Meet Emmanuel Longelo
Meet Emmanuel Longelo
Here's the lowdown on our left wing back on loan from Birmingham
Like London buses these signings. Just as we’d announced the loan signing of Josh Stokes, another loanee was ready to be revealed. I’m not going to say the word ‘striker’ in this article, because that’s boring - but spoilers, Emmanuel Longelo is not one either.
He is however, a player in a position I had personally always hoped we’d sign this summer. Not because I don’t rate Danny Andrew - after a really tricky start to life in amber, he has quickly become one of our most important players, a lot of that being down to his versatility and adaptability down the left-hand side.
Last season, as soon as Monk started playing his back 5 with two wing backs, Andrew shone as a LCB. His reliable defensive work coupled with being able to add another attacking element to forward moves felt like a real positive in that position - similar in respects to what we’d seen Kyle Walker do for England in the 2018 World Cup on the other side (although not as good, obviously).
As a LWB, Andrew always felt decent, absolutely good enough, but maybe with room for improvement in terms of his athleticism and raw attacking output. Watching Liam Bennett’s attacking ability down the right hand side had left plenty of U’s fans longing for something similar down the left. Enter: Emmanuel Longelo.
Longelo is a 6 foot, 23-year-old, London-born left wing back. Having been scouted playing Sunday league football at the age of 10 years old by West Ham United, he came through their academy system, turning out for the under-23 team 11 times and once for the first team. In 2022, he went on a season-long loan to then Championship Birmingham City. The year after, he made that move permanent on a three-and-a-half year deal for a reported £400,000.
Over two seasons in the second tier, he made 25 and 20 appearances, scoring one goal for the Blues in what was not a particularly good side, it has to be said. After their relegation, Longelo was long touted on socials as heading out on loan, and the Abbey is where he’s ended up. Having watched him play for a few seasons, we asked Blues Breakdown to give us their view on him.
Where to start with Manny? There’s a player in there, of that I’m absolutely sure about. What I’m also sure about is that Birmingham has not been the best place for young players to develop over the last few years, particularly not young defenders. There’s been very little leadership in the back line. And he’s suffered from inconsistent minutes. He needs good chunks of minutes together to develop rather than sporadic appearances, which is what he was getting here.
He’s definitely more suited to a wing back role than a traditional full back. He’s much better going forward, with very good ball carrying ability and decent delivery from wide. It’s fair to say he’s definitely struggled more with the defensive side of his game. He switches off regularly and doesn’t read danger that well. It’s quite telling that Eustace moved Trusty (a centre back) across to LB at the end of the 22/23 season instead of playing Longelo.
I’ve seen a few calls from our fans to play him as an out and out winger, but I’m not sure myself. Whilst he’s better going forward he lacks the instincts of a genuine winger, so wing back is absolutely his best role.
It’s an interesting insight this one. Firstly, if you took out the Blues reference and I sent you the above and told you it was about Liam Bennett, you wouldn’t blink. For me, that’s a positive - with Gibbons and Andrew able to play as much more orthodox full backs in a back four, or maybe more defensive-minded wing backs in a five if we need, having two wing backs that supply out and out attacking intent is a huge positive in our system.
But despite that, his defensive frailties are obviously a bit of a worry, and something you feel Monk will want to work on before he trusts him fully. Despite how we want to play with our new system, there will definitely be games we will be without the ball for large periods where he will need to be defensively disciplined. As an academy player, he started as a midfielder but was moved to play as a striker due to his pace. That upbringing might have left him wanting in terms of hammering home some defensive basics, but hopefully a manager like Monk can instil those in him
As the Blues Breakdown guys say there, what he wants is lots of minutes in a row. Like Stokes, we’ve seen him play three times in an amber shirt now - Manny’s league appearances both off the bench and then starting against Bromley in the Pizza Motors Cup. Against Blackpool you could see his instant impact down the left-hand side, and where he is a totally different player than Andrew. Of course the shackles were off so it’s a unique context in that respect, but he was playing basically on the shoulder of the last man and providing constant attacking threat - his assist for Lavery’s equaliser was also lowkey a really smart set up.
Like most players in a U’s shirt last Saturday, he wasn’t able to have a similar impact against Bristol Rovers. And finally against Bromley, he backed up his attacking credentials with a well taken goal. That sort of input is what U’s fans can start to get excited about, especially once he’s match fit and ready to start a league game.
Over the international break this weekend, I’m sure the hope was to get him up to speed and against Mansfield we might well see him from the start, hoping that his dynamism and attacking intent are perfectly suited to our system and he can make that position his own.