Interestingly Terry McFlynn is on the Unused Subs pod, and I'm not sure if it has even been explicitly said, but admits that the Bournemouth team said why don't you sign AP, he's the best in the league. McFlynn then says there is no transfers in the AL, so Bournemouth say we will buy him and get the rules changed to loan him back. That was likely always the case, but certainly seemed more like AP was a legitimate target for Bournemouth and not just a ploy to get him to join.
Don’t understand what you are trying to say there mate
Maybe rephrase?
It seems AP was never a true target for Bournemouth, they initiated the idea of signing AP for AFC (not Bournemouth), said we (Bournemouth) will buy him, get the rules changed and loan him to AFC. Which seems counter to messaging from the 'Nix and Bournemouth for the sale and even AP's loan to AFC.
Don’t understand what you are trying to say there mate
Maybe rephrase?
It seems AP was never a true target for Bournemouth, they initiated the idea of signing AP for AFC (not Bournemouth), said we (Bournemouth) will buy him, get the rules changed and loan him to AFC. Which seems counter to messaging from the 'Nix and Bournemouth for the sale and even AP's loan to AFC.
All UK gossip indicates AP's highly regarded in the Bournemouth setup and they're grooming him for a future starting role. Probably just a fortunate result of circumstances that he ended up at AFC
Don’t understand what you are trying to say there mate
Maybe rephrase?
It seems AP was never a true target for Bournemouth, they initiated the idea of signing AP for AFC (not Bournemouth), said we (Bournemouth) will buy him, get the rules changed and loan him to AFC. Which seems counter to messaging from the 'Nix and Bournemouth for the sale and even AP's loan to AFC.
All UK gossip indicates AP's highly regarded in the Bournemouth setup and they're grooming him for a future starting role. Probably just a fortunate result of circumstances that he ended up at AFC
Don't get me wrong, I think AP is great. Just interesting how McFlynn discussed it so candidly and not in the perspective of this is potentially good move for Bournemouth and AP.
But watch the first goal he conceded today. He gets a finger tip to it. It's the type of goal when him not being 2 metres tall is a bit of a problem.
The scorer had too much time to pick his spot, but still a keeper with a longer reach likely saves it. It's the perfect placement of the shot, not the power that bets Paulsen.
Then I can’t understand why he only stayed for 1 season.Bullion
AucklandPhoenix
Don’t understand what you are trying to say there mate
Maybe rephrase?
It seems AP was never a true target for Bournemouth, they initiated the idea of signing AP for AFC (not Bournemouth), said we (Bournemouth) will buy him, get the rules changed and loan him to AFC. Which seems counter to messaging from the 'Nix and Bournemouth for the sale and even AP's loan to AFC.
John Carver: "[Paulsen] has been playing with a slight issue with his knee. We scanned his knee and sent the records of the scan back to Bournemouth, his club. Then they recalled Alex, I think it was on Thursday night. We've had some good news tonight [Saturday], because it's not as bad as we first thought, so hopefully with the international break, he'll be back with us soon".
Not clear if he means Paulsen will go away on All Whites duty but that would seem unnecessarily risky.
That’s annoying, I seem to recall he was recalled to Bournemouth after they saw his scan. Does anyone know if he is still there rehabbing or back in Poland?
Alex Paulsen was the one whose injury caused the most worry. Bournemouth dragged him back from loan club Lechia Gdańsk to have a check on a troublesome knee... fortunately scans were encouraging and he’s since returned to Poland to resume his loan. If it was a serious injury they probably would have had him do his rehab in England but we’ve avoided that drama. It might be another couple weeks before AP is available to play again though. This from his coach...
John Carver: “Alex had been playing with a knee injury for some time. We did the test. Since he is a Bournemouth player, we sent a scan of them to this club. On Thursday evening, they booked him a plane to return to England so we didn't have much time to prepare to play with another goalkeeper. However, it turned out that maybe it wouldn't be as serious an injury as we thought. Perhaps he will come back to us after the international break.”
That’s what has happened. They’re speculating 2-6 weeks of recovery... although not sure if the 2-6 week count is from now or from when the injury happened because if it’s the latter then he’s already at three. Lechia have had a win and a draw without him – much better than they were doing before he signed.
Training at the Cherries for a few weeks? Niche cache.
