Are they not burying him this year? And I know he's been away with the U-20's, but so has Glad, Redding, Lennon, Acosta, Adams, etc. I'm also not really sure they helped him out so much loaning him to Porto. Is it really asking so much to let your 5th CB (what he was going into preseason last season) leave out on loan? I think most clubs would oblige that request. I think he has the interest that he does due to his current ability and performance. He performed in the chances he's gotten (Porto B, U-20 WCQ, U-20 WC), but I don't see how it couldn't be considered holding him back when his club team doesn't allow him to play for them. There are higher levels than just Ajax, PSV, PSG interest. There's potentially playing for your senior NT, there's getting interest from Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, etc, there's getting a higher transfer fee. What if EPB was starting for SKC the last few seasons and had become MLS's best CB? That wouldn't help him out on the club level and with the USMNT?
If the aim is to get EPB on a transferfree move, Ajax and PSV have to wait till januari 2018 when his contract expires according to posters in here. That would put him at a disadvantage, because he will miss the pre season preps for the team plus indispensable adaptation time to the specific Dutch demands for cd's. If Ajax looses Sanchez, I think it's unlikely they will put an 18 year old not Dutch reared cb next to 18 year old De Ligt. That's simply too risky. They sooner would do that with a Young Ajax prospect they know through and through. Especially with a seasoned midfielder Klaassen gone. PSV just lost the leader of their defense Moreno to the Serie A, so their first option is to find a leader of the defense and not a rookie as a replacement. Given that expectations are going around the experienced Guardado will move to the MLS in the winter break, you have the same problem as at Ajax, that you cannot put a rookie in a spot of the leader, while in the midfield also a gap has to be filled, and maybe even two if Van Ginkel is gone during the summer. So when it comes to the Dutch league the only real beneficial option is Feyenoord where the core of the team is signed on extension of their contracts and the calendar is so crammed with league matches and CL matches in a short time, that when possible, rotation by subbing is going to be a necessity. But sofar no one is mentioning us as a candidate, which I think is a missed opportunity. Development quality for the top Dutch teams is the same, but the opportunities at Feyenoord are better from EPB's perspective.
Hi all, Quick reminder that personal attacks are not allowed in YA. (If your post was not deleted then I'm not talking about you.) Thanks.
what's the $$$$ looking like for him? PSG would be offering far more than Ajax or Betis could pay him though he'd have greater opportunities there. Though if PSG really drop 2-4 million on him, SKC would be fools to turn it down.
If I'm SKC I'm more interested in a sell on percentage, especially if he's going to one of these clubs that is known for making huge profits off youth players.
At this point sell on percentage is about all SKC can hope for. You let EPB go this summer instead of this winter for somewhere between 15-25%, if you can convince a team that taking him now is worth the tradeoff. They may have to settle for 10% when every potential buyer reminds them he'll go for free in six months. They screwed up by letting this draw down to the final months of EPB's contract. That they'll get basically nothing but future sell on, if anything, it's what they deserve for how they've handled the entire situation. When the original loan to Porto was asked for they should have said yes but you need to sign an extension for an extra year that you'll be gone. That way if Porto didn't buy and knowing the U-20s were coming they weren't left holding the bag this year. They'd have him through next winter and would have had leverage to actually sell him right now rather than try to bargain for scraps.
Pulisic showed up at Bvb at 16. So they do get some credit for him. But, by your logic, clubs don't have much to do with developing players. Stars are simply born? Obviously, it's a combination, as I noted. But it's typical BS logic to criticize MLS for a failure to develop young talent, then when they do, the argument becomes that they really had nothing to do with it. Would another club have done a better job of it? Unknowable with EPB. What is knowable is that while attached to SKC he reached a level where he's attracting a lot of attention from the sorts of clubs that value a firm foundation. Now, you may be right. He was always going to be a star. But he started in the SKC system at 12. I would think SKC gets the level of credit clubs get when an elite young player comes out of their system. If he'd been brought up at Ajax, many on here would be saying, "wow, Ajax really know what they're doing." You obviously didn't see him in MLS two years ago. He wasn't ready. So the problem here is last year, when he wanted to go overseas and SKC set up the MLS season long Porto loan. (He left before MLS season or training began). So, Vermes and SKC should have said no on going to Porto? After that, he was in camp, doing very well, and left for the Us. He returned to a hot team and injured. Exactly when was he going to play? About the time he got back into playing shape, he had to leave again for the Us. So, SKC should have said no Youth Int? SKC was good for EPB. SKC is rightly proud of EPB.
