Luca Koleosho

[DeRo_Is_King]

1 minute ago, Soccerpro2 said:

He was never going to cap tie himself to us at such a young age.

We didn’t/don’t have a chance. People forget that he’s an American raised in America. 

I'm aware of his strong U.S. ties and never expected a cap-tie that early. Just saying that Panama camp didn't help. 

[Soccerpro2]

On 10/1/2023 at 12:03 PM, DeRo_Is_King said:

I'm aware of his strong U.S. ties and never expected a cap-tie that early. Just saying that Panama camp didn't help. 

Sure it didn’t help. It was also never going to happen, no matter how good that camp was. 
 

Just look at the state of the Canada program vs the US program right now. No one in their right mind would commit to Canada.

[Stoppage Time]

1 minute ago, Soccerpro2 said:

Sure it didn’t help. It was also never going to happen, no matter how good that camp was. 
 

Just look at the state of the Canada program vs the US program right now. No one in their right mind would commit to Canada.

Wondering who on the CMNT roster might have even the smallest chance to influence Koleosho?

[Unnamed Trialist]

On 10/1/2023 at 7:03 PM, DeRo_Is_King said:

I'm aware of his strong U.S. ties and never expected a cap-tie that early. Just saying that Panama camp didn't help. 

If he came to our very next camp, even injured, it couldn't have been that bad. Where do we get this conclusion?

He wasn't going to play, it was agreed upon; unless we'd arranged extra subs and made it a non official friendly. It was his first taste of a camp and he liked it enough to come back.

If he'd stayed healthy, gotten minutes with Espanyol first team in Sept-Oct last year, he could have been called into our WC squad. We were front runners. After however, with nothing to offer through early 2023 and Italy awakening, our chances slipped.

[narduch]

50 minutes ago, Soccerpro2 said:

Sure it didn’t help. It was also never going to happen, no matter how good that camp was. 
 

Just look at the state of the Canada program vs the US program right now. No one in their right mind would commit to Canada.

Not sure why everyone is so hung up on this. He's going to Italy anyways 

[Unnamed Trialist]

18 minutes ago, narduch said:

Not sure why everyone is so hung up on this. He's going to Italy anyways 

For now. I think they'd be fools to let him go, now he's in Premiership. They'll bring him along as long as he's willing and since in UEFA there are many tournaments, they'll always have something. They do qualifying for next year's U-19 UEFA, to be held in N Ireland, in the third week of November, Italy is in a group with Sweden Switzerland and Liechtenstein with the former hosting. Then they do another u19 qualifying round in the spring before getting the final 8. 

Mind you, since he did this last year, he may be promoted up. There is nothing for the u-21s soon. Italy's senior men has four more games in their group to qualify for next summer's Eurocup, they are in the England group with Ukraine and Macedonia and Malta, games in 2 weeks and in November. If Italy are already qualified they could call him in for their November window, for example. They could call him in next week for the Malta match to rest the starters for England-Italy on October 17 at Wembley. 

It is fairly standard for clubs in Europe to encourage European national team affiliations, they know exactly what to expect, travel is easier, the schedules always coincide, it is far more convenient for European clubs to keep the boys close to home.

Any other suitors are going to have to beat them out, as I posted before: if the US thinks the Olympics might be tempting enough. 

Edited October 2, 2023 by Unnamed Trialist

[CanadaFan123]

7 hours ago, Stoppage Time said:

Wondering who on the CMNT roster might have even the smallest chance to influence Koleosho?

Davies is his favourite player. That’s our only advantage in this scenario. 

[DeRo_Is_King]

7 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

If he came to our very next camp, even injured, it couldn't have been that bad. Where do we get this conclusion?

He wasn't going to play, it was agreed upon; unless we'd arranged extra subs and made it a non official friendly. It was his first taste of a camp and he liked it enough to come back.

If he'd stayed healthy, gotten minutes with Espanyol first team in Sept-Oct last year, he could have been called into our WC squad. We were front runners. After however, with nothing to offer through early 2023 and Italy awakening, our chances slipped.

