Teacher’s pet
Dublin blue 75
Player Valuation: £50m
Micheal Keane has that all to himself.
Interesting theory. A talented player who could last a while longer if he behaved himself. 3 years...no chance. 18 months in the prem before his injuries and fitness make him unimportant, if not sooner. That is my theory. But I agree we would have got Europe and not just the crappy conference.
HalfTimeSayers
Player Valuation: £35m
It’s difficult to know about fitness etc. He always “looks” super fit, appears to train extensively. Obviously repeatedly gets snapped in debatable states of consciousness. But could very well eat, train, rest perfectly. Then has no qualms going out on the town with mates to very public places, and likes to get obliterated.
We see a pic every couple of months (when fit and playing). If those are the only times he’s on the lash then it would have zero impact on his longevity.
For me, I wouldn’t be concerned that he would shorten his career partying. It’s more that in his final seasons at City where he got progressively less playing time, that’s when, to extend his career, he could have been morphing into a more central, composed, almost playmaker. Receiving the ball in tight spaces, either breaking a tackle and finding a runnner, or getting fouled.
The fact he’s still getting chalk on his boots limits his lifespan for me. Particularly in our setup and level of quality.
I think he is one of those players who has to be playing every week to be happy and motivated. To me it looks like he struggles when he's not playing or is injured.
If we can get him on loan again that would be fantastic business. Hopefully he's saying he will only come here and it forces City's hand, unless Maresca likes him and will use him. But even then, I cant see him playing 90 minutes every week.
If we can get him on loan again that would be fantastic business. Hopefully he's saying he will only come here and it forces City's hand, unless Maresca likes him and will use him. But even then, I cant see him playing 90 minutes every week.
With his ability to hold the ball I would like to see him in an advanced central role. I don't know but reckon he could do some damage if we had players running ahead of him.
1yr loan only - and not on City type wages
We’d be paying his City wages either to him or to City in a loan fee regardless. He won’t be taking a cut.
He can do one then, he's too old, costs too much, not proper value for money...and in my opinion because it's all too much like hard work couldn't be bothered playing in the middle where he could actually do a bit of good.
Playing for a side like us he'd have to completely change the way he plays to be effective centrally. Grealish seems to want to play the matador all the time, holding on to the ball for as long as humanly possible while goading defenders. That works (to a point) out wide but we don't generally come up against teams playing a low block so centrally he'd have to be a lot quicker and more direct than he has been for a number of years now.
Why do you think he doesn’t like work or doesn’t want to play centrally?
He ran his socks off every game for us before his injury playing almost every minute he was fit to and from the noises coming out of his camp when he signed he actually wanted to play more centrally but Moyes wanted to use KDH there instead.
I really hate that because he gets pictured on the lash a few times a year he has people questioning his long term fitness and attitude. He’s looked nothing but a professional for the full year and nothing but fully fit and desperate to get on the pitch the whole time up to his injury.
He was asked the question 'recently' and in so many words said - he 'could' but didn't really like to.
Nah he's pretty much always played like that. He certainly can release the ball at the right time, he's a very good and intelligent footballer but I think in some ways he just wants to play the game in a way that he enjoys, like the best kid on the playground. He's 30 and I think he's only really had one season at the top level playing centrally, you'd have to think there's probably a reason for that.
