2021/22 Lucas Digne

[turner]

Keane would be even better playing at another club, as far away from GP as possible please.

Mina is finished here also, an absolute flop of a signing.
Decent player but the heart of a tiny door mouse.

Listen, you may know a lot about football bro, but you need to update your 'door mouse' knowledge. It's 'dormouse' and did you know they're not even mice?

https://www.treehugger.com/things-you-didnt-know-about-dormice-4868735

 

[Thomasc]

Listen, you may know a lot about football bro, but you need to update your 'door mouse' knowledge. It's 'dormouse' and did you know they're not even mice?

https://www.treehugger.com/things-you-didnt-know-about-dormice-4868735

Thank you for putting me straight Mr Turner.
Every day a school day!

 

[Bob Elstone]

First season i thought Bernard was fine played really well, then he tailed off spectacularly, but I thought that pairing did not create enough goals or score enough between them. Though this could be my memory failing me. I know I did enjoy watching Bernard play that first season, though I feel there was never enough end product no matter how pretty it looked.

Bernard was turbo guff. Absolutely abysmal.

 

[roy vernon]

I think Digne will likely be like Gana. Played very well especially early on, then when he didnt play up to his standards every match fans became too footy-manager-esque and whiney, and then after they are gone for a year or so start to realize how the team would have been better off to still have them.

I thought that his last 6 months at the club was his best spell, I thought he was playing out of his skin towards the end of his time here.

 

[JimmyK]

Of course. But that isn't how you build a team, that's how you run a business. Moyes never did that and he was hamstrung with sell to buy for his whole tenure.

I get we have to do that but that's only 1 part of the game.

Again, I just disagree with the whole age thing. You buy right, age doesn't matter.

That is how you build a team in the long run. Look around at the top clubs, how many 28 year olds do they buy? Bar the very occasional exception they don’t do it, they buy younger players with the intention of having them grow into a cohesive team by the time they’re that age. Whether we like it or not, Liverpool are the perfect example of how you properly build a team, apart from Thiago they haven’t spent money on anyone over 27 under Klopp. I don’t know how you can disagree with that model tbh.

I think you're both right really. I've said it a lot this week but if you look at the overall picture of players brought in under Brands then age really wasn't much of an issue - Kean Richarlison Digne Gomes Gbamin Iwobi Bernard Mina Godfrey all came in at decent ages to get plenty of use out of them and them still keep their value - but the problem is not many of them have actually turned out to be much good. Signing good young players is better than signing good old players but signing good old players is better than signing crap young players. Long story short the key is to make sure the players you buy are good and if they are the age thing becomes less of an issue.

 

[toffee-L]

Even he was 26 when they bought him, just entering his peak and not ready to come out of it. Plus he’s a centre back who has never relied on pace, so they would always get that extra few years out of him. I’d have no problem if that was the profile of player we were spending the money on. Apart from the injuries Mina would’ve been our version of that, I don’t have any problem with that signing in theory, it’s just been incredibly unfortunate that he’s so injury prone.

I like Mina a lot but we got our pants pulled down for him.

He'd been at Barcelona for less than half a season, cost them about £7m and was widely panned by their fans for his handful of performances there and one World Cup later FC Silly Buggers come along with nearly £30m for him.

As good as the player is though, I'm not sure we'll get our money back for him and his injuries have been massively frustrating. We need to be far more mindful of the types of fees we pay out moving forwards, the Mina deal is one in a long line of transfer were the selling club saw us coming from a mile away and rinsed us well above the player's actual value. I know quite a few people on here think we've over payed for Mykolenko and Patterson but I really have no problem with fees in that kind of ball park. There is so much value to be found out there on players less than £20m so I'd like to see us revamp our entire recruitment infrastructure which could save us so much money down the line.

 

[mahermi1]

Bernard was turbo guff. Absolutely abysmal.

Not the first season he wasnt, opinions differ.

