Anthony Brown: Forgotten foreigners

Every club has a group of legendary former players who are placed on a pedestal by fans and never forgotten.

But, as we've been chronicling in the 'Remember Him?' feature on this page, for every Franck Sauzee or John Robertson there are a whole host of Eduardo Hurtados and Hjalmar Thorarinssons - the guys whose impact fell some way short of earning them a place in your club's Hall of Fame.

The Bosman ruling and the inception of the SPL led to an influx of foreigners into our game, particularly around the turn of the millennium.

They may have arrived with big reputations or barrel loads of potential, but ultimately they'll only really be remembered when you're sitting in the pub with your mates trying to recall some of the more obscure names who have donned your club's colours.

Let's take a wander down memory lane to reacquaint ourselves with some of the less-memorable names to grace our top flight since 1998.

Where to start, I hear you cry.

I'm thinking Dundee is as good a place as any as there was a raft of transfer activity when the Bonetti brothers were at the helm at Dens. The Italian pair were responsible for introducing the Scottish public to Walter Del Rio, Beto Carranza, Javier Artero, Allessandro Romano, Marcello Marrocco and Massimo Beghetto. They even pinched Argentine Beta Naveda off city rivals United.

The Tannadice club themselves certainly wouldn't be outdone in the 'Who's he?' ranks, however, as they could once upon a time boast the illustrious likes of John Licina, Mvondo Atangana, Stephane Leoni, Pat Onstad, Alphonse Tchami and Tassos Venetis. What do you mean I'm making these names up?

Aberdeen's always been a good place for short-stop-off merchants as well. Nigel Pepper, Rachid Belabed, Alex Di Rocco, Leon Mike, Laurent D'Jaffo and Fernando Pasquinelli were all allegedly witnessed at some point in the Granite City.

Anyone remember Yann Soloy? Nope. He was a Frenchman who played 12 times for Motherwell in the 01/02 season. Also starring at Fir Park in the early Noughties were Benito Kemble, Ange Ouefio, Moroccan ace Said Chiba and David Ferrere, who struck a hat-trick on his debut against Hibs and did nothing else after that.

Kilmarnock gave us Mickael Pizzo and Eric Joly, while St Mirren brought German striker Jens Paeslack into the SPL in 2000. Livingston were always excellent contributors to the top-flight's obscurity ranks, giving us the likes of Gabor Vincze, Rolando Zarate, Philippe Brinquin, Guy Ipoua and Quino, while Dunfermline had the likes of Youssef Rossi, and Marinus Dijkhuizen.

Low-profile Celtic and Rangers players were harder to come by, but you could make a case for the likes of Thomas Mhyre, Bojan Djordjic, Hamed Namouchi and Olivier Tebily being worthy of a place in the Underwhelming Select.

Wenger's a genius, despite the drought

I CAN'T understand the calls for Arsene Wenger to leave Arsenal. The argument is that his team have underachieved as they haven't won a trophy in six years. I'd argue that they've overachieved. Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham, Manchester City and Aston Villa have all spent far more money on players than Arsenal, yet they all sit below the Gunners in the league. Apart from Chelsea, none of those teams have made as big an impact as Wenger's men in either the league or the Champions League over the past six years.

The reason Arsenal have quality players such as Robin van Persie, Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Jack Wilshere is that Wenger and his cohorts spotted them at a young age and nurtured them. Wenger prefers evolution of a football club rather than spending big money for a quick fix. He's doing it the right way and, although they seem to have gone to pieces over the past month, it's no disgrace to be second only to a Manchester United side who never know when they're beaten. Unless they were able to get someone like Pep Guardiola or Jose Mourinho, I could only see Arsenal without Wenger struggling to make the top four in future. The man remains a genius.

Not a fan of . . .

.?.?. THE continual Fabio Capello bashing down south. There's no disputing that the Italian has made mistakes along the way, but last week his England team produced two much-improved performances and, as a result, the Italian should have earned himself an easier ride in the media afterwards. Instead he was still getting panned about his handling of the captaincy affair and a throwaway remark he made about only needing to know 100 words in English to get by in the job. If he learns from his mistakes, I believe he remains England's best hope for next year's Euros.

Hats off to . . .

... MIXU PAATELAINEN. After his time as manager of Hibs didn't exactly work out, the big Finn has taken full advantage of his spell in charge of Kilmarnock and deserves all the credit going.

It was a brave decision to try and instil a whole new footballing philosophy in a team touted for relegation but he's pulled it off remarkably and there's no doubt that he produced one of the most entertaining sides the SPL has seen in recent years.

He probably knew some of his best players wouldn't be sticking around next season so is perfectly entitled to seize the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to manage his country. As for Killie, I reckon they should place their faith in Kenny Shiels, a man who shares Mixu's philosophy