Monthly Archives: June 2015

A Blackpool fan’s view of Donervon Daniels

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Fan Views and tagged with , , , ,

daniels

It was announced today that Latics have signed 21 year old Donervon Daniels from West Bromwich Albion.

The 6 ft 1 in defender comes from the Caribbean Island of Montserrat, famous for the volcano that erupted in 1995, engulfing the capital, Plymouth, forcing two thirds of the population to flee. Together with Anthony Griffith, who plays for Carlisle, they are the two Montserratian internationals playing in the Football League.

Daniels joined West Bromwich as a 16 year old from Reading. He progressed through the youth ranks and became captain of their under-21 side, winning their Young Player of the Year award in 2012. In November 2012 he was loaned to Tranmere Rovers, where he stayed until the end of the season, making 13 appearances. In November 2013 he went to Gillingham for a short term loan for six weeks, playing 3 games.

In the first half of last season Daniels played on loan for Blackpool, forming a favourable impression when playing against Latics. He made 19 appearances. In January he went on loan to Aberdeen, scoring on his debut against Dundee United. He went on to make 9 appearances for the Dons.

It is reported that Latics beat several other clubs to the signing of Daniels, who could prove to be a key player with the kind of football approach that Gary Caldwell seeks.

In order to find out more about his time at Blackpool we reached out to the AVFTT fan site http://fansonline.net/blackpool/.

Our thanks to them for what follows:

Donervon Daniels came on loan to Blackpool at a tricky time with the club going through a horrendous transition and manager Jose Riga locking horns with Chairman Karl Oyston.

 However, the youngster from West Brom did well and could operate at right back or centre half and was one of the few stand out players for Blackpool. He scored one goal against Huddersfield and in defence was a strong, robust character who always looked like he had the potential to become a decent player.

 However his game was riddled with errors and at least once or twice a game he’d commit himself or make a wrong decision which lead to opposition goals. He just wasn’t quite the finished article and, if anything, deteriorated when Lee Clark arrived at the club to replace Riga.

 He was infamously involved in Blackpool being fined after his youth loan expired and towards the end of his time with the club we had so many loan players he was being dropped because he couldn’t play them all. Sadly his exit came about when he posed with Jacob Murphy on Instagram with a sign saying ‘We are going to lose .. again’ and that was effectively the end of his Blackpool career.

 May find his level at League One and is a decent acquisition for Wigan.

 

A Coventry fan’s view of Sanmi Odelusi

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Fan Views and tagged with , , , ,

Odelusi

According the Sun newspaper Latics are about to sign 22 year old  Sanmi Odelusi  from Bolton Wanderers for £50,000 on a three year contract. Odelusi is a 5 ft 11 1⁄2 in tall winger.

Oluwasanmi Babafemi Oluwaseu Odelusi was born in Nigeria but brought up in Dagenham. After being part of the youth setups at Reading and QPR he joined Bolton in 2009. Odelusi was to make nine appearances for Bolton, scoring two goals. In February 2014 he joined MK Dons on loan, where he started in six matches and made four appearances off the bench in a three month stay. For the second half of last season he played on loan at Coventry, making four starts and ten appearances as a substitute, scoring three goals.

If the newspaper reports are correct then Latics will be taking a gamble in signing a player on a long term contract who has had such little first team experience. But Odelusi clearly has talent. The question is whether he can establish himself and add consisitency to his game.

In order to learn more about Odelusi’s time at Coventry we got in touch with the Covsupport News Service at at http://www.coventrycity-mad.co.uk/

Here’s over to them:

Sanmi Odelusi, was very much in and out during his loan at Coventry City.   He could not have asked for a better debut after joining the Sky Blues on loan in January from Bolton, showing some class to finish smartly in the 38th minute of a 2-2 draw with Rochdale.    

But from then on, he was soon out injured with a hamstring injury and struggled to command a regular place in the side.  

Odelusi showed that he has good ball control and a neat touch along with a good finish especially in the win at Chesterfield and the defeat to Port Vale but could not convince Tony Mowbray, who took over from Steven Pressley as Coventry City manager that he was worth anything more than a place on the bench.  

A decent lad, if he can keep his fitness then he could thrive at Wigan.

Click here to read another Coventry fan view on Odelusi, written for a Bolton fan site last month.

A Tranmere fan’s view of Max Power

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Fan Views and tagged with , , ,
Power

It appears that Max Power is to sign for Wigan Athletic over the next few days. Power is a free agent, but Tranmere Rovers will be due to receive compensation from Latics because of his age. He appears to be a fine young prospect and could provide some genuine creative spark in Latics’ midfield.

