BILGE claim we're one of the clubs looking at Dortmund LW Jamie Gittens Given he's contracted until 2028, I'm going to suggest there's better ways to address our longterm HG issues...
That's great news. Says a lot about the lads attitude, but is also very positive about the coaching teams man management!
It was a bizarre choice. I'm sure Postecoglou must regret it now, but the timing of Odobert's injury made it even worse.
Must admit I’m surprised he penned the new deal. Probably a decent pay rise so I suppose there’s that factor but not sure I’d have committed if I were in his position, would’ve had an eye on January.
I'd say the same about the club. It's something I've been concerned about for a long time. It's as if the era of selling Berbatov/Modric/Bale/Walker in relatively quick succession traumatised us, and now we wave new contracts in the faces of all and sundry after a handful of good performances. Way too premature imo. Should have waited until the bulk of the season was done to see if his redemption arc is the real deal.
It’s also tough to even call it a redemption arc yet when the guy barely plays. Really is a bizarre scenario.
His previous contract ran until 2027 so this can only be about rewarding perceived progress with a higher salary. But as you say, said 'progress' has currently been very limited and made all the more difficult by his omission from the EL squad. Bizarre indeed.
A couple of names currently bubbling up Hugo Larson (Eintracht Frankfurt, 20yo, DM, Sweden) Dario Osorio (FC Midtjylland, 20yo, RW, Chile)
Sounds like us and Westerlo could be considering entering in a club affiliation of some sort. I’m hugely in favour of this, I’ve made numerous points over the years on this thread of how we used to benefit from similar arrangements with clubs like Orient, Yeovil and Swindon where they’d take multiple players over different seasons and it often paid dividends, whether those players would eventually go onto become first team players here or sold for a solid profit. We’ve lost many decent-to-great talents in recent years for absolute peanuts and it needs correcting. I’d say Westerlo are an ideal club to send those around 20-21 in our academy who’ve probably featured sparsely for the first team and/ or had one or two loans in the lower leagues in England. Belgium’s a good platform for development not just on a footballing scale but personal as well as a season abroad for a young player will build character. If this does result in a partnership for the clubs I think both could massively benefit. People are already talking up Vuskovic as becoming part of our first team setup when he arrives next season and Devine won’t be doing his chances any harm either.
There's suggestions that Yang Min-hyuk could be joining us next month so he has a few weeks of training with the squad before his transfer becomes official
