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Samson Tovide to Luton
Posted by oldbob on 2/8/2025, 14:03:19
From Colchester according to Pete O’Rourke- left out of squad today
There are very few young strikers in League Two playing regular minutes. Here’s a list of strikers aged 25 or younger, ranked by minutes played in that position.
Outside of Stoke loanee Nathan Lowe, the division’s standout young striker, it is Colchester’s Samson Tovide who will be attracting the most scouting attention.
Tovide has been on the radar for a while. Colchester are, along with Crewe Alex, notable for their inclination to give academy players opportunities in the first team from a young age, and Tovide made his first league start aged 17 in October 2021. That particular landmark turned sour when he was sent off after 25 minutes for a handball on the line.
Tovide’s trajectory in 22/23 and 23/24 was hampered by some poorly timed injuries, but having watched team-mate and fellow striker Bradley Ihionvien (12 days Tovide’s senior) get a move up the pyramid with Peterborough in the summer, Tovide has kicked on this season, starting 15 of ColU’s 19 league games and looking stronger, more confident and more assertive. Tovide’s 5 goals and 5 assists translate to 0.70 non-penalty goals + assists per 90, the 8th-best record in the whole division.
A partnership with Lyle Taylor has been very fruitful, with Tovide putting the ball on a plate for four Taylor goals, the most potent combination in League Two this season.
Like Ali Al-Hamadi last season with Omar Bugiel, Tovide seems more effective in a front two at this moment and has benefited massively from the presence, movement and nous of Lyle Taylor. Another ‘green flag’ in the data is that Tovide has drawn the most fouls in League Two – not the sexiest statistic, but one that will appeal to clubs higher in the pyramid. Tovide is medium-sized rather than tall, and isn’t aerially dominant, but he has continued to develop some targetman qualities and can disrupt League Two centre-backs with physicality and mobility.
Pleasingly for fans of nominative determinism, his strength is impressive for a striker of his age, and thankfully it’s not intrinsically linked to the length of his hair... as far as we know. That, mixed with decent feet and powerful running, creates a very slippery striker; a nightmare for defenders in all kinds of situations, especially counter-attacks.
The best demonstration of these qualities comes in consecutive highlights from a game against Bradford last month, which you can see here.
Tovide has the pace to turn long channel balls into legitimate attacks. He can receive it back to goal and wriggle away from pressure. He can hold off defenders. In basic terms, you can kick the ball in the general direction of Samson Tovide and he can make something of it. That is one of the most desirable traits for a striker in the EFL, and often lacking in U23 strikers. Tovide is far from the finished article. In a recent episode of Under The Lights, George was asked how far he thinks Tovide can go, and said:
In terms of raw ability and the kind of traits that would translate well, really high. My only worry is he does feel like a bit of a highlights player, where when he's good, he's really good. He plays a lot of minutes and plays a lot of minutes where... he's not quite as effective. For a striker, his shot locations aren't great. I don't think he's necessarily the most natural goalscorer. But there are clear traits that he has. He's very, very direct. He's pretty creative. He's someone who can run the channels very effectively. He's very decent physically, too. There are a lot of raw materials there that should make him a very good player. I just think the best place for his development right now is playing regular minutes in League Two. So, I think he probably needs to show more before he gets that big move.”
Matt added:
He's one of those players where I feel as though, at some point in the next 18 months or two years, he's going to have a real spurt where he just scores 10 goals in a month or something – he has an absolutely ridiculous run and then maybe ends up getting a move higher up.”
I agree with almost every word. Tovide isn’t the most prolific goalscorer at this stage, but his five goals this season have all been taken well. If he’s also adding value with ball-carrying, releasing pressure and creating chances, then that, to me, is an attractive profile for a 20-year-old striker. As a League One club, I wouldn’t sign him in January if I needed guaranteed goals right away, and there’s a strong argument that the best thing for Tovide’s development would be to stay another 12-18 months and move up the levels as a more mature player. But market forces play a part. Demand for strikers is always high, and the supply within the pyramid is not. There’s still a dearth of young, non-loanee strikers playing regular senior minutes. For League One clubs outside of the big hitters – a Lincoln City, for example – there are two options: a) You wait for Tovide to ‘show more’ and have his spurt of goals, and in doing so, you rule yourself out of being able to sign him then, because you won’t be near the top of the food chain for a striker who is more proven (see: Ipswich buying Ali Al-Hamadi for over a million quid). b) You act early, trust your ability to coach and develop, show patience and give opportunities, and if all goes well, you get massive upside from both the levelling up of a young striker and a subsequent lucrative sale into the Championship or another bigger league. A Tovide move to League One smacks of Barnsley, but there are other clubs such as Huddersfield, Wigan and Leyton Orient (where Tovide was once an academy player) who are on the hunt for strikers in January. Tovide or not Tovide, that is the question…
Colchester, then struggling against relegation near the bottom of EFL League Two, appointed Matt Bloomfield as Head Coach in September 2022 that Tovide got his next start, appearing in a 1–0 defeat at Crewe Alexandra,[8] putting in a performance Bloomfield described as "Absolutely brilliant".[9]
Trying to work it my brain went to Stitz first for some strange reason Mr J.C. Lomax having been called upon to give his opinion upon the proposed formation of a Town Club, said he was most emphatically in favour of a proposed Luton Town Football Club - 11th April 1885
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What you read on here is 100% conjecture, fiction, lies, bullshit and complete bollocks. If you want to be taken seriously, you are in the wrong place.
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on 2/8/2025, 14:03:19
