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Björn Engels joining Aston Villa has seemingly bothered Stade de Reims fans on Twitter.
Words by Guy Poxon | @GuyPoxon
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It’s often difficult to gauge how good a new player is when they’re coming from a foreign league. It makes the stats less easy to interpret and ultimately there’s an inherent risk with signing someone who’s not played at Premier League level before. Even players who’ve played at the highest level have struggled to adapt to the Premier League – think of Falcao, Di Maria, the list goes on as long as the list of successful players to jump over the channel.
But what about the people who watched him every week, what did Stade de Reims fans make of Engels’ move away from their club to join the Villa?
We translated their responses to the official tweet from the club…
“Carrément! Difficult to build a solid base by letting go of this kind of player! We really needed it! (him)”
“It is respecting the players and their words (wishes) that will attract the top players in the making. It would have been even better that they (Engels) stay at least 2 seasons.“
“Thanks and good season Engels! 💪 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 😉”
“We lose very big will have to replace it. (him)”
“Well-deserved… Big regrets… “
“We started to have a defense (defence) that was almost (in) all games, everything is rebuilding now…“
“Disappointed that he leaves so quickly! one more season would have been great! Good luck Bjorn!”
“Thank you @BjornEngels for this great season you did at @StadeDeReims Good continuation under your new colors. (colours)”
“Thanks Engels you have (had) a great season.”
“The Prez (president) is imitating AS Monaco????”
“It’s (I’m) pissed… you will miss us @BjornEngels …. but congratulations to prez (president) for having respected his word!
When some Aston Villa fans asked Reims supporters for their personal opinion on the player, they responded with:
“Verra good 💗💗💗 👏 👏 👏”
“Perfect defenser (defender), regular boy. Good on free-kick (Head).”
“He played well with us last season. We were one of the best defense (defence), partly thanks to him. But the gap between our Ligue 1 and your Premier League is important. So, it could be difficult for him at the beginning…”
All this says that Engels is highly regarded and to be honest that’s probably why he caught Dean Smith’s eye. Reims fans have lost a couple of their strongest players recently, which popped up once or twice in the comments. However the really telling thing is that no supporters had anything bad to say – at all. The step up to the Premier League will be huge, but if anyone can get the best out of a good young centre back like Engels, I’d have my money on Smith.
Okay, well maybe Pep, Klopp, Potch AND Smith!
