Islam Feruz

[Worktheshaft]

Linked with Swansea, god knows why.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/swansea-eyeing-loan-move-20-7125463

[SlipperyP]

rugby

[Forfinn]

Linked with Swansea, god knows why.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/swansea-eyeing-loan-move-20-7125463

That's astonishing. Can only assume the story has been planted by his agent. If Swansea think he's the guy to keep them up, I'm going to put the mortgage on them getting relegated.

Premier League experience is seen as his next step with Bournemouth and Derby also looking.

I'd have thought his next step would be to actually play some competitive football, anywhere.

[Savage Henry]

This thread is almost as much of a turnaround as the Andy Murray thread, which starts with him in the top 150! Only the opposite.

[thelocalcat]

Linked with Swansea, god knows why.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/swansea-eyeing-loan-move-20-7125463

He can play upfront with Botti Biabi next year in the championship.

[supermik]

Had a driving offence court case delayed until June as he is apparently going to be working in France!

[TheGreenMonster]

Went on trial with Kazakh club FC Aktobe this week....it reportedly lasted less than a day

[1320Lichtie]

f**k sake

[afca32]

His career has been a...

[Bambino7]

His attitude with us wasn't an issue - the issue was he was nowhere near fir or sharp enough to get on the bench.

Sad times, his career looks goosed.

[Tommy Nooka]

His attitude with us wasn't an issue - the issue was he was nowhere near fir or sharp enough to get on the bench.

Sad times, his career looks goosed.

And why do you think they were an issue?

The lads certainly given us some entertainment over his brief career, he's managed to screw up every single opportunity handed to him.

[dogmc]

And why do you think they were an issue?

The lads certainly given us some entertainment over his brief career, he's managed to screw up every single opportunity handed to him.

Probably be more inclined to laugh if we had a glut or even a handful of young players forcing themselves into top sides in epl and abroad....as it is we aren't producing many young players at all who will progress the senior team.

[Macshimmy]

Crazy stuff, if Feruz is finished at 20, this poor wee b*****d will be done by 18.

I'm guessing the next logical progression is hatching them in jam jars, and throwing the dud ones in the canal:

http://www.realmadridnews.com/real-madrid-planning-to-steal-12-year-old-pearl-from-barcelona-15770

[Deeboy]

How cool is that bairn?

There's no danger he's 12! He looks about 8 and plays like he's 18.

[Jan Vojáček]

Crazy stuff, if Feruz is finished at 20, this poor wee b*****d will be done by 18.

I'm guessing the next logical progression is hatching them in jam jars, and throwing the dud ones in the canal:

http://www.realmadridnews.com/real-madrid-planning-to-steal-12-year-old-pearl-from-barcelona-15770

Yotuh team football in Spain looks class. Imagine being that age and playing on TV!

[Wilky1878]

Probably be more inclined to laugh if we had a glut or even a handful of young players forcing themselves into top sides in epl and abroad....as it is we aren't producing many young players at all who will progress the senior team.

I'd say things are on the up but why only epl and abroad? However in the English leagues we have andy Robertson at hull and kingsley at Swansea just for two examples, Jack Harper is now also in England but I don't know how good he is too comment. Abroad we have Ryan Gauld but then back home we still have players such as Ryan Christie, Graeme Shinnie and Ryan Jack who i'd imagine will have successful (or as successful as you can be for Scotland) international careers.

[Francesc Fabregas]

Good piece in the Sun from Kenny Millar about the decline and fall of Islam Feruz - CLICK.

[The Moonster]

I think we can safely stop hoping this boy is going to sort his head out and close this thread. If he decides he can actually be arsed being a footballer then we can start another one, just now he's wasting everything.

[Wilky1878]

Good piece in the Sun from Kenny Millar about the decline and fall of Islam Feruz - CLICK.

fancy copying and pasting it for us? No sun link will be getting a click from me.

[Francesc Fabregas]

For those sticking to their morals and unprepared to fund quality journalism, here's the story:

Islam Feruz truly is Scottish football’s lost boy.

This week it was claimed he lasted a day on trial with Kazakhstani Premier League side FC Aktobe.

I say ‘claimed’ because when I was finally able to track down his representative – no mean feat – to establish the facts, the reply was a curt ‘we don’t like media, as you guys write complete rubbish stories’.

