Player Profiles

Ok – glad to get that pun out of the way, now we can start talking about our latest signing without too many bad jokes sprinkled in gratuitously. If you are still unsure about how his name is pronounced, “thy” is pronounced like “tea” – or if your mum has an interest in Taiwanese dramas, the “ti” sound in “WA MENG TI, WA MENG TI”. Ok now we can finally get it out of the way. Let’s dive into what an amazing signing this is. Goalscoring Record – The Inevitable Richi Comparison When bringing in a striker, usually the first thing that people check is how many goals the striker is going to bring. Lennart Thy comes in with huge expectations. After all, he is replacing Richairo Zivkovic, who struck 15 goals in 19 games for us last season. Richi was also a big-game player, scoring in games against Tampines, Albirex, Jeonbuk, Kitchee, and of course, in the Singapore Cup final. Many questioned Richi’s departure when it was announced, but I guess we can’t say that we didn’t see it coming. In my preview article last year, I mentioned that the short-term nature of the deal (1 year) might see Richi use us as a stepping stone to bigger clubs, and it seems that might have been what happened. So yes, that happened. It is interesting to note though, that Richi arrived on our shores off the back of a season in the Eredivisie, which allows us to draw an apples-to-apples comparison with Lennart. Richi had one season with Emmen where he was a regular starter, and contributed 6 goals in all competitions. Lennart comes to us also as a regular starter with his PEC Zwolle side, but with a very impressive 13 goals from 32 games in all competitions. It’s not an exact science of course, but you’d think someone who can plunder 13 goals for a mid-table side in a much more challenging league than the SPL should be able to get goals galore in Singapore. Not that the goal record matters that much imo – but I wrote enough about this in last year’s Richi article, so make sure to check that out for a detailed analysis for why it’s really OK if your incoming striker doesn’t have a great goalscoring record in a tougher league. We’re definitely gonna miss Richi’s goals, and his great off-the-pitch personality, but the evidence suggests that Thy is more than capable of filling his shoes. Thy No Spring Chicken – But Will He Rule The Roost? Writing about chicken past midnight is always a bad idea – especially when you have Netflix’s Korean Fried Chicken Rhapsody playing in the background. (I usually write articles while watching something else, like football, or Netflix or sometimes random music videos, which may explain my scattergun approach to writing). Hmm I am hungry. I’ve seen some people have reservations about Lennart’s age. Some idiot online even said he was gonna be the next Jermaine Pennant. I don’t wish to be harsh but I think if you’re too lazy to do your own research on a player, then maybe you should keep your opinion to yourself. Which is a nice way of saying – if you volunteer your organs to be donated when you pass on, please indicate to the hospital that you don’t wish to donate your brain. Please. It’s one thing to wonder if Lennart will do well, it’s another to write him off even before he’s kicked a ball. (I swear donation of organs is somewhat related to Lennart Thy – this to come later). I would like to assure people reading this that I don’t think his age will be a huge concern. When I first heard rumours of his signing about 2 months ago, I could barely contain my excitement and I was watching all sorts of highlights on Youtube. There weren’t many compilations so I had to search up PEC Zwolle’s individual game highlights to see what kind of player we were getting. And the conclusion? He really really doesn’t play like a man his age. He presses people like a man possessed, and he never gives up on a lost cause – just look at Exhibit A here. The way he chases what looks to be a lost cause, nips in to steal the ball, and then drives with purpose into the box is impressive enough. But then he only goes and finishes with his weaker left foot. Just amazing. Of his 13 goals last season, 8 of them were scored with his left foot. This two-footedness will make him that much more difficult to predict when he’s on the ball, and I think SPL defenders are in for a tough time. I also leave you with these comments from Ranko, which back up what I have seen from highlights. Heart of Gold Of course, there’s no telling whether this is just something nice that Badri is saying about our newest signing – dressing room dynamics aren’t always easy for external observers. However, Lennart Thy has a truly unique story which prompted me to title this section “Heart of Gold”. Without knowing much about the procedures involved, he signed up to become a stem cell donor, and eventually that ended up saving the life of someone in America many miles away. It was an entirely selfless act because he had to take some time out of his season to do this literally draining activity. He was eventually awarded the FIFA Fair Play Award, and also prompted 20,000 people signing up to be stem cell donors. Read more about it here. Conclusion I think the only reservations about Lennart Thy have to do with his age. Everything else looks perfect. If you look at Bart Ramselaar, he’s come in the supposed prime of his career, but he’s had a bad injury that perhaps dissuaded some European clubs from going in for him. How about Lennart? His last major injury

