Frenkie de Jong

[YodaMaster]

Had a pretty good game against Fortuna today. He went off at HT, he might have an injury judging by his face at the end of first half.

I see glimpses of Iniesta in his game when he goes forward. Someone wrote "De Jong, the new Laudrup" above and I can see why he wrote that. Iniesta and Laudrup have similarities in their game. And De Jong has a little something in common with these 2. I don't think such a talent should be restricted to a DM role, even though De Jong could play there too obviously.

Now he has some flaws too. Nothing really worrying but FDJ loves to play on the left side of the pitch and that's because he doesn't use his weak foot enough and also because he relies a lot on the inside of his right foot. He does that because he has a perfect ball control thanks to it. That's also a similarity with Iniesta even though Iniesta became a complete midfielder and learned to be comfortable in any position.
De Jong can and will learn, he's so talented. Sky is the limit for this kid.

It's such a great signing, I can't wait to have him at Barca. It sucks that he'll have a fraud coach who won't learn him anything new here though.

 

[FCBfan22]

Now he has some flaws too. Nothing really worrying but FDJ loves to play on the left side of the pitch and that's because he doesn't use his weak foot enough and also because he relies a lot on the inside of his right foot. He does that because he has a perfect ball control thanks to it.

I actually don't see a problem with that. Arthur prefers playing on the right (Eeeernie stil hasn't realised that) and so does Alena. It would've been a problem if we had no rotational players for the right side, but we have them.

That said, if Ernie is still here and plays Arthur on the left with De Jong on the left, he is officially a braindead person.

 

[YodaMaster]

I actually don't see a problem with that. Arthur prefers playing on the right (Eeeernie stil hasn't realised that) and so does Alena. It would've been a problem if we had no rotational players for the right side, but we have them.

That said, if Ernie is still here and plays Arthur on the left with De Jong on the left, he is officially a braindead person.

It's not a big issue, that's why I wrote 'nothing really worrying'.

 

[DonAK]

This guy and his girl are prob better in Spanish than Bale alreday.

 

[Leo_Messi]

Great to see. Nothing worse than entitled foreigners (in this case footballers) going to Spain or Italy (or any country for that matter) and not bothering to even learn the language, become familiar with the culture etc.

The likes of MAtS are examples of the opposite while the likes of Beckham, Bale, Woodgate, Owen (all Brits, surprise, surprise) are examples of the exact opposite.

De Jong is a smart kid so no doubt that he will acclimatize without many problems. I suspect him to become much like MAtS given his statements about BCN as a city. No worries in this regard from my part.

 

[khaled_a_d]

Great to see. Nothing worse than entitled foreigners (in this case footballers) going to Spain or Italy (or any country for that matter) and not bothering to even learn the language, become familiar with the culture etc.

The likes of MAtS are examples of the opposite while the likes of Beckham, Bale, Woodgate, Owen (all Brits, surprise, surprise) are examples of the exact opposite.

De Jong is a smart kid so no doubt that he will acclimatize without many problems. I suspect him to become much like MAtS given his statements about BCN as a city. No worries in this regard from my part.

Out of curiosity, is most Brits in Spain that way? IIRC it is the EU country with most British expats with around 300K

 

[Leo_Messi]

Out of curiosity, is most Brits in Spain that way? IIRC it is the EU country with most British expats with around 300K

Most of them are pensioners (from my experience and knowledge). Those that live permanently or semi-permanently in Spain. Depends on their social class. The more refined, higher educated and more culturally educated (mostly upper class and upper middle class) tend to want to learn the language and culture. Rest probably less so but there will obviously always be exceptions. Some are just living in Spain for half of the year and keep to themselves and tend to spend the time with other Brits in their "colonies". Have in mind that I have not generally spent any time with some middle class British pensioners from say Bristol ( ) to tell but only repeating what I have heard about and know.

Hardly any of them are citizens though (so don't really care) and mostly pensioners as I wrote so usually not too many years left on this earth to begin with.

Anyway it is not only Brits. You have many Germans, Scandinavians, people from the Benelux countries etc. Mostly pensioners. In other words people who can afford to live abroad and have in mind that said countries are more wealthy than Spain on average. Same case with Brits in Italy or France. After the financial crisis (when the property bubble bursted) it has been much cheaper for them to buy property than earlier.

Anyway with Brexit looming it won't be the same thing to the great joy of many if not most locals who are tired of the insane amount of tourists and property prices going up due to said foreigners.

BTW it is even popular for Italian pensioners to immigrate to Portugal and Spain and live as pensioners.

 

[khaled_a_d]

Most of them are pensioners (from my experience and knowledge). Those that live permanently or semi-permanently in Spain. Depends on their social class. The more refined, higher educated and more culturally educated (mostly upper class and upper middle class) tend to want to learn the language and culture. Rest probably less so but there will obviously always be exceptions. Some are just living in Spain for half of the year and keep to themselves and tend to spend the time with other Brits in their "colonies". Have in mind that I have not generally spent any time with some middle class British pensioners from say Bristol ( ) to tell but only repeating what I have heard about and know.

