Reply With QuoteVery good, as usual.
Enjoy the off-season.
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Welcome to the final Loan Watch of the season. As Frank Sinatra used to sing; "And now, the end is near, and so I face the final games of the regular Football League season...". Well he should've done anyway, he might have had a hit with it. "...Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, not as many as Semi Ajayi who moved to Rotherham before the end of the season, thereby missing out on his best chance of picking up a trophy on Loan Watch Awards Night". Sing it fast and it could fit.
I'm not going to bang on about Awards Night, I guess most of you were there so I'd just be going over old ground. It went well though, such a relief to sort out the problem of being double-booked with a Chuckle Brothers tribute act. It turned out they were both huge Loan Watch fans (who isn't?) and said they'd postpone their gig if we gave them backstage passes for ours and let them present a couple of awards. I was happy to do that but slightly surprised when they turned up on the night in character. Well, I assume they were in character, either that or they've got some serious behavioural problems. Idriss Saadi certainly looked bewildered when they presented him with the Player of the Season Award. I don't think that type of humour travels well.
Idriss started for Kortrijk last night but it was another disappointing result as they lost 3-0 at home, it's all but over for them now in the Belgian play-offs. The play-offs will probably still be going when the next series of Loan Watch starts so I'll do an update then (the Belgians don't do two semis and a final, far too basic for them). Elsewhere, Tom Adeyemi played for Rotherham but had a quiet game in the 1-1 draw with Derby. Another man-of the-match display from Semi Ajayi here. The Sheffield Star gave him 8/10 and said 'Hardly put a foot wrong. He should be a big, big player in League One'. Emyr Huws played for Ipswich in yet another pitiful performance from them as they lost 3-0 at Forest.
When Malky Mackay said of Theo Wharton in 2012 that he had 'a big future ahead of him', he probably didn't envisage him seeing out his career as a City player by sitting on the bench for Weston-Super-Mare as they lost the final of the Somerset Premier Cup 4-2 to Taunton Town on Friday night. Disappointment too for Matty Kennedy's Plymouth as they missed out on the League Two title with a 1-1 draw at Grimsby. Matty was subbed after an hour, not the first time this has happened, but he's started every game he's been fit for and has played his part in Plymouth's promotion, always working hard even when it hasn't quite happened for him on the ball. If there has been a problem in the past with Matty's attitude and maturity then he seems to have left that behind now and put his big boy pants on instead. Also, he has two entries in Plymouth's goal of the season competition. It'll be a massive plus for him if he can carry on finding the net from here on.
Goals this weekend for Ben Turner, Stephen MacLean and Andreas Cornelius while Filip Kiss missed a late penalty in Haugesund's 0-0 draw in Norway. Guido Burgstaller will have to wait a week before he can show off his Loan Watch Former Player of the Season trophy to the home fans, Schalke lost 2-0 at Freiburg today so Guido didn't add to his total of 25 goals so far this season for Schalke and Nurnberg. He's certainly not the only former player to have done well though.
David Forde helped Portsmouth to the League 2 title yesterday as Simon Moore had already done with Sheffield United in League 1. On the subject of keepers, Joe Lewis has made 47 appearances for Aberdeen as they've made the Scottish Cup Final and lie second in the Scottish Premier League. Scott Malone has been a part of the Fulham team that's made the Championship play-offs, Andrew Taylor (along with another keeper, Mark Howard) a part of the Bolton team that got promoted from League One while Neil Harris has taken his Millwall side to the League One play-off final at Wembley. Wilfried Zaha and Tom Heaton have both had good seasons in the Premier League, Danny Drinkwater and Kasper Schmeichel made the Champions League quarter-finals with Leicester. Jo Inge Berget and Magnus Eikrem were part of the Malmo team that won the Swedish League, Andreas Cornelius has scored 12 goals for FC Copenhagen as they top the Danish League. A finally fit (for now) Mats Daehli has helped St Pauli to avoid relegation in Germany. Kevin Theophile-Catherine has made 35 appearances for St Etienne and Gary Medel 28 for Inter Milan as both sides lie 7th in their respective leagues. Cameron Jerome scored 16 goals for Norwich this season, Tom Lawrence 11 for Ipswich. In the lower leagues, Jon Parkin scored a total 17 for Newport and York, Danny Johnson 18 for Gateshead and Kenny Miller 13 for Rangers. Does all of that compensate for Solomon Taiwo's lacklustre chicken and pasta dish on Masterchef? Probably not, the jury's still out.
Ok, the final whistle has gone. Thank you for reading these over the past couple of months, thanks for the feedback too. To take from The Other Guys again, I think we've all experienced a ballet of emotions.
Very good, as usual.
Enjoy the off-season.
Thanks for a really entertaining and informative blog. Your staff deserve a rest after all their hard work.
Thanks. I like to take in other sports over the summer but I'll definitely be paying attention to what's going at City. It should be a busy, and interesting, close-season this time round.Originally Posted by TH63
Thanks. If you need any of them for your campaign team just get in touch.
Thanks for all your work during the season Lormaski.
