To date, AA Gent has brought in Davy Roef, Jordan Botaka, Alexandre De Bruyn (only the details have to be finalized), Dino Arslanagic and Nurio Fortuna. Strikingly, the first four are ‘football Belgians’, which is particularly important for the club.
A few years ago, AA Ghent invested heavily in plucking young talents, Nicolas Raskin received a solid wage, but it is still a matter of waiting for the flow of its own youth. In a big city like Ghent, it is remarkable that the club does not seem to succeed. That is why AA Gent had to invest in Belgians in recent years, who sometimes barely get to work.
De Bruyn, Roef, Botaka (trained at Club and RSCA) and Arslanagic have to pay attention, because many pastors also came to Ghent with ambitions. For the past five years, Ghent has brought in Jan Van den Bergh, Bruno Godeau, Dylan Mbayo, Jari De Busser, Stallone Limbombe, Timothy Derijck, Noë Dussenne, Anthony Swolfs, Rob Schoofs, Thomas Matton, Alexis Scholl, Lucas Schoofs and Yannick Thoelen .
They already left the club, only Godeau is still there and Van den Bergh too. The latter was loaned to OHL and will leave the club. None of these players really made it all the way in Ghent. Alessio Castro-Montes, Thomas Kaminski, Vadis Odjidja and Birger Verstraete are also Belgians who came to Ghent during that period, and their transfers were direct hits.
Due to the latest storm of transfers, AA Ghent does not immediately seem to have a place for its own youth. The club may well work well within the youth academy, but too little a framework is created to give them chances with the first team, something that Hein Vanhaezebrouck did occasionally during his period in Ghent.
It is striking that own talents such as Louis Verstraete (Antwerp), Thibault De Smet (STVV and on the way to Stade Reims), Benito Raman (Schalke 04), never really got that chance, but did make progress at other clubs. Nicolas Raskin seems to come back to Standard again. Players like Hannes Van der Bruggen (KV Kortrijk), Siebe Horemans (Excelsior), Jari Vandeputte (Vicenza, Serie B) could not make it as their own youth product in Ghent. In the Ghelamco Arena they recently renewed the contracts of a few young talents. It is hoped that they are the start of the ‘youth project’ of AA Gent.
news-block.css"/>
POLL: Is the flow of your own youth a problem at AA Gent?
–
– .
