United have instead agreed a loan deal which will see them pay a third of 30-year-old Nigeria striker Odion Ighalo's £300,000-a-week wages from parent club Shanghai Shenhua. (Mail) Manchester United also considered a bid for Norwich and Finland forward Teemu Pukki, 29. (Independent)
Pondering a moment that a miracle does indeed happen and we stay up. What do you think our maximum for a player could be next year 10 million?
Unfortunately it takes a lot more than footballing knowledge and a good character to become a professional coach. I'm not saying he would or wouldn't make a good coach as I've no idea what his skills are but being a good foootballer and having a love of the game / club are not enough. I understand DD's sentiment and I think we would all love our club to be full of brilliant coaches who played for us. But the first criteria must be their ability to coach.
On the Passlack, Roberts and Amadou loan failures, at least it's better to find out though a low cost loan than be stuck with a player for years - something we've done too often in the past. Passlack never had a chance with the rise of Aarons and Roberts simply wasn't good enough to dislodge Cantwell, Hernandez or Buendia. Cantwell has surprised us all this season and but for that Roberts might have had a chance. Amadou wasn't a failure - we'd have been in trouble without him covering at CB, but he hasn't had a chance at DM because of Tettey's form. I just hope Tettey's knees hold up for the rest of the season, though it seems we now have Louis Thompson back in the squad.
Disappointed we didn't manage to sign Sinani the young Luxemborg hot shot , I think he's out of contract in the summer so hopefully we go back for him.
You might argue that it’s testament to some of our other players over performing based on expectations -Cantwell in particular effectively ruined Roberts’ chances and I think that is a good thing! EDIT sorry just seen others saying the same thing
Yep can't call Amadou a failed loan. We'd have been in all sorts of muck without him. Obviously not worked out though. I do still wonder what Godfrey would be like at DM too.
Whether it was Norwich, Sevilla or the player himself, the loan was cancelled 3 months early - that's failure in my book.
Tettey contract extension https://readnorwich.com/2020/02/03/norwich-in-talks-over-new-deal-for-alex-tettey/
Yeah, if we stayed up he'd become our record transfer by a significant sum. Based on this season, he'd have been a bigger flop than Naismith had that happened. One decent performance at CB, and otherwise failed to make an impression. Given midfield issues, I can't believe he wouldn't have had opportunities if he was impressing in training.
I hear what you're saying CC. It's like the smartest people don't necessarily make the best teachers. It also takes also communication, leadership, patience etc. From what little I know of AT, I think he has those qualities. Of course, if Farke/Webber don't think so, he will never be offered the job.
As far as I can see, this "rumoured" £13M fee is simply an ill-founded assumption based on what Sevilla are said e.g. by transfermarkt, to have paid Lille for him: transfermarkt give his current market value as £6.3M. If we were to stay up, that would be perfectly affordable, and very much the going rate for a player of his quality in his favoured position. Regarding him being "a flop", IMO that is completely unfair. He was never given a proper chance. DF's comments from early on suggested to me that he never viewed Amadou as anything other than a squad player to be called upon when his preferred "regulars" were unavailable. At no point did I detect the slightest hint that he saw Amadou as a player who, if given time and a real opportunity, could become central to the way we play. That's not the ideal impression to convey about a loan player coming in, with "an option to buy", and I would have every sympathy with Amadou if he came to feel that to be the situation and wanted out (as clearly Roberts did also). If we keep on in this way, we will find clubs and players increasingly reluctant to contemplate loan spells with us. Nor, personally, do I think it's true to say that, the Man City game apart, "he failed to make an impression". As I've said before, even with his limited opportunities, he showed he ticked a lot of the boxes for a specialist DM, and in contrast to Tettey, released the ball much faster, and almost always forward, where Tettey's instinct is to stop, turn and play the ball back to a CB. Yes, he made one or two mistakes, but that can be said of every single player in the team. You say you can't believe he wouldn't have had opportunities if he was impressing in training, but there are many, many examples of coaches who simply won't let themselves "be impressed" no matter what a player does (Lambert for one).
You used a lot of words when "as far as I can see " would have been sufficient. I just googled an E.D.P article from August and the loan fee was around £1m and it would have cost around £9m to sign him permanently, which would have made Amadou our record signing . With wages it must be close to £13m . Bullet dodged. https://www.pinkun.com/norwich-city/norwich-city-confirm-ibrahim-amadou-loan-1-6203358
So the "rumoured £13M transfer fee" referred to in your original post is now a rumoured £9M, garnered from reports in "respected newspapers in Spain and France", who are no more likely than the EDP to know the actual figure agreed. Added to which, it's quite normal on the continent to include wages in the figure quoted as what a club has paid for the services of a player. I'd say transfermarkt's £6.3M is probably more in line with what transfer fee we would pay And what bullet exactly has been dodged? We weren't committed to signing him in the summer even if we stayed up; we had an option, that's all.
Feel free to post a link from the " respected newspapers in France and Spain ". Transfermarket. Com is not a reliable source. I only responded because you said the ridiculousness high figure was. "As far as I can see, this "rumoured" £13M fee is simply an ill-founded assumption based on what Sevilla are said e.g. by transfermarkt, to have paid Lillefor him". No Ill founded assumptions mate just what the E.D.P printed at the time, presumably after talking to someone at the club.
Amadou at £6-9m sounds about right, though like Robbie I think it would be closer to the lower end (but well done DD for finding the original article). Sevilla are left with an RvW type situation and want to recover as much of their original fee as they can, which is why they were keen to get him seen in the PL for either our option or other interest. I had high hopes for him but it only partially worked out. There may have been an attitude problem or something else we don't know about, but I don't think it was DF playing 'favourites'. From what little I did see of him at DM, I was concerned that he was too committed to going forward rather than screening in front of the defence. By comparison, I thought Tettey was excellent as the deep pivot against Newcastle while still effectively screening and blocking. My final opinion on both Amadou and Roberts is that, like Heise, they failed to win a starting place because of the players ahead of them in the pecking order.