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Igor Thiago

Igor Thiago

Beelated said:
As far as I can tell, this isn’t even a Club Brugge match. Score shows ‘ABO vs CHU’ (whoever they are!) and the number 7 for Brugge is Andreas Skov Olsen so possibly the poster chose the wrong clip for his post.
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I think that’s the joke :whoosh:
 

Igor Thiago

Igor Thiago

aslan said:
How many games has he played since, two?
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Yep. First game after the signing was confirmed he got a second yellow and was banned for the next match. Last night was the Belgian Cup 2nd leg and they went out to the team top of the league.
 

Igor Thiago

I think this is a bit ridiculous. I mean, Harry Kane has just put an end to a supposed ‘goal drought’, Hojlund could do nothing right and now he’s the next Haaland according to some.

By signing for another club whilst you’re still playing for current side, the form of your future club weighs on you too. And there is a bit of uncertainty, so I wouldn’t look too much in to it
 

Igor Thiago

I don’t want to mention this cursed word this season anymore, but he has a minor injury
 

Igor Thiago

AP’o2 said:
I don’t want to mention this cursed word this season anymore, but he has a minor injury
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Don't appear to be missing him today....currently 3 nil up at Genk in their top 6 clash.

Goals shared by the three players on the right hand side of their 4-3-3
 

Igor Thiago

Off to Bruges in the morning and have tickets for Sundays final home league game of the season proper. Hoping he at least gets a few minutes but not sure he will following their 0-3 demolition of Genk last weekend where he wasn't even on the bench!
 

Igor Thiago

birdy67 said:
Off to Bruges in the morning and have tickets for Sundays final home league game of the season proper. Hoping he at least gets a few minutes but not sure he will following their 0-3 demolition of Genk last weekend where he wasn't even on the bench!
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Think he is injured
 

Igor Thiago

Jago16 said:
Think he is injured
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I did wonder as surely he'd be first choice given his strike rate this season so far? Any idea for how long?

EDIT. Transfermarkt suggests he's out for 5 days from 1st March due to an injury sustained from overstretching! :banghead:
 

Igor Thiago

Reportedly won't be in their squad today in the Conference League due to injury. Nusa is also out.

Seems like just the mention of players in the same sentence as us is devastating.
 

Igor Thiago

Maybe we are involved in his care and managing his training load already
 

Igor Thiago

Thiago not in the squad for today’s game. That’s another game he doesn’t have play in before he joins us in the summer.
 

Igor Thiago

AP’o2 said:
I don’t want to mention this cursed word this season anymore, but he has a minor injury
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He is probably recovering from the injury as mentioned by our agent in Belgium mentioned earlier in the month. In his absence his replacement has being doing well so most likely it’s easier for the manager to leave him out at the moment to allow him to recover.
 

Igor Thiago

Beelated said:
He is probably recovering from the injury as mentioned by our agent in Belgium mentioned earlier in the month. In his absence his replacement has being doing well so most likely it’s easier for the manager to leave him out at the moment to allow him to recover.
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Could be they’re giving him some more time to recover so that he’s ready for the playoffs. Mathematically things must have gone really wrong for Club Brugge to not qualify for the top 6 so they didn’t need Thiago anymore for the last games of the regular season.
 

Igor Thiago

Just back from a cracking weekend in Bruges. I was going to attempt a Fleet John type report but plagarism's not a good look. I will say though that if you've not been already then go. Even if it's just for the lovely chocolate and an amazing array of beers. I'd recommend Delirium (Pink Elephant) beer, but it's 8.5% so you don't need many to get a buzz on. The city is beautiful too.

