Well, according to Ladbrokes, he may well be. http://news.ladbrokes.com/en-gb/foo...inkel-set-to-escape-canaries-hell_185465.html
Supposing there is any truth in the story, I really have no idea about how I would feel about it, perhaps other than somewhat indifferent. Would we seriously miss him, if he were to leave? I don't think I would.
Can't see that happening, JK. I doubt that RvW is willing to admit failure after only 14 matches in the PL, several of which were cameos as sub. His injury made it hard for him, but I still think he'll come good. Ladbrokes are just trying to stir up some betting, IMO.
Unfortunately nothing has pointed towards him setting the PL on fire. I really hope he is just 'settling in' but it's taken a while.
This may sound controversial, but if we could recoup what we paid for him I'd seriously consider selling him personally. There are a lot of RVW apologists on here who won't have a word said against him and try to tell us how brilliant his movement is and how if he had any decent service he'd be banging the goals in, but I'm afraid I'm not really seeing that myself and am starting to think people's adoration of him is based purely on how much we paid for him, his twitter activity and of course his fabulous name. I really hope I'm wrong but I fear he is a very expensive Arturo Lupoli/Dani Pacheco/Luciano Becchio in that he's a fans favourite because we all want him to do well so badly, but in reality he's just not as good as we think/hope he is.
By the way I would never, ever trust any rumours you read on gambling agencies' websites. The whole point of bookies is to entice you to waste your money on an eventuality they don't really think will happen, and this just sounds like another example of this to me. Remember a couple of weeks ago one of them was suggesting Man United were interested in Snodgrass???
Yeah, nothing going on here at all other than Ladbrokes trying to get some silly money off people with no idea about football. There's no way we'd sell without a top replacement. I've got some sympathy for what you are saying Munky, but the main reason I'm stil withholding opinion is that we know he was carrying an injury for many of his early performances, but also we are yet to see a game where the midfield dominate and he is actually provided with some chances. If we have a few strong games and he remains anonymous, I'll be right behind you. As for his technical ability, I definitely think it is very high. When he is playing well, his touches are superb and he can clearly striker the ball well. However, I'm definitely beginning to wonder whether his strength and style are suited to the English game, or ours. I would emphasise that similar style strikers - e.g. Giroud, RvW, have taken time to get up to speed in this league. So if he's still ineffective by next season we should definitely look to offload, and if it comes at a loss, so be it. We've been pretty lucky with successful transfers anyway and have to accept some will not work out.
It's not an apologist stance to suggest that you can't assess the ability of a striker until he has the service to score goals, it's just common sense, I think last night he did suck but that was mainly down to how he was being used as a player. The pattern is this: CH signs a great player, CH does not know how to tactically use the player, player looks crap.
I was waiting for it to be blamed on CH! I think a better comparison would be with Torres who had that long run without scoring. He had no injury problem and had the whole Chelsea midfield of WCP providing service for him. It happens sometimes.
The idea that that he has had no decent goalscoring chances is a fallacy though, he has had chances and hasn't really looked like scoring since the first game of the season. He had a very good chance on the turn inside the box against Hull that he scuffed badly - can anyone remember him actually troubling any keeper yet? Before this escalates by the way I'm not completely writing him off and appreciate he's not been fully fit yet so I should definitely make some allowances for that and give him more of a chance to settle, which I will do. I just find it inaccurate when people say that he has been playing well because of what I've seen he hasn't and to me he's looked very ordinary. He's still not as bad as Becchio though, I have finally come to the conclusion that the reason he isn't getting minutes is because he actually is crap.
He has scuffed a few, but equally he curled a beauty against ?Hull or Sunderland which was very well saved and was unlucky not to score against Hull on the turn.
I still think he could be a top player, but between; injury, tactics, poor service, and settling in period it just isn't going for him. If he was offered a chance to leave, I honestly think he'd consider it. Afterall the service and support play he has received thus far means, that in my oppinion even Ibrahimovic would struggle. He joined to play in a supposed top league and impress enough to go to Brazil, would you take him as the Dutch coach on his performances thus far? Would he even get looked at with the stats, 1 goal way back in August. Its doubtless baseless betmongering, but I think he can still be great, with a team set up to get the best out of him (or at the very least a team that can pass a ball) Bah!
That was the chance that I mentioned him scuffing badly in my previous post, he should have done a lot better in that position if you ask me so I wouldn't call that unlucky. I wonder if people would say it was "unlucky" if it had been Snodgrass, Johnson (or one of the other players currently out of favour with the Carra Rud faithful?)
I guarantee he will score goals at his next club, hes part of a shocking side at the moment that isn't helping at all. No service = No goals
Do you remember a striker who used to play for City called "IWAN ROBERTS?" or perhaps you know him by the chant of "IWAN! IWAN! IWAN!" His first season after a £850, 000 move in 1997 wasn't exactly one to remember as he only scored 7 goals in 33 appearances. by the time he left City in 2004 he had scored 96 goals in 306 appearances and was a firm hero. Perhaps RVW needs someone to restore to him the belief he had when he was scoring goals for fun at Sporting before he joined City, as some of the goals he used to score were quite spectacular but now unfortunately he struggles to even score from a few yards. Think he also needs to do a bit of weight-training and build himself up physically.
I think there is a few issues here: 1) Playing in a team that doesnt create many clear cut chances. This makes it difficult for all the strikers to score on a regular basis (or anyone else). 2) The system we play doesnt help either of the strikers - 451 means upfront on your own against multiple defenders runnning the width of the pitch trying to help the team win the ball back or put pressure on the ball meaning that when there is a chance or half chance whoever is up there generally is already been wasting much of their energy. 3) Lack of form. Strikers are often form players and unfortunately not scoring for so long is more than likely playing on RVW's mind (Maybe Elmanders too). Unofrtunately because of the lack of chances we create runs like this will probably go on longer than necessary. They are the key issues for me but I do think if we change our style we and approach to attacking teams RVW will score goals. How many one on ones has RVW had this season? I am sure he has missed a couple of chances he probably should of scored and also had a couple of good efforts saved. Hooper for me looks the real deal, even last night he looked lively and he has more attributes than I was aware of. He is physical enough and his shooting from range seems to be on point. Even with Hooper looking so much better he is still not having many clear cut chances to take although he is making more of his half chances. It is quite obvious that the change to the EPL is less of a change for Hooper as it is for RVW. Fingers crossed we can get them both some GOOD service and both scoring goals - Thats what we all want to see.
