Now, here's today's goal He's popped up in this spot a lot recently. Good to see him keep his head up/down & put this away.
BA was highest rated today by Fotmob and Gnonto came off early. He was Leeds best player (Gnonto) in the game I watched recently but you sound like you rate him a bit higher than I would. He was pretty poor when he first arrived in England.
I did not think he would stay in the Champs after his Leeds EPL season, where I thought he was one of the Leeds players best suited for the EPL. I was pretty sure he would force a sale or loan, and I'd bet he had interest. It was a bit of coup, to me, that Leeds kept him. To my eye, his skill set and playing style made him a natural for a battling EPL side. I've been wrong before but my guess is he has a more consistent EPL career than Aaronson will - though I bet both get another shot.
He’s certainly a more electric attacker at the moment but I’m not sure his stats are exactly gaudy. The real coup I thought was getting 40 million pounds for Rutter.
Are you sure Gnonto can translate to Prem? Why were Rutter and Summerfield picked up but not Gnonto? Just asking.
Rutter was valued at 18m by transfermarkt and he was sold for 47M Summerville was valued at 20M by transfermarkt and was sold for 29M Gnonto's highest value was 18M, i.e., close to Rutter and only 2.0M less than Summerville. He has fallen to 16M just some months later. It seems to me that West Ham could have had winger Summerville or winger Gnonto and they decided to bid on Summerville.
Yorkshire Evening Post "Aaronson: Buzzed around and looked the part in first half in particular. Third goal of season. 7"
Dunno. I was surprised he stayed. I didn't follow it too closely. Pretty sure I remember there being interest and even a bit of showdown - and eventually he stayed, but I'd have to go back and look. Obviously, I'm not *sure*, but when I was watching Leeds the season of the drop, I thought he was one of the younger players that seemed to clearly belong/have the skill set to succeed in that strata. We shall see.
I just think Gnoto is put together, between his speed, stature, swagger and work rate, in a package that will stick well in the EPL. And I think we'll get a chance to see him there - and see if I got a clue here or not. I personally hope Aaronson and Leeds go up and stay up and BA keeps contributing, but I was just musing on the two of them and my instinct has been, over the past 2 seasons, that Gnoto is more-better built for the EPL.
With his lack of upper-body physicality, a first season in English football was bound to be a struggle, especially at a relegation struggler. On top of which, none of the other Austrian BL sides was at EPL level and precious few of them were at Championship level either. Salzburg, Rapid, Strum Graz and George Bello's LASK have Championship budgets but much of the rest would be League One bottom third sides. In their dreams anyway. TBH there's a few USL sides that could probably hang in the Austrian BL. In terms of Serie A or La Liga, he would still have faced an enormous step up in standard which could have gone better or worse for him but there's no likelihood of it going "far" better IMO. For that, you're talking Ligue 1, the Eredivisie, Belgium or the SPL but only a handful of even their top sides could have afforded what Leeds paid for him
People keep talking about "Austrian League" as if it were USL. I believe Haaland played there before moving to Dortmund as did Adeyemi. Okafor is now with AC Milan. Kristensen went to Leeds in the EPL from the Austrian League and is now in BL. Why would Haaland chose Austrian League over USL? Wouldn't the States be a better lifestyle? He could have gone to Tampa Bay Rowdies instead of Austria.
Did Tampa offer him a contract? Several clubs offered him a deal, including Leeds. I'm guessing Red Bull offered him the most money.
A lot of players are. We've all heard the cliches about the English game being fast and physical but the thing about cliches is that they're true. It often takes an entire season to adjust. Put that on top of a poorly-run club (Radrizzani) with an unbalanced squad containing little depth backing up a handful of injury-prone stars (Adams, Phillips, Bamford) under an inexperienced coach at this level (Marsch) and Gnonto, along with several others, was going to have a tough time of it. This season, the club has had 3 windows under new owners whose first appointment was a highly regarded Technical Director (ex-Spurs man Gretar Steinsson) who's restructured the squad, reducing the number of over-30 outfield players from 6 to 2 and the number of under-20s from 12 to 0 - Gnonto is now actually the only 20 year-old - and recruited a coach (Daniel Farke) who's proven at this level. Then again, maybe it's just that Gnonto is 20 now and has matured as a player. That's surely part of it.
He’s also dropped down a level. I’m just not convinced he’s a decent PL yet even if he’s very good at this level. Has a chance to prove it next season perhaps.
Aaronson went the full distance in a 0-0 draw, Leeds dominating the stats but not able to score. Shots in Leeds favor 12(5) to 2(0), possession 68/32.
I think he will. After the Sheffield United game their coach, Chris Wilder, described Leeds as the best team they've played this season and that they're sure to go up. That's a bit over-confident IMO, as they're not scoring as much as an automatic promotion side should. If he doesn't, there are other good leagues where he can find a starting slot and probably at the business end of things - BL1, Ligue Un, etc
The parts I watched it was a lot of not very threatening possession and Bristol actually looked a little more likely to score for a spell. But I didn’t watch the whole game.
Daniel James seems like he’s still the same player. A lot of sound and fury signifying a whole lot of not much.
That's not how the game went. Leeds were in control & created the much better chances. Bristol were almost completely non-threatening. Leeds didn't do as much w/ their possession as one would expect, but they carved out chances here & there. Should have scored 1. Best chance was Gnonto in the box w/ the keeper out but he just tried to guide it into net & it was cleared off the line. BA had a chance where he squared up the defender well & tried to sneak it near post which the keeper hadn't fully covered. Just missed. Dan James had a chance in on goal but couldn't lift it. OK performance for BA, & pt on the road for Leeds. Though they'll feel they could have done better and may need these for auto-promotion. Still feeling that giveaway at Sunderland too.