Transfer Rumours Arrivals / Departures lounges, Summer 2023.

Interesting that they couldn't get a work permit sorted, he appears to have 33caps for Bosnia-Herzegovina

 

This guy looks handy...



Edit: Sorry DH, just saw your same post in the Loans thread

 

Not ready for the Championship, apparently.

 

Not sure if my link will work, but if it doesn't, I urge everyone to find the longer highlights on YouTube. (Sorry, I'm crap at online technology.) Tzolis came on in about the 70th minute, so the last couple of minutes in the video.

Tzolis's first goal is very instructive. He's on the left, he sees a player free on the far right, makes a long pass to him, then moves infield to be available to pick up the assist before he shoots. (OK, the goalie should have done better, but that's neither here nor there.) What impressed me about this is the awareness of the whole attacking situation that Tzolis shows. There are many, many mega-promising young wingers in terms of ball skills, but nearly all of them eventually fail to live up to expectations because they tend to play in a bubble, unable to make that killer cross or pass because they're not aware of what is happening on the rest of the pitch.

The second goal was much more typical of a promising young winger, using his ball skills and body to go past the defender. As Rashica proves, though, this piece of trickery doesn't get you very far if you can't deliver something more (a killer pass or shot) at the end of it.

It's just one game, and Tzolis's intro against Bournemouth was very impressive, too, so it's important not to get carried away. But if he can repeat this several times during the season, we'll at least make money on him. If he is a fantastic success at Twente, I doubt if he would want to come back to work under a manager who placed him in the under-23s.

 

I'm not sure whether he was actually 'demoted' to the U23s or it was to give him more playing time. It's significant that he was also moved back to the U23s by the Greek national team around the same time. The Erdivisie is also a more open league with fewer low block defences to fight through. Cantwell came of age there so perhaps Christos can as well

 

With McCallum out til December and Giannoulis probably mid October at the soonest, a new LB is "possible" but doesn't sound essential for Smith.

Feels like a lot depends on Byram's fitness (worryingly). If he can stay fit for a few months we're probably ok, otherwise we're very short across the back line.

 

We obviously don't know what went on behind the scenes, but to me putting him in the under-23s still seems like a public humiliation, not to mention choosing to play under-23 players ahead of him in games. I know Smith said Tzolis needed to build up his confidence and so on, but to me that sounded like bullsh*t to placate the fans. I don't believe a word of what Smith said, although I accept that's pure speculation on my part. IMO, he didn't rate Tzolis and he didn't have the guts to take responsibility for the decision to dump him. Smith is very PR-aware and when he speaks in public he always says what he thinks people want to hear.

 

So how does that explain the Greek national coach moving him down to the U23s, Gozo? His brace after coming on as sub is the first really notable contribution since that first brace against Bournemouth in the cup. I really do want him to succeed, but I think that so far he's been influenced by the hype in the press about him as a wunderkind, much like that piled on to Gilmour last season. He needs to fight for his place at Twente and show that he is a quality player who can deliver on a regular basis, as I very much hope he does.

 

I agree, it could be a really good way of improving his level and confidence.

I tell you what though, that second goal was absolutely class.

 

Let’s not forget that it was Farke that banished him to the abyss, not playing him for either the first team or the u23s. Tzolis needed to go and play some games and Smith couldn’t use the league games to build his match fitness

 

You write that like it's a fact that Farke banished him, it's not, it's merely your view from the limited information you have as an outsider looking in.

 

Hugil Hernandez Sinani and Tod twice got sent out on loan to get minutes and came back into the team .

Tzolis is still a teenager and certainly hasn't ended his career .

I thought Hugill and Onel might be sold off or released but their hard work paid off , they clearly didn't sulk and throw the towel in .

Hopefully Tzolis will return full of goals assists and confidence learning a bit of Dutch

 

it is an opinion based on fact, he very rarely if ever got minutes under Farke, for either the first team or the u23s after he took that fateful penalty from Idah. I’m not talking about training, I’m sure he was still involved with the first team, I’m talking about squads

 

The game time he got with the first team / U23's is fact and not disputable. What we don't know is why he got so little time. Your suggestion that he was banished by Farke as some sort of punishment is not fact, it may be your view, but it isn't fact. In truth none of us know why he got so little time, he could be as you suggest that Farke banished him as some sort of punishment, equally there could be many other reasons why he got the amount of time he did.

 

I think it was a popular opinion that he was being punished. I’m just getting a bit sick of seeing all this Smith slander for doing things that Farke was praised for.

 

I get it because Farke had a lot of good will in the bank from his Championship season, yet so many seem unwilling to give Smith the benefit of the doubt and some time in the Championship. We were slow starters in the Championship under Farke as well let’s not forget.

 

I was a fan of Farke and in my view we should never have sacked him when we did, but then again I'm quiet happy being a yoyo club. I don't think Smith was a bad appointment at the time and would have been happy had he been appointed if Farke had wanted to move on. I would happily have Farke back, but I don't think Smith deserves to be sacked, but equally for me his days are numbered, if he can't get our current squad moving in the right direction. As far as last season goes I'm happy to write that off, but with the squad we have, we should be doing much better than we are. The club has done it's part with the signings we've made. It's now down to Smith to get results or be moved on

 

I agree with almost everything you’ve said to be fair, who wasn’t a fan of Farke! But I think a lot of people underestimate the impact losing Buendia has had on this team. I’m not saying you are guilty of this but a lot of those who didn’t think Farkes time was up have never let go of that and aim that frustration at Smith just because he is the man who replaced him

Last week against Wigan and again today we have played well and absolutely dominated the games, created plenty of chances and yet we haven’t taken them and then we make stupid defensive errors and concede. I’m not sure what part we can blame Smith for. The Cardiff game was collectively poor so that one can sit at his door.

 

For the record, Tzolis made two first team appearances in the league under Farke following the infamous penalty incident -- away v Everton and home v Leeds, both as substitute. Despite which Tzolis himself has said he felt he never fully regained Farke's trust. Nor was he somehow excluded from Dean Smith's "new start" (which e.g. saw Cantwell restored to first team reckoning). Under Smith, Tzolis made 11 more league appearances, so 14 in all over the season (he was in Farke's starting eleven for the away game against Arsenal, following his spectacular debut in the EFL Cup).

Doing some things well may get a player a start or two; it's often what he doesn't, can't or won't do, that keeps him out of the side

 

Most of those 11 appearances were very short, though. If I did my maths right, 197 minutes in total (not including time added on).