5 | John Stones - 2025/26

Love the guy but he’s plays less and less games every season. He played only 1134 mins
  • Premier League: 545 minutes
  • UEFA Champions League: 364 minutes
  • FA Cup: 45 minutes
  • EFL Cup: 180 minutes
Highest paid defender we have. The club wants to reduce the wage bill. Pep said it himself. If you can’t play every 3 days. You can’t be at this club. He. Needs. To. Go.

Who would wanna leave a job where you get paid 250k a week and basically hardly work for it ?
 
wolviedinho said:
This would be a good outcome for all. Stones will be needed this season to play and help the young CBs. I think he will have a good season and then anything is possible.

Don’t like to single out a player.

If the option is stones, Ake or Akanji then it has to be Akanji. His form has dropped badly. Cost little so should be easy enough to move. Also might give us the final push to buy a proper RB.
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One thing most fans don't understand about Akanji is that he's an ideal squad player from Pep's perspective. Why? Because Pep wants to work with a small squad and for this purpose he needs players who are generally available and versatile. Fit and versatile players can play multiple positions, so when we have injuries, they can step up.

Akanji fits both requirements: the player with most appearances over the last 3 seasons and the only defender who is versatile enough to play across the entire defensive line, from RB through CB to LB. He played too many minutes due to other defenders being unavailable, which caused a dip in his form. This is kinda obvious.
 
wolviedinho said:
This would be a good outcome for all. Stones will be needed this season to play and help the young CBs. I think he will have a good season and then anything is possible.

Don’t like to single out a player.

If the option is stones, Ake or Akanji then it has to be Akanji. His form has dropped badly. Cost little so should be easy enough to move. Also might give us the final push to buy a proper RB.
Click to expand...
Akanji is a perfect squad player he rarely gets injured and cancover two positions. He has also played through injury and fatigue this season. Ake has injury problems and let us not get started on Stones. He is the offspring of Darren Anderton and LedLey King. Wonderful player when fit but when is fit? For 2 England games a year?
 
alexmcity said:
One thing most fans don't understand about Akanji is that he's an ideal squad player from Pep's perspective. Why? Because Pep wants to work with a small squad and for this purpose he needs players who are generally available and versatile. Fit and versatile players can play multiple positions, so when we have injuries, they can step up.

Akanji fits both requirements: the player with most appearances over the last 3 seasons and the only defender who is versatile enough to play across the entire defensive line, from RB through CB to LB. He played too many minutes due to other defenders being unavailable, which caused a dip in his form. This is kinda obvious.
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He is also a liability.
 
kingn6 said:
Akanji is a perfect squad player he rarely gets injured and cancover two positions. He has also played through injury and fatigue this season. Ake has injury problems and let us not get started on Stones. He is the offspring of Darren Anderton and LedLey King. Wonderful player when fit but when is fit? For 2 England games a year?
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Love stones so I won’t say a bad word about him. Not his fault injuries have fucked him.

Akanji has been a brilliant at times and cost very little but someone has to go and he would be my choice.
 
wolviedinho said:
He is also a liability.
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Pep played him over Stones and Ake when we had to win the last 9 games in 23/24 to win 4 in a row. He isn't bad.

Not saying he's world class or a firm starter, but as a squad player he's valuable and for some reason underrated by our fan base.

If he stays, it might be his last season with us, same with Ake and Stones. Let's hope the club will take the best decision.
 
wolviedinho said:
Love stones so I won’t say a bad word about him. Not his fault injuries have fucked him.

Akanji has been a brilliant at times and cost very little but someone has to go and he would be my choice.
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I agree with Stones comments I just think we need to hold on to Akanji this season to bed in another defender or if inury strikes.

I would rather loan out one of the younger players or let Gundo go.
 
He's phenomenal when he is fit, but he just can't stay fit.

And I feel this has been the case for quite some time now, top 5 in the league when healthy but just can't stay healthy consistently enough.
 
bugsyblue said:
Disagree. I’d rather give him one more season, see how he does fitness wise and see if he can fight for his place. If it doesn’t workout then yes he’s an expensive bench player for the season but he’s earned it.
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I take it you dont think you can tell gow he did from the last 3 seasons?ast 3 seasons
 
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