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Racing: Szetela moving to Brescia on loan

Danny_szetela

According to the Racing de Santander website, Danny Szetela is being sent on loan to Italian Serie B side Brescia. Racing had been in discussions with several teams about loaning out Szetela since the January transfer window opened but its asking price for Szetela ruled out most offers. An unidentified team in Greece was also in the running but Racing appears to have accepted a loan offer from Brescia, the Italian club that came very close to landing Szetela last summer. According to the Racing website, the loan includes an option to buy.

Sources close to Szetela have told me that a loan deal has yet to be agreed to but a loan is inevitable for Szetela, who is desperate for first-team action. He has yet to play in a league game for Racing de Santander and the club’s lack of a reserve team has meant he has played just once since arriving in Spain (a start in a cup game).

What do you think of Szetela moving to Brescia? Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. RK,

    Thanks. I really should have just checked that out myself instead of taking it at face value. It didn’t make any sense at all. Then again why would someone say that? Seems like a strange thing to make up.

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  2. Brescia are a quality, quality side led by a good coach in Sersi Cosmi. In the words of David Bowie “he has a voice like sand and glue.” His teams play an attacking game and they are a joy to watch. They have a reputation of producing young talent and Cosmi is definitely not opposed to giving young guys a run out if they earn it.
    Szetela may see a lot of action as Brescia just sold Daniele Mannini to Napoli (my club) and it opens up a spot for him in the midfield. Serie B is extremely competitive and I often prefer it to watching Serie A games. The competition is obviously not nearly as good as La Liga but he will get a chance to play that’s for sure.

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  3. Why does everyone keep thinking that Markus Schopp is currently playing for Brescia? The guy hasn’t played for Brescia since 2005, and he retired in December.

    One other good thing about Szetela moving to Brescia is that RAI International shows Serie B games on Saturday mornings. So if he gets some playing time, we have the ability to watch the games!

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  4. i hope he gets time on the pitch. the thing is, he barely played in colombus, so just the training at racing was probably an upgrade- dont know if i can say that about brescia.

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  5. Schopp on Brescia!? Does he play?!

    I’m a bit bummed Danny left Spain as I had a work associate who could have given us local info. Unfortunately, there was never any info for him to really get.

    Have zero contacts in Italy, so I hope we can find someone out there to help.

    Note – I was told Zizzo got a bad ankle sprain. May be the type J Smith got for the U20’s. Will get more info, but if that is the case, Zizzo may be done for the year, and it will really drop him down th epecking order even further.

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  6. Just read that Gabriel Ferrari at least finally made the bench in a Italian Coppa match for Sampdoria. That is a move in the right direction. They have not completely forgotten about him. He needs to bide his time and be professional and it will work out for him in Italy. Good on him!!

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  7. It would be great to see young American talent put more time into MLS or any time at all. But none of these guys can be blamed for wanting to be paid for their services and the chance to live out a dream. It can be a roll of the dice. Playing time or the bench. For these guys the roll must be worth it.

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  8. I wish him the best in Serie B. If he can get some playing time that can only help. The option to buy might be for a high figure that Brescia would only be willing to pay if they get promoted.

    I can’t be too hard on these young kids that go overseas to play. It takes a lot of guts and along with the on field adjustment they have to make a lot of off field adjustments. I have to respect their commitment and I can’t get to critical if they do not all develop into stars. The fact that so many young Americans are given these opportunities in Europe shows as a soccer nation we are growing.

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  9. The people who suggest he should’ve gone to Roma are completely out of their minds. Have you guys peeked Roma’s midfield? There’s no chance he would ever see the field there. Ricardo Faty Part 2!!!

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  10. it would have been nice to have gotten him more PT in the best league on earth, but a move to Serie B promotion contenders isn’t bad. If they move up next year, he’ll be in the second best league on earth. Not a bad trade off IMO.
    Plus he’ll learn tactics and technical play in spades.
    Re Zizzo: he is still too new to Europe to get down on him. (same with Danny)
    Everyone else though…it’s their national team career on the line when they choose to ride the pine on reserve teams. It sucks for us but if they choose to flush their international career down the drain for the ‘honor’ of playing reserve team football for PSV but to each their own I guess.

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  11. I have to agree with ed ho on the trade to Racing being a mistake if there was no reserve team. How can a team as big as Racing not have a reserve team? That boggles the mind! Did Danny think it would be really cool to sign for a big name team and not have to play? If he couldn’t start regularly for woeful Columbus I know he didn’t think he would ever crack the Racing lineup! Let him go to Brescia and play. Time is running out for him to show what people thought he was capable of.

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  12. I don’t think people should be passing judgment on Zizzo or Szetela considering they haven’t even been in Europe a year.

    Pearce needs to move this summer, but he has time and talent. He should go to Holland, it would suit him.

    As for Nguyen and Hill, both need to be looking for a move. Hill probably should come back to the states, if at the very least to relaunch his career.

    The word out of PSV is that Nguyen has the talent to start for them, it’s just that he disappears for huge portions of the game. There isn’t much you can do about that, since it’s probably a psychological thing.

