They mostly live behind gated communities.
But I imagine that it's a bit like living in an open air prison.
Sal-ittihad
- Thread starter Fabio
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But I imagine that it's a bit like living in an open air prison.
Presumably they go shopping and stuff though.
From Riyadh it's a 2 hours flight to UAE and a party/shopping alcohol fueled heaven.
It’s only a few years ago there was a big fuss about F1 in Bahrain and many of the drivers wanted to swerve the GP (see what I did there?). Now it’s part of the F1 calendar and footballers are living there. Who says sports washing doesn’t work?
About to say the same - Bahrain is the answer I'd imagine. Equivalent of London to Edinburgh flight wise
That was, in fact, the point.
Bahrain isn’t much better tbh.
I think it was all to land the WC and now they are bidding unopposed it’ll die a slow death.
The speed of Jordan Henderson’s disillusionment reflects how great his regret must be
By Oliver Kay
15m ago
4
When Jordan Henderson sat down with The Athleticin September, five weeks into his Saudi Arabian adventure, he was effusive about the experience.
“I wanted something that would excite me,” the England midfielder said of his decision to leave Liverpool for Al Ettifaq. “It needed to be something that I felt as though I could add value in and (…) try something new — a new challenge and for different reasons.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Few people believed the “different reasons” extended far beyond money, but despite admitting to the odd surprise when it came to the facilities — and how it was “totally different in terms of culture, living, night-time training, getting to bed late, waking up during the day …” — he was bullish. As he repeated in an interview with Channel 4 News a few weeks later: “No regrets.”
But he is not the first expat to find that the honeymoon period can wear off fairly quickly. The first rumours of disenchantment surfaced in early November: that he and his family were finding it hard to adapt to life in Saudi Arabia (or indeed across the border in Bahrain, where his family are living) and that, professionally, he was struggling with the drop in standard.
It was also suggested at that point that Henderson was committed to sticking it out, partly out of determination to honour his contract, partly out of pride and partly because he would be left with a huge tax bill if, having taken advantage of Saudi Arabia’s flat 20 per cent income tax rate, he returned to the UK at the earliest opportunity.
Al Ettifaq have struggled a good start to the season (Photo: Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)
But his sense of disillusionment has deepened considerably. Henderson wishes to cut his Saudi Arabian experience short and to find a new club — ideally in the Premier League but feasibly elsewhere in Europe — while the transfer window is open this month.
It is quite a climbdown, given how fiercely Henderson defended his move to Saudi Arabia, denying accusations that he had sold out both professionally and ethically (as a previously consistent advocate of LGBQT+ rights moving to a country where homosexuality is outlawed). It is an indication of just how seriously he must regret the move.
What is not yet clear is what kind of escape route might emerge. Initial rumours focus on the possibility of a loan move, potentially to a less high-profile Premier League club, but there is not an abundance of obvious destinations in the January market for a 33-year-old who has spent the past six months playing for a team who lie eighth in the Saudi Pro League.
There are people close to Henderson who were shocked when he signalled he was ready to accept the riches on offer from Al Ettifaq last summer. He had two years left on a highly lucrative contract with Liverpool. Even if his first-team prospects were threatened by the arrivals of Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai, he was the club captain and an extremely valued squad member.
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He told The Athletic that “there were a few things that sent alarm bells ringing”. A conversation with Jurgen Klopp “put me in a position where I knew that I wasn’t going to be playing as much”. When Al Ettifaq enquired about his availability, Liverpool didn’t rule it out. “That’s not to say they forced me out of the club or they were saying they wanted me to leave,” he said, “but at no point did I feel wanted by the club or anyone to stay.”
Henderson said he was not the type of character who would be “sitting on the bench and coming on for 10 minutes in games” if his first-team opportunities at Liverpool were restricted. “I knew that would have an effect on my chances for England,” he said.
He has repeatedly talked positively about being sold on the “project” that Al Ettifaq presented to him. But if it can be described as a project, it appears to have been built almost entirely on the allure of Steven Gerrard and the man who succeeded him as Liverpool captain.
