Hi Guys, Just noticed on the main Stoke City board that Gifton is coming over to link up with the Aztex. He's going to be superb for the Aztex, that much i can promise you. He could easily play in MLS and were it not for the debilitating problems he suffers with in the cold would do a great job still in England. Shows a great signal of intent from Heath & Rawlins that the Aztex are a team going places. Rest assured us Stokies in England are following your progress carefully and wish you every success. Hope to speak to you all soon.
Thanks, Dixie, for the note. We're eager to see how Gifton does in Austin, which has very warm and usually dry weather. Many of us have been reading review of Gifton done over the years, and have even been contacted by the supporters group from Elche, Spain. Any information you or other Stokies could give us about his style of play, strengths/weaknesses, etc. would be well received, since you have first hand knowledge of his play. The season is soon upon us. We have the USL tryouts in Austin on February 7th, and then the first exhibition match is 3 weeks later when we take on the New England Revolution on February 28th. We are also watching Stoke's progression from here. We have watch events weekly (when we can get the broadcast) to see how the boys fare in the EPL. Last week's Chelsea match was beautiful until the final few minutes. The good news is the Chelsea Supporters Club that we share a pub with were very complimentary of the team's play, especially Sorensen's performance in the goal (we told them not to even think about buying him).
Sheesh are last tryout is less than three weeks away, and then the first exibition three weeks after against a top ranked MLS squad. AND WE STILL HAVE ONLY EL PREMERO, RASTA MAN, AND THE GIFT. I'm not panicing, I have every faith in Rawlins an co, I mean this is football after all and not throw ball, or basketball, or baseball, or any other sport where you have ta work on length plays, get extra equipment, etc. but boy oh boy Inchy is takin a loooong time ta make any kind of decisions. Thinking positive here, must be a lot of good talent on his platter all ready and he want's ta sample and digest each one before handin out the judges blue ribbon.
Don't confuse, "We don't know who the players are we're going to sign" with "We don't have any players to sign". I'm getting the distinct feeling through a variety of conversations that there are a lot more signings that have either already occured for which we don't know about (yet) or signings that are extremely close to completion. The first date that they were waiting for was the MLS draft to see who would be available, and I believe the second date is the final tryout in Austin on Feb. 7 & 8.
mgrayscale, Happy to help mate. Gifton is in many ways a traditional British Centre Forward, he's exceptionally strong, willing to work extremely hard for the team, is very good in the air and will score a great deal if the Aztex can find two decent wingers to supply him with crosses. What will surprise you is his ability on the ball, for a guy of 6'3" his touch and control is exceptional, as is his awareness. Remember he was playing in the EPL at 17 with Watford, and at the time was touted as a future England International, had a cruel set of circumstances not intervened. Gifton can't play in the cold weather, simple as that. this isn't down to laziness or an unwillingness to put himself out for the team, far from it. I remember watching him trying his hardest in January but he could barely move, he was in so much pain. The fact that he will not experience cold weather conditions in Texas (at least by comparison to a January night in Stoke ) will show him up to be what he is. he'll be the best CF in that division by a mile, absolutely no question. Had it not been for circumstance, there is every chance he would still be leading the line for Stoke, that is how highly he is regarded by me personally and a vast majority of Stokies. As for our season, well we've been nobody's pushovers but it is insanely difficult to play in this league, givent he sheer class of teams you are up against. We continue to do our best and hopefully come may we'll have done just enough to survive. Right now if you offered us 17th place, we'd snap your hands off. You may also be interested to know that both Aztex merchandising has started to appear in the club shops here in England, there is an Aztex link on the Stoke City website and my understanding is that someof our younger professionals will be coming out at the end of the season on loan. Stoke City are clearly serious in their intention of working with the Aztex, let's hope it's a fruitful one for both sides.
Hey, Dixie. Thanks very much for the perspective. From the moment I heard of this signing, I was really impressed that our local team-in-the-making was so serious as to sign a player of this caliber. Cold weather should definitely not be an issue at home. It looks like our away schedule for the upcoming season won't have us going up north hardly at all until summer. Plus, the USL-1 schedule has the between-season hiatus from October until April. Hearing what you've had to say, I'm now looking forward to seeing him play for our side more than ever.
Hola amigos!! Alguien en este foro habla español? soy seguidor de noel williams, de ESPAÑA (europa). ¿alguien me entiende?
