Bill Tuiloma (Charlotte FC | USA)

Huge shiite storm here in Marseille. Losing your coach one day into the season is a absolute disaster.

For Bill it creates all sorts of uncertainties. Losing the person who has been your mentor and pushed you forward is a blow. As everyone knows a new coach comes in and has completely different ideas and tactics. Bill may or may not be what the new coach wants. Luckily he just signed a three year deal but what happens to him now is any ones guess

My take on why Bielsa left. Marseille have had huge budget problems. They have had to reduce their spending. As a result they let go their best goals scorer last year..Gignac, their best creative player Payet and also several other experianced players like Ayew and Imbula. Ten players have left. The President famously said that this season will be "low cost".

As replacements the club bought cheap youngsters from low level Ligue1 clubs and also Diarra and Diaby......both experianced but niether of them had played any football for ages. OM were terrible against Caen last night losing 0-1. The new players were just awful.....poor passing, high error rate, shots way off target etc(Diarra and Diaby are still 4 to 8 weeks off playing) I think Bielsa took a long hard look at what sort of a team he had and realised it was going to be a long difficult season.So he pulled the plug.

Its a terrible thing to do to a club at this stage of the season but they don't call him El Loco for nothing

If the new coach doesn't rate him he may choose to go out on loan...

#Bill4Nix? :-)

Billy T is back playing for the reserve team in CFA grade( French Div 4) this weekend.

Hopefully the resignation of Bielsa as OM coach won't put a hold on his career but as we all know a new coach can have a huge impact on some players. Last weekend Bill was on the bench for the first team against Riems......the coach was Bielsa's assistant, a guy called Passi. He obviously doesnt rate Bill because when they needed to bring on a defensive mid in the second half Passi left Bill on the bench and bought on a 20 year old centre back instead into DM.

The new coach is Michel.....a spanish coach who had a huge playing career for Real Madrid. He arrived earlier in the week and ran all the coaching sessions. He has sent Bill to reserve grade. Hopefully Bill can really impress in the reserve team and fight his way back in to the seniors. However the omens are not great. Bielsa had always promoted young players and had been a mentor for Bill. Michel coaching in Spain and succesfully at Olympiacos in Greece has a track record of prefering experianced players.

I can see Bill going out on loan...which might not be a bad thing. He is one lucky guy though....he has a 3 year contract. If Bielsa had resigned a few weeks earlier while Bill was swanning around playing in Papua-New Guinea for the illegal U20s then he would not have got signed. The club froze all pending contracts when Bielsa left. They wanted to leave it up to the new guy to vet all new  signings.

Such is the vicarious life of a pro footballer

Michel was a great football player in his time, i also remember me playing a PC football game called "michel futbol" in the early 90

Looks like Billy T's career at Marseille has hit the wall.

The new OM coach Michel had a press conference yesterday and said he had zero interest in using young players from the reserve team. He said he always prefers playing experianced players. He is happy for young players to go off and gain experiance elsewhere and if they get to the right level he would consider looking at them again.

in addition Marseille have just recruited another midfielder.....a guy called Silva from Real Madrid....they now have 5 players...all experianced who could play in Bills position

So it appears Bill with either spend the season with the reserves in French Div 4 or get loaned out. The loan option would probably be the best.....playing 30+ games for a Div 2 French side would be good for Bill. At his age he needs game time.

Its such a shame for him that Bielsa left the club...looks like Bills career is heading in the same direction as Rojas's

Bugger. Could be worse, though; could've not been offered a contract at all. Needs to get loaned out asap; preferably to a club in the Eredivisie or something similar. Perhaps he can go join Thomas.

Hey TV, whilst your busy stating the future can you tell me if the new Star Wars film will be any good. I have high hopes, but am afraid after the prequels.

Sneaky loan bid from the Nix? We could put him at LB ;)

What an odd and demotivating thing to say, he's saying that young players don't have a chance to force their way into the first team? Surely a manager should select a player based on form and not age.

so he is now no better off than Tyler Boyd?

Well he's not a bit of a dickhead, so he's winning on that front.

Official

Biil Tuiloma transfered for one year loan to RC Strasbourg....

RC Strasbourg plays in National Division(pro) Which is third div in France. 

