Fulham defender Brede Hangeland accepts he took time to settle in the Premiership.

"It was always the dream to come and play in the Premier League eventually but to have come here directly from Norway would have been virtually impossible," he told the Guardian. "It wasn't always like that but the Premier League is on a different level these days. I don't think anyone has come straight from Norway since [Morten] Gamst Pedersen joined Blackburn from Tromso four years ago. If I hadn't had the Champions League experience with Copenhagen, I would not have been ready.

"It was still an eye-opener last season. I came straight from our winter break, hadn't played for six weeks and was thrown into a relegation battle. There was no confidence here. At Copenhagen we were used to winning every week. I'd come to a club that more or less lost every game.

"But when the Premier League comes calling, you listen. For me it was still a shock to the system. I can cope with the physical side of the game but the speed of the football and the quality of the player? There's no way of preparing for that when you've been playing in a league that's so much slower. When you're up against someone who's 5ft 4in and running the 100m in 10 seconds, that's where this comes into play [he taps his head]. You have to be clever."