The foreign country(s) most closely linked to every PL club

[RashyForPM]

Thought this would be an interesting idea for a thread.

For example, we are linked to Portugal because of Bruno, Ronaldo and Nani. Arsenal are linked to France because of all their French players through Wenger’s era. West Ham, I’d actually link them to Czech Republic due to Miklosko, Coufal, Soucek etc.

Then, you have Chelsea and Russia for obvious off-the-pitch reasons, and City to UAE as well.

Anyone got more to add? Obviously, a club can be linked to more than one country too.

 

[The Cat]

Wolves immediately comes to mind.

 

[Minkaro]

West Brom have had a lot of Irish players. Reid, McAuley, Kiely, Brunt, Evans, O’Shea, Long, Andrews, to name a few off the top of my head.

 

[Siorac]

West Brom have had a lot of Irish players. Reid, McAuley, Kiely, Brunt, Evans, O’Shea, Long, Andrews, to name a few off the top of my head.

Pretty much every English club has had lots of Irish players though, no?

 

[The holy trinity 68]

Man United: Scotland. Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Matt Busby, Dennis Law. The 2 biggest legends in the club's history and a Ballon D'or winner who is part of the Holy Trinity.

 

[RashyForPM]

Wolves immediately comes to mind.

Can’t believe I forgot them

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Man United: Scotland. Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Matt Busby, Dennis Law. The 2 biggest legends in the club's history and a Ballon D'or winner who is part of the Holy Trinity.

Good shout.
McT for Ballon D’Or soon

 

[BrilliantOrange]

I always associate Newcastle with a lot of big physical African players, which often have the French nationality.. Not sure if just a weird feeling of football or valid observation though..

 

[Dante]

National team representatives for Manchester United in the Premier League era.

Nation	Total
England	80​
Netherlands	12​
France	12​
Scotland	8​
Northern Ireland	7​
Brazil	7​
Argentina	6​
Spain	6​
Portugal	6​
Wales	6​
Republic of Ireland	5​

https://www.statbunker.com/alltimestats/AllTimeClubNationalities?comp_code=EPL&club_id=3

Although France and the Netherlands are on level pegging, I'd give the edge to France. They had more of an influence on us through our best periods.

 

[Cal?]

National team representatives for Manchester United in the Premier League era.

Nation	Total
England	80​
Netherlands	12​
France	12​
Scotland	8​
Northern Ireland	7​
Brazil	7​
Argentina	6​
Spain	6​
Portugal	6​
Wales	6​
Republic of Ireland	5​

https://www.statbunker.com/alltimestats/AllTimeClubNationalities?comp_code=EPL&club_id=3

Although France and the Netherlands are on level pegging, I'd give the edge to France. They had more of an influence on us through our best periods.

Portugal have had a huge influence on United too

 

[Dante]

Portugal have had a huge influence on United too

Ronaldo, Bruno, Nani, Dalot, Bebe, Joel Pereira... to a degree.

Cantona, Evra, Pogba, Saha, Martial, Barthez, Silvestre, Blanc, Obertan, Bellion, Schneiderlin, Prunier... have had more.

 

[FootballHQ]

Not one country but we've had a nice run of Scandinavian players over last 25 years....Mellberg, Laursen and Carew all huge crowd favourites and very good players...less so guys like Peter Enckleman, Nyland and Nicklas Helenius though.

 

[simonhch]

We also had Quieroz as a hugely influential assistant manager.

But also the Dutch Van Persie, Van Nistelrooy, Stam, Van der Sar, some hugely influential names.

 

[redshaw]

Our Brazilians might as well be from Burnley

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

Wolves are the obvious answer here. Something very weird is going on there.

 

[Cal?]

Ronaldo, Bruno, Nani, Dalot, Bebe, Joel Pereira... to a degree.

Cantona, Evra, Pogba, Saha, Martial, Barthez, Silvestre, Blanc, Obertan, Bellion, Schneiderlin, Prunier... have had more.

Cantona alone probably outweighs every other nationality

 

[duffer]

Chelsea have had a fair few Brazilians over the years, more than most.

Oscar, Ramirez, Luiz, Alex, Phillipe Luis, Willian, Kenedy, Diego Costa, Deco, Pato, Emerson Thome, Jorginho, Emerson Palmieri, Thiago Silva and of course Piazon.

 

[duffer]

It seems a lot of people link Chelsea with Poland for some reason, what with "Chelski" being used a fair bit.

 

[Wittmann45]

Any one else think of France when it comes to Newcastle United? It might be totally unwarranted but it is the first thing I thought when I saw the question.

 

[The Original]

Any one else think of France when it comes to Newcastle United? It might be totally unwarranted but it is the first thing I thought when I saw the question.

Yes actually I thought of them in that way back in the day. They had a few French players in the early 2000s iirc.

 

[Mrs Smoker]

Manchester United - US of A, because we went there to play Seattle or whatever's the name couple of times in the summer

 

[Pughnichi]

National team representatives for Manchester United in the Premier League era.