On the football front I had tickets for FC Brugge v Oud-Heverlee Leuven (fun fact....Leuven is home to the Stella Artois brewery). Now, I have a very slight concern about our new signing having seen the sum total of one Belgian Pro League match. FC Brugge won 3-1 but the quality of the football was pretty poor. The fact that my Wife noticed this should give you an idea of how poor it was as she's no Piet de Visser I assure you. The Leuven keeper literally threw one ball into the net for FC Brugge's first and the other two were from his mistakes too. At one point the Leuven centre forward blasted over from around the penalty spot when it should have been a simple tap in. And just overall there were loads of slack passes and some terrible fouls committed. Admittedly it is just one match I've seen so I may be completely wrong on this, and apologies to any Belgian football fans if I've caused offence by saying this, but from the game I've just witnessed Igor is going to find it a big step up in quality when he first plays against Premier League quality defenders.

On the flip side, watching football in Belgium is a joy. Jupiler Beer (the league sponsor) is readily available all over the stadium and you 're allowed to drink it in your seat. The FC Brugge fans were noisy and they turned up in great numbers. The ultras did their thing and were fun to watch when FC Brugge finally got into the game. Away fan travel appears to be poor. I'd estimate Leuven had around 200 fans there, which is really bad for a top European league, especially when it's only a journey of around 80 miles, but they're looking at relegation play offs with this defeat so I guess they're not overly enthused about their season.

FC Brugge are safely into the very complicated Pro League Champions play offs now so hopefully Igor will come back from his injury and have a part to play in those and we'll get to see a bit more of him before July. I guess if he doesn't play much more that's not necessarily a bad thing either though as he'll be nice and fresh when he gets here. It was a shame not to get to see him play live but going to a match was a nice add on to a brilliant weekend away so not a major problem.
 

Igor Thiago

birdy67 said:
Just back from a cracking weekend in Bruges. I was going to attempt a Fleet John type report but plagarism's not a good look. I will say though that if you've not been already then go. Even if it's just for the lovely chocolate and an amazing array of beers. I'd recommend Delirium (Pink Elephant) beer, but it's 8.5% so you don't need many to get a buzz on. The city is beautiful too.

On the football front I had tickets for FC Brugge v Oud-Heverlee Leuven (fun fact....Leuven is home to the Stella Artois brewery). Now, I have a very slight concern about our new signing having seen the sum total of one Belgian Pro League match. FC Brugge won 3-1 but the quality of the football was pretty poor. The fact that my Wife noticed this should give you an idea of how poor it was as she's no Piet de Visser I assure you. The Leuven keeper literally threw one ball into the net for FC Brugge's first and the other two were from his mistakes too. At one point the Leuven centre forward blasted over from around the penalty spot when it should have been a simple tap in. And just overall there were loads of slack passes and some terrible fouls committed. Admittedly it is just one match I've seen so I may be completely wrong on this, and apologies to any Belgian football fans if I've caused offence by saying this, but from the game I've just witnessed Igor is going to find it a big step up in quality when he first plays against Premier League quality defenders.

On the flip side, watching football in Belgium is a joy. Jupiler Beer (the league sponsor) is readily available all over the stadium and you 're allowed to drink it in your seat. The FC Brugge fans were noisy and they turned up in great numbers. The ultras did their thing and were fun to watch when FC Brugge finally got into the game. Away fan travel appears to be poor. I'd estimate Leuven had around 200 fans there, which is really bad for a top European league, especially when it's only a journey of around 80 miles, but they're looking at relegation play offs with this defeat so I guess they're not overly enthused about their season.

FC Brugge are safely into the very complicated Pro League Champions play offs now so hopefully Igor will come back from his injury and have a part to play in those and we'll get to see a bit more of him before July. I guess if he doesn't play much more that's not necessarily a bad thing either though as he'll be nice and fresh when he gets here. It was a shame not to get to see him play live but going to a match was a nice add on to a brilliant weekend away so not a major problem.
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Thanks an interesting read, Glad to hear that you had a good weekend. I have lost a little of what’s going on but was Nusa, the winger we almost signed in January playing, or is he injured as well?
 

Igor Thiago

birdy67 said:
Just back from a cracking weekend in Bruges. I was going to attempt a Fleet John type report but plagarism's not a good look. I will say though that if you've not been already then go. Even if it's just for the lovely chocolate and an amazing array of beers. I'd recommend Delirium (Pink Elephant) beer, but it's 8.5% so you don't need many to get a buzz on. The city is beautiful too.

