Bolton added another signing yesterday with the loan acquisition of Xavier Amaechi from German sleeping giants Hamburg.
The Englishman, who started at Arsenal before moving to Germany, returns home on a six month loan deal. He has spent the last two seasons abroad after signing for £2.5 million, but never really broke into the first team as they failed to get out of the second division over there. He spent the second half of last season on loan at fellow 2. Bundesliga side Karlsruhe, but even there, didn’t make a huge amount of appearances, finding it hard to get in a team doing well, and also catching COVID. It always looked unlikely he would start this season at Hamburg, with either a move back to England, or to a second or third division club in Germany, but we have won the race to sign him.
What is he like then? “We are delighted Xavier has joined us on loan from Hamburg. He is a hugely talented young player with bags of pace and quality, and we are extremely excited to have him at the club,” said Ian Evatt.
Trying to read a German forum (not particularly well translated) – two things stand out. One seems to be a lack of physicality, the other thing is that despite him being regarded as a winger, he did play last pre-season in a number ten role and looked quite good there, they seemed to be largely happy with him technically, so there’s an alternative position for him too.
But he’s young and back in England, spending this period in history abroad as a young lad can’t have been easy, he should provide good competition for the likes of Dennis Politic and Lloyd Isgrove and a drop into third tier football (the German second division after all, is as good a second level as anywhere) might help him kickstart his career and help him reach his undoubted potential.
Wanderers have been linked with two other names. Kabongo Tshimanga, who scored 14 National League goals for Boreham Wood last season, was linked but the Bolton News are saying we’ve not made a bid. Whether that’s because the original story is rubbish or it’s a case of yet, I don’t know.
Another link is quite a big name in Phil Jagielka, who has been invited to train with the club, but it does seem to be favour rather than any realistic chance of signing him. While if he was kept fit, he would be a coup, there’s also some questionable logic in having a 39-year old in a position where we’re looking well-stocked.