When I first heard rumours that we had signed Bailey Wright, I went “wow” out loud, because you never really think that someone playing at Sunderland and who I had “managed” before in a computer game (Football Manager) would be coming to the sunny shores of Singapore to play for our Lion City Sailors. You’d think I’d be used to it by now considering we have picked up players of the calibre of Diego Lopes and Maxime Lestienne – but I still am not used to it. Now, when I then heard rumours that we had signed Richairo Zivkovic, I swear my heart may have skipped a beat. The Richairo Zivkovic? This is someone I used in Football Manager and who delivered me goals after goals, trophies after trophies. I promise I will start with the actual analysis soon, but for now please kindly allow me to relive my (slightly) younger days. Let’s take a trip down Football Manager 2015 Lane. This is Richairo when he was 17 at Ajax and tipped to be the next big thing. And this is Richairo after 9 years, as of 11 July 2023 in the game. You can see he pretty much becomes a superstar – and is at Manchester United. He also has 33 goals in 60 caps for the Netherlands national team. I think it’s safe to say that Football Manager got this one badly wrong. Pedigree Immediately, when there is a new foreign signing, the first thing we look out for is always which league he is signed from, and if he was a regular starter. In this aspect, it’s a tick, and a tick, for Richairo. In the Eredivisie, he played 32 out of 34 games, starting in 29 of those 32 games. The fact that we’re signing anyone from an Eredivisie team should already impress, but to get someone who is a regular starter? Even more insane. He only scored 5 goals in the regular season, which is not a great return for a forward by any means. But I’ll address this later. For now, let’s talk about the other clubs he’s turned out. He has played in the English Premier League with Sheffield United (handful of games), in the Belgian First Division for KV Oostende, in the Eerste Divisie (Dutch 2nd Division) with Jong Ajax (Ajax youth team), in the Chinese leagues (with Changchun Yatai), and had an injury-ridden spell with Red Star Belgrade in the Serbian Super League. In the Eredivisie, he has made more than 100 appearances with various clubs. I don’t think there’s any doubt that Richairo has sufficient pedigree to be a very good player in the SPL. Goalscoring Record Some people have pointed out that his goalscoring record is nothing that remarkable, and assists-wise, he has never had a season where he registered more than 3 assists. He has only hit double digits for goals thrice in his career. Once way back when he was the next big thing 10 years ago with Groningen, once with Jong Ajax in the 2nd division of Dutch football, and once with Changchun Yatai in the 2nd division of Chinese football. Two things to say about that. First, let’s be real. If we are getting someone who’s 26 years old and is a regular starter in the Eredivisie, if his goalscoring record was into double digits every season, he would not be playing in the Singapore Premier League. That has to be said. Second – we’ve seen example after example of players who have come here without remarkable goalscoring records in stronger leagues, but have become real goalscoring threats here due to the gulf in quality between the leagues. Let’s take for example, Ken Ilso, one of my favourites from our Home United days. Ken Ilso scored 2 goals in 27 Bundesliga appearances for Fortuna Dusseldorf. When he came to Singapore and played for Home United, he was often the classiest player on the pitch, and he would eventually rack up 36 goals and 12 assists in 54 appearances. For more recent examples, how about our beloved Maxime who is currently tearing it up? I take a look at his goalscoring stats prior to coming to the SPL, and compare it with AFTER he joined the SPL. I also did the same for a few other notable names, and you can then take a look and see for yourself how past goalscoring records in tougher leagues don’t really have any bearing on how the striker performs in the SPL. There’s all sorts of reasons for why these players’ stats improved dramatically and it may not just be the quality of the league (though I suspect it’s a huge part of it). In SPL teams, sometimes they are given a much more focal role, and that leads to a much higher goals per game ratio. Anyway whatever it is, let’s let Richairo do his thing, and then we will judge. Hopefully no 007 memes! As an aside, check out this goal he scored last month – (watch from 1:40 if the link doesn’t automatically bring you there) Attitude Some fans have questioned his attitude and perhaps believe that his career trajectory suggests that him failing to live up to his promise is because of his bad attitude. I think there is very little evidence in recent years of this – although he did have a few incidents while at Ajax as a youngster where he showed a bit too much fire on the pitch and also came late for training on multiple occasions. Hilariously enough, the latecoming incidents pissed off Frank de Boer so much that he punished Richairo by making him do parking attendant duties. But – we have all been young once. I believe that unless we see such bad attitude follow him into the Sailors set-up, we should be giving him the benefit of the doubt. It is a short-term deal (1 year contract), and I think at the age of 26, Richairo