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Bonanza

The OH Leuven Thread 2020/21

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12 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

How has Sowah been playing recently? I read he was called up for Ghana but then seemingly didn't join up?

4 goals and 3 assists in 10 league games this season, another assist today for the 2nd goal

 

I saw that he was going to be but looks like he didn't get called up in the end - https://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/bernard-mensah-returns-as-ghana-announce-squad-for-mali/iy5ssg2g8dcw1dlg1m9qnp952 - 23 man squad is at the bottom where he isn't listed

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34 minutes ago, Bonanza said:

 

To be fair, I've never had the feeling Leicester was exploiting us or vice versa. As long as we played in the 2nd division, it was very difficult for both clubs to have a "win-win" relationship.

 

Leicester could've send us players like Choudhury and Barnes while we were in 2nd division. This would've increased our chances to win the league by 100%, but those players wouldn't have developed in the players they are today. This would've been a bad situation for the Foxes

 

Leicester could've also send us their entire U23 squad, so they could play "1st team football", but this would've been a bad situation for OHL.

King Power is doing an amazing job with both clubs. We truly have the best owners in the world!!!

When Pearson was sucking the life out of the team and we got a 3rd rate Thai goalkeeper who wasn't worth a damn as a starter, on top of Kaputska not making a dent, with Hirst who couldn't score an open goal if his life depended on it... i was worried, i'll be fair. I think you'd be lying if you said you weren't.

 

But it seems a lifetime ago now. I'm glad people realized OHL isn't a mini-Leicester and that the Belgian League is more tactical than people (like Pearson) expected. There seems to be a good understanding between all parties now.

 

  

26 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

How has Sowah been playing recently? I read he was called up for Ghana but then seemingly didn't join up?


Lightning in a bottle.

Edited by Lizhang
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58 minutes ago, Bonanza said:

 

To be fair, I've never had the feeling Leicester was exploiting us or vice versa. As long as we played in the 2nd division, it was very difficult for both clubs to have a "win-win" relationship.

 

Leicester could've send us players like Choudhury and Barnes while we were in 2nd division. This would've increased our chances to win the league by 100%, but those players wouldn't have developed in the players they are today. This would've been a bad situation for the Foxes

 

Leicester could've also send us their entire U23 squad, so they could play "1st team football", but this would've been a bad situation for OHL.

King Power is doing an amazing job with both clubs. We truly have the best owners in the world!!!

It's great to hear you say this Bonanza. I remember last year a few of the OHL fans weren't best pleased with King Power and thought it wasn't such a great deal after all. Believe it or not, the same thing happened to us and in the first few seasons we also weren't enamored with our owners as they chopped and changed managers and players and seemed a bit clueless. But the KP group learn quickly and plan for the long term and I believe that what you are seeing now is similar to our own story too. And the great thing for both our clubs is that things will only improve! Even if there are some choppy waters, because they make long term strategies and stick to them, things will definitely improve over a 5-10 year period. They do also understand the importance a club has to it's local population and won't do things like change the club color or name or something crazy like that.

 

It's great to see OHL doing so well, and if you are capable of results against the big Belgian teams already... well just wait what happens when you have been in the top league a bit longer! Have you ever heard the story of an East Midlands club that almost got relegated in their first season back in the Premier League, and then won it the season after? The odds were something crazy like 5000-1! Now who owned that club again... :whistle:;)

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6 minutes ago, nwl fox said:

Keeper did well. Is Iversen out injured or just being kept out of the side by Romo on form? 

Iversen started the season as our starting goalkeeper and did pretty well, but got injured in our game against Oostende.

 

Romo replaced him and is doing an excellent job at the moment so he'll stay in goal for now. iversen has been on the bench for the last 2 weeks (3 if you count our cup game)

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1 hour ago, Bonanza said:

I understand why King Power appointed Pearson when they did. I agree they should've sacked him a lot sooner than they did, but I really think the tragic death of Vichai had a lot to to with that. Don't forget that Leicester was in a similar situation with Claude Puel at that time. They should've also sacked him a lot sooner than they did. TOP and King Power had a lot on their mind at that time and football simply wasn't a priority.

 

The loan of Kaputska was promising on paper. Unfortunately things didn't work out as I believe he really didn't want to be here. These things happen sometimes...

The George Hirst situation was bad, there's no way around that. Same with Kawin.

 

To "prove" I'm not sucking up to the Leicester fans, I"ll even add another mistake King power made: Rob McKenzie. The man was with us for 2 or 3 seasons and did 0 successful signing. The signings we did after he left are much better.

 

All i'm saying is that (in my opinion) King Power has always treated Leuven with a lot of respect. Yes, they made some mistakes, but we were always OH Leuven and not Leicester B, while a lot of Belgian teams are simply a B or C team for other clubs; Cerlce Brugge is Monaco B, Moeskroen is Lille B, Lommel is Man City C (or even D),...

