West Ham fans, we ask you to cast your mind back to the 2008-09 season, to a time when Carlton Cole was leading your line, and an Italian by the name of David Di Michele turned up on loan from Torino for the season.
The forward was meant to complement the former England international, and he somewhat did, even if his output was all that great.
Scoring four goals and assisting four times in 30 Premier League appearances at Upton Park, the now 43-year-old did what he could, and West Ham eventually finished the season in a very respectable ninth.
Di Michele eventually returned to Italy after his season long spell in England, and retired in 2018 after a spell with Persib Bandung in Indonesia.
Sitting down with Calciomercato.it in Italy, the former football was asked about his time in England, and what he’d bring back with him to his home country from the game on these shores, and vice versa.
He said: “We could certainly take their way of thinking, bettering our own. Applying the right amount of sense to incidents, without exaggerating. They never do it: they go to the stadium to enjoy the game, talking more about the pitch than about the handball or the penalty that could have been given or not. It’s also a way to stress less.
“From us, they could probably take a little more tactics. They aren’t big on them. They don’t have our preparation in terms of game organisation and tactical discipline. They run a lot, yes, but tactics are slowly entering their league, mostly thanks to the foreign managers being increasingly present in the Premier League”.
