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Post by Yellow River on Aug 10, 2017 16:30:52 GMT
All these overseas signings! I make that 5 in total now, Tiendalli, Ricardinho, Xemi, Pekalski, Van Kassel plus a Spanish manager.
So how do we all feel about it?
I really don't quite know what to make of it all, suppose I'm a mixture of bemused, excited, apprehensive, intrigued, positive, negative.
We have to trust Pep on this, quite a gamble I'd say but if it comes off the potential rewards are huge.
Shades of Ramon Diaz.? Interesting season ahead for sure.
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Post by thehorse on Aug 10, 2017 16:36:35 GMT
Honestly, I'm not bothered about where a player comes from aslong as they are good enough to improve the squad and help the club push on to the next level.
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Post by tomox on Aug 10, 2017 16:37:59 GMT
We can say it's a risk and that's true to a certain extent.
However we've had loads of players over the last ten years (for as long as I've been following Oxford) that have had plenty of experience in English league/non-league football, that have turned out to be absolutely hopeless!
At the end of the day they are all professional footballers with very good pedigrees. I expect most of them if not all to do well.
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Post by oxford84 on Aug 10, 2017 16:44:55 GMT
Unless these overseas players can adept to the English game then its got to be a bad idea to have so many.
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Post by oufc28 on Aug 10, 2017 16:59:21 GMT
I'll be worried in 10 games time at the minimum.
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Post by greatunclekip on Aug 10, 2017 17:06:16 GMT
When you have English teams valuing their players stupidly (Godden at Stevenage who we looked at 1.5 million!) Then its not a surprise we are looking further afield.
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Post by tonyw on Aug 10, 2017 17:11:11 GMT
Not worried as it stands - because we have a strong spine that's experienced in the English game.
But it is a risk bringing in players that have never played in England before.....a risk that I'd suggest is greater than bringing in someone who's played in England all or most of their career. The English leagues are a different style of football than most, and - however technically gifted - there's always a doubt that players are going to be able to adapt.
So five such signings are OK......if we doubled that, then I'd be getting concerned; and remembering Port Vale from last season that followed exactly that path and are now in the league below.
For all that the Diaz era was weird, wacky and wonderful - we were also pretty average through most of his time at the club, and many of his South American signings never really adapted to the English game. Mateo Corbo being the obvious exception, and worth the ticket money for his psychotic contributions alone......
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Post by pottersrightboot on Aug 10, 2017 17:26:54 GMT
The key man to me this season isn't a foreigner.
It's Williamson.
If we can keep a settled defence we are on our way.
We've bought the foreign legion in because British quality is too expensive. Rather going against the grain of Brexit - that's football for you.
I agree with TW though - we do have an English spine to the squad - absolutely vital.
Because who knows how the likes of Ricardinho and VK are going to react to the awesome Kingsmeadow and Priestfield super stadia...
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Post by malcolmnl on Aug 10, 2017 17:30:46 GMT
I'm fine with all the overseas chappies as I'm used to that in Holland. Many many European players in Holland and many Dutch players play all over Europe. Brexit Bah!
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Post by bacon on Aug 10, 2017 17:44:31 GMT
Let's just hope we are not Port Vale mk2...
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Post by oxfordgobrach on Aug 10, 2017 18:26:00 GMT
For those mentioning Vale, on the whole you look at the foreign signings Port Vale made, they made way more - by the end of the summer window last year they had 12 foreign imports. We have 5.
I'd also say ours have a better pedigree than Vale's. Pekalski and Ricardinho have won the Swedish league, Van Kessel has done the league and cup double and won the golden boot in Slovakia, Tiendalli has played Premier League football, won the Eredivisie and the league cup, with Xemi maybe the least impressive - it appears he was signed by Barca B a couple of years ago and didn't play that much from what I can tell.
Arguably the best of Vale's foreign imports Rigino Cicilia got 4 in 29 league games in League 1 and he can't get into the Curacao squad, Van Kessel is in there though.
And ultimately whether they play well individually will just depend on them as players and not on where they're from.
