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Fulham announced just a few hours ago that they have acquired and signed 19-year old Tiago Casasola for a rumored fee of £800,000 from the Argentine club Boca Juniors. Casasola has been advertised flatly as a defender and someone that has been featured internationally for the Argentinian U-20's.
Obvious Boca has a strong reputation in the southern Latin hemisphere and with the resume that comes with Casasola its enough to at least extrapolate that there is a bit of a reputation and promise that is associated with him. Other than that little bit that is based off an associated assumption of the club and country that he's represented in the past we don't know much.
How much do we expect him to play? Is he an immediate part of the plan? I know that Felix Magath has shown a willingness and, really, an out and out propensity to play the youth but it's a question that kind of hangs above and leaves a thought bubble above us all. If twitter rumors are to be believed, and frequently their not, the club was supposedly moving on from their attempts to acquire Costa Rican international Giancarlo Gonzalez. This move might very well be the response to that.
I would have expected Gonzalez to be more than depth, as he has shown during his limited time in MLS to be among the top tier at his plied trade. Yet he was flexible enough to be featured in the full back or centerhalf role which speaks, again, to what Magath might be looking to find.
What we do know about Tiago Casasola is basically that he's not Giancarlo Gonzalez. Also, he's younger than Gonzalez too. They are not the same person. This surprisingly enough makes figuring out Casasola all the more difficult. There isn't a blue print for him that tells us how he's played and we're left on other peoples eyes and shared diluted stories.
An interesting side note is of course what this could mean for both Shaun Hutchinson and Dan Burn. Hutch, who spent a lot of time at centreback in the pre-season, was thought to be an immediate part of Felix Magath plans this season but has not been featured in the last two matches. Burn hasn't even seen the 18 which is odd being how often he was selected last year when the club was in the Premier League.