Totally predictible that he would be loaned....however National is only one level higher than where he is playing now for the OM reserves. Strasbourg however have been a top Ligue 1  club in its time, winning plenty of cups etc. However its famously unstable. It frequently gets relegated from Div 1 due to financial problems. The club is now in good shape and has high ambitions of being promoted to Ligue 2 this year

THe OM forums are a little surprised that Bill is not going to a Ligue 2 club.,,,many of the fans rate him as a player. However the season is well underway and most clubs have already filled their roster.

Its all really in Bills hands now. He has to crack the Strasbourg first team. If he does and plays plenty of games and gets noticed then anything is possible.. He will enjoy Strasbourg..its a vibrant city and the clubs supporters are some of the best in France...they play in a modern 29,000 seat stadium and get big crouds even in Div 3(20,000 plus)

Yeah he felt movies were much more important.

This is quite worrying, I hope he steps up big time and makes the most of it but Div 3 is a huge drop for him, Ligue 2 would be much better or even an overseas stint, But if he can be playing week in week out I am sure he will get a lot out of it.

FFS

Can't we have a running joke around here?

Game time is the most important thing atm so I am glad he's been loaned out.

The club may have said he will be a certain starter and other options couldn't promise that. If he wants to get noticed, helping a team to promotion certainly would help.

Bill T is way better off than Boyd. He looked very good for the U-20's and has still been through the Marseille youth system. I don't think he would have a problem getting a contract in the top division of Switzerland or Netherlands.

Strasbourg narrowly missed out on promotion last season - they finished in fourth, just one point off third place and a promotion spot.

They are struggling a little after four games this season with only one win (sitting eleventh on the table) - probably better for Bill than coming into a team that are in white hot form.

Strasbourg are pulling themselves out of a hole after the club was liquidated and consequently penalised by being relegated to the fifth tier at the end of the 2010-11 third tier season, the lowest point in the club's history.

However two straight promotions followed in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons.

"RC Strasbourg Alsace" is now the club's name and it is a new entity after the liquidation of the former RC Strasbourg. 

"Racing has changed its manager 52 times in 75 years of professional play, often under pressure from the fans. This is a record only surpassed by Olympique de Marseilles.""

New Manchester United signing Morgan Schneiderlin is a RC Strasbourg youth product.

Considering he was too old by a couple of days, I think Tyler Boyd would have been one of our better players at the U20 World Cup too

Strasbourg's manager won't be happy that Bill has returned from the All Whites game with a hamstring injury.

Seems that he came off vs. Mynamar because he was injured. Not fit enough to play for Strasbourg for a while it seems.

Latest report from France:

https://translate.google.co.nz/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.alsasports.com/09092015-bill-tuiloma-inapte-pour-le-moment-70867/&prev=search

We certainly can't accuse Bill of putting his professional career above representing his country. Because Bill is doing the exact opposite. His NZ loyalty is costing him big time IMO. Depending on your point of view he is either a loyal kiwi or naive.

FC Strasbourg played on the 5th and 11th of September. Their league plays during international windows. Bills pro career is in limbo at the moment. You could have argued that its more important that he gets himself established in a pro team than playing friendlies for the AW's against teams like Mynamar.

I have been trying to find out what went down at OM that pushed Bill from match day first team squad and preseason starts to loaned out to a mid table Div 3 team.

From what I have heard in Marseille Bill made a big mistake asking to skip OM preseason training to play for the Olywhites. At the time I was very surprised he went to PNG. It certainly raised many eyebrows in Marseille.....including from some senior people at OM. Beilsa approved Bill going but he was famous for doing bizarre stuff and he spent most of preseason in Argentina.

I don't think you can understate how important loyalty is to big European clubs. Preseason training is a big big deal. They even show it on local TV. The squad assembles and they do intensive medical/fitness assessments. Each player is then assigned an individual training regime. From there they do intensive tactical and video analysis training. Bill missed all this.....he turned up two days before the first preseason game.

The key person in Bills demise appears to be Passi.....Beilsa's assistant coach. He is an old school coach...fiercely loyal to the club. OM is his life. Apparently he did not get Bill requesting to skip preseason training. From what I heard it was something along the lines of "who is this kid who thinks he can just skip training to play age group football on some Pacific island"

Passi took over after Beilsa resigned. In his first game in charge Bill was on the bench. Later in the game when they needed to bring on a DM Passi bought on a 20 year CB rookie instead of Bill. At that point I realised that Bill was on shaky ground at the club. A week later Michel, the new coach arrived. Passi was the conduit from the old setup to the new...the guy who's job it was to advise Michel on the existing players. Within a week Bill was gone......shuttled down to French Div 3 on loan.

i guess the moral of the story if you are a young up and coming player then you need to show 100% loyalty to the club.....and maybe your country can wait a bit. We all know how hard it is for even senior players like Reid to get away from their European clubs for national duty. Bill was highly thought of at OM.....but pro football is ruthless. The club has moved on. They have recruited new talent. 