I'm not talking about "mistakes", but about forced changes that clearly came from Leicester/Thailand which were bad ideas from the start, or turned out to be bad ideas soon enough and yet nothing changed. Hirst played as a started for 5 months! Kawin was all over the place with some saves for show, but was the worst out of the 3 keepers by far. Kapustka was less evident, but still. I'm talking about the fact that these changes were clearly forced upon us, and clearly didn't work, yet pearson didn't budge, and KP didn't want to remove pearson. In hindsight it's easy to say it was due to Vichai's death, but at the time it felt (to me) as if the club was taken away from us.

 

  

21 minutes ago, casablancas said:

Firstly that assist from Sowah was sublime. Secondly what language was that commentary in? 

Video is now made private, so i can't verify, but normally, that should be in Dutch.

 

  

3 minutes ago, nwl fox said:

Keeper did well. Is Iversen out injured or just being kept out of the side by Romo on form? 

Lost his spot due to injury, but has been on the bench for the past 3 games or so. Looks like Romo is 1st choice for now. Looking at today's game, hard to argue against.

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I think the issue will come when OHL find a gem, someone that’s really good enough for us. 

 

I think the fans won’t be happy to lose a superstar for nothing and I don’t think I’d feel good about signing one like this either. 

 

Its one thing when it’s pre-arranged, completely different I’f we’re takinf a top prospect that they’ve found and nurtured. 

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25 minutes ago, Bonanza said:

I'm sorry to say, but the club was taken away from us (the fans) years before King Power got in charge. We were doing great when bad management, big ego's and greed ruined our club.

When KP took over they were left with a club in ruins on the verge of bankruptcy. They literally had to rebuild OHL from the ground up. First thing they did was getting rid of (almost) all the bad eggs in the boardroom and replace them with people Vichai and Top know they could trust. People that proved their worth in Leicester. Yes, the descisions/changes were being made from Leicester/Thailand, but always with good intentions, I truely believe that! I distinctly remember KP saying that they planned to hire new, Belgian people to run the club when the time was right. They came through on that promise and we have a lot of quality in our boardroom right now.

 

Again, I understand why they appointed Pearson when they did, as he proved his worth for KP in Leicester. Things didn't go as planned to say the least! So again, I completely agree with you that they should've fired him a lot sooner than they did. When they eventually fired him, they learned from their mistake and hired Vercauteren and Euvrard, 2 guys who knew Belgian football. I remember some rumours that some people from Leicester wanted TOP to hire Michael Appleton instead, but TOP listened to our CEO and board members and went with Vercauteren and Euvrard.

 

When Vercauteren left for Anderlecht and Euvard was sacked, TOP could've easily gone for another manager who would be loyal to him, but instead he listened to the advice of our board and went for Brys. This shows that he trusts those people and that he has the best intentions for our club!

 

I've stated on our own forum before that I wouldn't set another foot in the "King Power @ Den Dreef Stadium" if I felt that OHL was just a toy for some rich bloke or a feeder club for a big club. I've felt that with our former board members who ruined the club, but I've never felt that with King Power! 

No offense but i can't believe you if you say you didn't have concerns when out of nowhere, a former Leicester manager was put in place, while the manager he was replacing wasn't even doing a bad job. When out of nowhere a Thai goalkeeper was bought for an obscene amount of money (for our standard, a record signing), while he was a bad keeper who also had to be in the starting eleven. When a local talent was let go and instead we got a dud like Hirst... who had to play e-ve-ry-fun-king time as a starter, when the entire scouting team got kicked out and replaced by Leicester people who shit the bed. When that manager, was completely bungling it and still got to keep his job. You tell me with a straight face that you didn't have concerns and still i won't believe you. And no, the club wasn't taken away from us before that, we (the supporters) simply got what we deserved, for putting up with that. Had we made a stand back then, we would always have been able to do something about it, but we didn't. We got Callewaert kicked out, we could have got Polleke kicked out as well, but there was never that much of a revolt. The moment a foreign multinational buys your club, and mismanages it, you are done. Nobody in Thailand would have cared if you started waving flags or protested on the streets, or even if you made national tv. As long as the club was under local management, there was always that option, we just never took it.

 

I'm glad to say all of the concerns have been proven invalid. So in hindsight, sure, great, everything turned out superbly. In hindsight it was clear that Pearson didn't get sacked because of Vichai's death. But at the moment, it didn't feel like that at all.

Edited by Lizhang
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37 minutes ago, Lambert09 said:

I think the issue will come when OHL find a gem, someone that’s really good enough for us. 

 

I think the fans won’t be happy to lose a superstar for nothing and I don’t think I’d feel good about signing one like this either. 

 

Its one thing when it’s pre-arranged, completely different I’f we’re takinf a top prospect that they’ve found and nurtured. 