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Post by eighteen93 on Aug 10, 2017 19:00:31 GMT
Will the back page of the match day programme have those little flags against the players' names denoting their nationalities
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Post by berliner on Aug 10, 2017 19:25:02 GMT
At least one of them will hit the ground running and be sold for mega millions, you heard it here first. I think it might be Tiendalli, weirdly enough...
Conversely, at least one of them will be a massive flop.
If four out of the five prove their worth, then an 80% success rate can't be argued with.
It's gonna be some ride, let me tell you.
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Post by makv on Aug 10, 2017 19:27:54 GMT
Will the back page of the match day programme have those little flags against the players' names denoting their nationalities Oh I do hope so
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Post by makv on Aug 10, 2017 19:28:40 GMT
At least one of them will hit the ground running and be sold for mega millions, you heard it here first. I think it might be Tiendalli, weirdly enough... Conversely, at least one of them will be a massive flop. If four out of the five prove their worth, then an 80% success rate can't be argued with. It's gonna be some ride, let me tell you. Massive flop … Xemi?
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Post by dabigfella on Aug 10, 2017 20:36:38 GMT
I don't care where they come from and to a certain extent how good they are (I trust the club to bring in good players).
What worries me is that there are so many of them. We are in the repeat scenario whereby we take the first ten to fifteen games to gel the players into a team. And by so doing we lag way behind the front runners and spend the rest of the season playing catch up. It cost us last season and I can see it happening again.
The only thing we can hope is that all these players are so good we will romp away with the second half of the season and get into the play offs.
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Post by ciaranjonlucas on Aug 10, 2017 21:22:04 GMT
I've seen a lot of people use the Port Vale comparison. Why is no one looking at what Huddersfield achieved? Foreign manager, a large number of foreign imports that he has either spotted or worked with before combined with a good core of talented British players. Our starting XI on Saturday didn't have one foreign player in, with everyone fit I can only see three max of them starting, maybe four. We aren't the biggest club in the world and we don't have the biggest budget either so this is a different approach that we must try. We're not going to outspend or have the same draw as the likes of Blackburn, Bolton or Sheffield. Faz has also eluded that the price of young academy players which we have previously tried has gone through the roof, forcing us to change plan. In summary, no I am not worried, more intrigued and excited.
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Post by pwoufc on Aug 10, 2017 22:29:24 GMT
The recruitment team will have watched most of these players. They are watching them and having to judge their abilities and how that will translate to playing for Oxford United's first team. There will always be a risk but it is about making an educated guess based on what you have seen. Some of our best business over the last few years has been spotting players in the reserve teams of higher league clubs and bringing them in to play with older players at a higher level. I think most fans have confidence that most of the time the clubs gambles have paid off. I have confidence that the same recruitment team that has had so much recent success will continue with having the same level of success in judging how a player will cope with English league one football, and suit our style of play. We have been told that pep was advised about Ricardinho as a possible target, and that the latest signing Gino van Kessel is another they have apparently watched after pep mentioned him. Every signing is a gamble, but thankfully we seem to have a great team in place which has a great track record.
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Post by dubaiyellow on Aug 11, 2017 5:22:22 GMT
Let's face it every signing is a gamble, British or foreign. Take Ribeiro for example. He is still a work in progress having only played a handful of games and he has been at the club over a year. What I like about the foreign players we have brought in that they will all speak excellent English and they each have a personal connection of some kind (Pep, Holland, malmo, spain etc). So it's not like any of them should feel like the odd one out. I'm more excited than worried but it might take some time. Patience is the key, but as long as we show signs of continous improvement in the medium to long term I'll be happy.
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Post by mojofilter on Aug 11, 2017 5:34:13 GMT
How much different can English football be really?
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Post by tatabanya on Aug 11, 2017 5:37:12 GMT
At least one of them will hit the ground running and be sold for mega millions, you heard it here first. I think it might be Tiendalli, weirdly enough... Conversely, at least one of them will be a massive flop. If four out of the five prove their worth, then an 80% success rate can't be argued with. It's gonna be some ride, let me tell you. Tiendalli sold for mega millions?!