Nation	Total
England	80​
Netherlands	12​
France	12​
Scotland	8​
Northern Ireland	7​
Brazil	7​
Argentina	6​
Spain	6​
Portugal	6​
Wales	6​
Republic of Ireland	5​

https://www.statbunker.com/alltimestats/AllTimeClubNationalities?comp_code=EPL&club_id=3

Although France and the Netherlands are on level pegging, I'd give the edge to France. They had more of an influence on us through our best periods.

can anyone name all 12 Dutch players

 

[Wittmann45]

can anyone name all 12 Dutch players

I just looked it up and I had totally forgotten that

Spoiler

Depay

played for Man United, and it was even that long ago

 

[BrilliantOrange]

can anyone name all 12 Dutch players

1 Muhren
2 Cruijff
3 vd Gouw
4 vd Sar
5 van Nistelrooij
6 Donny
7 van Persie
8 Stam
9 Buttner
10 Depay
11 Chong
12 Daley

(forgive my very random order, my brain works in mysterious ways)

 

[Mrs Smoker]

Very nice, I would've missed 1 and 11, but strangely not 9. He's forever in my memory for some reason.

 

[Nero]

City, UAE.

 

[lysglimt]

Coventry and Marocco - Chippo, Hadji and Safri - only 3 but there havent been that many players from that country in the P.L

Arsenal and Switzerland - Senderos, Lichsteiner, Xhaka and Djorou - come to think of it, there really have been few Swiss players in the P.L

 

[BrilliantOrange]

Coventry and Marocco - Chippo, Hadji and Safri - only 3 but there havent been that many players from that country in the P.L

Arsenal and Switzerland - Senderos, Lichsteiner, Xhaka and Djorou - come to think of it, there really have been few Swiss players in the P.L

None of those Swiss players had significant impact on Arsenal right for anyone to really associate Arsenal with Switzerland right?

 

[Pablo76]

1 Muhren
2 Cruijff
3 vd Gouw
4 vd Sar
5 van Nistelrooij
6 Donny
7 van Persie
8 Stam
9 Buttner
10 Depay
11 Chong
12 Daley

Fosu-Mensah? Muhren wasn’t Prem era.

 

[BrilliantOrange]

Fosu-Mensah? Muhren wasn’t Prem era.

Great shout, you are abolutely right!

 

[FrankDrebin]

Liverpool-Spain

 

[KirkDuyt]

1 Muhren
2 Cruijff
3 vd Gouw
4 vd Sar
5 van Nistelrooij
6 Donny
7 van Persie
8 Stam
9 Buttner
10 Depay
11 Chong
12 Daley

(forgive my very random order, my brain works in mysterious ways)

In that case we have 13 with Fosu-Mensa.

Edit: Im slow and it had been said.

 

[Lay]

Coventry and Marocco - Chippo, Hadji and Safri - only 3 but there havent been that many players from that country in the P.L

Arsenal and Switzerland - Senderos, Lichsteiner, Xhaka and Djorou - come to think of it, there really have been few Swiss players in the P.L

I used to think Hadji was brilliant

 

[Pughnichi]

1 Muhren
2 Cruijff
3 vd Gouw
4 vd Sar
5 van Nistelrooij
6 Donny
7 van Persie
8 Stam
9 Buttner
10 Depay
11 Chong
12 Daley

(forgive my very random order, my brain works in mysterious ways)

nicely done. I had no clue about Muhrren, didn’t realise buutner was Dutch and somehow forgot about DVB

 

[LARulz]

Our Brazilians might as well be from Burnley

 

[Ish]

Wolves are the obvious answer here. Something very weird is going on there.

Jorge Mendes

 

[Oranges038]

None of those Swiss players had significant impact on Arsenal right for anyone to really associate Arsenal with Switzerland right?

I always think of France mostly because of the Wenger influence. Henry, Viera, Petit, Anelka etc.

But before that they were largely an English based team in the mid 90s, I know most teams were. You had that back 5 of Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, , Adams and Keown. Then you still had Merson, Platt, Parlour, Bould and Wright. I know a lot of these guys were coming to the end of their careers. There is some difference in the squad make up in Wenger's first few years in terms of nationalities.

 

[RedDevilRoshi]

Pretty much every English club has had lots of Irish players though, no?

Not ourselves. We’ve only had 5. Off the top of my head - Roy Keane, John O’Shea, Darron Gibson, Michael Keane & Robbie Brady

 

[BrilliantOrange]

I always think of France mostly because of the Wenger influence. Henry, Viera, Petit, Anelka etc.

But before that they were largely an English based team in the mid 90
s, I know most teams were. You had that back 5 of Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, , Adams and Keown. Then you still had Merson, Platt, Parlour, Bould and Wright. I know a lot of these guys were coming to the end of their careers. There is some difference in the squad make up in Wenger's first few years in terms of nationalities.

I have the same feeling.. Apart from the ones you mention you had Clichy, Gallas, Pires, Wiltord, Aliadiere in that time.. Later Nasri, Squillci, Cocqelin, Diarra, Cigan, Giroud, Sanogo, Koscielny.. Most recent Ghendouzi, Debuchy, Lacazette.. Besides that a lot of African players who (assumption) speak French like Lauren, Toure, Aubameyang, Kany, Pepe etc..

The connection is quite obvious and Wenger is obviously the main reason...

 

[1950]

Leeds and Australia with Kewell and Viduka.

Leicester and Thailand with their owner and that sex tape scandal thing.

Tottenham and Croatia with Modrić, Kranjčar, Ćorluka and Pletikosa during Harry's stint.

Fulham and the US with Dempsey, McBride, Bocanegra and some others.