On the football front I had tickets for FC Brugge v Oud-Heverlee Leuven (fun fact....Leuven is home to the Stella Artois brewery). Now, I have a very slight concern about our new signing having seen the sum total of one Belgian Pro League match. FC Brugge won 3-1 but the quality of the football was pretty poor. The fact that my Wife noticed this should give you an idea of how poor it was as she's no Piet de Visser I assure you. The Leuven keeper literally threw one ball into the net for FC Brugge's first and the other two were from his mistakes too. At one point the Leuven centre forward blasted over from around the penalty spot when it should have been a simple tap in. And just overall there were loads of slack passes and some terrible fouls committed. Admittedly it is just one match I've seen so I may be completely wrong on this, and apologies to any Belgian football fans if I've caused offence by saying this, but from the game I've just witnessed Igor is going to find it a big step up in quality when he first plays against Premier League quality defenders.

On the flip side, watching football in Belgium is a joy. Jupiler Beer (the league sponsor) is readily available all over the stadium and you 're allowed to drink it in your seat. The FC Brugge fans were noisy and they turned up in great numbers. The ultras did their thing and were fun to watch when FC Brugge finally got into the game. Away fan travel appears to be poor. I'd estimate Leuven had around 200 fans there, which is really bad for a top European league, especially when it's only a journey of around 80 miles, but they're looking at relegation play offs with this defeat so I guess they're not overly enthused about their season.

FC Brugge are safely into the very complicated Pro League Champions play offs now so hopefully Igor will come back from his injury and have a part to play in those and we'll get to see a bit more of him before July. I guess if he doesn't play much more that's not necessarily a bad thing either though as he'll be nice and fresh when he gets here. It was a shame not to get to see him play live but going to a match was a nice add on to a brilliant weekend away so not a major problem.
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Interesting post, thanks for sharing. I think the issue we have with recruitment is that there are very few leagues that come anywhere near matching the intensity of the EPL. And players that are outperforming in the one or two leagues that come into that category tend to be hideously expensive. Hence, we have to shop in slightly less well-known leagues. Clearly we have a strategy which involves assessing a player on a great amount of different metrics to form an opinion as the whether they have the tools to be successful in the Premier League. That’s a really difficult thing to figure out as every club is trying to do it, and as we’ve seen so many times over the years, many clubs get it wrong, paying big money for imports who then fail to impress. But if I had to put my money on anyone to buck that trend, it would be Phil Giles. Looking forward to seeing how this one goes.
 

Igor Thiago

Brentford77 said:
Interesting post, thanks for sharing. I think the issue we have with recruitment is that there are very few leagues that come anywhere near matching the intensity of the EPL. And players that are outperforming in the one or two leagues that come into that category tend to be hideously expensive. Hence, we have to shop in slightly less well-known leagues. Clearly we have a strategy which involves assessing a player on a great amount of different metrics to form an opinion as the whether they have the tools to be successful in the Premier League. That’s a really difficult thing to figure out as every club is trying to do it, and as we’ve seen so many times over the years, many clubs get it wrong, paying big money for imports who then fail to impress. But if I had to put my money on anyone to buck that trend, it would be Phil Giles. Looking forward to seeing how this one goes.
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Totally agree and I would never question our management team over signings as they are legends in my view with how they've performed in that market in recent years. As I said, it's one game so a completely inadequate sample size to form any kind of opinion about a player that wasn't even involved in the game. But I was pretty unimpressed with the quality overall.
 

Igor Thiago

birdy67 said:
Just back from a cracking weekend in Bruges. I was going to attempt a Fleet John type report but plagarism's not a good look. I will say though that if you've not been already then go. Even if it's just for the lovely chocolate and an amazing array of beers. I'd recommend Delirium (Pink Elephant) beer, but it's 8.5% so you don't need many to get a buzz on. The city is beautiful too.

