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Signings, goals and non-announcements
Birmingham City have confirmed the signing of Jon Toral on a season-long loan from Arsenal today. The 20-year-old midfielder scored six times on loan for Brentford in the Championship last season, making 34 appearances.
Toral came through the Barcelona academy, moving to Arsenal at the age of 16. He has yet to make a competitive first team appearance for the Gunners but did feature in their pre-season in Singapore.
It’s my belief Toral will fight for a chance to play in the #10 role along with Andy Shinnie, who signed a new contract that will keep him at the club until 2018. Shinnie is fifth Blues player to have signed a new deal this summer after Dimmi Gray, Clayton Donaldson, Paul Caddis and Jonathon Grounds as Blues increasingly build their plans for the team in the medium term.
Blues Ladies have also been in action, beating their counterparts from across the expressway 7-1 thanks to goals from Remi Allen (2), Kirsty Linnett, Karen Carney (pen), Jo Potter (2) and Charlie Wellings in the Continental Cup. It’s another morale-boosting win for a team that picked up their first league win against Liverpool at the weekend and hopefully they’ll take this positive attitude into the game against Chelsea this weekend.
In Hong Kong, BIHL complied with their statutory duties in releasing a monthly update but it contained absolutely nothing new of note other than to confirm that negotiations remain ongoing. The next monthly update is now due August 30 if nothing is published sooner.
I keep saying this but I’m more sure of it than ever – things are getting better for BCFC. There are more plans for the medium term, players are being signed and contracts extended – all of it seemingly as part of a plan to retain the nucleus of a side that can grow and push upwards rather than continue falling in a tailspin as has happened in previous years.
Tomorrow, Carson is in court – lets hope the Judge sees the good work that has been happening and stops him from putting any further spanners in the works.
Tags: Andrew Shinnie, BIH, Blues Ladies, Charlie Wellings, Ernst and Young, HKSE, Jo Potter, Jon Toral, Karen Carney, Kirsty Linnett, Remi Allen
26 Responses to “Signings, goals and non-announcements”
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I agree, Dan there is cause for much optimism even for the coming season let alone the future. I’m looking forward to it! Let’s give Toral a chance…..a different manager might get the best out of him so let’s hope that’s GR! Regarding the Ladies….great result by the way…..the Chelsea game is weekend after this one, not this weekend. It’s Sunday 9th August at 2pm.
You have the feeling since GR has come back to Blues that no matter what else happens he is pushing the club forward, gradually and that with his and E & Y ‘s good work we are emerging from the nightmare that has beset us in recent years. “Cometh the hour, cometh the man.” Well and truly. Looking forward to Blues promotion and CY’s and PP’s removal of influence. Should be a good year
Absolutely top work from GR … lost out on defensive midfielder Tesche so we sign Kieftenbeld; then bring in highly rated creator Toral when Fabbrini joins Boro … very pleased with the signings … KRO
Pleased with the signings and contract extensions, certainly have options going forward but I am still concerned with the defense and so far this pre season the goalkeeper has not filled me with much confidence. Hoping that when the first game comes around we look more confident at the back. Looking at the other teams in the championship it is going to be a monumental task just to try and keep pace with the top eight/nine teams. Just hoping that GR can make us hard to break down.
No one priority should be a centre back, we will be easy to break down with the likes of specter and robinson in defence. specter is great but not a centre half
It is hard to see us playing the old formation now with the new additions plus what we already have. Not in the least disappointed mind you as I really do not fancy Don.repeating last seasons heroic efforts single handed. We now have speedy wingers, creativity in central and wide midfield ares and a bit of steel.It all spells a bit of a change of play. I would welcome a normal midfield with two up top. Just getting the perfect partner for Don. This squad is looking akin to last seasons Bournemouth..who were never concerned with goals against providing the goals for column always exceeded. All in all..what a difference seven days has made.
Toral or Shinnie to Start? There has been quite a bit of talk about changing from 4 2 3 1 but to be honest I can’t see it. GR has played 4231 in virtually every pre season game and it would be a big risk to change it now. Therefore I think its a straight choice between Toral and Shinnie.
