros. Said earlier in the season he wants to fight for his place at Barca though so not sure he wants to come.

[cherrypie7]

During Radrizzani's/Bielsa's time Orta picked up Meslier, Bamford (permanent) and Harrison as well as Ben White on loan. That's 4 players who were critical to get us promoted. Yes, they have made some mistakes, but who doesn't? In the Premier League, we have acquired Raphinha James, Rodrigo, Koch, Firpo, Greenwood, Gelhardt, Llorente, Drameh, Bate, Augustin. With the exception of Augustin and maybe Firpo, that's not a bad bunch. Decent at the very least.

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

During Radrizzani's/Bielsa's time Orta picked up Meslier, Bamford (permanent) and Harrison as well as Ben White on loan. That's 4 players who were critical to get us promoted. Yes, they have made some mistakes, but who doesn't? In the Premier League, we have acquired Raphinha James, Rodrigo, Koch, Firpo, Greenwood, Gelhardt, Llorente, Drameh, Bate, Augustin. With the exception of Augustin and maybe Firpo, that's not a bad bunch. Decent at the very least.

Agreed - anyone remember Wegerle who played for QPR sure he was American and he wasn’t half bad especially against us.

[bathlad61]

Clint Dempsey when at Fulham, wasnt bad also, there has been a few. Would hope the club scouts all over for possible players, and not just do its normal thing, of being transfixed on one player. We need a few come May / June.

[spaldy]

I think there was a song by some British band along with the London Bach Choir that referred to the fact you can't always get what you want

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Few decent US keepers have graced the Orem too.

[Billyni]

Didn’t we have an obsession with serieB Italians not so long ago too.
Hope the Yankee one works better.