John Stones

[Rhapsody in Blue]

Stones is young. He can defend and he's has two good feet and is calm under pressure. He has lapses in concentration, but he's still young enough that this can be trained out of him. Like Mangala, all the raw tools are there, he just needs a good coach to guide him to get the best out of the player.

It's no coincidence the likes have Stones and Mangala have struggled with the tactical systems they had to endure over the last couple of seasons.

AMEN to that! It's easy to forget that Pep has a wonderful track record of developing young players. All central defenders in the world would struggle under Pellegrini's tactics. Wonderful signing if true!

 

[TRUE BLUE NO1]

James Robson ‏@JamesRobsonMEN 23s24 seconds ago
Barca made a big play for Stones. If they've pulled out, they must be convinced there's no hope

 

[IWasHere]

Couldn't let this little gem go unnoticed. From rag cafe :-

Both Evans and Jones were far better prospects. They just couldn't/can't keep fit.

Someone said they prefer that paddy kid, I stopped reading after that

 

[Wolfkin]

Great news, i'm sure Pep can make Laporte - Stones a great partnership

 

[UncleCTID]

Someone posted a very good video article about the trend and effect of the media building up, discrediting and then destroying the reputation of (young) footballers in this country, and how generally the football 'community' only deal in 'world class' or 'shit' as lazy black and white descriptors. And how it's lapped up by fans...

Very good article, and very apparent that its conclusions bear truth, as it seems a fair few of our bluemoon brethren have bought into the media's character assassinations of Stones and Sterling over a one year period, not really taking into account all the other factors that impact on a single players performance (team performance, tactics, form blah blah blah)

Worth digging out and watching...

 

[Delphacito]

The best team in the world also signed vermaelen + douglas

They certainly wasn't signed to be a starter. Squad player at best. Stones is a/will be a replacement for Mascherano.

 

[Lkzerinho]

Just realized him and Laporte were actually born one day apart

 

[meeesh]

Stones is young. He can defend and he's has two good feet and is calm under pressure. He has lapses in concentration, but he's still young enough that this can be trained out of him. Like Mangala, all the raw tools are there, he just needs a good coach to guide him to get the best out of the player.

It's no coincidence the likes have Stones and Mangala have struggled with the tactical systems they had to endure over the last couple of seasons.

Lapses in concentration........he will fit perfectly into our defensive line then :)

 

[colombia-mcfc]

Stones is rubbish. He cant defend to save his life. Much rather we gave denayer a go or sign a defender who can defend, Bruma from psv is very good and cheap. Pep is here to coach players. Im sure he can help Mangala's passing ability just like he improved boatengs passing. Everyone says that Mangala makes mistakes but Stones makes 10x more mistakes. He is just another overrated english player. Surely our scouting department must be better than this? I would personally sign Laporte and Bruma and use the money that we would spend on stones to improve the full back positions and another centre mid.

 

[g180aj]

Just realized him and Laporte were actually born one day apart

I said this in the Laporte thread a while back