Indiana Vassilev: Raider of the Aston Villa Park

Prime as a GK, or prime as a . . . whatever.

 

Indiana and the Fountain of Youth: Vassilev in Florida

Indiana, Bath Salts, and Alligators : Vassilev in Florida.

 

Indiana and the Raiders of the Illegal GAM/TAM

 

He's listed as "out of contract" in Miami's offseason roster update. Does that mean something other than that his loan's over? Is he no longer Villa property?

https://www.intermiamicf.com/news/inter-miami-cf-announces-2021-roster-decisions

 

I believe it just means he's not under contract with Miami anymore

His stats for Miami:

21 games played
7 starts
793 minutes
3 goals
0 assists

Not great, but he had some nice moments here and there. It was by far better than those terrible loans he had last season to Burton Albion and Cheltenham Town.

He's obviously not gonna play for Aston Villa so he's gonna need another move.

Maybe he stays in MLS? If so, Miami is a hot mess. He could move to one of the more youth-friendly teams here but I can't see those teams taking him on unless it's a transfer or there is an option to buy. You don't want to develop unless something is in it for you.

Tough year for Vassilev. He would have been part of that U.S. U-20 WC team with players like Tessmann, Busio Flach, Miljevic (maybe), Pepi, Campbell, Bello, de la Fuente, Bassett, etc.

Some of those guys have made the clear jump to the full NT (Pepi and Busio) but the rest really could have benefitted from that experience.

 

Yeah, given how bad those loans were, I'm pleasantly surprised by his stat line.

His Villa contract allegedly expires at the end of the season, so I doubt we see another loan unless he signs an extension, which would be in the Cameron Carter-Vickers universe of bad ideas.

 

Yup.. If his contract is done at the end of the season, he should just sign on a free contract somewhere in January.

Then maybe Villa would take a few bucks and let him go early (like what Celtic did with the Red Bulls for Cam Harper). I am sure they would.

 

Cam Harper!!!! What happened to him in NY? I know they don’t play a system that is winger friendly but I didn’t expect totally invisible.

 

So what happened to this kid? He seems to have vanished into thin air.

 

". . . do you think he has a future at the club [Aston Villa] beyond this season?"

Is that supposed to be a trick question?

 

It obeys the laws of newspaper headlines with a question mark: The answer to the question is almost always "no."

 

TBH, the real question is whether he has a future in pro football at all.

And if he does, will that be at League 2 level or below?

 

He looked okay at times with Inter Miami.. not great but he had some good games.

I could see an MLS team being interested at a low price.

On another note, if Bulgaria (full team or U-21 team) starts to show interest in him again, he might take it. He declined their interest a few years ago.

 

He's not even made bench for their U23 which is strange. It's not like they have future stars galore, they're mid-table at best.

 

It's only strange if he's good. What evidence do we have to think that he is?

 

He has more pro experience than anyone in that team and has scored 6 goals in 15 games played with the U23 in the past, which is more than their current forwards are scoring.

 

Do we even know if he's in Birmingham?

His contract is up in June, he may be out trialing somewhere else.

 

He should be in Birmingham to train and keep match fit. Doubly so if he's eyeing MLS as his next stop; that'll let him hit the ground running in July.

Even if he's determined to keep trying to crack Europe, it still applies. As Owen Otasowie is about to find out, clubs do not appreciate someone who goes AWOL, even if everyone knows he's leaving in June, and 6 months working on your tan takes time to come back from.

 

I'm not saying that he left without permission. I'm saying that it wouldn't be weird if Villa let a dead-end prospect (from their perspective) go off and trial elsewhere rather than take up time and resources at their training center.

There's no reporting on him and his social media is silent, so I'm just speculating.

 

That's why I asked here. There's usually something about our players out there, even when not playing at all. But Indiana has effectively disappeared.

 

Maybe he prefers to be out of the limelight?

In any case, if he'd just disappeared, we'd have heard something by now. The same with an injury.

The most likely explanation is that he's back in Birmingham, training with the U23 side (otherwise he won't get paid) but, since he's on his way in June, they're going to play other strikers who will be there in August ahead of him.

 

Wonder if he will go back to Miami. He didn't play great but wasn't bad either for the short time he was there. And right now with Miami being punished with salary cap it would help both parties. Miami already tried getting Marlon Fossey, who declined, and just got CJ Dos Santos.

 

Back in the UK with the AV U23s:

The Young Lions are in #PL2 action against Sunderland tonight. Here's how they line up ahead of kick-off at 7pm...#AVFCU23s pic.twitter.com/m795eL0ETi

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) April 18, 2022

 

His third start in a row - played 63 minutes on March 18 and 90 (with a goal) on April 1.