Again, I agree that he wasn't going to be cap-tied at that point. But if I'm a young player for the first time at camp and the friendly gets cancelled over a dispute, I'd be asking whether I was wasting my time.

He showed up to the next camp, which is great. But these things are partly supposed to build a positive impression of the program. Cancelling friendlies and controversy doesn't exactly help with that.  

Regarding your WC point -- that would have been nice in hindsight. It's something to keep in mind for 2026. We need to remain open to including really promising players regardless of age.

Edited October 3, 2023 by DeRo_Is_King

[Stoppage Time]

1 hour ago, CanadaFan123 said:

Davies is his favourite player. That’s our only advantage in this scenario. 

Can somebody get a message to Davies to ask him to talk to Koleosho? Maybe silly thinking, but stranger things happen.

[RojitoTO]

I still think we got a shot. What's the supply and demand for each program that he is eligible for?  I think he's highest on our depth chart than the others. He realistically can get a sincere and authentic first team call from us whereas it would be a cynical call from the others. All he has to do is acknowldege Tomori's situation and that's a big reason why not to go with Italy. There's also more competition in the US squad than ours. We are in best position to give him a true committed spot where he'll have more security knowing he'll participate in the major tournaments.

[Obinna]

11 hours ago, Soccerpro2 said:

Sure it didn’t help. It was also never going to happen, no matter how good that camp was. 
 

Just look at the state of the Canada program vs the US program right now. No one in their right mind would commit to Canada.

My argument would be the USA program is almost too good right now. It's a team that's entrenched in FIFA top 15 with young players at AC Milan, Juventus, Dortmund, Union Berlin, PSV, Monaco, and the list goes on. They are building depth rapidly. I keep saying that it depends on what kind of international career Koleosho wants. Does he want to push for the best-of-the-best? If so he'll keep pushing towards Italy. If he gets to the point where that road eventually stalls out, what's he going to wanna do, walk into the Canadian program or pick a number with the Americans and fight his way into their team? I'd like to think a player who is fed up with fighting for a senior spot on Italy will be more inclined to take the easy road, but we cannot underestimate the lure of playing for the states I guess, even if that amounts to being fringe player on the level of Kevin Paredes or Paxton Aaronson.

[Footyeh]

11 hours ago, CanadaFan123 said:

Davies is his favourite player. That’s our only advantage in this scenario. 

This isn't actually true, was reported somewhere and then everyone just ran with it.  They don't speak, Davies hasn't reached out and doesn't get involved with other players.  

[trc2014]

23 minutes ago, Footyeh said:

This isn't actually true, was reported somewhere and then everyone just ran with it.  They don't speak, Davies hasn't reached out and doesn't get involved with other players.  

Where is this inside knowledge from?

[nolando]

Koleosho causing Luton all sorts of headaches today.

[narduch]

1 hour ago, nolando said:

Koleosho causing Luton all sorts of headaches today.

So we know he is at least at a Championship level

[Obinna]

Is Koleosho really this good? Everytime the thread is bumped it's because someone is saying how good he looks. Nobody seems to comment when he struggles or has a poor play or a poor game. Maybe he hasn't had one? He must be the best player on Burnley according to this thread!

[Jack1997]

I find it kind of weird because he obviously is making an impression because he has kept his starting spot but people seem to say “best player on the pitch” every game he plays then I look at fotmob and he had a 6.5 and was subbed out in the 65th minute. 

[Obinna]

11 minutes ago, Jack1997 said:

I find it kind of weird because he obviously is making an impression because he has kept his starting spot but people seem to say “best player on the pitch” every game he plays then I look at fotmob and he had a 6.5 and was subbed out in the 65th minute. 

This.

I feel we are just gushing too much over having a Canadian eligible teenager hold his own in the EPL. Somewhere along the line I think "holding his own" became "he's playing so good".

The ratings suggest he is average.

[nolando]

From what I saw he is definitely promising. Today's match did look like a second tier match to me, quality-wise, so perhaps not the best match to judge him by. He also didn't look so good you'd think Italy would be drooling but he is still so young. This is very much a Jebbison kind of wait and see situation for me.

