Gassan Ahadme - Aug 2025 gone on a season long loan to Stevenage

stoneroses19 said:

I think it's unfair to beat down Ahadme due to the transfer fee, especially as I don't believe anyone actually knows the true figure we have currently paid for him.

It does feel like some are judging him as if we paid £1m. I’d be very surprised if we paid they much up front but it makes sense that it could get to around that number based on clauses.

Scoham said:

stoneroses19 said:

I think it's unfair to beat down Ahadme due to the transfer fee, especially as I don't believe anyone actually knows the true figure we have currently paid for him.

It does feel like some are judging him as if we paid £1m. I’d be very surprised if we paid they much up front but it makes sense that it could get to around that number based on clauses.

Still seems like a lot of money either way, even if some is made up of clauses. 

se9addick said:

Chunes said:

The issue for me is that he's a £1 million target man, but hit the ball up to him, and it doesn't stick.

I don't think it requires much more analysis than that. 

He was against Leyton Orient CBs today. Not sure what hope he'll have against Santos next week.

Compare to when Chuks came on. Suddenly those long balls were sticking. 

If we'd got him on a free i'd say decent business, guy works hard and while he might not have a striker's instinct, he gets in defenders faces. But we've paid top dollar for this league and he just doesn't seem worth it. 

Surely we didn’t pay £1M for him?

Was LargeAddick said:

I bet we have paid nowhere near 1m.

Was reported in a few places, so assume it was leaked somewhere and has some substance to it, but I strongly suspect it's not £1m upfront, and a good portion of it is 'if he scores 20, if we go up' etc.

Personally think he cost less upfront than we paid for May and we put some of that towards Godden - can see the timelines amd "logic" on the part of Methven/Scott etc of basically May's fee paying for Ahadme and a cheap May replacement.

stoneroses19 said:

I think it's unfair to beat down Ahadme due to the transfer fee, especially as I don't believe anyone actually knows the true figure we have currently paid   

The whole deal worth 1.2 mill 

ForeverAddickted said:

stoneroses19 said:

I think it's unfair to beat down Ahadme due to the transfer fee, especially as I don't believe anyone actually knows the true figure we have currently paid for him.

I mean its not like Adahme was involved in ensuring it was 1m (or whatever) either

Not sure about that mate. Remember, it's all Fraser's fault for his current wage 😉 

A reminder on Alfie's start last season: 

I don't think his price tag will do him many favours, as he will have a lot of expectation on his shoulders. 

I had heard mixed reviews about him before he signed, so I'm still reserving judgement for a while.

So far, he seems weaker than I expected, I thought he would be a proper bully. There's no doubt he puts a shift in, but he doesn't look anywhere near as strong as Chuks for example. Hoping that's just rust though and that side of his game will come back.

Lastly, service. There's no denying how poor some of our crossing was yesterday and final balls in general, he would definitely benefit more with a proper marksman feeding him. Our coaches need to do some serious work on dead ball deliveries and our crosses, some of the worst I've seen so far. 

Good luck to him though, he seems a good character.

Callumcafc said:

Instead of asking if he’s a £1m player, the question needs to be “is he worth £1m to a Nathan Jones team?” and I think the answer to that question is much more likely to be yes.

He works his nuts off in training, he doesn’t shirk any battles on the pitch. He’ll look like a non-league player in the wrong team and system. But for a Nathan Jones team that wants to get the ball forward as early and as often as possible, he fits in really nicely and will be a key part of the squad.

To be worth 1m in a Nathan Jones team, he'll have to be excellent at winning the ball when it's played up early. 

Should remember he’s only 23, he’s young enough to improve and I think he will.

thenewbie said:

Chunes said:

Callumcafc said:

Instead of asking if he’s a £1m player, the question needs to be “is he worth £1m to a Nathan Jones team?” and I think the answer to that question is much more likely to be yes.

He works his nuts off in training, he doesn’t shirk any battles on the pitch. He’ll look like a non-league player in the wrong team and system. But for a Nathan Jones team that wants to get the ball forward as early and as often as possible, he fits in really nicely and will be a key part of the squad.

To be worth 1m in a Nathan Jones team, he'll have to be excellent at winning the ball when it's played up early. 

I don't think he's doing too badly at that bit, what he doesn't do very well is keep the ball and hold play up. He likes to move it on quickly and pass around the corner or lay it off... unfortunately TC is not on that wavelength yet. FWIW I think both are individually good, just not clicking as a pair.

I wouldn't say he's doing too badly either, but he's not been excellent at it. 

Callumcafc said:

Chunes said:

Callumcafc said:

Instead of asking if he’s a £1m player, the question needs to be “is he worth £1m to a Nathan Jones team?” and I think the answer to that question is much more likely to be yes.

