Yunus Akgün

[Lillehamring]

1 hour ago, Lcfcokay said:

One thing that sets you apart in the championship is technical ability. As we know the league is competitive but if you have an ounce of technical ability, like KDH you stand out. Yunus has bags of technical ability. His touch, his dribbling, close control and passing is seriously good. Maresca will love him. A young player he can refine, you can improve end product much easier than improving a players technical qualities. Gala fans seem to all say the same. He was an Exceptional talent who’s lost his way. He just lacks confidence and conviction, which he hasn’t been able to address as gala are signing some very good players (mertens, zaha, ziyech) etc. giving yunus less opportunity to start games. I think he will be a very good singing.

And let's face it playing and training alongside Vardy, Nacho and Daka should be a huge advantage for his development.

[inckley fox]

13 hours ago, Lillehamring said:

 

The current team seems to have done ok so far - i don't think many expected Winks to be as good as he's been, Mavididi is looking a good buy, and doyle has played and been decent in every game this season.

Forest is decades ago, we were picking up gems like (though i'm not a fan now) Justin and Fofana fairly recently.

The jury is out on that one. I don't know whether the new set-up had a role in the Faes transfer (I don't think so), but the raft of January signings look increasingly surplus to requirements, and it remains to be seen whether the summer signings will make it. I'm not sure Doyle, Winks and Coady would have required much scouting, so a lot will hinge on whether Mavididi, Hermansen, Casedei and any others come off.

 

While you're right to point out that Justin and Fofana were good captures, arguably Castagne and Lookman too, on balance our recruitment was poor summer 2020, 2021, 2022 and the 22/23 season. Even the most awful of recruitment networks pick up the occasional player that can do a job. Hence my comment that we're living in the past a bit if we consider ourselves in any way adept at recruitment since the Pearson/Walsh heyday.

[BlackFox]

Has he signed yet?

[Finnegan]

3 hours ago, Lillehamring said:

And let's face it playing and training alongside Vardy, Nacho and Daka should be a huge advantage for his development.

 

I mean..... 

 

 

 

 

[StatFox]

No the fairest of comparisons due to such different leagues, but some stats for reference... 

Per90 in the league in 2022/23:

Goals
1. 0.39 - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi
2. 0.12 - Tete 
3. 0.09 - Yunus Akgun

Assists
1. 0.21 - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi
2. 0.18 - Yunus Akgun
3. 0.00 - Tete 

Shots
1. 2.67 - Yunus Akgun
2. 2.32 - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi
3. 1.83 - Tete

Chances Created
1. 2.58 - Yunus Akgun
2. 1.44 - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi
3. 0.73 - Tete

Take-ons Completed
1. 2.58 - Yunus Akgun
2. 2.44 - Tete
3. 1.96 - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi

Interceptions
1. 0.36 - Yunus Akgun
2. 0.28 - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi
3. 0.24 - Tete

Passes completed
1. 32.26 - Yunus Akgun
2. 22.17 - Tete
3. 17.69 - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi

Passing accuracy
1. 81.9% - Yunus Akgun
2. 81.3% - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi
3. 77.12% - Tete

Crosses attempted
1. 2.31 - Tete
2. 1.96 - Yunus Akgun
3. 1.00 - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi

Dispossessions
1. 1.51 - Yunus Akgun
2. 1.58 - Tete
3. 1.96 - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi

[AjcW]

20 minutes ago, StatFox said:

No the fairest of comparisons due to such different leagues, but some stats for reference... 

Per90 in the league in 2022/23:

Goals
1. 0.39 - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi
2. 0.12 - Tete 
3. 0.09 - Yunus Akgun

Assists
1. 0.21 - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi
2. 0.18 - Yunus Akgun
3. 0.00 - Tete 

Shots
1. 2.67 - Yunus Akgun
2. 2.32 - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi
3. 1.83 - Tete

Chances Created
1. 2.58 - Yunus Akgun
2. 1.44 - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi
3. 0.73 - Tete

Take-ons Completed
1. 2.58 - Yunus Akgun
2. 2.44 - Tete
3. 1.96 - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi

Interceptions
1. 0.36 - Yunus Akgun
2. 0.28 - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi
3. 0.24 - Tete

Passes completed
1. 32.26 - Yunus Akgun
2. 22.17 - Tete
3. 17.69 - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi

Passing accuracy
1. 81.9% - Yunus Akgun
2. 81.3% - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi
3. 77.12% - Tete

Crosses attempted
1. 2.31 - Tete
2. 1.96 - Yunus Akgun
3. 1.00 - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi

Dispossessions
1. 1.51 - Yunus Akgun
2. 1.58 - Tete
3. 1.96 - Jesrun Rak-Sakyi

Tete was really shit wasn’t he  

[Tuna]

Is this remotely close to happening or what?