[Bigandy]

From what I have seen is that he is a player who is quite active on the ball. He will run at defenders and is looking to create opportunities by drawing players out of position. This gives the eye test that hes balling out but without end product, his ratings arent in line. Does he lack end product? Is he still developing it? Is it because he plays on a horrible team? 

[Unnamed Trialist]

He was subbed out m. 75 for the guy that scored the winner. So he looks good, and I agree he's physically mature, but I think he has no goals and not sure even an assist, maybe I recall an assist. 

Effectivity is not an easy thing to achieve. Davies is statistically ineffective for Bayern, far below what it should be. But he's not lined up high. 

I've seen Luca on the left for Burnley: wrong! Typical stone age mentality from English football. He's a leftie who turns in from the right. To Hell with finding the end line. I don't expect much more from these coaches but really, didn't they see the goal he scored last year for Espanyol? BtW, same for Davies, Bayern clogs his path down the left wing with someone else, annulling his attacking effectivity. Then if they thought he might attack ignore his potential from the right. 

Edited October 3, 2023 by Unnamed Trialist

[sebdeserio]

8 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

He was subbed out m. 75 for the guy that scored the winner. So he looks good, and I agree he's physically mature, but I think he has no goals and not sure even an assist, maybe I recall an assist. 

Effectivity is not an easy thing to achieve. Davies is statistically ineffective for Bayern, far below what it should be. But he's not lined up high. 

He's got an assist and another against Forest that should officially be his but isn't (had a cutback to a teammate who barely touched it which ended up being put in by a teammate making a late run.  That's 2 goal contributions out of 6 goals for Burnley. Only watched the game against Forest so don't know if it was one of his better games but he was their #1 outlet when attacking and was beating his man/making a positive play more often than not.

[Footyeh]

9 hours ago, trc2014 said:

Where is this inside knowledge from?

From me knowing the player as well as others in and around the team.  Also I think people hear about this "brotherhood" in the national team and assume all the players talk and have relationships with each other when in fact its a small group within the team.  You would think our top 2-3 players would be playing a big role in recruiting dual-nationals but it's not happened so far.  

Edited October 3, 2023 by Footyeh

[nolando]

1 hour ago, Bigandy said:

From what I have seen is that he is a player who is quite active on the ball. He will run at defenders and is looking to create opportunities by drawing players out of position. This gives the eye test that hes balling out but without end product, his ratings arent in line. Does he lack end product? Is he still developing it? Is it because he plays on a horrible team? 

The closest MNT players to him style and technique-wise are Shaf and Corbeanu, I'd say. He's ambitious and confident, and has huge upside, I think.

[Footyeh]

1 hour ago, Obinna said:

This.

I feel we are just gushing too much over having a Canadian eligible teenager hold his own in the EPL. Somewhere along the line I think "holding his own" became "he's playing so good".

The ratings suggest he is average.

IMO he wasn't great today, one of his most quiet games since coming.  Reminded me of watching a Championship match, wasn't pretty.  We need to all stop using ratings to give opinions on players.  They are useless on a professional level.  If you watch the games, you see what's exciting about him.  Very direct and relentless in taking his defenders on.  Plays with high quality technical players who can find him in iso situations.  Excellent balance, great crossing ability, needs to improve his striking and picking his head up to find the final pass.  19 years old, 8 straight stars in the Premier League, even if his moments are few, they are impactful and you can see why he's getting the buzz he is.  He's going to get a lot of interest from bigger teams as early as this summer.

May sound funny, but IMO he and Corbeanu are almost the EXACT same player (Both very high ceiling players with sometime low output similar to Jeremy Doku).  Difference is, Luca is getting his break for Burnley under Kompany who is the one coach in the whole league who will play new/unproven young players.  Corbeanu was at Wovles in a very expensive squad with an ownership aligned with Jorge Mendes who were bringing in big money signings from abroad and a manager who refused to use the domestic young players.  The same path Corbeanu's had to take could have very well have been Luca if he went to another club.