PLAYER WATCH: Benjamin Stambouli

[Bus-Conductor]

yes but ultimately the manager ends up with a player not as good as the one he wanted. then when we don't crack the top four with a sub top four calibre squad he gets sacked.

Or he gets called boring by fans, who don't appreciate the difficulty in making Dempsey look like VDV or Townsend to look like Bale ?

 

[nferno]

Man thinks he's Sandro already tryna to employ this joker persona SMH

 

[IMissTheWaddler]

Man thinks he's Sandro already tryna to employ this joker persona SMH

"Tryna"????

 

[Shea]

well petit and vieira are two of the greatest midfielders france have ever produced whilst neither capoue or stambouli can even get in the squad ... so it's looking a little closer to the latter currently.

It was supposed to be a joke/tongue in cheek comment - I wasn't expecting people to take it seriously and critically analyse it. Maybe I needed to and some kind of smiley face

 

[Bofbro]

well petit and vieira are two of the greatest midfielders france have ever produced whilst neither capoue or stambouli can even get in the squad ... so it's looking a little closer to the latter currently.

Does anyone know how old Petit and Viera were when they first played to together for France in CM. I'm sure Veira did not make his debut until he was in his early twenties, and Petit was a FB for a while before he turned into a top MF.

I'm not saying Benji and Capoue can get close to them, but I do find it interesting.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

French players, or players who've had a footballing upbringing in France, tend to suit this league as theirs is one with similar demands physically, but greater demands technically. The result is players with the athleticism to cope in the premier league but the skill to make the locals look like cavemen. If you were to do an all time French Premier League XI it would probably be far better than the sides from any other nationality, including English. In fact:

Lloris
Sagna Desailly Koscielny Evra
Vieira Petite
Pires Cantona Ginola
Henry
​

That's without even accounting got all the top class African footballers who received their footballing education in France.

My point? Basically that I'm far more confident in a French player who I've never heard of coming in and being what we need than a player from any other league.

 

[Blackcanary]

Man thinks he's Sandro already tryna to employ this joker persona SMH

Are you really hating on a player before they've even kicked a ball for us? Because they have a personality?

 

[Francis Gibbs]

be very interested to see what we got for our £4.7m and how he is going make us better

 

[Hoopspur]

It's a false price. Once again the guy was nearing the end of his contract - different prices, different players, different circumstances. I'm sure there were a lot pf people who were prepared to argue the value of Sandro or even Dawson for that matter.

From all accounts he was not prepared to sign a new contract and was waiting to leave.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

French players, or players who've had a footballing upbringing in France, tend to suit this league as theirs is one with similar demands physically, but greater demands technically. The result is players with the athleticism to cope in the premier league but the skill to make the locals look like cavemen. If you were to do an all time French Premier League XI it would probably be far better than the sides from any other nationality, including English. In fact:

Lloris
Sagna Desailly Koscielny Evra
Vieira Petite
Pires Cantona Ginola
Henry
​

That's without even accounting got all the top class African footballers who received their footballing education in France.

My point? Basically that I'm far more confident in a French player who I've never heard of coming in and being what we need than a player from any other league.

The physicality of the French league isn't quite up to the physicality of the EPL but footballers are generally technically much better schooled. Technique has traditionally always been valued higher in France than physicality, and French academy's taught the tactical and technical side of the game much better than English ones. Looking after the ball and playing on the ground and how to press properly are far more endemic in French coaching.

And Nasri should be where Ginola is in your team, and Blanc where Koschelny is, Just saying.

 

[Coyboy]

The physicality of the French league isn't quite up to the physicality of the EPL but footballers are generally technically much better schooled. Technique has traditionally always been valued higher in France than physicality, and French academy's taught the tactical and technical side of the game much better than English ones. Looking after the ball and playing on the ground and how to press properly are far more endemic in French coaching.

And Nasri should be where Ginola is in your team, and Blanc where Koschelny is, Platini where Cantona is. And Tigana and Girese where every bit as good as Viera and Petit. Just saying.

Shame you once again do more saying than reading.

Who in the EPL did Tigana, Platini and Girese play for?

 

[Bus-Conductor]

@Blake Griffin does make a fair point. We can't expect a coach to achieve top 4 if we are buying him players that are 2nd/3rd or 4th on the acquisition list. Or more to the point, we shouldn't be sacking them when they are still hovering around 4th/5th/6th with those players.

But I stand by my point, that fans show equal intolerance of this and are no better than the trigger happy chairman.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Shame you once again do more saying than reading.

Who in the EPL did Tigana, Platini and Girese play for?

My bad. I stand corrected.

 

[THFCSPURS19]

Or he gets called boring by fans, who don't appreciate the difficulty in making Dempsey look like VDV or Townsend to look like Bale ?

On the other hand, you were apparently complaining about Redknapp when we were playing good football.

You're no better than everyone else.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

On the other hand, you were apparently complaining about Redknapp when we were playing good football.

You're no better than everyone else.

"Good football" is a very subjective term. If you would like to develop this theme I'm happy to take it over to another thread, we've probably got a bit side tracked in this one.

 

[Bofbro]

On the other hand, you were apparently complaining about Redknapp when we were playing good football.

You're no better than everyone else.

Especially when we had Crouch in the team, doesn't get much better than that.

 

[0-Tibsy-0]

On the other hand, you were apparently complaining about Redknapp when we were playing good football.

You're no better than everyone else.

Good football is very subjective. Depends whether you regard it as exciting or tactically sound or good structure etc you could mean that we had good footballers playing pretty football in an attacking sense but that doesn't equate to good football for everyone.

 

[Coyboy]

@Blake Griffin does make a fair point. We can't expect a coach to achieve top 4 if we are buying him players that are 2nd/3rd or 4th on the acquisition list. Or more to the point, we shouldn't be sacking them when they are still hovering around 4th/5th/6th with those players.

But I stand by my point, that fans show equal intolerance of this and are no better than the trigger happy chairman.

Yes but a) is Levy trigger happy or was he re AVB? b) the last manager whom Levy fired was Redknapp that we can be sure of and c) this was the defence against Jol being fired which was often discarded.

It's not the failure to get into the top four which has seen off the last three managers really. Ramos was just disastrous and showed no signs of improving; Redknapp was most likely non football related in terms of what happened on the pitch and was a decision you supported and AVB left by mutual consent.

Let's say though that AVB was fired for the sake of argument. It wasn’t the simple failure to get into the top four. If it were, he would have gone in the summer of 2013. It was the worrying trend of losing heavily to our prospective rivals with the team collapsing after going a goal or two down. Lloris even said as much. That coupled with the incredibly turgid and uninspiring football we played (not to mention the banishing of our best striker for no good reason.)

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

Especially when we had Crouch in the team, doesn't get much better than that.

This. It was only in Redknapps last season with Ade, Bale, Modric, VDV in the same team that I felt we consistently played good football. Before that our main tactic was to lump it up to Crouchies head.

 

[nferno]

Are you really hating on a player before they've even kicked a ball for us? Because they have a personality?

I think you all failed to see the satire in my post.