Babel...

No, this post isn't about Ryan Babel specifically, though he fits the description of what I am talking about.

It has always baffled me that players move from country to country with little to no regard of whether they speak the language of the country they are moving to. I imagine it is difficult to understand the coach and what he has to say if you aren't fluent in his tongue. Thus the language barrier might be the reason certain players don't get much game time. If you can't understand the coach, you can't understand the game plan. When Carlos Tevez was at West Ham they made special accommodations for him to sit in a room and have the team meetings recounted to him in spanish to make sure he was on the same page. But for some of the less special and central figures, the club does not go to the same lengths to ensure they understand. At the bottom of this article, Zoran Tosic admits he doesn't fully understand Sir Alex. Is it a coincidence that he saw about 10 minutes of game time last season?

Then there are cases of players that allegedly speak the language, but can hardly make themselves understood. Although they might comprehend everything the manager has to say, I can't imagine their teammates understand them on the field.

Here is Jamie Carragher speaking "english":

No discredit to Arbeloa, but do you honestly think he can understand a word of what Carragher has to say?

I was also a little shocked to see that Australian striker Josh Kennedy recently joined Japanese side Nagoya Crampus. What are the chances that he speaks Japanese? And if so, I would love it if someone could provide me with a YouTube clip of him speaking Japanese with an Australian accent.

There aren't many ways to remedy this problem in football except for the players hitting the books, but battling the language barrier must be one of the unforeseen problems which arise at clubs as they become increasingly globalized.