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Saints Foreign Players


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OK, I'm bored, and was sat here thinking about some of the great, good, and not-so-good foreign (non-British) players we have had over the years.

 

My all time favourite top 3 would be:

 

1. Ivan Golac - a true childhood hero for me

2. Marian Pahars - what a fantastic player he was - remember this?

3. Anders Svensson - classy classy midfielder. Remember this goal?

 

Least favourite - Olivier Bernard during THAT season.

 

Who are/were your fave foreign imports and why?

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good thread..pahars is my favourite..

cracking little player

 

although Ronnie Ekelund had a 'wham bam thank you mam' effect to saints

 

When I tried to think back through weve had some good foreign players in the past but agree with Thedelldays ^^^..

Even had Ekelund, Berkovic, Pahars and Skacel printed on my shirts when i was younger..

 

Think my top 5 favourites would be

1. Pahars

2. Ekelund

3. Niemi

4. Fonte

5. Skacel

 

Worst 5 would be

1. Dia

2. Nilsson

3. Bernard

4. Kanchelskis

5. Madsen

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3. Anders Svensson - classy classy midfielder. Remember this goal?

 

?

 

I love that Svensson goal, mainly because of how shocked he looks that it actually went in. He had a cracking World Cup, this piece of skill in extra time came so close to putting Sweden through

 

Mine would have to be

 

1. Antti Niemi

2. Michael Svensson

3. Marian

 

All for obvious reasons.

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Anders Svennson, seriously?

 

Rarely played well for us and never lived up to expectations.

 

I thought he was a very good player who was often unfairly maligned for knocking passes into areas where we should have had a player but didn't.

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I thought he was a very good player who was often unfairly maligned for knocking passes into areas where we should have had a player but didn't.

 

The aim of course is to knock balls into spaces where we do have players which is why Morgan Schneiderlin may well turn out to be the best midfielder we ever had here. It's called looking around you long before you receive and pass the ball - not a difficult skill to acquire especially by one with international pretensions.

 

Anders was an enigma, some time she appeared to be classy but on too many other occasions he clearly bottled out of tackles or couldn't be arsed to run and tackle so letting oppos run past him into dangerous areas.

 

Overall verdict: a flawed artists who flattered to deceive - 4/10

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If you want rubbish foreign players, in the championship at charlton 3 years ago we lined up I'm midfield with licka, idiakez, safri, viafara.

 

Disagree.

 

Safri was class - rarely lost the ball and could always pick a pass out in a team made up of dross; viafara had an excellent first season before getting homesick and realising he was on a sinking ship; and idiakez was certainly past it- but wasn't rubbish; licka - i'll give you.

Edited by shurlock
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The aim of course is to knock balls into spaces where we do have players which is why Morgan Schneiderlin may well turn out to be the best midfielder we ever had here. It's called looking around you long before you receive and pass the ball - not a difficult skill to acquire especially by one with international pretensions.

 

The aim of the other players on the pitch is to do their job and get into the positions they are meant to be in. I'm not saying that he was never at fault, just a lot less than some people probably realised. Maybe you should go and watch some training sessions and see exactly how coached professional football is.

 

And I think that 114 caps shows he had more than "international pretensions".

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The aim of the other players on the pitch is to do their job and get into the positions they are meant to be in. I'm not saying that he was never at fault, just a lot less than some people probably realised. Maybe you should go and watch some training sessions and see exactly how coached professional football is.

 

And I think that 114 caps shows he had more than "international pretensions".

 

This!

 

Anders was clearly a classy player and when playing for Sweden was played through the middle, and often given a free role. For all WGS's talents, he didn't know what to do with Anders and as far as I can remember he spent much of his time with us playing out wide (it's what we do with attacking CM's in this country, rather than accomodating them).

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This!

 

Anders was clearly a classy player and when playing for Sweden was played through the middle, and often given a free role. For all WGS's talents, he didn't know what to do with Anders and as far as I can remember he spent much of his time with us playing out wide (it's what we do with attacking CM's in this country, rather than accomodating them).

 

 

I've said the same myself on many occasions.

Anders is still playing well (now 34) and is captain of his Swedish Allsvenskan (Prem.) side.

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Golac is and always will be my favourite, even if we sign Messi next week and he scores 70 goals next season.

 

Anders was great, he just didn't look as good as he should have done due to the muppets he played with , eg Delap.

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