International Window
There’s a little bit of a cloud looming on the horizon, given our already stretched playing resources, in terms of the March international window.
With Horgan and AAH having moved on we’re less likely to meet the 3 player threshold to postpone our match at Charlton on the 25th if Chris Forino and TJay De Barr get call ups for St Lucia and Gibraltar, respectively.
No idea if Charlton have three or more internationals in their squad
Gibraltar are playing Greece on the Friday and then the Dutch on the Monday - which could pitch TJay up against Virgil van Dijk.
Big Chris could make his debut for St Lucia on the Friday night against Anguilla before playing Dominica on the Tuesday night. Before flying back hopefully in decent enough shape to play MK Dons on the Saturday.
Hopefully, we’ll have a few bodies back by then. Taf in particular to fill the big gap left in the middle of our defence.
Not a moan on my part - I think we should always take great pride in seeing any of our players on the international stage - just another challenge to face in the immediate period ahead.
Comments
Thought this was as going to be about a lesser known Tori Amos song.
Chris Forino not in the squad for St. Lucia this week, only UK based player is Terrell Thomas who plays for Charlton and therefore won’t be available on Saturday.
With Charlton having a number of potential international call ups including Wollocott for Ghana, Hector for Jamaica and Macauley Bonne for Zimbabwe we might yet see the game called off.
It, would, I hope be too late now to call the game off. I wouldn't think it would particularly be in Charlton's interests to postpone anyway, with them firmly entrenched in mid table.
Hector isn't in the Jamaica squad, Zimbabwe don't have any games this break - they got booted out of AFCON qualifying - so it's just Wollacott they'll be without by the looks of things. Maybe some youth call-ups, mind you.
What is the position with Tjay, please?
Will be away in Portugal for Gib on Saturday.
Shame.
And running rings round Virgil Van Dyke in the game after that!
Partnering an old Chairboy, Reece Styche up front. Hopefully Bloomfield or one of the coaches will be watching on Friday anyway. Might even spot another youngster with potential. Nicholas Pozo (18 y/o CM) is apparently well regarded at La Liga side Cadiz and plays in their Juvenil (U19) team. If he plays he could be worth a watch for a loan or bid in the summer. Niels Hartman (22, CB/DM) is at Loughborough Students but could prove another non-league rough diamond.
Or at the very least least barging into him to let him know he’s there!
It must be really strange to play for a smaller international team like Gibraltar, Faroe Islands, Andorra etc., as you routinely play against famous world class players, in between trying to get into the match day squad of a smaller domestic club! De Barr must have already shared the pitch with some significant names.
I notice that aside from the aforementioned Charlton player, St. Lucia only calls up players who ply their trade in the island itself or Jamaica. It does make me wonder - is it harder for someone like Big Chris to get a call up because the national team does not have the funds to spare for flying UK based players over?
Teams from CONCACAF should get the same support for transporting players for international duty. The entirety of Montserrat's squad plays outside the country (99% in the UK), mostly because 2/3 of the island is uninhabitable since the volcano erupted in the mid-90s. But they still get the funds to fly players over for games.
Cheers @inflikted - so the bill always goes to the regional federation? That makes sense.
...in which case - St. Lucia, what are you thinking? Does Forino have to go to Bristol City for you to notice him?
Plus I'm sure if costs were that much of an issue, Forino could pay for his own flight to St Lucia
I think you might be overestimating his current salary but this should come out of combined TV funds.
Will we see Anis start for Albania against Poland tonight. I certainly hope so and the FSHF Twitter feed is certainly giving him some coverage along with Roy Kent!
FSHF on Twitter: "𝑷𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒊 🇵🇱 - 𝑺𝒉𝒒𝒊𝒑𝒆̈𝒓𝒊 🇦🇱 🗓 𝟐𝟕 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐬 🕘 𝟐𝟎:𝟒𝟓 🏟 𝗣𝗚𝗘 𝗡𝗮𝗿𝗼𝗱𝗼𝘄𝘆 📺 @digitalb_official & @rtvklan https://t.co/iC2qOVSrgt" / Twitter
Gibraltar U21s are playing tomorrow. Might be a chance to spot the next Tjay De Barr.
For some context with teams: Jaiden Bartolo is technically at Manchester 62 but has largely spent this season in England trying to secure a move to Watford (international U18 transfer rules are getting in the way). Atletico Zabal is essentially the youth section of Spanish 3rd tier side RB Linense, and Liam Jessop is part of Fleetwood Town's International Academy and has trained with their U18s but is at Anchorsholme for senior football experience. Evan Busto was at Roterham United's academy last year but returned to Gibraltar in the summer. Julian Del Rio's return is much welcomed as he was making waves at Cordoba Juvenil in Spain before a horror injury in 2021 basically took him out of the game until earlier this year and he's started working his way into the Magpies team after starting off in their U23s.
Anis makes his senior debut for Albania, coming on in the 70th minute with Poland currently winning 1-0.
Could Anis have triggered an extra little windfall this evening?
🤞
I would say so
Gibraltar held Netherlands to a 3-0 scoreline in the end. Gibraltar re-defined what it means to park the bus.
Very unlikely I would have thought. Highly likely he would be capped shortly after joining BC. No reason for them to agree such a clause, even if the fabled release clause didn’t apply.
Possible but unlikely to be much, as you say was nailed on to be picked as soon as he stepped up a division and would have got there fairly soon if he'd stayed with the goals he was scoring, all good though, will do him and his resale value no harm, and possible there's something in after a number of caps.
Netherlands had 51 shots! Their strikers must be as bad as ours in terms of conversion. Gibraltar also played most of the of the second half with 10 men,
Well their striker was Weghorst so yeah. Aké scored twice, one was a mean deflection. Their first goal from Depay was a lucky one too so it really wasn't a good performance from Oranje. Niels Hartman got to make his debut at De Kuip (30km from the place he was born) for the away team though and the Dutch media seem to be absolutely fascinated by him.
Loughborough product apparently, Wonder if he knows Chris Forino
Well they were both there at the start of the 2020-21 season which got abandoned. While Chris went to Wycombe, Niels returned to Gibraltar and then did an internship in the Netherlands. So they definitely trained together.
Niels's Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Hartman