The 5 ft 11 in tall  Power has made 108 appearances, scoring 12 goals, for Tranmere despite still only being only 21 years old. Born in Birkenhead, Power joined his local team at the age of eight, captaining the team at all playing levels at the club, turning down an offer to play at Liverpool along the way. He was awarded a professional contract at the age of 17, making his first team debut as an 18 year old in August 2011.

Sadly Rovers were relegated in April, after a 94 year stay in the Football League. Power was unfortunate enough to have given away a penalty in the vital last match at Plymouth, which the home side converted. However, he was to make amends by firing home an effort from the edge of the box, although the home team were to eventually triumph by 3-2.

In order to find out more about Power’s  time at Tranmere we got in touch with Deadly Submarine of the Total Tranmere site (total–tranmere.co.uk). Our thanks to him for his insight on this exciting young player.

A youth product at Tranmere and a lifelong supporter of the Club, Max Power, the guy with the most talked about name in football seems to have always suited a role alongside a playmaker type midfielder rather than being the guy to rely on to run a midfield game himself.
 
Capable of some great finishes and with a huge passion for the game (certainly when playing for his boyhood team), Power is a player still learning the game and learning from mistakes – a fact supported by two incidents last year where he tried to be clever and chip in a couple of penalties rather than just hit the target – something he will no doubt learn from.  He also likes to look for a killer ball which is always good to see even if not always executed.

The nicest guy you could ever meet off the pitch (I have had many personal encounters with Max from his youth days right up to his time in the first team), if he carries on where he left off at Rovers, Latics fans will certainly be getting a passionate and committed player who in he right team and with the right players around him would do a job in League One although he may initially be a substitute for Wigan in my opinion.
 
Back-to-back relegations in the last two of his three or so senior seasons is no reflection on Max alone that’s for sure!

Rebuilding on free transfers

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Reflections and tagged with , , , ,

 

Caldwell will be checking out the availability of good players at the ends of their contracts.

Caldwell will be checking out the availability of good players at the ends of their contracts.

On this same day two years ago, Wigan Athletic were suffering from the pain of relegation from the Premier League. Six players from the senior squad had already found other clubs after being freed from their contracts. Speculation was mounting about the futures of others whose contracts had run down and when the big clubs would come in and snatch prized assets still remaining.

Owen Coyle had been appointed manager just ten days before with the brief of getting Latics back into the Premier League. Given the prospect of more players leaving, plus the necessity for a large squad because of Europa league involvement, Coyle clearly had a lot of recruiting to do. However, he was to resist going for big money transfers, instead relying on picking up players at the ends of their contracts or those available at discount prices.

On June 27th he made his first signing, Chris McCann from Burnley. The next day he picked up Stephen Crainey from Blackpool, then three days later Thomas Rogne from Celtic. All were on free transfers. During the month of July he was to pick up two more free transfers in Marc-Antoine Fortune and Juan Carlos Garcia, paying transfer fees for Scott Carson, Grant Holt and James Perch. With the new season approaching he paid transfer fees for Leon Barnett and James McClean. However, the total transfer fees paid by Coyle were modest compared with the incoming funds from the sales of James McCarthy and Arouna Kone.

By the start of the season Coyle had signed ten players, five on free transfers and five more for relatively modest transfer fees. In early September he was to sign Nick Powell and Ryan Shotton on loan.

Gary Caldwell too is currently facing a challenge putting together a squad that can challenge for promotion, albeit from League 1. Following a similar timeline to that of Coyle in his early days, he has  signed three players, all on free transfers. He has also been linked to signing players whose contracts have terminated, but whose clubs will be due some compensation as a consequence of their youth. John McGinn (20) of St Mirren and Max Power (21) of Tranmere Rovers , despite their youth, are experienced midfield players. They could prove to be valuable long term acquisitions, should Caldwell manage to acquire their services.

Caldwell has already managed to bring in probably around £2m in transfer fees through the outgoings of Scott Carson, Rob Kiernan and James McClean. He will gain more in his coffers as soon as James Perch is sold off. Reports suggest that he made bids for Sam Clucas of Chesterfield, but the competition from other clubs has driven the player’s value up beyond that Latics should pay. For the moment he will concentrate on finding clubs for the highest wage earners, meanwhile scouring the market for young, up-and-coming talent.  The likelihood is that he will be stuck with a significant number of players that he would have liked to move on, simply because no other club is willing to offer them the kinds of deals they seek.

Coyle has been criticized for his signings, particularly those of Holt and Fortune, who were both 32 at the time. Although he did not pay a huge transfer fee for Holt, offering him a three year contact became an issue. On the other hand, it was remarkable that given the limited time he had available, he put together a squad good enough to challenge for promotion.

Coyle’s problem was always going to be one of melding together two disparate groups, the ex-Martinez players from the Premier League, together with his mish-mash of ex-top  flight players and proven players from lower divisions.  But more than anything else with Coyle it was the lack of a defined style of play that crippled his teams. Too often the long ball would prevail, anathema to the Martinez disciples. It was to prove his undoing.

