The importance of home grown players

Acclimatization

This is yet another simple, but oft overlooked factor. Players moving from abroad face a lot of trouble with settling down in a new place. It’s a problem that can be put in perspective if we look at it through our own eyes. Imagine moving to a new country, where you don’t speak the language, don’t know the people, aren’t used to the weather, and don’t eat the food. It can be hard enough moving within a country and adapting to cultural changes (I can personally testify). Moving across continents, often suddenly, can be very difficult. Add to this the stress of dealing with the media, high expectations, training, and family issues. This process is equally difficult for both young players, and older ones. A lot of youngsters, especially South American ones, often move abroad, to Europe, during or just after their teenage years. At this age, it becomes tough for them to settle down in their new homes, and the percentage of successful exports is quite low. When we consider this, we should probably applaud Neymar for his decision to delay his move, and the decision to move to a club that will focus on his holistic development, in a country which is quite similar to Brazil in terms of language and culture.

Manchester United’s famous Class of ’92, with manager Sir Alex Ferguson

In light of these facts, our admiration for Ronaldo must increase immeasurably, as he moved across to PSV at the age of just 17, and made a legend out of himself. Secondly, players that can have problems are the older lot, who bring their families along with them. This shift, often sudden, can be difficult for the family to adapt to. The player’s children may have trouble adjusting to their new school, and the wives/girlfriends are also sometimes slow to adapt. They have a lack of company, unlike their spouses, and trouble at home can often affect a player’s performance at work. Manchester City know this well. Both their Argentine strikers have struggled in the past because of this. Tevez, famously took a 6 month vacation and asked to leave City to be closer to his family. He also lamented the weather in Manchester, and the culinary problems he faced. Despite spending a number of years in England, he simply couldn’t adapt, and one can only hope that he fares better in Italy.

Of course, the other side of the argument is that Tevez may have been making noises just to get a new contract, but that doesn’t explain the problems Sergio Aguero faced in his second season, with his life behind the scenes adversely affecting his on-field performance. The third type of personal problem a player may face is isolation. When players are new to a club, they don’t tend to have too many friends already at the club. This means that for the first few weeks at least, the player can end up feeling a bit isolated and lonely. This, again, seems like something of a trivial issue to many fans, but it’s not. These things affect your performance regardless of your pay.

Often, the source of discomfort, apart from personal issues, is something very small, like a drastic change in the sensory inputs. A lot of Indians, for example, tend to struggle when they move abroad, because it simply doesn’t smell like India. This is a transition that is difficult to make, as it is a sub-conscious push out of one’s comfort zone and environment. Due to the fact that it’s sub-conscious, there’s not too much that can be done about it. It has to be given time. This may not be so applicable for players moving within a continent, but is a serious challenge for players jumping continents.

Similarly, lack of knowledge about the new country is a huge barrier. Most immigrants have a fair idea of what they need to do in their new home, courtesy of their embassies, but what they do not know is how to go about doing it. An Indian/Ghanian/Colombian may learn from his embassy that he needs to obtain his social security card, but probably has no clue about how to go about the process.

Until recently, most big clubs didn’t really pay attention to these details and help their stars settle down. Didier Drogba spoke in his autobiography about how no one really helped him out with basic things like finding a house and settling down. He describes how the likes of Gallas and him used to joke about living in a hotel even months after the making the move to London. A lot of us seem to have the “they get paid so much, they should just get on with it” attitude, but unfortunately, the lack of fulfilment of basic needs like a home are always going to take first priority in the mind of any human (Maslow’s need hierarchy theory). Recently though, clubs seem to have realised this, and focus a lot more on helping their new transfers settle down. This undoubtedly helps in improving on pitch performance, but is a problem that can be avoided altogether by promoting from within, or at least minimised if players are recruited from within a particular country.