But why would Leicester even do that? It would be much better to keep this prospect in Leuven, until he is indeed good enough to step up to Leicester's first team or at least until he has outgrown Leuven. It would make no sense for you to snatch a guy playing for Leuven who has plenty to learn still in the Belgian league, to stick him in your U21 team or loan him out to a Championship team.

 

If he were indeed good enough to make the leap to Leicester's 1st team, i think our fans would be reasonable and realistic enough to understand that he has outgrown Leuven. So whether we'd lose him to Leicester or to Monaco, or Ajax, would't make a difference. As long as we would get something in return (a fair price, or a lower price with another player in return...) i don't see the problem if Leicester got "dibs" on a player of ours instead of any other team. Also, players like Mertens or Praet don't come through our ranks that often, and in the past they were snatched by bigger Belgian teams at an early age.

 

The only way this could potentially be an issue, is if OHL transforms into a top Belgian team, playing CL, and Leicester drops back to being an average Premier League team, that doesn't play CL. But as it stands, the hierarchy is clear.

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2 minutes ago, Lizhang said:

No offense but i can't believe you if you say you didn't have concerns when out of nowhere, a former Leicester manager was put in place, while the manager he was replacing wasn't even doing a bad job. When out of nowhere a Thai goalkeeper was bought for an obscene amount of money (for our standard, a record signing), while he was a bad keeper who also had to be in the starting eleven. When a local talent was let go and instead we got a dud like Hirst... who had to play e-ve-ry-fun-king time as a starter, when the entire scouting team got kicked out and replaced by Leicester people who shit the bed... you tell me with a straight face that you didn't have concerns and still i won't believe you. And no, the club wasn't taken away from us before that, we (the supporters) simply got what we deserved, for putting up with that. Had we made a stand back then, we would always have been able to do something about it, but we didn't. We got Callewaert kicked out, we could have got Polleke kicked out as well, but there was never that much of a revolt. The moment a foreign multinational buys your club, and mismanages it, you are done. Nobody in Thailand would have cared if you started waving flags or protested on the streets, or even if you made national tv. As long as the club was in local management, there was always that option, we just never took it.

 

I'm glad to say all of the concerns have been proven invalid. So in hindsight, sure, great, everything turned out superbly. In hindsight it was clear that Pearson didn't get sacked because of Vichai's death. But at the moment, it didn't feel like that at all.

Believe me, I never had a problem with our club firing Dennis Van Wijk and appointing Pearson. I never liked Van Wijk. I couldn't stand the fact that we would lose a game on Friday and he would be on national TV on Saterday and Sunday analysing games for Telenet in stead of focussing on his own team! The man has proven himself as a money-grabbing twat!

 

I did however have a problem with George Hirst being a starter while Din Sula wouldn't get a new contract after his great season on loan with Lommel. I also didn't like the Kawin deal as he was a bad goalkeeper. I didn't mind the fact that Gillekens had to sit on the bench, because in my opinion he was just as bad as Kawin. I did have a problem with the fact that we didn't have a good goalie. In hindsight Henkinet, who was Pearson's 3th goalie, was our best one but didn't get any playing time, which is ridiculous! Again, They should've fired Pearson months before they actually did!

 

When they got rid of the old scouting team and replaced them with McKenzie, I thought this would benefit the club as the man did a good job for Leicester. I was dead wrong about that.

 

Like I said before, KP has made mistakes in the past and I'm sure they will make some mistakes in the future too, but I felt like they always had good intentions with our club.

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6 minutes ago, Lizhang said:

But why would Leicester even do that? It would be much better to keep this prospect in Leuven, until he is indeed good enough to step up to Leicester's first team or at least until he has outgrown Leuven. It would make no sense for you to snatch a guy playing for Leuven who has plenty to learn still in the Belgian league, to stick him in your U21 team or loan him out to a Championship team.

 

If he were indeed good enough to make the leap to Leicester's 1st team, i think our fans would be reasonable and realistic enough to understand that he has outgrown Leuven. So whether we'd lose him to Leicester or to Monaco, or Ajax, would't make a difference. As long as we would get something in return (a fair price, or a lower price with another player in return...) i don't see the problem if Leicester got "dibs" on a player of ours instead of any other team. Also, players like Mertens or Praet don't come through our ranks that often, and in the past they were snatched by bigger Belgian teams at an early age.

 

The only way this could potentially be an issue, is if OHL transforms into a top Belgian team, playing CL, and Leicester drops back to being an average Premier League team, that doesn't play CL. But as it stands, the hierarchy is clear.

I totally agree!

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What a fantastic result for Leuven against arguably the best Belgian side over the past decade. The start OHL have made this season is simply outstanding! You'd assume with the slew of new signings, a new manager and a lack of experience of top level football that they would take a while to find their stride, but no.

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1 hour ago, Bonanza said:

 

It's very unfortunate for Iversen on a personal level, but what a great situation for OHL having two good goalkeepers. Outstanding performance by Romo there.

Liking the look of Mercier as well.

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