Juan Agudelo in "search" of a Club

You know what I meant, though. By "equivalent" I meant 20 year old youngster from Argentina or South American country that would cost about as much as Agudelo.

Agudelo isn't that much younger than Neymar! Couple months.......................

It's extremely tough for a ~20 year old MLSer to sign for a "big" club in Spain, because you're in competition with the absolute best of the best. And you're in competition with the kids coming out of the academies at Real Madrid, Barca, etc.

And the bottom half of La Liga isn't overflowing with cash. Neither is the bottom half of Serie A for that matter.

The bottom half of the EPL's got money, though. Stoke has money to spend.......................

 

The talent exodus from Spain is startling. If I were a mid table EPL team, I'd have a full time scout just for Spain. Good talent moves around spain's middle and lower clubs for peanuts or a free all the time.

The EPL is flush with cash.....for now. It wont be long before some of these teams overspend and end up poor again. The agents know how to pry that cash out of the owners fists. Some smart EPL owner at some point is going to figure out that 10s of millions on an academy pays off in the long run. While 10s of millions on middling talent doesn't ever pay off.

I'm a little surprised one of these EPL clubs hasn't teamed up/bought a Belgian or Dutch or etc. club for no other reason than to be able to send youth players from outside the EU. The network restrictions within the UK almost demand that a team recruit from outside the isles.

 

Slightly O/T but imagine how it's going to effect Scotland, Ireland, N Ireland and to a lesser extent Wales with Fergie no longer in charge at Man U.

I don't think there's ever been anyone in the history of football who has recruited in and developed more Irish, Scottish and Welsh below average and average talents and molded them into mediocre and good players than Ferguson.

 

Doesn't Spain go for S. Americans because of their ease in getting Spanish citizenship, thus not counting as a foreigner? Since Agudelo was born in Colombia, I imagine he can get a Colombian passport if he doesn't have one, no?

 

relevant - story about current Stoke striker (Cameron Jerome) betting on matches.. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...iation-admitting-number-betting-offences.html

 

Valencia's president Amadeo Salvo has apparently made contact with the MLS/NE Revs about a possible move for Agudelo.

http://www.marca.com/2013/08/05/futbol/futbol_internacional/estados_unidos/1375718133.html

 

Great, now you're betting too

Any chance he would turn down Valencia? I hope not.

 

Just saw all this. Is Agudelo any good nowadays? I can't remember the last time I saw him play.

 

5 goals 1 assist in 11 games this year. mostly been injured.

 

He's been injured so much that he wasn't even on my radar anymore. Still very young though - I just hope he gets healthy and plays. Playing is the most important thing for him right now.

 

They seem thin at CF, all for this.

 

Agudelo had interest from Atletico Madrid, right?

Scouts know about him in Spain. And , uh, the dude is South American which helps a lot.

Valencia has a thin squad, looks like they only have one goal scoring forward. They need to get bodies in at CF.

 

Yeah IIRC, he caught the eye of Atletico a couple years back during a Generation Adidas tour.

 

You guys think Juan is good enough to get PT right now at Valencia?

 

I think this move would be great. plus in 2 years, he can get Spanish citizenship, right?

 

At the moment, sure. They literally have one goal scoring center forward that I'm aware of on their roster right now.

Of course, Agudelo isn't the only forward they are looking at.

 

I want to see the best of Juan. He has crazy talent if he could put it all together.

 

Valencia has Jonas and U-21 Spanish international who seems talented but has only scored 3 first division goals. Of course its almost a guarantee that they'll bring in a very good player at the position and at least 1-2 guys for depth.

 

I get what you're saying. The way I see it - if quality coaching were more important than first team playing time, clubs wouldn't send youngsters out on loan to gain experience as much as they do. Ideally, Juan will end up somewhere where he'll get both the coaching and the playing time. Let's just agree that we hope he finds that place . . . sooner than later.

 

It seems very unlikely that they would be buying him as a primary option. They're in the Europa and have a real shot at the Champions League if they make the right buys. Maybe they see him as a cheap investment with his contract situation.

 

no.

 

Valencia is probably looking for cheap younger buys considering their debt situation.