So what was the story with Etete on Saturday? Did he really get injured in the warm-up?
I noticed Jordi Osei-Tutu scored for Bolton.
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So what was the story with Etete on Saturday? Did he really get injured in the warm-up?
I noticed Jordi Osei-Tutu scored for Bolton.
Yes, Etete felt an issue with his thigh in the warm-up so he was pulled out and they're sending him for scans. I'll try and keep up with any developments there.
Osei-Tutu is 26 now, another one of those players with a bright future behind him. I think injury issues have held him back, to be fair.
Another quiet weekend for our loaned out players. Kion Etete and Ryotaro Tsunoda are taking the opportunity to spend time in a different treatment room to ours, Kieron Evans is also out injured, Baylin Johnson was a late sub for Maidstone, Ryan Wintle didn't make the Millwall squad while Michael Reindorf and Jake Dennis didn't get on for their teams. At least the last two got to make their debuts in midweek, Reindorf coming on for Bristol Rovers in a 1-1 draw and Dennis played the whole game for Oldham in another draw, 2-2.
Joel Colwill did play for Exeter today, 85 minutes in a 1-0 win at Cambridge. Their message board wasn't happy with the performance or the direct style of play though. One poster said of Colwill that he's 'yet another exciting attacking player being swallowed up by the amorphous tactical blob that's our football'.
I suppose if I wanted a cheap laugh I could now say 'and talking of amorphous blobs, let's move on to Alex Revell' but I'm way better than that. He's been taking a lot of stick on Stevenage's message board too as their fans are starting to feel he's holding them back. Eli King also got 85 minutes today, and an assist, as Stevenage drew 1-1 with Peterborough.
While our young keeper Joe Thomas was growing up he probably thought he'd always be in the shadow of the Joe Thomas that played Simon in The Inbetweeners. And while that's still true the gap is closing all the time as the latter is now reduced to being chased around a Costa Rican jungle by Bear Grylls while the former helped take Yate Town nine points clear at the top of the Southern League Division One South today. They came from behind to beat Thatcham Town 3-1 in front of a crowd of 173. Okay, our Joe Thomas didn't get interviewed by Holly Willoughby afterwards but it's only a matter of time now, surely.
I haven't seen much about Colwill's performances so far but that comment I put up rings true. When he signed for Exeter a local journalist was saying that they'd already brought in two attacking midfielders this season and neither of them had been able to make an impact. He was implying that Joel would struggle too because of the way Exeter play and that message board comment seems to back him up.
I don't really understand what's happening with Eli King or Stevenage this season. I saw the local paper's scores for yesterday and Eli got a 7 (the joint highest). The reporter said he was having a really strong second half of the season and deserved his place in the side, and yet he was dropped for the midweek game at Crawley. Maybe he's got a niggle and they're nursing him along a bit but I haven't seen any mention of it.
Yate have recovered well, since Paul Michael took the core of the team to Merthyr. They’re a class above the rest of the division & will be back in the SLS Premier (Merthyrs current division) next season.
Merthyr will do well to hold onto Paul & Smudger next season, they’re destined for bigger things.
Thanks for that.
Any idea how Joe Thomas has ended up playing for Yate? Did they do some outside-the-box scouting there, did we put his name around or is there a link I'm not aware of? It's similar to Ewan Griffiths' move to Plymouth Parkway earlier in the season. I'm not expecting you to know, just wondering what the process would be.
Another disappointing night for Eli King as he was subbed after an hour in a terrible 1-0 defeat for Stevenage at home to Burton, they were booed off at both half time and full time (not bragging but I went through my entire 5-a-side career without being booed at either). Eli was only given a 4 out of 10 and criticised for passing sideways too much. To be fair, it's hard to for me to comment on that without knowing the kind of options and movement available ahead of him but it's not the first time I've seen that said of him this season.
Michael Reindorf came on with half an hour left with Bristol Rovers already 2-0 down at second placed Wycombe last night. As Rovers are the second lowest away scorers in the division (Stevenage are the lowest, with 8) the odds were against a comeback and that's how it turned out in a disappointing 2-0 defeat. While you can see the logic of loaning Reindorf to a League One club, maybe it would've been better to place him a bit lower to give him more chance of playing regular football, especially as Rovers have Chris Martin playing up front for them. Time will tell, still 15 games left to acclimatise there and force his way into the starting line-up.
