The Tykes Go Gaga Over Their New Keeper: Gabriel Slonina at Barnsley (olf Chelsea)

I guess he could go on loan to a MLS team, or Brasiliero. The Scandi, some East European leagues and League of Ireland windows are still open.

 

And yet it does. Maybe there's a bug where it mixes up currencies.

 

Great for the kid. MLS is full of better keepers who won't make those money in their long careers.

 

For what it's worth, Slonina is on the bench today for Chelsea.

 

Well that's a real surprise!

 

If his superclub loan army story is a little like EPB's, so is his family history - mother worked three jobs, father worked nightshifts to fund America's pay-to-play training. Rather doubtful their mortgage has been paid off, if they'd even qualified for one.

That makes his take-the-money-now choice much more understandable, but MLS has a good bit more money than when EPB left. It depends on how much he could have got from Chicago in a contract renegotiation: under $500k and he had to take Chelsea

 

Jorgensen missed his 3rd straight for Chelsea and Slonina is still nowhere to be found. Not playing for the U21s, not making the bench for them or the senior team either.

Contract expires in June of 2028.

 

Slonina is on the bench for Chelsea against Liverpool. He’s the only keeper on the bench. Jorgensen started.

 

This kid is an enigma. Going from totally off the radar to on the bench as sole back-up in a PL game. I'm going to take this as a good sign, that he's on the bench in a PL game. Wonder if he'll land somewhere reasonable this summer where he'll play again? Big question is if he has gotten any better? He was so young when he went to Europe.

 

It’s his 5th time on a PL bench this season so I’ll pessimistically say it’s not a sign of anything new, good or bad.

To your last question, I think the answer is no. But he turns 22 next week, so he still has plenty of time to salvage a good professional career.

 

Ethan Wady managed to be the backup GK at Chelsea once, so sometimes it's a matter of "Hey, you... you got keeper gloves?"

 

https://www.talkchelsea.net/transfers/slonina-available-for-sale-cut-losses-blues/

 

He shouldn't have any real problems in getting a club but a place where he has a realistic shot at being starter is essential.

If he's been reasonably careful with his money, he should have a very decent nest egg saved up so he can afford to join, say, a top League 1 side as a starter rather than a Championship side as No. 2 or a Prem side as No. 3. If those are what he's being offered, he should come home

 

Yea problem is 2-3 million Euros is still 2nd highest transfer fee in Ekstraklasa history.

To end up somewhere on the continent that would give him a good chance to be a No 1 like in Denmark/Norway/Poland etc etc

He will pretty much have to be bought out of his contract and allowed to leave for free.

 

It's easy to say the move was bad, but being part of the Chelsea loan army has helped other talent from around the world, Chelsea normally do well to find people good loans.

Unfortunately that wasn't the case for Gaga.

Eupen was always a bad move. Yes he started every game, but it was basically a lost year. Eupen's defense was so bad Gaga was glorified target practice for the rest of the Belgian Pro League.

Barnsley was a good move in theory, and he started well... but that fell off and then he suffered a wrist injury which resulted in little interest for another loan and him basically not playing for 18 months.

Gaga is and was a great prospect, but I think people saw how young he was and didn't really take into account the weaknesses he had as a keeper. I know his last year in MLS had a decent amount of shutouts, but from what I remember advanced stats showed him as an average to below average starting keeper in MLS. That's not to downplay Gaga's talent or that he can still become great, just stating that he had a lot to work on.

Wouldn't be the first nor the last player to have a rough time abroad and be able to build themselves back up.

 

It's also fairly significant transfer fee for a non-starter in any league outside the Top 5, the Big 3-5 in the Tier 2 leagues and the Top 5 D2s. Even there it's just Championship sides and about 6-8 sides, max in BL2 and La Liga 2. It's not easy to see someone ponying up that kind of money for a guy who hasn't played in 2 years.

That means he his agent should try to line up loan-with-an-option moves themselves and waive Chelsea's half of the salary to get it done. Irish players Josh Honohan and Jack Moylan both turned down lucrative Championship sides in favour of a League One club offering a faster route to PT as well as a better development environment. Their justification was that EPL 2 football was fake - their words - and they wanted to play.

Lincoln City won League One this season and they're both in demand from better Championship sides than they turned down when they moved.

 

Hopefully a Belgian or Dutch team is in need of his services.

 

The Eredivisie would be a great place to develop, esp. at the middleweight sides like AZ, Twente, Utrecht, maybe Go Ahead Eagles (enough possession to show his qualities at building from the back, lots of shot-stopping against the other big Dutch sides and in UEFA games) and with the 600k non-EU minimum salary, his Polish passport would come in handy.

It's just that, with him on £2 million a year, it's really, really hard to see anyone able to afford him even on half his salary. Even Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord don't pay their GKs a million a year - and that's in Euros, not pounds.

 

Looks like he's in for a massive paycut to reclaim his career.

 

Go Ahead Eagles highest paid player is on less than $400k.

 

That's probably Jaden Slory who's on 440k a year in Euros according to capology.com, which translates to $510k but any number is just an estimate.

What I hadn't expected was an Eredivisie Top 6 side to pay that little. A League One playoff side would have about a dozen guys earning that or more, quite few of them doubling it

 

The last time Go Ahead finished in the top 6 was 1968/69.

 

Slonina has 2 seasons left on his contract and the chances of Chelsea seeing any profit on their investment in him - $10 million transfer fee and more than that again in salary - is zero and any return at all in the form of PT for Chelsea is negligible.

Meanwhile, they're on the hook for 4 million pounds in salary, plus payroll taxes. Even if they can organize a loan destination for him next season, they'll be doing well to get 1/8 of that back.

IMO there's a reasonable chance of Chelsea agreeing to a contract cancellation in return for a £1m payoff, net, and 50% of any future transfer fee and Gabriel's agent sets up a deal anywhere at MLS level or better where he will arrive as the presumed starter. Otherwise he - and we - should prepare for a career spent riding the pine.