Carlisle United may have bittersweet protection from AFC Bournemouth January heartbreak

Carlisle United may have bittersweet protection from AFC Bournemouth January heartbreak

Carlisle United fans have been pleading for the club to sign some better loanees for years. They’ve finally got some this season.

A team’s season can be greatly impacted by these short-term additions. For many teams at this level, it may be a huge lift to have that burst of ability brought to a League Two team, even if they have less experience than other acquisitions.

The Cumbrians have finally found what they have been searching for in the loan market for the previous few years in Dominic Sadi, 21, and Daniel Adu-Adjei, 19.

The American owner of AFC Bournemouth, Bill Foley, and Carlisle’s chairman, Tom Piatak, had a lot in common, which helped to expedite the two trades. There was some common ground because both individuals attended the US Military Academy at West Point and are currently playing English football.

Fortunately, this connection existed, as United fans now have the opportunity to see the growth of these two pals right before their eyes. On the pitch, you can see the bond and mutual understanding between the two of them.

If they stay with the team for the entire length of their scheduled contracts, they appear more than capable of helping the Blues move up from the bottom of the League Two table and into a much more comfortable position.

That’s still a bit of a mystery. It’s likely that both contracts will have a January recall clause that would allow Bournemouth to transfer either player elsewhere if they so want or bring them back down south.

There is one factor which, in a bittersweet way, may help Carlisle’s chances of holding onto Adu-Adjei and Sadi.

Carlisle United’s bittersweet Daniel Adu-Adjei & Dominic Sadi January hopes

If you were a higher-ranked team than Carlisle and were looking to poach some young talent but hadn’t watched either player this season, and just purely looked at the black and white of their statistics, they wouldn’t necessarily leap out to you as promising players.

Between them they have registered five direct goal contributions in a combined 22 appearances – not exactly world-beating stuff.

Carlisle would, of course, like that output to be improved. However, because the numbers don’t really jump off the page at you, there’s a better chance that sides from higher divisions won’t look to these two as potential options to poach away from the Blues in the January window.

More goals and assists will come the Bournemouth loanees’ way

It’s to be expected that neither Adu-Adjei nor Sadi, at their tender age, are the finished products. They are going to produce some questionable and/or frustrating moments at times, but that’s why they are out on loan: to learn and develop.

Both loanees contributed significantly to the creation of and being the target of numerous opportunities in Carlisle’s most recent game, a 0-0 draw with Doncaster Rovers. Sadly, neither could find the final touches to give the Blues the lead. Putting that aside, those opportunities were preceded by a great number of uplifting moments.

Adu-Ajei is physically strong enough to take on League Two defenders, and he can move quickly enough to get underneath them. Sadi can dance past players thanks to his technical skill, and his passing vision and inventiveness are amazing.

Both of them will inevitably become more involved in the aim as a result of these attributes.

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