[FoxinNotts]

2 minutes ago, Tuna said:

Is this remotely close to happening or what?

Doesn't look close at all. He's still with the Galatasaray squad which plays Molde tomorrow. Travelled with them.

[AjcW]

I mean technically Norway is closer than Turkey.. so….  

[mozartfox]

42 minutes ago, AjcW said:

I mean technically Norway is closer than Turkey.. so….  

Definitely nearer for Rudders Messenger Pigeon? 

 

 

 

 

[Lillehamring]

3 hours ago, inckley fox said:

The jury is out on that one. I don't know whether the new set-up had a role in the Faes transfer (I don't think so), but the raft of January signings look increasingly surplus to requirements, and it remains to be seen whether the summer signings will make it. I'm not sure Doyle, Winks and Coady would have required much scouting, so a lot will hinge on whether Mavididi, Hermansen, Casedei and any others come off.

I think it's impossible really to judge the merit of the january signings based on the change in circumstances - a different manager will often want different things from his players and it seems souttar and VK aren't what Maresca is after, not to mention that we're now playing at a different level and that they came into a toxic environment.  The important thing to note about the signings of doyle, coady and winks, hermansen too, is that they all seem to fit perfectly in the managers plans, rather than signings for the sake of signings.

 

3 hours ago, inckley fox said:

 

While you're right to point out that Justin and Fofana were good captures, arguably Castagne and Lookman too, on balance our recruitment was poor summer 2020, 2021, 2022 and the 22/23 season. Even the most awful of recruitment networks pick up the occasional player that can do a job. Hence my comment that we're living in the past a bit if we consider ourselves in any way adept at recruitment since the Pearson/Walsh heyday.

I think the issue with the signings of this period is that a lot of people forget or overlook that, in general, we were signing players with a very different MO - in those pearson/walsh/puel heydays we were building a team, much as we're doing now - it was clear that the likes of morgan and simpson and dyer weren't good enough to be pushing up the prem, so we were building, buying the players to lead us.  By the time puel left and Youri was on board, we had a very strong first XI and the focus of signings shifted to bringing in squad depth (eg soyuncu, and that other defender) and players to replace outgoing players in the future (eg daka), unfortunately, because of the injuries and sales during that period it got to the point where a lot of those back ups were actual first team starters, which wasn't necessarily the reason they were initially bought, giving the impression that they were poor buys.  

[StanSP]

1 hour ago, Tuna said:

Is this remotely close to happening or what?

Part of me thinks Galatasaray will wait til they know what competition they're in for Europe. Deal may be agreed for the player in terms of wages and bonuses etc, but it's still up to Gala to choose when to actually sell him. 

 

He's in their squad for tomorrow, so I wouldn't expect any update at all until after their game against Molde. Or maybe until next week after 2nd leg. 

[Ryy]

Yunus Akgün will be transferred to Leicester within the week after saying goodbye to his teammates after returning from Molde away trip.

[inckley fox]

4 minutes ago, Lillehamring said:

I think it's impossible really to judge the merit of the january signings based on the change in circumstances - a different manager will often want different things from his players and it seems souttar and VK aren't what Maresca is after, not to mention that we're now playing at a different level and that they came into a toxic environment.  The important thing to note about the signings of doyle, coady and winks, hermansen too, is that they all seem to fit perfectly in the managers plans, rather than signings for the sake of signings.

 

I think the issue with the signings of this period is that a lot of people forget or overlook that, in general, we were signing players with a very different MO - in those pearson/walsh/puel heydays we were building a team, much as we're doing now - it was clear that the likes of morgan and simpson and dyer weren't good enough to be pushing up the prem, so we were building, buying the players to lead us.  By the time puel left and Youri was on board, we had a very strong first XI and the focus of signings shifted to bringing in squad depth (eg soyuncu, and that other defender) and players to replace outgoing players in the future (eg daka), unfortunately, because of the injuries and sales during that period it got to the point where a lot of those back ups were actual first team starters, which wasn't necessarily the reason they were initially bought, giving the impression that they were poor buys.  

