22 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Even for a highlights video that is supposed to make him look good, this wasn't really that impressive. Lots of heavy touches, scrappy and relying on ricochets to win the ball. I'm not seeing much to suggest he is close to being good enough.

The video title is an open-ended question, if he's ready, or at least that's how I took it.

I personally think he is since he looks older just by looking at his physique and just how he's running. Those things you can't teach so he's naturally already looking like a player that fits in the PL, the rest is just to train and to get experience but as a 19 year old you can't deny that he's really talented.

9 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Kid must have something about him given many clubs either want him on loan, or to buy him like Barca do even without him kicking a ball for us.

I imagine had he been snapped up by Brighton they would be asking for 100mill for him in a year.

It's what clubs like Salzburg and Leipzig do every season, but it gets easily forgotten as they are considered feeder clubs for most of the top ones in Europe. We could add Dortmund in there, too. Their recipe is not something out of this Universe, it is just that the bigger clubs don't have the time to offer all these young players a platform to properly develop.

How many times have you said (I know I did!) - "if only Leipzig/Dortmund were given one more season with that squad, they were on to bigger things..."

I mean, Leipzig lost Nkunku, Szoboszlai and will potentially lose Gvardiol, too, this summer. Imagine Dortmund had they kept hold of Haaland, Dembele, Sancho, Bellingham etc.

It's a pattern that works just fine and it's even better if you are a rich club and can keep hold of your players. For all the stick they get, Boehly, Beghdadi and Feliciano are not idiots, they made mistakes while trying to figure out this new world of football, but at the end of the day they are top businessmen and they would not approve for 15-20M transfers for 16-18 year olds if top scouts would not vouch for that.

 

9 minutes ago, petre ispirescu said:

It's what clubs like Salzburg and Leipzig do every season, but it gets easily forgotten as they are considered feeder clubs for most of the top ones in Europe. We could add Dortmund in there, too. Their recipe is not something out of this Universe, it is just that the bigger clubs don't have the time to offer all these young players a platform to properly develop.

How many times have you said (I know I did!) - "if only Leipzig/Dortmund were given one more season with that squad, they were on to bigger things..."

I mean, Leipzig lost Nkunku, Szoboszlai and will potentially lose Gvardiol, too, this summer. Imagine Dortmund had they kept hold of Haaland, Dembele, Sancho, Bellingham etc.

It's a pattern that works just fine and it's even better if you are a rich club and can keep hold of your players. For all the stick they get, Boehly, Beghdadi and Feliciano are not idiots, they made mistakes while trying to figure out this new world of football, but at the end of the day they are top businessmen and they would not approve for 15-20M transfers for 16-18 year olds if top scouts would not vouch for that.

 

Except that none of those clubs ever won anything. Unfortunately it is a profitable model for the players, their agents and anyone else who gets a cut of the transfer fees, but it doesn't lead to competitive sides.

1 hour ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Except that none of those clubs ever won anything. Unfortunately it is a profitable model for the players, their agents and anyone else who gets a cut of the transfer fees, but it doesn't lead to competitive sides.

As I said, if only they were able to keep their players to the point they hit their prime... Unfortunately for those clubs (from a sporting perspective), players arrive knowing those clubs are only a stepping stone. 

Think Chelsea, by offering these huge 8-9 year deals, is trying to do what those clubs can't and have that talent available through their prime years, too.

10 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Something I wasn't doing, just making a point that in a video that is made to show off his best moments, it seems odd that it lacked anything to show those best moments. What I have seen of him live, which isn't much, I didn't see anything to suggest he would be ready for Premier League football any time soon. 

Given the fitness of both Caicedo and Enzo it is likely Santos will be bled in slowly, and I do believe there is a benefit in keeping him vs loaning him. Brighton for all their praise in their scouting, they do an even better job in patiently integrating these South American players into the first team. 

Santos has levels of maturity in his play which is what likely caught the eye of our recruitment team. 

2 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Given the fitness of both Caicedo and Enzo it is likely Santos will be bled in slowly, and I do believe there is a benefit in keeping him vs loaning him. Brighton for all their praise in their scouting, they do an even better job in patiently integrating these South American players into the first team. 

Santos has levels of maturity in his play which is what likely caught the eye of our recruitment team. 

We don't have Caceido. It's far from guaranteed at the moment

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

We don't have Caceido. It's far from guaranteed at the moment

How are we fixed for the homegrown players rule mate.? We need 8 in the squad I think ?

2 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

How are we fixed for the homegrown players rule mate.? We need 8 in the squad I think ?

Getting confused as to what classifies as homegrown nowadays. Does Madueke qualify being English?

3 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

How are we fixed for the homegrown players rule mate.? We need 8 in the squad I think ?

We don't necessarily need 8 homegrown players, just no more than 17 non-homegrown players. I counted 13 so far if I exclude players I expect to be sold or loaned out before the window closes.

Kepa, Slonina (loan?) Badiashile, Silva, Cucurella, W.Fofana, Gusto, Enzo, Santos, Mudryk, D.Fofana (loan?) Nkunku, Jackson. These are our non-homegrown players.