On the football front I had tickets for FC Brugge v Oud-Heverlee Leuven (fun fact....Leuven is home to the Stella Artois brewery). Now, I have a very slight concern about our new signing having seen the sum total of one Belgian Pro League match. FC Brugge won 3-1 but the quality of the football was pretty poor. The fact that my Wife noticed this should give you an idea of how poor it was as she's no Piet de Visser I assure you. The Leuven keeper literally threw one ball into the net for FC Brugge's first and the other two were from his mistakes too. At one point the Leuven centre forward blasted over from around the penalty spot when it should have been a simple tap in. And just overall there were loads of slack passes and some terrible fouls committed. Admittedly it is just one match I've seen so I may be completely wrong on this, and apologies to any Belgian football fans if I've caused offence by saying this, but from the game I've just witnessed Igor is going to find it a big step up in quality when he first plays against Premier League quality defenders.

On the flip side, watching football in Belgium is a joy. Jupiler Beer (the league sponsor) is readily available all over the stadium and you 're allowed to drink it in your seat. The FC Brugge fans were noisy and they turned up in great numbers. The ultras did their thing and were fun to watch when FC Brugge finally got into the game. Away fan travel appears to be poor. I'd estimate Leuven had around 200 fans there, which is really bad for a top European league, especially when it's only a journey of around 80 miles, but they're looking at relegation play offs with this defeat so I guess they're not overly enthused about their season.

FC Brugge are safely into the very complicated Pro League Champions play offs now so hopefully Igor will come back from his injury and have a part to play in those and we'll get to see a bit more of him before July. I guess if he doesn't play much more that's not necessarily a bad thing either though as he'll be nice and fresh when he gets here. It was a shame not to get to see him play live but going to a match was a nice add on to a brilliant weekend away so not a major problem.
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Understand what you are saying but would counter with this

KdB, Tielemans & Vincent Kompany are Belgian and are outstanding players although it is probably fair to say they may have blossomed after a move away from Belgium (I was going to add Lukaku but that may be stretching the point :) )

Regarding the overall standard, there have been numerous examples of PG et al finding diamonds in the Conference/lower leagues (Andre Gray etc) and no one seemed too worried about the individuals concerned making the step up
 

Igor Thiago

kevalutonbee said:
Understand what you are saying but would counter with this

KdB, Tielemans & Vincent Kompany are Belgian and are outstanding players although it is probably fair to say they may have blossomed after a move away from Belgium (I was going to add Lukaku but that may be stretching the point :) )

Regarding the overall standard, there have been numerous examples of PG et al finding diamonds in the Conference/lower leagues (Andre Gray etc) and no one seemed too worried about the individuals concerned making the step up
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I get what youre saying ,but Andre Gray didnt cost 37m euros
 

Igor Thiago

kevalutonbee said:
Understand what you are saying but would counter with this

KdB, Tielemans & Vincent Kompany are Belgian and are outstanding players although it is probably fair to say they may have blossomed after a move away from Belgium (I was going to add Lukaku but that may be stretching the point :) )

Regarding the overall standard, there have been numerous examples of PG et al finding diamonds in the Conference/lower leagues (Andre Gray etc) and no one seemed too worried about the individuals concerned making the step up
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Weren't they the worlds number 1 team recently? No question that Belgium have some brilliant players, although I guess I should point out that Igor is Brazilian not Belgian and who's ever heard of Brazil as being a footballing powerhouse??? ;)
 

Igor Thiago

Bigbee said:
I get what youre saying ,but Andre Gray didnt cost 37m euros
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He didn't but stepping up three leagues is quite some step in standard and he adapted pretty well you could say.

Phil Giles and the team have a pretty good record of finding rubies in a mountain of rock ( copyright Jim Steinman) lets hope IT the second is a ruby and iron pyrite
 

Igor Thiago

birdy67 said:
Just back from a cracking weekend in Bruges. I was going to attempt a Fleet John type report but plagarism's not a good look. I will say though that if you've not been already then go. Even if it's just for the lovely chocolate and an amazing array of beers. I'd recommend Delirium (Pink Elephant) beer, but it's 8.5% so you don't need many to get a buzz on. The city is beautiful too.

