Source: Erik Palmer-Brown could head to Belgium https://t.co/yMZd5mRNJS via @Metro_US— Kristian Dyer (@KristianRDyer) January 24, 2018
Article says he's "still set to sign" with ManCity? He hasn't even signed a contract yet? This is just way bizarre. And still no solid information, other than what a source told Dyer for that article.
Part of this is the idea of what we are rating; Physical and technical ability? Pretty high. Ability to improve? ******** if I know, but at 20 he will have to get better to be any kind of USMNT regular. Ability to thrive in a professional environment (the Adu effect, maybe)? Again, I don't have much of an idea...on the one hand he didn't make SKC happy, but on the other it got him the Porto experience and they at least seemed to want him back. I do know you have to have desire and a willingness to sacrifice unless you are an absolute phenom even among fellow professional athletes. Did he want Man City for the challenge or for the money and prestige...all these little choices add up but we can't really know until there is an apparent pattern. I tell you what though, I like what I've seen of EPB a lot more than what I've seen from the decisions of Jordan Morris, for example.
6 days to go and the people in the media who started the whole rumours and hype in the summer are now giving messages that are really weird to say the least and contradict what they have been telling us before. 6 agonizing days
EPB did not disappoint SKC. During his last two years with the club they did not have the opportunity to play him much more than they did, until they did in the last months of 2017 when Ike Opara was performing like the MLS defender of the year. So what we can say is that EPB at the end of his SKC contract was not out performing the 28 year old MLS defender of the year or Matt Besler, who had a very good year as well. He did not force himself into what was clearly the best defense in MLS in 2017- However, had he not left for the U concacaf qs and then the little WCup, and returned injured from both, he might have done. I maintain those games did not help his career at all, He had offers from Juve before, from CFG after, that´s a wash. What we can say that is worrying is that Porto did not think enough of him to pop for him at $2m after his loan year there. A top class CB in today´s market is insane but even before VvD a $4m to $25m price tag for a starter was seen as very doable, and they didn´t see the investment. That said, when he did play for SKC he was quite good.
https://www.thebluetestament.com/20...s-palmer-brown-heading-to-belgium-sporting-kc Sporting Kansas City Down the Byline Across State Lines: Palmer-Brown Heading to Belgium? An update on players from Kansas City. By Mike Kuhn@downthebyline Jan 24, 2018, 10:31pm CST
I`d just decided last week to cancel the channel that includes the Belgian league. If this happens will have to re up...
https://www.metro.us/sports/source-erik-palmer-brown-could-head-to-belgium "A source tells Metro that Palmer-Brown might first go to the Belgian league for the remainder of the season on loan. Then, the source said that there is a strong possibility that Palmer-Brown could join PSV on loan in time for the start of the 2018/19 season in Holland on yet another loan." I was critical about their reporting without reliable sources mentioned with cerainty about the destination of EPB and got flak about that. They now quote undisclosed sources with very ambigious phrasings.
Given PSV has extended the contract with CD talent Obispo they were on the verge of loosing to Ajax, Feyenoord and a few top BuLi clubs and the interest they show for this Ajax academy product at PEC Zwolle it is going to be a tough place at PSV to get into the 1st team. I posted this a few days ago (use google translate) in the transfer rumours thread of the Dutch forum: "Seems to me a very good pairing with Obispo. https://www.ed.nl/psv/psv-toont-interesse-in-verdediger-philippe-sandler-van-pec-zwolle~ab859fad/ Philippe Sandler van PEC Zwolle PSV heeft interesse getoond in centrale verdediger Philippe Sandler van PEC Zwolle. De 20-jarige verdediger van de dit seizoen zo verrassende subtopper in de eredivisie maakt een stormachtige ontwikkeling door. Rik Elfrink en Johan Inan 21-01-18, 13:49 Laatste update: 13:54 https://www.telegraaf.nl/sport/1571763/sandler-over-psv-interesse-is-altijd-leuk http://www.elfvoetbal.nl/Binnenland...ippe-Sandler-en-de-interesse-vanuit-PSV-en-AZ De statistieken die Sandler voor zijn blessure achterliet liegen er niet om, met een goede trap in de benen liet hij in de eerste seizoenshelft zijn dat hij als verdediger één van de beste passers is in de competitie. De kracht van Sandler is de pass over lange afstand, zijn afgemeten passes die het hele veld doorkruisen zijn ijzersterk. Procentueel gezien komt 87% van zijn passes aan, het hoogste ratio van zijn team. Ook de verdedigende fouten heeft hij afgeleerd. In het begin blunderde de rechtspoot hier en daar nog wel eens. Maar John van 't Schip liet hem staan, en dat bleek een uitstekende zet. Verdedigend laat Sandler amper steken meer vallen en hij rondt bijna al zijn wedstrijden nu met een voldoende af.
