Yeah it's odd. Ba came across as petulant a few times so that might not be helping him. Hard to overcome the way you're wired, I suppose.
he played in pre season and looked all over the place from what I remember, shame like cos his potential is/was huge
This lads 6'3/6'4 I'm not sure how much we'd actually see him as a right back whilst I'm not sure I've ever seen pembele even try to defend. Regardless as I think as been mentioned in here already - Pembele will surely be off to some ****e French team in the summer. Think there's going to be a few we'll offload
He wouldn't be the first French player to dislike life in England and become sulky. Strange that going back to France hasn't appeared to renew his career prospects though,and,at the minute,he'll be back with us at the end of the season.
Any idea what kind of money he’s on? Can’t imagine it’ll be cheap to offload him if we’re paying up 3-4 years of wages mind. Le Havre defo not a bad loan and playing at a decent level but I think I would’ve been tempted to try and get him to someone battling at the top of league 1. Get some confidence playing for a team expected to win and an introduction to the physicality of English football
Doesn't even get a game for le havre for the most part, I think bottom end of that league is his level but that there would be suitors for him willing to pay a couple million quid because of what he can become. Still only 22 so it's not like hes got no chance of getting back to his previous levels, as you say maybe a league one loan could make some sense but I think for our sake and his we just cut ties and get him a move back to france. As for wages this stuff never seems to really come out does it, probably just either side of the 10k mark would be my guess. Aouchiche similar situation for me, either portsmouth buy him or he goes back to france too.
Aye hopefully, think cutting ties with a fee back our way would be best case. Wonder what’ll happen with Ekwah he’s having a fairly decent season for a poor team I think he’ll probably go for a canny fee but we’ll be losing a few midfielders in the summer I’d imagine with loans ending and Jobe likely to leave so RLB might give him pre-season to see if he’s improved enough.
Yeah i wondered that too, from what i recall they have the option to buy him for £7-8m and we would then have a small sell on. I was led to believe that option is mandatory if Saint-Etienne stay up which is looking a bit iffy at the minute, theres maybe not enough money in france for them to trigger it if they go down so unless another team steps in to try and sign him hes probably coming back. Wasn't sure what to think when he did that interview where he said he feels like he's at home there and doesnt consider himself a sunderland player anymore - big difference to Triantis interview saying his plan is to break into our team next season but appreciates the chances hes getting at hibs.
I will say I do feel we've been signing too many old men recently (22+). Glad to see we are at least rumoured to be getting back to our roots of signing 17 and 18 year olds
To be honest if we got a few million profit for Ekwah and signed a solid champ midfielder, someone like for arguments sake Grimes on the cheap like Coventry did in Jan I wouldn’t be bothered at all. Think if Jobe goes we’ll already make a big signing in the middle tbh.
Ekwah has had a good season looking at it from the outside, he's in a bad team mind. If Saint Etienne stay up I think they'll trigger the buy option. If they don't we'll need another Ligue 1 club to take him, unfortunately for us there's not a great deal of money floating around that league at the moment. Would be happy with anything above £6m personally, would really jumpstart our summer.
I think we might struggle to get the fee tbh. Like you say not much money around. I wonder what his thoughts on a return here would be. His form tailed off last year, but he wasnt alone in that. He has talent, if we could squeeze some agression out of him he could still be a valuable squad player imo. I look at Browne, for example, and see a downgrade on Ekwah. I know injuries havent helped him, but he looks all at sea. If we stay in this league then I would probably be ok to see Ekwah back in as a squad player, if Browne were easier to move on. Just speculating.
Think it's interesting that he's played either as the deepest midfielder or as a centre back this season. I think i'd have a heart attack seeing him at centre back for us