Seeing a fair bit of discussion over this on Twitter and among the pundits lately – should EPL clubs be more cautious with spending big money on players from the Bundesliga given how many have struggled to adapt here? Wasn't thought to be a problem in the past, but maybe something changed either in English or German football and now these leagues are less "compatible" than we thought.
I've compiled a list of most prominent Bundesliga (+ RB Salzburg) to EPL transfers in the last 4 years:
2018
I don't know that it's possible to come up with one overarching theory to explain why that is and some of the players on that list still might come good. But one possible factor I'm thinking about is that since tactically the modern game is increasingly defined and dominated by German football thought and philosophy, the Bundesliga players are generally already used to their full potential and don't have much room for improvement by the time they are sold. We all know the "Klopp effect" that makes almost any player coached by Jurgen 10 or 15% better (which means any players we end up selling typically do not do too well in the rest of their careers); it's kind of like that, just less pronounced, but applied to the whole league. Best value lies in underdeveloped talent and Germany is the opposite.
Well, and another factor is of course that anyone from Germany truly worth buying is probably getting scooped up by Bayern. It's a shiny beautiful supermarket, but presentation is often better than the contents and all the tastiest bits have already been devoured by the rich glutton living in the room upstairs.
I've compiled a list of most prominent Bundesliga (+ RB Salzburg) to EPL transfers in the last 4 years:
2018
- Naby Keita – disappointing
- Pulisic – looks good when he plays, but not sure he's fully justified his fee overall
- Leno – success
- Vestergaard – success, probably
- Soyuncu – big success
- Sokratis – clown
- Schurrle – relegated
- Haller – shit
- Joelington – shit
- Gbamin – hard to say, bad injury and barely played since
- Havertz – struggled badly under Lampard, improved under Tuchel, but still not the same player he was at Bayer
- Werner – bullet well dodged
- Thiago – GOAT and no one say otherwise
- Kabak – did OK under difficult circumstances with us, now getting ready to taste another relegation with Norwich
- Minamino – struggling to make an impression
- Sancho – it's early, but struggling badly so far
- Konate – too early to tell
- Leon Bailey – hasn't started a game for Villa yet
- Patson Daka – only 1 sub appearance in the league so far. Started last night vs Legia and was poor as Leicester lost the game 1:0
- Rashica – no goals or assists for Norwich yet
I don't know that it's possible to come up with one overarching theory to explain why that is and some of the players on that list still might come good. But one possible factor I'm thinking about is that since tactically the modern game is increasingly defined and dominated by German football thought and philosophy, the Bundesliga players are generally already used to their full potential and don't have much room for improvement by the time they are sold. We all know the "Klopp effect" that makes almost any player coached by Jurgen 10 or 15% better (which means any players we end up selling typically do not do too well in the rest of their careers); it's kind of like that, just less pronounced, but applied to the whole league. Best value lies in underdeveloped talent and Germany is the opposite.
Well, and another factor is of course that anyone from Germany truly worth buying is probably getting scooped up by Bayern. It's a shiny beautiful supermarket, but presentation is often better than the contents and all the tastiest bits have already been devoured by the rich glutton living in the room upstairs.
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