Have we become a club that pays players that won't play?

[SkidsFox]

It wasn't great with Matty James, but if he hadn't had such bad luck with injuries he'd have been a good squad member.

We now have Benkovic, who can't get a sniff of the action, even when we have six defenders out.

And worse still, we have Mendy on the payroll who is not allowed to play.

Does it not seem an odd state of affairs?

[Matt_Lcfc]

Well, no not really. It is not as simple as offloading a player who is not good enough. Ultimately, every club in the league will have examples of players who will never play but are still being paid decent amounts. 

[l444ry]

Blame the soothsayers that virtually abolished reserve team football. All about "developing" young players now. Can't think of any better lesson for a youngster than to play next to a seasoned pro in a competitive environment.    

Edited 4 January 2022 by l444ry

[Aus Fox]

Hasn’t Benkovic had covid? No he wasn’t playing before, but the reason he hasn’t been in the squads this defensive crisis is because of covid?

Mendy was within a whisker of leaving in the summer, deal fell through at the last minute. If he had of made the squad someone else will have missed out. 
Not sure what else we can do.

[Jobyfox]

Well clearly the premise of the thread title would be a very daft business model and one I'm pretty sure the club is not deliberately pursuing no matter how frustrating it might seem. Every club has players who end up on the fringes. Sometimes there are contractual hidden reasons - like appearance bonuses etc. Many clubs have their own players sitting drawing much bigger wages than our players whilst doing nothing. 

 

Benkovic is a very frustrating case, but I've given up on the hope he'll breakthrough at Leicester.

Mendy is another one I don't personally understand. It seemed that BR decided that Hamza would be the one he'd bet on after he nearly left last January - despite Mendy proving to be a very useful squad player earlier in the season

James was just injured a lot and we probably should not have gambled with a long term contract

 

 

For me though it's the new arrivals that are the most frustrating. We're probably going to be hamstrung in January because of the wasted money on Vestergaard and Bertrand in the summer. I hate to think of the combined wages they're pulling in - what a missed opportunity to set up the squad for this current situation.  

[Ian S]

Surely topic name should say ‘don’t play’ . 

[Lambert09]

55 minutes ago, SkidsFox said:

It wasn't great with Matty James, but if he hadn't had such bad luck with injuries he'd have been a good squad member.

We now have Benkovic, who can't get a sniff of the action, even when we have six defenders out.

And worse still, we have Mendy on the payroll who is not allowed to play.

Does it not seem an odd state of affairs?

Arsenal- Aubamayang

Aston Villa- Sanson 

Brentford- Fosu

Brighton- Locadia

Burnley- Bardsley 

Chelsea- Sarr

Crystal P- Clyne

Everton- Gbamin

Leeds- Drameh

Liverpool- Minamino

Man C- Mendy 

Man U - Jones

Newcastle- Gayle

Southampton- Valery 

Spurs- Rodon

Watford- Fletcher

West Ham- Fredericks

Wolves- Hoever 

 

Every club has them...  ^ Are examples of 1 big name offender per club

[coolhandfox]

1 hour ago, SkidsFox said:

It wasn't great with Matty James, but if he hadn't had such bad luck with injuries he'd have been a good squad member.

We now have Benkovic, who can't get a sniff of the action, even when we have six defenders out.

And worse still, we have Mendy on the payroll who is not allowed to play.

Does it not seem an odd state of affairs?

Every club has them. 

35 minutes ago, Jobyfox said:

Mendy is another one I don't personally understand. It seemed that BR decided that Hamza would be the one he'd bet on after he nearly left last January - despite Mendy proving to be a very useful squad player earlier in the season

Mendy can't fit in the squad as we used up our quoter for foreign players, Hamza is home grown so doesn't count against that.

 

It wasn't a straight forward choice between the two, more the fact we brought in 3 more foreign players in Daka, Soumare and Vesty 

 

 

Edited 4 January 2022 by coolhandfox

[SkidsFox]

31 minutes ago, Ian S said:

Surely topic name should say ‘don’t play’ . 

