It's Quiet thread 14 - 'do one' edition

[Neville Kneville]

Stones quality and mentality is a lesser issue still that could easily be overcome with gametime and man management. The real issue is him being injury prone. Him staying is okay but if he cannot lock down a starter spot after 4 seasons at the club that says a lot in itself.

If Kompany was here as well, aged about 27 then Stones is perfect.

As someone we base our season on, it's negligent not to reinforce his position.

 

[Carlos- the- jackal]

City have already briefed we have the £25m option again next summer and want to see how he does again in his second season.

Personally think he’s ready now, we need legs, energy and bite centrally and what i saw from him at Villa he’s got all that and technically good aswell.

 

[domalino]

No fight in Stones ? Really there seemed plenty when he was hooking one off the line v Liverpool

He's got no fight in him. Remember last season when that non-league mug claimed any striker would score a 40 a year past Stones just before we played them in the cup? Any player with any kind of fight or pride would have turned up and absolutely battered that amateur, but Stones got pushed around, and eventually he scored.

Stones is broken mentally. His personal life is a state, he looks like shit, I disagree with @tolmie's hairdoo that his passing regressed because of Rodri, it's been getting less and less adventurous and penetrating since 2017/18 ended.




Maybe he's fixable, maybe he can get over everything and get the swagger back, but I've got no faith in it, I think he's just got too many mental scars from high profile cock up after high profile cock up and the Nations League killed him off. There's no way the john stones of 2019 or 2020 would do this -




I'd love to see him hit the gym, go through a transformation like Leon Goretzka at Bayern, who put on about 10kg of muscle and went from talented but not that effective box-to-box midfielder to a completely dominating physical presence. That would help him a lot IMO, if he could just learn to relish the physical fights the way Kompany did, VVD does, Koulibaly can, it might give him a confidence boost if he has more to rely on than passing.

 

[OccupiedPalestineBlues]

Played some great teams in that didn’t we? That reminds me of when Pele was raving about Nicky Butt during a World Cup.

Stones was great for England then and I think he would still look great playing in the team because England don't play a high line like we do. There are plenty of good centre backs out there who would suddenly look very average if playing for us.

 

[balotelli's back pocket]

He's got no fight in him. Remember last season when that non-league mug claimed any striker would score a 40 a year past Stones just before we played them in the cup? Any player with any kind of fight or pride would have turned up and absolutely battered that amateur, but Stones got pushed around, and eventually he scored.

Stones is broken mentally. His personal life is a state, he looks like shit, I disagree with @tolmie's hairdoo that his passing regressed because of Rodri, it's been getting less and less adventurous and penetrating since 2017/18 ended.

Maybe he's fixable, maybe he can get over everything and get the swagger back. There's no way the john stones of 2019 or 2020 would do this -

That is not how I remeber that game going down. That mouthy prick spent all game on Harwood Bellis because he didn't have the bottle to play against Stones. Harwood Bellis got beaten for the goal. The only time Pope went up against Stones he ended up on the ground and Stones had the ball.

 

[leo_city]

Alaba is available, he wants to play in midfield why don't we let him, he plays CDM for Austria and he's very good there

Zinchenko can do that if Pep doesn't keep forcing him at left back where he's clearly uncomfortable, he plays that role for Ukraine quite well. Instead we seem to have no interest in a proper left back and keep resorting to depending on Mendy's fitness and makeshift options when he does his knee in for the umptieth time

 

[Marvin]

He may not be in the premier league, Serie A is very different.

See Napoli v Liverpool. They've played 4 times in recent seasons.

 

[leo_city]

Stones was great for England then and I think he would still look great playing in the team because England don't play a high line like we do. There are plenty of good centre backs out there who would suddenly look very average if playing for us.

Stones didn't quite cover himself in glory on his last outing with England

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

Again, I think the exact opposite is true.

You first said our interest was solid about two months ago and every response was an excited one. I even commented to say that you know a player is good when we're linked and none of the usuals show up to complain. I'm pretty sure you even expressed your delight at the news.

Compare it to now and the difference is pretty evident.

I was excited by what I had seen against Liverpool, for sure. I've watched a helluva lot for research and job purposes since we were first linked. He's a long way off being the merc I had thought)

 

[Keeper!]

See Napoli v Liverpool. They've played 4 times in recent seasons.

He was outstanding but for some reason this last season he's not that player, that's the question mark.

And maybe the reason we are reluctant to pay the price quoted, if the club were 100% certain he was the man, I think the deal would now be complete.