Yeah agree, I wouldn't send him to the lower leagues he is better than that, just needs time to get match fit to fully show what he can do
Probably but he needs to get used to english football and won't get a loan this month. So would be good to loan him out in Feb/March to a club that is allowed to loan him, which has to be National League. I personally think that'd be more beneficial than spending the rest of the season in our PL2 side.
I'm not convinced we'll move in this window. Rusyn needs to go first and even then Abdullahi's emergence makes things less urgent. A loan in might be more realistic, whereby if they can't displace Wilson we can just stick them on the bench and let them ride out their loan deal.
I'd keep him here for the season, that gives him time to settle into the club, get to know his teammates and get to understand what RLB wants from his strikers I get loaning players at and if he isn't close to starting after preseason then that's the time to look for a loan imo
The third division in Belgium is semi-pro btw. The National League is pro. I know thats not an indicator in quality. I don't think a loan to a National League side is as much of a disgrace as others clearly
I hear what you are saying and sounds like a development plan, however, as we've paid £3m, I'll leave the decision with RLB
Apples and oranges though, because big clubs operate their youth programmes in the league, for example how many players leave the Conference for £3m?
What struck me last night was that it was very fast moving, really intense. A player just getting back into the groove would inevitably find that pace difficult. It surprised me tbh
He also played pretty regularly for Gent in their pre-season as they were expecting him to be in and around the first team this season.
I will say btw about Poveda I think it's clear someone has had a word, he looked well up for it last night, played really well and looks leaner. I wonder if this recent setback he had was more him getting fit and in shape
To be fair I can see both sides of this argument. The 3rd tier of Belgium is of a shocking standard but £3m is a lot of money to spend on a striker and send him to the conference. Some championship clubs aren’t even spending that much on their main striker. But we’ve also seen what keeping lads around and leaving them on the bench barely giving them a start has done to their confidence ie Hemir, Rusyn. If there’s no pathway into the first team immediately he needs to be playing football ASAP. That U21s game last night, the quality was honking there’s no intensity whatsoever that’s doing nout for anyone other than keeping up their fitness. I’d imagine better clubs than the 4th tier would want him on loan.
He looked sharp as anything. I’m quite excited about him now but have certain fans now put him in a box ?
I disagree about the game last night, I thought in the first half the intensity was one of the best I've seen for the u21s and Benfica were a technically excellent side, so it was a good test. I think we'll see Abdullahi on the bench potentially against Plymouth or if not, the week after, he has been in training for two weeks now, being on the bench and potentially getting minutes will speed up his recovery and although he was a little isolated in his 45 minutes last night I think he looked good running at their defenders and showed good physical traits.
It was shyte, not just a dig at that specific game by the way - u21s football generally is. He’s going to gain absolutely nout from playing that every week. Aleksic looked like a grown man playing against 12 year olds whenever he ran with the ball
The problem is he’s likely playing against teenagers though. Benficas best youngsters go into their B team not the U21s, the ones who are decent in the 21s will still be very young. So you’d imagine he’s going to be able to bully 17/18 year old players off the ball it’s just such a different game when he’s up against much bigger, stronger, technically better players in the championship.
