The top division of French football league is financially not particularly healthy. That eventually couid affect their talent production.
It could do, but many Ligue 1 academies already work on shoestring budgets. Ultimately it would probably mean they'd double down on their academies as a means to stay afloat, and while their league might tumble in quality a bit there's not going to be a shortage of interest in young French players from other European leagues so their best prospects would still have early access to top-quality football. The French have the advantage of having top-class infrastructure funded by the state at grassroots level all across the country, and their kids have excellent access to UEFA-qualified coaches at that level too. The academies definitely matter, but I'm not sure France are as reliant on academy finances to produce good players as we are.
Every other country tries to maximise their gains really regardless of their talent production. I think Brazil is the only side that doesn't really seem to feature players produced by other countries although i'm not sure how much that is by design. England have been certainly trying in recent years with the likes of the Setfords, Dembele, Joseph, McFarlane, and Buck, though i'm not sure its an avenue we'll get much success out of based on who we've enticed over so far.
🇦🇹 Mathew Collins, son of music legend Phil, featured for WSG Tirol in their friendly against Bayern Munich last night. The midfielder came on as a late substitute for the Austrian side as they lost 3-0 in a match where Harry Kane scored. Collins, 19, is a dual English/Swiss… pic.twitter.com/fewNxfxl94— English Players Abroad (@EnglishAbroad1) August 14, 2024
How about "In The Air Tonight" when they're playing the long-ball game under the floodlights? Or "Against All Odds" following a Cup upset? Or, if Matthew bombs, you could even have Phil himself singing "No Son Of Mine"
He can't really apologise properly without legally implicating himself, not that I imagine he wants or considers he did anything wrong anyway.
If you look a little deeper into his stats yesterday I'd still be very cautious about getting too excited about him. In 90 minutes had 2 shots, one a penalty and scored 2 goals. 30 passes, 1 tackle, 0 dribbles. He still looks to be the very low input player who's value hinges on being effective in extremely limited moments. Exactly the kind of player that drives fans nuts when they go on inevitable dry spells. No suggestion that he's improved his appalling work rate from those stats either.
Re the whole Antonee Robinson discussion we had earlier this year. Seems relevant https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/s...ws/coventry-jack-rudoni-usa-olympics-29516379
Rudoni is one of those who five or six years ago could've made a run at the England team with a move to a Premier League club but there are just too many options in his role now. He's a really good player but he's not a unique enough profile to compete with our current midfield options. Would've actually been a good option for the US senior team imo though. Sounds from his comments like he knows his England chances are slim.
Not football but Cycling has seen a big nationality defection as an Olympic medalist Matt Richardson switches from Australia where he was raised to Great Britain/England as he was eligible as he was born in Kent. Cycling tends to have quite flexible switching rules but still it’s a surprising move as he applied before the last Olympics so was competing knowing he was switching. GB cycling are delighted and the Aussie are fuming.
And its not like hes moving from a country thats crap at cycling. I wonder if he did it off this own back or we went out and poached him. I remember a german lad did the same thing a few years back.
Probably some encouragement (GB cyclinf are still pretty ruthless) but also helped by his partner being the new star of British Cycling Emma Finucane.
So his gf is Emma Finucane, that explains alot. Probably easlier for him to move over here rather than Emma moving over there. Still its a bit of a coup for GB cycling.
I think his parents are English as well, I remember watching the cycling and the commentators said something like that but raised in Australia from 9 years old I think so don’t think he moved there as a toddler fwiw.
Dan Armer (United) & Harrison McMahon (Chelsea) with their first Scotland youth call-ups. Tyler Fletcher also continues to be with them. #SCO19s | This is your Scotland Men's Under-19s squad for a friendly triple-header next month. Following his appointment yesterday, Neil MacFarlane will lead the squad out in Spain.#YoungTeam— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) August 20, 2024