I tend to agree with comment below I can’t see him changing formations , but might during games. I personally would like 3-4-2-1 which I think is made for some of our players now. We also have many players for each role such as grounds for left sided centre half with ribbon as cover. Morrison leading the middle and Edgar or specter on right. We would need a right wing back which caddis is born for. 2 defensive midfielders with Mk, DD or ST to chose from DC, Gray, Shinie, Arthur, JT for the 2 attacking roles behind Clayton.
Think this would suit our players well.
That’s great news. We just need to keep it tight at the back. We have enough creativity in midfield so the goals will come. We don’t have to do anything fancy, just keep working hard. Hopefully, the tough workouts will pay off. GR is doing a magnificent job for us! KRO.
Well done to the ladies for achieving the kind of scoreline we’ve been dreaming of for years. They should’ve beaten Liverpool by a similar score on Sunday.
Al. Did you know Blues Women put NINE past villa without reply in one match a few years ago?
The men also put 7 against Liverpool
Always somebody ready to spoil good news…
Jon-Miguel Toral Harper is potentially a great signing for Blues’. At 20 he is only contracted to Arsenal until the end of this season, which means all being well we can sign him on a Bosman next July.
At 1.83m he is bigger than Fabbrini, but possesses his dribbling skills and scores more goals.
Welcome Jon-Miguel.
I am sorry but does nobody else see this as a ‘grass is greener’ type situation? Kieftenbeld vs Tesche is a no brainier for me, I watch a fair bit of Dutch Football, the lad is GOOD! and I was not overly impressed with Fabrini, lots of flair but not much else, typical mud range italian. Whereas Toral is class, young, but class. Learnt his trade last year so he will be at another level next year, I personally think Shiniesta has got his work cut out! :-)
I would still love to see a Centre Back as never been convinced by Edgar and I think Robbo will feel it this year so with just Morrison and Spector we still feel light, and another striker, Devante Cole would be the young lad to keep the older Thomas, Novak and Clayton on their toes!
Side note on Novak, that guy is so much better than he delivers, and should be a 20 goal striker!!
Couldn’t argue with any of that. Spot on.
Been saying for a while now happy how things going.great blogg asusual Dan.
Again muck kudos to panos and sir garry
What happened to blues going for the defender Buxton from Derby I think we need another central defender because the ones we have apart from Morrison are all a bit dodgy has proved in the friendly games we have played. Happy with most of the signings so far though but we do need another defender ASAP.
A week today the championship season starts and up until now I was looking forward to the week ahead and the build up to our first game at home to Reading but having just found out one of my friends as died is leaving me sad and as put a dampner on things at this moment in time … David Jelphs was a lovely man who went like myself all over the country supporting Blues and will be a great loss to me, my family and all who knew him , RIP me old mate and thinking of you this season .. Leicester tomorrow will be different as will going to the home game with Reading but Burnley will be the tough one !! Kro & RIP xxxx
Always sad when a footballing brother leaves us. Chin up Dave.
Staffs, ime waiting for funeral arrangements and that’s my priority at the moment but your kind words and sincerity his honourable and Ime taken back by that response …. Now do you think we’re ready for the start of the season or maybe a centre half is needed because like you say we only play one up front so why another striker … Rowett won’t change is believes !! Kro
I think we need a commanding centre back and possibly a goalscoring midfielder. Whether Toral truns out to be that, we’ll have to wait and see. Are we ready? Not sure tbh. If we’re going 4-2-3-1 again (which it looks like we are) then I’m wondering where the goals are going to come from.
Problem is if anything happens to Donadson the back up is very average. Novak and Thomas are bottom table Championship/top FL1 standard. Ideally we need someone who could do s similar role to Donaldson who could come on for him after an hour or if needs be start instead of him. Neither Novak or Thomas are good enough or equipped to play that lone front man role. We need someone else who is capable of scoring 15-20 goals over a season in this division. Another centre back to partner Morrison would be great but for me the priority has got to be another striker.
For me signing Cole would be enough to fill the striker positions and Edgar can step in at centre back. There is plenty of time to bring in a loan player or two if need be.
So is this squad good enough? Apologies for initiials
K (L)
C (Sp)
M (Hr)
S (R)
G (Hx)
K (Sp)
M (C)
Gl (D)
Gr (N)
To (Sh)
D (Th)
That’s pretty much it except it will be 4-2-3-1 with Gleeson and the new Dutch bloke as holding midfielders with the three attacking midfielders being Cotterill, Toral and Gray.