A quick check on old boy Malachi Fagan-Walcott as York went to leaders Barnet last night for a first v second six-pointer in the National League. Although Malachi came up with a late goal it was only an injury-time consolation as Barnet ran out 3-1 winners to move seven points clear at the top. York have two games in hand though. They took 1,185 fans there last night which is impressive, it's not exactly a local derby. Big away support but a 3-1 defeat at Barnet, why am I getting a sense of deja vu?
I see Ryan Wintle didn't make the Millwall squad again last night. Injured or dropped? Maybe the latter considering he was an unused sub in Millwall's 5-1 defeat at Plymouth and hasn't been seen since.
Wintle's made just 3 starts for Millwall since joining them in August. Not a good loan spell.
No not at all. I had a quick look around last night to see if he's injured but I can't see any mention of it. Interesting that we didn't bring him back in January even though the option was there and we're fairly short in that area. I mentioned in the Academy thread yesterday that Dakarai Mafico didn't travel with the Wales under-19 squad this week (along with Lawlor and Giles). If we've brought him into the first team squad as cover having turned down the chance to take Wintle back then that doesn't seem to say much for Wintle's standing here. I don't know all the ins and outs of that though so I'm wary of jumping to the wrong conclusions.
I agree.
But if Wintle was recalled from Millwall he would have had to take up one of the 25 first team squad places (24 currently filled with one vacant slot kept in case emergency free agent cover needed?).
With Mafico (I think I'm right) he does not use up a squad place - so a slightly different calculation by the club and manager.
With no evidence I am sure that the wage 'burden' is different too.
Like I said to TLG, there's not a lot of point in me speculating about all this, it'd just be guesswork. I was a bit surprised when I heard we hadn't filled the 25 spots, especially with all the injuries we've got and still being in the cup. I'd seen Conte was being used in the under-21s and half expected to see him drafted in as full back/wing cover but that didn't happen, I could've understood us bringing Wintle back but that didn't either. Maybe we had another move lined up for transfer deadline day or maybe Riza's right and it was always the plan to go in with 24, who knows?
I don't know if Mafico (and Lawlor) have been brought into the squad but if Riza is confident enough in our youngsters to have them as the back up then credit to him, as far as I'm concerned. It's far from perfect here, of course, but it feels like he's trying to do the right things even under the pressure of a relegation battle and hopefully that will pay dividends in both the short and the long term.
Kortrijk are looking for their 3rd manager of the season.
I mentioned about a year ago on here how Peter Crouch said in one of his books that however hard you try as a footballer a lot of how things turn out comes down to luck. Sometimes you just find yourself in the right place at the right time and I applied that to Isaak Davies' loan at Kortrijk. Everything was working out for him there, the team turned their season around and eventually stayed up, Ryotaro Tsunoda was enjoying his football and spending time with Isaak, picking up the language and learning about Cardiff, the manager was enhancing his reputation, the fans must've been buzzing at the turn around. Everyone a winner.
What a difference the last few months has made for all of them. As Tracey Thorn wrote
'Tempting to think it will all be plain sailing, old enough now to know there's no such thing'
Didn't Wintle supposedly leave because Bulut refused to guarantee him playing time? Two sides to every story and all that, but if that's true, talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. I'm pretty sure Riza also alluded to it when he was asked about him coming back in January.
Best thing for Wintle to do is to move on at the end of the season, he’s never going to force his way into the current squad, never mind the starting line up.
Wintle is probably half decent in a league one team, he just doesn’t have enough about him to be a starter in a Championship side imho
I'm not sure if it's possible for Mike to introduce a theme tune for these loan reports, or maybe some background music, just to improve the experience for readers. I mean, there's only so times I can say 'Jake Dennis didn't get off the bench for Oldham' without people's eyes glazing over so it would be a positive step. Saying that, I guess it would've got repetitive listening to 'Simply the Best' every week when Etien Velikonja was at Lierse but what else would've been appropriate?
