How is your English Diego?

With Eddie Howe taking Diego Rico around the facilities at Dean Court with an interpreter to help Diego Rico understand a few of the areas where he will spend much of his time, I expect Diego will be sent on a fast-track English course to get him to learn some basic English quickly. It was good to see that Diego was not frustrated with people trying to tell him so much at once, but with no Spanish speakers by the look of it among the AFCB coaching staff, it should be quite a challenge for them as much as Diego in the next few weeks to get the left back playing well.

Official AFCB photo: Simon Francis meeting Diego Rico.

AFCB do seem to go out of their way to try and make new signings welcome and I am certain the fans will give Diego a good reception when they meet him. What I think helps a player settle in is that AFCB's players work hard during training but are prepared to have a laugh and a joke when they have free time. I do wonder if Eddie Howe will try and learn a bit of Spanish to make his job easier with Diego, it would not surprise me if he did. But going through set plays and defencive procedures will no doubt be a bit entertaining if it takes Diego a bit of time to pick up some of the more difficult tactical moves.

Sometimes we may take it for granted that a player should just join a club and be able to play like he did at his previous club. But just one day of watching Rico go through his medical and photographs with the media make it clear that he has a million and one things to get to grips with before he even gets to put a foot on the turf at Dean Court in front of the fans.

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Simon Francis may have been impressed that Diego could say 'nothing' when asked how much English the left-back knew, but I bet when Diego has a football at his feet he can impress a lot more. It will be on the pitch where he is ultimately judged, but he will need some time to get used to his new home and to me it really underlined how much easier it has been in the past few seasons to rely on British players when it could. The stakes are going up now and by taking on more foreign players, I have no doubt that the staff at the club will find it more easy every time they bring in their next foreign player. In this respect, Diego will be able to tell AFCB a lot of what they make it easy for a foreign player to understand and what needs more work.