I was trying to differentiate between players who don't currently play because of injury (like Fofana and Justin) but we have every hope that they will play in the future. The opposite of 'will' is 'won't' but I accept it could have a different meaning ie no intention of playing.

[NasPb]

Keeping benkovic was always a mistake, I'd prefer to have bought him out of his contract than keep him doing nothing. He won't ever play here. That's it. 

 

Not signing mendy up and keeping choudhury around is another one. I like choudhury as a cm but mendy is a much better backup cdm than him in most aspects. Choudhury good when he's not asked to do a lot on the ball. I'd keep him if he's willing to have a bit part role. Instead we've messed the whole thing up. Shame. 

[Aus Fox]

2 minutes ago, NasPb said:

Keeping benkovic was always a mistake, I'd prefer to have bought him out of his contract than keep him doing nothing. He won't ever play here. That's it. 

 

Not signing mendy up and keeping choudhury around is another one. I like choudhury as a cm but mendy is a much better backup cdm than him in most aspects. Choudhury good when he's not asked to do a lot on the ball. I'd keep him if he's willing to have a bit part role. Instead we've messed the whole thing up. Shame. 

Mendy didn’t meet the home grown players quota for European games and Choudhury did, it’s a simple as that, nothing messed up.

Mendy was out the door heading for Galatasary before if fell through at the last minute.

 

Why would you pay up Benkovic? If you have to pay him the same anyway and he isn’t a disruptive influence on the squad? If he gets fit he is clearly a decent player.

[Aus Fox]

1 hour ago, SkidsFox said:

I was trying to differentiate between players who don't currently play because of injury (like Fofana and Justin) but we have every hope that they will play in the future. The opposite of 'will' is 'won't' but I accept it could have a different meaning ie no intention of playing.

Benkovic is injured and Mendy is not in the squad - both can’t play rather than won’t play.

[The whole world smiles]

2 hours ago, SkidsFox said:

It wasn't great with Matty James, but if he hadn't had such bad luck with injuries he'd have been a good squad member.

We now have Benkovic, who can't get a sniff of the action, even when we have six defenders out.

And worse still, we have Mendy on the payroll who is not allowed to play.

Does it not seem an odd state of affairs?

Name me a Premier league club and i will name you at least one player on their books that doesn't play. 

 

Its the way the industry is. 

[Alex_LCFC]

I think if Matty James hadn’t had that injury towards the end of the 13/15 season he would have progressed as a player along side the club. kept drinkwater out the team most that season. 

[Jobyfox]

1 hour ago, coolhandfox said:

Every club has them. 

Mendy can't fit in the squad as we used up our quoter for foreign players, Hamza is home grown so doesn't count against that.

 

It wasn't a straight forward choice between the two, more the fact we brought in 3 more foreign players in Daka, Soumare and Vesty 

 

 

Yes, I thought that one might require further explanation.

 

At the beginning of last season Mendy had quite a big role due to injuries in the squad. It was a bit of redemption for him and it looked like he had a future here after all. In fact, it was so successful, some even speculated whether Ndidi would jump straight back into the team when fit.

 

In January the speculation was all around Choudhury leaving. He, eventually, didn't and Brendan then went (unusually) very public to say that he'd promised him chances if he stayed. Following that statement it was always Hamza who got called upon when the squad got thin and Mendy was frozen out - despite his relatively good form earlier in the season.

 

This season it was probably more convenient to choose others in the squad for the reasons you mentioned - even Benkovic got in ahead of Mendy. It may have been an obvious choice to leave Mendy out as opposed to the other peripheral players - but the decision that Mendy would become a peripheral player can (in my mind anyway) be traced back to January 2021. Rodgers suddenly decided that he wasn't going to feature anymore, which was a decision (in my eyes at least) that wasn't entirely based on evidence on the pitch. 

 

 

[VLC86]

2 hours ago, Aus Fox said:

Hasn’t Benkovic had covid? No he wasn’t playing before, but the reason he hasn’t been in the squads this defensive crisis is because of covid?

