City fans writing John Stones off too early?

[Didsbury Dave]

What are the personal issues everyone keeps referring to?

 

[Rammy Blue]

I agree totally with the OP. I thought stones and laporte would become the best pairing in Europe this year. But what’s happened? Why is he not getting games? Does anyone actually know?

My guess it’s the usual “finished with childhood sweetheart and started sticking it in everything that moves” kind of problem. Never going to go down well with Pep.

 

[CrownPointBlue]

Great OP. I remain adamant that no player of ours receives more underserved and unfair criticism than John Stones. It borders on the ridiculous a lot of the time.

He is definitely good enough for this team and has proven that beyond doubt. I'm sticking by him to bounce back next season.

He's got to get fit physically & mentally and stay fit.
Then he's got to become Kompany esque on the pitch.
If he does that he's got a chance of a lifetime.
If he doesn't,and word on the street is there are doubts on both elements, he'll probably be replaced.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

I agree, I thought he played well in the LC final, but a silly mistake cost us a goal.

Similarly against Palace at home, me and my mate were raving about how good he'd been, brilliant on the ball. Then he makes two monumental fuck ups and got absolutely slaughtered in the press.

Obviously centre halves by nature can't really make silly mistakes and give away goals and be considered to have played well. But when you look at the bigger picture of his all round game, it's generally very good. Particularly alongside Laporte.

He's clearly got the ability and the physicality to be a really top centre half. But it's a mentality issue holding him back. I still think that can be ironed out and hope Pep has not lost faith in him because there's still a top player in there.

Yeah his complete bodily meltdown when he collapsed to the floor was a strange thing and a bad mistake, in the EFL Cup final.

EVERYTHING else he did in that game was exemplary. He was one of our better players.

But the level of criticism he received post-game was skewed towards “sell him” “last game in a City shirt” level of talk, completely ignoring his overall performance.

 

[blueballs84]

I'm going to trust Pep on this one.

 

[Scottyboi]

What are the personal issues everyone keeps referring to?

Cheating on his Mrs and fucking his life up as a result.

 

[CrownPointBlue]

To be fair he may have mental health issues - to say weak as piss is a bit low.
He genuinely may not like people like Pep barking at him every game and people shouting at him.
I certainly wouldn't.

BOO !!

 

[Gio's mate]

Always hoped that Stones would fulfil the potential he had, however, four years down the line i don't think he has progressed at all. Personal issues etc are news to me so i can't really say anything about that, but his injury record is atrocious and you have to question whether or not he is looking after himself as he should be. To really put it into perspective just look at Laporte, who is one day older than Stones, the difference between the two is night and day. In my opinion, Garcia is more advanced than Stones in both ability and maturity, and is six/seven years his junior.

There's always been questions over English players and you have to wonder about the pressure they are put under so young or even just the culture, think of relatively young players like Laporte, Bernardo, Rodri, Ederson etc, even looking back to when we signed the likes of David Silva, Yaya, Aguero in their early-mid twenties, then look at the England squad and see who their equivalent would be, nine times out of ten their levels will be miles off.

A real shame as i believe he could be one of the very best, and i hope he still can, i don't think he will though.

 

[Father Paul]

I agree, I thought he played well in the LC final, but a silly mistake cost us a goal.

Similarly against Palace at home, me and my mate were raving about how good he'd been, brilliant on the ball. Then he makes two monumental fuck ups and got absolutely slaughtered in the press.

Obviously centre halves by nature can't really make silly mistakes and give away goals and be considered to have played well. But when you look at the bigger picture of his all round game, it's generally very good. Particularly alongside Laporte.

He's clearly got the ability and the physicality to be a really top centre half. But it's a mentality issue holding him back. I still think that can be ironed out and hope Pep has not lost faith in him because there's still a top player in there.

Considering all variables it's hard to give him more than a six for his time at the club. Petsonally for me it is a bit of an expectations thing when we bought him I anticipated gradual development into a world class defender within the Pep system. He just seems to have had a relatively flat trajectory and injuries and personal issues have ensured encouraging spells have been wrapped in inconsistancy and mediocraty. But I agree there is a good player in there somewhere and it isn't beyond the realms of possibility that it might still burst out.

 

[vincent]

Will be interesting to see if he gets another season. I would think him or Otamendi will be moved on.