Anyway, Ten Green Bottles would be the music of choice for this week as our ten loaned out players accidentally fell one by one to leave me virtually nothing to report on. Jake Dennis didn't get off the bench for Oldham, same for Eli King and Ryan Wintle as Stevenage and Millwall picked up away wins. Kion Etete and Kieron Evans are injured and, while I wish him all the best, I expect Ryotaro Tsunoda will be too for Kortrijk's game later today. Michael Reindorf was a late sub for Bristol Rovers as they lost at Northampton and Baylin Johnson an even later one as Maidstone beat Bath 3-0. Even Joe Thomas can't save the day this week as Yate's game with Westbury isn't till Monday.
Joel Colwill did get 78 minutes for Exeter but a miserable 3-0 defeat at Charlton is probably best forgotten. For some reason, Exeter didn't have a keeper on the bench yesterday but with Josh Magennis in the team they're covered for that anyway.
While Malachi Fagan-Walcott is no longer our player, he's a useful standby for quiet weeks like this. I wonder what Malachi is making of the injury situation here. Having left, probably seeing no chance of ever making the first team, he must be wondering where he'd stand now if he was still here. Not only would he have been in with a chance of playing on a regular basis but, the way things are going, he might have been captain in a week or two. An eventful game for York yesterday as Halifax looked to avenge an injury-time defeat at the Shay earlier in the season. They started well, going 2-0 up inside three minutes, but York got one back and it was 2-1 at 90 minutes. York then had a player sent off but still managed to equalise ten minutes into injury time for a 2-2 draw. Barnet won though so York now trail them by nine points at the top of the National League.
I went to a Loan Watch office reunion in the week. Not my kind of thing usually but Joe from accounts still owed me a fiver and I didn't want to miss the chance of getting it back. It was a decent night to be honest. It started off slowly but someone broke the ice by reminiscing about Jazzi Barnum-Bobb's loan spell at Newport, then Stuart O'Keefe's stint at MK Dons came up and before long we were all chatting away, dewy-eyed with nostalgia. We've arranged to meet up again when the Belgian relegation play-offs come round, if anyone knows of a local pub that shows them live then let me know.
We may as well start in Belgium for this week's round-up as Ryotaro Tsunoda completed 90 minutes for Kortrijk yesterday in their 4-2 defeat at relegation rivals STVV. I'm not sure how 'It's good to get some minutes in my legs but we lost a six-pointer' translates to Japanese but hopefully he's got it ready for when he phones home. He got 75 minutes in last week too so, finally, there are some encouraging signs for him. We'll have to wait and see how things unfold for him here but he deserves a good crack at pre-season to try and establish himself, assuming that's the plan for both him and us.
With six players on loan at football league clubs currently there should be no shortage of action to reflect on but this is far from the case again. Kion Etete and Kieron Evans are still injured, Ryan Wintle was an unused sub yesterday and Michael Reindorf didn't make the Bristol Rovers squad (as far as I can make out he made way for a couple of players returning from injury). Eli King and Joel Colwill both came on late for their sides, Joel missed a late chance to win it for Exeter against Northampton but it was another poor performance from them as they slip towards the bottom four.
It's not much better at non-league level. Baylin Johnson has dropped out of the Maidstone squad and Jake Dennis didn't get off the bench for Oldham. Jake dodged a bit of a bullet there though as Oldham lost 3-0 at home to a rampant Barnet side who are showing no sign of letting up as they push for the National League title. Malachi Fagan-Walcott's York are keeping up as much pressure as they can, they won 1-0 at Hartlepool yesterday despite coming up against Gary Madine.
For a young lad, Joe Thomas is having to do a lot of heavy lifting in these round-ups. The pressure was on him last week to be the only one of our loaned out players to get 90 minutes in but his game on Monday got called off due to a waterlogged pitch. It never rains but it pours - in Frome at least. Better luck yesterday though as Yate Town pulled in a crowd of 527 for their game with Shaftesbury. Joe got off to a bad start, delaying an early clearance and letting their striker nip in to gift the visitors an early lead, but he made up for it with some good second half saves as Yate went on to win 3-1. They're still nine points clear and go to second placed Evesham next Saturday.
:hehe: :thumbup:
It's not going too well for our loanees at the moment is it.
