Last night’s victory against Boston United in the Lincolnshire Senior Cup has caught the attention of many eagled eye fans.
In the 4-0 victory at the Jakemans Community Stadium, we fielded a mixed team, of youth players, players we currently have out on loan such as Hayden Cann and Oisin Gallagher, and a selection of trialists. It was reported on this site last night that Gbemi Arubi had played, and then this morning that another Irish youngster by the name of Divine Izekor had also started the match. That was it. Detective work done, right?
Not quite. In fact it seems there were a couple more trialists who started the game, a former Premier League youngster to be exact: Kallum Cesay. The 21-year old full back was let go from the Tottenham Hotspur academy at the end of his contract in the summer, however, he has been on the radar of other clubs in Europe, most notably Bundesliga club Werder Bremen, who had the youngster on trial in September this year, according to Bild.
The versatile Cesay, labelled as such for his ability to play in either a full back role or in a defensive midfield position, spent time in the West Ham United youth setup before joining Spurs. Although it seems like it did not work out for the right-footed defender in his trial in Germany, he has clearly shown promise up to now in his career.
Although he is yet to make a senior appearance at club level, he has represented his country, Sierra Leone, on four separate occasions. His most recent cap, which came in March of 2022, saw him score two goals to secure his nations 2-1 victory away against the Republic of Congo.
We have history of signing young full backs that have been in the Tottenham academy, time will tell whether we can add Cesay to this list, but the fact that we are able to bring players of this calibre in for trials at Lincoln is only a positive.
Kallum was not the only new trialist that was named in last night’s squad. As well as all the others mentioned, there was also a fourth. 18-year old Senan Mullen was also in the starting XI, taking the number four shirt. The Irish midfielder has come through the academy at Dundalk FC, making four appearances for them towards the end of the most recent season totalling 143 minutes.
The Irish market is one we are obviously always scouting, and Mullen being the third player from that pool of talent to be on trial with us in this game alone proves that. No matter what you think about that as a viable market, we’ve clearly been able to utilise it to some success so far, Jack Moylan will be the next player for us to judge this transfer strategy on, and although Mullen would be a prospect we would need to develop, if he were to sign, he may well be the next.