looks like rvw will return,he was certinaly a better player than we saw before,and you never know,under A,N and with better and more consistant service,he might prove a revelation.
I doubt it, last fixture of the French league season is May 23rd, the playoff final is the 25th. At best he'd have to go straight into the squad without training with them beforehand.
Rvw to come off the bench in the 120th minute of the playoff final, and score a header just like his one against Everton, sending us into the Premier League. ...only to then be sold in the summer, leaving us all utterly confused as to whether he was a good player or not!
Coming back to the real world we have a problem. He is back whether we like it or not so what can the Club do? He played a season in the Premiership for us and looked an absolute twat. Snodgrass wouldn't pass to him - diddums!! - the other 9 did. He didn't get good service - nor did anybody else but even Hooper scored a few. When he got chances he put the ball in the seats and he didn't seem to care less. My opinion? He might score goals in places like Holland or Portugal where the game is played at a walking pace and tackling seems to be banned but in our leagues where we play flat out for 90 mins and strikers have a 6ft defender attached to them all game - no chance! But what do we do? We paid a small fortune for him and a Club of our size cannot just write off that sort of money off. We could not possibly afford to accept anything less than, say, £5m for him but who is going to pay that or offer the sort of deal agreed with St Ettiene bearing in mind his poor recent record and the fact that he was the laughing stock of our Press 12 months ago. Hopefully we will be in the Premiership next year but do we really want him taking up one of the 4 striker places in our size restricted squad? Probably not but we might have no choice. Mind you I suspect that we face the same financial problem with Lafferty, Hooper and Grabban.
Excellent summary and I guess we'll just have to wait and see whether or not AN thinks he has anything to offer the team - I saw quite a few occasions when players other than Snoddy wouldn't pass to him as well, as my seat is just behind the N&P (River End) goal.. I can see him being sold and unfortunately at a considerable loss, but what options do we have???
RvW is in a remarkably similar position to Bassong a few months ago. Now would anyone want to sell Bassong this summer? Both ended last season in the doldrums and out of the team. Bassong did his loan and has come back more than proving his desire, commitment and capabilities. All that was questioned before his return. IMO Bassong must have known that the best way of improving his stock was to force his way into the first team at Carrow Rd, thus dispelling questions about his attitude and his form. Whether he stays or goes neither of those are now questioned to the same degree and if we don't keep him most of the teams in the bottom half of the Premiership will now be interested. He can play passes that very few defenders are capable of in this country. Much the same path could be trodden by RvW. I doubt he would be straight into the first team, but he is more than good enough to press for a place and if he gets the support from AN (which I'm sure he would) he could re-establish the qualities that took him into the Dutch national squad. I think it's more and more likely Ricky will be pulling on the yellow and green shirt next season.
Sorry, my friend, but little similarity. Bassong was our best player for a long time and then because of off field issues and a fall out with the Manager lost interest. RVW was never our best player for even a 5 min spell and never showed any interest!!
Everyone is making predictions about his ability to cut it in the PL. I really have no idea about whether he can be a success. There were several PL clubs interested him when he scoring at Sporting and made it into the Dutch squad, which does suggest he has the ability He is still very young and there have been many examples of strikers who looked as if they would never fulfill their potential- he may be one of those, or he may mature, modify his game and become a success or fall somewhere between the two. We also don't know how AN will develop the sqaud, he inherited a squad of players and I imagine that he will seek to boost the sqaud and impose his own structure and playing style on the team to a greater degree than he has been able to this year. RVW could well fit into those plans
Agree with your comments Longsight but, if we go up next year, we already have 25 ' over 21's ' for the 22 or 23 places available in the squad for outfield players and I might have forgotten in my calculation someone on loan or long term injured or a ' youngster ' who might be overage by next season. A few more in will mean a number out - do we really want AN's hands tied to having to make room for such a gamble in his final squad?
At last someone else with their rose-tinted glasses off talking a bit of sense on the matter Welcome back 1950, hope all is good with you chap
I cannot see a place for RvW and think that we have to bite the bullet and admit a brave mistake. Leicester have just done a similar thing in buying an expensive overseas striker who again hasn't cut the mustard and it does go to prove that to make in the Prem is not just a case of waving the cheque book around. It doesn't have to be just the £5m - £10m players either, there has been a lot of big big money wasted at the very top because a top European player cannot always adapt to this type of football and then there is the situation when some players expect to play every week because they cost a fortune and then demand to leave when they are left out of the team. Managing is an art and a tricky business but well rewarded to compensate.
For some reason, I fall into the optimistic camp with regard to RVW, but my optimism depends on how the squad is strenghtened and the plans that AN has for the team.