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Post by KristapsGrebis on Aug 11, 2017 5:45:11 GMT
At least one of them will hit the ground running and be sold for mega millions, you heard it here first. I think it might be Tiendalli, weirdly enough... It's gonna be some ride, let me tell you. Given he's about to turn 32 and signed on a 12 month contract, I'm not sure you thought that through... Hopefully neither will the team that offers mega millions.
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Post by londonroader on Aug 11, 2017 6:37:56 GMT
Unless these overseas players can adept to the English game then its got to be a bad idea to have so many. Not sure that's the case, do we still play the "English way" ? we have so many foreign managers and players in the leagues, we have been trying to duplicate the "barca tippy tappy" football for years so really in my mind they are just another piece in the jigsaw of the way the game is evolving.
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Post by foley on Aug 11, 2017 7:09:51 GMT
I think that the analogy with Notts County isn't really appropriate.
The Notts County manager had not worked in English football. he immediately brought in 12 foreign players.
Wit Oxford, as others have said we have a strong English spine and I would reckon that 3-4 of the new foreign players will gradually be introduced. In addition Pep has been working in England for a while and understands English football.
So like even with English players, some may flop and some may turn out to be excellent signings (certainly some have played at a far higher level than League 1). Leeds were looking at van Kessel and I reckon that he could be a little special at this level.
My concern is that we have signed these players generally at the end of the pre season and there are maybe one or two who are 'ready' to play. So as others have suggested the start to the season could see some inconsistent form (we have already seen that).
The depth of the squad looks to be a lot deeper than last season and let's see how we progress...
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Post by berliner on Aug 11, 2017 7:16:20 GMT
At least one of them will hit the ground running and be sold for mega millions, you heard it here first. I think it might be Tiendalli, weirdly enough... It's gonna be some ride, let me tell you. Given he's about to turn 32 and signed on a 12 month contract, I'm not sure you thought that through... Hopefully neither will the team that offers mega millions. Tongue was a little in cheek...I do think that Tiendalli has a lot to offer though.
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Post by Big Ron on Aug 11, 2017 8:23:42 GMT
I think Yellow River's range of emotions just about covers it! For me, he main worry is an influx of players that haven't played much competitive football recently, with the exception of Pekalski who was, in effect, a third of the way through his domestic season.
Getting everyone up and running (literally) could be the biggest challenge here.
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Post by yellowbow on Aug 11, 2017 10:04:38 GMT
I was really impressed with Brentford when they played us this summer. If you look at their squad they have lots of foreign players. If our recruitment department are happy with our lot then so am I.
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Post by bobsyouruncle on Aug 11, 2017 10:07:56 GMT
My preference would be for young hungry robust English players to help get us out of this league. In all honesty is L1 really the place for foreign imports to be successful? Port Vale certainly came a cropper with that experiment last season. How many other teams in this league have imported foreign players doing the business for them?
Yes, Huddersfield did well in the Championship but that league like the prem is much more suited to foreign imports, they complement the talent pool already there.
Tiendalli should be ok as he has experience playing at a higher level in this country with Swansea and Middlesborough, it's just his fitness that might be a concern.
Here's hoping the other four settle in quickly. Hopefully our scouting reports are favourable concerning their ability to cope with long ball tactics on dodgy pitches, on a cold tues night, in a crap empty stadia with a poor ref officiating, and in some places hostile fans baiting them!
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Post by oldman159 on Aug 11, 2017 10:14:19 GMT
Having a bit of fun with the Brazilian Football Name Generator in the light of all these Jonny Foreigners (😉) in the team. Josa & Ryiano being two - but which two? Have fun! anu.co.uk/brazil/
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Post by dolly on Aug 11, 2017 10:19:48 GMT
I am happy as long as Pep thinks they will improve the quality of the squad, which I would imagine he does! It's a balance, just like mixing youth and experience, as long as we have a balance then it's all good.
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