Am I honestly the only person on this board who feels a bit uneasy about this Egyptian connection. We have two players coming in from Egypt who according to Bruce are not match fit and may not be for a while, wouldn't it have been better to have brought one or two players from elsewhere who were ready to go. Was it Bruce who wanted to bring these players in or was he just presented with this plan as a favour to the players because they were not able to play in Egypt due to the political situation there. Who is doing the negotiating with players. I don't think we should pay silly money for anyone by the way but the whole situation just makes me think that come the end of the season Bruce may have had enough and be falling out with the owners just like Nick did. I know the 2 players are both highly thought of by people who know a lot more than me about football and could be an asset in the long term but the whole situation just makes me a bit worried.
There is no doubt that The Allams will have been the driving force behind the Gedo & Fahti loans but I don't think for one minute that Bruce would have let them come in had he not thought that they would improve us. Bruce thought we had signed the striker that could hit the ground running in DJ Campbell and he is now back at square one.
I feel sure the Eyptians being here is the Allams idea.. nowt to lose really on taking a punt on two international players albeit who haven't played much football of late.. not sure they will be costing us much money either.. DJ Campbell matter has well and truly been put to bed - yes he would have improved us massively but held us to ransom and fingers burnt with JB and all that. Please move on.
OK, maybe I am being a bit gloomy and I see what you mean about if we could get a striker in then it might all be OK and then as you say the Egyptians probably cost next to nothing and will benefit the team in the long run.
For those that doubt it, look at another situation. A player joins us for an initial spell then goes back to his club at the end because we don't need him. Two weeks later we have a couple of injuries and want to resign the same player. Providing it's before the emergency loan deadline (always the 4th Thursday in November/March) why would we be blocked from signing him for the rest of the 93 days he's allowed to spend with us? (To give you a hint, we've done it in the past with Guzan) The only difference between that and what I'm suggesting is that the two clubs do the paperwork for the second loan at the same time as they complete the first one. btw, the first day we could sign someone and them not miss a game was either yesterday or today, providing someone at the club knows how to exploit the rules.
The two Egyptians both have good pedigrees, they look to have good technical ability and they are regulars in a decent international side. If the Allam's brought them in then great because our manager (who historically has had no trouble signing players) has now probably realised that it's not easy to convince targets to come to Kingston.
IMO, Steve Bruce will go for 2 loans. Boyd soon and a 2nd loan closer to the ELW closing in march. What i want to know is who are these strikers that have been offered to Bruce ??
