Often Partisan

Blues take young Cypriot on trial

nb I know what date it is today – this isn’t an April Fools joke.

Birmingham City are to take young Cypriot player Andreas Juliu on trial after the Cypriot FA allowed the Anorthosis Famagusta player to travel to England to take up trial invitations. The teenager will be on trial at both Liverpool and Blues in hope of winning a contract.

The teenager has clearly been touted around clubs with various videos being uploaded to Youtube showcasing his skills in matches played by the Anorthosis u17 side.

Should we pick Juliu up, he would be Blues’ second Cypriot player after Tom Williams, who was capped by the island nation three years after he left St Andrew’s.

Although it’s nice to see Blues looking at players far and wide it’s not something I would read an especially large amount into; we’ve had a fair few players on trial this season from Europe and of them all I think the only one we’ve taken on is Emmanuel Mbende.

Even so, I think it represents what we’re trying to achieve at the younger levels – ie bringing in talent from a wider area in a bid to improve the talent pool progressing into the first team – which of course makes the club more self-sufficient.

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18 Responses to “Blues take young Cypriot on trial”

  • Big Al says:

    Looks like a great player. Stick him in the first team – got to give the youngsters a chance at some stage. (I am embracing the day)

  • Walker says:

    Not the greatest of clips to sell a player. No better than the kids we have

  • oldburyblue says:

    Can be looked at in 2 ways. Good that we are looking far and wide……or how we are scraping the barrel.

  • StaffsBlue says:

    Personally, I’d much rather we scoured our own area for talent… instead of letting all the other Midlands teams syphon it up. I’d only go abroad as a last resort. Have we really reached that yet?

    • ChrisG says:

      Yep i’d agree with that staffs, I don’t think local youngsters get enough of a chance nowadays, i’d even give a chance to someone from the dark side of the expressway, I mean everyone deserves a chance at redemption.lol

  • Big Al says:

    Oldburyblue – is we are scraping the barrel we’re in good company – he’s going to Liverpool too. Staffs- I don’t think giving Cypriots a trial is in preference to looking in the local area. Be creative and keep all the options open. I don’t remember Trevor Francis sounding that brummie.

    • oldburyblue says:

      I am referring to this particular player based on that particular video clip. I just hope Liverpool are paying his fare. It is amazing what can be found at the bottom of a barrel sometimes, so well worth a look, but in my experience that is where the sh1t remains.

    • StaffsBlue says:

      I don’t recall mentioning a brummie accent… or nationality. I just think we should be unearthing young talent in our own area (whatever their origins) instead of letting other clubs have first dibs.

  • I keep looking at the video and lad has got a bit of pace a bit of dribbling ability but to be honest I can’t see anything reliable enough to warrant an interest , but there again on another day ….???

  • Mitchell says:

    Looking ahead to tomorrow’s game at Charlton. I can remember GR scoring for Blues against Charlton under Francis. He scored via a wicked deflection just into their half. Anyone recall that? Good omens for tomorrow?

  • Tony says:

    Watching that clip yes the lad can find space he can dribble a bit but that’s about it, anywhere near goal and he seems to dry up.
    To be honest all that clip shows me is just how good Trevor Francis was at a younger age than this lad, he could do everything ten times better, faster and he could score wonder goals oh god what has become of us?.

  • GR is talking about he is wary about the all guns blazing approach , and he is right but to be successful we need to average 6 or 7 shots ON target per match , we need to attack carefully throughout the whole of the match not just the second half otherwise we will not get enough goals to win , He who dares at the right time throughout the match …..KRO

    • steve says:

      Its more quality of the attempts rather than the amount. As we’ve seen recently,you can have 6 or 7 attempts and not score and then you can have 1 attempt on target and win 1 – 0.

  • prewarblue says:

    No doubt someone will correct me about this, but isnt there something going on with the government and the F.A about non international players getting work permits,,,, seem to think its called “Britex” rules or something similar,,,,,which could mean less Continental players and more home grown being given a chance, young players from the continent will be included such a B-M and Keiftenbald being non current internationals, Donaldson and Maghoma wont be affected having dual nationality


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