The Odyssey continues: Erik Palmer-Brown at Panathinaikos

EPB played the full 90 in a match that ended 1-1 - definitely a good result for Austria Vienna.

 

I hope he's not falling too far behind his competition for the Nats.

 

Not even the tiniest bit.

But seriously, only about 3 years ago (maybe even less) this guy was right near in the hierarchy of Young YAs on here, along with CP and Cameron Carter-Vickers and one or two others--before this current deluge of promising young players abroad and to a lesser degree in MLS. He's a good player, but he's going to have to do a lot to get up to the level of some of these other guys.

 

yeah, maybe, I mean Richards has clearly outpaced his development, and to the eye test, McKenzie as well for me. But if you look at his progress in comparison to Carter-Vickers or even Miazga (2 years older), he's not that far off. According to Transfermarkt, almost 6,000 minutes of first division ball (cups not included), starter across 3 seasons in Euro 1st division leagues. At 23 for a CB its not a horrible position to be in and while EPB seems to be getting incrementally better each season, CCV and MM have kind of stalled out, it seems. Who else we got for young CB's?

Turtle vs hares?

 

It's so hard to say where he is in the pecking order until he tries to level up by going to a tougher league.

 

FYP

 

What makes you think he's been in contention for competitive PT?

 

because his parent club is Man City

 

I think people underrate the Austrian BuLi. I think it's a step above the Championship, so doing well there should be enough to get the call.

On the other hand, it's strange seeing Wien in the lower half of the table. For all their history until 2018 they were a Top 3 team, and by far the most successful in that country.

 

1341107958793596928 is not a valid tweet id

 

Interesting that it's printed in the paper and not a graphic online.

 

Yes, and by a fair bit. The UEFA Coefficient has them in 10th place just a smidge behind Belgium and the Eredvisie, but a bit ahead of the SPL, Turkey and Denmark. Right now, it's 7 places and 10 points (35.8 versus 25.2) ahead of the Swiss and Greek Leagues. They were about the same 5 years ago IIRC.

Obviously, that's mostly down to Salzburg but there are a couple of other decent EL-quality teams in that league. It's just that the historic powerhouses - Rapid and Austria - haven't been among them recently.

 

It's worth remembering that in the days before Red Bull got involved, the Austrian Bund was a far more evenly matched place, but that even level was pretty poor. I had an odd football tv package between 2012 and 2016, which weekly gave me the full slate of Austrian games. It was slow. It was agrairian. There were occassional flashes of brilliance, and those players were all swept north to Germany, south to Italy or west to France within a season. It was the sort of league you watched while thinking, "stupid football obsession, ruining my nights and giving nothing back."
Rapid might be good for a season, or half a season before they sold their young star. Sturm Graz was worth watching sometimes. Vienna, etc. But it was not a league any player of any serioius degree of talent saw as a destination, and for the most part it wasn't seen as much of a stepping stone league, either. It was full of mid-career never weres.
The coefficient numbers gathered since 2015:

1. FC Salzburg 73.50
2. LASK Linz 27.00
3. Rapid Wien 25.00
4. Austria Wien 15.50
5. Wolfsberger AC 11.00
6. SCR Altach 5.00
7. Admira 3.50
8. Sturm Graz 2.50
9. TSV Hartberg 0.50





RBS has dragged that UEFA coefficient upwards, pretty much by itself. Saying they've edged ahead of Scotland is true, but what it means is that Rangers went bankrupt and Celtic have sucked (for them) for a while now. UEFA coefficients only really tell you what the league at the tippy top looks like. Look at the market value (hey, if Porto can base trransfer valuations on transfermarkt I can base bigsoccer posts on it), and half the net worth of the Austrian league is RBS, the four other well off clubs are in the mid to low end-MLS range (SKC to RSL) while the lower end of the league is sub-MLS to USL territory.
Austria: Total worth is the last number in blue
club Squad ø age Foreigners Total market value ø market value
335 24.9 Years 104 €344.73m €1.03m
Red Bull Salzburg 29 23.8 21 €162.80m

LASK 29 25.3 8 €37.80m €1.30m

Rapid Vienna 31 24.7 10 €33.85m

SK Sturm Graz 27 23.8 9 €19.25m.
Austria Vienna 30 25.1 6 €18.00m.
Wolfsberger AC 24 26.0 7 €17.35m .
SKN St. Pölten 24 24.2 7 €11.43m .
TSV Hartberg 29 26.2 5 €9.90m .
FC Admira Wacker Mödling 32 23.9 9 €9.65m
SCR Altach 25 25.5 7 €8.53m
SV Ried 28 25.4 6 €8.38m
WSG Tirol 27 24.8 9 €7.80m .

MLS:
LAFC 30th 24.5 20th € 78.38 million

Inter Miami CF 29 26.2 17th € 59.45 million
Atlanta United FC 31 25.7 14th € 52.40 million

Toronto FC 30th 26.3 22nd € 43.18 million

Minnesota United FC 31 27.4 20th € 39.35 million

Seattle Sounders FC 28 26.8 13 € 39.33 million
Columbus Crew SC 30th 28.0 19th € 39.00 million
Philadelphia Union 26th 26.3 15th € 36.93 million
Los Angeles Galaxy 27 25.7 14th € 36.23 million
New York City FC 27 25.7 13 € 35.88 million
Orlando City SC 27 26.0 16 € 33.78 million
Sporting Kansas City 30th 27.1 14th € 33.18 million
New England Revolution 31 27.2 12 € 32.95 million
Portland Timbers 27 27.6 18th € 32.10 million
FC Dallas 29 24.7 13 € 31.58 million n
Nashville SC 32 26.9 14th € 31.00 million
Montreal Impact 36 24.0 18th € 28.85 million
Colorado Rapids 29 25.6 12 € 28.00 million
New York Red Bulls 25th 24.8 13 € 27.93 million
DC United 25th 26.6 14th € 25.98 million
Chicago Fire FC 30th 25.1 14th € 22.85 million
Cincinnati FC 32 26.4 16 € 22.75 million
Vancouver Whitecaps FC 27 24.9 12 € 21.85 million
Houston Dynamo FC 29 27.0 20th € 20.80 million
San Jose Earthquakes 27 25.8 12 € 18.40 million
Real Salt Lake City 30th 26.8 15th € 18.13 million

 

FYP

I appreciate all the info and data you have provided for us though.

 

what's the likelihood he may get a loan to the Bundesliga or perhaps Ligue 1 next season?

 

A few months back I posted something to the effect that, if MLS and the Austrian BL were to merge, Salzburg would qualify for the playoffs every single season, while if you took middle 8 MLS teams (Philly, Kansas City, Portland, etc.) and put them into the Austrian BL, it'd become a significantly more competitive league overnight: Salzburg would still finish first, but 3 of the next 4 places would be held by MLS sides. If you put the MLS best 8 sides in the BL, Salzburg might sweat a bit

 

Not high. Yes, he's an automatic starter in a BL2-quality league, more or less, but Austria Wien are 10th in a 12-team league, a full 13 points off the leaders and with a negative goal difference. Admittedly, that's because their attack is shockingly toothless rather than a bad defence, but it's still not the sort of team that people will pay a lot of attention to.