Lescott Interview in the Guardian

[FantasyIreland]

Feel better now hun?

 

[RandomJ]

But if we really do chuck out one of the best defenders in the country just because we have a kid who may be a bit more mobile, well it's utter fucking madness.

'A bit more mobile' ?? yep,similar to how a ferrari is a bit faster than a skoda........

Lescott is a very good defender but he has rightly lost his place to Nasty.

You fucking people who think you are such smartarses when it comes to football, make me piss.

I'm not some kind of clueless fucking philistine who doesn't understand how it all works, I fully understand the thinking behind it, I'm just not a fucking sheep who blindly agrees with it without question.

There are very few clubs who can replace title winning cb pairings with 21 year old kids & get away with it. If you asked VK who he would rather work with, I recon he would say Lescott.

Nastasic is a promising young cb who may have a big future, I hope he does. I hope he pisses all over Lescott next season & is thebest cb in the world. But I've seen fucking loads of them & some better than him, who haven't done that. The modern game allows for less physical & more techinical players TO A POINT. It's not an exact science & yet you people pretend you know for sure that it is.

You are so arrogant & basically full of fucking shit .

I'll ask you fucking smartarses this question. Have you EVER known a young player who DIDN'T have a serious dip in form ?

So if we fuck Lescott off & it happens to Nastasic...?

Morons.

Wow... I think you'll find that Kompany would much prefer being partnered with Nasty because then he doesn't have to worry about covering for Lescotts atrocious positioning and other mistakes. No one is claiming Nasty to be the finished article but he is far superior to Lescott in every single department besides in the air which he does need to work on.

Lescott has been a great player for us but he panics on the ball and makes quite a few mistakes and is very slow. In an ideal world we should keep hold of Lescott as cover but I don't blame him wanting first team football as he is nearing the end of his career and if that's the case I'm sure we will look at signing suitable backup for CB.

 

[citytill1die84]

Top player & was our best CB last season even tho he almost cost us the title. Be gutted if he moves but he deserves to be playing so he can be at the World Cup.

 

[Skashion]

You have cherry picked his signings according to hindsight........

Let me do similar.........
Given,Tevez,Lescott and Barry were superb signings,Zaba,DJ and Kompany likewise,although time was indeed a factor with the latter,they were excellent players at their respective former clubs so,while it may have contributed,i'm not solely attributing managerial genius to their transformation.

Hart was rightly understudy to the more experienced and,at the time,talented Given.
The Brum loan developed his confidence and game and he rightly took the jersey when,credit to him, Mancini recognised his potential and ability.

I cant deny Mancini has certainly gotten more out of our players,especially in terms of organisation and discipline,however,the fact remains,he inherited an excellent group of players at a club that clearly had incredible ambition,and subsequently,he was then given an open cheque book to compliment them.

• Given; not part of our spine, replaced by Hart.
• Lescott; not part of our spine, replaced by Nastasic under whom we've maintained our best defensive record for the third season running. It's Vinny who is part of the spine but he was never part of our spine under Hughes.
• Tevez; not part of our spine during the title, went AWOL for six months with no damage to the team. Part of spine in previous two seasons.
• Kompany; not part of our spine under Hughes, barely played, played in wrong position.
• De Jong; don't know if you've noticed but he's not here anymore. Despite attempts to give him a new contract, he didn't want to be here. He also didn't start all that much last season. Only eleven Premier League starts last season. Part of our spine in the previous two seasons I suppose.
• Zaba; still not part of our spine, despite Mancini making him a great player.

That leaves you with Barry. I don't like him, I think if he was such a brilliant player, he wouldn't have been at Villa for over ten years, but I'll let you have one player I suppose. I think he's one of the players who holds us back in Europe because in the Champions League it's not good enough to be a masterful reader of the game and breaking up play. Europe's most successful sides tend to have a deep-lying playmaker, and that, Barry isn't. Go on, you have Barry. For my money, our spine is; Hart (replaced by Given under Hughes); Kompany (not spine under Hughes); Yaya; Silva; Aguero. Beyond those players I feel comfortable that an injury wouldn't hurt us too much.

You accuse me of hindsight? You said Hart was shite:

How the fvck is it Hughes' fault that Fernandes,Vassell,Ball,Richards,Dunne,Hart,Hamman,Caceido,Jo,Elano etc are all shite and not upto it.

MH has played the best players at his disposal and unfortunately they are simply not good enough.The players he has brought in have been a success,he will bring more with similar ability that will also enhance the team.

So get off his back and blame those responsible - the players!

One question - Do you think Bellamy would have displayed the same couldn't give a shite attitude that 3/4 of our team have today? would he fvck and thats why we need him.

Get a grip people

You said that in January 2009, he was actually voted Premier League goalkeeper of the season little more than a year after that statement.

