Anyone know if contract negotiations are ongoing? Any other suitors? Not knowing how German teams generally deal with younger players that are not yet playing regularly for their BL1 sides, is it usual to allow promising talents to run to the end of their contracts before resigning them?
after several months of negotiations, Gyau finally signs his pro contract. http://www.achtzehn99.de/gyau-unterschreibt-profi-vertrag-und-verlaengert-bis-2015/
Big congratulations to Joe. It's a big step ahead for him . . . now on to the next big steps ahead that await.
Just 4 games left in the BL season. If/When Hoffenheim is officially eliminated from a Europa League spot could be the best chance for Joe to see some good minutes in a game these next few weeks.
Gatt and Gyau signing exteded contracts today signals the progression amd respect they've earned front their respective clubs. My hat is off to them. I'm happy they've secured their immediate futures. Gatt is going to breakout this season and Gyau is my pick for next season's YA breakout player. Exciting times for both players. It will be fun to see it all unfold.
Encouraging development. I don't know why they'd sign him if they didn't think he had a future. If he breaks into the Hoffenheim lineup sometime in the next two years, he will be on our WC 2014 team. Simple as that for me. You can't teach speed/quickness, and Gyau has it in droves. Even if he is rough around the edges, speed is one of the attributes that causes problems for international caliber defenders even when paired with mediocre technical skills and soccer IQ. It can be a real trump card, which is why players like Beasley and Findley featured on our most recent WC roster.
Well Gyau doesn't have mediocre technical skills. I haven't seen enough of him to comment on his soccer IQ, but the guy has elite skills on the ball. To be honest he is a much more refined player than Brek Shea and is as good of an athlete. Just doesn't have the size and strength of Shea.
His start-stop quickness looks better though. That was one thing that became evident immediately when watching him with the U23s. He has the fast-twitch quickness of an NFL running back.
Well let's hope he develops the skills of a soccer player rather than an NFL player. We don't need anymore of those.
He's very quick yes. He sometimes is too quick for his own good and he needs a left foot. Breaking the Hoffenheim first team is going to be very hard. If he does it, we can all get very excited about him.
That's my main critique after watching him with the U-20 and U-23 teams over the past few years. He needs to learn to trust his left. Given the amount of soccer he's played and where he's trained his whole life, I have no doubt he has a decent left foot. I just don't think he trusts it.
Disagree. Arjen Robben is one of the best players in the world and uses his left foot almost exclusively. Gyau only needs to be spectacular with his right to be successful, plus good enough with the left to dribble a little. He can be successful without being ambidextrous. He just needs to pick his spots.
That's like saying a high school basketball player shouldn't worry about opening his eyes at the free throw line because the great Michael Jordan didn't need to. Gyau is not going to be Robben.
It's not like that at all. You can barely name a soccer player who isn't heavily dependent on their preferred foot. From 5 year olds to Messi, players go out of their way to use their best foot. That was his point.
Gyau played 90 minutes for the reserves against Bayern Munich, got a yellow card and scored a goal. http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/...n-muenchen-ii-88_1899-hoffenheim-ii-5464.html
Correct. Believe it not, his goal was from a header. It came on a free kick (from the d-mid Wieser) that hit the crossbar and bounced in perfect position for him right in front of goal. He was also very close to having a goal in the first couple minutes when he outran the central defenders to pull down a long ball, but his shot was a little off. Otherwise, it was a pretty ugly game - there wasn't that much coming up to Hoffe's forwards, so Gyau was spent a lot of time in the second half trying to drop more back into the midfield. Somewhat-YA Fabian Hürzeler also played the last few minutes - seemed to be positioned as a d-mid.
“Sky Sports understands Swansea have agreed a deal with Hoffenheim to sign Icelandic midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson on a permanent basis.” I'm not sure how much it matters but less competition for Gyau. Not a direct competitor but he's a forward/attacking mid, so that's less competition for Gyau Forward/Winger.
This thread has been kinda inactive for awhile. (understandable since the season is over) This clip might have been shared in here already but if not then cool. Gyau doesn't get a goal in this match but you can see how active he is during the match and I think he gets an assist?