Gerrard initially said no when he was offered the Al Ettifaq job in June. But eventually the club, which was in the process of being taken over by the state-owned petrochemical giant SABIC (Saudi Arabia Basic Industry Corp), made him an offer he evidently could not refuse. He was even allowed to live outside Saudi Arabia and over the bridge in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, a 75-minute drive from Al Ettifaq’s training headquarters in Dammam.
Henderson too found himself unable to keep saying no as the Saudi overtures persisted. He told The Athletic his earnings are far less than the £700,000-a-week ($881,000) sum that has been widely reported, but it was significantly more than he would have earned this season at Liverpool, where his basic salary would have taken a hit after failure to qualify for the Champions League.
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He was joining a club who finished seventh in the Saudi Pro League last season with an average attendance of 5,561. Their first league game this season attracted 13,930, but that was against against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr. Their second home game attracted just 4,200 fans. Their third drew just 2,281. An average league attendance of 7,854 is less than every club in English football’s top two tiers and 14 of the 24 clubs in Sky Bet League One.
The Athletic’s Simon Hughes was at the Terme Sveti Martin resort in the hills of northern Croatia to report on the surreal scenes of Henderson’s arrival, along with French forward Moussa Dembele and Scotland defender Jack Hendry, in late July. It was a club in the very early stages of an overhaul, staking its immediate future on Gerrard, Henderson and the rest.
Henderson wants to return home while Benzema has had a rocky time in Saudi Arabia (Photo: Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)
Predictably enough, Al Ettifaq are struggling on the pitch. They started off well, beating Ronaldo and co in their first game, but the Gerrard-Henderson effect has quickly worn off. Since winning six of their first eight league matches, they have won just one out of 12, dropping to eighth position.
Gerrard has talked of the need for reinforcements this month, but, with coach Ian Foster departing for Plymouth Argyle and captain Henderson looking for a way out, whatever “project” there was at Al Ettifaq seems to be unravelling.
As captain at Liverpool, Henderson constantly emphasised the need for the best professional standards — on and off the pitch. Gerrard’s hope was that his former team-mate would be the one driving those standards. It doesn’t sound encouraging if, six months in, the captain wants out.
Nor does it sound encouraging for the Saudi Pro League as a whole. Ronaldo has embraced the challenge, as have Aleksandar Mitrovic and others, but Karim Benzema has had a rocky time at Al Ittihad, prompting rumours of a possible January move, and now Henderson, perhaps the most high-profile signing by a club outside the “Big Four”, is looking for an escape route.
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So far, the move to Al Ettifaq has not cost Henderson his place in the England squad. But with the Euro 2024 finals looming, it feasibly could. The form of Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher, Liverpool’s Curtis Jones and others, as well as Gareth Southgate’s deployment of Trent Alexander-Arnoldas a midfielder, could make competition for places far more intense as the campaign goes on.
Henderson felt in the summer he would not want to drop to a smaller Premier League club the way, for example, his close friends Adam Lallana and James Milner did when leaving Liverpool for Brighton & Hove Albion. The past six months have given him cause to reconsider.
As the Saudi Pro League headed into its winter break, two of Henderson’s former team-mates, Fabinho and Roberto Firmino (now at Al Ittihad and Al Ahli respectively), flew to the UK to see friends and to watch Liverpool beat Newcastle United 4-2 last Monday.
Henderson, his wife Rebecca and their children flew to France for a break in the ski resort of Val d’Isere. It is not known whether he skied (which is prohibited in most Premier League player contracts) but his Instagram posts suggested they had fun.
Yesterday they returned to the UK, where they will spend time catching up with friends and families, for now unsure whether they will be back in the Middle East when the Saudi Pro League season resumes in mid-February.
Quite apart from the culture shock from a professional viewpoint, Henderson and his family have struggled with the move. Karan Trehan, a Manama-based British entrepreneur and real-estate broker, was quoted in The Times last week saying the Hendersons had “really integrated into life here and they love it”. Some of those close to the England player suggest otherwise.