Lovely stuff
Excellent as ever. Thanks for all your informative and witty write ups throughout the season.
I wonder if anyone on **** will express their gratitude?
Informative and funny as always. Thanks for this report and all the others through the season.
It also seems to be the end of an era. This is the first time on Loan Watch that I have searched in vain for a reference to the great and much missed Etien Velikonja. However, your cheeky grouping of Gateshead, York and Glasgow Rangers in the lower league section of the piece made me laugh and was nearly compensation enough.
Thank you, always brings a smile...
Footnote regarding those Belgian play-offs... (From a friend who lives in Belgium)
"Actually this was done to keep it interesting for teams placed 7th till 15th in the league to avoid a bunch of end-season games with low attendance and without any importance whatsoever. Our top 6 also plays another mini-league to determine the champion and the European tickets. This makes sure they play the top teams an extra 2 times every season and it has greatly improved attendance, TV income and the general interest in the game. Almost all teams are very much pro this. There is also a strong correlation between these playoffs (started about 6 years ago) and our performance in the European cups. General level of play has greatly increased.
But yes, it seems a tad complicated."
Master of the final line understatement I think!
Excellent read, thanks for all of these!
This. After my formal complaint the other week I am still dismayed that our former legend Etien keeps getting ignored. Maybe his season has ended, i don't know.....and quite frankly can't be bothered to find out. Who could forget his stunning goal v Newcastle in that pre season friendly all those years ago, and......well that was it really. The maestro that is Adam Le Fondre also seems to be missing.
Never mind next year we can have Noon, Pilkington, John, Lambert, Huws and Wilson all as potential loans if City can't get rid of them permanently. Also McGregor and Amos, but realistically what club would take those too on loan?
I just hope that Peter Whittingham does not get ignored next year like Etien. He'll probably be banging int he goals, penalties and floating over great corners and taking wonderful free kicks for someone like Sunderland. What does Warnock know eh?
Maybe Etien can come back to his spiritual home to partner Kenneth?
I did however get a bit worried last night when i saw people arriving at the awards function, I though Warnock had hired the Chuckle brothers as coaches! But thankfully they'll only be helping our with the Academy.
I have seen a "loan watch" thread pop on a few club's messageboards but none are of the quality produced here.
Thanks to you too for your reports.Thanks for all your work during the season Lormaski
Thanks for the Loan Watching Loramski!
And thanks for RUINING "My Way". As if Sid Viscous hadn't done enough damage.
Thanks Loramski. As i said to Bob thanks for putting the work in to keep us all updated.
Always very funny and informative. Looking forward to next seasons instalments.
Thanks for the entertainment over the past few months
Thanks everyone, much appreciated as always.
The lack of Velikonja stuff hasn't been my choice, there really hasn't been much to go on. He moved back to Slovenia at the start of the season, when he joined Olimpija Ljubljana, and was apparently the highest paid player in the Slovenian leagues. Him and his missus had a baby and I assumed he'd settle there but it was soon obvious that the club had only picked him up in order to sell him on, there was reported interest from Germany and Russia at that stage. A quiet start to the season cooled that interest and he didn't leave until January, to Genclerbirligi in Turkey's top division, for around 300,000 euros. He scored on his debut there but hasn't really been given a chance since. He's only made a couple of starts, the latest was at the weekend (having scored a hat-trick in a practice match in midweek) but he was subbed after an hour. Not exactly enough material there for a stand-up tour, I've just had to battle on without him for now. I'll certainly keep an eye on how things develop and hopefully I'll get a chance to blow the cobwebs off the Velikonja thread before long.
Thanks for the Belgian stuff, cantonboy. It's an interesting system they've got there, hats off to them for trying something different. I was going to mention their Championship at some point this season but never got round to it, it's great. Only 8 teams in it, they have two all-play-all leagues, one before and one after Xmas. The winner of each one (assuming different teams win, of course) then play each other to decide which team gets promoted. The aggregate points collected over the two leagues then come into play. The bottom four go into a relegation play-off while the top four (apart from the team who got promoted) move into the Europa League play-offs with the teams who finished 7th-15th in the top division. Excellent stuff. I'd like to see some changes over here but I don't think it'll happen until supporters of teams like West Brom or Stoke actually start dying of boredom from having to watch so many meaningless mid-table games, season after season.
By the way, apologies to Enoch. I know he wanted me to do some more Latin jokes this series but I felt 'always leave them wanting more' was the best policy on this occasion.
The best 'feature' on this messageboard imho. Keep up the good work Loramski!
We are the mauve and yellow army!
Thanks for your input.
Cheers Loramski.
I thought you were a bit better than that Jon.Informative and funny as always. Thanks for this report and all the others through the season.
It also seems to be the end of an era. This is the first time on Loan Watch that I have searched in vain for a reference to the great and much missed Etien Velikonja. However, your cheeky grouping of Gateshead, York and Glasgow Rangers in the lower league section of the piece made me laugh and was nearly compensation enough.
I try to be Jim, but we're all fallible. I expect kingbillyboy had a little chuckle too!I thought you were a bit better than that Jon.
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