    He needs to get playing time, he is too talented to be riding pine (1 league appearance since he joined PSV. 1!)

    His contract runs out Summer 2009.

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  13. I can’t tell if you all are being sarcastic or not (shaj’s post especially) — you never know how things are going to work out, you just try to take advantage of your opportunities. Szetela’s didn’t materialize because of the play of the players in front of him, so he’s trying something else for 6 months.

    It’s amazing how we are all so quick to celebrate someone’s attempt in Europe, but tear them down whenever possible, or pretend to know that some other alternative, such as MLS, would have been the better road to choose.

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  14. brescia have a decent chance at being in serie a next year as promotion is based on league position for the top two teams and a 4-team playoff for the 3rd spot, as long as there is less than a 10 point gap between 3rd and 4th.

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  15. MM is 100% correct–all of those guys (nguyen hill zizzo in particular) would be in better positions, and be better players, if they had first played in MLS. szetela used MLS to get time and showed that the international game was more suited to him, so fine.

    but the rest have set their careers back in order to get a bit more money in the short term, and that’s just the usual greed and stupidity.

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  16. shaj, i’d rather Jozy go to a “lesser” club that will devote more time to developing him and can give him a legit shot at starting.

    really, i think the last club i want Jozy to go to, is Real.

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  17. Sorry Gorky. There were many injuries that opened the door for Benny at Hamburg. Right place and time. He couldn’t take advantage.

    Way too many big mistakes that resulted in goals against. He would play well for most of the match and then give the ball away in a terrible position and get burned. That was his problem there. Giveaways at bad times and in bad spots.

    If he hadn’t of moved he was almost certainly going back to reserve ball as the injured players, and new signings came in.

    I’ve pointed it out several times but it should be repeated. Most Yanks way overestimate Benny. The quick/tough Euro style does no suit him at all. He makes decisions to slowly and dallys on the ball. Al;so loses it to often carelessly. Did this for the Nats also, but it was always glossed over because we deperately want a mid like him. The goal glossed it over even more.

    I am not surprised he has looked best versus Central and S American comp. Clearly more his style.

    He needs to take a clear step down in Europe IMO and get regular playing time to see if he can adjust to that type of style. Not sure he can. Gotta get out of the English game. that’s for damn certain.

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  18. yep, this officially makes him look stupid for turning down roma, who would have surely invested more time into him and had more patience…americans abroad are the biggest anomalies: onyewu turns down REAL MADRID for newcastle…nobody turns down them….szetela turns down ROMA and settles for more mediocrity.

    lets hope jozy has some sense and goes to real in the summer

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  19. Mountain Man: That just isn’t true – I don’t think Lee Nguyen or Sal Zizzo ever played or were signed by MLS. And Heath Pearce got plenty of playing time as the started for FC Nordsjealland while Benny Feilhaber started several league games and CHAMPIONS LEAGUE matches for Hamburg. It was their later moves that turned out to be bad.

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  20. the decision to seek out first team action is absolutely the right one, but i’m starting to doubt the move to Racing.

    he’s still really young so even if the move in hindsight was not a good one, it’s not like it’s going to kill his career…disappointing though that he’s experiencing what appears to be a speed bump.

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  21. Should have never left MLS…Just like Sal Zizzo, Kamani Hill, Lee Nyguen, Benny Feilhaber and Heath Pearce these guys go abroad and never play. Waste of time and talent. Sad

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  22. This is great news, one of the major things Ive been hoping to see this month is a loan move for Szetela. He needs to be playing. Im not so hot on the buy option because this kid was getting looked at by teams like Roma after his U20 performances and I think, or rather I hope that he is talented enough to play in a better league than Serie B. At the same time if he has success in Serie B I dont really have a problem with him staying there and growing for a few years before hopefully moving to a bigger club.

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  23. Great news for Danny. Maybe now he can actually play. IVES, WHAT is the Status of Heath Pearce at Hansa Rostock. They played today and he was not on the Team. His name is still on the Roster but iwth the rumors flying that he was a gonner from them I am interested in finding some news on him. Transfer/Loan?????

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  24. Off the topic, but staying with young American talent. Saw that Bradley scored twice against De Graafschap yesterday and the coach wants him to stick around while also saying that Bradley is definitely ready for a jump to a big club and that his mentality is great.

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  25. If he gets to play regularly then it might be a good thing. I’m not familiar with Brescia or their depth at his position. Usually in a loan deal there is some immediate need, the option to buy however might indicate his present club does not see much future for him and that the loan club gets an extended look at a developing player without the pressure of having to start him every game.

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  26. I can’t believe you found a picture of him in action!

    He needs the PT, and wasn’t getting it in Spain. I really wanted another American in La Liga, but not if he’s on the bench half the time — and not even dressed the other half.

    Ed: Racing has a B side.

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  27. I think its great. He gets some first team action, as well as another American playing in Italy. However, I’m not sure if their style of play suits Danny. I haven’t really seen him play, only at the U-20 World Cup.

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