Saudi Arabia is a vast country. It was partly on the basis of geography that Henderson’s former Liverpool and England team-mate Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain turned down a move to one of the further-flung Saudi clubs (possibly Al Ettifaq, but not confirmed), telling The Athletic that it would have meant “six hours (on a flight) to Riyadh and then change and, if that’s my family visiting, that becomes a different experience.”
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In the end, Oxlade-Chamberlain decided that joining Turkish club Besiktas made more sense both from a personal and professional perspective. It has been a turbulent experience, playing under more managers in the first half of this season (three) than in his 12 years in the Premier League with Arsenaland Liverpool, but it has been challenging and intense — at times perhaps even too intense, a stark contrast to the swathes of empty seats Henderson has played in front of.
Saudi Arabia had a proud history as a football nation long before its modern-day rulers began to harness the sport’s potential as part of a national and wider global strategy, but there is a difference between Fabinho playing for Al Ittihad, who attracted an average crowd of 40,453 en route to the league title last season, and Henderson playing in front of sparse crowds for Al Ettifaq.
The other significant difference for Henderson was that he has been a vocal, visible campaigner for LGBQT+ rights in recent years. He has insisted his presence in Saudi Arabia would be a “positive thing” in terms of bringing change, but it would be an understatement to say that this is easier said than done.
In Al Ettifaq’s video to announce his signing in July, images of Henderson’s captain armband — including the rainbow armband he wore in solidarity with the LGBQT+ community — were greyed out. Many people interpreted that as censorship. Henderson responded by telling The Athletic, “I didn’t know anything about it until it was out. It’s hard for me to know and understand everything because it is part of the religion, so if I wear the rainbow armband, if that disrespects their religion, then that’s not right either.”
From Henderson’s perspective, the move looks like a huge mistake. That can happen in football, as in industry, but in this instance, all the various concerns — the heat, the lifestyle, the distance from home, the disruption to family life, the drop in professional status and standards, the risk to his England place, the potential damage to his reputation — were widely highlighted at the time. Henderson weighed up all of that and decided it was still the right move.
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For all the dubious “project” talk, the driving factor behind Henderson’s move seemed obvious. To get back to the Premier League so soon will entail significant financial sacrifices as well as swallowing a huge amount of pride. That would be far more in keeping with Henderson’s previous reputation, the one that told us he would be the last player to be seduced by the riches of Saudi Arabia. Funny business, football.
By Oliver Kay
15m ago
4
When Jordan Henderson sat down with The Athleticin September, five weeks into his Saudi Arabian adventure, he was effusive about the experience.
“I wanted something that would excite me,” the England midfielder said of his decision to leave Liverpool for Al Ettifaq. “It needed to be something that I felt as though I could add value in and (…) try something new — a new challenge and for different reasons.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Few people believed the “different reasons” extended far beyond money, but despite admitting to the odd surprise when it came to the facilities — and how it was “totally different in terms of culture, living, night-time training, getting to bed late, waking up during the day …” — he was bullish. As he repeated in an interview with Channel 4 News a few weeks later: “No regrets.”
But he is not the first expat to find that the honeymoon period can wear off fairly quickly. The first rumours of disenchantment surfaced in early November: that he and his family were finding it hard to adapt to life in Saudi Arabia (or indeed across the border in Bahrain, where his family are living) and that, professionally, he was struggling with the drop in standard.
It was also suggested at that point that Henderson was committed to sticking it out, partly out of determination to honour his contract, partly out of pride and partly because he would be left with a huge tax bill if, having taken advantage of Saudi Arabia’s flat 20 per cent income tax rate, he returned to the UK at the earliest opportunity.
Al Ettifaq have struggled a good start to the season (Photo: Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)
But his sense of disillusionment has deepened considerably. Henderson wishes to cut his Saudi Arabian experience short and to find a new club — ideally in the Premier League but feasibly elsewhere in Europe — while the transfer window is open this month.
It is quite a climbdown, given how fiercely Henderson defended his move to Saudi Arabia, denying accusations that he had sold out both professionally and ethically (as a previously consistent advocate of LGBQT+ rights moving to a country where homosexuality is outlawed). It is an indication of just how seriously he must regret the move.