On the football front I had tickets for FC Brugge v Oud-Heverlee Leuven (fun fact....Leuven is home to the Stella Artois brewery). Now, I have a very slight concern about our new signing having seen the sum total of one Belgian Pro League match. FC Brugge won 3-1 but the quality of the football was pretty poor. The fact that my Wife noticed this should give you an idea of how poor it was as she's no Piet de Visser I assure you. The Leuven keeper literally threw one ball into the net for FC Brugge's first and the other two were from his mistakes too. At one point the Leuven centre forward blasted over from around the penalty spot when it should have been a simple tap in. And just overall there were loads of slack passes and some terrible fouls committed. Admittedly it is just one match I've seen so I may be completely wrong on this, and apologies to any Belgian football fans if I've caused offence by saying this, but from the game I've just witnessed Igor is going to find it a big step up in quality when he first plays against Premier League quality defenders.

On the flip side, watching football in Belgium is a joy. Jupiler Beer (the league sponsor) is readily available all over the stadium and you 're allowed to drink it in your seat. The FC Brugge fans were noisy and they turned up in great numbers. The ultras did their thing and were fun to watch when FC Brugge finally got into the game. Away fan travel appears to be poor. I'd estimate Leuven had around 200 fans there, which is really bad for a top European league, especially when it's only a journey of around 80 miles, but they're looking at relegation play offs with this defeat so I guess they're not overly enthused about their season.

FC Brugge are safely into the very complicated Pro League Champions play offs now so hopefully Igor will come back from his injury and have a part to play in those and we'll get to see a bit more of him before July. I guess if he doesn't play much more that's not necessarily a bad thing either though as he'll be nice and fresh when he gets here. It was a shame not to get to see him play live but going to a match was a nice add on to a brilliant weekend away so not a major problem.
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Love the report and I look forward to visiting Brugge soon, but do remember Ivan Toney had just signed for Peterborough at Igor's age. I doubt many outsider's thought he'd be one of the PLs best strikers when they signed him.

Glad you had a great time though.
 

Igor Thiago

Bees4life said:
Love the report and I look forward to visiting Brugge soon, but do remember Ivan Toney had just signed for Peterborough at Igor's age. I doubt many outsider's thought he'd be one of the PLs best strikers when they signed him.

Glad you had a great time though.
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Won't help us next season then?
 

Igor Thiago

TadB said:
Won't help us next season then?
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I think he will, it'll take some time though. Big adjustment this season already for him, going from the Bulgarian league to the Belgian league is a massive step up already. He's taken time to adjust, but it'll take some time for him to adjust to the PL as well.
 

Igor Thiago

Brentford77 said:
Interesting post, thanks for sharing. I think the issue we have with recruitment is that there are very few leagues that come anywhere near matching the intensity of the EPL. And players that are outperforming in the one or two leagues that come into that category tend to be hideously expensive. Hence, we have to shop in slightly less well-known leagues. Clearly we have a strategy which involves assessing a player on a great amount of different metrics to form an opinion as the whether they have the tools to be successful in the Premier League. That’s a really difficult thing to figure out as every club is trying to do it, and as we’ve seen so many times over the years, many clubs get it wrong, paying big money for imports who then fail to impress. But if I had to put my money on anyone to buck that trend, it would be Phil Giles. Looking forward to seeing how this one goes.
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Nonsense.....YOU was the issue ✅
 

Igor Thiago

PGH_Bee said:
I think he will, it'll take some time though. Big adjustment this season already for him, going from the Bulgarian league to the Belgian league is a massive step up already. He's taken time to adjust, but it'll take some time for him to adjust to the PL as well.
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Which is why it's a shame he's out at the moment. The impression I get is that's he's very raw and we would probably prefer him to get another 10-15 games of development in a half decent league than be sat on the sidelines injured.
 

Igor Thiago

birdy67 said:
Just back from a cracking weekend in Bruges. I was going to attempt a Fleet John type report but plagarism's not a good look. I will say though that if you've not been already then go. Even if it's just for the lovely chocolate and an amazing array of beers. I'd recommend Delirium (Pink Elephant) beer, but it's 8.5% so you don't need many to get a buzz on. The city is beautiful too.

