[Guest]

I totally agree with you IVO, the players from the east are much more talented technically than those in the west. But like you said the money is just not there. I also believe its a conspiracy against the east to make sure these nations(east) stay impoverished so they can never compete against the west (in the way the west can with us). Just imagine if the east was able to compete with the west league/club style the eastern players would never leave their homelands, and we(east) would probably kick their butt in every competition. The west profits off the easts impoverishment.

Anyway thats my theory, maybe I watch too much television.

 

[IVO]

Who do you guys think have better players?

The east is improving considerably over the recent years. Bulgaria made semis in usa94 and Romania also had an impressive tournament. Czech Republic made finals of euro96 and Croatia made semis of France98.

Today, it's not a surprise to see an eastern team get to the semis or finals of a major tournament.

I think the east has more technically sound players, who play a more attractive style of football.

The only problem that prevents us from going that extra step, is the lack of money. So many of our players are taken by big western clubs, and a lot of them don't get to play at such a young age. I think this hurts their development. Look at Mutu in Inter, what did he even go there for, not to sit on the bench. Stankovic at Lazio, there's a great talent that isn't being developed. For my country Croatia, we had our most promising player Vranjes go to Leverkausen mid-season. He's only 19 and won't crack the starting line up, even if there wasn't a 3 nonEU rule.

Basically I'm saying that if we had the money, we'd be performing better at both club and country level, than the west.

Anybody agree or disagree?

 

[giani_82]

Totally agree with you. The largest amount of money that the best clubs can release here for transfers is about 3 million DM (if they keep their squad). And this is funny since in the West the average teams spend over 20 million DM. But there is no point to pay so much money for the Balkan championships since there are about three clubs of high quality (one at some places) and everything else is pure garbage. And I think when the players go to play outside they gather the experience they need they are more strongly motivated, etc. And because communist times are over everyone now wants to go outside where he'd be paid much more; and therefore, they lack motivation to improve here. And I have the opinion that the players in the East are more technical, but they are less strong physically, and their passing is usually worse. And, yeah, they need money to get motivated.

 

[David]

I agree with you Ivo.

But let me ask you all a question. Don;t you agree that, if Mutu was transfered for $ 20 mil. let's say, then he would be in the first eleven. The western teams are usually sorting the first eleven by the players transfer fee and wages. Of course, there are few excepcions, but are few!!!

 

[IVO]

Bocur David, I'm not sure if Mutu would start if the fee was higher. I think there'd be more pressure to put him in, but Inter is full of high paid players. He'd definately have a better chance at playing with a higher wage, but it wouldn't be written in stone. Look at Kovacevic, Juve paid a lot for him, but he's been used little in the league.

I think money is obviously a motivator for players, but I also think it's the lure of playing for a BIG club, in a BIG league, with stadiums filled with 60,000 people. In the east, you can't get that many people to watch one game unless it's the BIG derby in the country. Even then to get that many people is pretty difficult.

giani_82, I only disagree with you in one sense. About the western players being more strong physically. I think the opposite. I don't think any of them are particularly strong teams, except Germany. I think the rest are average size. I can't speak for a lot of the other countries in the east, but Croatia is a physically strong side, I'd even say one of the strongest. That isn't to say the other eastern teams aren't physically strong, Yugoslavia is also strong, but I haven't seen enough of the other teams lately to comment on them. I haven't seen anybody muscle Croatia around on the pitch, and I don't see it happening any time soon, especially not from the likes of a Spain, Portugal, Italy even France.

[This message has been edited by IVO (edited 06-05-2000).]

 

[giani_82]

I meant that the players have better condition because most of them train in better circumstances, but now these things have changed a bit since some clubs on the Balkans found more money. I did not want to say that their general physical power is better, sorry for this.

 

[EclipsE]

I agree with all of you here. East seems to be more technical. And of course west has better conditioning. IVO has some good points about Eastern youngsters. I think you guys said all I was going to say anyway. Anyway good topic.

 

[Guest]

I agree with most everything that has been said here, I would just like to add one thing on the whole idea of our young eastern talent being sold for millions to sit on the bench. A lot of these big clubs buy these players just so that other teams won't have them. For example. Juve buys Kovacevic for big big money to play an average of about 10 minutes per game in the league. Yet in league, euro and cup competitionis he has scored some 20 goals. Juve are laughing, their investment has paid off right away. They keep the Italian media happy by not starting a foreigner at striker over an italian (Inzaghi/Del Piero) yet when he plays he produces, at the same timer, Kova isn't playing for the competition. Imagine him alongside Crespo at Parma or alonside Salas at Lazio. Big clubs tend to monopolize the talent.

 

[Argentina]

delija, isnt kovacevic 27years old? how is that young talent bought for millions? i know what you are trying to say and an excellent example is stankovic in lazio...he is only 22 and almost every team wants to have him, most of them just want him to be in their club, but not start for a while until they are really desperate.

 

[IVO]

Delija, I see your point, but I'm looking at it from our point of view. These players are going at a young age and it's hampering their development.

I think it's better to stay in their own leagues until 22 or so to properly develop. The Croatian league isn't very strong, but I think a player like Vranjes is better off staying at Osijek and playing than going to Germany to sit on the bench.

The problem is that when the big clubs offer big money, neither the player nor the club can afford to turn it down. Arnsenal had offered 7 million pounds for Vranjes, but he couldn't go because of some sort of rule in England. Something about a youth player having to have played 75% of the games for his NT to play in England. I'm not sure what the exact rule is, I just read that on an Arsenal site.

Even if these players go to big clubs and get loaned out to weaker teams or to Serie B teams it'll be better for them.

 

[Guest]

I believe that the east is getting bigger every year.Just look at some of the names

Ilie
Nedved
Koeller
Shevchenko
Rebrov
Suker
Kovacevic
etc..
what would be good to see is an EAST vs WEST all star match in the off-season where the teams are trained for a month and then they play.And then we will see who is the best.But then again those matches are never taken to seriously so I dont know if it would work.I know i would like to see it though.