This transfer window has been dull as anything. Fair chance that Ismael has the usual start to pre season with about eight players ready to train, another bunch half in the departure lounge "training away from the group", a few crocked and Asprilla given extra time off after his summer exploits.
I feel the same, but are we just being impatient/given a false sense of timing by the deathly dull and depressing season fade out. When do The LadsTM return to Colney for preseason lazing?
Not just Asprilla. At least he's done. Kone could still be playing for Canada in mid July. Porteous, Louza, and Sarr (and probably some others I am missing) also have international duty.
Maitland Niles Ashley Young Pontus Jansson Luka Milivojevic Jack Butland Tom Davies Asmir Begovic Ryan Bertrand Axel Tuanzebe Matt Ritchie Ciaran Clark Jack Colback Andrew Ayew Some experienced names not getting new contracts this summer, one or two would be welcome here!
Jansson has signed for Malmo and Butland is going to Rangers. From that list, I'd fancy one or two of Young, Bertrand, Ritchie and Colback, but not much more. I doubt Davies or Maitland-Niles would sign for us.
Luciano Gondou. Don’t know to much about him but watched him tonight. Played the 2nd half. Had an okay game, nothing special but I’m pretty sure he won everything in the air. Young striker, big lad and you just got the feeling that he would do well in the championship. @reids will know more as will @Smudger about him.
Had a decent enough career at in the River Plate school but deemed not good enough for the first team. He's bloody good in the air. Decent finisher and target man. He know's how to hold the ball up and bring others into the game and for a tall player is not bad with the ball at his feet, Needs to get stronger though funnily enough because he's more lanky than chunky. Very decent balance and the ability to wrong foot defenders with a dip of the shoulder and can play right across the final third. He does have real potential if he carries on as he has done. His top speed means he won't stretch defences or play off the shoulder but he's intelligent enough to find space in that final third. He's currently playing for a small club Sarmiento so a bid of £1-2M should be enough. He also has that grit most Argentine players have. Think of the late departed Emiliano Sala (RIP) as a comparison.
I've watched clips of him in the past. For sure he seems good at heading the ball, but I was slightly put off by what seemed a serious lack of pace. Maybe it doesn't matter so much if he's just expected to hang around in the box to have balls crossed to, but it seemed a potentially severe limitation. Maybe it's something that can be improved upon, or doesn't seem as noticeable in a live match, but that would be my main question mark.
Well speaking to a few footy fans last night and one particular Chelsea supporter reckons we hold a big interest in Carlos Vinicus at Fulham but so are many bigger clubs especially in Brazil. Hall and Casadei he mentioned also but he believes they will go elsewhere.
Lewis Hall has been doing well for Chelsea when called upon, I'd be surprised if Chelsea loaned him at all. Vinicius would be great at this level and it wouldn't be a surprise if we were keen given his quality and the Benfica connection. I'm not sure why Fulham would even let him go though considering he's been a decent backup player for them at PL level, and I'd also imagine newly promoted PL clubs might be interested. We were heavily linked with Casadei earlier. I've now seen some site claim Brighton and Villa would be interested in a loan - not sure how reliable the source is but I don't think he's ready to play often in the PL. How in the know is the guy anyway?
Hard to say because it's a group of footy fans drinking and having a little banter with eachother. But he's the one that came out with these players when he found out I was a hornet. I don't watch Chelsea in fairness so can't comment on Halls displays but he was adamant that he and many others will be out on loan in England. I suppose we shall wait and see.
I would love Vinicius on a season loan but hard to imagine Fulham letting him go, especially considering Mitrovic’s propensity for a suspension or two. If we are looking at this quality of signing, that is at least a tick in the box for the new recruitment team.
The domestic transfer window is now open! I wonder if we will see anything confirmed today. I believe the international window opens at the start of July.
https://www.thefa.com/news/2023/jun/14/new-gbe-criteria-140623 New work permit rules announced - get the South American scouts on the phone asap!
Well that will put the cat amongst the pidgeons a bit. One would hope with our wide scouting network we'd be in a good position to capitalise on these changes quickly, albeit I presume we will currently only qualify for 2 players who won't need a work permit.
I’d have thought applying that minute based thing at this stage would be unfair seeing as there was not really much notice of it and clubs wouldn’t have put out English players with that in mind. I believe the numbers are linked to English players only so Cathcart for instance wouldn’t count (even though homegrown). I think most S American players are good anyway under the current WP system provided they have played in one of the bigger leagues or one of the continental competitions. The main leagues we’ll be able to dip into that we weren’t before are the Scandinavian leagues and European second tiers.
I think we actually need to get @Jumbolina on the phone for some creative scouting! (Sorry, Jumbo - too good to resist). Big opportunities out there for smart clubs. Not confident we’ll take them but we’re theoretically better placed than most I’d have thought given the club’s network.
Basically these: Band 4: Czech First League, Croatian First Football League, the Swiss Super League, La Liga 2, Bundesliga 2, Ukrainian Premier League, the Greek Superleague, the Colombian Categoría Primera A, the USA’s Major League Soccer, the Austrian Football Bundesliga and Ligue 2 Band 5: Serbian SuperLiga, the Danish Superliga, the Polish Ekstraklasa, the Slovenian PrvaLiga, the Chilean Primera División, the Uruguayan Primera División and the Chinese Super League Band 6: Everything else not covered by the above (one key one being Serie B) So really quite a few more possibilities.
Perfect! Now we can sign that world class Racing Santander goalkeeper Perera without any worries over work permits!
