Scouting Romania

Best day: January 20, 1.802 visitors.

Bogdan Stancu signs from Galatasaray and a comparison between Lacina Traore and Bogdan Stancu, written in November 2010, before their moves to Russia and Turkey, respectively, gets a lot of attention especially from Gala’s fans. The surprise came when Traore moved to Kuban Krasnodar for less money than what CFR Cluj was hoping to get, while Stancu’s deal demanded a fee that can be explained only by the Becali’s involvement and their understanding with both Steaua’s and Gala’s boards.

And, while Traore is a hit under Petrescu’s strict command, Stancu failed to cope with the pressure and the controlled chaos that Galatasaray seems to enjoy living in every single year, and is now playing with some success on loan to Orduspor.

Search terms: “scouting Romania” and my name occupy the first two places, with Marius Niculae in third spot. The top five is closed by “Wesley Vaslui” and a certain Cristiano Ronaldo. Don’t worry, the only thing to blame is a photo of the guy taken while Niculae was playing alongside him for Sporting Lisbon. The all time leader remains Gabriel Torje!

Most clicks: The Scouting Network, one of the companies I used to work for, followed by my Twitter feed, where I’m very, very close to 3.000 followers.

Best referrers: The Almost 3.000 are the ones that get credit, with Twitter sitting comfortably in 1st place. The Guardian helped to finish the year in style, the blog’s presence in “Our favorite things this week” column brining in a lot of (quality) traffic.

I would like thank each visitor though and wish you all a great 2012!, I hope to see you back here next year as well, because I’m not going anywhere :-). I leave you with the top three articles in 2011:

1. Unirea Urziceni no longer exists as a professional football club

2. The story of Juan Culio, the Argentinian midfielder bought by Galatasaray from CFR Cluj

3. Otelul Galati, before their Champions League debut disaster.