Luca Before You Leap: de la Torre at Celta Vigo

I dunno, why did Lletget spend like 8 years at West Ham ??

 

Money, money, money, money.....money.

Guy is getting paid. Training, playing intermittently, and apparently is in no hurry to change his predicament. Pity him not. If he really wanted to play more, he could be pretty vocal about it and demand a change.

 

There are a lot of possible reasons:

1. Money, sure
2. Lack of ambition, maybe

But also could be:

3. Has always dreamed of being a Prem player and thinks Fulham is his best shot
4. Agent or someone else he trusts is telling him this is the best thing for his career long-term
5. Fulham is telling him he's close to the first team, and he believes it
6. Not a lot of other options or the options are unappealing

We tend to see every YA's career through a USMNT lens, but the players may well have other objectives than maximizing chances for a call up based on the current coach's criteria.

Also... totally agree with the "pity him not" sentiment. Kid is young and making good money to play soccer in London. Sounds like he's living the dream to me.

 

This. And if he never goes any higher, so what? Same with someone like Shaq Moore. I’d kill to have his lifestyle right now.

 

Coaches and others spend a lot of time pumping up athletes "not to quit," to "believe in yourself" and "believe it and you will live it." Many of them stay in a place too long because they don't want to be perceived as giving up.

 

To put a more positive spin on it, the level of self-belief required to succeed even to the level that DLT has is completely off the charts. I would bet he's 100% confident that if he works hard enough, he's capable of breaking into the first team and helping lead the team to Premier League success. If he wasn't, he'd have stopped pushing himself a long time ago. That's one of the defining traits that separate elite athletes from normal people.

 

you don't get it so let me say it out loud: there may be no buyer.

 

If he demanded a change, his agent could easily go to a lower division team, tell them he would accept a lower salary and there would be plenty of interest. He would just need to accept playing for a lower division side and making less money. Why would anyone want that?

Of course there is no buyer for him right now at his current salary, we all get that.

 

On the bench:

MITRO STARTS! 🔥

Here’s our team news for #FULHUD... pic.twitter.com/LLRPgVONd7

— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) February 1, 2020

 

Starts for reserves:

1' KICK OFF.

Friday's #ValentinesDay action is a go! 🤍

Good to see you, Cameron Thompson. 👋@sonnyhilton30 also back in the mix. 🏃‍♂️@JayStansfield1 gets his first #PL2 start. 👊#FFCU23 [0-0]

— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) February 14, 2020

And scores:

34' ROCKET THAT! @delatorreluca drives at the Villa defence and zings one top corner! No stopping it!#FFCU23 [1-0] pic.twitter.com/nR5R15vpgQ

— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) February 14, 2020

 

The goal:

1230524578985844738 is not a valid tweet id

 

Thanks for posting that Boston. Very nice goal... but yeah, at 22 he needs to be playing on a senior team.

 

Starts:

1' KO!#PLCup group decider! ✅@mattoriley8 comes in. 👋@MagnusNormanGK1 is between the sticks. 🧤
Unchanged back 4⃣ from the #PL2 win. 👍#FFCU23 [0-0] pic.twitter.com/JJ6HWF643Q

— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) February 25, 2020

 

I can't wait for him to leave. Every week, I hate the PL2 (and whatever the ******** this PL Cup is) more and more.

 

Starts in PL2:

We continue our #PLCup campaign with kick-off at 2pm. Not long to wait! ⏳@JaydnMundle returns at the back 🙌

The rest of the side is unchanged after last week’s 3-0 win over Sunderland. 🔁

A win will see the lads progress into the quarter-finals 🏆#FFCU23 pic.twitter.com/xpy9Ll2dWH

— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) March 9, 2020

 

Luca's contract with Fulham ends June 30. Time for him to make a move to somewhere he can play. MLS or bust. Almost moved to Sweden in January. No more Fulham u-23 matches for a long while anyway.

https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/cause-of-fulham-mans-failed-departure-revealed/

 

Some Swedish reporting, relayed by an English website, on the potential Djurgården's deal and why broke down:

"Speaking about the potential move publicly on January 15th, Djurgården sporting director Bosse Andersson was quoted as saying: “It is true that we have contact with Luca de la Torre. We’ve been talking to him for a while. But without us yet agreeing.

“This isn’t a player just known to us today. This player is well known to us since a good time back. He’s interesting. He’s a good player with great qualities, but as I said we have no agreement.”"

....

"Lance Davids, the player’s agent, then suggested De La Torre could leave Fulham for another Championship club, if Djurgården didn’t hurry: “It is true that we met Djurgården on Sunday, we had a good conversation. But we have interest from several places, including from another Championship club. We need to get a message from Djurgården soon, within the next 48 hours.”"

...

"Now, Fotboll Direkt have it differently, and say the demand from Davids killed the deal. Djurgården ‘felt compelled’ to end talks, clearly unhappy with the public pressure they were put under."

 

Ironically (or not), Lance Davids used to play for Djurgarden. Maybe still miffed at how things finished there, and now he's spiting them.

 

The only advantage of going to Sweden or Norway is that he's in the European soccer radar. Otherwise, the mean level is below MLS's.

 

I think he probably could make more money in Sweden or Norway than he would garner from MLS, no?

 

I would say so. Probably earn ~150 in Scandinavian or more but I doubt he makes more than 100 in MLS

 

On the bench:

Your Fulham tonight:

2⃣ changes from Saturday...#QPRFUL pic.twitter.com/PfyFG1n8Og

— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) June 30, 2020

 

Watch this space

 

Make me pepe.

 

Deze week. Misschien morgen. Spoedig