What is not yet clear is what kind of escape route might emerge. Initial rumours focus on the possibility of a loan move, potentially to a less high-profile Premier League club, but there is not an abundance of obvious destinations in the January market for a 33-year-old who has spent the past six months playing for a team who lie eighth in the Saudi Pro League.
There are people close to Henderson who were shocked when he signalled he was ready to accept the riches on offer from Al Ettifaq last summer. He had two years left on a highly lucrative contract with Liverpool. Even if his first-team prospects were threatened by the arrivals of Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai, he was the club captain and an extremely valued squad member.
ADVERTISEMENT
He told The Athletic that “there were a few things that sent alarm bells ringing”. A conversation with Jurgen Klopp “put me in a position where I knew that I wasn’t going to be playing as much”. When Al Ettifaq enquired about his availability, Liverpool didn’t rule it out. “That’s not to say they forced me out of the club or they were saying they wanted me to leave,” he said, “but at no point did I feel wanted by the club or anyone to stay.”
Henderson said he was not the type of character who would be “sitting on the bench and coming on for 10 minutes in games” if his first-team opportunities at Liverpool were restricted. “I knew that would have an effect on my chances for England,” he said.
He has repeatedly talked positively about being sold on the “project” that Al Ettifaq presented to him. But if it can be described as a project, it appears to have been built almost entirely on the allure of Steven Gerrard and the man who succeeded him as Liverpool captain.
Gerrard initially said no when he was offered the Al Ettifaq job in June. But eventually the club, which was in the process of being taken over by the state-owned petrochemical giant SABIC (Saudi Arabia Basic Industry Corp), made him an offer he evidently could not refuse. He was even allowed to live outside Saudi Arabia and over the bridge in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, a 75-minute drive from Al Ettifaq’s training headquarters in Dammam.
Henderson too found himself unable to keep saying no as the Saudi overtures persisted. He told The Athletic his earnings are far less than the £700,000-a-week ($881,000) sum that has been widely reported, but it was significantly more than he would have earned this season at Liverpool, where his basic salary would have taken a hit after failure to qualify for the Champions League.
ADVERTISEMENT
He was joining a club who finished seventh in the Saudi Pro League last season with an average attendance of 5,561. Their first league game this season attracted 13,930, but that was against against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr. Their second home game attracted just 4,200 fans. Their third drew just 2,281. An average league attendance of 7,854 is less than every club in English football’s top two tiers and 14 of the 24 clubs in Sky Bet League One.
The Athletic’s Simon Hughes was at the Terme Sveti Martin resort in the hills of northern Croatia to report on the surreal scenes of Henderson’s arrival, along with French forward Moussa Dembele and Scotland defender Jack Hendry, in late July. It was a club in the very early stages of an overhaul, staking its immediate future on Gerrard, Henderson and the rest.
Henderson wants to return home while Benzema has had a rocky time in Saudi Arabia (Photo: Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)
Predictably enough, Al Ettifaq are struggling on the pitch. They started off well, beating Ronaldo and co in their first game, but the Gerrard-Henderson effect has quickly worn off. Since winning six of their first eight league matches, they have won just one out of 12, dropping to eighth position.
Gerrard has talked of the need for reinforcements this month, but, with coach Ian Foster departing for Plymouth Argyle and captain Henderson looking for a way out, whatever “project” there was at Al Ettifaq seems to be unravelling.
As captain at Liverpool, Henderson constantly emphasised the need for the best professional standards — on and off the pitch. Gerrard’s hope was that his former team-mate would be the one driving those standards. It doesn’t sound encouraging if, six months in, the captain wants out.
Nor does it sound encouraging for the Saudi Pro League as a whole. Ronaldo has embraced the challenge, as have Aleksandar Mitrovic and others, but Karim Benzema has had a rocky time at Al Ittihad, prompting rumours of a possible January move, and now Henderson, perhaps the most high-profile signing by a club outside the “Big Four”, is looking for an escape route.
