Yeh, but is the Scottish team world champions? Are their players amongst the best in the world? etc, etc.
Again, the 3 managers comment is mute, agree with the remark about 3 Scottish managers, and lets face it, which are the more successful?
How many real top class Italians play in England? Aquilani? Cutting the mustard well here that one. Only really him and Rossi playing outside Italy ATM. Rest are either journeymen footballers signed because they are cheaper than journeymen from England, many of these are just doing the rounds of Europe, Italy being just one stop.
Utd not really poached a lot of Italian kids, no more than we've poached from France or the arse end of Africa/Norway, and no worse than the Italians nicking other nations kids themselves (or the French raiding their old colonies in Africa). Only two I can think of are Macheda and Petrucci (and lets face it, only know his name from FM). Could add Rossi to that list in recent years, when you realise he's from that little province of Italy they call New Jersey.
End of the day, its a fair while since an Italian player or manager made an impact on domestic English football (so we've got an Italian coach, would he have got the job if Alex Ferguson had thrown his hat into the ring? Wenger? Don't think so. Does this make them 2nd to Sweden in manager stakes as Ericsson did it first?), and a while since an Italian team did OK against a decent English team (having said that, would back Inter to do Chelsea, wishful thinking but worth a punt)
