Always find it hilarious the way an English players who can stumble their way through an interview in a foreign language - after living in that country for a number of years - gets held up as some sort of incredible achievement. Meanwhile, nobody gets remotely excited about foreign players in the PL who speak fluent English from day one. And often speak one or two other languages as well.
Chris Smalling | Roma player
- Thread starter roonster09
- Start date
Why is Southgate not picking him?
I get your point but I think as it’s such an exception for English then it’s good to praise him.
Perfectly decent player for us and I’m glad to see him find a home. Go on Mike.
Yes it does. And you know exactly how it applies to Smalling.
Well I don’t think it’s that surprising really given English must be the most spoken language in Europe and one of the most spoken in the world? Pretty much taught to everyone?
Given that most of them struggle to communicate in English, I think it’s a remarkable achievement! Not Smalling, who’s always come across as reasonably articulate.
Plus the English education system militates against the teaching of languages for the simple reason that the teaching of (English) grammar was ditched well over 50 years ago as it was regarded as elitist or something. So anyone learning a foreign language not only has to deal with vocabulary and pronunciation, but also what a case and a tense is. They should have been taught those in English beforehand.
If defending is the main job Smalling is the man, he has progressed so much in Italy. He is a leader in the team and is even playing a good ground game. He is a great natural defender and a great header of the ball.
Harry was a huge downgrade and all the CB we have signed since apart from Martinez (Varane is still a question mark for me).
Harry was a huge downgrade and all the CB we have signed since apart from Martinez (Varane is still a question mark for me).
Believe it or not, they teach foreign languages at English schools as well.
Not that professional footballers are known for staying in school very long or generally doing well in their studies.
So they have the same kind of emphasis and syllabus on foreign language at English schools than they do in the rest of the world?
Do they teach foreign language in Ireland and so you see many Irish speaking Italian, German, French etc?
That’s nuts. Mad the way politics influences the way languages are taught. In Ireland we have to teach our kids their native tongue in exactly the same way we teach English. So textbooks are all in Irish (no translation of words) and they have to study deathly dull prose and poetry.
End results, most kids are far more fluent in languages like French and Spanish than they are in Irish.
Yes. In addition to learning Irish. See above.
Can’t say I’ve ever seen an Irish sports star speaking any other language fluently.
Anyway I think it’s fair to say that the UK and Ireland as a whole are quite ignorant in terms of developing fluency outside of English and their native tongue. Part of that is down to the education and another part due to the lack of need (given most of the rest of the world speak English to a degree).
Yeah, Irish and English people are similarly crap at speaking foreign languages. That’s a fair point.
Truth. There was a period when Smalling was still playing well for us under Jose, but Southgate seemed to go through every other English CB in the Premier League instead. His reasoning was something about his ability on the ball, but then he gave a go to cloggers like Tarkowski, Coady and Dunk. And now Mings is a regular, who isn't even a good defender, let alone any good with the ball at his feet.
England don't even play out from the back anyway. They're a set piece team if anything. Which is funny, because Smalling is the top scoring defender in Europe so far this season.
English is the global business language and a great deal of non-English speaking countries teach it at school as a compulsory subject, for this reason. English kids are not typically learning Italian when they’re 10. If you go to live in an another country you really should learn the language though.
They teach you how to pass a GCSE and then an A Level, but that is it. The standard is genuinely atrocious. I learnt more Italian in my first year at university than I did doing seven years of German at high school and sixth form.
The point @Revaulx makes about the lack of education in grammar is also bang on. Learning how to actually learn languages is a subject in itself. Acquiring further languages then becomes much easier.
Bit harsh really that when English players move abroad they rarely get a look in for the national team. I’d have smalling back at us over Maguire. Southgate raves about Maguire all the time.
Love him saying "I am obnoxious" then correcting himself whilst trying to remember the close word for "proud" (odioso vs orgoglioso).
Come again?!? Wha?!?
Would still take him ahead of Maguire plus 80m saved.
