298: Jordi Cruyff, Manchester United, Merlin’s Premier League 97 Official Sticker Collection, 304: Roman Pavlyuchenko, Tottenham Hotspur, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, 2009/10, 324: El Hadji Diouf, Liverpool, The Official Premier League Sticker Collection 2003, 10th Edition and 40: Luc Nilis, Aston Villa, Merlin’s F.A. Premier League 2001 Official Sticker Collection

Well who could have predicted we’d be on the verge of yet another England appearance in a European Championships final a few weeks ago? John Stones may not have played a single pass forward, Harry Kane may look like he’s not slept in three months and Phil Foden may have managed to hit every part of the goal frame besides the back of the net but Gareth Southgate has once again guided his charges successfully through a major international tournament. All that now stands in the way of football coming home from Berlin is a very talented Spain side who apparently have a decent history in this competition.

As this summer’s feast of football comes to an end it’s time for the far more exciting and headline dominating transfer window. As clubs across Europe (and Saudi Arabia) look to solve their various dilemmas the recent European Championship has provided the continent’s finest with the perfect shop window and, unfortunately, made Fabrizio Romano busy again. Could Lamine Yamal be the next young upstart squeezed into the bulging squads at Manchester City and Chelsea? Maybe Georges Mikautadze will follow up his form for Georgia at these championships and become this millennium’s Bontcho Guentchev with a move to Ipswich Town. Such transfers should always come with a caution, however, as the stories below in our collaborative effort reveal.

After Euro 96 a whole host of European talent made their way to England to ply their trades in the Premier League. This being the 1990s breakfast cereal giants Kellogg’s looked to cash in with their advertising campaign for the imaginatively named ‘Strike!’ by suggesting the likes of David Ginola, Patrik Berger, Karel Poborsky and Fabrizio Ravanelli had moved to the home of football to develop their games, win trophies and enjoy a bowl of sugary goodness. Ginola had already spent a season as part of Newcastle United’s infamous entertainers but his advert co-stars had all played some part in the recently completed European Championships and were joined in Blighty by Roberto Di Matteo and Frank Leboeuf at Chelsea, Aljosa Asanovic at Derby County and Nikola Jerkan at Nottingham Forest. Meanwhile reigning champions Manchester United brought in the aforementioned Poborsky alongside Netherlands’ and Barcelona attacking midfielder Jordi Cruyff.

At the tournament Cruyff had started all three group games for the Dutch and scored the opening goal in their victory over Switzerland. His side exited the quarterfinals after a penalty shootout defeat to France but Alex Ferguson had seen enough to bring him to Old Trafford. As well as having to force his way into a side including Eric Cantona, Paul Scholes, David Beckham and Poborsky in similar positions he also had to carry the burden of expectation that comes with being the progeny of one of the games’ greatest players of all time. He made a promising start to his United career before injury hit in November 1996 and, sadly, never really left him alone. He picked up a Premier League winner’s medal in his first season but missed out on any further gongs in the infamous Treble win due to a loan move to Celta Vigo in January 1999. After his contract expired in June 2000 he headed back to Spain with Alaves and finished his career in Malta with Valetta.

As Mat will further explore below it was not easy to make an impact at Old Trafford in the late 1990s and Jordi Cruyff didn’t embarrass himself in his four seasons at United. It would have been nigh on impossible for him to live up to the hype surrounding his surname but it is worth noting that his nine caps for the Netherlands all came in 1996 and even good performances in Spain failed to push him back into contention. Nevertheless it’s unfair to paint him as Manchester United’s most questionable post-tournament signing and, if the rumours are to be believed, may be trumped by some of Eric Ten Hag’s targets this summer. On that note: over to Mat.

“Never sign a player off the back of a big tournament.” That’s the old saying that goes around football. At least by some pundits and fans with YouTube presences. Then again, those same pundits and fans will be the ones screaming out for the latest headline grabbing player following a standout moment. Think Turkey’s Mert Gunok preventing Austria from equalising in the last minute or even Portugal’s Diogo Costa for keeping his sheet clean, even in the penalty shootout and saving Ronaldo’s teary-eyed blushes. These players are almost destined to become flops as soon as they’ve been signed on the back of one memorable moment in the world (or European) shop window.

