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Armel Bella-Kotchap

Ldnsaint

By Ldnsaint,
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gammon cheeks

gammon cheeks

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

It genuinely sounds like he's got everything we want in a CB, a right sided Salisu.

One of the most important things about playing the way we play is having the players capable of doing it, you could argue that Ralph doesn't seem to know how to play another way but that's another argument. At least it seems like the club are properly backing him with players who totally suit the philosophy and he won't have to try and hang out Bednarek and Stephens to play in this team.

Having mobile and quick defenders is so important against the transition, something we remember all too often last season with Bednarek being turned.

Well and good having young and mobile defenders but will it stop us conceding 60 plus goals a season?

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S-Clarke

S-Clarke

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, gammon cheeks said:

Well and good having young and mobile defenders but will it stop us conceding 60 plus goals a season?

Well, having 'experienced' Bednarek and Stephens didn't stop us.

We'll always conceded goals playing how we play, so we certainly need to add more firepower up top. But...having more pace at the back is critical because of how high we push, having just one slow defender in the back line can kill you with this system.

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Bad Wolf

Bad Wolf

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, VectisSaint said:

Good signing by the looks of it, nice that he brought his Mum and Dad (former Cameroon international). French by birth, wonder if he speaks French, would help with our increasing number of French speakers. 

He grew up in Germany so there's a good chance he speaks about 3-4 languages. It's a big part of their education system over there.

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Dank

Dank

Posted
Posted
41 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Well, having 'experienced' Bednarek and Stephens didn't stop us.

We'll always conceded goals playing how we play, so we certainly need to add more firepower up top. But...having more pace at the back is critical because of how high we push, having just one slow defender in the back line can kill you with this system.

This... with a back four of KWP, Salisu, Perraud and ABK we have some serious pace at the back for when the press goes wrong... looking forward to seeing them play together.

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Bad Wolf

Bad Wolf

Posted
Posted
10 minutes ago, Sunglasses Ron said:

Unusual to be flaunting an old kit when announcing new signings.

Would be cool if the club drop the bombshell that we're sticking with last season's kit! 

Always used to be every 2 years when I was growing up. Then we had the 125 years kit (I want to puke just thinking about that awful crest) and so changed for that year and since then it's been every year. The crafty little buggers.

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Ivan Katalinic's 'tache

Ivan Katalinic's 'tache

Posted
Posted (edited)

Interesting write up on him from a couple of years ago when Palace were supposedly interested in him:
Palace submit an offer for young German defender Armel Bella-Kotchap - VAVEL International

I like this bit especially: "He is known to have a similar playing style to Bayer Leverkusen centre-half Jonathan Tah. The 18-year-old has a hulk-like physical stature and bags of pace to go with his power. He has great readability of the game being able to intercept passes and start an attack for his team. His strengths are towering defensive headers, balance, stamina and speed."

Edited by Ivan Katalinic's 'tache
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Daft Kerplunk

Daft Kerplunk

Posted
Posted (edited)
21 minutes ago, Sunglasses Ron said:

Unusual to be flaunting an old kit when announcing new signings.

Would be cool if the club drop the bombshell that we're sticking with last season's kit! 

Office Sloth GIF by Disney ZootopiaSaints commercial sign off process taking too long

Edited by Daft Kerplunk
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HKsaint

HKsaint

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, gammon cheeks said:

Well and good having young and mobile defenders but will it stop us conceding 60 plus goals a season?

It seems that he will add some own goals for us, apart from those guaranteed from Bednarek.

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Turkish

Turkish

Posted
Posted

He does sound very good, a proper strong defender who can head, mark and tackle with a bit of pace as well. No doubt at his age he’ll still be raw but hopefully super Ralph can turn him into the new Van Dijk rather than Kevin Danso

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Chez

Chez

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, skintsaint said:

Needs a wanky youtube vid this one..

 

Hmm. Not 100% convinced by what I see in that video (certainly early on) - there is lots of being on the wrong side, desperate lunges and not a huge amount of comfort on the ball.  Not easy to create an exciting video of a CB though, so I will reserve judgement until I see him live.

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hans gruber

hans gruber

Posted
Posted
38 minutes ago, Sunglasses Ron said:

Sounds like he's the same height as Salisu (6ft 2in).  Seems to be on the shorter end of the scale for central defenders, but then we had one of the tallest ones in history and his 'leap' seemed to make him shorter at times.

I know wiki can sometimes be a bit dubious, but it says he is 190 cm, which is closer to 6ft3. Either way he looks a solid customer to me , I reckon he will be a real goer.

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Nordic Saint

Nordic Saint

Posted
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Sunglasses Ron said:

I think he was top of all our lists for solving our defensive problems.