This is already true for most people, but given that footballers have lots of free time and can easily afford private tutors, there is absolutely zero excuse for them not to at least have a conversational level of language within a few months.
Playing some of his best football this season and adding goals to boot. Ridiculous he is not in the England squad because of his passing as if England are some tika taka specialists.
Good to know that she isn’t the stereotypical WAG
Always been a fan of big Mike, our fans treated him so poorly. Hopefully he’s being appreciated by Roma.
Don't particularly think it was a huge mistake letting him leave - but the context of letting him go for a pittance and signing Harry Maguire who simply hasn't improved us and is quite clearly not up to it from both a mental and football sense, it leaves such a bitter taste.
We'd have been no worse off with Smalling, that's certain!
We'd have been no worse off with Smalling, that's certain!
That’s a shame, and just goes to show the arrogance and delusion of people who determine educational policy.
I can see why they did it (to make it clear that Irish was absolutely not inferior to English) but sometimes a bit of pragmatism helps achieve a worthy end rather than sticking to a purist approach. The same could be said of managing United…
If they played in La Liga you'd have a point but Serie A has been a 3rd rate league for a substantial period of time
If you want an international career generally you have to perform in a top league
Selling Smalling wasn't the problem. He wasn't the right player for what we want to achieve as a club. The issue was selling him and then subsequently replacing him with Maguire, which you would be hard pressed to say is not an overall worse package. Massive fee, not really a better defender, worse physical attributes, marginally better on the ball. Hindsight is 20/20 of course but we probably would have been better off with Smalling rather than Maguire.
WHat abuse did they get? Ive read this a few times?
I remember people saying hes not a good footballer, cant pass, isnt good enough for United.
But what Abuse did he actually get? (maybe he did and I missed it / cant remember)...
Well, we shouldn't have sold him until we signed better defenders. And even then, you'd struggle to find a better 3rd/4th rotation choice than Smalling. If you've you've 4 CBs, and aren't exactly playing tiki taka football, then there's no need to sell Smalling if he's one of those 4. His passing isn't even that bad, and given that under Ole we set up to counter attack quite often, especially against better sides, Smalling should have been one of the first names on the team sheet quite often. It was also non-sensical getting rid of a quality CB due to his lack of skill on the ball, yet building the midfield around two CMs who were - in terms comparative skill to other midfielders - even worse on the ball and passing out from the back than Smalling was. It was an ill thought out, "look at me me I'm a decisive manager who wants to play progressive football but has no idea how to do it" move from Ole.
Among Ole's two biggest blunders was this move to get rid of Smalling. The other is of course the idiotic persistence with Maguire last year when the player was in a horrible form.
Which is related to his footballing ability?
His defending is out of this world, mate
I thought Smalling left United because he wanted regular football and Ole couldn't promise him that. He didn't want to be 3rd choice, he wanted (and let's face it deserved) to be a first choice defender.
Southgate is, of course, clueless.
Southgate is, of course, clueless.
Is there anyone that would take Maguire ahead of Smalling that isn't named Southgate?
Nope.
Saw a show a while back with Jermaine Jenas about Vegans. Smalling was interviewed and stated that near the end of his time at United he turned Vegan due to his wife's influence. Having changed diet he noticed a great reduction in inflammation of his knee which used to cause him to miss a lot of games. Having moved to Italy and become a regular first choice he is staying fit, playing regularly and thriving. Nothing improves a player as much as regular football in a reasonably successful team building the confidence of the individual and improving his experience through a new league and different coaches.
Fair play to him, I hope he is enjoying his life and football out there, good luck to him.
Fair play to him, I hope he is enjoying his life and football out there, good luck to him.
But that’s avoiding the reality that he wanted to leave because he wanted to be first choice. So you are advocating keeping him here against his will. Which I don’t agree with. He went about requesting a move the right way and it was the right thing for him to let him move on. So my point really stands.
Well It's a whole different discussion if Smalling wanted to leave.
Solskjaer?