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Ebi Smolarek To Bolton In A Move To Rescue His Season.

August 30th, 2008 | By: tomasz | 12 Comments »

Racing Santander tried to sell Ebi Smolarek throughout the whole summer. The deal with Toulouse was the closest to go through, there were also speculations about Olympiakos, Panathinaikos and Benfica. Finally, in the last days of the transfer window Ebi is loaned out to Bolton in exchange for Ricardo Vaz Te. This is a huge chance for him to take something out of the upcoming season.

The deal is already confirmed by Santander’s official site. They were really desperate to get rid of Ebi, mainly because of his high wages. The new Santander manager also didn’t view Smolarek as one of the key players. To put it simple, Ebi was Racing’s biggest transfer flop last season. They just tried to get back some money they invested in him. After they failed to sell him, Racing decided to accept Bolton’s loan offer. Everyone’s a winner in this situation; Bolton gets a player of international reputation and Racing will save some money on Ebi’s wages. The English club also has an option to buy Smolarek after the season.

What does this move mean for Ebi, apart from having a big chance to become the first Polish player to score a Premiership goal since 1992? Definitely, it means that we should see him more often on the pith than we would in Spain. Moreover, he won’t rather play as a lone striker (a position where he proved useless for Poland) because this spot is clearly booked for Johan Elmander, the most expensive player in Bolton’s history. Hence, Ebi will be considered an offensive midfielder or a winger. He’ll compete for place with players like Kevin Davies (one of the most respected in Bolton), Mustapha Riga (also acquired from Spain), Matthew Taylor (great left foot) and Heidar Helguson (though he’s supposed to be offloaded somewhere). No big, European names there, but Davies especially has a very strong position in the team. What we can be sure of, however, is that Ebi will certainly be given his chance. But is he prepared for the physicality of Premiership? Will his current form enable him to win a place in the team? Won’t he be depressed after moving from sunny Spain to, hmm, a bit less sunny Bolton. We have to wait and see. What’s your view on Ebi’s transfer saga?

For all those Bolton fans wondering who the hell is Ebi Smolarek

Tags: Bolton, Group A, Poland, Santander, Smolarek

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Comments

By Witold | August 30th, 2008 at 9:51 am

Great news, I think that Ebi won’t lost this second chance…

Posted from Canada

By zaraza | August 30th, 2008 at 3:46 pm

Kazmierczak played the whole game today, unfortunately Derby lost 2-0 but Kaz got a positive review on VitalFootball:
“Przemyslaw Kazmierczak 7
Kept the ball moving well and was inches away from opening his account on two occasions only for the ball to fly narrowly wide once and Steele to make an outstanding save the second time. His best performance in a Derby shirt so far.”

Jelen scored for Auxerre today. Dudka, on the other hand, has been dropped from their starting line-up, he came on in the 80th minute.

Posted from Canada

By Alek | August 30th, 2008 at 7:48 pm

Don’t worry about Dudka, Auxerre’s defense is such shit they probably like to shift it around and try to find any ways that it may work well.

By Witold | August 31st, 2008 at 12:01 am

Wichniarek strikes again and what a wonderfull goal: http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=TF_pkaCW1pI

4 goals in 3 match in Bundesliga! But still no chances for the NT team…

Posted from Canada

By tomasz | August 31st, 2008 at 5:33 am

Good to hear about Kaz, I think he’s well suited for Championship football. It’s been a while since I saw him play, I wonder if Leo still scouts him. Wichniarek scored a beauty, I didn’t know there was so much speed left in him. Jelen: typically a Polish player performs best when he’s outside the national team squad

Posted from Poland

By zaraza | August 31st, 2008 at 1:10 pm

Piszczek was in the starting line-up today against Bayern Munich… but it appears they made him play as an emergency right-back… not surprisingly, being out of position and only just back from injury, he didn’t fare too well and was taken off in the 57th minute…

Posted from Canada

By zaraza | August 31st, 2008 at 1:18 pm

Looks like my info was wrong, he actually played on the right-wing.

Posted from Canada

By Wanderer | August 31st, 2008 at 10:45 pm

Can’t wait to see Ebi in the White shirt. He was at the game on Saturday and sat in the stands with the injured Johan Elmander and they were chatting away.

As long as he works hard and chips in with goals, he’ll be a fan favourite. He’ll get his chance, if fit, because Elmander will be out for at least 4 weeks and Matt Taylor broke his toe and will be out for about 6 weeks, giving Ebi plenty of time to show what he has to offer the team.

From Spain to Bolton is a big leap weather-wise but he is Polish and surely they don’t have the best weather either. Anyway, he isn’t at Bolton to get a tan, is he?

If you don’t know anything about Bolton, we are one of the founding members of the English football league.

Posted from United States

By M. Zurawski | August 31st, 2008 at 11:41 pm

Wanderer, i hope he can fit into the setup quickly. Any idea how Megson intends to utilize him? And any news as to whether Fojut will get some action this season? I’m happy you guys got rid of Diouf, he was sort of a bastard.

By zaraza | August 31st, 2008 at 11:58 pm

Michal Janota made his first appearance in the Eredivisie yesterday against Heracles. He came on in the 72nd minute and did quite well, lots of positive comments on the match thread at feyenoord.netwerk.to/forums
One poster even calls him the Polish Arjen Robben.

Posted from Canada

By tomasz | September 1st, 2008 at 3:49 am

Good to hear that everybody is counting on Ebi at Bolton. Now it’s up to him to have a good start. Elmander injured, maybe he’ll actually get some playing time as a striker. I saw Janota’s game, he didn’t have much of the ball, but managed to show one great dribble after which the ref could’ve given a penalty for Feyenoord.

Posted from Poland

By Wanderer | September 2nd, 2008 at 10:57 pm

I don’t know how Megson will use Ebi but I would imagine it will be upfront, paired with Davies for now. Once Elmander is fit again, I would think he’ll be played with Davies shipped to the right. If he likes a floating roll, that’s how we played Diouf floating in a front 3 (when we had Anelka).

As for Fojut, he got a few games last season, mainly in cups and UEFA. The fans rate him and if anyone is going to break through from the reserves, it will be him as he has the most prospect right now. I’d say he is still one for the future, hopefully eased into the first team.

Posted from United States

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