Very close to joining Villarreal. Was told this by a few people earlier but was told to keep quiet - but Leventhal has ‘broken’ the story now.
I'm sure Edwards will be delighted just as he is trying to shape the squad into what he wants from them a key piece goes missing. Same shambolic preparations as with Ivic. Lessons learnt and all that.
Dream move for him surely, I don’t think the club could really stand in his way even if they wanted to.
Shame. Always liked him and he’s a class act in the Champ. This going to be a big problem now, but no doubt the £2m has been far too tempting to say no too.
Meh. He's a good player at this level, but also an absolute shirker. He's very replaceable, with competent scouting (lol).
Ffs. He’s s**** in the Prem and made of glass, but is great for the Championship. Suits Edwards’ system too. Absolutely do not have faith in us to get an adequate replacement, especially not in time for the Sheff Utd game.
Big loss. Perfect for Rob's system, and quality for Championship level. I was reliably informed that he was absolutely crap so it's weird that Champions League semi finalists would be interested. Very strange indeed.
All makes sense now. Kamara on the right and Sema on the left. No replacement needed, and an extra £2m to pay Bayat’s agents fees with. Everyone’s a winner. But seriously, I should imagine we’ll be getting Ebosele from Udinese now.
10 days from the start of the season and we now do not have a player who can fulfil the role Edwards needs on the right hand side of his system Never fear, i'm sure Mogi can serve up another Jupiler League carthorse
He flew back to Spain for “personal reasons” last week. It’s not really a surprise. Don’t get me wrong, he’s the best RWB in the entire league at this level, but he’s never lasting 46 games. He’s 31, will be injured for half the season and his family are still in Spain. The club have known about this move for a while. Wish him all the best. Got to believe we are either bringing in Ebosele or Soppy on loan, or we have a HG RWB in the pipeline that will join us within the next 7 days.
Certainly a loss at this level. And if no replacement in the next few days poor squad planning as always.
Problem is a) Soppy is non-HG b) that Ebosele probably is not good enough to replace Kiko, and neither are many of the available HG RWB options. We’ve been looking for a RWB all summer though so I’m sure they’ll be familiar with who is out there. Sorba Thomas, Cody Drameh and Ethan Laird (loan) are the only three that I’d want. There’s a good young lad at Arsenal/England u19 but think he might be a bit too raw to be a regular starter now that Kiko is leaving. Cracking move for Kiko. Villareal are a good side of course.
Maybe I’m giving them too much credit - but I doubt the club would: 1.) Sell Femenia without Edwards express go-ahead given the fee won’t be big. 2.) Not have a replacement reasonably lined up. (I’d have believed they’d do the above last summer but I just don’t think this is a case of the club selling him and leaving Edwards short against his wishes.) I just hope they aren’t serious about the Kamara at RB/RWB stuff. Just play players in their correct positions. It does make the decision not to go in for Kane Wilson a bit curious though.
Bin off Femenia and then push hard for Nandez for an extra couple of million? Unlikely but I’d be very happy with it.
His kids moved back to Spain I think. Probably got homesick without them ? As you say probably has been coming but will we be prepared ? Doubt it..
Just replacing like for like with Soppy. Ebosele is good enough, just not as good as Kiko yet. However his pace will cause full backs issues. Agree that Laird would be the best option, who knows what’s going to happening. Choosing to believe lesson have been learnt. Will hold judgement until the window slams shut.
Going forward he’s great. Defensively he’s useless. Would be concerned when we’re on the back foot with him defending.
Not a chance Poxbury would pay the money for an established player It'll either be a loan deal for one of Udinese's many interchangeable full backs or Leventhal will be fed more lines to publish about the club being 'comfortable' with the prospect of Kamara and Hungbo playing there
Leventhal doesn’t get fed lines from the top of the club - not anymore anyway. He’s on the sidelines in that regard.
With the exception of the one time he walked off down the tunnel have always liked Kiko would be sad to see him go
He'd have still probably been the best RB/RWB in the division (when available anyway). He's not so simple to replace. Is Sorba Thomas even a wing-back? Thought he played further forwards. I was fairly on board with the idea of Ethan Laird, but he's been crap for Man Utd in pre-season and doean't seem as quick and sharp as he used to. He couldn't get a game at Bournemouth really either. Don't know much about Drameh but from the little I've seen he seems very raw (and not sure any better than Ebosele if he's feasible). Isaac Mabaya on loan from Liverpool is another possibility. He could really kick on over the course of this season and become very good at Championship level, but he might be a bit raw defensively early on. Would have been very handy as an understudy to Kiko though.
As has been said so many times. Great going fwd. Not great defending. In the champ we will really miss his attacking.
