I've always felt that Sinani deserved a chance after a good pre-season. Farke suggested his Luxembourg career for club and country wasn't enough to prepare him for first team play. His record at Huddersfield suggests otherwise and Smith may we'll take a different view.
So you were saying that they were good enough, but didn't perform because you think Farke mis-handled. It which case why didn't they thrive when they went elsewhere ? Which was my original point that you seemed to think wasn't relevant. It's always best to quit when you've lost the arguement.
It's not as simple as that, canario. Drmic thrived in Croatia because he found a level he was suited to. Given a run of games he might have contributed more in the PL, but presumably he didn't show enough in training. Oliveira is a similar situation, but made worse by his tantrum on the pitch. Trybull and Leitner did well in the Championship but struggled in the PL primarily because their defensive game wasn't good enough. The lack of game time could have created attitude problems as well, but we'll probably never know the full story.
The latest rumours are suggesting that Aarons might be going to Brentford. Bye bye Teemu. Bye bye Max. Bye bye Tzolis and anyone who has any technical ability whatsoever. Never mind, we'll still have the ball skills of Sargent and it's so essential to have a player who can trip over his own feet.
Of course, maybe I'm wrong. But 1) The tone of his reply when asked about next season, at least as reported. I know he effectively said nothing except 'let's just take a break before we think about it', but I sensed a kind of tiredness and a feeling of not wanting to go through it all again 2) His body language in some games. I don't get the feeling he likes playing for Smith and I sense he feels the club is going backwards when he no longer has Emi or anyone to thread through balls to match his runs. He's often having to make the goals for himself or create assists for other players who invariably miss them. And I honestly believe Smith would be happier with a different kind of front man. He's going to say the right things about how important Teemu is because he knows it would be managerial suicide with the fans to do anything else, but behind the scenes I don't think he'll fight very hard to keep him. I accept there's a lot of repetition of 'sense' and 'feeling' and 'believe' in my answer. I genuinely hope I'm wrong.
Smith is on record saying that, when he took over, he knew Pukki was good, but hadn't appreciated exactly how good. Here is Michael Bailey writing in The Athletic today: "Daniel Farke loved him and Dean Smith soon followed suit. Smith knew before he became Norwich’s latest head coach that Teemu Pukki was good, but soon realised the Finland striker was even better than that. He missed one game under Smith and started all the others, missing only four minutes of action. In fact, Pukki started 37 of 38 Premier League games this season with Grant Hanley (33) and Max Aarons (32) the only other players to break 30."
No, I didn't lose, and you didn't win. You can have the last word now unless it's something really obnoxious. I don't think we're adding much to this thread.
I'm not sure that "personality conflicts" is how I would put it CS. My impression is that DF couldn't tolerate any hint of a player questioning him.
I'm peering out from behind the net curtains awaiting the arrival of the Gedankenpolizei ............
"Any hint of a player questioning him" is a bit strong, but what manager or coach could allow his decisions to be questioned? Discuss tactics perhaps, but once a decision is made no questioning can be tolerated. The buck stops with the gaffer.
Would hate to see Teemu leave but I feel that he deserves a chance with a top level team that gives him opportunities to score week in week out, not just now and again. I think he could get 20+.
To be fair, if he had finished half the chances he did get this season he would have had 20+. Yes we needed goals from all over the pitch that didnt come, but as much as I love him and all he has done, he could have won us more games last season He snatched at a lot of chances and is especially poor at 1v1 situations. We could have been 1 up in loads of games and by his own admission, he wasn't good enough. As I say, I still love him. Just not sure he would fair much better elsewhere
I totally disagree with this. Strikers who finish half of the chances they get do not exist (unless we are limiting 'chances' to so-called 'sitters'). A very, very select few (Lewandowski?) may have an exceptionally high conversion rate, but they're way out of our league. Yes, I can recall Pukki missing several chances last season, including a few 1v1s - chances that we bank on him taking because we have high expectations of him - but I honestly don't remember him missing a sitter or open goal. He did his job - it was most of the rest of the team that didn't.
I can remember successive years in the Championship when we dreamed of a 20+ goal scoring striker, but struggled along with the hard working Jerome or the petulant Oliveira. Pukki has scored 29 and 26 goals in his last two Championship seasons and would have done far better in the PL with a better team providing better service.
