Wesley Fofana: Signs For LCFC

[surrifox]

22 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

If there's one thing this club does well on the whole is sign top class young centre halves. The way we were so relentless in our pursuit was enough for me, many teams will be regretting not taking an early risk on him like they have with Soyuncu as well. If only we could be quite as prolific in recruiting top class wingers and forwards!

At the start of the window the mood music for getting Trincao either on loan or outright was quite promising . The Barca meltdown and manager change stymied that - but he had been identified as someone we wanted and is apparently looking good so far this season 

[Foxaholic ME]

24 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

If there's one thing this club does well on the whole is sign top class young centre halves. The way we were so relentless in our pursuit was enough for me, many teams will be regretting not taking an early risk on him like they have with Soyuncu as well. If only we could be quite as prolific in recruiting top class wingers and forwards!

I  agree  as an old timer I  cant  remember a poor centre half  who played regularly even in the worst of teams

[Lambert09]

6 hours ago, mozartfox said:

Two words my dear boy..................Ryan Bennett.   1 massive fvck up does not get you credit on FT.

I know he was truly woeful but in fairness he was bought in as an experienced last resort back up. The wolves fan on here thinks he was usually a lot better than his performances here. 

 

I’ll give him a pass on that one. I’d love to know who at the club was the person who was really pushing for Fofana as we clearly were all in for him. 

[Babylon]

6 minutes ago, filbertway said:

If you cant see he's better than Tarkoswki already, I'll give you a spoiler for 12 months time. He is waaaay better.

 

I'd never seen him play before he joined us but the guy has a Kante vibe about him. Weve got ourselves a world class talent in the making here. I can barely believe hes only 19

 

I know you love sitting on the fence and being the voice of reason Babs but allow yourself to be excited by him. He will be gone before you have had time to enjoy him if you're not careful

Go back one page and see my opinion on him.

 

He’a looked great, but it’s three games. People should be excited about him, but do we really need “I told you so” from people who’d not seen him play?

[fuchsntf]

31 minutes ago, Babylon said:

Yeah imagine thinking a very good and proven premier league centre back, might be less of a risk (at the original mooted £30m) than some kid you've never seen play with about 20 games under his belt. 

 

The desperation on here to be captain hindsights is unreal. 

 

 

I agree with you totally,and sometimes it  reaches the hights of 'fork-handles'  humour....

 

But its what fans World Wide do...Some have hair-triggers and really go OTT far too early...We have Seen it on this forum,go the other way....

With the likes of Soyu,Riccardo,Evans  and Now Justin,Why even Vardy went through the ' Not PL Quality' Foxestalk-forum  Nurenburg-trials...

Mind you at the moment...hes looking tasty. aint he..

[surrifox]

9 minutes ago, Foxaholic ME said:

I  agree  as an old timer I  cant  remember a poor centre half  who played regularly even in the worst of teams

Kisnorbo wasn't a  great defender but even he was an attacking threat at corners and free kicks 

[Leicester_Loyal]

Let's not get too carried away eh?

[RoboFox]

Let's be honest, we've already made a profit which will of course have been part of the thought process in bringing him in. 

 

I'm sure he has ambitions to be at one of Europe's top, top clubs and if he continues on the current trajectory - and that's saying something after only two games - there will be interest after a couple of seasons, no doubt.

[nwl fox]

41 minutes ago, Babylon said:

It's three games, he's started very very well for a kid. But nobody knows how it will turn out, let alone if he's better than Tarkowski. 

 

The issues for people wasn't "who was best", nobody had a bleeding clue as 99.999999% on here had never watched the kid play. Including the captain hindsights saying "I told you so". There was at the time a very strong argument, that if both cost £30m, Tarkowski is the least risky of the two. The club wanted Tarkowski don't forget, if Burnley weren't holding out for £40m +, then there is a strong possibility he'd be here now. 

You say that, but I think most people could see 3 games in with Kante that we'd got something special. Beginning to get the same feeling here.

I get the point about Tarkowski probably being lower risk but I've never rated him and certainly not at the value Burnley want, so my preference in this instance was the lesser known option.

[kristianity77]

We have to keep him for me.  Our defence of Ricardo, soyuncu, Evans, fofana and Castagne with Ndidi in front of them protecting literally is, Liverpool aside, the best in the Premier League. Those 6 players would improve, as a group, any other side in the league.

[Babylon]

1 minute ago, nwl fox said:

You say that, but I think most people could see 3 games in with Kante that we'd got something special. Beginning to get the same feeling here.

I get the point about Tarkowski probably being lower risk but I've never rated him and certainly not at the value Burnley want, so my preference in this instance was the lesser known option.

At one stage, the papers were making out this lad was costing £34m+ and Tarkowski was available for £30m. If people were edging towards Tarkowski it was then, but he wasn't available for the money so it's a moot point anyway. 

 

I'm very very happy with him so far, but I'm not going as far as Kante, He was literally another level from every player in the team and pretty much every player on the pitch from the second he came on as sub and played left wing. 

 

The excitement from this lad comes not from the fact his performances were world class, like Kante IMO. But more from the fact he looks like he's been in the team three years and played 300 games at this level. If he doesn't look out of place at 19, then I'm excited about how good he COULD end up. 

