So no statistics then. We're all entitled to our opinion I guess.nearly 100 players from the uk (england/wales/scotland/northernireland/ireland) have been brought across to the a league since its inception (not counting players like ryan strain who were born in england and came here as a child)
Uk players traditionally struggle in the a league, statistically they are the worst performing nationality.
That's the second time you've said that in a post on here. Do you have a link to these stats?
once you factor in salaries, how many would you say have been a genuine success in terms of bang for buck?
le fondre at sydney
ifil at wellington
keogh at perth
for every one of these players, you get 15 dregs like lloyd owusu, joe keegan etc. etc
brazil and the netherlands complete the top 3 for worst performing nationalities in the a league
The wiki list I saw had 86 players from the UK.
I think we probably need to include in the list of successes: Aldred, Ball, Brebner, Gordon, Hooper, McFlynn, Miller, Montgomery, Noone, O'Donovan, and O'Shea.
(Of course Dwight Yorke doesn't count ... but really he should.)
All of those would be considered by their clubs to be value for money and a successful import.
So 14 successful out of 86 (not counting Yorke).
For every 1 that's a success, there are about 5 that aren't.
My gut feel about other nationalities is that (with a few notable exceptions) they're probably pretty similar, although I don't have the statistics to back that up,
I would add Michael Bridges, Robbie Fowler and Chris Greenacre to that list. Ok, they didn't set the league on fire, but all 3 have gone on to have coaching or media careers and therefore contributed positively to the footballing landscape in this country imo.