Kakuta Signs (Loan)

[martin1877coywm]

Watching those youtube clips. I have to say he looks horrible. Totally showpony and irresponsible. Talented and quickish but aimless flicks and tricks with no positive outcomes. He's way worse than Eagles for retaining possession. Doesn't respect possession at all. Reminds me of Wiess without the blistering pace.

Kind of like a certain young Ronaldo?

[Ianmooreslovechild]

He is young and talented and here to learn and mature.Hewill probably be all the things mentioned.We aren't going to get finished articles on loan from the big clubs very often.Give the lad a chance and get behind him especially when he's fecking up.
The greatest players first have to learn not to fear taking risks with their talent before that talent can flourish

[Lofthouse Lower]

I'm looking forward to seeing him get a chance.

Even more impressed that he turned down the easy option of stopping in that hell-hole London and Fulham to come here.

[Eggy_McMuffin]

Hiya all,

Chelsea fan here, who'll be stopping by every so often to have a quick look at how he's doing (assuming he gets games). Just thought I'd give you an idea of what he's about for those who may not have seen him as much. Hope you don't mind me cluttering the place up like that.

He was indeed the one we went through oh so much trouble to sign. We were accused of stealing him, by his former team in France and without so much as a trial we were banned from signing players for 18 months, he was banned from football for 4 and we were fined. We then fought it in the courts and were found to have been in the right the whole time, but Gael had already missed the 4 months of football, by that time and the damage to our reputation was already done. A story about us winning a court case doesn't have the same impact as one about us being banned from signing players. I'll leave the bitter ranting there, though... for now at least.

Gael looked simply outstanding for our U18s and reserves when we first had him. He made the defenders his age look silly on a worryingly regular basis and showed signs of developing his end product with a few well taken goals and some tasty crosses. We were all pretty excited about how he could turn out, before he got his chance for us, though he broke his leg.

Anyway, he eventually got his chances. He's still very raw and a loan to you guys will hopefully help him a lot, but I'm not sure if the youtube vids show the best of him. For the French youth side, he seems to be given a lot of freedom to do whatever he wants and that's why he tries all those tricks that get him nowhere. When he's played for us, he's been more restricted. He's looked less effective going forward, but he's tracked back and worked hard, which to my mind is a good sign that he's willing to follow orders and do as instructed.

A few of you have said that you think he'll be playing out wide, but from the games I've seen him in (at youth, reserve and first team levels), he's always played better in the hole behind the striker. He has that eye for a pass you need to play there, but he can of course play out wide and that's where he's been for our first team, but in the youth side he's been in the middle more. In the couple of games I saw him for Fulham, that's where he played, too.

One of our biggest failings is that we haven't given our young talents enough chance to shine for whatever reason, so we're lucky that last season you gave Sturridge that bit of polish he needed to break into our first team and hopefully you can do the same with Gael. There's been suggestions on our board that you're getting Gael up until January and if he shows his class, Josh McEachran will be with you in the second half to give him that polish to get him to the next level... could be a load of bollocks, mind.

I'd also quite like to take a couple of quotes after games where he's played and share them with our lot at theshedend.com (minor plug), I just want to know if that's ok or if you'd rather I linked them over here instead (or as well even, if that's a better compromise).

Anyway, any questions you've got for me fire away and good luck against the Mancs tomorrow.

[Lofthouse Lower]

Can you go into a bit more detail?

[plymouth wanderer]

very well explained mate thanks i hope he does well the boy's defintley got talent so we will see

stick around mate aslong you ain't like those scummy arsenal fans you'll be fine

[aussie_wanderer]

GIVE HIM A GO

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Thanks for popping by, Eggy. Interesting to hear from folks who've actually seen him. Interesting too to hear of rumoured future loans. I've said before that we should be happy to borrow one or two per season; they help us short term, medium term and - if they come permanently a couple of years down the line - long term.

I'd worry slightly that it hinged on the friendship between OC and AVB but it seems not - Studger came under poor old Carlo's reign. Who's making the developmental decisions over there post-Arnesen?

[seanworth]

Cheers for the insight into Kakuta.