Vincent Mannaert is currently working overtime in Westkapelle. While the imminent switch from Mats Rits to Anderlecht demands the lion’s share of the attention, someone is finally about to leave Club Brugge through a back door. A slightly less big surprise, because it was now clear to everyone that Kamal Sowah no longer had a future in Jan Breydel. Saying goodbye is easier said than done.
All summer long there has been plenty of speculation about the excess ballast at Blauw-Zwart. By repeatedly emphasizing that he wants to reduce the broad selection, Ronny Deila also took it a step further. While the Norwegian is still counting on Dedryck Boyata, Sowah is certainly on the list of players who are allowed. Although he is fully fit, the 23-year-old Ghanaian has never been part of the competition squad. The fact that, after a preparation in which he was regularly allowed to show up, he did not even play during the Brugse Metten against AZ was already a sign on the wall. Even in Europe, where Deila is not allowed to hold back 18 but 22 names, there appears to be no place for Sowah. Shion Homma, among others, is above him in the pecking order, and Philip Zinckernagel will soon be added.
MANNAERT ALL-IN
Just like most of his predecessors, Deila is not convinced of the left leg, acquired two years ago for a then record amount of nine million. At that time a wet dream for Vincent Mannaert, when he asked Leicester the summer before about Sowah’s conditions, in his own words “just didn’t laugh away”. However, the mercenary from OH Leuven, who immediately enforced promotion, only came to the second division. With eight goals and six assists, Sowah promptly turned out to be one of the revelations in our league, but at his parent club Brendan Rodgers no longer really saw it in him. Suddenly a definitive transfer was on the table, a unique opportunity that the still charmed Mannaert did not want to pass up.
Although the number of candidates was reportedly limited, the Bruges CEO went all-in. Partly out of panic: in the end of the mercato, Club had grabbed just next to the very expensive Mohamed Daramy, the top target to strengthen the flanks. Mannaert prides himself on always keeping several slopes warm at the same time, but the fact that he could suddenly catch an old acquaintance that until recently was considered unfeasible was suddenly an opportunity not to be missed. A donkey doesn’t bump into the same stone twice, but it’s all very reminiscent of how he came up with Roman Yaremchuk as an alternative to Rasmus Hojlund last year. Atalanta just caught the jackpot for the Dane at Manchester United, despite a less successful passage, Ajax also seems to be making a profit on Daramy.
VETO VAN HOEFKENS
Blauw-Zwart, on the other hand, licks its wounds. The bonuses in the deal were probably not fulfilled, but after two hits and five assists in 53 matches – far from the hoped-for return – it would be happy if it recovered a fraction of the investment. “After two months we were already scratching our heads”, Mannaert admitted a while ago how Club started to worry quite quickly. After a promising start, it quickly went downhill. Sowah turned out to be a complete miscast: on the right side, where Philippe Clement initially placed him, he did not feel comfortable. Various position changes did not bring any relief, after which Alfred Schreuder did not hesitate to send him on to AZ. Things didn’t go very well there either, so a silent exit last summer seemed almost inevitable.
“It was almost cut your losses,” said Mannaert, until Carl Hoefkens vetoed it. His statistics were still nothing to write home about, but for a moment it seemed as if Sowah would still partly meet the sky-high expectations. In Hoefkens’ 3-5-2, he formed a tandem in the front with Ferran Jutglà, who mainly made chunks in the Champions League. Sowah even scored in the victories against Porto and Atlético Madrid – his only two goals in Bruges employment are certainly memorable ones. Unfortunately, the party turned out to be short-lived. Even before the dismissal of Hoefkens, Sowah was slowly fading away, with Scott Parker he was not in the top drawer either. Once it was Rik De Mil’s turn, it turned out to be game over for the versatile attacker-cum-midfielder.
SOWAH TO STANDARD?
A line that Deila is now continuing. Of all the coaches who recently passed the review in Jan Breydel, only Hoefkens was able to make optimal use of Sowah’s qualities. It is therefore not illogical that he would like to lure him to Sclessin. Standard hopes to rent the one-off international, but whether it can meet the requirements of both Club and Sowah itself remains to be seen. A first stumbling block seems to be his solid salary, which the Rouches may not be able to take over in full. In that scenario, Sowah would not be allowed to participate in the mutual confrontations, because of the change of trainers and commotion around Zinckernagel, which has already been noted in our agenda anyway. Not that Blauw-Zwart shrinks from strengthening competitors, as appears from his transfer to Anderlecht.
A move to Standard is therefore negotiable, although Club prefers to write its wages completely out of the books. Two years ago money grew on trees in Westkapelle, but now that people have to pay a little more attention to their money, it is time to dump superfluous high earners – see Rits. Preferably, Mannaert even finds a permanent solution, although his price tag is not too bad unfortunately not an option in Liège. In accordance with its market value, Club is still aiming for at least one million out of three, a sum that Standard could not just cough up even for Zinckernagel. Despite his star role at the champions ball, the candidates are not really in line. Mannaert should have struck the iron in January, at least when it was still lukewarm. Insofar as there was any concrete interest at the time, it has since cooled down considerably.
LIMPING ON 2 THOUGHTS
Temporarily re-entrusting Sowah to Hoefkens, together with Marc Brys probably about the only one who can get him back to level, therefore doesn’t seem like a bad idea. Hopefully he will succeed in raising his value a bit, something he failed to do in Alkmaar. Although it is not possible to play in the spotlight again in Europe, Sowah will also enter its last year of contract next summer. All the more reason to just cash in as much as possible right now? Time is gradually running out – although Mannaert, like Éder Balanta and Faitout Maouassa, may be betting that someone will knock on the door in the wee hours. If, on the other hand, he accepts Standard’s offer, a compulsory or non-mandatory purchase option, which AZ did not stipulate at the time, is also a possible point of discussion.
Club recently saw how Cyle Larin and Sofyan Amrabat, among others, were immediately resold with exorbitant profits. In the case of Sowah, no jackpot is likely to slip through the fingers, but if Blauw-Zwart really believes that Hoefkens can get him running, it is better to wait until after the season to negotiate. After all, given the financial limits on the banks of the Meuse, who knows, higher bidders may present themselves. With its versatility, volume, depth, passing and intelligence without the ball, Sowah remains an interesting profile, assets that Hoefkens knows how to use like no other. Like Noah Ohio’s lightning rod, for example, the favorite recipe with Juglà, so to speak. In any case, Sowah fits perfectly with the vision Hoefkens has in mind at Standard.
CURSE OF YAREMCHUK
With a zero out of six, he missed his start in Sclessin. The fans are even more fervent than in Jan Breydel, where Hoefkens was quickly under pressure even with his accumulated credit. If things go wrong in Charleroi on Sunday, it can already get hot under his feet against Cercle. An immediately deployable force like Sowah is therefore more than welcome. What if Hoefkens does not get the train on track, and after Clement, Schreuder, Parker, De Mil and Deila, his successor also sees nothing in him? Lounging on the couch in Liège would completely plummet its value, a risk that Mannaert may not want to take. A difficult decision to make for the CEO, who has probably regretted his impulsive purchase several times. Has he finally learned his lesson after the expensive farce with Yaremchuk, just like David Okereke before, also affected by the curse of the record player?
AD
