Saturday 18 June 2016

Emerson Hyndman signing is one of potential

AFCB took most of the national media a little off guard until the final hours with the sudden signing of Emerson Hyndman yesterday. There had not been much build up to the deal as Hyndman was out of contract and yet compensation needed to be paid to Fulham his former club as an U21 player.
Fulham FC tweeted photo: Emerson Hyndman playing for Fulham.
I was straight on the email to Andrew Beck at Cottagers Confidential blog to see whether Hyndman was highly rated at Fulham and if he might be the kind of player that would deputise well for Andrew Surman for example.

"Hyndman is a really interesting player. He's been a favourite of mine for about four years now. He was part of some very impressive Fulham youth squads that won the academy leagues a couple times. He also was part of the squad that made the FA Youth Cup final," said Andrew.

"He's held his own in limited time with the first team. He's done very well when playing for the USA U-23 team. He's even looked good playing for the full national team.

"His position is kind of in question. He's been used as an attacking mid, a defensive mid, and a box to box player. I think ideally he's a deep lying playmaker or box to box mid, but he can really do anything in the central midfield,"added Andrew.

"The one knock on him has always been his size. He's not a large guy, and he was consistently playing way above his age, which only made him look smaller. That being said, he's almost exactly the same size as Luka Modric. I don't want to imply that he will ever be as good as Modric, but that's the kind of player he is. And at the same age Modric has just completed a season with NK Inter Zapresic in the Croatian first division and hadn't yet been capped by Croatia, so you can't really say that Hyndman is that far behind him developmentally either," said Andrew.


You can see a full profile of Emerson Hyndman on the Cottagers Confidential site. A big thanks to Cottagers Confidential in giving Cherry Chimes readers an inside view on AFCB's first summer signing.


The Sun had been among the quickest to link the Cherries with the 20-year-old midfielder who has already won two caps with the full USA international team. He started his career at FC Dallas. But before we get too carried away he has only made 24 appearances for Fulham and has scored one goal in his last 15 games and started three of Fulham's last six games. 

Eddie seems to be looking for young talent though that he can mould and bring through and considering that the fees for such players are low or in this case a free transfer, albeit with compensation, it is a more sensible way of going about building up a squad than simply splashing out on players that have experience but are past their best and are still on big wages.

Hyndman's first goal must be to get himself into the first team squad but if he does that and can learn from players like Surman he may well become a special talent that AFCB have picked up just at the right time. Let's wish Emerson all the best at AFCB - welcome and UTCIAD!

All Departments has released a podcast part 1 of an evening with Paul Morrell. Listen via the All Departments' website or scroll down the side bar on Cherry Chimes to the All Departments sound bar.

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