[Dorkingfox]

The crappy media are already trying to get him sold to Liverpool!!!

[sdb]

He's been faultless and looks sensational, but it's 3 games! 

 

Tarkowski next summer is still likely imo and what options we'd have then!

[shen]

35 minutes ago, filbertway said:

If you cant see he's better than Tarkoswki already, I'll give you a spoiler for 12 months time. He is waaaay better.

 

I'd never seen him play before he joined us but the guy has a Kante vibe about him. Weve got ourselves a world class talent in the making here. I can barely believe hes only 19

 

I know you love sitting on the fence and being the voice of reason Babs but allow yourself to be excited by him. He will be gone before you have had time to enjoy him if you're not careful

It's not about being on the fence and he's already voiced his excitement over Fofana. But it really has just been two league games. Di Maria started his Man Utd career on fire and left not long after with his tail between his legs, so his performances so far do not guarantee we'll see them long term. One bad injury can ruin his progress. 

I think he's been really good and assured so it's obviously exciting to think about him being with us for the next couple of seasons and hopefully develop into a top class footballer. He's young though and almost all young players will experience dips in form or be low on confidence - as fans, we have to remember to be supportive when these periods inevitably come around, because he's clearly a talented player.

[FOXSE]

4 minutes ago, sdb said:

He's been faultless and looks sensational, but it's 3 games! 

 

Tarkowski next summer is still likely imo and what options we'd have then!

As a teenage centre back, moving countries to play in one of the strongest and most competitive leagues in the world, it is much easier to have some disasters and need to be cut slack, than step straight in and have the assurance of a player with ten years top flight experience. It's a lot more difficult to flatter to deceive as a defensive player, than a flair player who might score a spectacular goal in his first game.

 

Basically, I was hoping he would be good, but he really does look like he will be the real deal. The only thing that will stop him becoming a top player will be injuries.

[KingsX]

2 hours ago, Muzzy_Larsson said:

What is it you southerners say again, "proper mustard"?

 

Now this is confusing.  Even Americans know "proper mustard" is usually Scottish.

 

                  

Edited 26 October 2020 by KingsX

[spacemunky]

19 minutes ago, Dorkingfox said:

The crappy media are already trying to get him sold to Liverpool!!!

That stuff just annoys me to no end. You bring someone in and they play well for a few games and then we have to hear what "better" places he could be.

 

 

[shen]

1 hour ago, Jimbo said:

It's not always about buying the best players though, it's about buying the best players for you. Something we've done largely very well at since Pearson was here. He always said he wouldn't spend money just for the sake of it, it had to improve the starting 11 and the players had to have to right attitude and fit with the current squad. An approach that seems to have carried on.

Chelsea haven't necessarily bought well, they've bought great players, undoubtedly, but it's hard to see if there is an improvement that equates to the amount spent. It's early days for them and the improvement could be just around the corner, equally it could be some way off and in todays times, that will not be tolerated. Just because you can doesn't mean you should 

Absolutely, but as pointed out earlier, we haven't always hit the bullseye with our recruitment in recent times either. It also isn't quite fair to compare us to Chelsea at this stage as we've really only accommodated two new players (with Cengo limited to brief cameos) whereas Chelsea started with five new players against Man U. It will take time to properly gel them. 
I find it also a tad arrogant to suggest a club of Chelsea's stature and reputation doesn't do proper research on their transfer targets.

Bottom line - I think it's fine to comment on our own club and team as we are much more familiar with the goings on here, but it's not a straightforward comparison to other clubs' transfer dealings.

[Muzzy_Larsson]

31 minutes ago, kristianity77 said:

We have to keep him for me.  Our defence of Ricardo, soyuncu, Evans, fofana and Castagne with Ndidi in front of them protecting literally is, Liverpool aside, the best in the Premier League. Those 6 players would improve, as a group, any other side in the league.

Agreed and don't mean to sound like a prophet of doom but the hard part will be keeping them all here. I can see admiring glances being cast towards Soyuncu and Ricky P in the summer.

[les-tah]

4 minutes ago, Muzzy_Larsson said:

Agreed and don't mean to sound like a prophet of doom but the hard part will be keeping them all here. I can see admiring glances being cast towards Soyuncu and Ricky P in the summer.

Luckily for us they have both been injured this season and the big clubs will want to see them (especially) Ricardo hit his full potential pre injury form again for a full season. I don’t see either of them moving on in the summer.

[MPH]

i really really hope there is no release clause in his contract. if he keeps this form up, He’ll be the first £100m defender.

[casablancas]

More importantly ... can he help us score from a corner? 

[sdb]

1 hour ago, MPH said:

i really really hope there is no release clause in his contract. if he keeps this form up, He’ll be the first £100m defender.

You'd really hope not. Felt like we (& St Etienne!) held the cards during the move. He was desperate to come.

[CosbehFox]

2 hours ago, Dorkingfox said:

The crappy media are already trying to get him sold to Liverpool!!!

A fan page rather than actual media 

[brucey]

33 minutes ago, casablancas said:

More importantly ... can he help us score from a corner? 

We seem to have switched our target on corners from Evans to Fofana, so clearly we think he's our best option. I don't think I saw any headed goals on his YouTube compilations though, so we'll see.