Quote:
Originally Posted by Bagor
Isn't that the problem in a nutshell right there? e.g. Stones could play for the next 5 years on a healthy contract at Everton and never see CL football as opposed to moving to say somewhere like Atletico and be guaranteed it. Sure he will come up against occasional top class opposition but nowhere near the level of the experience he would get from the CL.
For me if you take the truly world class English players in recent memory (Lineker, Gazza, Scholes and Shearer) the first two went off and challenged themselves abroad, Scholes had no need to as we was part of an elite team constantly pushing far in the CL and Shearer is an anomaly (and a headscratcher). Add Taffy Bale to that list now.
On the flip side, It's why Spurs and to an extent now Liverpool (although they temporarily have the Klopp effect) are caught in that downwards spiral where they will continue to fail to retain players and attract top quality so long as they continuously fail to qualify for the CL. Most top players want to play at the top level. Continuously.
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Spurs and Liverpool, and Arsenal and Man United too (City and Chelsea dont because they pay silly wages) really only lose players to two clubs
those are effectively the two biggest clubs in the world
the above list is from 20 years ago, apart from Scholes, the money has only really been a big thing in the last 10-15 years