Think he took a lot of associated flak due to being a real Hughton player (that dad bbc interview didn't help) and find it sad fans have gone against him - very few of our players covered themselves in glory last season, but being at the heart of a defence that ships 5+ goals regularly will draw special attention. Truth being that nobody really knows what went on. I read it as a player very low on confidence, game shot to pieces, and that he probably felt pretty bad that his performances had contributed to 'dad' getting sacked. Maybe had a fall out with teammates. He was guest on a show I worked on last year and spent bit of time with him and he came across as a bloody lovely guy, and not at all the person I was expecting to meet having seen that picture previous. Humble, educated, kind of shy - a contrast to quite a few of the players that we had on the programme. He didn't seem like captain material, but I don't think that's his fault. He's the best defender I remember seeing in a Norwich shirt and If he wanted to stay and fight for his form and his place I'd 100% keep him and try to build some bridges, if not, then yeah, sadly time to move on. Think I remember hearing the pic was because he was dressing as James Bond for a fancy dress and messing about at home beforehand. Daily mail journalism at its finest. He's a 20 something year old guy who was messing about in his back garden, he's definitely not a wannabe gangster.
The gun was probably a replica and there is nothing wrong with a 27 year old horsing about in his garden holding it but to then get someone to take a photo and decide to upload it on a Twitter account for the world to see is very very dumb, you could get into trouble in a normal job with stupidity like that so what was going through his mind we will never know. Most fans are over it and off the field he conducted himself well since, on the field he was exposed time and again as we kept getting spanked, Ruddy deserves criticism too as i saw him let in some very soft goals . We were just dreadful all over the field and Bassong was no worse than Martin or Turner over the season, all 3 were terrible .
The thing is it's not about what happened last season, thats history, its about the future and I don't think Bassong has one in a yellow shirt. Bennett has very good potential, but his career stalled last year. He either needed to go out on loan or get a decent run in the team. This year he needs to be playing regular football if he is going to progress. I think this season is a key one for him and if I was him I'd want a chance of regular football either with Norwich or another Championship team. I don't see Martin as a CB in a back four, although I could see him as possibly one of 3 CB's in a back 3. For me Turner when fit was our best CB.
I agree. Bennett either plays or he leaves. He cannot spend another season on the bench. From what I have heard, and seen to a limited extent, he should be played on a regular basis this season. Martin is an excellent stalwart for us but he is not as good a central defender. Turner and Bennett are my preferred choice.
I think a bit too much is being made of the potential ordering of the CBs. There are always plenty of opportunities for a CB who starts at 3rd or even 4th choice to play their way into the team. Bennett played in 16 PL games last year so he wasn't exactly rotting on the bench. With more games coming thick and fast in the championship we'll probably see a lot of rotation, forced or otherwise. That said, I hope Ryan Bennett does push on this year but only through merit. He was Grimsby's youngest captain at 17, and supposedly a good one, so I'm also kind of hoping we might start to see some of those characteristics from him because we sorely need it (the same could be said of Howson).
As with other younger players, relegation has given Bennett a real chance to push on, but it's up to him to take it.
rewind about 14 months and we were convinced we couldn't win without bassong in the lineup. fans have very short memories.
Not me Gruffnuts - I said the same thing in the OP. Actually the views on here have probably been more supportive than I expected. Interesting to hear your earlier thoughts about his character. It occurred to me that you could have been describing Hughton!
Bassong is our most talented and capable central defender, his problem is a combination of concentration, confidence and drive. Even in the first season here he had lapses of concentration but generally they didn't hurt us, generally he raised the game of whosever he was playing next to, he even made Leon Barnett look like a PL defender. Last season he clearly struggled, although some of the rhetoric makes it should like he was playing drunk or something, and I think largely his problem was a lack of confidence due to some of his mistakes being punished and the added weight of being captain, not to mention that last season there was rarely an opportunity for anyone to gain in confidence. Currently his problem seems to be the drive to play for the club and for Adams as he was clearly Hughton's man, however If he did get back into the side and committed to playing for the team then good as he could be excellent in this league.
I would imagine there is a problem with his wages too, when we got him, part of the agreement was for Spurs to pay a big splodge of his wages, even with a relegation clause, they're still going to be too high!
If his wages are high though we'd want to play him or sell him, not sit him in the bench and marginalise him.
Depends really on how much of a difference it makes. £20k p/w for a season is around £1m, so we might sell him for less than we'd like just to clear the wages. We could well end up in a net profit rather than having him skulking around taking wages from us for a season. Ideally we'd want him fully committed and playing regularly, as I'm sure with some confidence he could be the best CB in the league, but it's whether we can get that.
