Jun 29, 2008, 17:49 GMT
Vienna - Although many of the coaches at Europe's top clubs have cast an eye over proceedings at Euro 2008 in the search for new blood, they were already familiar with the majority of players on show in Austria and Switzerland.
'Mainly I would say that you discovered only Russian players at this tournament because you see them playing less. All the others you know,' said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger during Euro.
Even though they helped lead Zenit St Petersburg to the UEFA Cup last season, Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko were still relatively unknown throughout Europe prior to Russia's march to the semi-finals.
But the pair's superb performances in Russia's defeats of Sweden and highly-fancied Holland have alerted Europe's larger clubs to their talent.
'Arshavin is a player we have been following and, for what we have seen, he has a lot of quality and is a player of high level,' said Barcelona coach Josep (Pep) Guardiola earlier this week while Scottish champions Celtic remain hopeful of landing Pavlyuchenko.
Despite a relatively quiet tournament by his extremely high standards, superstar Cristiano Ronaldo remains the hottest property in football, with Real Madrid continuing their relentless pursuit of the Manchester United and Portugal midfielder.
While United have complained about Real's behaviour, UEFA boss Michel Platini was more pragmatic about the circus surrounding Ronaldo during the tournament.
'All the clubs in the world would love to have Ronaldo, its the way things are today,' he said at his closing press conference in Vienna.
'The big clubs always want to get the best players and as Ronaldo is one of the best, or the best, then this is normal.'
After bursting onto the international stage with their performances for Germany at the 2006 World Cup, Lukas Podolski and Bastian Schweinsteiger saw their careers stagnate slightly at Bayern Munich, where both struggled this season to hold down a first-team place.
While Schweinsteiger failed make to make the starting line-up for the opening game against Poland, Podolski managed to net both goals in Germany's 2-0 win.
Podolski also scored in his side's 2-1 loss to Croatia but Schweinsteiger's tournament went from bad to worse as the midfielder came on as a substitute and then saw red for a petulant push on Jerko Leko.
However, following his return from suspension, memories of the 2006 'Poldi and Schweini' show were re-awakened as Podolski set up Schweinsteiger for vital goals against first Portugal and then Turkey in the semi-final.
Turkey's progress to the last four is certainly the most remarkable story of Euro, considering the last-minute scores against Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Croatia and the numerous suspensions and injuries that plagued Fatih Terim's squad.
The injuries to first-team players gave the likes of under-21 international Mehmet Topal and substitute Semih Senturk the chance to impress while Hamit Altintop has shown he has the class to play at the very highest level.
The major disappointments at Euro were Italy, France and defending champions Greece, whose ultra-conservative style saw them finish bottom of their group without a win.
Italy's quarter-final penalty shoot-out loss to Spain cost Roberto Donadoni his job while the storm clouds consider to gather over France boss Raymond Domenech following his ageing side's failure to make it past the group stage.
One team that has lived up to all expectations is Spain. Luis Aragones' side opened their campaign with a 4-1 hammering of Russia but needed a last-minute goal from tournament top scorer David Villa to prevail against Sweden and book their date with Italy.
Even though injury forced Villa off early against Russia in the semi-final, the introduction of Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas, who set up two of three goals in a 3-0 win, showed the strength of depth in the Spanish side.
'Other teams like Portugal and Italy are feeling the generational change but we changed the team after the World Cup when some older players left and younger ones were brought in,' said goalkeeper and captain Iker Casillas.
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