Nicolo Barella

[The College Dropout]

I’m not from Newcastle so I don’t take this personally.  But location is a factor for all clubs and it does impact the likes of Liverpool, City and Man U. 
 

All things behind equal the best players in the world would rather live in many cities across Europe before Liverpool Manchester or Newcastle.  Location and culture in large part is why many of the greatest players in the world don’t come to the PL in their primes.   

So aye it’s always going to be a factor.  

 

 

Edited June 15, 2023 by The College Dropout

[The College Dropout]

Man U are apparently ‘the biggest club in the world’ yet they rarely sign genuine superstars from abroad and often it doesn’t work out.  
 

From Veron to Di Maria. Who wants to love in Manchester. 

[Guest dazzanufc1892]

1 minute ago, The College Dropout said:

Man U are apparently ‘the biggest club in the world’ yet they rarely sign genuine superstars from abroad and often it doesn’t work out.  
 

From Veron to Di Maria. Who wants to love in Manchester. 

 

haaland

[Optimistic Nut]

Culture and language definitely a factor. 

[wyn davies]

17 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

I’m not from Newcastle so I don’t take this personally.  But location is a factor for all clubs and it does impact the likes of Liverpool, City and Man U. 
 

All things behind equal the best players in the world would rather live in many cities across Europe before Liverpool Manchester or Newcastle.  Location and culture in large part is why many of the greatest players in the world don’t come to the PL in their primes.   

So aye it’s always going to be a factor.  

 

 

 

And if you lived in say a non working class area, then you wouldn't have a club in that area , hence no top class footballers, if you get my drift .

[STM]

21 minutes ago, Jaqen said:

 

It clearly is a factor though for some. It's one of the main reasons we got Trippier really as he wanted to move back over here and took a paycut. Players are still humans with families and other people to consider, moving to a different league, with a different language and culture is always going to be somewhat of a challenge and something they will think about. There's English players who won't even move north of London ffs 

 

That's why I said your average footballer.

 

There are, of course, exceptions but there are thousands of footballers travelling between countries, away from home, even to places like Russia, Turkey and China, which with all due respect to those places, might not have been first choice.

 

Of course the better you are, the more choice you have and I'm sure Barella will have alot of choice. I certainly wouldn't be worried about luring him to the North East though or at least not from an aesthetics point of view.

[SteV]

Some nice shot prices for him on Sky tonight if you fancy backing one of our own.

[The College Dropout]

2 minutes ago, wyn davies said:

And if you lived in say a non working class area, then you wouldn't have a club in that area , hence no top class footballers, if you get my drift .

True for a middle class place like Bournemouth with a small population.   Less true for sprawling cities with diverse neighbourhoods like Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, London.  
 

Think Paris and London would have the best city squads in the world atm. 

[Jaqen]

8 minutes ago, STM said:

 

That's why I said your average footballer.

 

There are, of course, exceptions but there are thousands of footballers travelling between countries, away from home, even to places like Russia, Turkey and China, which with all due respect to those places, might not have been first choice.

 

Of course the better you are, the more choice you have and I'm sure Barella will have alot of choice. I certainly wouldn't be worried about luring him to the North East though or at least not from an aesthetics point of view.

 

Nah I get that, I don't even think it's a North East issue it's just most top Italian players don't like moving outside the league. Someone is probably going to list loads of examples now but there can't be many of their superstars who've moved out of that league in their prime in the last twenty years or so? PSG have had a few but there can't have been that many. 

[duo]

Is the Nations League on TV?

[SUPERTOON]

5 minutes ago, duo said:

Is the Nations League on TV?

Viaplay I think 

[midds]

2 hours ago, madras said:

Got to say for all it was only about 12hrs in Milan centre I wasn't overly impressed. Certainly not somewhere I'd dream of living.

 

 

 

Spent a few days there about 20 years ago and it was one of the worst places I've ever been tbh. You'd need to pay me to go back.

 

This could be connected to visiting the place the evil cunt I was shacked up with at the time however in fairness

[OCOCOL]

1 hour ago, Gazzaschicken said:

Just been there with work it's beautiful like would recommend to anyone 

 

apart from any prospective transfer targets… My little part of fawdon looks lush on days like today  

[Holloway]

Once you get past the truly epic ruins in Rome, it's a short hike to grimy,sketchy environments with a scammer on every street corner

 

[Holloway]

And Milan is boring as fuck.

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

1 hour ago, The College Dropout said:

middle class place like Bournemouth

 

You haven't been to Bournemouth, have you?

[GeordieDazzler]

1 hour ago, The College Dropout said:

Man U are apparently ‘the biggest club in the world’ yet they rarely sign genuine superstars from abroad and often it doesn’t work out.  
 

From Veron to Di Maria. Who wants to love in Manchester. 

[Ketsbaia]

If Serie A based players care about their city, we should instead bid for Napoli players.

 

Just spent 5 days in that shithole

 

[relámpago blanco]

1 hour ago, The College Dropout said:

Man U are apparently ‘the biggest club in the world’ yet they rarely sign genuine superstars from abroad and often it doesn’t work out.  
 

From Veron to Di Maria. Who wants to love in Manchester. 

Well, there is a lot wrong with that statement.  I think it was more of a policy under SAF than anything, they did sign superstars at points though.

 

If Man City or Liverpool didn't exist, your statement might have legs.

 

Because they do it's utter bollocks

 

 

Edited June 15, 2023 by relámpago blanco

[GeordieDazzler]

Again in Naples they probably live near Amalfi  
 

They aren’t living in the high rises of Gamorrah 

 

 

Edited June 15, 2023 by GeordieDazzler

[Mahoneys Tache]

1 hour ago, wyn davies said:

And if you lived in say a non working class area, then you wouldn't have a club in that area , hence no top class footballers, if you get my drift .

Give or take Chelsea and Fulham. And northwich Victoria. And Solihull Moors. 

[Deuce]

With the caveat that it was the first, and thus far only, true city I’ve visited in Italy, I really enjoyed Milan.  We hit a few different neighborhoods, so I got to see more than the just the city centre.

[pedro111]

We have to stop thinking of the North East as some barren wasteland. It's been beaten into us for years that we have started to believe it. We wouldn't even make the list of top 100 hell holes.  A place is what you make it. 

[NSG]

4 minutes ago, Deuce said:

With the caveat that it was the first, and thus far only, true city I’ve visited in Italy, I really enjoyed Milan.  We hit a few different neighborhoods, so I got to see more than the just the city centre.

Milan’s one of those cities where it’s really easy for people to trot out the generic “it’s a shithole” line, but it’s really not. There’s some stunning architecture around the city and some lovely city centre parks. Malpensa is fucking horrendous to get to though, much prefer flying into Linate.

[Deuce]

Malpensa’s the JFK of Europe…might as well be located in Switzerland.