Franco confirmed

[bakajack]

This tells a picture for me of a midfielder who loves a good battle and it completely backs up the highlights clip of him I have seen. The bottom section in particular pleases me greatly as we absolutely have lacked someone who can fill out this role in the side for a long time.

 

[SwanseaJames]

Subject to international clearance

I see there’s been a big row over the work permit or lack of, for some other player we were in for. Some of our fans are lunatics on Twitter even more so than the ones on here.

Welcome Franco butt, hope you get off to a flyer.

I saw that last night - it's absolutely hilarious that some think the Club should have known that the player would be refused an Elite Significant Contribution exemption from the visa scheme before agreeing terms with him. On any normal analysis, he should have received one - he has enough Band 4 appearances for Hoffenheim II and has a France U18 cap, both of which mean he should have be eligible.

As an education guess, I suspect Ott was refused an ESC exemption, and the Club was notified of that decision before the deal was completed. I imagine those who were working on the deal weighed up the costs/time associated with appealing the decision vs. potentially missing out on other targets.

If that's the case, and we moved on quickly from Ott to Eom, and the latter signs for us and turns out to be a success, then fair play because this is the way a football club should be run. How many times over the last few years have we dicked about chasing targets and missed out on alternatives?

P.S. - I've added some url links into this post from Analytics FC which provide a bit more information on the ESC exemption. By my count, Ronald, Eom, and now Franco likely our ESC players, meaning we've got two left, so I suspect we'll see a couple more international signings over this season.

 

[magicdaps]

Looks like a gem...

I like the model - picking up lesser known league players between 22-25 years old with a view to selling on at profit. Similar to the Brighton model

It is the influence of the Brighton/Brentford model - I imagine not anywhere nearly on the scale of either of there's having listened to both owners talk about the level of detail, and the scale of how they go about doing things that I just can't see us being on.

But it seems we've taken principles from it - we're identifying leagues where we feel there is good quality for the price players cost (South Korea and Portugal clearly high on this for us), and we're signing a player like this who excels statistically in an area of the pitch we're lacking in.

As well as this, the players we're spending money on are a similar age profile (22-23) to allow them to be sold on for profit which given where we are as a club, is what we need to be doing.

 

[Smurph]

I could be wrong with this. I think the Brentford owner, Matthew Benham applied his logic from the betting company he made his money from to how he run Brentford.

No idea the ins and outs of it, just remember my Son telling about a book he'd read by Benham and how he applied this strategy.

 

[Neath_Jack]

I could be wrong with this. I think the Brentford owner, Matthew Benham applied his logic from the betting company he made his money from to how he run Brentford.

No idea the ins and outs of it, just remember my Son telling about a book he'd read by Benham and how he applied this strategy.

i believe Brentford pick up a lot of youngsters from the big premier league clubs. Read an article about it a good while ago.

 

[Smurph]

i believe Brentford pick up a lot of youngsters from the big premier league clubs. Read an article about it a good while ago.

A lot of it was based on percentages and stats and all that technical data driven lingo that seems to have engulfed the game these days.

They look at these kids and basically take a bet on them making it, I guess.

 

[eteb]

These aren't cheap guys either. Looks
Like the best part of 4.5mil plus for franco and Eom

 

[Pentyrchjack]

Hopefully he will dictate midfield

 

[airedale]

I don’t think he will replace our current midfield general though.

But who knows?

 

[Smurph]

I don’t think he will replace our current midfield general though.

But who knows?

His signing will complement Grimes.

 

[bakajack]

We see the best of Grimes when he doesn't have to worry about babysitting the back four all the time. Franco's signing absolutely looks to be with that in mind allowing Grimes to play 10-20 yards further forward

 

[Smurph]

We see the best of Grimes when he doesn't have to worry about babysitting the back four all the time. Franco's signing absolutely looks to be with that in mind allowing Grimes to play 10-20 yards further forward

Totally agree, when Allen plays alongside Grimes we see a completely different player as opposed to when Fulton is alongside him.

 

[jasper_T]

We see the best of Grimes when he doesn't have to worry about babysitting the back four all the time. Franco's signing absolutely looks to be with that in mind allowing Grimes to play 10-20 yards further forward

I have no idea what people see from Grimes to think he's better pushing forward. He's been one of the best defensive midfield water-carriers in the Championship since we were relegated, and looks lost as soon as he enters the final third. He's instinctively too risk-averse. The partnership with Downes never worked because they both wanted to be the sitting midfielder so badly we had the central defenders moving up ahead of them.

We've needed goals from midfield for ages, doesn't sound like that's Franco's game any more than it is Grimes, Fulton or Allen. We've not lacked players who can run around and get their foot in.

 

[Dr. Winston]

We see the best of Grimes when he doesn't have to worry about babysitting the back four all the time. Franco's signing absolutely looks to be with that in mind allowing Grimes to play 10-20 yards further forward

We've seen Grimes play alongside a variety of central midfielders under a variety of coaches during his near decade here, and in the entirely of that time we've seen this mythical, forward facing, creative dynamo for about a season and a half in total.

Grimes is hardwired to be cautious and defensive. That's just the way he is. It's got nothing to do with worrying about babysitting the back four. His natural instinct is to play that way, and most managers have indulged him in it.

So far only Potter and Duff have managed to coax any kind of consistently attacking performances out of him. His performances early last season were probably the only bright spot of Duff's entire tenure.

 

[Swanjaxs]

Fair play, in true Janet tradition, some have already written Gonçalo Franco off before he has even kicked a ball in Swansea City colors. Bravo...