Engvall on the move but continues to ply his trade in the top flight

[Agard Days Night]

As per the thread title. Gustav Engvall has moved on loan to Sarpsborg in the top tier of  Norwegian football. Good luck to him, shame it didn’t work out for him here for all manner of reasons. I wonder if his time is up at Mechelen or if he can play his way back in to their plans. 

[GrahamC]

He’s been a failure at Mechelen ever since they got promoted to the top flight back in 2019, after scoring 8 in the promotion season he’s managed just 2 goals in 38 games since (though that total does include a lot of sub appearances).

Think he, alongside Peter Styvar will always be remembered as the biggest failures of us looking to Europe for strikers. Lois Diony gets quoted a lot, but we never actually bought him.

When you look at both of their careers bluntly these 2 just weren’t very good & Norwegian football effectively just takes him back to where his career began.

[DaveF]

23 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

He’s been a failure at Mechelen ever since they got promoted to the top flight back in 2019, after scoring 8 in the promotion season he’s managed just 2 goals in 38 games since (though that total does include a lot of sub appearances).

Think he, alongside Peter Styvar will always be remembered as the biggest failures of us looking to Europe for strikers. Lois Diony gets quoted a lot, but we never actually bought him.

When you look at both of their careers bluntly these 2 just weren’t very good & Norwegian football effectively just takes him back to where his career began.

You could see the logic with Styvar, 30 goals in 57 matches for Zilina is obviously a good record. Doesn't look like he did much after leaving us tho.

[GrahamC]

1 minute ago, DaveF said:

You could see the logic with Styvar, 30 goals in 57 matches for Zilina is obviously a good record. Doesn't look like he did much after leaving us tho.

Absolutely & it is always forgotten that he scored against Villa in whatever the Europa League was called then that season & got 3 against Exeter as we chose to have a look at him in a friendly first.

I think he really struggled to settle, pretty sure someone on here got to know him & said his family found it very tough & he was also unwell.

I actually remember him coming on for his debut as a sub (Pompey at home, I think) & he looked lively, but after a few sub appearances he faded & as you rightly say, spells elsewhere just haven’t worked out.

Having seen Engvall the first couple of times I was completely baffled by what we ever thought it was he had, reminded me of Liam Robinson, he ran around but he wasn’t particularly quick, ok-ish first touch but not great in the air & didn’t look a poacher, either.

[petehinton]

Would really love to know what actually happened there, especially with all the agent £££ rumours. IMO there’s no chance anyone ever watched him play. Can remember him coming on against Barnsley first game of the season in 17-18 and he looked like he’d never ran before. 

[pl00peh91]

How much did we pay for him again? Was it £3m or am I misremembering that? If so that is madness considering we can’t afford to spend a penny on transfer fees these days 

[Northern Red]

I don't know if it was ever proven but there was the tale that the other players couldn't believe how bad he was when they saw him in training.

Wouldn't surprise me if some people did very well out of that deal.

[GrahamC]

15 minutes ago, pl00peh91 said:

How much did we pay for him again? Was it £3m or am I misremembering that? If so that is madness considering we can’t afford to spend a penny on transfer fees these days 

It was £2m, we got £250k from Mechelen for him. That Mark Ashton, eh?

Completely different times, though as others have pointed out, clubs better run than we were (Millwall, Preston, Coventry) are in nowhere near the financial mess we got ourselves into during the pandemic.

[Gazred]

Just reading the article on the OS when he signed, nearly 6 years ago to the day. We had a busy summer...

"Engvall becomes City’s 12th first team recruit of the summer, following on from Josh Brownhill, Gary O’Neil, Diego De Girolamo, Lee Tomlin, Hörður Magnússon, Callum O’Dowda, Ivan Lucic, Tammy Abraham, Adam Matthews, Taylor Moore and Jamie Paterson. The club has also recruited youngsters Jack Challis, Kodi Lyons-Foster and Shabazz Omofe for the development group."

[OneTeamInBristol]

I remember when he came on at Watford in the cup a few days before the Man City semi and he looked like he was borrowing someone else's legs.

[Super]

Another that's filed in the "didn't work out folder"

[brady bunch]

1 hour ago, petehinton said:

Would really love to know what actually happened there, especially with all the agent £££ rumours. IMO there’s no chance anyone ever watched him play.