Last week, Alex Paulsen made his return from injury in a cup defeat against Gornik Zabrze. No shame in that since Lechia were in the relegation zone and Gornik sitting atop the Ekstraklasa table. But those two teams met again in the league the following weekend and after a stunning 5-2 win for Lechia, they’re no longer in the relegation zone and Gornik Zabrze are no longer first. Only stress there is that AP did make a fumble diving onto a loose ball (after his initial save) leading to his team’s first concession. The second was a penalty.
In fairness to Paulsen, that mistake happened soon after the game had resumed following a 15 minute pause after the ultras smoked out the stadium with their pyro. You can still see the smoke in that section of the highlights. Mate, imagine going from playing at Fraser Park for the Wellington Phoenix Reserves a few years ago where the most dangerous thing you’ll see on game day is a bit of graffiti on a shipping container... to turning around and seeing this behind your goal...
Just so that you don’t get any wrong ideas, the tifo was in recognition of the 44th anniversary of the former authoritarian communist government declaring martial law across the country. The banner in front of the massive devil read: “For traitors of the homeland, the last circle of hell”. And, yes, that display involved pyrotechnics that ruined the game for a wee bit. But by the end of it, Lechia had pocketed their most memorable victory of the campaign to finally move clear of the drop zone.
Incredibly, this team have scored the most goals in the division, conceded the most goals in the division, and sit 12th out of 18 teams despite having a five-point deduction. And with that comes the winter break.
Returning after the winter break. Alex Paulsen is fully fit again. Lechia Gdańsk were already working their way back up the ladder despite their points deduction. And they’re still rising after they got back underway with a 3-1 win away against Lech Poznań.
Lechia scored after two minutes but then conceded midway through the first half when Paulsen was fooled by a fluke deflection that fell back to the feet of the striker who slammed it past him as he scrambled. Hard to do much about that... but from there it was spotless. AP made a couple of banger saves as his team retook the lead via an own goal two minutes into the second spell, striking early in both halves, then they added another ten mins into the stanza to bag the victory.
This includes games mostly from before the month’s break but Lechia have won four of their last five Ekstraklasa matches, scoring multiple goals in all of them. That’s gotten them knocking on the door of the top half of the standings. It’s the attack that is thriving to turn things around but they’re able to do that because Paulsen has raised the bar defensively. Not by a lot, he’s only kept one clean sheet in 10 games, but by enough that their potent attack is doing more than their leaky defence. Case and point: they now have a positive goal difference despite having conceded the most goals in the division.
AP in goal for a 1-1 draw at home as Gdansk hosted Cracovia.
Cracovia down to 10 men from 47 mins, their keeper kept them in it, incl a brilliant save to end the game. Their goal from the penalty spot, AP picking the wrong side, but looks like he had a sound game overall - 3 saves in the first half.
Bit chilly in Poland at the moment. The wind and the rain would mean nothing to AP having played in Wellington and Auckland... but the snow? They had to get the shovels out to clear the pitch prior to Lechia’s game away against Motor and that may explain why he dove right past a low skidding shot after 12 minutes, conceding from a shot you’d expect him to save every day of the week. Not his best moment.
Lechia have been banging them in lately though, so by half-time they were leading 2-1 and AP had made partial amends with a good diving two-handed parry to keep it that way. However, they were hauled back to 2-2 after barely a minute of the second spell when AP had to close down his near post against a threat at the by-line, leading to a low ball into the six yard box which bounced in for an own goal off a defender’s shins. Fortunately, a VAR intervention gave Lechia a penalty to restore their lead and although they couldn’t ever make it safe (missing out on a fourth thanks to a goal-line clearance), they clung on for the 3-2 result. Paulsen was booked for time wasting near the end.
That’s another win for Lechia Gdańsk. They’ve had two wins and a draw since the winter break ended and their unbeaten streak in the league now stretches to seven matches (five wins, two draws). Not a single clean sheet in there but it hardly matters. Lechia have risen into the top half of the table and are now as close to the European spots as they are to the relegation zone where they were anchored when AP arrived.
Highlights. Not much AP could have done about either goal, and not helping that his goal mouth is basically mud. Though he hasn't hand many if any clean sheets in Poland.
Another cut up pitch in Poland. Rain & the snow thaw I guess. First goal past AP, wow what a strike. Not many keepers keeping that one out. 2nd goal he was a bit unsighted.