Welcome to Saints 😃

Well, he certainly didn't solve Bochum's last season. We can only hope that playing alongside better defenders at Southampton, he'll improve. He's No. 37: 

Even though he was in a poor team at Bochum, he was highly thought of there and Saints were linked with him more than a year ago, so our scouts must have been watching him for a long time and rate him highly. Welcome to Saints.

Edited by Nordic Saint
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Badger

Badger

Posted
Posted
17 minutes ago, Nordic Saint said:

Well, he certainly didn't solve any of Bochum's last season. We can only hope that playing alongside better defenders at Southampton, he'll improve. He's No. 37: 

 

Probably not his finest performance. 

Can only hope...

But a least he knows how to be on the end of a thrashing, and the team falling apart.

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SaintsFan86

SaintsFan86

Posted
Posted
24 minutes ago, Nordic Saint said:

Well, he certainly didn't solve Bochum's last season. We can only hope that playing alongside better defenders at Southampton, he'll improve. He's No. 37: 

Even though he was in a poor team at Bochum, he was highly thought of there and Saints were linked with him more than a year ago, so our scouts must have been watching him for a long time and rate him highly. Welcome to Saints.

He was also part of the bochum side that beat bayern 4 - 2.

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Nordic Saint

Nordic Saint

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Badger said:

Probably not his finest performance. 

Can only hope...

But a least he knows how to be on the end of a thrashing, and the team falling apart.

Yes. it's difficult to judge a player when he's in a struggling team. Defenders from teams with good defensive records, like Sven Botman at Lille, tend to be more expensive so maybe the club feel they have played a bit of moneyball by getting a bargain from a poor team. They've certainly been tracking him for a long time - well before the new owners arrived.

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Badger

Badger

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Nordic Saint said:

Yes. it's difficult to judge a player when he's in a struggling team. Defenders from teams with good defensive records, like Sven Botman at Lille, tend to be more expensive so maybe the club feel they have played a bit of moneyball by getting a bargain from a poor team. They've certainly been tracking him for a long time - well before the new owners arrived.

Haven't we been here before ?

Botman was about £9m when Lillle signed him. About the same time we signed Salisu. 

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Christophenburg

Christophenburg

Posted
Posted
49 minutes ago, Nordic Saint said:

Well, he certainly didn't solve Bochum's last season. We can only hope that playing alongside better defenders at Southampton, he'll improve. He's No. 37: 

Even though he was in a poor team at Bochum, he was highly thought of there and Saints were linked with him more than a year ago, so our scouts must have been watching him for a long time and rate him highly. Welcome to Saints.

He played the full 90 in that game - makes me think he may not have been the problem! Not least because he also played the full 90 when Bochum beat Bayern 4 - 2 as per:

24 minutes ago, SaintsFan86 said:

He was also part of the bochum side that beat bayern 4 - 2.

I think this is quite exciting, and also shows that Saints are quietly and diligently going about their transfer business with little fanfare

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The Kraken

The Kraken

Posted
Posted
56 minutes ago, hans gruber said:

I know wiki can sometimes be a bit dubious, but it says he is 190 cm, which is closer to 6ft3. Either way he looks a solid customer to me , I reckon he will be a real goer.

He stands at nearly 6 foot 3, Kotchap Kotchap

He says he fucking hates Pompey, Kotchap Kotchap

Signing him is a compliment

His name sounds like a condiment

Armel Bella, Southampton’s stopping machine

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Convict Colony

Convict Colony

Posted
Posted
59 minutes ago, Nordic Saint said:

Well, he certainly didn't solve Bochum's last season. We can only hope that playing alongside better defenders at Southampton, he'll improve. He's No. 37: 

Even though he was in a poor team at Bochum, he was highly thought of there and Saints were linked with him more than a year ago, so our scouts must have been watching him for a long time and rate him highly. Welcome to Saints.

You do realise Bochum were only promoted last season and their 1 aim was to not be relegated.

Bochum havent been near the bundesliga for years.

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Bad Wolf

Bad Wolf

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

He stands at nearly 6 foot 3, Kotchap Kotchap

He says he fucking hates Pompey, Kotchap Kotchap

Signing him is a compliment

His name sounds like a condiment

Armel Bella, Southampton’s stopping machine

I like it but for "stopping machine". Could we use something else there? "Southampton's own Kaiser"?

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  • Lighthouse changed the title to Armel Bella-Kotchap - Official: Signs 4 year contract
beavis17

beavis17

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, The Kraken said:

He stands at nearly 6 foot 3, Kotchap Kotchap

He says he fucking hates Pompey, Kotchap Kotchap

Signing him is a compliment

His name sounds like a condiment

Armel Bella, Southampton’s stopping machine

Semmens went to Bochum, to buy an Audi hatchback, instead he bought a German, his name was Bella-Kotchap.

Edited by beavis17
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  • Lighthouse changed the title to Armel Bella-Kotchap

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