On the football front I had tickets for FC Brugge v Oud-Heverlee Leuven (fun fact....Leuven is home to the Stella Artois brewery). Now, I have a very slight concern about our new signing having seen the sum total of one Belgian Pro League match. FC Brugge won 3-1 but the quality of the football was pretty poor. The fact that my Wife noticed this should give you an idea of how poor it was as she's no Piet de Visser I assure you. The Leuven keeper literally threw one ball into the net for FC Brugge's first and the other two were from his mistakes too. At one point the Leuven centre forward blasted over from around the penalty spot when it should have been a simple tap in. And just overall there were loads of slack passes and some terrible fouls committed. Admittedly it is just one match I've seen so I may be completely wrong on this, and apologies to any Belgian football fans if I've caused offence by saying this, but from the game I've just witnessed Igor is going to find it a big step up in quality when he first plays against Premier League quality defenders.

On the flip side, watching football in Belgium is a joy. Jupiler Beer (the league sponsor) is readily available all over the stadium and you 're allowed to drink it in your seat. The FC Brugge fans were noisy and they turned up in great numbers. The ultras did their thing and were fun to watch when FC Brugge finally got into the game. Away fan travel appears to be poor. I'd estimate Leuven had around 200 fans there, which is really bad for a top European league, especially when it's only a journey of around 80 miles, but they're looking at relegation play offs with this defeat so I guess they're not overly enthused about their season.

FC Brugge are safely into the very complicated Pro League Champions play offs now so hopefully Igor will come back from his injury and have a part to play in those and we'll get to see a bit more of him before July. I guess if he doesn't play much more that's not necessarily a bad thing either though as he'll be nice and fresh when he gets here. It was a shame not to get to see him play live but going to a match was a nice add on to a brilliant weekend away so not a major problem.
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Thanks for the report.
I went to a Belgian top division relegation play off game in 2014 (Leuven were the home team that time, we stayed opposite the Stella brewery... very nice town, you can get everywhere on foot) - I'd say that felt like a League 1 game even though they were in the same division as champions league sides. One of our group commented there wasn't a challenge below the waist in the whole first half ... Granted it was the two worst sides in the league. So I don't think you'd be the only one to wonder about the standard and I think it's natural to have that "very slight concern".

I'll trust the recruitment team to have looked at what he'll bring beyond just looking up his goalscoring record on Ceefax. I think they'll have decided think he can adapt quickly because we've paid a lot of money. A few games off the bench would be totally normal for new forwards we've signed but he'll be a regular most of next season, surely.
 

Igor Thiago

We've signed him to be a 'pressing machine' so we might not be relying on him to get all the goals, as long as he's contributing toward the team. We also will have KLP, Wissa, Schade, and Mbeumo (unless he leaves) playing around him so there shouldn't be too much pressure on him.
 

Igor Thiago

Jay Bee said:
Thanks for the report.
I went to a Belgian top division relegation play off game in 2014 (Leuven were the home team that time, we stayed opposite the Stella brewery... very nice town, you can get everywhere on foot) - I'd say that felt like a League 1 game even though they were in the same division as champions league sides. One of our group commented there wasn't a challenge below the waist in the whole first half ... Granted it was the two worst sides in the league. So I don't think you'd be the only one to wonder about the standard and I think it's natural to have that "very slight concern".

I'll trust the recruitment team to have looked at what he'll bring beyond just looking up his goalscoring record on Ceefax. I think they'll have decided think he can adapt quickly because we've paid a lot of money. A few games off the bench would be totally normal for new forwards we've signed but he'll be a regular most of next season, surely.
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Good to hear. Perhaps it is just that Leuven are a shocking team as that is my one and only experience of Belgian Pro League football to date. And they went 0-1 up which was clearly really annoying for the FC Brugge fans. 15 minutes in and they were whistling and shouting at their team for not pressing, which probably should have made it obvious to me that they were expecting their team to trounce Leuven now that I think about it.

