A good player, yes, but it looked like time to move on, to me. For whatever reason, the relationship between Pep and Aymeric seemed to have run its course.
Laporte says goodbye
- Thread starter BlueDejong
- Start date
Centurions
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I guess you missed the wink?He is not a basque. He doesn't feel himself like that. He becomes from a french family. He does not speak a single word in basque.
Basque and catalan culture in french sides are very reduced. Maybe 2 or 3% of people are and feel the own culture.
Athletic or Real Sociedad are very nationalists clubes.
Athletic resist without buying foreigners. Real Sociedad broke that 32 or 33 years ago, and took A LOT of work for them to make that decision.
In fact, first foreign player they bought was Aldridge, an irish guy, in a political decision. It was like "well, he is not basque, but he is irish, 'a way of being basque' ".
IRA and ETA (terrorist independist basque group) in those years were brothers. There is a great connection between irish, catalan and basque people.
This is Belfast:
Guys like Laporte are guys who just tolerate basque culture, whom they knew in almost adulthood, through football in Athletic Bilbao.
Burtonblue
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I think his knee problem is an ongoing issue which will continue to limit his playing time.
That coupled with his high wages is probably what stopped other premiership and European teams signing him for big money.
For the Saudi League where money is no object he is another great marquee signing and works for him in securing his family’s financial future.
Great guy and I’m sure he would have liked to stay here longer but I understand why he’s gone there.
Belgian Flash
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Theres worse, we gave Benzema for free as a reward for his years of service, and he is the BDO holder. And didn't buy a replacement for him. There is probably truth that Laporte despite not being old is washed up due to wear and tear, similar to Benzema actually. Maybe thats why Madrid didn't get involved even when Militao went down with the ACL.
I wanted him so bad when City got him though, but I knew Madrid is not dealing with Athletic, not even to pay the clause, thats how bad the relationship between the two clubs is. And we just won the CL with Ramos and Varane, who despite me rating worse than Laporte at the time, was still considered a top CB in Europe. So we were never going to shell out that much. We also foolishly decided to invest time and money in a glass man like Vallejo, and we know how that turned out.
Wretched Vengeance
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Did us proud. All the best.
Tolmie scores
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They all live in a bubble full of playstations and luxury cars in a garage that they don't drive =:they could be sat anywhere in the world = very little diffetence i imagine
Tolmie scores
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And a top player at that, he had a couple of seasons where he was our best player, no mean feat in our squad
ali benarbia's studs
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An amazing player during our peak times. Grateful for all he did here, wish him all the best in the future. Didnt like to see the back of him. Miss him already. Cheers Aymeric you legend.
leebradbury
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why the fuck is laporte going.hes a world class center back ffs