 

[BlueToff]

Digne didn’t need 3 or 4 months to settle, its been one game so far for our new left back and he did ok. We have Godfrey as cover if that’s the case. The ideal centre back partnership at the moment is Mina and Keane if fully fit anyway

Digne was 25, had played for Barcelona, Roma, PSG and a title-challenging (or winning, can't remember exactly which) Lille side. He was already an experienced France international who'd only missed the 2018 WC squad due to not playing at Barca in the back half of 17-18.

I think Mykolenko is going to be a good player. He's very raw though. He's come straight from the Ukrainian league which is in no way comparable to the experience Digne had. At least he's played at a big international tournament and this year in the Champions League, however. That will set him in good stead. He hasn't played wing-back really and throwing him into that system is possibly going to be detrimental but we'll see how it goes.

But you can't really compare the two players in terms of relative experience when they came in. Mykolenko is going to need time and patience. He got skinned a few times the other day and gave away silly fouls just like Digne gets slated for. It'll come with time though, was always going to be a tough debut and he's got 120 minutes under his belt and looked more assured as the game went on.

 

[BlueToff]

I like Mina a lot but we got our pants pulled down for him.

He'd been at Barcelona for less than half a season, cost them about £7m and was widely panned by their fans for his handful of performances there and one World Cup later FC Silly Buggers come along with nearly £30m for him.

As good as the player is though, I'm not sure we'll get our money back for him and his injuries have been massively frustrating. We need to be far more mindful of the types of fees we pay out moving forwards, the Mina deal is one in a long line of transfer were the selling club saw us coming from a mile away and rinsed us well above the player's actual value. I know quite a few people on here think we've over payed for Mykolenko and Patterson but I really have no problem with fees in that kind of ball park. There is so much value to be found out there on players less than £20m so I'd like to see us revamp our entire recruitment infrastructure which could save us so much money down the line.

We'll get £15m for Mina, tops. He's a brilliant player but with his injury record and the fact he'll have a year on his deal, it'll be £15m. Shame too because he's a very very well-liked person at the club and is a leader at the back too.

 

[mightymoyes]

Digne didn’t need 3 or 4 months to settle, its been one game so far for our new left back and he did ok. We have Godfrey as cover if that’s the case. The ideal centre back partnership at the moment is Mina and Keane if fully fit anyway

yeh if you're a kopite or just want us relegated

 

[BlueToff]

I thought that his last 6 months at the club was his best spell, I thought he was playing out of his skin towards the end of his time here.

Gana was just ridiculously good and the way he was criticised by some was mad.

Feel for Silva there. Had the rug pulled under him with that. Brands/the club knew for 6 months that Gana was going yet didn't get his replacement in beforehand. When they did, Silva's initial use of Gbamin was far too risky and then the medical team cocked up.

 

[4737carlin]

Bernard was turbo guff. Absolutely abysmal.

Didnt we make a profit on him? Which is very rare for a Brands signing, I'm sure Lucas could be the only other player he signed weve profited on, if Villa take the bait that is

 

[BlueToff]

yeh if you're a kopite or just want us relegated

I mean we look better with Mina in the team whoever plays next to him.

Keane and Mina is the only partnership that has actually worked over the last few seasons. Mina and Godfrey is probably the ideal partnership but they've played together in one game, which was the win at Leeds last season.

 

[BlueToff]

Didnt we make a profit on him? Which is very rare for a Brands signing, I'm sure Lucas could be the only other player he signed weve profited on, if Villa take the bait that is

Well Brands had a £6m sale lined up for Bernard to Saudi Arabia last January and Carlo vetoed it...

We got about £800k for him this summer.

 

[ToffeeTim]

yeh if you're a kopite or just want us relegated

Keane and Mina has been the only remotely decent partnership we've had at the back in recent years. People can keep arguing this fact, but it's been blatantly obvious and it's tedious at this point.

Mina is going to have to be sold though if he isn't going to extend his contract. So we are going to have to plan ahead. We can't afford a good player with value to leave for free.