Transfer Talk & Suggestions

Sarr I would imagine won't find it too difficult to find a new club, Cleverley and Cathcart's contracts are running out (along with Bacuna and Britt, make of them what you will), let's see what happens with them, then you've got the likes of Kabasele and Kalu who will be hard to shift. Bachmann and Okoye will be pretty redundant in this new system, it will be a task to shift both of them, and even someone like Sierralta, so useful to us not too long ago, but without having done much in the last 2 seasons (and, one season aside, his entire career really) and who might struggle to find his way into the team now

 

Kabasele we might just keep anyway for his final year to have an experienced head in the dressing room and for back-up, as we're getting rid of so many other senior players.

Bachmann wouldn't be hard to find a buyer for if we wanted to sell him, which I'm not convinced yet that we will.
Okoye I have never really understood what the heck is going on with him tbh. He's still young for a GK though.

Sierralta would still have buyers for sure somewhere if we don't want to use him, even if it's for a nominal fee to Serie B. Or he's another we could shift back to Udinese.

The only player we'd really struggle to shift is Kalu. We might just see if someone in Belgium wants him on a free, or we might terminate his deal.

So as per my original post, I really don't think we have much of a potential issue with being stuck with deadwood.

 

He will definitely count as Homegrown under the FA's rules, although bizarrely having searched through the FA's current rules regarding the work permit criteria for players, I couldn't find any mention that Homegrown players currently playing abroad are excluded from needing to fulfil the points system criteria to be bought by a football league club. I'd very much expect that they wouldn't need a work permit, but found it pretty odd that I couldn't find this explicitly stated anywhere in the official guidelines or any other article on the topic.

 

But even regardless of work permit he may have some status external to football (like indefinite leave to remain) that he acquired during his time living in the U.K. I don’t know. But yes I agree that it is baffling that there isn’t more alignment between homegrown status and work permits for foreign players and explicit guidance at the very least.

That said, I like the player (though no idea if that’s why our man was Albacete v Alaves)

 

Isn’t the homegrown thing a competition rule relating to squad registration? The PL and EFL (and for that matter UEFA competitions too) have their own versions. Whereas a work permit is literally a visa enabling a footballer to ply their trade in the UK under immigration law, which the FA gatekeeps on behalf of the Home Office?

 

That is all correct. But it would be fairly sensible to have some alignment. The idea of a player (like Boyomo who started this conversation) living in the U.K. from 15-19, leaving and playing 3 seasons in the Spanish Second Tier and losing his eligibility to return and capitalise on his homegrown status seems a bit silly to my eyes.

 

Bachmann is homegrown at least, it might make him easier to shift than Okoye, in England at least (Okoye I'm hoping still might have enough cred in Europe for us to shift, though there's no chance of us getting our money back for him). Of course, given his HG status, we might just keep Bachmann as a body on the bench/in the squad, even though his style, which exposes us enough as it is, is very much unsuited to Ismael's style of football. Would Sierralta want to just go back to Serie B? It wouldn't do his Chile hopes much good I wouldn't have thought, and I'd have thought he'd be a world away from the Udinese team at the moment

 

WTE was much more of a regular for us in his time here than Kabasele was during the same period, highly highly doubt Kabasele goes anywhere

 

Turns out the introduction of the homegrown rule before 2010 didn't take Brexit into account!

 

Think that Bachmann only has one more year left on his deal and we know that we don't like players running their contracts down and leaving for free. So if there is interest in him again, would expect him to leave.

He last extended his contract in January 2020 from the look of things. Without googling, guess which other player we gave a contract extension to at the same time.. (probably my all time favourite dumb contract extension)?

 

There have been several revisions to the FA’s work permit rules since both Brexit and the introduction of the homegrown rule (which has also been revised several times).

 

Janmaat?

 

We should be able to get a decent fee for him, if we can manage to draw BoohooMAN and ASOS into a bidding war.

 

Decent enough all rounder

small sample size (6.5 90s) alert, hasn't played much football for years which is a red flag

again can't read too much into these due to lack of minutes (3.3 90's played). Only competition with data so nothing to compare it to from his previous seasons either

Some interesting numbers here for sure, looks like he presses well, good in the air and some good xG/xGA numbers.