I'd have to dispute the idea that we improved on the likes of Morgan and Simpson. We won the league and got to the CL quarter finals with them! How much better did we get than that? 

 

You say that the majority of post-Puel signings shouldn't be used as evidence of a failing recruitment policy on the basis that we only wanted squad filler. Really? I don't believe that we were signing Castagne, Fofana, Soumare, Daka, Perez, Praet, Bertrand, Faes, Justin, Kristiansen, Souttar or even Vestergard with a view to them simply padding out the squad. Almost all of those players went quite quickly into the starting eleven. Even if you are right, and that had been the intention, then to spend 200m on squad filler would not only be utter insanity, but to end up in with that set of twelve players after that kind of outlay would still represent dreadful value for money.

 

I'm really not sure you can be kind about our recruitment in past years on that basis. Most of these were just poor signings for inflated fees, with the two or three exceptions that we pointed out. That's why we can't get rid of most of them even with a sizeable discount.

 

As for us being unable to judge the merits of those January signings on the basis of a new manager bringing in new ideas - well, the old manager and the interim manager also seemed uncertain of the merits of some of those players. The fact that they were signed to bolster our options and keep us clear of a relegation battle, and then we subsequently got relegated with said players dropped to the bench, and now unwanted, means that they didn't serve their purpose. Might they yet prove to make the grade? Of course. But I still don't think we can use them, or very many of the signings from the four previous years, as evidence of us having a fine recruitment system. It's exactly the opposite, surely?

[JimJams]

8 hours ago, Clever Fox said:

Maybe he's another Mahrez. Then again he could be another Under or Tete. Which worries me.

Tbf Under or Tete would probably be perfectly good for this level! So worry not!

[Daggers]

2 hours ago, Tuna said:

Is this remotely close to happening or what?

Not until he's sold that shirt...

 

 

[desertfox2]

3 hours ago, AjcW said:

Tete was really shit wasn’t he  

Yeah he really was. We should have known that our first Brazilian was going to be a flop but it was exciting until after a couple of games in. I always though Lucas was the worst Brazilian I'd seen in the Premier league. He was massively overated although I know other people will think he was decent. I think Rodgers played him at Liverpool and he used to always give dangerous free kicks away around the box. Terrible player but yes Tete was even more shit. 

[Foxin_Mad]

1 hour ago, JimJams said:

Tbf Under or Tete would probably be perfectly good for this level! So worry not!

Under was good in the Premier League, just the poison dwarf had something against players who moved forwards in a positive way. 

[brookfox]

Anyone know if he’s quick? Looks like he has good feet, technical ability, bit of skill but can’t quite tell if he’s got a turn of pace.

[Lillehamring]

2 hours ago, inckley fox said:

I'd have to dispute the idea that we improved on the likes of Morgan and Simpson. We won the league and got to the CL quarter finals with them! How much better did we get than that? 

Yes but the two years after we won the league  (CL aside) we had one of the most porous defences in the league, not to mention thay couldn't play in the possession stile the club clearly wanted to pursue.

 

2 hours ago, inckley fox said:

 

You say that the majority of post-Puel signings shouldn't be used as evidence of a failing recruitment policy on the basis that we only wanted squad filler. Really? I don't believe that we were signing Castagne, Fofana, Soumare, Daka, Perez, Praet, Bertrand, Faes, Justin, Kristiansen, Souttar or even Vestergard with a view to them simply padding out the squad. Almost all of those players went quite quickly into the starting eleven. Even if you are right, and that had been the intention, then to spend 200m on squad filler would not only be utter insanity, but to end up in with that set of twelve players after that kind of outlay would still represent dreadful value for money. 

 

I'm really not sure you can be kind about our recruitment in past years on that basis. Most of these were just poor signings for inflated fees, with the two or three exceptions that we pointed out. That's why we can't get rid of most of them even with a sizeable discount.

Well, Soumare was back up for youri/ndidi, daka back up for vardy, praet a back up for youri, bertrand a back up for JJ - so i stand by that, fofan was brought in to replace maguire, and was a great buy, faes was brought in to replace fofana and is an ongoing project, castagne a dual option to cover both FBs and a decent buy, Perez - fair enough we overpaid for him, but then by today's standards he wasn't that expensive; vestergaard was an emergency cover for fofana.  So i feel there is some substance to my claim - they weren't bought as first team players like Maddison and Ricardo, or as a squad building regime like vardy, kante and mahrez, or winks and coady.

