I'll have to look it up (that should be a "safe search"). I'm pretty sure it was that season we were in the title hunt until late February. And he did it at least twice. Arseblog even starting making jokes about William's "willie" being one of our top strikers.
It's good that he's doing well for Birmingham, but he was straight trash in MLS earlier this year. I don't think there's a world in which he becomes a useful squad player, much as I'd like him to be.
for me, that should always be the path: loan to championship then loan to premier league before being considered for us. weirdly, ligue 1 seems to be a valid alternative. i'm not particularly certain about bundesliga but we have, at least, seen values being raised with mavropanos but not how well he adapted back. while they are okay as shop window loans, i feel like spain and italy are both useless places to loan to as preparation to come back and play for us. especially for defenders. in second tier, to get attacking-types experience (like with flores or azeez) is fine. but top flight? nah. right now? off the back of one nice half-year at birmingham? nah. have a good year this year then another successful year on loan at either a bottom table premier league club or ligue 1 club? then it'd be worth discussing.
If that happens, sure. I think he's a pretty limited player overall and the chances of that happening aren't good. Could be useful for the US at some point, but not for any good Arsenal teams.
Nice to see Eboue's name... Always had a smile around the squad and he shut down Cristiano once or twice!
from what i heard, the intent with him was always meant to get exposure in europe before being moved on so i had no expectations. that said, if he keeps succeeding up then i'm willing to let him be a candidate for CB4.
Yeah I don’t think Trusty will ever play a match for Arsenal, but he can’t be much worse than Holding.
Holding is a bit like DeGea in the convo on another thread. 10 years ago he is much higher rated but they are both so poor with the ball at their feet their careers are in jeopardy. The only saving grace for Holding is he still has a spot when we bunker down. He plays well in a back 5 where his job is just clearances or headers, and leaves playing the ball out to either Saliba/Gabriel/White. But as we saw, when he is in a back 4 he is a total liability.
He is. He's a fine centerback for a bottom-half Championship team. Holding would start for like, half the league.
The question is, would he be good enough for us in low level league cup/EL/FA Cup matches so we can rest guys like Saliba/Gabriel?
it depends. he's somewhat a bad match for our system because 1) he's not comfortable with the ball and, more importantly, 2) he's not a high-line defender. as we saw vs tottenham last year, holding in a high-line and in space was a disaster. but against teams that wants to hoof the ball into the box or want to get physical? he's a beast. he also needs to be paired with gabriel. both he and saliba are quiet do-your-job guys - like koscielny - and they make a terrible pairing. gabriel, for all his faults, is a communicator and bosses that backline. if he gets to a team that defends heavy and plays a deeper line, he'd be excellent.
not a game match but a balogun interview. Folarin Balogun's latest interview: "I'm going to make a decision soon" pic.twitter.com/wCKdcWPK4f— Arsenal Loan Watch (@arsenal_loans) November 13, 2022
Isn't Nketiah also being recruited by Nigeria? And they share the same agent still? I could see Eddie opting for Nigeria and Flo declaring for the US with 3-1/2 years until the next WC to work their way into the setup and have a chance at making their respective squads.
Eddie's options are Ghana & England. If he was gonna switch to Ghana he probably should have several months ago because he would likely be headed to the WC now.
I forgot Balogun could play for USA. We have such a need for stellar forwards that could be interesting. But he would have to become a stellar forward and last I saw/heard, the jury was still out?
The jury may still be out, but his 8 goals in Ligue 1 (4 behind league leader Mbappe) make him better than anything the USMNT team currently has. They also represent half or Reims’ goals this season, so more creative teammates might well have resulted in one or two more goals at this stage of the season.
The US is taking Haji Wright, Josh Sargent, Jordan Morris & Jesus Ferreira as their ST options this WC. Surely Balogun could have beaten one of them out had he committed to playing for the US. I honestly don't think he wants to play for the US (or we are dropping the ball recruiting him). As of right now he has a better chance being on a competitive team if he were to make England or Nigeria. As of right now, he is young enough that England is a very distinct possibility. After Kane his main competition would likely be Abraham & DCL, neither of which are very consistent.
The Transfermarkt list of English U23 center forwards, in order of value, goes Nketiah, Balogun, Joe Gelhardt, Cameron Archer, Liam Delap Balogun could be a 100-cap player for England if that's his eventual competition.
Good info on Balogun. I really hope he comes good... for his sake... and for whatever teams get to benefit from that: Arsenal? England? USA?
I would love if shit teams that made the WC could "recruit" 1 player from a non-WC squad into their team just to make it interesting. Mainly because Australia have holes everywhere and seeing Haaland in the Australian team would be hilarious.
based on that interview, he doesn't have a whole lot of connection to US because they moved back when he was a child and he feels most connected to england, especially london. he has family here and, apparently, had a nice visit not long ago. for me, it does fall into the "dropping the ball recruiting" category where it doesn't seem like he's gotten much in the way of the recruiting that should have been done.
i appreciate the work he's put into improving himself but nketiah has zero chance at england. i wonder what his chances are if he turns his eyes towards ghana. their squad can be absolutely stacked at times.
Completely agree that he likely never gets a call up to England. Both Abraham & DCL are better options. Here are the forwards Ghana are taking to the WC... FW: Antoine Semenyo (Bristol City) FW: Abdul Fatawu Issahaku (Sporting CP) FW: Jordan Ayew (Crystal Palace) FW: Kamaldeen Sulemana (Rennes) FW: Osman Bukari (Red Star Belgrade) FW: Felix Afena-Gyan (Roma) FW: Inaki Williams (Athletic Bilbao) FW: Kamal Sowah (Club Brugge) Ayew & Williams are the best ST options there and both are more scoring wingers. He likely would be headed to the WC and may be getting playing time had he chose Ghana.