Rahman, Sarr, Aubameyang, Pulisic, Ziyech and Lukaku I am expecting to be moved on.

Homegrown payers are Bettinelli, Chalobah, Chilwell, James, Ampadu (Loan/selling?) Colwill (selling?) Gallagher (selling?) Chukwuemeka, Anjorin (loan/selling?) Hall, Sterling, Broja, Hudson-Odoi (loan/selling?) Madueke

58 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

Getting confused as to what classifies as homegrown nowadays. Does Madueke qualify being English?

Madueke is homegrown because he spent 3 years or more with an English club before turning 18. He was with Palace between 2011-2014 and Tottenham between 2014-2018 before moving to PSV.

Eric Dier for Tottenham is English, but he doesn't count as homegrown because he spent his youth career in Portugal.

Edited July 8, 20233 yr by Scott Harris

8 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

We don't necessarily need 8 homegrown players, just no more than 17 non-homegrown players. I counted 13 so far if I exclude players I expect to be sold or loaned out before the window closes.

Kepa, Slonina (loan?) Badiashile, Silva, Cucurella, W.Fofana, Gusto, Enzo, Santos, Mudryk, D.Fofana (loan?) Nkunku, Jackson. These are our non-homegrown players.

Rahman, Sarr, Aubameyang, Pulisic, Ziyech and Lukaku I am expecting to be moved on.

Homegrown payers are Bettinelli, Chalobah, Chilwell, James, Ampadu (Loan/selling?) Colwill (selling?) Gallagher (selling?) Chukwuemeka, Anjorin (loan/selling?) Hall, Sterling, Broja, Hudson-Odoi (loan/selling?) Madueke

Madueke is homegrown because he spent 3 years or more with an English club before turning 18. He was with Palace between 2011-2014 and Tottenham between 2014-2018 before moving to PSV.

Eric Dier for Tottenham is English, but he doesn't count as homegrown because he spent his youth career in Portugal.

Thanks for clarifying this. So we can sign another 4 non homegrown then.

Secured his work permit, he'll be able to play for us next season now. With the hype around him i can see him staying with us, plenty of room in the midfield.

5 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Secured his work permit, he'll be able to play for us next season now. With the hype around him i can see him staying with us, plenty of room in the midfield.

Saves us 100mill quid too lol

Watched him last night and he seems...okay. Tidy on the ball, but he was getting beaten all the time and not able to get many tackles in. I think he needs a loan first to get some experience.

37 minutes ago, Zeta said:

Watched him last night and he seems...okay. Tidy on the ball, but he was getting beaten all the time and not able to get many tackles in. I think he needs a loan first to get some experience.

He was better against Wrexham, understandably so given quality of opposition. Brighton was a test, and when 11 vs 11 against a stronger Brighton starting line up, he definitely found it more challenging. 

A loan would be beneficial, however I think he is good enough to keep around. It all hinges on midfield transfers. Think he is also better on the ball than Gallagher, so are we better off training and growing the areas of his game under Pochettino alongside Enzo? Bit risky but I don’t think he’s that far off. 

He's playing deeper than how he used to play in Brazil where he was almost a box-to-box going much more forward so once Enzo is in the lineup he will be better as well.

39 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

He's playing deeper than how he used to play in Brazil where he was almost a box-to-box going much more forward so once Enzo is in the lineup he will be better as well.

Enzo has said he would like to get forward more as well. 

 

11 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Enzo has said he would like to get forward more as well. 

Well somebody needs to stay back...

always looks for a progressive pass which is good to see after years of Jorginho. 

Think he'd look a lot better with Enzo as an outlet next to him rather than Gallagher, offers more stability at the base of midfield. (actually think Gallagher is having a good pre season, but he's better further up the field)

35 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

always looks for a progressive pass which is good to see after years of Jorginho. 

 

Jorginho was consistently our top progressive passer for a lot of those years, sorry.

5 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

Jorginho was consistently our top progressive passer for a lot of those years, sorry.

A stat heavily skewed by the many passes played forward from between our CBs to roughly the halfway line, against sides that would sit in a deep block and not pressure him

9 hours ago, azpi28 said:

 

 

 

Tidy on the ball, few question marks over him defensively for me, but he is young and can improve.

I'd be interested to see him and Enzo play together.

15 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

Jorginho was consistently our top progressive passer for a lot of those years, sorry.

use your eyes, not stats. Passing from the edge of your box into Kovacic 10 yards ahead of you after holding the ball and letting their defence setup is no use.

1 hour ago, RIP Mourinho said:

use your eyes, not stats. Passing from the edge of your box into Kovacic 10 yards ahead of you after holding the ball and letting their defence setup is no use.

Watch Santos vs Brighton passing progressive passes 10 yards, compliment him for that while dismissing Jorginho doing the exact same thing... Yeap typical.

2 hours ago, cfr95 said:

A stat heavily skewed by the many passes played forward from between our CBs to roughly the halfway line, against sides that would sit in a deep block and not pressure him

And still nobody could do it better for us part from now Enzo coming as a world class replacement last season... Stats are stats, nothing to complain about there.