Overall though, my experience was a positive one of FC Brugge I must say. The ground is a bit scruffy but I left thinking how good it would be to see us playing them in a couple of seasons time in the Europa Conference or Europa League. That would be a proper away day/weekend/week!
 

Igor Thiago

birdy67 said:
Just back from a cracking weekend in Bruges. I was going to attempt a Fleet John type report but plagarism's not a good look. I will say though that if you've not been already then go. Even if it's just for the lovely chocolate and an amazing array of beers. I'd recommend Delirium (Pink Elephant) beer, but it's 8.5% so you don't need many to get a buzz on. The city is beautiful too.

On the football front I had tickets for FC Brugge v Oud-Heverlee Leuven (fun fact....Leuven is home to the Stella Artois brewery). Now, I have a very slight concern about our new signing having seen the sum total of one Belgian Pro League match. FC Brugge won 3-1 but the quality of the football was pretty poor. The fact that my Wife noticed this should give you an idea of how poor it was as she's no Piet de Visser I assure you. The Leuven keeper literally threw one ball into the net for FC Brugge's first and the other two were from his mistakes too. At one point the Leuven centre forward blasted over from around the penalty spot when it should have been a simple tap in. And just overall there were loads of slack passes and some terrible fouls committed. Admittedly it is just one match I've seen so I may be completely wrong on this, and apologies to any Belgian football fans if I've caused offence by saying this, but from the game I've just witnessed Igor is going to find it a big step up in quality when he first plays against Premier League quality defenders.

On the flip side, watching football in Belgium is a joy. Jupiler Beer (the league sponsor) is readily available all over the stadium and you 're allowed to drink it in your seat. The FC Brugge fans were noisy and they turned up in great numbers. The ultras did their thing and were fun to watch when FC Brugge finally got into the game. Away fan travel appears to be poor. I'd estimate Leuven had around 200 fans there, which is really bad for a top European league, especially when it's only a journey of around 80 miles, but they're looking at relegation play offs with this defeat so I guess they're not overly enthused about their season.

FC Brugge are safely into the very complicated Pro League Champions play offs now so hopefully Igor will come back from his injury and have a part to play in those and we'll get to see a bit more of him before July. I guess if he doesn't play much more that's not necessarily a bad thing either though as he'll be nice and fresh when he gets here. It was a shame not to get to see him play live but going to a match was a nice add on to a brilliant weekend away so not a major problem.
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Nice report, glad you at least enjoyed your time in the city and I totally get what you are saying. But to be fair, that game was by no means an accurate representation of Belgian football. It was absolutely horrible.
This season is just going bad for us and you might have heard from our critical fans booing, but we are having the worst crisis in ten years. We lost too many key players with speed and creativity (Noa Lang, De Ketelaere, etc.) and especially talented defenders, without bringing in quality replacements. This has many reasons, but is mainly because the owner wants to sell the club. Just last year we beat FC Porto, Atlético Madrid and Leverkusen and won our CL group before Scott Parker took over and ruined everything.

Now, with regards to Belgian football, I think it is underrated in general and a good league for young players to develop. We have 3-4 weak teams but what makes it interesting is the fact that the rest can win at any moment against the others. Not like Scotland where you have two giants and the rest is bad. It is quite physical and tactical compared to the Dutch or even French. In general, defence is quite good (some real butchers here, just not in the game you saw lol). There are a lot of players who bagged 20-30 goals in Holland, came back and completely failed here bc they don't get the same space. There is a good amount of talent and players who show promise here have no problem adjusting to the top leagues. Given time to adjust to the higher tempo of course, which is obviously not comparable to the PL. Thiago will need that as well. Even here he was struggling in the first few months, coming from the Bulgarian league. Time will tell if he can make it at PL level but I hope he can.

I think you visited a few weeks too early. In the playoff system that starts soon the top 6 plays each other twice. Those are often good and entertaining games. You can look up the title race from last year on youtube, it was crazy.
 
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