EDIT
I have to say this article has been called into question, because the name mentioned is apparently not a name at all.
I googled the name and indeed found nothing, which is what makes it very obscure.
However, all three words are actually Japanese names, so we’ll see.
If it’s wrong I’ll hold my hands up and make my apologies for not having listened to my Japanese lessons at schoolΒ π
……………………………………………………
We received a pingback on the Kiyotake thread from another WordPress blog site this morning.
Because it contained weblinks, it automatically went into moderation and I’ve only just had chance to read it and approve it.
It transpires it’s a Japanese football blog and they’re discussing the Kiyotake thing, where it’s said Villa offered Β£7.5 million and they gave us five days to up the offer to Β£8.5 million.
Anyway, part way down the thread, I came across this comment, courtesy of Google translate;
Reinforcement of now off of Aston Villa 5 people already
Nicklas Hereniusu (Denmark representative) 22-year-old FW
Alexander sandals Tonefu (Bulgaria representative) 23-year-old OMF
Leandro Bakuna (Netherlands U21 representative) 21-year-old WG
Jolles, happens (Denmark representative) 20-year-old CB
Antonio Luna (Spain) 22-year-old LSBLikely to join here
Qing Takehiro Shinji (Japan) 23-year-old OMF
A pretty loose link I agree, but it’s not a name I’ve heard before.
Mind you, I’ve been so snowed under with work lately, I could easily have missed it if has been previously mentioned .
Anyway, it’s nice to see the Japanese so interested in football.
And it’s also interesting that we seem to be looking closely at Japanese players.
What a refreshing change.
But then, who’s doing all the scouting?
Here’s the link if you want to have a look for yourself;
http://ζ°γ«γͺγγγ₯γΌγΉ.com/?p=6612
and thanks to the site that sent it.
You havn’t heard of Qing Takehiro Shinji because he doesn’t exist.
Odd!!
Yes, very odd and extemely obscure, but they are definitely Japanese names;
Qing, as in the Qing dynasty.
Shinji, as in Shinji Kagawa.
and various mentions of Takehiro on Google.
Could be a total load of rubbish, but if we only went for proven stuff, you’d never get anything new, would you? π
And how many of PL’s signings had we heard of before they actually came?
Summing up, probably rubbish.
But you never know.
I cant seem to figure it out on this tablet, hate the bloody things, but has anyone tried posting a comment on the japanese link to ask for a bit more info/translation?
It’s an extremely long series of replies, with the equivalent of “anonymous” (I think) mentioned for most of them.
It’s hard to work out who’s who, unless you know the Japanese language.
It seems to me, that they have their names in an odd order (to us English speakers), which makes it worse from our pov. Similar to “Erickson” meaning “son of Erick” etc.
Very obscure link, but it’s something to talk about, as we haven’t had a signing for 5 mins have we? π
As I’ve said, probably rubbish.
I’m more interested about who’s scouting Jap players, if indeed we are.
Kiyotake is quite an obvious one, but names such as this definitely aren’t.
Our scouting certainly does seem to have come on by leaps and bounds. Does anybody know anything about who’s involved and what the set-up is?
As Toyah said, “It’s a mystery”.
Surly can’t be PL on his own though.
Come on I no it’s a bit boring ATM but ffs why put a pointless post up ????
At least it gets us talking mate, im stuck at the in laws for the weekend. Thanks to this post i have an excuse to send “work emails”
Would you say it was boring if we actually signed this bloke?
Hardly pointless Mike. It’s pure speculation, as in the headline. Some readers love it, no matter how poor it might be.
Ok, I admit, this is probably poor.
But you don’t have to read it and you can always concentrate on the more factual stuff, if it’s not to your liking.
Fwiw, I’m not keen on speculation either.
I want to see them holding the shirt, but there you go.
MDN8, ha, nice one!
I’d love to know the mechanics behind this sudden 360 in our scouting as well davidg. Seems with kiyotake that we had scouts watching him at the confed cup. Plus he plays in germany and it seems we plenty of spies covering the continent now, or maybe not? Lambert played there so maybe he has contacts, as i said i would love to know!
Yep you’d think that Lambert’s history in Germany and his apparent continuing links with Dortmund might have produced a few more player links with that particular country, but nothing’s really proved tangible yet. We certainly seem to be scouring around the Benelux area, though, France as well. I presume this is by design not accident. I’d love to know if we’ve got anybody looking at central and south America; doesn’t seem to be much “action” on that front if we do.
I long for the day we have scouts in south america! I agree, this doesn’t look at all like some haphazard approach. There is definitely a structure in place, some systematic plan. I hope we get to find out at one point.
If it proves that this link holds any weight and we’re scouting a japanese player in the j-league it’s more exciting news and that south american scout might just become reality!
Yes and has been mentioned, if we can sign somebody of Kiyotake’s ilk, the marketing could be an added bonus. I hope that as well as the scouting angle, somebody at Villa is having a real look at how the marketing of the club could be improved. Success will bring its own reward in that respect of course, but for too long I get the impression that we’ve been too “old fashioned”; stuck in a tired rut and behind the times on both of these fronts, and we’ve paid the price both in playing and commercial terms. We need an all round new profile for the club, we need to become “fashionable” again, and more dynamic in our approach. Lambert is really trying to push us into the 21st century with his whole approach, I think, and change the whole culture of the club. More power to his elbow.
I’m off for a swift half. Cheers all.
Spot on David, in the days of the eighties I had the chance to put Villa into China with a Chinies government official, Steve Stride and the commercial staff did not want to know, Man UTD had a strangle hold on the market over there at that time, Man had got bussines university people in, we had the you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours running the club.
No such player.. don’t believe everything you see on Tweeter! π
UTV
Exactly right davidg. Seems as though Lambertis going about making us more marketable and “cool” again which is yet another positive.
Word always spreads and its great for us that from now we will be seen throughout europe as the team to go to if your young, hungry for success and have something to prove. Plus there is the benefit of playing in the best league in the world. This all bodes very well when trying to attract young talent. They know if they try hard they will get their chance. Soon enough coming to Villa will be a choice made these types of players (as seen already with Okore) rather than having to constantly persuade. As well as bringing us, like you said, into modern day times.
UTV
It’s just a shame that Stephen Ireland & Bosko Balaban did exist lol !
I know some Japanese, and ‘Qing Takehiro Shinji’ is actually just a mistranslation of Hiroshi Kiyotake’s name into Chinese (Japanese contains loads of Chinese characters, and use them often for names). The translation also has the name as ‘Qing Takehiro Yoshitsugu’. It’s clearly Kiyotake as the article also says ‘Qing’ is 23 and plays for Nurnberg.
Absurdly long Google Translate URL: http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://xn--q9jb1h4h9cqhlgr559b.com/%3Fp%3D6612&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://%25E6%25B0%2597%25E3%2581%25AB%25E3%2581%25AA%25E3%2582%258B%25E3%2583%258B%25E3%2583%25A5%25E3%2583%25BC%25E3%2582%25B9.com/%253Fp%253D6612%26biw%3D1920%26bih%3D886
Just to point out: ‘Qing’ is not a Japanese name.
So it seems I did indeed get it wrong then. Ah well, apologies in that case.
So it’s actually Chinese?
It’s all double dutch to me π
You do realise that this is Hiroshi Kiyotake don’t you?
Qing Takehiro Shinji is the Japanese on his twitter account below his hashtag!!
@13_Hiroshi