"Kerim Frei has agreed to leave Fulham and Bursaspor have beaten rivals Besiktas to sign the teenager. Bursaspor have agreed a £2.5million fee with Fulham and Frei is expected to sign a four-year contract before Friday's Turkish deadline" Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...moves-Bursaspor-2-5million.html#ixzz2e3c78cMn Don't blame Kerim Frei but how terribly shortsighted by someone at Fulham.
Have to agree. We've moved to very short term solutions to keep us in the running. I shall miss his annual run out against Chelsea !
So much for the words of JOL about youth,it appears his idea starts at 30. Who will be next. Only hope that there was a big percentage move on clause in the contract.
I am starting to lose confidence that Jol is the man to integrate our youth players into the squad. Anyways, for whatever reason Kerim Frei had stopped developing with us. If he was not going to develop any more then we were right to sell and reinvest that money into the likes of Dembele, who have a good chance to make it with us. I'm very disappointed, but this decision has much more to do with Frei and our (very good) youth set up than it has to do with Jol.
It's a little harsh to tag Jol as unwilling to promote youth given the gametime Kacaniklic got last season, and the presence of both him and Kasami in the first team squad so far this season. There's a limit to how many young players you can develop at once, particularly when many of them play in the same position. I'm disappointed to see Frei go, but there's plenty of evidence to refute the idea that Jol doesn't want to promote the youngsters. Over the last couple of years Frei seems to have actively embraced his Turkish heritage. As Surlyc suggests, this move probably has more to do with that than with Jol (or anyone else at the club) wanting rid of him. There's no point keeping an unhappy player, particularly one who is so young. I'd have liked a bigger fee, but if we were signing an 18 years old (or whatever he is) with a handful of first team games from, say, an Italian club we'd be up in arms at being charged the kind of fee that some of us were talking about earlier in the summer.
It's disappointing, but he's not done anything in a couple of years and players like Kaca and Mesca (neither of which are 30 or older, from what I can gather) seem to be above him in the pecking order. The Turkish clubs have been tapping him up for ages, and he probably just wants to go there and be a regular. Can't blame him really.
There is a limit on how many players you can develop indeed but it seems our approach of developing them might not be the right one. Only Kaca has progressed. Kasami started two games this season and then dropped for Ruiz again. Mesca was dropped too. Frei started a cpl of games and dropped, although injuries took their toll, Briggs the same. It seems that after a poor performance or the player not showing what the manager is expecting is dropped. These players need to feel the support from the coaching team. Take example of Villa last year... Why not developing Briggs instead of giving time to Riise? I would not mind Briggs having a nightmare as probably he will learn and move on with support. Why not developing Mesca or Frei instead of wasting space and money on Ruiz? Prob Jol knows better or we think he knows better...
Think Madness has a good point in priciple. I've already mentioned Mesca coming in for the one friendly game and being played on the wrong wing - chances are that's all we'll see of him this season, despite Jol and Ali Mac saying what a great prospect he is. And while I'm not a big fan of Matt Briggs, he is another case in point. He did fine against Sunderland and would have been no worse than JAR in subsequent games - most especially against Burton !
I’m disappointed that Frei had gone. I think the fact that no other PL teams came in for him indicates it may not just be Jol who doesn’t think he has what it takes. It would have been nice to keep him for another season or so as at 19 the next few seasons are going to be significant for him. Personally I don’t rate Briggs and the fact that he has less than a year on this present deal means the club is undecided about him to. He is 22 and really should have stepped up my now. I’d play JAR ahead of him any day of the week. I don’t think he has what it takes.
It's all become a bit bip bop as to who Kerim has signed for - (allegedly) now back to Besiktas. Anyway here he is having a medical with someone: please log in to view this image
Besiktas have just confirmed his signing: "Besiktas Football Investment Industry and Trade Co., Ltd. from the statement sent to the Public Disclosure Platform are as follows: "Kerim Frei Fulham FC associated with the transfer has been agreed with the club. Fulham FC, as the cost of termination of the contract will be paid in Euros 3,157,894.50." Source: https://www.bjk.com.tr/tr/haber/56520/
The Club have confirmed and in the post Jol said: "Kerim has progressed well through his time in the Academy and into the fringes of the First Team, which enabled him to play for the Turkish national team, which is a big thing for him. “But for him to continue this progression and to really fulfill his potential he needs to play week in, week out, and I couldn’t offer him that as part of the First Team here, so we decided to accept the offer from Besiktas. “He’s sure to have a big impact back in Turkey and I know that on a personal level it’s a good option for him. As a Club, because of the structure of the deal, we are still invested in his future and what we believe he’ll be able to achieve in time. I know he’ll be much happier playing, so we wish him all the best." Presumably the retained investment is a percentage of any future sale. Here is a link to the full statement from the Club: http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2013/september/06/kerim-frei-departs
I use to love seeing frie running at the cfc and cfc defence a little while back, then I went to see him play in a youth game against burnley about a tear ago, I thought he would shine, he looked quite average, he is a lively impact player, he gets the crowd going, but does not deliver enough, he can run round defences, and he might turn out a good player, but he wanted to go back to him homeland, only a few months ago the other gig Turkish team wanted him, so his agent has been instructed to look for a club back in turkey, good luck karim
This is both a shame for the club and also good business. The reported 2.5 million for a 19 year old is reasonable and there will be add ons that we will benefit from in years to come if he meets his potential. A move to his native turkey must be nice for him and certainly the lure of regular football will help his career. Good luck to the lad.
Turkey is not Kerim's homeland, it is at best his fatherland. Anyways, being treated as a big star in Turkey has clearly turned Kerim's head. Why put the effort in for the under 21s in London when every Turkish team are telling him he would start for them? I don't think they've been very honest with Kerim there (they want to secure the chance of a Turkish superstar, but I don't think he's really starting potential), but if he wants to try his chances in Turkey then we can't stand in his way.