ADVERTISEMENT
So far, the move to Al Ettifaq has not cost Henderson his place in the England squad. But with the Euro 2024 finals looming, it feasibly could. The form of Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher, Liverpool’s Curtis Jones and others, as well as Gareth Southgate’s deployment of Trent Alexander-Arnoldas a midfielder, could make competition for places far more intense as the campaign goes on.
Henderson felt in the summer he would not want to drop to a smaller Premier League club the way, for example, his close friends Adam Lallana and James Milner did when leaving Liverpool for Brighton & Hove Albion. The past six months have given him cause to reconsider.
As the Saudi Pro League headed into its winter break, two of Henderson’s former team-mates, Fabinho and Roberto Firmino (now at Al Ittihad and Al Ahli respectively), flew to the UK to see friends and to watch Liverpool beat Newcastle United 4-2 last Monday.
Henderson, his wife Rebecca and their children flew to France for a break in the ski resort of Val d’Isere. It is not known whether he skied (which is prohibited in most Premier League player contracts) but his Instagram posts suggested they had fun.
Yesterday they returned to the UK, where they will spend time catching up with friends and families, for now unsure whether they will be back in the Middle East when the Saudi Pro League season resumes in mid-February.
Quite apart from the culture shock from a professional viewpoint, Henderson and his family have struggled with the move. Karan Trehan, a Manama-based British entrepreneur and real-estate broker, was quoted in The Times last week saying the Hendersons had “really integrated into life here and they love it”. Some of those close to the England player suggest otherwise.
Saudi Arabia is a vast country. It was partly on the basis of geography that Henderson’s former Liverpool and England team-mate Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain turned down a move to one of the further-flung Saudi clubs (possibly Al Ettifaq, but not confirmed), telling The Athletic that it would have meant “six hours (on a flight) to Riyadh and then change and, if that’s my family visiting, that becomes a different experience.”
ADVERTISEMENT
In the end, Oxlade-Chamberlain decided that joining Turkish club Besiktas made more sense both from a personal and professional perspective. It has been a turbulent experience, playing under more managers in the first half of this season (three) than in his 12 years in the Premier League with Arsenaland Liverpool, but it has been challenging and intense — at times perhaps even too intense, a stark contrast to the swathes of empty seats Henderson has played in front of.
Saudi Arabia had a proud history as a football nation long before its modern-day rulers began to harness the sport’s potential as part of a national and wider global strategy, but there is a difference between Fabinho playing for Al Ittihad, who attracted an average crowd of 40,453 en route to the league title last season, and Henderson playing in front of sparse crowds for Al Ettifaq.
The other significant difference for Henderson was that he has been a vocal, visible campaigner for LGBQT+ rights in recent years. He has insisted his presence in Saudi Arabia would be a “positive thing” in terms of bringing change, but it would be an understatement to say that this is easier said than done.
In Al Ettifaq’s video to announce his signing in July, images of Henderson’s captain armband — including the rainbow armband he wore in solidarity with the LGBQT+ community — were greyed out. Many people interpreted that as censorship. Henderson responded by telling The Athletic, “I didn’t know anything about it until it was out. It’s hard for me to know and understand everything because it is part of the religion, so if I wear the rainbow armband, if that disrespects their religion, then that’s not right either.”
From Henderson’s perspective, the move looks like a huge mistake. That can happen in football, as in industry, but in this instance, all the various concerns — the heat, the lifestyle, the distance from home, the disruption to family life, the drop in professional status and standards, the risk to his England place, the potential damage to his reputation — were widely highlighted at the time. Henderson weighed up all of that and decided it was still the right move.
ADVERTISEMENT
For all the dubious “project” talk, the driving factor behind Henderson’s move seemed obvious. To get back to the Premier League so soon will entail significant financial sacrifices as well as swallowing a huge amount of pride. That would be far more in keeping with Henderson’s previous reputation, the one that told us he would be the last player to be seduced by the riches of Saudi Arabia. Funny business, football.
