What he is "worth" and what you could get for him (or what he himself could get) are 2 different things now. Because he hasn't gotten the exposure he could have had, someone is going to get him for a song, as it were, and reap an incredible benefit. In 2 or 3 years there will be a bunch of teams who are vaguely interested but are aftaid to pull the trigger NOW who will then say "if only we could have seen his worth back then, we could now made a killing."
I agree. We are not quite at the point where Euro clubs are ready to take a flyer on a prospect sight unseen, regardless of CP. EPB's allure, at this point, is his discount price. If Porto, PSV or a similar team can scoop him up, his next transfer will easily be in the elite range. Once we establish more of a track record of churning out McKennies, EPBs Carleton's, etc. we may start seeing something close to the Vinícius Jr. type gambles.
Because people desire and are grateful for the updates and this is the best thread for them bar none. Screw BS rules or structure whatever.
Actually with the way he's playing combined with the serious concussion Ike Opara got last night he may get quite a bit more playing time as Opara recovers (if he recovers this year).
Damn, I wasn't aware of that. That's bad news. Some people just can't catch a break. That's not how I wanted the p.t. to occur. Maybe SKC gets their money's worth out of EPB after all.
I cab see it now. . . Signed by Man U and then loaned out to Nice . . . Wouldn't that be, ahem, "nice"
I've admittedly probably underestimated EPB. We'd been hearing about him as a high level prospect for a few years and it seemed like he stagnated. Seems like he exploded and started to fulfill his potential in his time with Porto. Very exciting.
He didn't really stagnate, he just wasn't getting the playing time he should've got. The year before he went to Porto, he got a few MLS games, and looked relatively okay as 17/18 year old, which is very hard to do for a defender. He looked better than Adams looks this year for example. The difference is that Vermes somehow thought Ellis was better, even though he wasn't. Vermes was still playing Ellis instead of him up until a few weeks ago, so thats self explanatory. And that year, he also made the U-20 WC team playing up a cycle. He did pretty well in the only game he got, but he was the 3rd CB. He actually went to the U-20 WC as the starter for SKC after Ellis had a few poor games, and then never got a chance to reclaim his spot when he returned.
I'm guessing SKC have said they are going to give him a fat MLS contract (DP) if he resigns/takes the option. I'm pretty sure they would have to let someone go, though to do so.
Yeah, I can't blame them, they want to keep a player who'd probably be the best defender in MLS if he got a full season of playing time. Why should he stay though? They've held him back, if anything. Don't trust Vermes.
I don't agree, at all. He has to cover the goalmouth since Ellis had gotten dragged outside, and he was running towards his goal anyway, so it would've been near impossible to recognize that the ball was being played to Silva at the top of the box, and then get a block on his shot. The ones culpable for the goal were the RB and RCB for being beat down the left and the #6 for being out of the play. Palmer-Brown and Melia couldn't really do much. The announcer said as much.
In terms of how he played yesterday, I think he did well. Wasn't close to his best game, a couple of little errors, but certainly didn't play poorly or anything like that. If we are talking about his usual level of performance, maybe not a good game or him, but he was relatively fine for the game. Probably the best CB in the match, although those really aren't high standards. Silva of RSL committed a PK, Ellis at fault for a goal of SKC, Glad was okay, also. My favorite play in the game was one where Rusnak had the ball 1v1 against him, and Rusnak kept trying to shake him, he was going straight, cutting bat the other way, kept doing that for like a good 10 seconds, and eventually EPB just took the ball away from him. Was terrific 1v1 defending.