Interview: “A lot of time to be on your own, but I’d recommend” – Tyrhys Dolan on adapting to life in LaLiga
Interview: “A lot of time to be on your own, but I’d recommend” – Tyrhys Dolan on adapting to life in LaLiga Taboo is the wrong word, but the curiosity surrounding British players moving abroad certainly qualifies as a stigma. For a long time, and no doubt still in some clubs, signing a player from that idiosyncratic island was considered more of risk than bringing in a Brazilian from across the Atlantic Ocean. Yet that belief seems to be on the wain – perhaps it’s harder sporting directors in suits and glass-faced offices struggle to justify multi-million investments with traditional dogma.
If David Beckham was a global superstar, Gareth Bale was just a brilliant footballer. One of them collected three Champions League awards and various Puskas contenders, but was villified, first and foremost because of his lack of cultural integration. The last success, David Beckham, left Real Madrid with a single major trophy in four years.
Yet the arrival of Kieran Trippier, Jude Bellingham, followed last summer by Marcus Rashford and Trent Alexander-Arnold shows that at least within clubs, if perhaps not the media, that prejudice is fading. Maybe Tyrhys Dolan is a more accurate representation of the transition – away from the particulars of a Real Madrid or a Barcelona – although not too far. The 24-year-old grew up in Manchester, and after successful spell at Blackburn Rovers in the Championship, raised eyebrows, and certainly curiosity in Spain, signing a three-year deal with Espanyol .
There are easier clubs to arrive at. Something of a sleeping giant, with expectations well beyond their recent performance, who survived in LaLiga with a gargantuan escape act last season, Dolan was thrust into the coliseum of La Liga’s relegation battle. Image via RCDE.
Tyrhys Dolan signs for Espanyol. “Coming in off the back of last season, it was a proper survivor’s mentality,” Dolan tells Football España. “They were just really willing to fight coming in.
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