I was very impressed with him when the times he played. He covered a lot of ground and put in a bunch of good tackles. I would say that defensively, he is already better-than-average. He doesn't exactly do magic with the ball at his feet, but I thought he was decent at holding the ball at least. It was his passing that was lacking a bit, but I think with more experience that can be fixed. He is not as good as Cork yet, but given the proper handling he should end up at least that level, perhaps as soon as next season. Not quite the same type of player, but as a rough comparison of general level/effectiveness that will do. I don't know about Schneiderlin. It's pretty tough for anyone to be as good as Schneiderlin.
Should have offered a better contract or at least a 6 month extension. That was definitely his type of game on Saturday, and obviously would have allowed Toby to play CB. Sorry if I'm repeating other people, haven't read through the thread.
How can you say offer a better contract? He was apparently offered a very good one, but chose to leave because he wanted to be first choice. Nothing the club could have done apart from guarantee him football and no-one should really get that. Yes, clearly we could have done with Jack, but he chose to leave. Anyone blaming the club needs to look again.
Agreed. Just not quite first class yet though. We'll need slightly better next season, although he'll once again make a superb bench warmer. He's got plenty of time.
He was contracted to Southampton til the summer; the club chose to let him go in january for a fee. Nobody could stop the club from keeping him til the end of the season. He would have left then as a free agent, and the club would get any money in that case, but if he helped us on course to a 5th place finish, that would be more worthy to us than the paltry sum we got for him.
Are you saying the club got it wrong at that time then? I don't think they did. I don't think Jack Cork was the key to 5th place. Too many people using wisdom of hindsight.
Jack Cork was offered a new contract but chose to leave because he was clearly 3rd or 4th choice behind Big Vic and Morgan and was not getting the regular first team football he felt that he needed at this stage of his career. Swansea was a very good choice for him as they play the right type of football and he is a regular starter for him. There is no need for inquests when a player makes a decision for the good of his career..
I'm just saying that it's not quite true that the club couldn't have done anything to keep Cork. He wanted to play first team football so he took the opportunity to join Swansea in january, but if the club decided to keep him until the end of his contract, then he would have no choice but to stay put. I think It would have been better to keep him. I said it in january, I'm not saying it now with hindsight. He would certainly come in handy at the moment, with Wanyama and Schneiderlin missing some matches. I think it stands to reason that we would be better with him than without him in this period of season.
Well it's not true, is it. It's not his choice to make. He has a contract with the club until the summer. The club chose to let him go before the end of his contract.
Fair enough if you said it in January. I think the club dos the right thing with a player who only wanted to stay if he was guaranteed regular football and 6 months on his contract. It certainly doesn't stand to reason that we'd have been better with him; that's just conjecture and nobody knows what would have happened. He could have got injured. We could have lost more games than we won. We could have won more games than we lost. The way Harry Reed played earlier in the season, I thought he could have done a job, but Ron hasn't played him. Impossible to say.
Just how motivated do you think that Cork would have been having to sit on the bench waiting for his chance when the club had denied him an opportunity with Swansea for first team football and where he clearly wanted to go. I want my football club to do the right thing, I want our players to 100% motivated. Koeman has stated that they like to tie up players before their contract runs down (look at the Clyne ultimatum) and I agree with this policy.
Except the club forced Schneiderlin to stay, and he's been brilliant all season. I think we would have been better keeping cork until the end of the season and losing him on a free, than selling him when we did. You can all disagree if you want to, but I think he would have made a difference in a number of games
