I thought that too but I don't think it matters. His contact with us is up in 2016 and with him having been training with Udinese this pre-season I think we can write him off either way.
Hello everyone! First of all, I'm French. My English may be very bad. Feel free to tell me if something doesn't make any sense. As you noticed, Battochio is about to sign at Brest (and I'm sure you have very good jokes about the name of this city...). It would be a permanent transfer with a 2-year contract. I am, of course, a Brest fan and write on www.allez-brest.com, which has also a forum like yours. I would be glad to have some information about this player, as we don't know very much about him. The announcement of his signature was a surprise. I may be wrong, but I think he was playing quite often with your club two years ago, but WFC decided to loan him last year. Why that? What kind of player is he? What is your feeling about him? According to the posts I can read here, he was quite good for Championship, but not enough for the PL. As Brest plays on second division, it must be a good signing. What do you think?
He works extremely hard as a Centre Midfielder - for his statue he is strong. He is creative but lacks that edge that someone like Almen Abdi has. He was loaned as he wouldn't have had game time considering the signings we made. He will be an excellent addition for you guys.
Hello Netizen and welcome! I think he'll be a very good signing for you. He did well for us between for a season and a half before the 2014/2015 season. However, at that point he suffered because he wasn't a home grown player - in that league (Championship) your starting team plus substitutes needed a certain number of home grown players. My personal opinion was that he would add a lot more to our squad than an alternative home grown midfielder, but it wasn't to be and due to the rules he went on loan. He has a great attitude and nice touch. Scored some cracking goals from midfield. The only thing that lets him down is he can drift out of games completely at times and not be in the action. I think he'll do very well for you and I think he'll improve a lot in the future. I wish him all the best.
First of all welcome to our forum. As for Battochio, you have bought a very hardworking and enthusiastic player, and I think he may well become a fan favourite as he was here. He is one of those players that can be brilliant or almost completely anonymous from match to match, but he will always give his best. He is still quite young and is a regular Italian U21 International; so hopefully he will mature into a very good player, but as I said at the moment he can be very erratic. All in all you have probably got yourselves a good signing and possibly even a great one if he goes on to fill his huge potential; look after him for us as he was very popular at our club.
Hi Netizen Battochio is just a victim of circumstances with ourselves now having to many foreign imports. A good technical player with high energy and decent passer of the ball and consistent performer in the Italian U21 team Not suited though to the physical nature of the championship which is why he was loaned out last season Sure will do well at Brest. Positive attitude, always smiling and will be missed.
Hi Cristian did play a lot for us in 2012/13 but was less favoured in 2013/14. He is quite small in size and found it difficult to impose himself on games which is important in the Championship. However, he did like to try hard and never gave the impression of giving up and plays the game in a positive way. A lot of fans like him because of that. Ultimately he was loaned out last year because I don't think he was good enough to be in a team aiming for promotion from the Championship. He would be a good player for a club happy to stay in that division but nothing more in my opinion. There was never any chance of him being good enough for the PL. I've watched Ligue 2 football several times before and I would think he would a good signing for you. He will support attacks and put in a good challenge to get the ball back. He is also young enough that he may still have an opportunity in future to develop and earn you a decent profit. Do you know any details of the transfer deal aside from it being a 2 year contract? Do you think you have paid for him?
Enthusiatic hard working and likeable player. A bit lightweight and Chapionship level was about the limit for his ability. However should turn out to be a good signing for you.
Thanks for all your answers. They are very helpful, and quite exciting, I must say. When there is a new signing, I like having the feelings of his former club's fans. When they were happy with him, it's always a good sign. I did know about this foreigner policy and I understand that WFC had to keep only the best ones. I'm aware you have a kind of deal with Udinese. He must be one of many players they loaned you, isn't he? There will be soon a press conference. We might have paid for him, but the amount is likely to be low, the club is not very rich. I'll tell you more about it when I know.
I think the most important reason why he went on loan to Italian serie B was to have game time (that he wouldn't have at WFC) to stay within easy view of Italian U21 manager in front of the UEFA U21, which he played. Others have said a lot about him. I'd add that he seems to be quite versatile. He played mostly as holding midfielder at WFC, but I understand at Virtus Entella and in Italy U21 he was also used as lateral or advanced midfielder and "playmaker". He's just 23 YO so still quite "young". Probably not good enough to enter starting 11 either in WFC or Udinese now, so the Pozzo's probably decided to let him go for his career to go best way. I think he'll be an excellent signing for you and I hope for him he'll help you in reaching promotion. Best of luck to him and to Brest!
I think it's fair to say everybody loved Battocchio's enthusiasm - we never saw him give less than 100%. In the end, he probably hasn't got the talent to rise much further - I'm glad we are not standing in the way of his career, and I think nobody will wish him anything but the best. On another matter, Breizh seems to have a disproportionate number of good sized clubs for the population of the region - Guingamp, Lorient, Rennes, Nantes and yourselves - have I missed any? Is there a reason for this?
Not easy to explain. I'm not sure to know why. It may have a link with the strong identity of the region (the same kind as Catalunya, in Spain), you know, some chauvinism. If you're interested, I encourage you to look up the history of our region. Also, we're not so far from England. Maybe it is in our culture too. Football is played a lot in Brittany. I think it is the second region on the matter of pourcentage of players, behind PACA (the region of Marseille). The problem is, with all those medium-size clubs, none of them is able to compete with the strongest clubs in the country.
Here are a selection of his goals for us Netizen. He only scores good ones [video=vimeo;134975890]https://vimeo.com/134975890[/video]
Great little player. Sad to see him go, but he was never going to break into the first team with so many players ahead of him. He should do well for Brest, I think.
Your english is superb, better than most in this country and on this forum. And certainly better than Paul Merson's. Welcome!
That's what we've always thought. But maybe, if you could find yourself a Pozzo ... or am I dreaming?
Very good player but not homegrown (there are limits) which is practically the only reason we didn't persist with him. He will do well for Brest though, of that I'm certain.
I'm pretty sure the major reason we didn't persist with him is because he isn't good enough for our squad.
Quite a few of us left for Armorica when Honorius decided to leave us in the lurch. Amorica corresponds roughly to Brittany. As for Cristian I hope he flourishes at your club. Certainly has the ability but needs a stage to shine on. He should have some company with Fanchone being there who he will know from his time here at Watford. The very best of luck to you and Cristian. A lovely chap who will be fondly remembered by most.
Where has this 'we only got rid of him because of the FL homegrown rule' balcony come from? A couple of you have stated it like fact now on this thread. I don't remember anyone from the club on record as saying that.
If you could have unlimited non-HG players in the squad I'd imagine he'd be here instead of Connor Smith, and probably Murray.
The last one of the South American super group to leave. Hopefully one day he will reunite with Iriney and Javier Acuña to jam in someone else's kitchen...
A French club would actually be a logical next step for the Pozzos. I'm fairly certain they have very relaxed work permit rules regarding players from the francophone African nations. The Pozzos are fond of Africa as a scouting location, so having a French club would be a huge benefit for settling players in a familiar environment, just as Granada is for a lot of Latin American players. I think we should petition for the club to buy Brest!
Big fan of his barrel chested Hurley burley style with lashings of South American, samba skills on top.
Pretty sure he'd have taken Murray's spot in the squad last season and had a fair amount of game time if we weren't short on HGs. As it stood last season if we had kept him doubt he would have been able to go on bench due to the rules.
