I am not too sure what this entails but by all accounts they are the best team in Hungary. I thought that maybe we had our eyes on some of their players or they had some significant talent in their team but I would think thats just wishful thinking! Does anyone know anything more about this partnership?
It's a funny one - on paper they don't look anything special, but I suspect the reasoning is it will give us good access to players in Eastern Europe generally. There are some fantastic players coming out of this region in the last ten years or so, but generally they've only made it to the Premier League via Germany or Italy. This looks to me like we're trying to cut out the middle man. If we can find just a couple of decent players through them it will be well worth it, and we might be able to send them some of our burgeoning youth players on loan to help with experience.
The article is here if people are interested: http://www.edp24.co.uk/sport/norwic...p_with_hungarian_giants_ferencvaros_1_3365176 It says it's a link up to "explore footballing and commercial opportunities", whatever than means. On the commercial side of things, I'd guess at perhaps regular summer friendlies against them from now on, raising our profile in Hungary to try and make us more popular with Hungarian Premier League fans? I can't see a lot else that they could offer us commercially. I think Rob might have a point with scouting abroad though. Perhaps the plan is that Ferencvaros will do the scouting, but lack the buying power to purchase all the players they find? Half a dozen promising Hungarian youths could perhaps cost £0.5m (I'm pulling that figure out of nowhere...), which is not too much for a Premier League club, but could be well beyond Ferencvaros, seeing as their transfer record appears to be £176k. We buy the players, and loan them out to Ferencvaros, where they spend the majority of their time, hopefully getting game time and learning English (if needed). Our facilities are no doubt better than theirs, so the players could come to Norwich for short periods, where we can assess them and see whether we want to bring them into our development squad. I guess it makes the prospect of a youth tour to Hungary possible too, where the two groups of players can train together and play against local sides. Interestingly (or not), their owner (Kevin McCabe) is also involved with Sheffield United (owner), an Aussie side (Central Coast Mariners), the "Dubai Blades" and a Chinese club (Chengdu Blades). Ferencvaros have had several players join from the Chinese side a few years ago, and also from Sheffield United. Matthew Lowton for example spent some of 08/09 there. Perhaps this is the first step in a wider link up with the "McCabe group" of clubs? Sheffield United have a promising academy, and a link to a league 1 side (or championship if/when they get promotion) would make sense for getting our youths experience. I suspect I'm getting carried away here though.
That is a rather teasing piece isn't it. The idea of a standing friendly would be good, premier league teams are global brand whether they want to be or not and raising our profile in Eastern Europe would be good even if it just means players we scout from the region have heard of us. A shared scouting set up could be a really interesting idea but I'm not sure it would be mutually beneficial enough.
"This agreement can be very prosperous for both teams, it Concerns the first youth teams as well as the vacancy with player transfers. The youth teams have a key role in this agreement. I talk with the director of Norwich Academy who seem to be very open for future training fixtures. The executives of Norwich will arrive to FTC During this spring When We carry on working on this prosperous partnership." Quote from the Ferencváros website seems like it is a deal revolving around young talent
A lot of the top clubs have overseas "feeder team" arrangements which they find mutually beneficial, hopefully this can be the same for us then. However long we're in the Premier League, putting into place a first rate academy set-up will hopefully be really useful in the future, and ideally the quality it produces should make it self-sustaining.
When I was a kid growing up I always thought Ferencvaros were some kind of European giant with an illustrious history - have they ever won a European trophy?
I believe they beat Juventus in the final of the forerunner to the Europa League, back in the mid sixties?
Yeah, I just googled it as well Florian Albert was their main man, I had a feeling Puskas might have payed for them but it appears not