As for Bill and OM....not great I'm afraid. From what I have heard OM hopes Bill does OK at Strasbourg and they can maybe get some transfer money from his sale. Bill could end up with a career in the lower French Divisions

However if Bill has a stellar season at Strasbourg....if he was by far the best play in the Division then OM might take another look at him. But the next 6 months will be absolutely critical for his pro career. If I was him I would take a short break from NZ football....he's got enough on his plate. If this season does not go well for him then he could be back trialing for the Nix in a couple of years when his OM contract runs out. 

True but if OM have a crap season both manager and assistant could be out the door... could only be good news for Bill.

Bill Made his RC Strasbourg debut. He came of the bench in the 82 minute in a 1-1 draw against FC Epinal. Croud of 800. Bill has some work to do to re-establish his pro career. RC Strasbourg sit lower mid table with only one win in 7 games??? If the club has any hope of getting promoted into Div 2 they have some work to do as well.

Bill Made his RC Strasbourg debut. He came of the bench in the 82 minute in a 1-1 draw against FC Epinal. Croud of 800. Bill has some work to do to re-establish his pro career. RC Strasbourg sit lower mid table with only one win in 7 games??? If the club has any hope of getting promoted into Div 2 they have some work to do as well.

Actually it was a 1-0 win to Strasbourg, and they have 10 points after 7 games:

A l'issue de la 7e journée, le #RCSA est 6e du National avec 10 points. #SASRCSA

— RC Strasbourg Alsace (@RCSA_Officiel) September 18, 2015

:

76th Minute sub in today's Alsace derby game against SR Colmar in front of 26,000 fans! 2 minutes after beng subbed on, Strasbourg scored the only goal of the game. 

Made a crucial clearance off the line in injury time to preserve the team's lead:

Good effort

I only saw this now so forgive me for the extraordinary late reply. My point is that Tuiloma has a resume, Boyd does not.

This is Bill T's resume:

- Can play in defence and defensive midfield

- Has played twice for Marseille seniors (a big club in Europe) and has worked under Biesla, a name all football people know and respect.

- Has captained his country at u-20 level and did well at the u-20 World Cup. 

- Has trailed for the Galaxy and QPR.

- 8 appearances for senior national side.

Tyler Boyd

- Has played 48 times for the Phoenix (many off the bench) with 4 goals. That is a club most football people have not heard of.

- Is currently playing 2nd division in Portugal.

- Has played 5 times for senior national side with no goals.

- No significant achievements at youth level.

My point wasn't that Tuiloma is a superior player to Boyd at all. My point was just that Tuiloma has placed himself in a more advantageous position to get future contracts than Boyd. He has a better resume. Some really great and talented people have bad resumes.

The other thing to consider with Tuiloma is that he will probably reach his peak in his late 20's whereas Boyd will probably reach his peak sooner rather than later. Defensive players have more to learn and experience helps then more.

Actually Tuiloma is now playing in French third tier and I think it's better to actually play like Boyd did at a pro level (even if it's the Nix) than getting trials but no actual contracts. Boyd also played for the U20s in 2013. 

Don't get me wrong, I do think Tuiloma is better, but not for those 'reasons'.

I watched the Strasbourg vs Colmar game. It was highly entertaining game with loads of action in front of a big noisey croud. I was quiet impressed by the standard of play considering it was a Div 3 game......there were some highly skilled players on display. France is a factory for producing good players(currently there are nearly 40 French players in the EPL.....and only 70+ English)

Bill came on for the last 14 minutes or so. He did make a good clearance off the line but generally had a very quiet game. He did not look better than the guy he replaced. So theres the rub for Bill. He needs to be making the starting 11. He needs to become one of their best players. Bench time in French Div 3 is no way to advance your pro career. He's still young for a DM and his best years will be mid late 20's but this is only Div3

76th minute sub in a 2-0 win at FC Chambly.

That win puts Strasbourg into 3rd and into the promotion zone.

Bill's the cover story in the latest FANZ magazine (NZ digital football mag):

http://issuu.com/hurricanepress/docs/fanz_final_4