Strewth something must really be wrong for a team to demand a player doesn't train with them..............I'm not particularly in favour of player revolts no matter what the circumstances. Mind you I have a feeling that this is only part of the problem and I ask myself how much of this kind of thing went on before this blew up, with the previous managers. We have pretty well all said that something seemed to be missing. Sparky comes in with a strong team of coaches then suddenly we start playing and confidence starts to return. This then seems to cause the players to react perhaps to players not pulling their weight?? I wonder if in the close season we are going to find out a bit more of what has been going on behind the scenes over the last couple of seasons that we're not aware of. I think an interesting couple of months is about to begin.........COYS
We don't need any drama in the build up to our last game. Stay away Boufal, then come back with a new attitude for pre season and we'll see if this is resolvable.
He probably said " don't blame me, it's that bunch of losers you should blame!" how to make friends and influence people!
Devil's advocate: He might have been able to show that he was worth his place in the team and not thrown a strop after being used as bench-fodder. Vin
I'm still trying to work out what would happen to me if I threw a water bottle at someone in the office.
apparantly Boufal said he was the best player in the squad and JWP said that he wasn't the best player in the squad and it all kicked off beacuse no one could agree who the best player was. Until Mark Hughes said that he was the best player but in the 90s and then they all stopped arguing
Oh I agree that he is quality. But there's not too many big clubs around who need a LB right now (whereas if we'd gone down, suddenly we'd have the likes of Newcastle and Brighton knocking at our door for him). Historically Liverpool have needed a LB, but Robertson has been flying recently; certainly on a higher level than Bertrand. If Rose and Shaw swap clubs, that's Utd and Spurs out of the running. You could make a case for maybe Arsenal doing with a LB. But their finances are somewhat limited, and Bertrand hasn't been pulling up enough trees for me to think that Arsenal would be tempted to spend any of that budget on him. For me, Ryan was only leaving this summer if we went down, or he had a storming season. But (fingers crossed) we're not going down, and his season (for me) has 'only' been solid for the first circa 80% of the season, and below average for the final circa 20%.
I agree this article looks like it's made up. The reason I think that is because it says the players went to the board to stop Boufal resuming training rather than to Hughes himself. I can't see that myself....
Think I must be a bit naive I really cannot imagine players going behind the managers back to the board to request that a player does not return to training with the first team? Could only see this type of behaviour happening if there was a very, very serious issue within the club that needed to be exposed, not a falling out with a fellow pro allegedly acting like a prima donna? But it is The Premier leage, not real life?
Gerrard only took the job on the proviso that he would get the marquee signing of the great Steven H Davis. Yeah, sounds true.
I'm surprised, nay shocked, that you, DTLW, should give this story any credence. Not a single source cited it is sloppy journalism at best. I suspect SB's days may be numbered at Southampton, but this story smells of complete horseshit
Maybe, none of us can say for sure, but I doubt it. He may not have started six games in a row but he started six out of seven in October-November last year and came off the bench in the other game (a mid-weeker at Man City). If he'd started that game against Man City he would have started 7 games in a row but I find it very hard to believe that one change would have transformed his performances. He's undoubtedly very talented and showed some very exciting flashes of promise but ultimately he seems to be a player who's too interested in doing fancy tricks and switches off when it comes to doing the basics. I have too many memories of him playing simple passes into touch and apologising to his team mate because he wasn't concentrating on doing the basics. He basically reminds of that story about Paul Scholes, Cristiano Ronaldo and the tree.
Boufal has put a smile on my face many times this season. I do love to see him play. At the same time, looking at the season as a whole he's done bugger all. ...with the exception of a solo wonder goal. Without which we would be in deep **** still. So, ....player of the year for me!