Some more interesting numbers, his shot locations map is mad. Not sure we'd get a work permit though.

Not at all, always happy to help and only takes a few seconds each one!

 

What can they do though? If a player doesn't qualify for a work permit, they don't qualify, no matter if they spent a few years in the country as a youth

 

Thanks again for the data @reids

 

I take your point.
I don't know who is on contract, who can leave or which players will be sold. It will probably be a drip,drip of players leaving over the next two or three seasons.
As for the keepers, all three should go, but it probably will not happen. None of them are suitable for the Ismael vertical football

 

Finn Dahmen definitely fits the profile of goalkeeper, but no idea if that data would transfer over to a larger sample and if there is a reason he hasn’t been playing at all.

That Thierno Barry looks remarkable. Doubt he’s coming to England yet but one to keep an eye on with those xG numbers.

 

0.63 xG p90 over 2500 mins played is madness and his shot map is a thing of beauty.

 

Doesn't seem like we're actually being properly linked with him now though - it's just some random guy on twitter saying he thinks it's the kind of deal we'd make.

We were linked with him last summer, but I doubt he now fits the profile of player Manga likes to bring in.

 

27 year old, Jack Stacey available on a free from Bournemouth, also ex L*t*n ... Whats not to like

 

Whoever does our scouting for the offspring of famous players must have messed up the filter and searched by first name instead of last name.

 

Liked his on the ball data in the "Brits Abroad" thread, data wasn't amazing on the defensive side of the game though.

 

Thanks for sharing. Would take either on permanent deals. Not sure they raise the level sufficiently for loans.

 

I think the HG issue, which has been building for years, is really going to be a major problem next season. It will be exacerbated because a number of leavers or potential leavers, Clevs, Cathcart , plus the loanees returning to their clubs, were the core of our HG group last year.
The problem would be eased if we had any track record of recruiting home grown talent from the English leagues we don’t, even though the jury’s still out on Matty Pollock. Sadly our approach has been to bring in older HG players in the “twilight” of their career, and we all know how that goes.
I don’t know if our BM has contacts in the UK, but I really hope so or I can see the squad being padded with a number of journeyman pros looking for one last payday.

 

I don't know anything about Humphreys, but Iqbal is a good player. Very composed on the ball, though not sure how good the defensive side of his game would be in the Champ. Didn't have the same amount of hype as Mejbri and Garner, but he impressed me slightly more than them whenever I saw the three play.

 

I understand he is the nephew of John Humphreys, previously of the Today programme and Mastermind, and now a presenter on Classic FM.

His uncle is Welsh, so presume he is HG.

 

Thank God we got rid of Cucho then, the most forward-thinking decision the club's made in ages!

On a serious note, while I have no idea if Ben Manga has any significant links in English and Welsh football, Ismael clearly does, I'd be flabbergasted if we're not in for Mowatt at some point, and I wouldn't be surprised if we raid Barnsley, and I suppose it makes it that bit more likely that Pollock will stay at the club this coming season, for better or worse (see also: Daniel Bachmann)

 

Looking at our squad for next season, for now, we have Bachmann, Ngakia, Dele-Bashiru, Hamer, Andrews, Fletcher, Quina, Pollock, Hungbo, Baah and Morris as HG, you'd think at least 4 of them would be off which would leave us short in terms of HG players (Andrews is U21, as is Asprilla, who is due to be homegrown just like JP, but not yet). Speaking of Asprilla, does he count towards the Rule of Eleven?

 

We have a lead scout in England, Graham Younger and I agree that we could see a handful of former Barnsley players join. Mowatt should be available on the cheap, Styles will be available for around £2m and maybe we pick up one of Andersen or Collins (the goalkeeper).

The thing about the U.K. market is you don’t really have to be particularly forward thinking to know who the good players are, who is available, who will adapt well. It isn’t hard to know that Manning and Ogbene are the two premium free transfers in the division this year, for instance. It isn’t hard to know that there are a bunch of former loanees who’ll be available for decent fees from their parent club, like Auston Trusty, or Daniel Ballard last season.