Keeping players like Kiko around is why we were relegated with a record low points total. They hit their ceilings a long time ago, weren’t cut out for the PL 3 years ago let alone in a years time, the only way is down. Better to roll the dice on some younger players who may have greater upside potential. He may be adequate next season, but that just increases the chance we’ll keep him on again and get stuck in this never ending purgatory of keeping mediocre crap on the books that we know for a fact are not PL capable, a defender who can’t defend to save his life at premier league level, these players should always have been binned off whenever we’ve been promoted and then we wouldn’t be facing this problem.
I agree IF we can get a player who is as good going forward in the champ who could develop into a prem standard player next season. Maybe this FGR RB could be the answer ? Otherwise I'd happily keep him, hope he's as effective as he was 2 years ago, and look to replace if we are promoted when we would have a larger pool of talent to pick from. The challenge now is to retain a squad capable of pushing for promotion after losing the players we will lose and being stuck with the players we will be stuck with after cost cutting and asset sales are complete.
I think the utopia here is get Wilson, keep Femenia, jettison Ngakia. Kiko is competent but questionable on injuries and facing declinging ability to age, however he will be performant in 20+ games at champ level even at 32. The problem to solve is who will replace him at the end of this upcoming season whether we are staying in the championship of preparing for life in the Premiership. At that point the question is would Wilson be good enough to step up again, or do we need to sign an established player.
I’m a bit stunned by how many people are happy to see Kiko leave given how he absolutely ****ed on the Champo last time. Would keep for one more year, if we go up he will be surplus and can go back to Spain then.
Come on, 4 assists from wing back in a team that finished second is hardly ****ing the Championship is it. Cyrus Christie got 5 assists in the same season. What else was impressive? Some good overlaps and decent crosses?
Actually that is a good point - i think his crossing was far better than our **** strike force made them look by their lack of movement and anticipation (TD etc)
I'm not denying that Kiko was good when we were in the Championship, he hardly ripped it a new one though. If we can get money for him and bring in a younger player who won't throw in the towel when we're up against it then I'd much prefer that.
Did you not watch the whole season? Anyone who did could see pretty clearly how important he was. Can't think of many wingers who got the best of him thanks to his pace, and his link up with Sarr alone must have won us about 10 games alone, teams literally couldn't handle it. Only RB who came close to him in the league was Max Aarons. Also, wing back? He can't have played more than 8 games at wing back over the whole season. For the majority he was a RB in a flat back 4 that conceded the joint fewest goals of any championship side in history.
He linked well with Sarr during the Championship season but was hardly ripping g it up. Kiko goes with my best wishes but is easily replaced.
I don’t care if he’d be decent next year. I want him gone. In fact, being decent would probably be the worst thing that could happen, because then he’d get a new contract. For 5 years. For what he was when he came here, on the whole, he’s been a decent player, but his time has been up for a while now.
Always liked Kiko, on his day he was brilliant but unfortunately he was always injured or just wasn't up for it, especially if the game wasn't going his way.
I think the biggest issue with Kiko is whether he will want to be here next season. If he wants to go back to Spain then I think he will, leaving us with just Ngakia as things stand. No worries though as Cathcart can always cover RWB .
Kiko was playing RB. Also I don't see any stats showing Christie getting 5 assists in the league in recent years. He was playing RWB for Fulham this season and also had 4 assists. Plus that was actually with a decent striker to aim for in Mitrovic. Kiko hasn't really had a striker to hit with his very good crosses in years, if at all while here.
Kiko Femenia - a terrible defender, no better than Cyrus Christie going forward but he does have a lovely first touch. I think that's a fair summary.
He could in The Championship which is where we are. I'm not saying he's brilliant but if him Ngakia stayed it's an area we probably don't need to attend to immediately
He's a truly awful defender with the awareness of a dead ferret. Also I can't see a place for Ngakia if Edwards uses the system he had at FGR. We need an upgrade in that position for sure.
If that's true it's very strange how he wasn't rinsed every week by any half decent Championship winger. Even more baffling is how we hardly conceded a goal that was his fault or even just down his side during an entire Championship season. Bizarre, honestly
I wouldn't mind keeping him on for this season, as I'm sure he'd be decent enough at this level. I'd much rather we spent money on centre backs and midfielders for example.
Wow, after many years you finally managed to find an incorrect post. Perhaps if there's ever a next time how about one when I'm actually talking to you, and on something which is particularly relevant to anything; as opposed to you stalking every post I make in desperation to find a flaw somewhere.
