EFL Excellence: SCOUT NOTES, August 9
EFL Excellence: SCOUT NOTES, August 9
The free newsletter for scouting aficionados — and transfer addicts.
What a beautiful day today is. The EFL is back with a bang, starting with a couple of Championship games tonight then a stacked slate of games over the weekend and into Monday.
This day always gets me genuinely excited: it feels like the official start of the new season, a wonderful starter before the main meals arrive.
But the EFL is one of those starters that you’d love to have as a main. It’s the calamari with aïoli of football. It’s the no-brainer, it’s the banker, it’s the one that couldn’t fail, it’s the one that’s never failed. You tuck in, it’s delicious.
That’s why we’re devoting this issue of SCOUT NOTES to the EFL, and in particular the Championship. After our success of picking out Alex Scott and Adam Wharton as the ones to watch in the past two seasons, we’ll highlight a few more youngsters that we think could have impressive campaigns.
Then we’ll mention some transfer stuff for the sickos out there that love it.
Before we go on, it would be remiss of us not to devote a paragraph or two to Not The Top 20, kings of EFL coverage and long-time friends of SCOUTED.
We suggest (read: demand) that you listen to their 1-24s season previews, a triumph of research and knowledge, and subscribe to their Substack for the best insights into the English Football League you’ll get anywhere. The best.
🔒 Banker: Ollie Arblaster (Sheffield United)
Ollie Arblaster isn’t dissimilar to the Wharton and Scott that came before him. The momentum he carries into this season is similar to the momentum the aforementioned built up before ther
The 20-year-old split last season between a loan in League One at Port Vale and a role with Sheffield United in the Premier League. Indeed, he ended the season as a regular for his boyhood club, starting the last eleven games and even captaining the team against Manchester United at Old Trafford.
Arblaster is the type of player that can “boss” midfields. He can break up play with assertive tackles, build possession with passes in earlier phases, and drive the game forward with line-breaking, flank-switching distribution as well as some slinky touches or dribbles that extend into foreceful carries. He has a well-rounded skillset that can shine through in an impressive Sheffield United side that will feature Gustavo Hamer, Callum O’Hare and Vini Souza.
Ultimately, I don’t think he has the top-end potential of a Wharton, but he can have the same sort of breakout season. It’s only upward from there.
⚡ Bolter: Malcolm Ebiowei (Oxford United)
The proper SCOUTED heads will know plenty about this guy. We were Ebiowei-pilled a couple of seasons ago, when he was standing out in a Derby County team coached by Wayne Rooney that were fighting all the odds.
He was putting up prodigious dribbling numbers – averaging over nine per 90 minutes – in that stint of starts, and it preceded an off-season move to Crystal Palace in the Premier League. He played first-team minutes there, as we predicted, before going out on a couple of loans
He’ll spend the 2024/25 season at newly-promoted Oxford United, if all goes well. And if all goes really well, Ebiowei has all the attributes to be a potent winger for the U’s.
He’s the type of attacker that can make something out of very little — you could have him pinned in a tiny space, then a paff-paff later he’s managed to squeeze out and drive into the box. His mix’n’match bag of skills is as varied as it is exciting.
I won’t babble on too much because this is meant to be a bitesize newsletter, but I really hope it clicks for Ebiowei. If it does, Oxford have someone that can keep them up — and everyone will have a lot of fun in the process.
🍲 Slowburner: Rubin Colwill (Cardiff City)
I’m a Rubin Colwill Believer. I am Welsh so I am biased, and I am probably more of a Rubin Colwill Hoper, but you’ll understand when you watch him.
You can’t miss him when you watch him, either, because he’s absolutely massive. And not just tall massive, but built massive. His legs are huge, his shoulders rounded, and he moves a lot like a Yaya Touré or Ruben Loftus-Cheek with his hulking frame rolling through midfield with remarkable grace.
There’s no doubting Colwill’s talent, games come to life when he gets on the ball, but there is doubting just where and how it fits in. I think he should be that Loftus-Cheek-like second or third midfielder, the one that connects in the middle third and/or gets into promising spaces around the box.
The second half of last season was pretty good for Colwill under Erol Bulut, and I hope he can carry some of that momentum into the new campaign.
🆕 Newbie: Reuell Walters (Luton Town)
This is one of my favourite transfers of the summer for a number of reasons.
Reuell Walters has been a good prospect at Arsenal ever since he arrived there in a somewhat unusual way, but didn’t have the first-team appearances to reflect that. He had plenty of opportunities – youth team captain, then he trained with the senior group regularly and was often on the bench – but they never materialised into a senior debut.
Now he’s taken ownership of his career with a short northbound drive up the M1 to Luton. There, his skillset fits like a glove: Walters is a prospect that has all the traits you look for in a back-three defender. He is mobile and athletic, adaptable and versatile, composed and confident. It’s easy to see how he can play a lot of minutes for a promotion candidate in a number of roles.
And Rob Edwards will take great care of him, you can be assured of that. Walters’ impressive character is certainly something that would’ve endeared Luton to him in the first place. I can’t think of a more suitable EFL fit for him.
Three Interesting Transfer Things
A hat-trick of intriguing happenings, organised into a trio of quickfire sections.
→ Profiles and Potential
More and more, I think we’re seeing clubs lean on the ideas of players over the actuality of players in search of value. Clubs are placing increased emphasis on certain traits and perceived potential over
William Osula to Newcastle United is a prime example of it. He’s done little in senior football, bar some FA Cup goals, and the data doesn’t offer much incentive to spend £15 million on him, but watch the actual football and you’ll see a tall, rangy and athletic striker that is fast, direct, a bit dribbly, and can strike a ball. Coaches like that, and the decision-makers love it.
It’s recruitment driven by sentiments of ‘what if we can change him’ and ‘what if it clicks with us’. You’ll find it everywhere this transfer window.
→ Peterborough are at it again…
No, they’re not raiding the National League again. This time, they’re picking up good prospects on loan from clubs higher up the leagues, which is another tenet of their high-performing recruitment model.
Sam Curtis, a highly-rated Irish right-back from Sheffield United, and Mahmadou Susoho, a deep-lying midfielder educated at Manchester City, are the latest additions to a squad that has had to be rebuilt again.
Peterborough’s record with loanees is a little patchy in all honesty — they draft in good prospects, but few go on to make telling impacts — so it will be interesting to see how these two settle in. I think Curtis is the one that can make such an impact, not least because he’s already played a big chunk of senior minutes in the League of Ireland for St. Patrick’s Athletic.
→ Equi Fernández to Saudi Arabia
This is a disappointing one. I wanted to see him in a primetime European league, but instead he plumps for the financial security of Saudi — and we shouldn’t begrudge him that.
Equi is one to keep an eye on over the next year or two as he may be one of few that could actually make a good European move off the back of it.
In case you missed it…
This is where we link to all the stuff that you may have missed on SCOUTED Notebook over the past week or so. Tuck in!
The culmination of our unparalleled coverage. Get ahead of the curve on the future of European football with this massive write-up on the standout performers of the recent men’s tournament in Northern Ireland.
Arsenal and the elite academy arms race, by Stephen Ganavas
Chido Obi’s move to Manchester United has lead to Arsenal receiving quite a bit of flak about their use of academy youngsters — but is it deserved? Stevie looked at the permutations and consequences of this particular transfer.
The Shortlist: Adam Aznou, by SCOUTED
Bayern München are absolutely stacked with top talent, but you may not have heard of one of their best — Adam Aznou. Stevie tells us why the Moroccan left-back should be on your shortlists going into the new season.
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