Much shorter Part 2 on the domestic loans: Costel Pantilimon - 3 Wows. Disappointing first half of the season at Deportivo where he made some high profile mistakes. Started excellently at Forest and there was talk of them wanting to make it permanent but they've tried out one of their own keepers for the last couple of games. Will probably leave on a permanent move to a Championship team. Alex Jakubiak - 4 Wows. 7 goals in 17 games for Falkirk and has been noticed by some Scottish pundits who think he's too good for the Scottish Championship. Should be looking for a loan at a Scottish Premiership or lower Championship/upper League 1 team. Looks a much better footballer than Sinclair. Sam Howes - 4 Wows. Young goalkeeper who went on loan to Hampton & Richmond in the National League South. The team went on a 15 game unbeaten run with him between the sticks and he won a Player of the Month award too. Recalled in the winter window and has impressed for the u23s - loan to a League 1 or 2 club next. Dennon Lewis - 1 Wow. Played 14 times for Crawley, mainly as a sub after Harry Kewell asked for him on loan. Lost his place in the team and was recalled, spending the rest of the season with the u23s. Released and currently on trial at Ipswich. Connor Stevens - 2 Wows. Played 14 times for Oxford City in the National League South. Released. Charlie Rowan - 1 Wow. Went to Accrington and didn't play a single minute as they were promoted from League 2. Michael Folivi - 2 Wows. Mainly used as a late sub for Boreham Wood but scored on his full league debut and grabbed a couple of goals in the Herts Senior Cup. Not clear what to do with him - scores bucketloads of goals in youth football but couldn't force his way into a National League team starting line up. Another loan and hope he plays more. Harvey Bradbury - 2 Wows. Scored a couple of goals on loan at St Albans. Has mainly been kept out of the first team by Paul Merson's son, Sam, who's scored 20 in 36 league games. Randell Williams - 2 Wows. Didn't make Wycombe's squad for a long time but has forced his way in recently, scoring a crucial winner for their promotion charge. Rewarded with a year long contract extension. Brandon Mason - 1 Wow. Played 90 minutes on the first weekend he was on loan at Dundee United in a 6-1 defeat at Falkirk in the Scottish Championship. Only managed another 4 minutes after that. In short, I wouldn't expect any of these young players to be troubling the first team squad any time soon. I'd rather have Jakubiak as a fourth choice striker than Sinclair but suspect he'd be better off going out on loan again. Sam Howes might also be one to watch but the signs are the rest of them will do well to carve out a career in the lower leagues.
Huesca playing Granada at the moment. 1-1 30 minutes in. No prizes for correctly guessing that Cucho got Huesca's goal!
I hope for his sake that Huesca get promoted and he gets another season with them. They have won 3 in a row now having not won any of the previous 8 games. The upturn in form plus kind fixtures for the remainder of the season should see Huesca go up in my opinion.
I have followed this lad's progress all season. Can someone who has watched him give me a rough appraisal of his prospects please? Is there any possibility that we may see him in 2019 or is he heading straight to Barca?
He is brilliant - strong, can dribble, two footed, good in the air, clever passer. Turned 19 last week but already has excellent game intelligence - knows when to pass, a cool finisher and has excellent movement, including superb timing of runs. I have no doubt he is already better than all of our current strikers. I'm guessing that we'll try for a work permit but that it'll be turned down as he was only playing in the Spanish second division and hasn't played for Colombia's senior team. We'll probably loan him to a lesser La Liga team where he'll start regularly, and if he continues in this vein in a higher division, the money will be too much to turn down and we'll sell him next summer.
I have no particular insight IBB, just my guess re what might happen - he might turn up here in the summer and be rubbish for all I know!
He sounds bloody promising!! Would be good to see Huesca promoted and he can spend a season in La Liga with them. Hopefully then we’d then have him for a couple of seasons to increase his value in the Prem and then sell him on....
I see Pervis Estupinan is apparently being watched by Celta Vigo and Sporting Lisbon after impressing for Almeria. Get him here, can't be any worse than Holebas!
Quality assist at the weekend too against Barcelona B - 1 minute in here: Speaking of assists, Isaac Success actually did something productive last night with a decent pass for Malaga's goal against Betis (10 seconds in):
Despite the assist Isaac was being destroyed on Twitter. Sounds like he's been an absolute waste of a shirt for Malaga.
Stunned to hear this. Isaac Success has been seen on a football pitch ? During a proper match ? Blimey.
Jakubiak's loan has ended and he counts as an u21. Not sure of the rules but would like to see him on the bench ahead of Sinclair if possible for the next two games.
If his loan was an 'until the end of the season' job then, if I recall correctly, he's ineligible to play for us until next season now.
I really hope this guy comes back to us rather than stay out on loan next season, we should at least try and get him a work permit, after all we managed it for Richarlison.
16 goals and 5 assists for Cucho now in 31 games. He's getting more and more attention back in Colombia and there are growing calls for him to be considered for the World Cup. I think this is our best hope of him coming to us - getting called up to their World Cup squad and maybe even making a couple of appearances might be enough to nudge a work permit over the line. I'm hoping that a couple of their forwards pull up lame in the next couple of weeks...
He might get a call up even if they don't and might just get a game or two if only for the experience, and yes that could be good for us. Lets hope it happens.
I'll put a mild curse* on them if you give me names! * Nothing serious but enough to get Cucho into the squad!
Goals from Cucho from 3:30 onwards here - smart finish and a penalty that he won himself. There's also a famous scorer for Cordoba in between Cucho's two goals - someone I thought had probably retired a few years back!
Folivi just scored for Boreham Wood in their play-off semi-final against Sutton United, the Wood are on their way to the National League play-off final against Tranmere for a place in the Football League!
Raised a wry smile at their game the other day, they lost 3-2 after going 2 up against Bromley. My oh my are they similar to us