I also find it interesting that you told people to get off Hughes' back and blame the players because you certainly don't say that about Mancini.

 

[Dubai Blue]

“I wasn’t [originally] in the last squad for San Marino and Montenegro and Roy called to explain, a personal touch that I appreciated. Roy’s really good. It’s different than at the club, and previously with Fabio Capello when stuff wasn’t explained. It’s explained now.............
Mancini rarely communicates his reasons. “He might see me as someone who’s not going to cause problems. Maybe he feels he doesn’t need to explain because I’m experienced enough to understand how things work. Even though now and again I’d like to be explained to, he’s got to manage the whole squad.’’

A little disconcerting. It's been said numerous times before that in Mancini's eyes players don't even exist if they're not playing, but it's a side to his personality that I really wish he'd consider changing. There's no doubt he's a decent football manager, but just imagine how good he could be if he softened his approach a bit in this respect. I can only see upsides to doing this, so I'm puzzled as to why he remains so stubborn.

 

[squirtyflower]

“I wasn’t [originally] in the last squad for San Marino and Montenegro and Roy called to explain, a personal touch that I appreciated. Roy’s really good. It’s different than at the club, and previously with Fabio Capello when stuff wasn’t explained. It’s explained now.............
Mancini rarely communicates his reasons. “He might see me as someone who’s not going to cause problems. Maybe he feels he doesn’t need to explain because I’m experienced enough to understand how things work. Even though now and again I’d like to be explained to, he’s got to manage the whole squad.’’

A little disconcerting. It's been said numerous times before that in Mancini's eyes players don't even exist if they're not playing, but it's a side to his personality that I really wish he'd consider changing. There's no doubt he's a decent football manager, but just imagine how good he could be if he softened his approach a bit in this respect. I can only see upsides to doing this, so I'm puzzled as to why he remains so stubborn.

i have to admit that is also my only concern about him
he is the team's leader, and any leader has to have emotional intelligence to get the best out of all the disparate characters in the squad, unfortunately it is hard to learn, but you can have a better awareness of it

 

[decmancity]

I am sure Mancini would like to keep Lescott but we have to be realistic here and see that he has tried to bring in two young CBs in recent years very much looking towards replacing Lescott. Boateng and Savic never worked but since Nastasic has come in Mancini hasn't looked back.

We have to think logically here and having two CBs on the bench both getting around 100k and are only getting older.

Also as Lescott says himself he wants to play and Mancini wont rotate CBs unless there is an injury.

I say let them both go and bring in a player of similar ilk to Nastasic.

 

[Dubai Blue]

I say let them both go and bring in a player of similar ilk to Nastasic.

If only it was that simple!

There's no way we'll let both go, and I expect it will be Toure who remains.

 

[kunaguero10]

'A bit more mobile' ?? yep,similar to how a ferrari is a bit faster than a skoda........

Lescott is a very good defender but he has rightly lost his place to Nasty.

You fucking people who think you are such smartarses when it comes to football, make me piss.

I'm not some kind of clueless fucking philistine who doesn't understand how it all works, I fully understand the thinking behind it, I'm just not a fucking sheep who blindly agrees with it without question.

There are very few clubs who can replace title winning cb pairings with 21 year old kids & get away with it. If you asked VK who he would rather work with, I recon he would say Lescott.

Nastasic is a promising young cb who may have a big future, I hope he does. I hope he pisses all over Lescott next season & is thebest cb in the world. But I've seen fucking loads of them & some better than him, who haven't done that. The modern game allows for less physical & more techinical players TO A POINT. It's not an exact science & yet you people pretend you know for sure that it is.

You are so arrogant & basically full of fucking shit .

I'll ask you fucking smartarses this question. Have you EVER known a young player who DIDN'T have a serious dip in form ?

So if we fuck Lescott off & it happens to Nastasic...?

Morons.

Wow... I think you'll find that Kompany would much prefer being partnered with Nasty because then he doesn't have to worry about covering for Lescotts atrocious positioning and other mistakes. No one is claiming Nasty to be the finished article but he is far superior to Lescott in every single department besides in the air which he does need to work on.

Lescott has been a great player for us but he panics on the ball and makes quite a few mistakes and is very slow. In an ideal world we should keep hold of Lescott as cover but I don't blame him wanting first team football as he is nearing the end of his career and if that's the case I'm sure we will look at signing suitable backup for CB.

well this is absolute shite, last season Lescott did more covering for Kompany when he kept diving in out of defence and kept getting caught out. Lescott has always been the deepest defender when he has played - how is it possible therefore for Kompany to cover his 'poor positioning'?

 

[moomba]

Lescott was excellent last season, but VK was the best defender in the league by an absolute mile.