The Odyssey continues: Erik Palmer-Brown at Panathinaikos

Now that he has a long term deal with Troyes, can we go with “Troyes, Troyes Again”? Or one of the good ones?

 

This is being reported as a permanent transfer on websites and the Troyes fanforum. Is there any confirmation from the club(s) or EPB?

 

The club saying the deal is through 2024 seems to imply it's a permanent move

 

The Google translate on the tweet is:

Erik Palmer-Brown is definitely committed to ESTAC!
Initially on loan until the end of the season, the American defender is now linked to the Trojan club until 2024.

Extending a loan for two more years would be odd, especially with the new FIFA loan rules coming in.

 

Sure, but it could mean that he's still a City player and his loan has been extended. Pretty unlikely, but confirmation that he's a Troyes player now would be very welcome to some on this thread.

 

How much does it matter given the same ownership of the two teams?

 

I think they need to be treated as independent entities for FIFA, otherwise (in the unlikely event) that Troyes makes Champions League they both couldn't compete

 

Either way it seems the team wants to keep him. Here’s hoping it starts a long run of games and he turns into an above average League 1 performer. Fingers crossed. Looks like he will get his chance.

 

Good question. City have a 75%+ stake in Troyes, which is very high but not wholly-owned subsidiary territory, and one of the two minority shareholders acquired his share when City bought the team. I don't know how the ownership structure there operates, but I'd imagine that the minority owners would want to see returns on their money.

Given how few players City have actually sent to their affiliates (Girona, Melbourne, Lierse, etc.), Troyes roster management seems to be pretty arms-length and if EPB is registered at Troyes, then his relationship with City Football Group is over and he and Troyes are moving on independently.

 

Since this morning, Transfermarkt are listing him as a Troyes player with a contract until June 2024.

They're pretty reliable in these things, so we can take it that he's no longer a Cityzen

 

Quite impressive after just playing a few games. He's really impressed. Waited for his opportunity and he's taking it.

 

That seems to be the consensus among the Troyes fans, with quite a few citing his patience while being unfairly and even, according to many, irrationally frozen as evidence of high-level professionalism.

Except for a handful of games at Wien, I haven't seen him play that much so I'm not going to comment on his ability, simply because this move is going to show how good he really is. If he likes defending, playing for Troyes means he's going to be doing a hell of a lot of it.

 

We need more feel good stories like this! Been a challenging season for many of our boys!

 

Of course we could also go with “Erik of Troyes” but that would work better if his name were Helen.

 

I'm sure it's nice for him to finally get some sort of consistency at the club level

 

Who needs freakin' Man. City anyway? Erik-Palmer Brown at Troyes (France)

 

Hope Gregg doesn't forget about him going forward. Never hurts to have reinforced depth at CB.

 

theres quite a big pack of CBs in europe now that are on the fringes of the team - EPB, Miazga, CCV, Brooks, Mckenzie, Ream, etc

Robinson zmmerman and long seem to be his pets...we'll see how that works out ...but i dont see epb getting a chance with this manager, unfortunately

 

👉 𝗟𝗲 𝗫𝗜 𝗱𝗲 𝗱𝗲́𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗻 pour ce #ESTACFCM !
🗣 ALLEZ TROYENS ! #TeamEstac 💥🔵⚪ pic.twitter.com/PU9trfUxuI

— ESTAC Troyes (@estac_officiel) February 6, 2022

 

Beat ya by 3 mins

 

Apparently nice game from Troyes' defense - 0-0 shutout - and zero shots on goal allowed, despite having less possession overall than Metz.

 

If he keeps this up it’ll be hard to argue that EPB doesn’t deserve a chance next window.

But the problem isn’t Robinson or Zimmerman who have played quite well in qualifying. If he continues to play this well it’s McKenzie I’d move him ahead of.

As for Long we have no idea where he actually stands on the depth chart at current. We know Berhalter definitely values him, but that’s also the case for a player like Tim Ream, and we haven’t seen Tim Ream in awhile.

If EPB continues to start consistently and play as well as he’s been playing he’ll very much deserve the call up. The only question being whether it’s a good idea to bring in a center back who hasn’t been with the team in awhile for three do or die qualifying games.

 

This is a huge dilemma for any coach; is the current central defence pairing/set of pairings good enough to say that "maybe they're not the best possible combination available, but let it be for now"?

If the Canada game is anything to go by, absolutely not. Granted, the whole team was lethargic and just plain poor, but the central defence and central midfield was desperate, especially on the first goal. Since the game was played at Tim Horton's Field, there were a lot of predicable jokes doing the rounds, along the lines of "what's the difference between the US central defence and a doughnut? A central defence isn't supposed to have a hole in the middle" .

Since Berhalter doesn't have anything close to a settled first-choice lineup, why not call up EPB? The real question is whether Berhalter will be able to make the best use of him.

 

Still only 24. At his age, Long was a key player for NYRB II.

lots of experience, much to look forward to