"Meanwhile defender Philippe Leonard has claimed Blackburn are also interested in signing him. The 31-year-old, who plays for Standard Liege, is an experienced left-back and a Belgium international." http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=323006&cc=5739 By every written and visual account shown on the threads, Gooch has been the better defender this year.....
Man, Hughes really, really REALLY didn't like the defenders he inherited from Souness. And, IMO, rightly so. The biggest mystery in the soccer world is why Newcastle took him off our hands. He just can't hack it. He alienates players, diminishing his talent base. And he has a horrible eye for defenders. The only thing that has him at Newcastle and not Leyton Orient is that, either through brilliant judgment or luck, he made Brad his man, and had Dunn'n'Duff for a couple of years.
yeah left back.. OO didnt fit their bill and prolly too expensive for their blood. That's why they wanted spector to cover.
I think Gooch could possibly get it on appeal, but would have to play at least a full season at this level before something like that is considered. WP sucks!
So to sum up... Oguchi Onyewu sucks because he isn't being considered by a team that: a) needs someone that plays a different position than he does b) plays in a league where he doesn't qualify for a work permit hence wouldn't be able to register to play Is that pretty much what was said? Someone's going to have to explain the "logic" there.
Here's a question...by the same logic... Blackburn just signed Ryan Nelson who played last year with DC United. So obviously Freddi Adu and Alecko Eskandarian must really suck. Is that about right?
Not at all, they just happen to be too young and inexperienced. Jaime Moreno, on the other had, sucks real bad.
Sarcasm is wasted on the majority of posters on this board. BS has endless strings of posts that ignore the obvious facts. It is like communicating with a bunch of teenagers that can't get past the immediate impulse to say something without thinking it through. For example, the fundamental problem with playing anywhere in Europe is getting work permit. England is extraordinarily difficult with Italy, Holland and Spain not far behind. In short, if the player doesn't have a Euro passport he faces a huge hurdle in landing a spot in a major European league. Yet posters on this board continually ignore this fact and drone on endless like it doesn't exist.
I will gladly accept that if you can give me 1 example of a person getting a work permit with 1 cap for his national team. I just think that is so far away from the written guidelines to make it possible - even for the big boys. I can't even imagine Eddie Johnson getting a cap with these guys helping even after scoring the goals he's had.
Actually Alecko Eskandarian is only 2 months younger than Onyewu... part of why I named him And I thought Moreno went without saying
I believe there's an exception on appeal with the flowery language of ~ "a player of outstanding merit" or something like that. In other words, someone like Adriano or Luis Fabiano probably would have gotten in as long as 2 years ago when neither had much of a career with the Brazilian national team as long as they were starting caliber players in the minds and words of their new English bosses.
My understanding of the WP process is that if you don't qualify automatically you can file for appeal where a panel of 5/7 experts hear evidence on whether or not a player deserves one. What was your understanding?
Attempted sarcasm is more accurate. Unfortunately it fell rather flat when someone pointed out the two players play different positions.
Why the hell are any of you worried about whether or not Gooch goes to England? He is in a good place at the moment and if he improves he'll attract Europe-wide attention. I can't see him getting a WP any time soon and this thread is a waste of server space.
You people need to be able to understand sarcasm and subtext when posters with too much self-respect to use "emoticons" don't add one of those stupid rolleye faces after everything they say. It just sucks the life out of these boards
3 reasons why Onyewu will not go in Premier League in January and maybe not in June: He wants to play, and during the entire season. That's a nats qualifying condition; He does not qualify for England work permit; He's far too expensive right now.
And yet a non-EU player coming from Belgium to the premiership may be treated quite differently for a work permit than a non-EU player coming from, say, MLS.
My understanding was similar to what you are saying, but I thought (and I could be very wrong here) that the panel had to weight not only the arguments by the team but also how the player stacks up against the given criteria. Isn't the work permit process to ensure that jobs aren't taken away from domestic (in this case EU) players of similar ability? Thus they'd have to prove that a non-EU player has unique abilities or better skills than EU players. I just don't see how claiming he'd move straight into the starting 11 would even meet that... there must be plenty of EU players that meet the criteria. I think it would be easier to argue a case where the player is close to meeting the criteria for an automatic work permit. You can say he's has xx number of caps over the last 2 years and is expected to get xx more soon. To argue that a player with 1 cap is obviously one of the best in the country with skills unavailable in EU players is a hard sale to me. but again, if I understand the criteria for judgement incorrectly... I'll gladly accede.
.....because Fox "propaganda world" World says that England is all that and more. Nothing else compares, and only if you play there can you be considered "class". That's why. BTW - Sarcasm...for those who don't get it.