Ouasim Bouy moves on loan to Panathinaikos. Gabriel Appelt to Pescara

By tdf, July 28, 2014

Bouy was doing very well indeed for Brescia until he damaged his ACL in a friendly in early 2013. It took him a long time to recover and last season we decided to keep him at the club to ensure he regained full fitness before sending him out on loan again too soon. He appeared ready by christmas of last year and we found him a place at Hamburg in the bundesliga. Unfortunately he was given very few chances to impress (3 appearances) and joined the club when they were deep in relegation trouble. A change of coach worsened his chances and he did not appear again as Hamburg fought poorly and managed to stay up in the top tier only through a play-off against a side from league two.

He is probably going to be announced officially today or soon after as loaned to Greek club Panathinaikos, and he may even be registered to play in their champions league qualifying fixture this wednesday against Standard Lierge. Still only 21, Ouasim has time on his side to prove the talent which made him a leading star at Ajax, ear-marked for the senior team, when we signed him in 2012. He has also represented the dutch U17 and U19 squads.

Gabriel Appelt has had better but still rather wretched luck. As with juve comrade Bouy he was doing well in the 13/14 season at Pro Vercelli, yet his development was stunted for a few months due to a fractured fibula. He did return to the starting line-up the same season and ended up with 25 appearances for relegated Pro Vercelli. It may be just co-incidence, but the team was performing noticeably better when he was a regular before his injury.

In recognition of his solid showing at Pro Vercelli, last season he moved on loan to ambitious Spezia (where Magnusson and Leali also played on loan). He won himself a starting berth and was in decent form until November, when yet again he suffered another fracture which kept him out until late April. he featured sparingly before the season ended with Spezia losing out on promotion via the play-offs, having made 18 appearances for the club.

A week ago he signed on loan with Pescara (where Vincenzo Fiorillo and probably Marcel Buchel will also play).

Both players have been tremendously unfortunate. Despite having played very little football since his long term ACL injury, Ouasim is clearly seen as retaining potential, else second ranked side of last season in Greece would not be taking him on loan. At 20 years old, Gabriel is far from finished, and surely he can manage a season with breaking a bone! If so, he could still shape up to be an interesting option as regista (Bouy plays further up the field in a trequartista/AM role).

Certainly the club holds hope of them developing further…