Michael Seaton in Germany

Here's a video interview with Seaton by the local paper. Apparantly it was quite the last minute deal finished with about an hour before the swedish transfer window closed. I believe that Örebro had been in England trying to sign someone from there but I guess that fell through. The big reason for them needing to add another forward last minute is that their main striker Alhassan "Crespo" Kamara will be injured now at the start of the season. They will likely start Pode and Holmberg at the forward positions when the league kicks off this weekend but I guess behind those two they only have "wingers who could play forward if they really needed to" to back them up.

 

Another video interview, this one from the club:



In the swedish speaking part the manager says that Seaton is a player who really wants and have the ambition to learn alot and he enjoys that in a player. He compares him to their best forward Kamara when he was younger but also points out that it took Kamara two years to start performing in Sweden so expectations on Seaton shouldn't be too high at the start.

 

Interesting comparison. Kamara arrived in Sweden at age 19, I believe, after one pro season in his native Sierra Leone, then spent a season on loan to @Jedda's favorite club. Seaton's bio is basically the same -- he turns 19 next month and has has a few pro seasons in his native United States, including some time on loan to the lower divisions. Of course Seaton has the Jamaica caps to his name, but the rest of their backgrounds are roughly comparable...

 

True. Ah well, we'll let the error stand as a memorial to my carelessness with language.

 

Why is this in academy?

Seaton with a 58th min sub appearance today.

 

Very poor start of the season by Örebro. One point won in the first five games and when I watched their most recent match a couple of days ago they looked pretty miserable and like a team set for relegation already. I was going to keep my eye out for Seaton in the game but unfortunaly he remained on the bench while Örebro started two midfielders(!) in attack.

Seaton have gotten some playing time previously though in three of the games (32/80/52 minutes) but I didn't watch any of them. Consensus on him among Örebro fans seems to be that they think he might have some potential for the future but they have no idea why the club brought in an inexperienced 18-year old from the other side of the world instead of someone more experienced who could give the team some much needed short term help.

The positive news for Seaton (and horrible news for Örebro) is that their star strikers injury is failing to completely heal and their other two forwards (who probably vastly overperformed last year, maybe because they were playing together with the star forward) are looking hopeless. So at least Seaton might continue to get some more playing time in the future.

 

Well, I've watched the last three Örebro games but Seaton has remained on the bench so no more reports from Allsvenskan besides the fact that the team still really looks set for relegation unless something drastic happens. As for Seaton he has played in one U19 and one U21 game since I last posted in this thread, unfortunaly the reports are not that positive. Here's a translation of what the biggest Örebro blog wrote about his performance when the Örebro U19 team won 4-2 against Täby FK:

"Örebro surprised (at least me) by starting jamaican international Michael Seaton. He was the last minute signing to cover for Alhassan Kamara during his injury absence. Seaton is born in 1996, which enables him to play with the U19-team, even though that was probably not what they had in mind when they brought him into the squad. The fact that he got 60 minutes of playing time probably means that he won't be starting the next game with the first team."

"The third goal of the game was Seatons first wearing the Örebro shirt. He latched onto a throughball and turned his defender before placing his shot in the far corner. That sequence looked good, but unfortunaly that was the only positive impact he had on the game. He was caught offside alot and had trouble getting into the game. At times it almost seemed like the Örebro players had been ordered to try to get him specifically into goalscoring situations, but nothing really happened when/if the ball got to him."

In the report from the 4-1 win with the U21 team he was only mentioned more shortly:

"Michael Seaton is still struggling to get going, but at least he got a couple of shots away at the opponent goalkeeper on a few occasions."

So, a bit of a nightmare start of this loan for Seaton, but at least he is still making the bench for the first team even though he isn't playing.

 

I was kind of iffy about this loan. Seaton is still a very young and inexperienced player. If he wasn't going to get any minutes for DC why would he get any minutes for a club in the Allsvenskan.

 

Seaton seems to have made a more positive impact in the latest U21 game which Örebro lost 2-3 against AIK. He seems to have played the full 90 minutes and scored one of the goals for Örebro as well as having been brought down for the penalty that gave Örebro their second goal. The report says that he displayed a wider repertoire in this game compared to previous ones where he had just stood in line with the defence and waited for through balls. Instead he showed both good passing and intelligence this time.

 

Seaton scored quite a nice goal in the latest U21 game, sequence starts at 35 seconds into the video:

 

Perhaps not surprisingly Örebro write on their official website today that they have ended the Seaton loan prematurely. The reason they state is that he needs playing time which Örebro cannot guarantee (he played a total of 182 minutes for them).

 

It seems like Seaton did not go straight back home to the USA, instead he has been training with Superettan side IK Sirius. This is what their manager had to say:

"He's got good physique and ambition like all yanks. From what little you can tell from one training session he's a good finisher and good one on one. He's a good player who we might get in touch with in the future if the need arises, but right now we don't have that need."

 

The two guys who cover football for the local newspaper said yesterday in a video blog that Sirius will not be bringing in Seaton.

 

Congrats To Former DC United HG Michael Seaton On Signing For Hapoel Ramat Gan In Israel! #RepDMV pic.twitter.com/L3O2tyo9Y1

— DMV Soccer (@DMVSoccer96) July 15, 2016

 

Seaton leads Hapoel Ramat Gan with six goals this season. They are in third place in Israeli second division.

http://us.soccerway.com/teams/israel/hapoel-ramat-gan-fc/1226/

 

Which is D1

Seriously though, well done to the lad. Hapoel have $$ problems, but he'll still be making reasonable money, and very reasonable compared to where he was 18 months ago