Is he training with the first team? Or is he with the youth team atm?
Bill played the full 90 mins for the OM Reserve team last Saturday. It was the first game of the championship season for the Reserves. From the team list it appears he was playing DM. They drew away 0-0. so it looks like Bill is has cemented a starting place in the Reserves. Could be good for him because if he does OK he will probably get a call into the seniors if there are injuries etc
I went and saw Marseille play weekend before last in there newly renovated 250 million euro Veledrome stadium. It now has a roof.....its a very impressive stadium....seats 67,000. Great atmosphere at the match(they lost 0-2).....there is something about sitting in a big stadium in Europe with the a big crowd(53,000) going off. The noise was deafening. Flares, fireworks.....it had everything. Best bits are when the East stand chants and the call is returned by the West stand...check it out on Youtube.
I caught up with some mates from OM. The first thing I asked is hows Bill going. It seems he is doing OK but the concensus is that he is doing fine physically but is not yet up to first team status technically and tactically. They showed me an interview at the end of last season where the reporter asked the first team coach about Bill.
To paraphrase he said that Bill had a great Anglo work ethic....he always put in 100 % in training and always thanked the training staff after every session. He said he wished all his squad had the same work ethic. He did mention problems with communication....Bill is taking a while to adapt to speaking French(which is a surprise for a young person after a year of total immersion) It appears the club is happy with him and will put the effort into developing him as a player.
Huge year for Bill. The club is financial problems and needs to sell players to get the salary bill down(they sold their best player, the French international Valbuena to Moscow) They are short of defenders and have moved senior DM's back to CB to plug the gaps. With only a week or so until the transfer window closes they could enter the season under manned in midfield. If Bill can up his game he will have golden opportunity to get first team football.
Part of this opportunity will come from their new coach Bielsa....the guy is a world coaching guru. He also is a big fan of throwing youngsters into the first team. After only 3 Ligue 1 games he has already played a 19 yo at CB and put a 16 yo attacker on in the game I saw.
An interesting aside is our new AW coach Hudson is a Beilsa disciple.....he has now got OM playing a 331 formation. They play a quick passing high tempo high pressing game. They haven't quite got it bedded in yet...1 win, 1 draw, 1 loss so far this season but it is very exciting to watch. If Hudson has got similar plans for the AW's then it could be an exciting ride. His theory is that with your wingbacks moving forward and back you always have an extra man on defense(5 back) and you always have an extra man on attack (5 forward). The key player is the central DM....everything goes through them. You need someone with a big engine, great vision and a very good passer of the ball off either foot(can we fast track Riera)