But, thinking of post-Euro signing flops wasn’t quite as easy as I thought. Plenty from the World Cups (Kleberson I see you) but outside of the infamous, and unfair, example, it’s not quite as easy. That example is one Karel Poborsky and Euro ’96. He lit up the tournament in a Czech Republic side that hit some great heights and chipping in a glorious effort to knock out Portugal which probably led baby Ronaldo to tears then too. United came calling for the in-form winger, but David Beckham was emerging. And the rest is history. Poborsky want on to have a decent career after United, turning out for Benfica and Lazio – so it’s not like he was a bad player (sit back down Kleberson – I’m still watching you!)

Fast forward twelve years (I’m sure it is longer between 1996 and 2008 than only twelve years, much like 2012 was only last week, not twelve years ago) and the tournament once again threw up a lesser know player into the headlines. One Roman Pavlyuchenko. 

He’d already caused ripples in qualifying, scoring against England (but then who didn’t), before netting against Spain, scoring and being Man of the Match against holders Greece, and adding to his tournament tally against the Netherlands. Tottenham Hotspur were eager to add this rising star to their ranks. And succeeded. The striker spent three and a half years in north London, only at best achieving some cult hero status with the ability, although far too infrequent, to score a wonder goal. The £13m man’s lowlights including storming off down the tunnel when being subbed against Manchester City for Frazier Campbell (I mean can you blame him?), and being fourth choice behind Robbie Keane, Jermaine Defoe and beanpole Peter Crouch.

After being fancied by a number of clubs, including West Ham United, AC Milan, Birmingham City and a return to Spartak Moscow, he eventually left, returning to Russia to Locomotiv Moscow ending his fractious stint at White Hart Lane. He then led a nomadic existence in Russia, playing for Kuban Krasnodar, Ural Yekaterinburg, third tier Ararat Moscow, and then fourth tier Znamya Noginsk in 2018. After trying to fight an opponent and swearing at him, he received an eight match ban, following which he decided to retire. From football. I’m not sure about fighting or swearing. Over to Rich with another post-tournament signing who liked a bit of controversy.

Some post-major tournament signings work out, some don’t. I think it is safe to say that Liverpool’s £10m capture didn’t. It is well known that they opted to sign him over Nicolas Anelka, and although looking back it was a really bad idea, at the time there was a degree of sense to it. After all, El Hadji Diouf had just been named in the 2002 World Cup All-Star team after helping Senegal reach the quarterfinals and was the African player of the year at the time. However, the day he signed for Liverpool was perhaps the only good one he had there. 

Diouf started on the wrong foot at Anfield by immediately taking umbrage with Steven Gerrard, saying, "When I arrived at Liverpool, I showed him he was nothing at all. He was nothing at all. He was afraid of looking into my eyes. He was afraid of talking to me." Diouf then went on to further slag the club hero off by saying “Stevie G was a very good player, people like him in Liverpool but he never did anything for his country. I am Mr El Hadji Diouf, Mr Senegal but he is Mr Liverpool and Senegal is bigger than Liverpool and he has to know that.” It didn’t end there with Gerrard, ex-Liverpool striker (a loose description) Florent Sinama-Pongolle described an incident that occurred at half-time in a pre-season game. “...Fight between Diouf and Gerrard. I was traumatised… Stevie G is all like, "You have to pass, you have to pass" and Diouf just loses it. He didn't speak English. His English was rubbish. You know what he did? They hated each other so much. Steven Gerrard arrives, he insults Diouf. "Hey, you fucker". Diouf couldn't answer, so he grabs Gerard Houllier and says: "Tell him, I'll fuck his mum". Imagine asking your manager to translate that…

It wasn’t just Steeeeevie G that Diouf took exception to. He described Jamie Carragher as "…a right-footed player with two left feet." To be fair, that is quite funny. However, it may explain why Jamie Carragher later said "The worst team-mate I had has to be El Hadji Diouf. Actually, I quite enjoyed playing against him as you could kick him then – can’t kick your own players." Which, to be fair, is also quite funny.

