According to the knowledgeable people at Craven Cottage Newsround, Danny Hoessen has gone on a season-long loan to Fortuna Sittard in the Dutch second division. http://cravencottagenewsround.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/pajtim-kasami/#comments (see the final line of the article about Kasami).
Good news. Like Stockdale, if there's not much chance of him getting first-team football here here may as well go on loan. Hopefully a stint in the Dutch league will give him some good experience.
I hadn't realised when I first posted, Fortuna is also the club we signed him from, so he's going into a familiar environment. I just hope he comes back improved, rather than doing a Wayne Brown - the club website was full of how well he'd done out in Finland, winning the Finnish player of the year award and so on, and then a few weeks later we released him on a free transfer! Still, I agree that this is good news.
He was a youngster who came up, was loaned out and then released all during the Hodgson era. I saw him play for Bristol Rovers at the end of last season against Bournemouth. He looked good, but not Premier League good.
Should be good for young Danny and us. Not least because it gives him a chance to properly recover from his long(ish) injury and get some proper games under his belt. As Super Bri posted a bit ago, Jol is looking to give the young players experience by sending them out on loan. It's clear that he's not only now had a look at the youngsters but also a chat with them about how he sees their future. So some will go on loan, like Hoessen and some will simply go, like Marsh-Brown. Whatever, it can only be good for the club. I don't think this loan is at all similar to the Stockdale one though. In David's case, it was he who was making the running and not only did Ipswich pay us £240k for the privilage, they are picking up his wages. In Danny's case, as you say Captain he's going back to his old club for a spell - we paid them £400k. This time round I very much believe no money will be changing hands and indeed we will still be picking up his wage bill. No problems with that of course, since it we and Danny who should benefit.
Indeed Captain. And do you know, with the tidy balance in wages saved now adding up, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Jol's (and of course Ali Mac's) next little foray into the market wasn't a loan deal. Could it be Sturridge? Or even the bete noir Forlan?
I don't see Forlan coming, but Sturridge would be great. Incidentally, I read this morning that Bolton have pulled out of a deal for Jeffren having waited two weeks for him to make his mind up about a move. I don't know where that leaves us but maybe he could be back on the table. I think Bolton's agreed deal with Barca was £5m.
Just as an aside on Forlan, I met him briefly a couple of weeks back. I was on holiday in La Manga in Spain and on the club they have football training pitches that quite a few premiership sides have used over the years. Was driving back past them on my way back to the villa one morning and saw a team coach parked up with a few locals watching some players kicking balls about. Noticed the splash on the side was the Athletico Madrids Badge so, with much protesting from my wife, I pulled into the car park by the training pitches, got out and wandered over for a look. The nice thing was that you could just stroll up to the pitchside, no barriers or security or anything. After watching various players do various things (not serious stuff just shooting, passing and so on, no mad running about) for about 10 minutes a ball came bouncing toward me and Forlan came jogging slowly after it. He stopped it about two yards from me. Looked up at me and smiled. I took my chance and knowing he speaks some English I said. "You broke my heart, you know". He looked at me in a puzzled way for a second or two then smiled and said "Fulham fan?" I nodded. He then made my day. "Great team", he said. "Hard to beat." then picked up the ball and jogged back. Seemed like a nice guy.
Lovely story Fulhaman. Lucky you, a holiday in Spain and meeting the great Diego! Nice words from him too, confirming what we thought of him when he was so gracious in victory - a real gentleman player. Certainly wouldn't be out of place in SW6....
