Aye, but then Jones and Smalling are already performing at a high level for us, albeit not world beater level yet. Remember we paid around as much for Jones as Leeds did for Rio and the price of defenders hasn't moved much over the past ten years when compared to fees in general. And Rio spent a lot of time trying to live up to his price tag before he was recognised as a world class CB. Maybe mature late is the wrong expression. I was talking about the fact that many defenders (Carvalho, Vidic, Stam etc) are recognised as good players when young, but not expected to be the best, and often only reach their highest level when they get a bit more experience.
Evans+Smalling is the future centre back pairing, not sure where Jone`s will settle. Someone said they were worried about Jone`s ending up being used like O`Shea, that could be the case because he is good enough in many positions and would never let the team down, good utility players are vital to a squad and O`Shea`s contribution to our past successes is something that should never be underestimated. However i would like to see jone`s seal his position as a ball playing enforcer just in front of the back four.
Ferdinand + vidic = ferdinic Smalling + none = smallones What I'm scared about is if we use multiplication.. Ferdinand x vidic = trousers Smalling x jones = rhubarb.
Whatever the future, those two need ballet classes, pronto. Especially Jones, too clumsy, injured himself today, himself lol. And Smalling had a very average game too.
