for those of you who read Japanese: http://www.nikkansports.com/news/soccer/p-sc-tp0-030109-02.html Toda is gonna go through trials for 2 weeks at Sunderland and then possibly join them! Unfortunatly Sunderland is sliding down hill this year and seems to be doing somekind of desperation move! I look forward to Toda's first yellow card, and red mohawk!
hahaha.... the player that I like most in the WC this past summer is heading to England. I hope he will break some legs with his wreckless tackles!!!
Good luck to him. Man, it was fun watching Toda in the World Cup. It still amazes me that he didn't get a single red card. What color is his hair now? I know he shaved and toned it down to a more conservative blonde after the WC.
Ditto for me. Boy was it fun to watch him dash around the field looking for "targets" to slide tackle into.
Should Toda make it, he will bump Beckham off the top of the "best (or worst?) hair in the Premiership" list.
There's an article about Toda training with Sunderland off of their official website, including a photo. I have to say that he looks quite nice as a Black Cat. http://www.safc.com/news.asp?article=127969&aindex=1 Best of luck to Toda. kevin + http://tullamarine.org
Reportedly, the Sunderland coach wants to sign with Toda after watching him play in some games and trainings. As he is having problems with his club Shimizu S-Pulse over renewing the contract and he clears the qualifications to play in EPL set by the FA, the only problems I see are the transfer fee and the state of his old injury on knee.
Shimizu S-Pulse has adimitted that the club is talking to Thunderland over Toda's possible transfer. So, we now confirm this is a on-going deal. I believe the result of the talk would be made public within a week. And oh, reportedly, Toda has marked a red card in England already in a practice game vs some 3rd division club.(actually, no red card, the ref just told him to leave the pitch after dangerous tuckling) Way to go, Toda!!
I thought Toda was horrible in WC02, why would Sunderland acquire his services? Does he have a huge following in Japan?
As another problem whether Toda was bad or good in WC02,a player's worth is not decided only by the result of WC.He belongs to ShimizuSP and is participating in many Japan's NT games.And he participated in the trial of Sunderland. Consequently, Sunderland decides to gain Toda and negotiates with ShimizuSP.
great job!! sunderland can use toda when they play against a team like liberia 4 years ago. go get george weah and you'll win the game with 10 men.
Reportedly, Shimizu and Sunderland are reaching an agreement over Toda's transfer this weekend or early next week. He'll be the 3rd Japanese to sign with a Premier club after Nishizawa(Bolton) and Inamoto(Arsenal-->Fulham). Let's wait and see if it's really happening...
Hm. Will Toda be willing to play first division ball if Sunderland do indeed get relegated? Or is this going to be a loan deal? kevin + http://tullamarine.org
Toda had lots of disagreements with S-Pulse last season, and I think he wants to get away from Shimizu under any circumstances. I dont think it will matter to him whether its Premier Division or Division 1.
Another article regarding Toda has been posted on Sunderland's official website. This one is a little more interesting & includes quotes from Toda himself: http://www.safc.com/news.asp?article=128533&lid=204 Same picture, though. kevin + http://tullamarine.org
Thanks. Yeah, I read that article. As Toda is reluctant to play for Shimizu next season, Shimizu would have no problem to let him go as long as Sunderland is paying the adequate transfer money. It looks like Toda is loaned until the end of the season first. BTW, what happened to Ichikawa?? Last time I heard about him was that the Strasbourg officials said "it was decisive". I don't know what it means. If it means he was worth playing for the French club, they would go get him for the next season. I woner if Shimizu would let him go as they are missing Toda to Sunderland and maybe Alex Santos to Charlton.
The latest: seems Sunderland are out of money? (article on Soccernet, I'm both too ill and too lazy to post a link right now.)