Notched an assist on his first appearance for Swindon last night
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Seems to have been fairly well received by the Swindon fans. He's an absolute tank of a man, like a taller Richie Dunne, loves a big diagonal cross field ball and plays it well and is generally pretty comfortable with the ball at his feet. Of the two centre backs for the under 21s I thought he looked to have a higher ceiling than McGuinness, despite the fact McGuinness has more experience at a higher level. O'Brien looked to be a slightly better footballer and his size and strength are very imposing, only worry would be he's a little slow and clumsy on the turn and can dawdle on the ball a bit when he should be getting rid of it under pressure.
Didn't find a thread for him but RWMD played their last game of the season at the weekend and secured promotion to the top flight for the first time in 21 years. Being linked with Bristol City again but the owner of RWMD is a co-owner of Palace so might see him return to Belgium again next season.
thread bumped
Was included in the Challenger Pro League team of the season: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022%E..._of_the_season
The lack of a confirmed manager in place to plan for 2023/24 at Crystal Palace is complicating things for O'Brien, who is reported here to be keen on a move to the West Country. (Closer to Cork, I suppose :-) )
"....the message has been to all suitors of Palace’s players, particularly the younger element of the squad, is that a final decision will be made by the new manager after he’s been able to assess them across pre-season. Palace’s first friendly is on July 11 against Barnet and the belief is that O’Brien will be among those given close scrutiny over the first two weeks of the summer programme before a conclusion is drawn."
Crystal Palace transfer stance revealed as interest grows in Bristol City target Jake O'Brien - Bristol Live (bristolpost.co.uk)
I've like O'Brien any time I've seen him. He's a good defender, fairly comfortable on the ball and a big physical specimen. I'd put him down as having a fairly high ceiling, maybe not premier league but a few luck breaks and some positive development and I wouldn't rule it out. Maybe not quite quick or agile enough to be properly elite.
Hopefully himself and Phillips can get their futures sorted out quickly. Both out of contract next year.
could do with obrien getting flogged now, a nice sell on clause would do us no harm with the window coming up
Reports that Jake O'Brien could be his way to Lyon.
Hopefully city have a decent sell on percentage.Quote:
Originally Posted by JR89
Wouldn't be surprised if there's no fee or tiny fee since the owner of Lyon owns 40% of Crystal Palace and also owns the club he was on loan with in Belgium.
Only one year left on his contract as well so the fee will be buttons if anything.
I was thinking this earlier - owning multiple clubs is a good way to get around paying out sell on fees alright.Quote:
Originally Posted by joey B
In this case though I'm surprised the fee is even €1m, that means Cork get €150k. Given he's in the last year of his contract and he hasn't really played at a particularly high level, I'm surprised they didn't just agree a nominal fee of €100k and then they'd only have to give Cork €15k.
Maybe they felt they couldn't given the earlier higher bid from Troyes?
Put that in the wrong thread!Quote:
Originally Posted by Eirambler
On the bench this evening for the first time.....
Is he the first Irishman there since Mick McCarthy?Quote:
Originally Posted by Razors left peg
Lost 2-0. Looks tidy enough. Nice little Cruyff turn at one point and seemed confident on the ball. However, looked at fault for the second by not getting tight enough for the initial header before they scored from the rebound. Good that he’s getting games - sounds like they’re a club in disarray.
How did Lyon get so bad? Great for Jake, but the club instability not promising
He's starting again today. They seem to be playing a back four and he is beside Dejan Lovren.
They're leading 2-1 after 25 mins.
We have been well stocked at centre half and then two more emerge this season starting at Celtic and Lyon - albeit neither side what they once were.
3-2 now leading, squeaky bum time for O’Brien, hopefully they can win and build on it
Just conceded a 3rd, 3-3 with 7 minutes left. Disaster. Come on Lyon
Scores his first goal for Lyon which gives them their first league win of the season after 11 games.
Where's he at in the pecking order I wonder?
Lyon are having a shocking season - bottom of the league, having been Champions League semifinalists three years ago. Is he part of a bad squad? Or is he a genuine option even now? He might be the kind of player who should be in the squad instead of Omobamidele at the moment
Think if he remains starting between now and March he definitely comes into the conversation for a call up. Has only played five games for Lyon who are shocking atm and it's hard to say whether he'd be starting or not if Lyon weren't so poor this season.
Think McGuinness can feel a bit hard done by this window. Though not surprised we didn't see any new CBs called up when McNally didn't get one in June given the form he was in for Coventry.
Goal here - a classic Irish CB goal: https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comm...ake_obrien_67/
Nice comment on him from a Lyon fan:
"He's been a huge surprise.
He's a Textor branded player (from Crystal Palace to Molenbeek, to us) and his personal recruit. Nobody understood why and we thought he would be sent immediately on loan to Molenbeek. So very negative a priori considering how Textor multi club bull**** is viewed, on top of his refusal to hire a SD to play FM in real life himself.
But that loan didn't happen, and Grosso gave him a chance (which he did to basically every single player of the squad since he arrived). He took that chance fully and since then has been one of the very few (if not the only) indisputable starter. Probably our best player since the start of the season.
Dominant in the air, agressive in duels, surprisingly fast despites his height, and decent with the ball."
He may have / probably did, foul the small player in front of him there but he got away with it and the goal counted ~ Nothing wrong with being lucky as Napoleon used to say !
Watched the Lyon vs Lille game and this sums him up well. He absolutely looked the part for the first half-hour until they got hit by a 1-2 combination in four minutes. You could possibly say he could have stopped the first goal as he momentarily fell for a trap, where he started to move towards a stationary ball carrier, only to see the ball released to a speeding Jonathan David - even then he almost managed to get back to challenge. For the rest of the game, he just looked comfortable overall. If he keeps this up, he has got to be given a shot by the new manager.Quote:
Originally Posted by Philly
Another goal for him today away at Lens…..
Bar Lacazette (3) no other player has more than one goal in the league.
Second goal of the game makes him joint top scorer in the league for Lyon.
At fault for the first goal, where he shinned an attempted backpass (most of their defence made a mess of things at some point, with skelly Alvero giving away a needless penalty and Lovren scoring an own-goal). But up front for setpieces, he was a constant threat with his height - I mean, he's 6'6", he's comfortable on the ball, he's fast and he's playing in a big 5 league alongside two World Cup finalists - what more do we want? Cap him ASAP.
Liked with Everton
https://www.footmercato.net/a4231130...-a-jake-obrien
Don't know how reliable this site is, but tuttomercato is little more than clickbaitQuote:
According to our information, a Premier League team is thinking of him for the winter transfer window. This is Everton, who have already observed him. But the player feels very happy with Les Gones, we were told. Furthermore, OL are clearly not interested in the idea of ??letting go of a player who has found his place very quickly and who is already proving to be very valuable as the club plays to maintain its position.
(Note: article is in French)
Highlights from the lens-Lyon game. Two good finishes from O'Brien, but badly at fault for Lens' opener. Lyon really were the architects of their own downfall here