It's not like he was on a free, it's not like he's a teenager - he's gonna be 25 in January. And tonight we end up with both our first team right-backs on the pitch cos we're short at CD. Was it this very flimsy reason of "increasing our profile" in South Africa? Surely we're not gonna sell an extra £2m+ of shirts. Even if he DID ever play for us, which he doesn't and probably won't. I mean - £1.5m? Why? I just hope that Harry isn't, ahem, friendly with the guy's agent.
Think it is just to keep relations strong with our sister club in South Africa to be honest and can see him going back to them on a free when his contract is out unless he finds some type of form. Is he not out on loan at the moment because i know Rangers and i think Reading were looking at him. He is not exactly the most expencsive gamble i have seen in the premiership and you never know given time he may be a lucas radebe
He is on a seasons loan at Reading. Maybe if someone from Reading can give us an update we'll know if he is up to the standard.
It's a relatively small amount of money to us and he could become an okay player for us. It makes sense that he got put out on loan, it's not like a normal player coming from abroad. He's used to playing a poor standard of football in a very different style so we need to take it slow with him. We don't want to end up with him rushed in and horridly out of his depth, like Koscielny at Arsenal.
"could become an OK player for us" Hmm - well considering that an awful lot of people think that Bassong is not up to scratch is that really likely? If it's assumed that he'll be a second stringer why pay £1.5m for a second stringer who's in his mid-twenties with surely no real prospects of making the first team? Having said that I was amazed to find that Radebe did indeed come to the UK when he was 25. Hmm...so...maaaybe. Still seems bizarre/extremely optimistic to me.
It's a bit unconventional but he's a decent player, promotes us in SA and cheap. I don't know anyone who is unhappy to keep Bassong as backup, although were we to be buying £8mill just to be back up I think we'd all be a bit miffed.
The thing is, I can't see any reason why we're partnered with Supersport in the first place. Feyenoord were partnered with them and, a couple of players who failed to make the grade later (including the superbly-named Kermit Erasmus), they ditched the agreement which we took over. Frankly, we'd be better off ditching Supersport and going the whole hog, partnering ourselves with Dinamo Zagreb. Or Internacional, if it gets the Leandro sorted out...
Exactly. What's the point of any of it? I'm sure there must be some at least semi-dodgy/tax avoiding reason why we have this relationship and why £1.5m has changed hands over a player who (it looks) is unlikely to ever play for us. And what's the score with the relationship with Internacional? What does it actually mean? Apparently not that we get first dibs on their players if the Leandro stories have any substance. And what do they get out of it? Do we give them regular payments to be our friends?