 

1 hour ago, Northern Red said:

Wouldn't surprise me if some people did very well out of that deal.

I make you both 100% right.

Both Engvall and Styvar came at a time when there were lots of other "fingers" in the pie! in terms of "money to be made". I think there were some honest football reasons for both and others around then, where the transfer costs were way out of sync, but I suspect the "grease" that helped the deals to happen was an equal consideration to how they ended up on our books and rarely on our pitch......

[LondonBristolian]

I feel for Engvall in many ways

Whatever the reasons why it didn't work, it did nothing for his career to move to a team that could not use him and, from a personal point of view, moving abroad at 20 must be a big deal and being stuck in a foreign city with a manager (and perhaps teammates) that clearly didn't rate him must have been a lonely place to be. 

[fatchers]

Whenever I see the term 'worth a punt' I wonder if people realise what an expensive ' worthless punt ' the majority turn out to be. How many 'worthless punts' were brought in under Ashton's watch ?

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, petehinton said:

Would really love to know what actually happened there, especially with all the agent £££ rumours. IMO there’s no chance anyone ever watched him play. Can remember him coming on against Barnsley first game of the season in 17-18 and he looked like he’d never ran before. 

I watched him versus Hull in EFL Cup and thought he looked decent, decent touch, good movement, agressive in the press.

[hinsleburg]

10 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I watched him versus Hull in EFL Cup and thought he looked decent, decent touch, good movement, agressive in the press.

Yeah I can remember watching that and thinking we had a real player there, IIRC Taylor Moore also played really well against prem opposition that night next to Flint.

Can remember coming away really positive after that game, think Tomlin dropped an incredible 20 minute cameo too.

[Davefevs]

Just now, hinsleburg said:

Yeah I can remember watching that and thinking we had a real player there, IIRC Taylor Moore also played really well against prem opposition that night next to Flint.

Can remember coming away really positive after that game, think Tomlin dropped an incredible 20 minute cameo too.

Yep, Moore looked really quick that night.  As you say against PL Hull too.

[Oh Louie louie]

That o donnel was a strange one.

Sure i saw him put in a motm performance, think he even saved a pen?

Couple of weeks later, i think he was lobbed, at rotherham,? from way way out.

Dont think he played again.

[IAmNick]

34 minutes ago, fatchers said:

Whenever I see the term 'worth a punt' I wonder if people realise what an expensive ' worthless punt ' the majority turn out to be. How many 'worthless punts' were brought in under Ashton's watch ?

I agree - and it's not just the straight up money. These players all need training time and resources spent on them, physios, etc. which is harder to quantify but will have a reasonable impact.

[Logical-City]

2 hours ago, Northern Red said:

I don't know if it was ever proven but there was the tale that the other players couldn't believe how bad he was when they saw him in training.

Wouldn't surprise me if some people did very well out of that deal.

He was sold for a similar fee for what we paid for him I think as with many of the deals which didn’t work out: Eisa, Szmodics, Maggnison excuse my spelling but apart from adelakun I can’t think of a signing under Johnson which didn’t leave for same if not slightly more of a fee !

Im willing to be humbled but another toothless argument against the unfortunate Covid pandemic Financial damage victim Johnson if you ask me

Pearson/Holdens cull was releasing of Johnson’s players 2 years after he left

Edited August 12, 2022 by Logical-City

[Oh Louie louie]

He would have had harry maguire marking him?

Id probaly back him to score, if he came up against him today!

[Davefevs]

6 minutes ago, Logical-City said:

He was sold for a similar fee for what we paid for him I think as with many of the deals which didn’t work out: Eisa, Szmodics, Maggnison excuse my spelling but apart from adelakun I can’t think of a signing under Johnson which didn’t leave for same if not slightly more of a fee !

Im willing to be humbled but another toothless argument against the unfortunate Covid pandemic Financial damage victim Johnson if you ask me

Obviously Pearson/Holdens cull was releasing of Johnson’s players 2 years after he left so that can’t be considered they all released by Pearson all contributed well under LJ

Engvall was NOT sold for a fee anywhere near what we paid for him.  Paid circa £1.5m, got circa £200k for him. Rumours (unsubstantiated) that agent fees were £600k on signing too!

