When Espanyol agreed to sell generational defender Antonio Silva this close season, it raised a few eye brows. Joining in his place was Balogun, Engels and experienced Midfield maestro Verratti.
Verratti may have just moved to Qatar and may be looking at a rating drop, however in the first five games this season, he is already repaying the managers faith by controlling the midfield battle in Division 2.
Described by his former boss James Mckenzie as a “rollsroyce” , he is certainly living up to that title. Two assist, Two player of the match awards and a average rating of 7.4 from the first five fixtures, has certainly aided Espanyol to sit a point off the leaders at this early stage and create some optimism , given they were predicted to finish 19th this season.
The club have already reached an agreement to bring another experienced player in place of Balogun, with Sadio Mane to join in November, as they look to keep momentum going.
“When all the dust settles, you can’t beat having experienced players who carry a good rating. We’ve seen a big shift to young players in the game world, whilst the Saudi, Qatar and MSL leagues have been snapping up some of the worlds biggest names, To further complicate the thought process. We’ve seen this an opportunity to compliment our youth set up, by boosting our first team with some solid players and ratings, which really has us sitting pretty. We are not worried about having to find buyers or replacements for these players, as we already have them sat in our 35 strong youth team. This season we’ve been able to loan out youth players with a rating of 85, due to them not making our first 11 for our youth Cup campaign, which is how we are measuring our progress. Verratti is producing exactly what we thought he would, and along with Muller and Mane, our first 11 is looking strong in key areas. We have looked at bringing another experienced head in this past week, and although talks have been far too slow, we will continue to explore options”
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