You might have read some excitable quotes from a South African midfielder in the press who says he’s close to joining Fulham. Ever since Roy dismissed out of hand the prospect of him joining the club after our game at White Hart Lane last Christmas time, I’ve paid the rumours coming out of South Africa little attention.
Dikgacoi, who played for his country in the Confederations Cup, and his agent were probably trying to drum up some European interest. The man himself has said that he’s completed his trial (so I wonder why we haven’t seen him or ‘a trialist’ in any of the pre-season games), passed his medical and was due to sign his contract yesterday. The club have been particularly quiet and the news wires too – perhaps they’ve wised up to this guy, now.
It could have cause be a fantastic piece of man-management from Hodgson to get the guy chomping at the bit if he was indeed promised another chance this summer.
I’m convinced we did see him play for the last 20 minutes or so of the friendly at Peterborough. Whoever it was that came on as substitute wasn’t Courtney Harris, whatever the reports say – it looked nothing like him (this guy was older, darker and much heavier), plus according to the Southend FC website, Harris was playing for Fulham in the Toomey Cup tournament in Southend on the same afternoon. I’m pretty sure that the mystery player at Peterborough was Dikagoi and that Roy was giving him the once-over in action.
If so, Dikagoi looked pretty useful, if carrying a bit too much weight. Certainly he put some very useful through passes away and rarely wasted a ball. It’s hard to tell over such a short period and against lower league opposition, but it seemed he would make a decent squad player.
Thanks for that Ian. I wasn’t at Peterborough and had to rely on reports from my mates – neither of whom had seen Harris play before so they probably wouldn’t have recognised him. Sounds interesting – maybe this move is a goer then.