Actually he still seems to have a lot of time for the club. He's not bitter about his exit, and he doesn't even harbour bad feeling towards Rafa. He says he just took it on the chin and vowed to prove him wrong. I don't think he would be the problem. If anyone thinks Mike Ashley is going to sanction a 25m-35m fee for a player the previous manager bombed out for £650,000, I don't think they know Mike Ashley very well. Its too much of an embarrassment for the club. Maybe if the takeover goes through. I think Rondon did well for us and I'd have him back. He's nearly 32 but he wouldn't be coming in as first choice. He was already very injury prone so I get that concern but he's still playing well. A yard of pace lost won't affect his game much too. He's a known quantity and seems to have big love for the club. Got to be better than Carroll.
Indeed and its an absolute fallacy to suggest his current deal with us is not a bad one because its pay as you play. He spends loads of time in our treatment room, is taking up a squad place, is playing games now and again, so he is costing. If we had a useful player in that role, we'd have been better off this season. I like the lad, he was fantastic first time round and he was a hell of lot more talented than many realised. But his career went south due to money, drink and injuries. The guy we got back was a smidgeon of the player who left.
There is literally nothing left. We just have to bite the bullet and accept it was an error to bring him home.
I do hope this "pay as play" deal has more cavaets and isn't just a set amount per appearance - ie I hope he doesn't get full pay for what he did yesterday, ie coming on with 2 minutes to go and making one **** touch.
I'd imagine he does get paid for every appearance. I don't think Bruce is trying to do him favours or anything, he is very useful at the end of games when defending corners and so on. I can accept that and see why Bruce uses him as he does. But surely you don't have someone in your squad just to see out the last 3 minutes of a game man As a grown up I'd probably struggle to fulfill that role, its kind of insulting. However if someone was giving me a 100 grand for those 3 minutes I'd be all over it
That logic suggests we're normally winning or at least getting a point though. He's ****ing useless when we're trying to score up the other end, with a nice 1 goal in 40 games. So that's £35k per appearance, meaning he's made £1.4m from his glorious return here. Urgh.
Yeah he's no good to us. To be honest he's just done. No harm in saying it. If he went down the leagues he'd probably have a renaissance.
