Just watched his interview on Canaries Player. He is clearly looking forward to training under Hughton again, who took his first ever training session in England. Reminded me of the things some of Lambert's 'men' said when they signed for us, (Fox, Tierney, Martin etc). Some players work best with particular managers, and if we benefit from Bassong re-gaining the form he showed at NUFC when he was player of the season, then we will be praising this signing, even those who are now carping.
i think its difficult to judge him on the wolves loan. Pretty sure McCarthy signed him and got sacked a week or two later. If he plays like he did at Newcastle i think he'll be a fantastic signing. Don't remember him going dogshit for Spurs, he had a couple of bad games but remember him having good games too. personally i think its a top signing, when I've seen him he has looked good.
Not sure at all about him, although will obviously give him my full support. Yes he is quick and quite good in the air but also makes silly errors from what I have seen. Seems a bit like a better version of Barnett. Saying this a lot of building a good defence is about the balance of the back 4 rather than just 4 good individuals. So if his pace and power can be supplemented by the rest of the defence then hopefully we will be on to a winner.
Interesting signing - if he is being lined up as a first-teamer, which I expect he is, who will make way Turner or Bennett (R) ? I would suggest that Bennett would be the one with him being possibly used as an alternative at RB for Rusty (played the second half at Posh in that position) while Whittaker is out. Dunno - hard one to call but I can't see Bassong being signed to warm the bench. Just need a DM now and a quality striker
that's a very valid point lets hope he and garrido settle in nice and quick, hit the ground running because i feel we need a settled defence this season
I don't know enough about him to be worried or pleased, but I do know that this transfer stinks of a panic buy. I hope we have been after him for a while and its just been kept very quiet.
to be fair, i thought that too, but he has been handed the number 5 shirt which was left vacant since before the fulham match. i don't know if this transfer has been in the offing for a while or not but my first reaction of 'panic buy' may have been a little unfair
Can't imagine it would be a panic buy, would be an incredibly quick transfer if it was. Plus its a 3 year deal, so despite the timing it seems unlikely.
Its not a panic buy sir, it was being lined up for a while as he's got the new Number 5 shirt that was left vacant. It's certainly not a reactionary buy to last weekend
His wages must be pretty steep though? I would imagine he was on about 30k at spurs so would be surprised if he dropped 10k! One thing about him when he was at newcastle, apparently as soon as things got tough he wanted out from them. do you think his attitude would have changed a lot?
What makes me think its a panic buy is we got beat 5-0 on Saturday after a woeful defensive performance, coupled with this the fact Hughton has worked with him before. I may well be wrong, and I hope I am, its just when I turned on my laptop, looked on Newsnow and saw we'd signed him, my first thought was panic buy, and that thought remains.
Sorry supers, but when i doubted the Whittaker signing you said give him a chance, he hasn't played yet etc.. Yet you've just said that, not saying you can't say its a bad signing but just hypocritical. The Hughton factor will help a lot in my opinion. Don't remember him being too bad at Spurs, he just struggled to break in team, he wasn't great at Wolves but think its difficult when your a loan player and the guy that brang you in gets sacked. Personally think it'll either really really pay off or backfire. We'ves seen players just get a fresh start from a big team though than leave because they can't get regular football and do well i.e Danny Murphy springs to mind. Still surprised we can afford his wages though.
well he'll have had to take a drop of around £10k or we wouldn't have signed him! they won't break the wage cap, i assure you. guru, i'm one of the few who have expressed worry over this deal. i've seen the lad a number of times. i'm not convinced by him at all. he's built like mike tyson, he's a menacing figure, yet he's such a soft touch when on the field. he's skilful, more so than you'd expect of a centre half, but his brain isn't always, it appears, on the game. hopefully my misgivings are unfounded and he does a good job for us. as i said elsewhere, he improves the squad as he's at the very least better than ward, martin and barnett. i'm more hopeful this will be a good signing than expecting it to be, if that makes sense!
Where did you hear that from, Guru? Bassong was player of the season 08/09, when Newcastle were relegated, and Hughton was his manager. Can't see Hughton signing a player who behaved like that.
hey, i'm right behind him! i've said throughout the thread that i hope it works out. difference is, i'm basing my opinion of him on what i've seen of him rather than what league he has come from, which is illustrated above when i effectively said 'people look at the name and where they come from to decide if they are any good rather than watch them with their own eyes'. i think he'll turn out to be either very very good or very very bad. not sure we'll see much middle ground!
i agree with people looking at name, not entirely sure whether was you or on second thoughts. But someone had a dig at me for not being convinced with Whittaker signing. Apologies if it wasn't you, probably went about that wrong way. Agree about middle ground a bit, about the whole attitude thing mentioned above, i think it speaks volumes he would have probably slashed his wages substantially to work with Chris Hughton again, doesn't sound like there is a problem with that
It's not a panic buy. Deals are generally kept quiet nowadays such as Garrido. It was planned and i reckon a good signing. I reckon we will see a dm come in but instead of announcing interest and increasing.price.and tempting other.clubs we keep our business quiet
