The two Belgian lads.

So are we supplying the Belgian F.A a brown envelope? What have they done to oust Lukaku and De Bruyne?

 

It says in the Chronicle link that they’re not expecting it to be sorted until mid-September, after the International break.

 

Can't see Martinez dropping Lukaku for either of these two...

 

Great minds

 

That's just a quote from Schopp. "They will not be available for the next game. I hope we will have them when the international break is over (in mid-September).”

I don't get any real sense of expectation from that.

 

It’s not a coincidence that Dike played a few token minutes for USA before coming to us. I’m not saying it’s a case of bribes but more of a doing their up and coming players a favour to get them experience playing abroad, which can only benefit the international team down the line.

 

True, I meant more than it won’t be sorted before then, not that it definitely will be after. I’ll edit.

 

Get ready for the board going up in the last 10 seconds of additional time.

 

And then there’ll be another excuse. Tweaked hamstring in training, not feeling well, family problem etc etc. I noticed today that Chelsea have loaned out Iseka’s brother to Besiktas in Turkey. Shame he couldn’t come here. We could give him European football as well. In five years or so…

 

Another month, near enough!!
Poor form ......

 

Are they in this country?

 

I wondered that myself. Training "away from the squad" could be viewed in numerous ways.

 

I saw that about his brother. Let's hope they are not that close and he isn't going to miss relying on him being here, in his new country.

 

So it could be possible that they've both been refused permits and were flapping around trying to appeal or get out of the deals ?
We need to be looking at a loan or two to help us in the short term.

 

Well, I did wonder if the brother had some influence on him about coming to England. Now he's not here could be a problem. Another one

 

As disappointing as it is I could live with that especially if we get someone in on a short loan, but what if we get to mid September and they don't get the permits granted ?

 

It seems to me, especially based on my own experience of property ownership here and Spain, that anything a UK company or individual wants to do from now on will be made as hard as possible by post-BREXIT (even redder than it was before) red tape. If I was looking now I would say no, let's not buy that "Place in the Sun" and I think the same applies to English football clubs. Unless you have massive resources to help things along (we don't presumably) you have to think it's just not worth shopping in Euroland any more. Stick to English Poundland maybe?

Speaking of which, look at the signings that Luton and Middlesbrough made in recent months from the lower leagues. Ikpeazu went from Wycombe to Middlesbrough and scored on Saturday. And what about that beast of a centre forward that Luton brought on Tuesday? Elijah Anuoluwapo Oluwaferanmi Oluwatomi Oluwalana Ayomikulehin Adebayo was signed last February from Walsall and, since then, they have done some very good business in the transfer market. I know you can point to our recent successful forays into the market, especially Dike for a short time, but they looked well ready and up for it on Tuesday. We looked timid and physically weak in comparison. I know that having a team of muscle men doesn't always work, but sometimes it just fits.

The key thing is that Luton got these players from English clubs so they are ready to go. This hanging around for clearances is not going to do us any good if we find ourselves in the bottom four after defeats by QPR and Brum. I hope, I really hope, that we win at least one of those but we could easily lose both if we put out a team like the one against Luton.