As someone who dealt with expatriate families (in HK and Shanghai) for over 20 years and has been expat (and so mixed with many other expat families/individuals) for nearly 45 years, Henderson, if the rumours are true of course, (and his family too) is a very clear case of adherence to the typical expat cycle (the effects of which can be exacerbated by the degree of variance in culture shock to your home culture). I'll just put a chart or two below.
Basically he (and his family) need careful management (with a specialist expat family psychologist) and any knowledgeable, caring and professional corporation (Saudi Arabia ? Ha!) would provide this welfare service for their well-being, to help them understand the psychological changes they are undergoing), obviously this is in the company's best interests too. Not everyone can cope - some break their contract and return home early, even resign from the company - but most battle through and learn to, if not love and enjoy their time abroad, at least manage being expatriate.
In more depth if you are so inclined to read on - if not just skip it:
Psychological Effects (5 stages from Honeymoon to Integration)
Strain: due to having to make so very many psychological adaptations without any sort of respite.
Sense of loss and feelings of deprivation: regarding the status, friends, possessions, etc. to which you were accustomed and feel you are due, but no longer have.
Rejection: feeling that you are rejected by members of the new culture and/or you are rejecting members of the new culture.
Confusion: in roles, expectations, values, feelings, and self-identity.
Surprise, anxiety, and indignation: after becoming aware of the many cultural differences that exist between your home and the host cultures.
Feelings of inadequacy: due to fear of not being able to succeed in the new culture.
Honeymoon Phase: As its name suggests, this initial phase is basked in the warm glow of newness and excitement of having moved abroad. Differences are brushed off as “interesting” or “charming”, patience and understanding are at all-time highs. The feeling is similar to being a tourist, as discovery is around every corner. Living Institute advises using the abundance of energy during this phase to get settled, create a support network and establish routines.
Initial Cultural Shock: Shit gets real. Often initiated by relatively minor conflict or problem of some sort, such as issues with your employer or an illness. What would have been no big deal back home, in your new environment is exacerbated. You may be asking yourself for the first time, “What am I doing here?”. Living Institute recommends being careful about taking a trip home in this period, as you may wave the white flag and not bother to return. Instead you should rely on the relationships and routines established in the Honeymoon Phase to help pull you through.
Superficial Adaptation: Assuming you don’t pack it all in and head for comfortable shores, you will enter a phase of “superficial adaptation”. You’ll quickly learn survival skills by mimicking what’s around you, and the basics leave you feeling a bit more confident in your new life.
Culture Shock: Not long after entering the phase above, you begin to realize there’s a striking contrast between the values, priorities, and ideas that you hold and those of your host country. It’s here you can experience full blown culture shock, where you begin to feel everything is just too foreign. Living Institute explains, “you conclude that the people you live with are either barbarians, or maybe just plain evil/immoral/inhuman, or simply just dead wrong on essential issues of life, work, faith, or social approach.” This is a difficult phase to navigate, and it’s common to turn inwards and isolate yourself from it all. The best thing to do is force yourself into contact with your location and its people, which will eventually lead you out of culture shock and into the next phase.
Integration: Once you push past the culture shock phase, you gain a greater respect and understanding of the place you live and the people who live there. You “realize you don’t have to become like them, you just need to understand why their world makes sense to them.” Language/cultural skills and locale know-how, along with a well-established support network, have you moving comfortably around your new life abroad. Until…
Re-Entry: Also known as reverse culture shock, this happens when you eventually leave your expat life and return to your home country. It likely hasn’t changed very much, but you have. If you don’t prepare for this differential, you may start to feel that “you don’t fit into the one place in the world where you thought you belonged.”
Basically he (and his family) need careful management (with a specialist expat family psychologist) and any knowledgeable, caring and professional corporation (Saudi Arabia ? Ha!) would provide this welfare service for their well-being, to help them understand the psychological changes they are undergoing), obviously this is in the company's best interests too. Not everyone can cope - some break their contract and return home early, even resign from the company - but most battle through and learn to, if not love and enjoy their time abroad, at least manage being expatriate.