 

Did we overpay for them, perhaps, but over that period we had an almost zero net spend.  There'll always be a musa for every okazaki, a kamaric for every johnny evans.  Each regime has had its fair share of successes and failures

 

2 hours ago, inckley fox said:

 

 

 

As for us being unable to judge the merits of those January signings on the basis of a new manager bringing in new ideas - well, the old manager and the interim manager also seemed uncertain of the merits of some of those players. The fact that they were signed to bolster our options and keep us clear of a relegation battle, and then we subsequently got relegated with said players dropped to the bench, and now unwanted, means that they didn't serve their purpose. Might they yet prove to make the grade? Of course. But I still don't think we can use them, or very many of the signings from the four previous years, as evidence of us having a fine recruitment system. It's exactly the opposite, surely?

My belief at the time regarding souttar and VK is a little controversial - based on the fact that i think, in part, the club was already preparing for, if not resigned to the idea of relegation. During the great escape we went out and got Huth knowing that he had the experience and the quality to shore up our leaky defence, this year we bought a young lad just back from injury and an even younger lad with no experience of playing in england - i genuinely believe relegation was in their minds and they were already starting their rebuild, to an extent.  I certainly don't think they were specifically signed to keep us clear of a relegation battle - there would have been far more obvious signings if that were the case.

[Simmo86]

11 minutes ago, brookfox said:

Anyone know if he’s quick? Looks like he has good feet, technical ability, bit of skill but can’t quite tell if he’s got a turn of pace.

Gala fans said not rapid, but decent pace 

[inckley fox]

1 hour ago, Lillehamring said:

Yes but the two years after we won the league  (CL aside) we had one of the most porous defences in the league, not to mention thay couldn't play in the possession stile the club clearly wanted to pursue.

We weren't one of the most porous the year after the title. We finished 12th and had the sort of defence you'd expect to have if you finished 12th. The issue with Morgan / Huth / Simpson / Fuchs after that point was predominantly that they were reaching their sell-by date. Our poor recruitment in 2016 and 2017 meant that we were overly-reliant on the (remaining) three of them for 2017/18. A year after that, Wes still started 24 games at god knows what age for a defence which was greatly improved.

 

But still no defence of ours since 2016 has conceded as few as those four did in 15/16, so I can't see how you classify even our better signings from this era as upgrades, unless you're specifically referring to the Jonny Evans of 2018 vs. the Wes Morgan of 2018 and the Christian Fuchs of 2019 vs. the James Justin of (back-end) 2019/20 etc.

 

I wouldn't argue for a second that those outgoing players weren't well-suited to the kind of style the club wanted to implement post-Shakespeare. But it was a case of players expiring, rather than them 'not being good enough to push up the Premier League' as you stated. They were better at doing that than literally anyone we've signed since.

 

1 hour ago, Lillehamring said:

Well, Soumare was back up for youri/ndidi, daka back up for vardy, praet a back up for youri, bertrand a back up for JJ - so i stand by that, fofan was brought in to replace maguire, and was a great buy, faes was brought in to replace fofana and is an ongoing project, castagne a dual option to cover both FBs and a decent buy, Perez - fair enough we overpaid for him, but then by today's standards he wasn't that expensive; vestergaard was an emergency cover for fofana.  So i feel there is some substance to my claim - they weren't bought as first team players like Maddison and Ricardo, or as a squad building regime like vardy, kante and mahrez, or winks and coady.

You've drawn a distinction between players that you buy when you're building a squad, and those you buy when you're consolidating. I'm sure there are many distinctions between those two phases, but you've worked on an assumption that players signed during the former are meant for the first team, and those signed for the latter are signed for the squad.

 

So it follows, in your take of things, that players signed pre-title, or during that building phase from 2017-2018 were meant for the first team, but those signed during our less successful periods of recruitment (2016-2017 and 2019-2023) were squad additions.

 

And your conclusion from that is, from what I've understood, that our recruitment under Rodgers wasn't unsuccessful at all, but rather a successful drive to pad out the squad.

 

But when we signed Simpson, was he guaranteed his place? Was Albrighton? Fuchs? Wasilewski? Was Mahrez straight into the first team? Even Kante was expected to be vying with Inler and King for first team duties. I don't believe that most of the players signed during those 'building phases' were predestined as first teamers. The clearest cut examples I can think of during those years would be Morgan, De Laet, Knockaert, Cambiasso, Ulloa, Huth, because even Vardy, Drinkwater, James and co. spent lengthy periods on the sidelines in their first seasons.

