Rochinha and Slavchev

Two loanees that caused a bit of a media stir in Portugal when Lennon brought them in January. I was quite excited at the prospect of them giving a bit more quality to the team when they signed. Both highly rated with >£2 million price tags but where the hell are they?

Slavchev is supposedly a box-to-box midfielder with a superb engine and good technical ability - a natural replacement for the injured Pratley so why did Lennon then go out and buy Coke? (perhaps he was towing the party line?)

Rochinha is a an attacking midfielder with tons of hype over his skills, but he was behind our own Tom Walker in the pecking order on Saturday and hasn't had a look in.

So what's happened to these guys? Are they both injured?

Benfica and Sporting Lisbon must be wondering why they've lent us two of their "starlets" if they're not even getting game time. Something doesn't stack up. Is Lennon playing a political game? Are they just shit in training (or not making the effort) Or are they brilliant and Lennon is keeping them out of the limelight with a view to buying them for next year? If not, why did Lennon sign them in the first place?

Does anyone know the real reason why these two haven't featured as yet?

i presume because of the position we are in he feels he can't throw them in at the moment. If we were comfortably mid table it would be a different story but signing players like Coke who are used to this league and can come straight in would seem best to me at the moment.

Hopefully if we can pick up some points we may be able to give them a few games at the end of the season but in hindsight it does feel like the waste of 2 of our loan options.

Norpig wrote:i presume because of the position we are in he feels he can't throw them in at the moment. If we were comfortably mid table it would be a different story but signing players like Coke who are used to this league and can come straight in would seem best to me at the moment.

Hopefully if we can pick up some points we may be able to give them a few games at the end of the season but in hindsight it does feel like the waste of 2 of our loan options.

Good point although I'm wondering if Lennon feels that he can't throw them in given the situation, but is prepared to throw Walker in, how good are they in reality? TBH if they're not as good as Walker, I'd send them back right now and focus on players that can contribute now and potentially in the future.

Suspect they have arrived at the club lacking match fitness for the hurly burly nature of the English game. Subsequently because of the injury situation have been victims of the "5 loan" rule. I have no doubt we will see both before the seasons end.

wanderlust wrote:

Norpig wrote:i presume because of the position we are in he feels he can't throw them in at the moment. If we were comfortably mid table it would be a different story but signing players like Coke who are used to this league and can come straight in would seem best to me at the moment.

Hopefully if we can pick up some points we may be able to give them a few games at the end of the season but in hindsight it does feel like the waste of 2 of our loan options.

Good point although I'm wondering if Lennon feels that he can't throw them in given the situation, but is prepared to throw Walker in, how good are they in reality? TBH if they're not as good as Walker, I'd send them back right now and focus on players that can contribute now and potentially in the future.

Can't send them back. With our luck this season who knows when the next injuries will come? At least they're there if needed.

I'd bet they have both already bought homes and will be signing on in the summer.

I think you will find that since they are on loan we cant bring them into the side until we take other loan players out due to only being able to use a certain number of loanees. 

If Lonners comes back in goal it will free up another outfield loan position.

Ps, just a guess.

As far as I know,a team cannot have more than 5 loan players on the team sheet.
Not checked it out though,cos like an idiot I've got up early for work,forgetting I've got the week off,so I'm going back to bed.

boltonbonce wrote:As far as I know,a team cannot have more than 5 loan players on the team sheet.
Not checked it out though,cos like an idiot I've got up early for work,forgetting I've got the week off,so I'm going back to bed.

Just logged in and saw that you'd posted a comment at 06:00 and thought :

"I'm sure he said he was off this week, wonder what he's doing up and posting at that time....?"

Now I know.

boltonbonce wrote:As far as I know,a team cannot have more than 5 loan players on the team sheet.
Not checked it out though,cos like an idiot I've got up early for work,forgetting I've got the week off,so I'm going back to bed.

Yes - you can only have five in the match day squad including the subs. Question is that if they are rated so highly (and expensively) and they've had 6 weeks to "acclimatise" and they've come to get match time, why aren't they forcing their way into the 5? Specifically why did Lennon have to go out and loan yet another player (Coke) to fill a midfield gap when we have these two in the squad?
If they are seriously being considered for Lennon's new squad in the summer and likely to cost a lot, surely they should be better than Coke?