Gazza, Greaves, Blissett – can Joe Hart buck the trend of Englishmen flopping in Italy?

“I can pinpoint the day, the hour, the minute, the second that I doomed myself to life as an alcoholic,” Jimmy Greaves wrote in his autobiography. “It was the moment I signed my name on a contract that tied me head and foot to AC Milan.”

It was a tad unfair of Greaves to blame his issues with alcohol on the Rossoneri. True, he was disappointed at having failed in his desperate bid to persuade Chelsea to pull the plug on his £80,000 transfer to San Siro but the fact that he missed his first flight to Milan because of a drunken lunch at Heathrow Airport suggests that he already had a problem before he touched down in Italy.

What is undeniable, though, is that Greaves was driven to despair during his short but turbulent spell in Serie A, having proven utterly incompatible with Rossoneri coach Nereo Rocco, tactically and professionally. “He made my life hell,” the Essex native wrote.

Greaves actually scored nine goals in 10 games but found himself essentially competing for one striking berth with Jose Altafini, with Rocco unwilling to play with two up front. Greaves also struggled with dark arts of Italy’s infamously underhanded defenders but it was the striker’s behaviour off the field that most concerned Rocco – and the Italian press.

Greaves’ fondness for a drink became a major talking point in Milan and it came as no surprise when he was shipped back to London in December to link up with Tottenham. Paul Gascoigne lasted much longer in Rome but his boorish behaviour merely reinforced the widely held perception within Italy that English players were more interested in raising glasses than trophies.

Clearly, this is a gross generalisation and this view no longer carries as much water. When it comes to diet, conditioning and fitness, English players can no longer said to be lagging behind their Italian counterparts. Furthermore, while Italy can boast a number of model professionals in the mould of Gianluigi Buffon, there are also enfant terrible like Antonio Cassano.

However, there is no denying that English players still struggle to settle in Serie A. This was literally illustrated by the image of Ashley Cole standing detached from his team-mates in a group photo taken shortly after his arrival at Roma, while Luther Blissett’s inability to score goals for Milan was matched only by his amusing inability to integrate  “No matter how much money you have here, you can’t seem to get Rice Krispies,” he once infamously lamented.

The language barrier is obviously a factor. It is no coincidence that the Englishmen who made the biggest effort to learn Italian, David Platt and Ray Wilkins, enjoyed the greatest success. By contrast, former Lazio boss Stefano Pioli revealed that some three months after pitching up at the Stadio Olimpico in the summer of 2015, Ravel Morrison “still doesn’t speak a word of Italian. This has slowed his development and his integration in the squad.”

Morrison’s situation – much like his Italian – has barely improved in the interim, meaning a Serie A switch seems as unappealing as ever to Englishmen. Indeed, it was disappointing but not surprising to see Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere favour a loan move to Bournemouth over Roma just before the close of the summer transfer window.

“If he did have to leave Arsenal, I would have liked to see him go to a big club like Roma, to get some experience abroad,” former Manchester United star Paul Scholes told Sky Sport News. “I think that would have been great for him and would have been great for the England team as well.”