That is one Nathan Ellington. Where is the Nathan Ellington who kept the supporters of West Bromwich Albion, Watford and Ipswich Town happy?
Dont let me down H. I will send my dad over to the training ground lol to see if there are any signs of life.
Worrying rumour too - would it herald the return of the likes of Vialli and his ageing band of footballing mercenaries?
I guess we would have to look at the Udinese, Granada and Espanyol templates to see how he operates! Espanyol are the Barca 'feeder' team, so maybe we would start seeing a lot of Spanish and Italian youngsters coming over rather than players looking for one last payday....
That actually makes a lot of sense as in effect its what we are, its just we feed externally. I would think as part of such a setup the academy would become even more important and indeed be expanded as a project with duplication at sites close to the other clubs in the portfolio.
Some stuff on the Udinese/Granada agreement; "In 2006–07, Granada played in Group IV of the third level after four seasons in Tercera. Three years later, in July 2009, the club was in such financial difficulty that it was on the brink of closing.[3] The solution to the crisis came with the signing of a partnership agreement with Udinese Calcio, with the Spaniards incorporating large numbers of players contracted to the Italian club as well as receiving its youth players and reserves as part of the agreement.[3] At the end of the season, Granada won its group then promoted in the playoffs, returning to the second division after 22 years. In 2010–11, Granada finished in fifth position, with most of the players loaned by Udinese still on board.[3] On 18 June 2011, the club became the first winner of the promotion playoffs - a different system was used from 1985–99 - after successively defeating Celta de Vigo (1–1, penalty shootout) and Elche CF (1–1 on aggregate, away goals rule), thus returning to the top division after a 35-year absence" Looking at their squad, they have 5 playes on loan from Udinese (with 6 others on loan from various other clubs, including Benfica) With our current Academy and squad, we are in nowhere near as much trouble as they were - but Udinese seem to have a good pool of players we good compliment our current crop with! Obviously our youngsters could always go the other way on loan too, so gain experience of other leagues!
I'd suggest a link with the Russos maybe who have put in a good word about the club but not happy with Bassini!