Quantity wise we certainly have enough CBs now, and dare I say quality wise we'll be OK too? Sierralta is back soon, Nkoulou has had an encouraging start, and WTE has had his moments at this level. I certainly wouldn't be wasting finite resources on a very expensive player who we can't guarantee will be fit, and who we have absolutely no idea whether he'd actually be an upgrade on what we have
We need to see Sierralta have a good run of games I think to see just how good he is at this level. Hasn’t exactly had much of a Premier league career so far - not his fault of course .
I note from that article (b0llocks as it may be being The S*n), that Newcastle are also interested. It'd be hilarious if he was one of their first signings under their new ownership.
Banter article placed by his agent. Someone once told me 'if you're going to lie, lie big' but I think the agent has taken this a bit too far with the 'on the radar of an incredible 13 clubs...'.
He's definitely going to Newcastle. Clubs are licking their lips at the prospect of offloading overpriced tosh to the Northeast.
Well, we have Nkoulou now, so our defence is better than it has been for a long time (not saying much I know!). If him and Sierralta can steer clear of injuries, that has the potential to be a decent partnership, WTE isn't a bad backup too, and while Jones may or may not be an upgrade on any of the 5 we have at the moment, it would seem a big gamble considering he won't be cheap and might not even be fit. Basically, I'm encouraged (if not 100% confident) by our defensive options now, but not convinced at all that Jones would be a useful signing for us
Out of WTE and Cathcart it was WTE who was dropped. He's dreadful. If Sierralta doesn't find his feet in the PL we're then hoping Cathcart or Kabasele turn into defenders who can regularly perform in this league, which isn't going to happen as the last few years have shown us.
Nkoulou has played literally one single game, in which he looked decent enough. WTE is, in fact, a bad backup - he's a bad anything at this level, as evidenced by every performance he's put in this season. And even Sierralta is a guy we all love but who is totally unproven at this, or indeed any, top-level, young for a player of his position and with even fewer games under his belt than most of a similar age, and hasn't exactly set the division alight in the few appearances he's had the opportunity to make so far (if somewhat understandably). One injury alone, even in your fantasy scenario where we're suddenly sorted because the injury-demanded free agent we drafted in didn't shame himself in one game, would put us firmly back in the pure shyte that we all universally acknowledged not a month ago. I don't mean this personally but I can't believe I'm reading this kind of lunacy at this point in time; it honestly worries me. No wonder Gino feels perfectly happy to fiddle as the defence burns season after season.
Yep. A shockingly bad defender even at his peak, propped up by the fact he played for Man Utd and pulled memeable faces. Yet still better than our current crop of non-defending defenders.
The Cogs will say we should know our place, and that we can’t afford to sign proven defenders, but that doesn’t mean we have no choice but to sign injury plagued players very much on the downslope of their career. I would rather we were looking for players with the potential to step up and attain greater overall heights and who will also be cheaper, chances are they’ve got as much chance of making it as one of our has-been signings has of staying fit, motivated and in shape.
If signing Phil Jones means more staff to help people with the tickets on their phone, I’m all for it.
An accident waiting to happen. Spurs are looking at defenders and Rodon is a much better option imo. That's if we have money.
Wow, after all the talk of him being seen as 'one for the future' by Spurs and having a chance to stake his claim as a starter under Nuno this season after his supposed good form at the Euros, he's managed a total of 78 minutes in the league! Hard to tell whether he'll feature more under Conte - obviously he hasn't yet, and Conte isn't exactly noted for being an 'improve the younger players you've got at the club already' coach, but then again he did give Bastoni 58 league appearances (mostly as a starter) over the past two seasons at 20/21 years of age. Given he only cost £11m rising to £15m, but that equally they might still be invested in keeping him given his 5-year contract and any possible doubts about singing over his own future to a relegation-threatened team, it seems like it would make a lot of sense to take your advice and be prepared to pay what it costs to bring him in on loan for half a season. Not that I'm labouring under any misapprehension that this might happen, obviously.
The natural fox in the box we have been looking for. Sign him up and stick him upfront. Some of those finishes past De Gea were pure instinct.
No thanks. He was letting Championship players run of the back of him last season on a regular basis, be ruined at Premiership level. Gets attracted to the ball to easy and leaves space behind. QPR home and away for goals spring to mind.
Yep, extremely overrated and I had no confidence in him every time he played last season. I would've been all for shipping him off if we'd replaced him with somebody competing for a start, instead we shipped him off and decided having clean sheets made matches in the Championship boring, so therefore we need even fewer defenders to keep it exciting.
This post would have been far better if it had been made before WTE made sure he wasn’t attracted to the ball, left no space in behind - and left all the space in front of him for Che Adams to bend in the winner for S’ton 2 weeks ago.
I really do give credit here to Ranieri for finally dropping WTE. The stats on unforced errors leading to key chances for the opposition must have been through the roof for him.
Wilmott seems to be held in esteem with a proportion of our fanbase. I don't know why, average championship defender, fair play to him and hope he has a good career. But It's irrelevant to what WTE's shortcomings are, he wasn't bought to replace Wilmott, both were here together. Sell them both, one or none, isn't going to make the other any better they are both average. Whats your point, we should of sold WTE and kept Wilmott ? or not of bought WTE a year before Wilmott was going to be sold ? Or maybe we should of bought better CentreBacks in the first place ? Either way put your crystal ball away, it's the same quality as everyone else's crystal ball most call it hindsight.
Chill out. Personally, I think it’s WTE who is a Championship level CB who is pointless at this level because he can’t pass a football very well, and that is exposed further in the way we play. Wilmot has plenty of scope to improve and the right coach will improve his imperfections - I think Ranieri would have made him far better for instance. But Xisco had no interest in that. I also think Wilmot would be better in the PL than WTE. That’s not me saying I think Wilmot is PL level or anything more than average right now - but he was sold laughably cheap and wanted out because he was overlooked by a terrible coach in Xisco.
Just when we were all getting excited about signing Phil Jones, it looks as though he will finally get a game for United tonight against Wolves, two years after his last appearance.
