SFC is a very good club if you want an international career

[Nordic Saint]

Tonight Graziano Pellè won his 13th cap for Italy, all of them since he joined Saints in 2014. José Fonte has 11 caps for Portugal and Virgil van Dijk already has 7 for Holland, all since they joined us, and I'd expect them to get many more caps. We also have seen quite a few of our players win their first England caps. It's certainly a plus point in our favour when players are considering which club to join.

[Lighthouse]

What's this got to do with Koeman?

 

Locked!

[Nordic Saint]

It's Pellè's 17th cap for Italy tonight and Fonte will get his 15th cap for Portugal on Wedensday, while Cedric should get his 14th then, although, in his case, not all of his caps were in his time with us. Good luck to them all. Let's hope we have a European champion playing for us next season.

[Deano6]

I would expect most players in the Premier League to be full internationals for their nations. I see nothing exceptional about Southampton.

[Saint-Fred]

I would expect most players in the Premier League to be full internationals for their nations. I see nothing exceptional about Southampton.

 

I think the point is that quite a few players, even late In their careers, have been called up either for the first time or more regularly once they joined Saints..egPelle, Fonte, Bertrand ,Morgan, the other defectors, to name a few!

[david in sweden]

I think the point is that quite a few players, even late In their careers, have been called up either for the first time or more regularly once they joined Saints..egPelle, Fonte, Bertrand ,Morgan, the other defectors, to name a few!

 

..true, but you might have mentioned Rickie Lambert by name.....surely the prime example of ... " it's never too late..."

[Nordic Saint]

..true, but you might have mentioned Rickie Lambert by name.....surely the prime example of ... " it's never too late..."

 

I try to be there for Saints' players England debuts, at least when they are at Wembley, and one of the highlights was watching Rickie Lambert come on and score the winner against Scotland. One of the lows was going to watch England v Northern Ireland in the hope of seeing Channon make his debut. He didn't and England lost 0-1.

 

Soime of us are old enough to remember when international caps were so rare that any player with one had the capital letter of his country printed next to his name in the programme. At one time Terry Paine was the only one in our team with an E, although there was also Stuart Williams with a W and Tommy Traynor with an I. We never could have imagined then that we'd have Italian and Portuguese internationals playing for us. How exotic and glamorous it would have seemed. I guess the real breakthrough was when Spurs got Ardiles and Villa after Argentina won the World Cup. Then foreign stars started to become more commonplace.

 

But the real point is, as Saint Fed, says, that many players are now making their international debuts while they are playing for Saints. You couldn't say the same about many of the 'smaller' Premier League teams.

[Turkish]

I try to be there for Saints' players England debuts, at least when they are at Wembley, and one of the highlights was watching Rickie Lambert come on and score the winner against Scotland. One of the lows was going to watch England v Northern Ireland in the hope of seeing Channon make his debut. He didn't and England lost 0-1.

 

Soime of us are old enough to remember when international caps were so rare that any player with one had the capital letter of his country printed next to his name in the programme. At one time Terry Paine was the only one in our team with an E, although there was also Stuart Williams with a W and Tommy Traynor with an I. We never could have imagined then that we'd have Italian and Portuguese internationals playing for us. How exotic and glamorous it would have seemed. I guess the real breakthrough was when Spurs got Ardiles and Villa after Argentina won the World Cup. Then foreign stars started to become more commonplace.

 

But the real point is, as Saint Fed, says, that many players are now making their international debuts while they are playing for Saints. You couldn't say the same about many of the 'smaller' Premier League teams.

 

I'm not so sure it was Spurs. Even 10 years later in the early 90s foreign players were still very rare. I remember clear as day reading and article about Micheal Laudrop after he'd been one of the stars of Mexico 86 saying foreign players wouldn't handle the physical nature of the English league. In the late 80s and early 90s all the top player went to Italy, that was where the money was in those days. i seem to remember the likes of Gullit and Vialli coming here towards the end of th careers but IIRC the first foreign star was Bergkamp after the flood gates opened.

[david in sweden]

I try to be there for Saints' players England debuts, at least when they are at Wembley, and one of the highlights was watching Rickie Lambert come on and score the winner against Scotland.

 

One of the lows was going to watch England v Northern Ireland in the hope of seeing Channon make his debut. He didn't and England lost 0-1.

 

I always recall that scenario, and last week watched Totten-lands inexperienced young playershelp throw away the game v Iceland .....and then seeing Forster, Bertrand, Lallana, and Clyne on the England bench...... reminded myself that there are some games that it is good NOT to play in.

 

The 11 players who lost that game will forever be tainted with the memory of the defeat, those who avoided it may have a second chance quicker than they think.

Edited 10 July, 2016 by david in sweden
Correction to name was stuck in 60's time warp

[david in sweden]

This club really provides a chance for even established players to develop.

Whilst everyone brags about our Academy prospects, let's not forget that in recent years we have seen Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana, Nathaniel Clyne and Morgan Schneiderlin reaching the point where they were capped for the first time. The number of Academy lads who have been capped at various junior levels is also very impressive.

 

The fairy-story careers of Lambert and Pelle....as well as Jose Fonte show even at 30, they were just reaching their peak when many of their contemporaries were looking towards the end of their careers. Whilst we look for " new blood " coming into the first team, it also shows that even some of our senior players can get a " career-lift ".

[Badger]

I always recall that scenario, and last week watched Totten-lands inexperienced young playershelp throw away the game v Iceland .....and then seeing Forsyth, Bertrand, Lallana, and Clyne on the England bench...... reminded myself that there are some games that it is good NOT to play in.

 

The 11 players who lost that game will forever be tainted with the memory of the defeat, those who avoided it may have a second chance quicker than they think.

 

Showing your age David. Forsyth was in the 1960's.

 

He was a jock as well.

[david in sweden]

Showing your age David. Forsyth was in the 1960's.

 

He was a jock as well.

 

Ouch! not the first time I've made that mistake this year. I get " brain-fade" whenever I start to think of them both at the same time....