It’s that policy of isolationism that does Feruz no favours – separated from reality and surrounded by bad influences and hangers-on while countless well-intentioned would-be mentors have been ignored.

Now 20, he is running out of sympathetic ears and running out of chances.

Feruz cut himself loose from another unproductive loan spell at Hibs, with only six substitute appearances and no goals to show for his return north.

It didn’t leave him with much to contribute to the WhatsApp group chat populated by Chelsea’s legion of loanees, who are scattered across some of the most prominent clubs and leagues in Europe, by comparison.

Feruz didn’t come close to breaking into a first team in this country’s second tier and it is a familiar story.

Easter Road team-mates talk of welcoming the one-time ‘wonderkid’ with open arms, in some cases excited by the hype – if not the reality that faced them.

One commented that ‘he did nothing to suggest he was a Chelsea player, even in training’, while another noted that he ‘spoke briefly and only when spoken to’, opting not to join in several group activities.

That in itself is not a hanging offence, given football dressing rooms are made up of all different types of personalities – but on the evidence so far there are precious few redeeming qualities to justify the chances he keeps squandering.

The wasted six months were summed up by his one and only press conference appearance, when a lack of accountability saw him instead lash out at the Chinese whispers that had apparently burdened him with an undeserved ‘bad-boy reputation’.

But no sooner had the words crossed his petted lip than he found himself in another scrape with the law.

Recently, his trial for driving while banned was adjourned until June – as Feruz also faces up to charges of driving without insurance and perverting the course of justice when he was pulled over by police in September in the wee small hours.

It’s hard to keep a low profile in a black velvet-covered £80,000 super-car.

It’s, quite simply, a sad tale of wasted talent.

At least Freddy Adu - who has almost become a byword for footballing failure – has shown a relentless enthusiasm for the game, to keep plugging away from club to club in the hope of finding fulfilment.

Feruz lasted 48 hours with Russian outfit Krylia Sovetov.

Then it was on to Greek side OFI Crete, then managed by Rino Gattuso, and a mere three outings totalling 135 minutes.

Cast away by Cardiff after another failed trial, he was later bombed out by Blackpool – with some off-the-record tales offering less than glowing accounts of his attitude.

The memory of the jet-heeled teenager who racked up rave reviews in the Celtic youth ranks is becoming a distant one, and by this point he should have had at least the odd highlight to scrape together a YouTube compilation.

That switch to Chelsea may prove to the best and worst thing that ever happened to him.

The ‘best’ in the respect that it lined his pockets, and those of his entourage. At least until the well runs dry.

The ‘worst’ because he is already in perilous danger of becoming a ‘where are they now?’ candidate, when he should be so much more.

I’m always wary of being too critical of Feruz, because very few can understand the struggles of a kid who had an unstable upbringing and suddenly found himself the centre of attention in a strange new country, simply because he could kick a ball better than most others his age, having not walked a mile in his shoes.

The money followed and the vultures circled, again despite the very best efforts of those who tried to guide him down a safer path.

There is likeability, deep down, in someone who – unbeknown to Chelsea – travelled back home at every opportunity to join his old Glasgow pals for a kickabout with Sunday League team AfroScots.

And he’d join in with a programme for out of contract players for the same reason.

Twice I had the chance to write those stories and twice my journalistic judgement was suspect – a misguided conscience telling me to give a presumably misunderstood kid a pass and let him have his fun away from the spotlight.

A different side was evident on numerous Scotland youth trips, when he responded equally badly to an arm around the shoulder or a boot up the back-side.

Team-mates were reluctant to share rooms with him, and he cut a sad, lonely figure in a team environment.

Despite what he claimed in September, it’s true that he expressed a desire not to be selected for international duty – having felt he was above playing for the lower age levels while the likes of John Souttar and Ryan Gauld never missed a gathering despite having established themselves at club level.

There was a different excuse on every trip, with the forgotten passport a particular favourite.

Then-Performance Director Mark Wotte tried to take him under his wing, and treated him like a special project, unperturbed by his outsider persona.

It was Wotte who expressed his belief that he could go to Hibs and ‘score in every game’.

Instead, the last time I saw him was walking into a McDonald’s in Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street.

Feruz is only 20, with plenty of time to pull himself back from the brink and make the most of an explosive, raw natural ability.

Only he can tap into that and only if he starts to take responsibility, instead of blaming others – fuelled by those around him – for his downward spiral.