I saw a good quote on this recently. Thought I should post it because its kind of relevant. On this topic, I constantly revisit this comment from Schalke dev guru Bodo Menze, who helped develop Sane, Ozil, Neuer. pic.twitter.com/kwMV1RCLtj— Will Parchman (@WillParchman) June 14, 2017
He returned injured, twice. Beyond the fact that the CB pairing was really working, he was injured. They did what clubs do, once healthy, they put him with the b team to get back to form.
There's one thing I'm not getting about the Vermes bashers. They have an argument, but the Porto loan seems to contradict that argument. MY theory is, SKC made a good deal with Porto but for various reasons it didn't work. Sometimes a coach makes the right decision based on available evidence but it just doesn't work. That's the uncertainty and beauty of life. Now people are losing their shit because Vermes has, to this point, not altered his plans to give EPB some game minutes that will benefit his next employer. If you watch MLS, Opara is really, really good, just brittle as hell. If he had some durability and hadn't lost the development time those injuries cost him, he may well be where Matt Hedges is, ready to break through to the Nats.
I don't watch much SKC... (watch every Dynamo game though) but they are top of the WC and have given up the fewest goals in the league... says something about their defense so far.
Yes, you would. But it's okay, you're not alone. I doubt Sanchez moves before next summer, and I can all but assure you that De ligt won;t be leaving any time soon. Both of them insist on regular starts to keep growing at a good rate. Sanchez could have joined Barcelona last summer, but picked Ajax specifically for this reason.
Yup. It would be one thing if SKC was leaking goals. They're arguably the best defensive team in the league. Besler/Opara is up there with the best CB pairings in MLS (Zimmerman/Hedges for me, but I'm biased). So what did SKC do? They loaned EPB to Porto, where his stock rose. The idea was that Porto was going to buy him after that, but it didn't happen. So he came back to a club that had in a sense already moved on. The club wants to sell him, and the player wants to be in Europe. His stock rose further with good displays at CONCACAF and WC U20 events. So what's going to happen now? There's going to be a little bit of a bidding war, and SKC is going to get some good money for a young defender that as of right now they don't actually need. They're in first place in the WEST and are going to rake in some cash they can invest elsewhere in the squad.
You are correct when you said that for most of 2016, most people at SKC did not think EPB was coming back.
Potentially, but that seems to ignore rumors of a pre-contract where no fee is involved and KC gets nada. Same dude(MLS Rumors) or whatever his handle is who said we might see a 2.5M bid is also the same dude who came out right after and claimed a pre-contract and moving on a free in Jan.
Who knows what to believe....................... We've been hearing rumors about EPB for years on end, way back to when some Italian reporter named Alfredo Pedulla kept claiming a deal with Juventus was imminent. That was way back in 2014. Who knows what the hell is really going on......................... EPB is under contract as of right now. If in fact his contract runs out at the end of this MLS season (and SKC doesn't have any remaining extensions available to them), then he probably can sign a pre-contract agreement at this time. He just has to wait to join his new club for quite a while then. If said club just pays SKC a couple million (which is nothing to a club like PSG. They find that in the sofa cushions of the player's lounge) then they can get the player now. Of course, I'm not a fan of him going to a club like PSG in the first place.
It's the silly season until August. Right now, 80% of rumors are bull, if not more. Don't believe anything unless a club source (from the interested club) comes out and spells it out.
Source: The race for EPB is down to Ajax or PSV. EPL club interested but not likely likely.— MLS Transfers (@MLSTransfers) June 24, 2017
The funny thing is that PSV and Ajax sources cite metro as the source for the interest. There is no shred of anything from PSV or Ajax pointing in the direction of interest.