Caldwell has already clearly enunciated the style of play he expects. Players may be coming in from other clubs where the long ball has been the norm, but they will be required to play in the style the manager requires. Clubs have already shown that they can get out of League 1 playing good football, even if the majority rely on more traditional methods.

Up to this point one could say that Latics’ signings so far have been somewhat underwhelming, but these are early days. Like Coyle, Caldwell will pay fees for potentially key players, providing he can stay within his budget.

Not only does Caldwell face a challenge in signing a sufficient number of the “right kinds” of players, but he faces a bigger challenge in helping them gel into a functional unit. The training camps over the next month or so are likely to see a changing spectrum of different faces as players come and go. With so many players to move on, and so many to bring in, it is unlikely that the camps will be able to provide the “gelling” that they are primarily aimed to produce. Caldwell will have to deal with players who want to move on, but cannot, and their effect on morale. Not an easy prospect.

Given the sheer number of players that Caldwell is going to need to bring in and his budgetary constraints it is likely that more free transfer men will be brought in. However, one recalls the fine form of Chris McCann until he fractured his kneecap in the FA Cup win at the Etihad. Good players sometimes let their contracts run down in the hope of finding something more lucrative, as did Antolin Alcaraz, Franco Di Santo and Maynor Figueroa a couple of years ago.

It appears that Max Power is now on the verge of signing and Oriol Riera is staying with Deportivo. Press reports from Spain about the Riera transfer saga have been plentiful, but the figure for the fee has varied according to the source. The bottom line is that Latics will take a significant loss in terms of transfer fee originally paid and that to be gained in the coming days. Significantly Andy Delort did not show up for training, suggesting he is heading for new pastures, once again at a major financial deficit.

As July approaches the transfer activity is going to hot up. The sooner he can get all his squad in place, the better it will be for Caldwell. Players coming from other clubs will have to adapt to the style of football the Scot will dictate and the process will take time, as will the process of gelling as a team.

The advantage is that this time around the players will know what is expected of them, as they fit into a well-defined style of play.

One can only reflect on where Latics would be now if that had happened just a couple of years earlier.

Negotiating for Riera

Posted by JJ (Tony) in News and tagged with , , ,

 

Oriol Riera

Oriol Riera

The ongoing saga over Oriol Riera’s transfer to Deportivo La Coruña continues.

According to the Spanish media, the Deportivo coach Víctor Sánchez del Amo was pleased with Riera’s performances during the loan spell that started in January. The 28 year old Catalan made 21 appearances, scoring four goals as Deportivo managed to avoid relegation from La Liga. They eventually finished in 16th place. Sánchez del Amo is keen to finalise his squad before training resumes on July 2nd.

Reports suggest that Riera and Deportivo have agreed terms, but the clubs have still not agreed the transfer fee for the player whose contract at Wigan runs to 2017. Two other La Liga clubs, Granada CF and Levante, are also reported to be interested in the player, but he has made it clear that Deportivo is his preference.

Latics reportedly paid Osasuna  €3m for Riera last summer and are keen to cut their losses by asking €2.5m. Deportivo have offered €2m.

The heyday of the Galician club has clearly passed. Despite the population of the city being only around 200,000 they were competing with Barcelona and Real Madrid, just over ten years ago. They won La Liga in 1999-00 with a star studded team including Diego Tristan, Djalminha, Roy Makaay and Mauro Silva. In fact from 1992–93 to 2003–04, apart from their title win, they finished in second place four times, and another four times in third place. They competed in the Champions League for five consecutive years, being defeated by Mourinho’s Porto in  the semi-final of 2004.

Their period in the top flight came to an end in 2011, but they went back up the following season only to be relegated again in 2013. However, they once again bounced back to the top flight the following season.

Deportivo are clearly not in a position to splash the cash as they might have done in their heyday. Neither will Latics be keen to take a significant loss on their original outlay. Although some reports suggest that the talks have stalled it is in the interests of both clubs to reach an agreement.

Latics have clearly made a decision not to try to persuade Riera to return to Wigan, where his salary would be out of tune with most of his League 1 teammates. They will probably have to settle to a figure closer to what Deportivo have been offering.

Neither are Granada CF nor Levante likely to want to pay too much for Riera. Levante are the poor relations in the city of Valencia, their last contact with Latics being in Arouna Kone’s transfer in 2012. The Granada franchise is owned by Giampaolo Posso, who also owns Udinese and Watford. His usual mode of operation is in using a superb scouting network across the world to buy young, up and coming players, turning them into stars, then selling sell them for a good profit.

The likelihood is that Riera will be staying in Spain, most probably in Galicia.