EPB finally finding a home, but then sitting behind an established/more cohesive defensive pairing seems like the most fitting outcome at this point.
Exactly. Porto were said to be very short of money at the time, but the idea that they couldn't find $7-800k a year to fund the usual five-year deal for a guy like EPB (transfer fee paid in installments over the life of the contract; salary equal to a year's transfer fee payments) is preposterous. They (or their super-agent owners/partners/backers/owners) would have found it down the back of the sofa if they thought there was a good chance of flipping him after 2.5-3 seasons. That they didn't suggests either risk factors they weren't comfortable with or a ceiling that wasn't much better than Portugal's D1. No reports of the major risk factors like susceptibility to injury or off-field misconduct, so it's likely that the latter was the reason. Porto, Sporting, Benfica and Braga can find guys like that every season. Maybe he's a pretty good player, but not that good.
He went to Porto, which I consider a very good judge of young talent, and did nothing to discourage the idea of him as a top prospect. And here we are, how much time later? I'd like to know who's running the EPB show, he or his agents and advisors?
They didn't help his career because....his susceptibility to injury is a future concern? Or the timing of his injury hurt his prospects for a shot at a bigger stage and payday? Waiting for the rest of the story.
So basically Porto were either too cheap or uninterested in buying him a year ago or even now? Hopefully, he finds a nice home in Belgium.
Well, PSV thought it was worth to get him on a free transfer and invest the minimum wage of 417.750 euro (x 1.24= US$$). But it wouldbe stupid business to spend that to benefit CFG. And it is the only verifiable offer from Europe of this whole story since Januari last year. So I go from the premise they saw enough, when they were in the USA for Lozano in Kansas, from EPB to say in august'17 let's do it.
or because porto and Portuguese teams dont want to help american soccer players ??? some benfica fans on their forum were recently crying when parks get into a game or 2 (can you name even 1 american soccer player who has had REAL success in portugal?? this despite the fact that a youth USMNT just tied portugal in portugal) ...MANY benfica fans want Portuguese players playing for benfica not americans. they'd rather have a lesser Portuguese player on the field for their club than any american prospect who isn't messi-level good. they'd probably hate pulisic if he had signed there from the beginning. (can't say I havent had similar thoughts about MLS these days where domestic prospects are mostly all rotting away behind mediocre to good foreigners) i think most americans....coming from a hyper-PC, hyper-diverse, mulit-cultural-at-all-costs world constructed by their lawyers....simply fail to understand that ALL COUNTRIES in the world are not the same and don't share the American love for inclusion. instead, they see their national soccer league as the incubator of national soccer talent and their national team and portugal is extreme in this regard....and furthermore, it is a big reason why portugal is good at international soccer. in other words, if EPB was Portuguese he wouldve already been starting in the Portuguese first division and wouldnt have had to leave his country for better soccer opportunities like he had to leave MLS. the difference is MLS USMNT and SKC fans didnt make enough of a stink to make the club care that they were not developing a potential national team star the way the Portuguese fans wouldve.
It wasn't the right time. When EPB went to Porto, they had been through a summer of giant spending (for them), getting two fullbacks (Layun & Telles) for over $15m, plus a CB from Corinthians (Felipe). In all, probably north of $20m. Plus Teixeira from L'pool and Depoitre from Gent. So EPB got there in the worst possible moment, just when they were tightening the purse strings --they bought basically nothing in the summer of 2017.
what does Benfica/Sporting/Benfica do with all these massive amounts they get for players? They buy decent talent for a few scratch and flip them 2-3 years later at 5 or 10times what they paid for.
Maybe they thought they could get him for free on a precontract 6 months later. $2 million is a lot to most teams.
To them though? They could easily flip him for 5times that a year or two after. It's so weird this entire transfer saga for him.