Football history is littered with examples of great players taking time to settle, and not just foreign players either. Patrice Evra’s debut in a Manchester derby was so catastrophic he was hauled off at half- time. Thierry Henry too time to settle at Arsenal, struggling initially. He turned out to be an ok footballer in the end.
Javier Hernandez is considered to have been an instant success in English football, and whilst he had a great first season, he wasn’t thrown straight into United’s first team. Across the city, David Silva was eased into the team, and grew in stature as the season progressed along with Yaya Toure. And they all had the advantage of a summer transfer, giving them a greater chance to ease into life in a new team in a new country. And only now is Nani reaching his full potential at United. Only last season did Samir Nasri finally acclimatise fully to the demands of the Premier League. The list goes on and on.
Everything is instant nowadays in football – there is no time for building, for patience – managers must deliver instant results, players must perform every match, big-name signings must deliver immediately.
In the same way the Premiership is littered with stories of big-name foreign players flourishing after a slow start, it is littered with big-name foreign players who never flourished, in the same way it is littered with players that had explosive debuts before tailing away. With anyone moving to a new league, you can not truly judge his worth for a good year at least.
So good luck to the likes of Sergio Aguero, David De Gea, Juan Mata, Andre Santos and Per Mertesacker. As De Gea will confirm, god help you if you don’t start well.
Written by Howard Hockin for FootballFanCast.com
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