When did they tell him about his contract renewal? At the meeting? That was before he put in his transfer request wasn`t it? Something still doesn`t sit right with this.
I dont think it'll put things to bed. I think it could be more political. Its deflecting the blame away from the club and passing it towards Kone. Or a statement like this will put his price up if anybody still shows an interest. I still think he'll insist on going personally, despite Moyes's statement. I think Kone has been angling for a move and used the 'no contract' as an excuse. Lets see how Kone responds, probably with a 'I still want to leave anyway!'
Yeah my point is if we didn't register him. He wouldn't be able to play but it wouldn't effect our ownership.
He's still ours until someone rides into town with a wagon full of cash. He can wait until 1 September FFS. Any massive deal he gets now is because we brought him to the EPL in the first place, so a couple of weeks won't kill him.
He has told us (the fans) that he wants to stay, but Sunderland haven't offered him a new contract. Sunderland publicly say they will offer him a new contract: So if Kone still wants to leave, he will be found out that not only is he a mercenary twat (but lets face it, its rare to find a footballer who isn't these days, cant get too upset about it) but he is also a lying **** bag. Anyway, if this is true, he does stay and he plays for us then as long as he puts the effort in on the pitch I don't give a **** about anything else.
You're describing most stoppers though. That's why they need covering partners decent on the ball, they complement each other to cancel out weakness to form a partnership. That's exactly what Kone and Kaboul have. Without the other with partners they don't understand, both will look suspect.
Not exactly sure what that means, tbh mate. Clumsy with the ball between his feet, galavanting up the field with the ball? If I'm describing anything, it's his shortfalls which will show the difference between him and the defenders who go on to succeed at the top clubs.
Depends if he cans strike an understanding with a partner. I always say a CB is only as good as his partner alouws him to be. He could easily flop if he strikes no understanding with his new team mate. I think the language with Kaboul went a long long way. Will be interesting to see how he gets on with non french speaking CBs.
Regardless of his partner, a quality centre half will stick out in this league and should be able to forge a good partnership with just about anybody. Otherwise I'd say maybe he's being carried and relies on other players to make him look good.
I bet Kone has gone straight onto his phone to his agent, first words being 'what the **** are we gonna do now?'
Two types of cb, Stopper and Cover, stoppers tend to be the bigger of the two, no mess, less mobile, turning circles of curse liners, more likely to be caugh on pace and get the ball stuck in their feet(Think Turner as poor example, Jagealka or Cahill as decent ones.). They tend to be the worst footballers of the two CBs but better with dealing with imminent threat. the first line of defence for the defence if you will. Cover cbs tend to be better on the ball, quicker and does stuff like cover the space behind the stopper. mops up, uses his pace and reading of the game to make up those extra yards. For example JoS was our Stopper and Wes did cover. We were all worried if Wes had the pace for it but used his reading of the game to give him the extra yard and did a decent job for a while covering dodgy O'Shea, that partnership worked for a while because they complemented each other and had an understanding. Always had a very short shelf life given the were both ****ing older than god. Kone is typical Stopper in the sense all the things you mention are his weakness, like with most stoppers, he excels in the areas that matters though for his style of cb. Defender who can do both well tend to cost stupid money.
I disagree respectfully. I see it like food. Take a food item. On it's own it's just an ingredient, you could put it with many different ingredients and it wouldn't work. Find the right ingredient to and it tastes amazing. That new ingredient doesn't make the other taste good, it complements it to form it's own thing. Now both the ingredients my be top quality, but they just don't go together. Same thing applies in football to partnerships for me.
That kind of backs up my point about him not being good enough for a top 6 side, and no offence, but that comes across as an old fashioned view and not modern day. Top defenders now, who are good enough to play for a team of top 6 quality, will be more than capable in both of those roles. Modern day footballers. That's why I think we should be snapping their hands off at 20m for Kone, a lot of money for a brick wall that has big flaws to his game.
We aren't actually a million miles off here, I thought we were at first. He may not get a good partnership going, if he doesn't compliment his partner well, but I still think you would be able to see the class shine through...
But hang on mate, I haven't said at any point he's a top 6 defender. He isn't. I'm saying he's good at what he does. As i've said those good enough to do both go for stupid money and are quite rare.
I'm failing to get my head round the fact that we have just had the biggest payout from TV rights in the clubs history (£100m+) and we're still shopping in Primarni FFS