 

The players signed post-2018 fell into the same categories as they did in the preceding era: (a) First teamers (Perez, Tielemans, Castagne, Fofana, Faes, Souttar, Kristiansen and, on a lengthy stop-gap basis, Bertrand, Vestergard and Tete - all of which were pretty much instantly drafted into the first team). And (b) Squad options who could realistically push pre-existing players either now or in the future (Praet, Daka, Soumare and, as shorter-term fixes, Bennett / Under / Lookman).

 

You can go through our signings from any given period and you'll be able to divide players up into those who are meant to go straight in, and those that aren't necessarily. If you sincerely believe that we've done a good job of one or the other during the Rodgers era, you have to ask how the hell we are where we are now.

 

1 hour ago, Lillehamring said:

Did we overpay for them, perhaps, but over that period we had an almost zero net spend.  There'll always be a musa for every okazaki, a kamaric for every johnny evans.  Each regime has had its fair share of successes and failures

 

My belief at the time regarding souttar and VK is a little controversial - based on the fact that i think, in part, the club was already preparing for, if not resigned to the idea of relegation. During the great escape we went out and got Huth knowing that he had the experience and the quality to shore up our leaky defence, this year we bought a young lad just back from injury and an even younger lad with no experience of playing in england - i genuinely believe relegation was in their minds and they were already starting their rebuild, to an extent.  I certainly don't think they were specifically signed to keep us clear of a relegation battle - there would have been far more obvious signings if that were the case.

 

You can't just say 'there'll always be a Musa for every Okazaki, a Kramaric for every Johnny Evans'! These are four players recruited by three different scouts, for three different managers! Okazaki and Kramaric were during one of the finest periods of recruitment that any club in history has managed to pull off. And that period in our history is why, in your original post, you referred to us as having excellent recruitment - because that was the period in our history when everybody else was left stunned by what we did in the market. Not what has happened in the past five years.

 

As for Kristiansen and Souttar, I think your suggestion that the club were already planning for relegation in January is plain daft. Firstly, because literally every well-informed journalist was still saying in March that nobody in the club was taking the prospect of relegation seriously. Even Stowell indicated that the place didn't wake up until Rodgers was fired. Secondly, because we were 13th when we made our first January signings! What kind of club in 13th place would be making signings on the assumption that they were going down? Would they have expected to have BR as manager in that event? If not, wouldn't that invalidate your point about not being able to judge the effectiveness of the Souttar / Kristiansen signings on the grounds that we have a new manager with new ideas? Clearly those three players were designed to add to both our shorter-term and longer-term options. Why do you think Rodgers declared, after the Spurs win when all three started, 'this is what I've been going on about... now the side has balance... the three new boys were class'? 

 

I also have to pick a couple more faults while I'm at it! Firstly, the zero net spend... which was actually a 30m net spend. The fact that it was nearly a low net spend (on transfers, not wages) has no bearing on whether or not we spent 230m during that era wisely. How much of a return will we get on that, do you think? We know how much we'll get for Perez and Tielemans. And Fofana, of course. But how much for the rest? You speak of the past scouting at the club as if it's comparable with what's happened in recent years, but look at the return we got on the 35m that we spent from 2011-2015, or even the  and you can see the very marked difference.

 

And finally, as regards Akgun, I maintain that we have no reason to place too much faith in our recruitment. But that doesn't mean that Glover won't prove adept at picking out the right talents to complement the new manager's style. And, as we've seen from how Walsh fared with Pearson, as opposed to without, the manager's 'green light' could prove decisive too. 

Edited 22 August 2023 by inckley fox

[CosbehFox]

11 hours ago, Lillehamring said:

And let's face it playing and training alongside Vardy, Nacho and Daka should be a huge advantage for his development.

He’s been training alongside Icardi, Mertens and umpteen other competent Champions League standard players 

[STUHILL]

2 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

He’s been training alongside Icardi, Mertens and umpteen other competent Champions League standard players 

Albrighton shits on all those. 

[Lcfcokay]

2 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

He’s been training alongside Icardi, Mertens and umpteen other competent Champions League standard players 

Hence why he barley gets a game, so we won’t even know if his end product has improved. Only played the equivalent of 10 games, mainly off the bench. Still got 4 assists 1 goal in fairness.