He seems to have a balance, as he certainly cuts inside if he's got space - but if he doesn't he turns on the burners and stays wide, looking either to cross or work his way into the box Certainly a good idea to have FBs who offer tactical flexibility, because if a team is packing the middle to counter Porro having a replacement who stays wide to pull them out of position makes a lot of sense Also, bloody hell did Derby have an absurd crop of players come through 4-5 years ago
I think he'd offer additional physicality and pace, too. Porro's been excellent for us this season, but they're two things that he lacks a little. Ebosele reminds me of Kyle Walker in some ways, albeit a much more raw version.
This is actually excellent news for the club. I wasn’t aware that his contract until 2025 was on the basis of us extending it to that as it essentially ends this summer. Better to lose him now on a free than pay another year of wages for the same outcome.
If he didn't do his other hamstring in an U21 game we probably could have extended and got £5m from Palace (or, more likely, a £5m discount on a player) - but the timing of it does feel like it's finished his time at the club
I think when a player becomes so injury prone, even getting £5m feels ambitious. It’s also even worse in his case because when he’s played, he’s largely been very poor so there’s little reasoning for clubs wanting to sign him. I’ve said it before but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a very early retirement for him. He’s broken at just 23 years old.
HG Tax basically covers the entire fee The real issue with Sessegnon is less to do with him, and more to do with Poch's approach to building a second squad was to retain the tactics that worked with his first squad but with new players filling the exact same roles, when what he needed to do was evolve his approach - Aurier was Walker, if you had Walker shotgun six cans of Monster Energy while listening to dubstep - Ndombele was Dembele, if Dembele ever decided to focus on being the new host of Man vs Food - Lo Celso was Dele, but constantly injured - Sessegnon was Rose, but constantly injured - Foyth was Vertonghen, but constantly injured Poch needed to commit to a new system yet was stubbornly refusing to, and that started in the previous season when he sacked off playing 3ATB even though it certainly worked in the 2016-17 season, while for 2019-20 it looked like we might go 433 with asymmetrical FBs based on the squad we had in place but instead we had that half 433/half 4231 rhomboid of nothingness that failed to have the strengths of either but exacerbated the weaknesses of both That being said if he did commit to 433 there would have been potential disasters anyway, starting with the asymmetrical FB pairings being Aurier/Davies and Foyth/Sessegnon most likely putting us in the situation where the attacking FB in either combination either being too offence-minded they leave a gap on our flank or too defence-minded they leave a gap upfront, and the thought of Ndombele playing in a midfield three fills me with horror - but then again, Poch might have noticed our glaring lack of a No6 and rectified the issue if he did commit to 433
So you're saying that it's a good thing for coaches to not evolve their tactics and instead just replace their players with younger versions who play exactly like the ones they're replacing? That only leads to stagnation, since if opponents figured out their tactics with the first squad - and that was the case with Poch's tactics by 2018 - then they already know how to beat the second squad before they've even made their debut
Except it isn't off for two obvious reasons 1.) Poch literally demanded we sign Sessegnon, having already seen a move for him fall short the previous summer (see also: Ndombele) 2.) If Poch chose to evolve his tactics rather than emulate them with younger players there's a chance that we would have looked for a different profile of LB So yeah, when a manager literally says "I want this player and ONLY this player", that means the manager can be blamed for the player not working out
Sessengon should never have been signed. He was very good in the championship with fulham but was underwhelming in his season with them in the Premier league. This signing and Ndombele and Lo Celso are all on pochettino for me. His record in the transfer market from 2017 onwards was very disappointing and the main reason I was against us re-signing him as manager last summer.
The HG tax won’t be strong enough to counter the “prone to injury and awful when not injured” factor though. That’s why Utd were never able to sell Jones, who’s still without a club a year later and Arsenal weren’t able to sell Wilshire. As for Poch and his choices/ tactics, that’s almost irrelevant to the topic of Sessegnon’s current situation. What could or should’ve been won’t change the current situation and that’s that Sessegnon has unfortunately been a disaster of a signing both in terms of fitness and ability and just like his 19/20 window mates, cost our club a ridiculous amount of money with zero return. This might just finally be the summer we get rid of all three though, light at the end of the tunnel at last.
Which part of "If Poch chose to evolve his tactics rather than emulate them with younger players there's a chance that we would have looked for a different profile of LB" is difficult to understand?
I would’ve been keen to see Poch under Paratici to be fair, knowing Don Fabio (officially or unofficially, lol) would’ve been able to guide Poch on signings could’ve been a decent partnership. That said I’m more than happy with Ange working with the Don, intrigued to see what we do this summer.
There's certainly injury plagued players who still (somehow) command transfer fees - Callum Wilson has an injury record which confounds Transfermarkt (seriously) yet the Saudis stumped up £20m for him, while James Maddison has had various hip, knee and ankle issues but that didn't deter us from paying £40m for him last summer That's why I said it's more likely Sessegnon will be getting £5m off the fee of someone like Morgan Gibbs-White or Marc Guehi (to name a couple of recently-linked players) more than bringing in £5m in cash However, I doubt we'll be rid of the 2019 signings this summer: Lo Celso will generate interest so fetch something like £15m, Sessegnon might be a bargaining chip, but Ndombele? Unless we pay off his contract and load him on a container ship bound for MLS, we're stuck with him for at least another year This is the most aggravating thing about Poch's final year or so: if we had a Paratici or a Munn they might have been able to bend Poch's ear towards signing players we needed - most obviously Youri Tielemans, who was ideal for Poch and not only available but Steve Hitchen made a case for signing him, but Poch was adamant on Ndombele or nobody - and also made the rebuild a bit less of a flustercuck
I don’t think you’ve used the best examples there. Maddison made over 200 appearances for Leicester in 5 years and established himself as one of the Prem’s best creative mids. Wilson’s definitely had his injury struggles but has still played a fair amount of games, 180+ for Bournemouth in 6 years and 100+ games for Toon in 4 and at both clubs he’s had a decent strike rate. Sessegnon has made 57 appearances in 5 years for us. I mean there’s injury prone and there’s injury prone and Sessegnon is definitely the latter in that regard. There’s little reason for a club like Forest or Palace to accept an offer for one of their key players and shave off £5m from the asking price just to receive Sessegnon as part of the deal. That’s the sort of thing we could maybe pull off on football manager (I definitely try them!) but not a chance in the real world. Sessegnon just doesn’t have the credibility at the moment to warrant a club accepting it because outside of the injuries he’s been one of the poorest players on the pitch and teams will know that. The harshest thing about Sess is that he’s had one genuinely good season in his career to date and that was in the Championship, 7 years ago.
I mean we once duped Southampton into accepting Tommy Forecast instead of straight cash for Gareth Bale, so it's definitely workable Also, if there is a decision to be made on Sess, does that mean spending the next 2-3 months checking if Alfie Doughty has signed an extension to his Luton contract?
I agree he shouldn’t have been signed but HBIC blaming Poch for what happened to Sessegnon since then isn’t accurate.
