Aymeric Laporte

[kaz7]

Lot of players have long contracts but still have threads. Nobody knows anything for sure, so why close it?

His club made a statement and he himself said he has decided to stay there,we are sure so this thread needs closing

 

[BlueDeadHead]

His club made a statement and he himself said he has decided to stay there,we are sure so this thread needs closing

Sounds like Delph.

 

[adr2.8i]

maybe laporte will do a Delph??

yeah i'll come, no im staying.......hang on.......im coming........

Football is a funny old game after all :-)

 

[Tron Coltrane]

Wow, my apologies. I came off rather worse than I had intended to. You are right, it is just opinion. And my opinion isn't any more valid than anyone else's ( Well maybe except for Shaels - my opinion is always more valid than his. Lol). Anyway my apologies. I read my response again and was a bit dissapointed with the dimissive tone.

I do realize I make forecful arguments sometimes, but I try not to insult or be dismissive of others. Sometimes I fail at it. Happy you called me out. Thanks.

Well, to meet you half way I did try to make sure I had the full context of the argument before jumping in, but in reading back further it was more of a "who's more comfortable in possession?" conversation than it was a "who's a better defender?" discussion. If that's the case, I have a lot more sympathy for someone being a bit more absolutist about it. You could find a one-legged monkey smoking a pipe who looks more comfortable on the ball than Mangala. Just becomes a more nuanced discussion when you start to value his lack of comfortability on the ball vs. not lunging into tackles all crazy-like, getting passed by simple 1-2's and giving away dangerous free kicks.

Anyway, Laporte... bummer for us. Still theoretically happy in the end if I felt like that money/attention was now going to fullbacks.

 

[Tevez City]

I would rather rely on Otamendi, Kompany, Mangala & Denayer instead of spending 40m on Laporte or Stones.

We have the best set of CBs in the Premier League.

 

[itisrising]

I would rather rely on Otamendi, Kompany, Mangala & Denayer instead of spending 40m on Laporte or Stones.

We have the best set of CBs in the Premier League.

Like I states previously, I don't think it's an issue with the quality of CB's we have. We've had some top CB's e.g. Nastasic, Savic, Boateng etc and it's crazy to think that we've only had one successful CB in 8 years. I'm not quite sure as to the reasons why but it should certainly be discussed.

 

[Tevez City]

Like I states previously, I don't think it's an issue with the quality of CB's we have. We've had some top CB's e.g. Nastasic, Savic, Boateng etc and it's crazy to think that we've only had one successful CB in 8 years. I'm not quite sure as to the reasons why but it should certainly be discussed.

I think when Mancini was here, we had the best defence record in the league !

 

[Dax777]

Well, to meet you half way I did try to make sure I had the full context of the argument before jumping in, but in reading back further it was more of a "who's more comfortable in possession?" conversation than it was a "who's a better defender?" discussion. If that's the case, I have a lot more sympathy for someone being a bit more absolutist about it. You could find a one-legged monkey smoking a pipe who looks more comfortable on the ball than Mangala. Just becomes a more nuanced discussion when you start to value his lack of comfortability on the ball vs. not lunging into tackles all crazy-like, getting passed by simple 1-2's and giving away dangerous free kicks.

Anyway, Laporte... bummer for us. Still theoretically happy in the end if I felt like that money/attention was now going to fullbacks.

I'd be lying if I said I'm not a bit bummed by this. But Onmward and upwards. If Pep can make a class defender out of Kimmich who isn't even a defender, I believe he can do the same with Denayer. Pep's magic often lies ( at least it seems to me) in molding young players and adding older players who already fit his schemes.

Stones and Laporte I believe would have been molded into the next dynamic duo CBs. Sadly it wouldn't happen now. I'm not even sure we'll get Stones at this rate :(

Anyway, long off season yet. Besides there are lots of young cultured CBs who are coming up. So if we don't do it this year, we'd have another list next year to do it with. I guess give the guys here a chance for a year and the pivot.

But if we are going to do that, we better reinforce the middle, and LB positions with talented footballers. There are some on display at the Euros.

 

[Dax777]

Let's hope he's got more balls than Laporte.

I don't think Laporte showed a lack of balls.

 

[itisrising]

I don't think Laporte showed a lack of balls.

Some may view it as loyalty - others may view it as playing safe and having a lack of ambition. One thing is for certain, if he really wanted to cement himself as one of the best in his position and play with world-class players, he wouldn't have stayed.