Kortrijk are in real trouble after that defeat. They need to make up 8 points (on the team they've just lost to) in 8 matches to avoid automatic relegation and secure a playoff against a team from the division below (like they won last year).
Real trouble, yes. Six-pointers come and go but it's hard to believe yesterday's one wasn't crucial, the difference between eight points and two at this stage of the season is surely going to be decisive. Kortrijk let two points slip in the final few minutes last week too, nightmare couple of games for them.
I was going to do a full midweek report this week but it's come to my attention that some posters haven't been wearing a suit when reading these recently, or saying thank you, so the deal's off. Go to London and ask Keir Starmer to do it for you, see how that goes.
A start for Eli King last night as Stevenage won 1-0 at struggling Cambridge. He had a good game, got forward more than usual and even came up with a headed assist, which may be a first for him, as well as having a long range shot tipped round the post. He was taken off after 80 minutes which means he still hasn't played the full 90 in a league game since September, having played a full league game 23 times last season. As I've said before here, it's as if Stevenage are nursing him through an injury but I can't find any evidence to support that.
The word baby has been used in nicknames in the case of both Bebe, who was called it by his elder brother as a child and it stuck, and Baby Faced Assassin for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Hopefully, an Exeter fan comparing Joel Colwill to a baby giraffe last night will be quickly forgotten though, that's probably not a soubriquet you want to carry through your career. Joel got on for the last 30 minutes for Exeter last night and it led to a strong finish as they wasted some good chances in a 0-0 draw at Reading. Joel was busy and looked to have won a penalty although replays seemed to suggest a dive.
Elsewhere, Joe Thomas's Yate let in a late equaliser but go ten points clear in their league, Ryan Wintle didn't get on for Millwall and Jake Dennis didn't get off the bench for Oldham. No squad place again for Michael Reindorf as Bristol Rovers drew at Shrewsbury and Kion Etete is still injured at Bolton but Kieron Evans made a late substitute appearance for Newport in their win over Gillingham having missed the last six games through injury.
Sad to say it, but it looks like Roverzzz don't rate Michael Reindorf. They are one place above the drop zone and need all the fire power they can get. I thought he would be a shoe it to start every game. Obviously not
I can see the logic of sending Reindorf (and Colwill) to League 1 but there can be a big gap between theory and practice when it comes to loans, as we're finding out this season with Kanga as well as some of the lads we've loaned out. Reindorf may need a bit of luck but I'm not writing him off at Rovers yet. He's got Chris Martin ahead of him there and at least one striker just coming back from injury so he may have to bide his time a bit longer. His only other loan spell was at Kettering so it may be taking him a while to adapt, let's hope he takes his chance the next time he gets a run out.
It's a gamble we've taken and it's not paying off yet but I guess the club will say that if he'd gone to League 2 or National League and done well then it wouldn't have proved much, just as they felt that Joel Colwill doing well at Cheltenham didn't mean he was Championship ready either. You can say that players would be much better off getting regular football, adapting to playing two games a week, getting the confidence from being a fixture in a first team set-up etc, even if it is at a lower level. At the same time you can say that learning to fight to establish yourself and having the character to deal with being left out is all part of the development process too. It's a tricky one.
Feck me! If he can't get in a team ahead of that boring, annoying kent from the perennially dreadful Coldplay, him and us are right royalty f**ked! Might as well send him on loan to Splott Albion then.
On a serious note, I hope he can break into the Rovers team and show them and us that he is a bright one for the future, which I think he is.
Kieron Evans got 12 minutes for Newport yesterday as he continues his return from injury, Eli King got 6 minutes for Stevenage and that was it for our nine players on loan in the EFL and non-league. Joel Colwill didn't get on for Exeter and even Joe Thomas has been replaced at Yate.
Add that to the fact that our u-18s, u-21s and first team all lost within 24 hours this weekend then it looks like Ryotaro Tsunoda wins the City player of the weekend award by default. He played the 90 minutes for Kortrijk as they beat Chris Coleman's Oud-Heverlee Leuven 2-0 yesterday, a good result but it still leaves Kortrijk needing snookers to avoid relegation. It's an unusual name so I googled Oud-Heverlee Leuven to find the meaning of it in English. I was told 'it translates to Old-Heverlee Leuven' which might be worth knowing one day. Knowledge is power.