I don't necessarily hate it though I'd have preferred to see him go on loan at a good level on the continent. Maybe he didn't earn such a move after his season in Belgium. A year in the lower leagues of England getting an education in the muddy, cold, wet, unglamorous, physical nastiness of the English Football League maybe formative.
You know how to get humbled real quick?? Go play in the rough and tumble League One. This coming from a guy whose club plays in the SPFL. Good luck Gaga! I expect you to perform and do well. But you’re gonna see some shit on the pitch you’ve never seen before. Oh wait… he did play for Chicago.
This is a really disappointing move imo. Even if he does really well, there’s a limit to what kind of attention that will get him, and what kind of offers he will have next summer.
Darrell Clarke who’s spent his career playing and managing in League One and Two. Recently managed Port Vale and Cheltenham Town. Unless Barnsley knows something we don’t, his hiring doesn’t breed a lot of confidence.
"Listen son, you have real ability so if you don't get your finger out, you've got another 15 years of of road trips to Shrewsbury and Exeter to look forward to. Is that why you left MLS? Didn't think so. Now, get cracking!"
Well now he'll be getting to play a different style going from one of the worst teams in their respective division to one of the best ones
"I'll be honest with you, we didn't help him enough, you know?" said then-Eupen defender Victor Pálsson, who is now with Plymouth Argyle in the Championship. "Us defenders, we let him down a number of times. I mean, Gaga made his mistakes. We all make our mistakes, but we didn't support him the way we should have on the field."" Very telling quote. I wish him well. Eupen will now fade from the collective memory of the vast majority of American soccer fans.
To join a bunch of other forgotten way stations unless they nab another American in the future. Always kind of interesting to learn about new places.
The joke I was making is Chelsea sent him to the wrong League One. On the positive Barnsley has made the playoff both years they've been in League One and Keeper is a huge weakness so Gaga will get time. I was never a fan of the Eupen loan because of how bad they were projected to be (and were) he had a couple very good performances but being part of a team that was glorified target practice was always going to lead to a lesser loan that people expected unless he was consistently the reason Eupen stole points/stayed up. Probably further away from the USMNT than many expected but from what us expected from Barnsley vs what was expected at Eupen probably a better situation to develop
Just don't join Chelsea, actually. Chelsea’s pervasive chaos threatens to destabilize another season After the initial splurge following the Clearlake takeover, the £1bn spent on 28 senior players, this was supposed to be when the consolidation began. They had signed young players, we were told, so that there would be less need for upheaval as the project progressed. Players would grow into stature at the club. And then this summer a further nine players arrived at a cost of £160m, with two more already in the pipeline for next season. An attempt to land the highly rated 20-year-old forward Samu Omorodion from Atlético fell through when a contract couldn’t be agreed, leading to talks over a potential move for João Félix. This feels like the behaviour of an addict, desperately chasing the endorphin high of a purchase: if one Atlético forward won’t come, why not go for another one, even if he has an entirely different profile? https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/aug/12/chelsea-pre-season-enzo-maresca
At least with the Man City loan army, our guys have landed on their feet mostly. Steffen got loaned to the BL. Sandler loaned out to Anderlecht and sold ot the Eredivisie. Palmer-Brown has done OK in placement. Chelsea is a mess.
Chelsea did a good job with their U-21 loans last season. They sent out: Premier League: 2.5 Bundesliga: 0.5 Strasbourg: 2 other Ligue 1: 1 Championship: 2 Belgium: 1 (GK) Sweden: 1 (GK) This season so far, they have a loanback to Argentina, one to the Championship, Caleb Wiley to Strasbourg, and 2 goalkeepers to League One. It's really just the young goalkeepers that they seem to be having a problem with.
Well done kid! - wins the pk shootout and listed as MOTM by Fotmob. According to the PBP - he saved 2 PKs
If anyone wants a great read, "The Keeper of Dreams" is about Lars Leese, who went from being a lower-division goalkeeper to a reserve at Leverkusen before moving to Barnsley when they were in the top flight. (Hopefully Gaga has a wee bit more success, but Leese did enjoy a win over Liverpool, which isn't peanuts.)