Hardly any of them are citizens though (so don't really care) and mostly pensioners as I wrote so usually not too many years left on this earth to begin with.

Anyway it is not only Brits. You have many Germans, Scandinavians, people from the Benelux countries etc. Mostly pensioners. In other words people who can afford to live abroad and have in mind that said countries are more wealthy than Spain on average. Same case with Brits in Italy or France. After the financial crisis (when the property bubble bursted) it has been much cheaper for them to buy property than earlier.

Anyway with Brexit looming it won't be the same thing to the great joy of many if not most locals who are tired of the insane amount of tourists and property prices going up due to said foreigners.

BTW it is even popular for Italian pensioners to immigrate to Portugal and Spain and live as pensioners.

Oh, that explains a lot. Thanks
Can't deny I envy those bastards

 

[VN10]

Great to see. Nothing worse than entitled foreigners (in this case footballers) going to Spain or Italy (or any country for that matter) and not bothering to even learn the language, become familiar with the culture etc.

The likes of MAtS are examples of the opposite while the likes of Beckham, Bale, Woodgate, Owen (all Brits, surprise, surprise) are examples of the exact opposite.

De Jong is a smart kid so no doubt that he will acclimatize without many problems. I suspect him to become much like MAtS given his statements about BCN as a city. No worries in this regard from my part.

Very much true, that's mainly cause us Nordics and Central Europeans (Scandinavia, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Austria and Swiss) are more developed both as individuals (on average) and as a society.

Call it arrogance, but factual it is.

 

[Leo_Messi]

Very much true, that's mainly cause us Nordics and Central Europeans (Scandinavia, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Austria and Swiss) are more developed both as individuals (on average) and as a society.

Call it arrogance, but factual it is.

More developed than Brits as individuals and as a society? Not sure about that one. UK has always been more progressive (historically speaking) than those countries (Magna Carta, parliamentarianism, huge contribution to today's democracy, British Empire, English, there is a reason that we are all engaging in English here and not say German, high class society (upper classes only obviously although that influence is mostly French or further back Italian) etc.

If speaking more languages is a sign of developed individuals and languages then surely Belgians have to be the most sophisticated people in Europe and I am not quite sure about that one, lol. No offense to them. Or people from Luxembourg.

The thing is that Brits already speak the most (by far) dominant and useful language in the world in English. They have little initiative to learn other languages and expect (rightly or wrongly) all others to speak English or at least understand them.
So for that very reason foreigners might look at them as ignorant and arrogant which fair to say is the case with many lower and middle class Brits or the likes that tend to go abroad. Including the teenager segment that is.

It's not the same with your average Dane, Norwegian, Swede, Dutch, Belgian or German as native languages spoken in those countries are simply not international or even close to as important as English.

Anyway if we are speaking historically (past 3000+ years of recorded history in Europe) there are only two titans out there and those are Italy (Roman Empire) and Greece (ancient Greece). Everyone else in Europe is the child of those civilizations.

Only languages like Spanish and French (in Europe that is) are somewhat comparable but for the past 100+ years English is well ahead.

 

[Flavius]

Imagine Ajax vs Barca next round, must be awkward for De Jong.

 

[Messigician]

Very much true, that's mainly cause us Nordics and Central Europeans (Scandinavia, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Austria and Swiss) are more developed both as individuals (on average) and as a society.

Call it arrogance, but factual it is.

It isn't factual

 

[Aryagorn]

I would want him and de Ligt to finish the business by eliminating the Madrid scum (residing in Turin) that's still left in the trophy

 

[Laplacian]

Very much true, that's mainly cause us Nordics and Central Europeans (Scandinavia, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Austria and Swiss) are more developed both as individuals (on average) and as a society.

Call it arrogance, but factual it is.

If you were so "advanced", you'd realize you're simply choosing to notice Central Europeans footballers learning the language and ignoring those that don't, noticing English players that fail to learn foreign languages and ignoring those that do. You're selecting data to fit your bias; otherwise known as selection bias. Then there's also the matter circumstances, English being the lingua franca as opposed to Dutch/German/Nordic languages - the latter have an incentive to learn more languages. Then there's also sampling bias, there simply aren't enough English footballers abroad specifically due to their strong footballing leagues. The final and most important point, migrants assimilating into a foreign culture by picking up the language isn't exclusive to Central Europeans/Nordics. In fact, the vast majority of migrants from all points of the world (Africans to Europe, Europeans to Africa, Asia to South America) end up replicating the behavior (language, culture, statistics) of the native populations. Go into any accredited university in and ask for the relevant research papers on immigration, there's literally nothing special about Central Europeans and Nordics in regards to willing to learn a different language/culture regardless of the migrant's country's socioeconomic status; when there are little to no barriers of entry into larger society and the labor force, immigrants end up behaving like natives.

It's not "facts", it's pure ethnocentrism.

 

[Cule4life]

Boy if you knock out Cronaldo after sending Madrid home, you'll be a Barca legend even before kicking a ball against us.