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1 hour ago, Cronky said:

 

With Tonali, what I have a concern about is what you could broadly call the social side of it, not the football. He seems quite a shy lad, still young, and having to get used to a different way of life, culture and climate and without having any command of the language, it seems. Unfortunately, he's the only Italian in the squad. However, if he can get through that, then there's some parallels between the football craziness of Milan and Newcastle which may be appealing to him.

 

It's a reasonable point that Italians in the Premiership don't have a good track record, but I think the problem is usually the pace and physicality of our football. I don't think Tonali will have a difficulty there. In fact, he might thrive.

This is why Chiesa is a must as it's not just for the bromance potential, Chiesa is also super fluent in English meaning that he can support Tonali

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5 hours ago, Hughesy said:

Really excited to watch him play and develop over here, but confess to be a little anxious that the generally held belief is that we've overpaid.

 

It's been an odd window - if someone had offered me Tonali, Barnes and Livramento, I'd have thought it was a good window, but £125m makes me wonder if there was better value out there.  That said, we've barely put a foot wrong on signings...

 

I personally don't think we've overpaid for Tonali, considering how crazy the market is nowadays.

 

Milan captain at 23 years old, Italy U21 captain and a player who will improve with age. It's hard to argue with that résumé.

 

Only concern is the "Italians not settling" thing but every person is different.

 

I guess we'll see.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Mountain

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He’ll need time to settle in, he may need to start games on the bench like Bruno.

 

Perhaps more so, he’s far quieter than Bruno. He was out and about in town the other day and is viewing houses to rent. We really need his girlfriend to be happy, the club should be all over their happiness.

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6 hours ago, Hughesy said:

Really excited to watch him play and develop over here, but confess to be a little anxious that the generally held belief is that we've overpaid.

 

It's been an odd window - if someone had offered me Tonali, Barnes and Livramento, I'd have thought it was a good window, but £125m makes me wonder if there was better value out there.  That said, we've barely put a foot wrong on signings...

 

We overpaid for Isak aswell. Joke of a club.

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7 hours ago, Hughesy said:

Really excited to watch him play and develop over here, but confess to be a little anxious that the generally held belief is that we've overpaid.

 

It's been an odd window - if someone had offered me Tonali, Barnes and Livramento, I'd have thought it was a good window, but £125m makes me wonder if there was better value out there.  That said, we've barely put a foot wrong on signings...


Nobody has a clue if we’ve overpaid, don’t worry about it. 

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9 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

"Italians don't like it in England" seems like a massive generalisation. Plenty have done alright over here.

Lots of the better ones seem to have been early PL adopters- the likes of Di Canio, Carbone, Vialli, Zola, Cudicini, Ravanelli, Di Matteo, Baiano, Eranio etc. Even the likes of Pistone got 149 PL appearances. There’s been a real lack of decent Italian imports lately, other than the odd one here and there- Jorginho, Ogbonna (Balotelli?!)

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10 minutes ago, Manxst said:

Lots of the better ones seem to have been early PL adopters- the likes of Di Canio, Carbone, Vialli, Zola, Cudicini, Ravanelli, Di Matteo, Baiano, Eranio etc. Even the likes of Pistone got 149 PL appearances. There’s been a real lack of decent Italian imports lately, other than the odd one here and there- Jorginho, Ogbonna (Balotelli?!)

Guess it's not that they don't like it here there just hasn't been a huge amount of them....could easily say the same about German players. 

 

We have had a disproportionate amount of French, or French speaking players coming to this league. And of course Wolves bringing most of Portugal over

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5 hours ago, Cronky said:

 

With Tonali, what I have a concern about is what you could broadly call the social side of it, not the football. He seems quite a shy lad, still young, and having to get used to a different way of life, culture and climate and without having any command of the language, it seems. Unfortunately, he's the only Italian in the squad. However, if he can get through that, then there's some parallels between the football craziness of Milan and Newcastle which may be appealing to him.

 

It's a reasonable point that Italians in the Premiership don't have a good track record, but I think the problem is usually the pace and physicality of our football. I don't think Tonali will have a difficulty there. In fact, he might thrive.

I think it’s more cultural. Italian footballers are like British footballers who like home comforts. Particularly ethnic Italians (excluding Emerson, Jorginho, Ogbonna) tend to struggle. 
 

Someone on Twitter said ‘Italian players get a whiff of adversity in the premier league and want to run back to mama’ and I think there’s a level of truth to that. 
 

I have no doubts about his ability to perform in the PL. But culture is always a risk with foreign signings - particularly Italians.  

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This all sounds a bit horseshit to me. Probably has more to do with the relative strengths and financial clout  of the leagues over the last few decades. Best Italian players were staying in Italy for obvious reasons. 
 

what has traditionally been the number of Italian players coming in compared to French players? Considering that, are the success rates all that different? Then ask about Italian players in their prime coming over vs French players. 

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1 minute ago, Vinny Green Balls said:

This all sounds a bit horseshit to me. Probably has more to do with the relative strengths and financial clout  of the leagues over the last few decades. Best Italian players were staying in Italy for obvious reasons. 
 

what has traditionally been the number of Italian players coming in compared to French players? Considering that, are the success rates all that different? Then ask about Italian players in their prime coming over vs French players. 

That’s part of it isn’t it? There’s less incentive to knuckle down and make it work. Half a dozen Italian clubs will stump up the wages and a decent fee.
 

Like how Michael Owen came running back to England to join us. 
 

That Florian Thauvin attitude.  

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4 hours ago, Mountain said:

 

I personally don't think we've overpaid for Tonali, considering how crazy the market is nowadays.

 

Milan captain at 23 years old, Italy U21 captain and a player who will improve with age. It's hard to argue with that résumé.

 

Only concern is the "Italians not settling" thing but every person is different.

 

I guess we'll see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don't even think we overpaid for Barnes given his output in the PL for the last 4 seasons and him being English. The biggest questionmark for me is Livramento, but the potensial reward is really high ofcourse.

 

 

Edited by Erikse

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42 minutes ago, Erikse said:

 

Don't even think we overpaid for Barnes given his output in the PL for the last 4 seasons and him being English. The biggest questionmark for me is Livramento, but the potensial reward is really high ofcourse.

 

 

 

 

No disagreements from me, chief.

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