On the pitch, Diouf was really not very good for Liverpool. He scored six goals in 80 games, two of which came in his first game at Anfield. In fact, Jamie Carragher has since said of Diouf “He has one of the worst strike rates of any forward in Liverpool history. He's the only no. 9 ever to go through a whole season without scoring, in fact he's probably the only no. 9 of any club to do that. He was always the last one to get picked in training." Let’s admit it, his time in England was better known for his spitting rather than scoring. This includes:

• Spitting at a Celtic fan. An incident which led to crowd disturbance, a police interview, two match ban, fine of two weeks wages, and a £60,000 donation to charity. 
• Allegations of spitting at West Ham fans, which required further police investigations. To be fair, this one was dropped. 
• Whilst on loan at Bolton Wanderers in November 2004 Diouf was charged by the police for spitting at an 11-year-old Middlesbrough fan.
• On 27 November 2004, Diouf spat in the face of Arjan de Zeeuw. Bolton fined him two weeks' wages and the FA banned him for three games after he pleaded guilty to a charge of improper conduct. Ironically, de Zeeuw went on to become a policeman.

His spitting predilection was such that Houllier later commented on it, saying, “His attitude sometimes, particularly his spitting habit, caused us problems. Maybe I should have been more wary of that because, I remember, that he did that once or twice when he was warming up for games.” El Hadji Diouf at Liverpool then. Spat lots, scored little. A cautionary tale of post-tournament signings. Although, as Emlyn will discuss below, sometimes you can just be unlucky.

Signing for a new side after a successful tournament, especially in a new country, has a very chequered history in terms of how much success a player can have. For every Fabio Cannavaro or Wayne Rooney there's a Kleberson or Karel Poborsky. However, sometimes, pure poor fortune is the reason for a transfer not working out - a player excited for a new start in a new league unfortunately struck by the blight of injury.

Luc Nilis started out his career with the fantastically named Winterslag, but moved to Anderlecht at 18, going on to score an impressive 124 goals in 223 games over eight seasons, winning the league in four of these. A move to PSV Eindhoven followed, and Nilis had a great deal of success, topping the scoring charts in his first season. He played alongside the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy and the 'original' Ronaldo, with the latter naming him as the favourite strike partner from his entire career. Yes, even better than Ivan Zamorano.

His club form was matched with bright international performances. In 1997, Nilis scored three goals in three games in fifteen days, managing to score past Shay Given in each game; goals for Belgium against Eire sandwiching a goal for PSV against Newcastle in Europe. He retired from the national side after the 1998 World Cup, but was coaxed back by new manager Robert Waisege in time to play in Euro 2000, with the tournament jointly held in his home nation. Sadly, due to the lateness of his inclusion, he missed out on the chance to be in one of the great EA Sports games of my youth. Aged 33, Nilis moved after the tournament for a fresh start in the Premier League with Aston Villa.

Things started very brightly for Nilis in Birmingham, with a goal on his debut while playing in the highly prestigious Intertoto Cup, and he went on to also score in his Premier League debut, netting against Chelsea. Unfortunately, before he could continue to build on this excellent start, he suffered a shocking injury in a freak collision with Ipswich goalie Richard Wright. Seriously, just look up the photo - although maybe not if you have a weak stomach.

Wright himself was no stranger to unfortunate injuries, managing to miss a game after falling over a sign in his goalmouth while warming up (the sign advising players not to practice in the goalmouth), and also injuring his shoulder falling out of his loft. In both cases, however, he was able to return; sadly, Nilis was not so lucky. He suffered a double compound fracture of his shin, with his leg having a harrowing number of extra corners, and a resultant infection left him on the verge of requiring an amputation. While he was fortunate enough to recover sufficiently to avoid this, he never played again. In retirement, he has scouted and coached for PSV, and is currently striker coach at Patro Eisden. Villa may not have got the best of him, but his legacy is assured by his having been voted into the all time greatest teams of both Anderlecht and PSV, and the enduring admiration of Ronaldo. Just a shame EA Sports didn't make the effort to squeeze him into Euro 2000. Back to Manny to round things up.

Whatever happens tomorrow night the 2024 European Championships have got us all talking football, discovering brand new players and realising some very old men are still playing. Some of them may even be coming to a club near you very soon. Results may vary.