Yep, there's the Udinese Soccer School in Barranquilla, Colombia. It was actually the Parma Soccer School until they went bust and the Pozzos swooped and renamed it.
How bizarre. I was musing about my one & only trip to Barranquilla 15 mins ago. Business but great fun. LD12 scored ‘that’ goal while I was in Bogotá. When I saw it reported online, I assumed the authorities had been interfering with my laptop. I still haven’t totally discounted that theory.
I mentioned Jake Cooper a few weeks ago as a name that I had seen floating about on Twitter, done some research and said he looked a decent shout. Giving Silva and his band of merry men the robin around. Definitely would be able to hack it in the Prem. Would like to see us go for him.
Love it when we sign someone with a great name! https://www.watfordfc.com/teams/ladies/ladies-kikomeko-signs-golden-girls
Amazed that when there is a chance to push for Europe AND go for it the FA Cup, that we seemingly still aren't going to strengthen in any of our obvious weak areas.
I think you'll find we've filled the U23 goalkeeper spot that had been crying out for attention. What more do you want?
Genuinely think Pozzo is not interested in Europe or the Cup. His mandate is: - finish 10th to 17th - avoid any serious relegation threat - punt excess funds on striker/midfield prospects with high resale value To be fair it works well. High investment in centre backs simply isn’t on the table.
Still 24 hours left. We all know what that means. Santon, Ranocchia and some random South American will sign on loan.
Ecuadorian U20 players are the way forward. Jhon Jairo Espinoza (right back), José Cifuentes, Jordan Rezabala (midfield) & Leonardo Campana (forward). Buy them all! Here's Campana, a 6'3" striker with awareness, pace & composure. He's 18 years old and plays for Barcelona SC Guayaquil B in his homeland. No, they're not affiliated with FC Barcelona of Spain. https://twitter.com/WorldFootballi/status/1087126813690736641
Apparently we've already made an offer for Campana... http://imperiofutbolec.com/leonardo-campana-tendria-una-propuesta-para-jugar-en-la-premier-league/
If Gino is thinking that then he's not as smart as he seems. Van Dijk, Laporte, Kehrer, Mendy, Walker, Luiz, Stones, Otamendi, Mangala, Mustafi, Rudiger, Cancelo, Odriozola the list goes on. The reported £65 million for Maguire this summer as well as the extortionate fees for Alisson & Kepa show there's value in defensive players more now than ever.
Ecuador are in with a chance of winning the U20 tournament and are playing right now. Campana has just scored his second of the game (so far) - not too shabby either... https://twitter.com/LaTeleTuya/status/1094739691528687616
Ecuador did win the tournament after a 3-0 win against Venezuela. Argentina were runners-up, Uruguay third and Colombia fourth. (Jaime Alvarado, currently on loan at Hercules from us, didn't start the first 1 or 2 games for Colombia but was ever present thereafter). Those four countries qualify for the next U20 World Cup in Poland while Brazil & Venezuela, who came 5th & 6th respectively, miss out I believe. Brazil have been roundly criticised throughout the competition for lacking skill, cohesion, vision & togetherness. It would be interesting to hear Smudgers thoughts on the competition as he has a far wider breadth of knowledge than I on these matters. A little piece here via Gianluca di Marzio about Ecuador and Leonardo Campana, who finished top scorer with 6 goals. https://gianlucadimarzio.com/it/ecuado-campione-sub-20 It says Campana has already been to Germany for 10 days in August with Borussia M*nchengladbach especially keen. Not so keen, however, to put in a bid and possibly waiting until December when he is apparently out of contract. He's had rave reviews throughout the Sudamericano Sub 20 series so if WFC were ever interested I hope they got in early! It'll be interesting to see if we do pick any players up as the majority of the South American players currently out on loan were already registered with (mostly) Granada & Udinese before coming to us. The African U20 competition which started on February 2nd (I think) could also throw up a few possible targets. I hope the WFC scouts are on the ball, there's plenty to be getting on with in international youth football right now.
Will be in Guayaquil in December. Will report back and Gino, if you're reading this, I'm happy to take a few brochures and T shirts etc out there as part of the "selling job", as long as I don't exceed my 23kg checked baggage limit.
Amazed they were so poor, their team was full of apparently (can't say i've watched them) incredible young talents. Rodrygo has already signed for Real Madrid for €45m, Marquinhos already snapped up by Shakhtar (who are always "with it" when it comes to Brazil) etc.
The transfer fees were brought up a lot by some of the journalists who covered the team. Brazil = talent because they're Brazil and some clubs are damned lazy in their scouting.
For cool branding, rub on tattoos are almost unbeatable on an impact:weight basis. Using only a small washbag's worth, you could adorn the bicep/buttock of every teenager in greater Guayaquil with Deeney's amiable, shark like face or a clenched fist Holebas.
It was only his debut, but I wasn't too impressed with Mepham in Muff's match vs Wolves just now, he looked slow and hesitant, and got caught out a few times. Obviously it's early days, but impressions are that he doesn't have the tools to be anything more than a lower level PL player. Ake though continues to be some defender, if Chelsea have some kind of buyback clause he wouldn't be a bad Luiz replacement for them. If not then he'd be well suited to a CL spot challenging Serie A club such as Roma or Inter.
