Friday Ramble: An eye for talent
With the summer transfer window approaching, three of Europe's top clubs were quick to snap up three of the world's top talents as soon as January.
With the summer transfer window fast approaching, some clubs have already sprung into action to reassemble and strengthen their squads ahead of the new season, with big clubs and big players particularly keen to get key business done before next month's World Cup.
English champions Chelsea have already been active, while in Italy new champions AS Roma have added the quality of experience of Saki Kumagai to their squad and German champions Bayern Munich have added the talented duo of Pernille Harder and Magdalena Eriksson.
All three have that one word in common - champions. It certainly makes life a lot easier in persuading the best of the best to come to your project, with the lure of trophies and Champions League football a gimme for most footballers.
But some are even further ahead of the curve, with three top clubs snapping up three of the best young players in the world as far back as January, showing the foresight and ruthlessness in the market which has placed them towards the top end of the European game.
That's Chelsea, Lyon and Real Madrid.
Three very different transfers, with three different motives and three different situations. Chelsea swooped to sign Japanese superstar Maika Hamano, but loaned her out to current Damallsvenskan leaders and recent cup winners Hammarby IF for 2023.
Lyon beat several clubs to Haiti's talented forward Melchie Dumornay from fellow Division 1 Arkema side Stade de Reims, while Real Madrid pulled off somewhat of a shock by signing Colombian sensation Linda Caicedo, despite reports consistently linking her with more established clubs such as the FA WSL champions and Madrid's Spanish rivals, newly-crowned European champions Barcelona.
Caicedo went straight into the Real squad, while Dumornay doesn't join Lyon until this summer, and Hamano is gaining valuable game time in Sweden to also pick up the necessary points needed to get a licence to play in England under the new Brexit rules.
But what allowed these clubs to win these races? Given all three players were highly coveted, some even by each other, with Chelsea certainly keen admirers of both Caicedo and Dumornay, even if again visa issues would have been involved with both, more so than Hamano who had represented a higher-ranked national team.
Hamano had already been scouted by Hammarby IF before she joined them via Chelsea. Head Coach Pablo Piñones-Arce scouted her personally at last year's Under 20 World Cup in Costa Rica, before the club heard she had settled on Chelsea as her big move away from INAC Kobe in the WE League.
That was until they heard Chelsea would need to loan her out, and through some common connections made contact with the FA WSL club to bring her to Sweden. She's settled in well, scoring goals, creating chances and doing everything you'd expect a forward of her quality to do.
Settling in hasn't been an issue. One of Hammarby's academy player's family are from Japan and have helped Hamano settle in and translate the language, while she's also been learning to speak both Swedish and English, primarily English, ahead of her move to England later this year.
For Dumornay, there was a want to remain in France for several reasons. She didn't want to rush into a move abroad after settling in nicely in a country where the Haiti international speaks the language, will only have to move a short distance away comparatively to another part of France and can develop her game in a team who have proven they can be the best in Europe.
The ironic domino effect of this was Chelsea's pursuit of Catarina Macario, knowing Dumornay wouldn't get a visa for England, which left Lyon needing a new attacking midfielder, and Dumornay was the one they wanted to essentially take the American's place in the squad.
She was also swayed by the history of the club and the chance to learn and train with forwards like Ada Hegerberg. She was invited to Lyon a few years ago and got to know Wendie Renard well who guided her on her short stay, and as a fellow player with Caribbean heritage, the pair struck off a good early friendship, and her existing connections to Lyon paid dividends for the French champions.
Caicedo possibly had the most suitors of anyone, with as many as 40 clubs showing interest in the Colombian. Due to her stature in Colombia already despite only being 17 last year, she didn't just receive strong interest from Europe, but all across the Americas as the next South American superstar, which included being pursued by NWSL teams, Liga MX teams and teams in Brazil.
But FIFA regulations restrict how teams can approach players under 18, but on her 18th birthday while she was on national team camp in Mexico, her representatives started to receive offers at midnight such was the desperation from some of the world's biggest clubs to sign her.
Real Madrid had already made an impression in conversations before that due to the project laid out for her and how Caicedo specifically fit into that. A project based around recruiting the best young players to eventually win the Champions League, and that's why Caicedo was convinced Real Madrid was the best move for her.
All three swooped well in advance of their rivals, using their projects and building long-term relationships in advance to sign up three of the best young prospects in world football.
With all of them likely to grace the world stage for the first time this summer, they may have got them in the nick of time should their reputations rocket down under next month.
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Answering your Questions
Phil - What's going on with City? The players and club seem desperate to talk up Taylor, the anger from City fans at the renewal news was basically unanimous, as was the glee from fans of everyone else. Is there a plan? Are they doing this on purpose? Bunny renewed and even that did nothing to change the mood.
I think things aren’t as bad as they look from the outside. It wasn’t great on paper, but I always try and look at the context. This was a new-look City in many ways, certainly the midfield which got completely ripped apart. I think if I looked at his first two seasons and there was nothing to cling on to it would be a different story, but some of their football was great, they won trophies and pushed for the league despite injury issues. It does have to improve though and he should be moved on if things don’t improve next season. But they do have a good core, they’ve started to tie down key players too, especially the younger ones, to contracts and I do genuinely think next season will be much better for Man City.
I also wrote about this recently here!
My Name Goes Here - Phil Neville is out of a job, can you see him ending up back in women's football? coughwesthamandtottenhamcough.
I don’t know about West Ham, but Tottenham are well on with their managerial conversations, so doubt Neville would be part of it. I’m sure he’d be interested, but his family have settled in Miami and he has a good life out there, so I could see him maybe looking within the USA first
Also, when this "New Company" take over running of the WSL/WC should there be new winners trophies. Let's be honest, the current ones look a bit naff.
Ha. Possibly, I guess? It will be a different company with their own branding, so it wouldn’t be a shock, but also not sure how high it will be on their list of early priorities!
What you’ve missed
I also answered 10 questions for Avais Writing about my career so far, which may hopefully be helpful to any aspiring writers out there!
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I agree with city unfortunately media blinded me by utd suces on pitch
Ex staff have told me that it's worse than we see at utd... I know that they will be working good players will come in but how can keep letting best players go. Surley with new owners this will now change