Eli Just (Swansea City | Wales)

the signs look good.

IMG_9742.jpeg 315.76 KB

Going to need admin to update his club

IMG_9746.jpeg 229.2 KB

You'd think a nice little pay rise for Eli there too. Good on him after a pretty mixed few years in Europe prior

Swans to sign Garbett and get the old Ole gang together proper.

Not quite the visual spectacle of The Square in his home town Palmy North, but there are worst views for your first team training. But then Eli already knows Austria

Article with 127 comments in Stuff! Unheard of almost for a soccer story.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/361009859/all-whites-midfielder-elijah-just-secures-swansea-move-after-breakout-world-cup

Just leaves Scottish Premiership side Motherwell after just one season in a club-record deal reportedly worth around £6 million ($13.7m).

“We're very excited to bring Elijah into the team. He can play in more than one position and his versatility will be a great fit in the side,” Swansea coach Vitor Matos said.

“Elijah joins us after performing well in all aspects of our recruitment process, and after a brilliant performance at the World Cup. We are very happy to have him with us.”

The Welsh club, part-owned by rapper Snoop Dogg, finished 11th in the Championship last season.

Looking forward to the Stamenic and Just combo this season. Has there ever been a kiwi pairing at this high a level? (Excluding the Nottingham Forest contingent, only one of which actually plays). 

Would be a first at that sort of level Shirley.

Boxall & Brockie were together in the PSL, and in a Cupset won a Cup comp with SuperSport over I think favourites Sundowns.

Another Palmy lad Jake Gleeson & Tuiloma were together at Portland Timbers.

Colorado Rapids briefly had a little cluster (Smith, Colvey & Deklan Wynne) with with Huddo in charge and Baze his assistant.

Wasn't there a few at Barnsley? all together. Bertos, Mulligan etc

The Rufers at Zurich.

I think Barnsley were a division lower at the time. But 3 or 4 NZL players there in early first decade of 2000s.

Comfortably the highest level for a Kiwi pair I reckon. Championship is a top 10 league in Europe these days. 

Certainly the highest combined transfer fees for two kiwis at a club - the Jacks have forked out £8m between the two of them

Niche Cache. Smart business by Horsens, considering Just left them like 2 seasons ago.

Just with a Motherwell team mate joining him in Wales.
Read elsewhere that the Championship playoffs have been expanded to include teams 3rd to 8th. Swans should be in the mix this season.

Motherwell are getting a club record fee for Elijah Just of £6m plus addies to eclipse the previous record of £5m when Lennon Miller left for Udinese one year ago. Chris Wood is the only kiwi who has ever moved for a bigger fee than that (he’s almost tripled that number on three separate occasions). This for a bloke they picked up for a minimal fee one year ago... although some of that profit does go to his former club AC Horsens who have a 17% sell-on clause.

Swansea City finished 11th last season but were quite a lot better in the second half after Vitor Matos took over as coach. Their form from February onwards was worthy of a playoff spot... and they’ve done good business since then. Moussa Yeo has been signed for the other wing, a Mali international previously at Red Bull Salzburg. A similar fee to Just’s has been arranged for Joseph Opoku, a young Ghanaian winger from Zulte Waregem in Belgium.

Stephen Welsh was picked up from Celtic to play centre-back... he was on loan at Motherwell alongside Just last season so make that two mates already on board. They did lose Ethan Galbraith to Stoke but they got a huge fee for him which has helped bulk up those wing spots and also helpfully clears more room for Stamenić to be even more of a key figure in the midfield. Plenty of reason to think Stam is in for a much bigger season this time around too.