Roughly translated (using Babelfish)... "Hello friends! Somebody in this forum speaks Spanish? I am following Noel Williams, SPAIN (Europe). somebody understands to me?" Calmardo... "Apesadumbrado, sino una mayoría de la gente en este sitio no hable español. Hablamos inglés como la lengua primaria. Sin embargo, fijación de la subsistencia y we' el ll hace nuestro mejor para hablar usando sistemas de la traducción."
'Estimados Señores: Somos un grupo de fieles seguidores del Elche C.F. El último club de España donde jugó uno de los últimos fichajes realizados por su club, los Austin Azteks: Gifton Noel Williams. Elche es una próspera ciudad industrial, situada en el Sureste de España (Unión Europea), a orillas del Mar Mediterráneo, y cuyo equipo juega en la 2ª división de la liga española, una de las ligas más potentes de Europa, junto a la Premier League inglesa y el Calcio italiano. http://www.elchecf.es/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elche_CF Noel Williams se ganó rápidamente el corazón de un numeroso grupo de aficionados por su gran entrega y profesionalidad, por su lucha y lealtad a nuestros colores, y sobre todo, por haber besado nuestro escudo después de marcar un gol que nos dio la victoria en el estadio de nuestro máximo rival, el Hércules de Alicante. Como consecuencia de estos acontecimientos, se creó en Elche una corriente de afecto y cariño hacia el jugador,que desembocó en la creación de una nueva religión: El Noelismo. A Noel se le bautizó como 'El Mesías' y 'El Profeta', y se hicieron camisetas conmemorativas donde se podía leer 'Yo creo en Noel Williams'. Una de esas camisetas fue entregada al mismo Noel Williams como regalo. (Véase la entrega de la camiseta en la foto que adjuntamos en nuestro foro) http://elchecf.webelix.com/viewtopic.php?t=90999&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=345 Por ello nos gustaría entablar lazos de amistad con su club, estar en contacto con ustedes, cambiar impresiones, hablar de fútbol. Sería bonito dar a conocer en España el fútbol de los Estados Unidos de América a través de ustedes y de Noel. Y, si fuera posible, que nos enviaran alguna foto dedicada de Noel con vuestra camiseta para ponerla en nuestro foro. Nos haría mucha ilusión. Nos haria también mucha ilusion, que de algun modo, le hagan llegar a Gifton Noel Williams, este e-mail, para que conozca que en españa, sigue teniendo a muchos seguidores. Un saludo desde España.' fdo: Iglesia Noeliana.
Calamardo, What a nice post to the forum. We are very much looking forward to Noel Giftons contributions to the Aztex. It is very nice to hear of the following that he has built in Spain. We are all hoping that he continues his success here in Texas. Please keep in touch. Un qué poste agradable al foro. Mucho estamos mirando adelante a las contribuciones de Noel Giftons al Aztex. Es muy agradable oír hablar del siguiente que él ha construido en España. Somos todos que esperan que él continúa su éxito aquí en Tejas. Permanezca en contacto por favor.
You can see a copy of the English version I received at Chantico's Army website, under the Gifton Noel-Williams player profile.
I couldn't resist swiping this story for the blog; I love it. The next question is, who's in charge of getting "I BELIEVE IN NOEL WILLIAMS" replica shirts made?
How many do we need? I'll do it. Do we want to adjust the colors to match the Aztex scheme? Also, does anyone think this would annoy the other players, given that we've yet to see him in a match?
In January 13th 2008, Noel made happy all Elche's supporters, scoring the goal which beat Hércules in their own home. Since this day, we created the religion 'The Noelism'. [ame="http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=5O_vyXjRgQg"]YouTube - Hercules 0 - Elche 1 - CADENA COPE[/ame]
Nah it wouldn't annoy me Im excited to have the privilege of playing on the same team with a former Premier League player. Its kinda like being an anxious kid on Christmas eve, we all wanna know how he will perform in his first outing with the Austin Aztex. I believe he would work wonders for our organization Right now he needs all the support he can get, and it seems like he has more than enough. We believe in Noel Williams
USL 1 es la lega de Austin Aztex y the tryouts are here in La Ciudad de Austin and are the last opportunity for any local talent to try and make the pro team.
Senor Speed, are you suggesting your all ready done and dusted as far as a contract goes? If so let me be the first on this blog to congradulate you hermano.
Hi, guys !!! I'm another gifton's fan from Elche and I hope he score many goals for Aztexs. Noelism forever !! For the brotherhood between Elche and Austin !!!