He works his nuts off in training, he doesn’t shirk any battles on the pitch. He’ll look like a non-league player in the wrong team and system. But for a Nathan Jones team that wants to get the ball forward as early and as often as possible, he fits in really nicely and will be a key part of the squad.

To be worth 1m in a Nathan Jones team, he'll have to be excellent at winning the ball when it's played up early. 

Third most aerial duels contested and third most aerials duels won among strikers in League One this weekend (1st: Clarke-Harris, 2nd: Ollie Palmer).

Does winning a duel mean he’s headed it and we’ve retained possession though? That was the difference between him and Aneke yesterday. Ahadme made first contact plenty of times but he didn’t find a teammate on quite a few of them even with Berry in particular making some good off the ball runs around him that Aneke might have found. When Aneke was on it felt like we retained the ball off our long balls to the big man more often 

fenaddick said:

NabySarr said:

Callumcafc said:

Chunes said:

Callumcafc said:

Instead of asking if he’s a £1m player, the question needs to be “is he worth £1m to a Nathan Jones team?” and I think the answer to that question is much more likely to be yes.

He works his nuts off in training, he doesn’t shirk any battles on the pitch. He’ll look like a non-league player in the wrong team and system. But for a Nathan Jones team that wants to get the ball forward as early and as often as possible, he fits in really nicely and will be a key part of the squad.

To be worth 1m in a Nathan Jones team, he'll have to be excellent at winning the ball when it's played up early. 

Third most aerial duels contested and third most aerials duels won among strikers in League One this weekend (1st: Clarke-Harris, 2nd: Ollie Palmer).

Does winning a duel mean he’s headed it and we’ve retained possession though? That was the difference between him and Aneke yesterday. Ahadme made first contact plenty of times but he didn’t find a teammate on quite a few of them even with Berry in particular making some good off the ball runs around him that Aneke might have found. When Aneke was on it felt like we retained the ball off our long balls to the big man more often 

I do think comparing him to Aneke is unfair though, Aneke coming on as a sub is better at holding the ball up than pretty much anyone at this level. Can’t really expect Ahadme to be that good

I actually think the judgement on whether he’s worth the fee is if he can stay fit, as not having to start Leaburn (regularly) or Aneke (at all) will be huge 

Aneke was also playing up front with Godden who knows instinctively where to position himself which TC doesn’t (yet). 

I don’t recall many Aneke - Godden knockdowns, other than maybe the one they combined on before Aneke’s huge touch. 

Aneke is coming on against tiring defenders with 15 to go, no comparison to what Ahadme is doing alone 

fenaddick said:

NabySarr said:

fenaddick said:

NabySarr said:

Callumcafc said:

Chunes said:

Callumcafc said:

Instead of asking if he’s a £1m player, the question needs to be “is he worth £1m to a Nathan Jones team?” and I think the answer to that question is much more likely to be yes.

He works his nuts off in training, he doesn’t shirk any battles on the pitch. He’ll look like a non-league player in the wrong team and system. But for a Nathan Jones team that wants to get the ball forward as early and as often as possible, he fits in really nicely and will be a key part of the squad.

To be worth 1m in a Nathan Jones team, he'll have to be excellent at winning the ball when it's played up early. 

Third most aerial duels contested and third most aerials duels won among strikers in League One this weekend (1st: Clarke-Harris, 2nd: Ollie Palmer).

Does winning a duel mean he’s headed it and we’ve retained possession though? That was the difference between him and Aneke yesterday. Ahadme made first contact plenty of times but he didn’t find a teammate on quite a few of them even with Berry in particular making some good off the ball runs around him that Aneke might have found. When Aneke was on it felt like we retained the ball off our long balls to the big man more often 

I do think comparing him to Aneke is unfair though, Aneke coming on as a sub is better at holding the ball up than pretty much anyone at this level. Can’t really expect Ahadme to be that good

I actually think the judgement on whether he’s worth the fee is if he can stay fit, as not having to start Leaburn (regularly) or Aneke (at all) will be huge 

Aneke was also playing up front with Godden who knows instinctively where to position himself which TC doesn’t (yet). 

I don’t recall many Aneke - Godden knockdowns, other than maybe the one they combined on before Aneke’s huge touch. 

Berry and Docherty know where to be but Ahadme couldn’t find them well enough. I think it’s simply a strength thing, Aneke holds off the defender more easily so they don’t mess with his header as much. But as I said comparing him to Aneke is not fair, not many are nearly as strong 

They were mainly flick on’s, Godden was running past Aneke which TC just doesn’t do

Yes you are right, I do remember now. Still think Ahadme could have done better with finding the midfield runners which is how we ended up scoring the winner.