In more depth if you are so inclined to read on - if not just skip it:
Psychological Effects (5 stages from Honeymoon to Integration)
Strain: due to having to make so very many psychological adaptations without any sort of respite.
Sense of loss and feelings of deprivation: regarding the status, friends, possessions, etc. to which you were accustomed and feel you are due, but no longer have.
Rejection: feeling that you are rejected by members of the new culture and/or you are rejecting members of the new culture.
Confusion: in roles, expectations, values, feelings, and self-identity.
Surprise, anxiety, and indignation: after becoming aware of the many cultural differences that exist between your home and the host cultures.
Feelings of inadequacy: due to fear of not being able to succeed in the new culture.
Honeymoon Phase: As its name suggests, this initial phase is basked in the warm glow of newness and excitement of having moved abroad. Differences are brushed off as “interesting” or “charming”, patience and understanding are at all-time highs. The feeling is similar to being a tourist, as discovery is around every corner. Living Institute advises using the abundance of energy during this phase to get settled, create a support network and establish routines.
Initial Cultural Shock: Shit gets real. Often initiated by relatively minor conflict or problem of some sort, such as issues with your employer or an illness. What would have been no big deal back home, in your new environment is exacerbated. You may be asking yourself for the first time, “What am I doing here?”. Living Institute recommends being careful about taking a trip home in this period, as you may wave the white flag and not bother to return. Instead you should rely on the relationships and routines established in the Honeymoon Phase to help pull you through.
Superficial Adaptation: Assuming you don’t pack it all in and head for comfortable shores, you will enter a phase of “superficial adaptation”. You’ll quickly learn survival skills by mimicking what’s around you, and the basics leave you feeling a bit more confident in your new life.
Culture Shock: Not long after entering the phase above, you begin to realize there’s a striking contrast between the values, priorities, and ideas that you hold and those of your host country. It’s here you can experience full blown culture shock, where you begin to feel everything is just too foreign. Living Institute explains, “you conclude that the people you live with are either barbarians, or maybe just plain evil/immoral/inhuman, or simply just dead wrong on essential issues of life, work, faith, or social approach.” This is a difficult phase to navigate, and it’s common to turn inwards and isolate yourself from it all. The best thing to do is force yourself into contact with your location and its people, which will eventually lead you out of culture shock and into the next phase.
Integration: Once you push past the culture shock phase, you gain a greater respect and understanding of the place you live and the people who live there. You “realize you don’t have to become like them, you just need to understand why their world makes sense to them.” Language/cultural skills and locale know-how, along with a well-established support network, have you moving comfortably around your new life abroad. Until…
Re-Entry: Also known as reverse culture shock, this happens when you eventually leave your expat life and return to your home country. It likely hasn’t changed very much, but you have. If you don’t prepare for this differential, you may start to feel that “you don’t fit into the one place in the world where you thought you belonged.”
Honestly struggling with empathy for Hendo and others on some of these issues. I see the points made but fck me compared to othetrs I know whom have had to make the move and just make do, it was still his choice and at least he had a choice. Apologies in advance for my own flippancy on this…
19 goals and 9 assists in 28 games.
On track for 30 goals this year.
Give the man an extension. He is Liverpool.
On track for 30 goals this year.
Give the man an extension. He is Liverpool.
Should be 31 games only for VAR
I still think he looks like muck most of the time. But it's hard to argue with the stats and our results.
I've come around to the Mo-for-Life club. Let's retire him here.
I've come around to the Mo-for-Life club. Let's retire him here.
It does look like the break has done him good.
He’s a driven sort of player, now that the pressure of winning AFCON is gone, maybe he’s feel a little less pressure and start to display the sort of killer form that will deliver some trophies this season.
He’s a driven sort of player, now that the pressure of winning AFCON is gone, maybe he’s feel a little less pressure and start to display the sort of killer form that will deliver some trophies this season.
last time he played multiple 120 minute plus games and had to live with his team mate being on the winning side
It's bad. Salah is the only one I'd trust to finish that off and even then it's not so sure.
Owen, Fowler, Torres, Suarez, for sure - maybe Bobby. and Mane.
Jota?
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