The Athletic FC

Welcome to the Athletic FFC podcast with me.

I am Akim Woler.

Last summer was the summer of big money strikers.

Think about Yocanes, Isaac, Volta Mada, Chesco.

Is it fair to say, though, that they haven't necessarily hit the ground running?

Well, let's discuss.

In with us today, we have the three biggest hitters in the industry. We've got Olli K, Mark Carey and also Carl Anker as well.

Let's start on this. Look, I'm so fascinated by strikers. I pretended to be a striker back in the day

when I used to play at school for St. Thomas Aquinas. But look, you think about big money strikers coming to the Premier League, especially being from a league that's probably not comparable to the Premier League. How hard is it to hit the ground running? We'll start with you, Carl.

Oh, it seems like it's getting increasingly more difficult.

We are seeing fewer and fewer strikers turn up, play for a big team, and then hit the

ground running, debut goal, boom, boom, boom, boom. And we are seeing more and more, now comments

of managers and fans going, he needs time to acclimatize, he needs time to get used to the Premier League, he needs time to do Bing, Bang, Bing, Bang, Boom. There's been a lot of commentary in the last couple of seasons about the strength of the bottom half of the Premier League compared to a lot of Europe's other top five leagues. And there's also been comments from players that have left the Premier League, gone elsewhere, and I also said, yeah, well, in the Premier League, it's this and this and this and this and this.

Or... And there's also been comments from players that have left the Premier League, gone elsewhere, and I also said, yeah, well, in the Premier League, it's this and this and this and this.

Or as Adam Hari loves to always bring up, whenever a player goes to Seria R, the comment they always say is, yeah, you know, the pace is a bit slower, but it's a lot more technical. I wonder whether as well are tolerance for maybe it's the Premier League thing, maybe it's a football thing, maybe it's a societal thing, that our tolerance for, or the threshold by which we maybe judge strikers and players, new signings in general, is a little bit shorter whereby we need to make sure that they do hit the ground running. And if they don't hit the ground running, they're a flop. And then we start to talk about them within five games as being among the worst signings in history. And it's, it's so binary and divisive. And I sometimes think we were talking about Jokorez, Victor Jokerez, after the, well, it's after the Manchester United game, wasn't it? In the first game of the season, is he up to the standard after barely 90 minutes that I think there's an extent to which with, we'll talk about of the tactical element as well but that strikers maybe do in the way that the premier league is now that strikers

maybe do need a little bit more time to settle whichever league they come from even within the same

league into to a new team so I know that they're going to be costing a lot of money maybe I'm being

a little bit too kind to them in certain places but I think there is a degree to which we need to sort of wait and see even now. We've not even had a full season. Yeah, Ollie, someone who's seen the game evolve over time, especially strikers. Delicably put. I'm trying my best. But like, you know, if you think about strikeers like Batchistuta, for instance, back in the day, Ronaldo R9 in the day.

I mean, what was expected of that striker versus what's probably expected of a striker If you think about strikers like Bacetuta, for instance, back in the day, Ronaldo R9 in the day,

I mean, what was expected of that striker versus what's probably expected of a striker right now,

are very different, aren't they?

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