Djuric went for far less.  Lucic, Hegeler and Hinds went for zip.

Tomlin went for £1m less.

[Logical-City]

Most were sold for a similar fee and had reputations which gave them a sell on value.

We had a plan to get to the Premier League by trading if Covid never happened this argument is void.

You can call it reckless but no one none of you could have predicted what happened between 2020-2021 it’s tiring to see people blame.

Pearsons quotes about collecting players have since empowered many of you to continue this argument my opinion is he said this to justify his own bad results over the last 2 seasons

Football is all about opinions but the fact is Johnson’s squad was competing for top 6 places but Pearson would have had you believe they were conference standard 2 years ago

[RudiRed]

33 minutes ago, Oh Louie louie said:

That o donnel was a strange one.

Sure i saw him put in a motm performance, think he even saved a pen?

Couple of weeks later, i think he was lobbed, at rotherham,? from way way out.

Dont think he played again.

O donnell started excellent then made a series of mistakes and never recovered, confidence was shot. Strange really because i thought he had everything to be a top keeper, but you need the mentality as well as the physical ability to make it.

 

[RudiRed]

3 hours ago, GrahamC said:

Absolutely & it is always forgotten that he scored against Villa in whatever the Europa League was called then that season & got 3 against Exeter as we chose to have a look at him in a friendly first.

I think he really struggled to settle, pretty sure someone on here got to know him & said his family found it very tough & he was also unwell.

I actually remember him coming on for his debut as a sub (Pompey at home, I think) & he looked lively, but after a few sub appearances he faded & as you rightly say, spells elsewhere just haven’t worked out.

Having seen Engvall the first couple of times I was completely baffled by what we ever thought it was he had, reminded me of Liam Robinson, he ran around but he wasn’t particularly quick, ok-ish first touch but not great in the air & didn’t look a poacher, either.

The strangest signing in recent BCFC history. To pay that much for him and then LJ give him literally no game time is a weird one. LJ gave players chances he must've been just awful.

[Swede]

3 hours ago, GrahamC said:

It was £2m, we got £250k from Mechelen for him. That Mark Ashton, eh?

Completely different times, though as others have pointed out, clubs better run than we were (Millwall, Preston, Coventry) are in nowhere near the financial mess we got ourselves into during the pandemic.

Pretty much sums the Ashton era up in a nutshell Graham C

[Son of Fred]

14 hours ago, Agard Days Night said:

As per the thread title. Gustav Engvall has moved on loan to Sarpsborg in the top tier of  Norwegian football. Good luck to him, shame it didn’t work out for him here for all manner of reasons. I wonder if his time is up at Mechelen or if he can play his way back in to their plans. 

Good luck??

The bloke carried a poor attitude & didn't put in the required effort here.

[daored]

7 minutes ago, Northern Red said:

Yep, plus the novelty of being allowed back into grounds after Covid wearing off.

Quite possibly , I’m sure Blackpool on a bank holiday weekend will increase that following. Personally looking forward to Burnley away 

[Sheltons Army]

2 hours ago, Logical-City said:

Most were sold for a similar fee and had reputations which gave them a sell on value.

We had a plan to get to the Premier League by trading if Covid never happened this argument is void.

You can call it reckless but no one none of you could have predicted what happened between 2020-2021 it’s tiring to see people blame.

Pearsons quotes about collecting players have since empowered many of you to continue this argument my opinion is he said this to justify his own bad results over the last 2 seasons

Football is all about opinions but the fact is Johnson’s squad was competing for top 6 places but Pearson would have had you believe they were conference standard 2 years ago

Add Watkins , Walsh , Nagy, Palmer , Bakinson  ..... to the wasted money ..... Compiling a full list would take time 

An easier list is , IIRC - Other than Webster we made no money on anyone except from players that were inherited 

You are deluded

[brady bunch]

2 hours ago, RudiRed said:

O donnell started excellent then made a series of mistakes and never recovered, confidence was shot. Strange really because i thought he had everything to be a top keeper, but you need the mentality as well as the physical ability to make it.

 

I think it was him who was lobbed from inside the oppo half whilst he was watching the firework display outside of the ground? It was after Kory Smith got caught with the ball, I think LJ lost faith in him at that point.