Ricky1985 wrote:
Loan round-up:
A whole game in Ligue 1 without scoring! Wtf Nuno. You can see his speed and strength count for a lot more over there, as ever in Ligue 1, he's looking more confident because of it I reckon.
Big Willie's boy, Marcelo Flores, in his second game for Real Oviedo in the Segunda Division. He's so small at weak at this point in his development that when you see this it feels like he's doing well just to compete. But you can see his skill, agility and awareness is of a very high order. This is a good level for him.
Balogun with another goal - that's 3 in 3, and he looks like he has a lot more in him too. Showing he has a lot of other impressive aspects to his game as well.
Thanks for the videos Ricky.
Tavares is a weird one, ohysically and technically he can become a quality player. He just seems to be weighed down by an extreme lack of composure and panics a lot. On the plus side he never shies away, but he goes the opposite way of trying too hard and trying to force moves and dribbles that aren't on. Hopefully this loan will give him confidence in his own ability to the point where he doesn't constantly feel the need to overcompensate for his lack of confidence by trying to do the most with every touch.
Balogun is looking pretty good to be honest. Think he'll have 2-3 years of his contract left next summer. We'll have to make a decision on him in the next year or so on whether to integrate him into the team, sell him off or extend his contract and loan him out again. With Gabriel making the spot his own and Nketiah looking good himself it'll be a good decision to have to make, one that eill hooefully end up in either us having a player just exploding onto the scene or one who can be shifted off for a decent chunk of change.
Flores excites me man. He's still just only 18 and not one of those ohysically gifted guys who dominates his age group the sheer force but rather through his guile and game intelligence. Futs in with this generation of youths we seem to have been producing over the last 5-8 years since the days Iwobi, Willock, Nelson, Saka et al who have the technique to do almost anything with the ball and play in almost any position. He's played left back, left wing, in an 8 and a 10 and seems to have adapted to all those roles with ease.
The video above shows he's struggling with the step up to playing against grown men with the power they have. Not sure if he'll ever develop that side of his game but he definitely has the potential to negate all that through his speed of thought and quick feet once he gets used to playing with guys who are bigger and stronger than he is. He's still a way away from being ready for us. Hopefully we can extend him and give him another year or two on loan.
Not sure how much he has left in his contract, think he signed professional contract with us about a 1.5-2 years ago. The rumours linking him to Barca are a bit of a worry but as he's under contract we should be able to hold on to him until we can see whether he really has what it takes or not.
