By Hull City Share An in-depth look into our final winter transfer window signing, Anass Zaroury… Born in Mechelen, Belgium, the left winger began his youth footballing career at SK Heffen in 2006. Spending the 2011/12 season at his hometown club of Mechelen before moving to the JMG Academy, set up by former French international Jean-Marc Guillou. Zaroury spent two years at the academy before moving to Zulte Waregem in 2014. Spending five years at Essevee, Zaroury’s next move saw the winger make his first steps into senior football at Lommel Sportkring in 2019. Making his debut on 3 August 2019 against KVC Westerlo in the Proximus League, playing 70 minutes in a 2-0 defeat, his third appearance saw him net his first goal for the club when scoring the fourth goal of the game in a 4-0 win over KSV Temse in the fifth round of the Croky Cup. In his breakout season, the 23-year-old featured six times in all competitions. The 2020/21 campaign saw Zaroury become a more consistent first team regular, netting seven times and recording four assists in 25 1B Pro League appearances, along with featuring twice in the Croky Cup. One of his most notable appearances in the 2020/21 campaign came on 24 January 2021. With Lommel 2-0 down at half-time at home to RWD Molenbeek, the 23-year-old registered two assists in four minutes as they came from behind to win 3-2 in the fixture. Eight days after that notable display, Zaroury signed for Belgian First Division A side Charleroi on a two-and-a-half-year contract before returning to Lommel on loan. Returning to Charleroi for the 2021/22 campaign, the winger netted on debut on 24 July 2021 in a 3-0 away win over KV Oostende. In his first two months at the club, Zaroury netted three times in six appearances. In his debut campaign at the club, the 23-year-old featured 39 times for the club in all competitions, netting five times and assisting one. Scoring twice in five games at the beginning of the 2022/23 season, Zaroury moved over to England to join for Burnley on 30 August 2022 for an undisclosed fee on a four-year deal. Making his Clarets debut in a 1-1 draw away at Preston North End the following month, it took Zaroury just six Sky Bet Championship games to score his first Burnley goal in only his second league start for the club. After already assisting for Jay Rodríguez earlier in the game, the 23-year-old scored in first-half injury time with a left-footed finish. Netting braces in the third rounds of the EFL Cup and Emirates FA Cup against Crawley Town and AFC Bournemouth, the winger featured 39 times in all competitions for Burnley, scoring a total of 10 goals and registering six assists as Vincent Kompany’s side won the Sky Bet Championship title. Being sent off on his Premier League debut against Manchester City in the final minute, Zaroury has featured nine times for the Clarets this season, registering all three of his assists in 4-0 third round victory over Salford City in the EFL Cup. Internationally, the 23-year-old scored on his debut for Belgium Under-17s in a 4-1 defeat against Japan. Earning four caps at that level, he featured three times for Belgium Under-18s before being an unused substitute for the Under-19s in a friendly 2-1 defeat against England. Featuring seven times for Belgium’s Under-21 side, including getting an assist in his final cap in a 2-2 draw against France, on 16 November 2022, Zaroury was officially invited to join the Moroccan national team during the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, in which he replaced current Marseille attacking midfielder Amine Harit a week before the tournament began after he suffered injury. A day after being officially invited, Zaroury made his international debut as a substitute in a 3-0 friendly win over Georgia. He was an unused substitute six times in the World Cup before featuring as a substitute in the 2-1 defeat against Croatia in the third place play-off fixture. In total, he has featured four times for Morocco.
Someone has to come in as Lokilo is gone, whilst I’m not sure Doc will start a home game on the wing when we’re expecting to be on the front foot. Jaden and Zaroury seem like the obvious choice to start
Gonna be an interesting selection, no doubt, but it's unlikely Zaroury or Abdus have even trained with the first team yet. And Jaden may well not be risked from the start.
It's fair to say that was some transfer window, top marks to Acun, Tan, Liam and the recruitment team who have done a sterling job getting top players in and others out both on loan and permanently.
He was on a plane the day before yesterday. Contract? Medical? Accommodation? Media? It's not ****ing champ or fifa ffs.
Give what a rest? The two post exchange about whether Omur's likely to have trained with the side or not?
Looks like someone wants to say something without having anything to say. Just the fallback option of having a dig. Nobody's said for a second there's anything to be unhappy about, just another one trying to create something like girtfukwit earlier.
Hmmm, seems good business has been done, but I remember the last time we did well, we signed Ince, Ramirez & Ben Arfa. I’ll just wait for now without getting too excited until I see results.
I’m sat here totally sockless. Trying to temper my excitement though. It is likely to take time for players to settle and for the team to gel. The level of expectation has changed totally, as we will no doubt see on here if we don’t win every game 3-0. Maybe best to just start with not too many changes… wingers and full back for now, with little cameos for others.
If I was to take a conservative view I look at Pandur and Omur as essentially Summer signings that we've brought forward by six months to get them accustomed to the side. I don't expect a heap from either of them, and anything is a bonus. Omur is essentially our permanent solution to the Twine/Carvalho loan spot, while Zaroury is a temporary (potentially permanent?) option to replace Philogene if he were to be sold in the summer. Giles solves the LB spot, and I think Ohio is most valuable in bringing our attacking options into the game, as Delap did at times, rather than scoring a bag of goals himself. We already had the building blocks of a very good side, and now we have a bit more balance and depth. There'll be injuries and hiccups and losses along the way, but even if we just take the view that a lot of our 24/25 side is now in place, we're in a good spot. Play offs should be the minimum, and a trip to Wembley would be nerve-wracking and exciting all at the same time! I have no doubt if we don't go up through the play offs we would be absolutely one of the favourites to go up in the autos next season.
I read that as 'I'm skipping work today'! Thought you'd just cut out the middleman and head straight to the pub!
On a more serious note though, a great read on how Zaroury will fit in. He also thinks Philogene will be quite comfortable switching over to the right.