Mendy was within a whisker of leaving in the summer, deal fell through at the last minute. If he had of made the squad someone else will have missed out. 
Not sure what else we can do.

Extremely long covid apparently 

[Paninistickers]

2 hours ago, l444ry said:

Blame the soothsayers that virtually abolished reserve team football. All about "developing" young players now. Can't think of any better lesson for a youngster than to play next to a seasoned pro in a competitive environment.    

That's a really really good point. 

 

I'm amazed that an informal, ad hoc, 'freindly' reserve team mini league isn't on the wishlist of PL clubs. Some players can literally go months without any meaningful adult football. 

 

Not only that, I actually think there'd be a supporter demand to watch the likes of (under normal injury circumstances) perez, mendy, Amartey, choudhury play, say, Liverpool with the likes of Origi, Minamino, Curtis Jones, Kelleher etc 

[Jobyfox]

8 minutes ago, Alex_LCFC said:

I think if Matty James hadn’t had that injury towards the end of the 13/15 season he would have progressed as a player along side the club. kept drinkwater out the team most that season. 

Personally I've always thought that Matty James is one of the most overrated players we've ever had. Probably due to his terrible luck with injuries and a player's worth is always inflated in people's minds when they're not available. The usual line trotted out in justification is that he kept Drinkwater out in 14/15 and the latter helped us win the league in 15/16. 

 

In 14/15 James made 20 PL starts and 7 as sub. Drinkwater started 16 and 7 as sub. A season where we were mostly appalling before the dramatic run in. In every other season when they were both in the squad Drinkwater played many more games every season. Admittedly, James was injured in the later ones. 

 

James was always decent enough, but rather like Mendy, Hamza and others before them. They're not players who are likely to be any more than squad players in a team that's finishing in the top six. 

 

[davieG]

Squad sizes, Bosman / Player power / Agents, Transfer windows, No reserve team football are all contributing factors.

[Lambert09]

1 hour ago, NasPb said:

Keeping benkovic was always a mistake, I'd prefer to have bought him out of his contract than keep him doing nothing. He won't ever play here. That's it. 

 

Not signing mendy up and keeping choudhury around is another one. I like choudhury as a cm but mendy is a much better backup cdm than him in most aspects. Choudhury good when he's not asked to do a lot on the ball. I'd keep him if he's willing to have a bit part role. Instead we've messed the whole thing up. Shame. 

Because it would cost the same and have 0 chance of resale. I’m sure the club are desperate for someone to take him on loan 

[jim5000]

6 hours ago, SkidsFox said:

It wasn't great with Matty James, but if he hadn't had such bad luck with injuries he'd have been a good squad member.

We now have Benkovic, who can't get a sniff of the action, even when we have six defenders out.

And worse still, we have Mendy on the payroll who is not allowed to play.

Does it not seem an odd state of affairs?

They're called fixed term contracts. We leave Mendy out of the Premier League squad, however we have a contract to pay him for a fixed amount of seasons regardless of whether we play him or not.

 

He's probable on 5-10 grand a week, would anyone sane walk away from a contract paying that much, even if you only got to practice football, keep fit, and knock around a world class fitness and training facility for 25 hours a week?

[sacreblueits442]

38 minutes ago, jim5000 said:

They're called fixed term contracts. We leave Mendy out of the Premier League squad, however we have a contract to pay him for a fixed amount of seasons regardless of whether we play him or not.

 

He's probable on 5-10 grand a week, would anyone sane walk away from a contract paying that much, even if you only got to practice football, keep fit, and knock around a world class fitness and training facility for 25 hours a week?

...I  would be surprised if he isn't on at least triple that!!!

  We do tend to reward our players and we can sometimes be a bit too generous!!!

  If we gave Matty James a long term contract after all he had been through, not going if he would ever come good, then you can see how much the owners are prepared to back our players. The so called "deadwood " were not looking to leave, with the salary they were on, making moving to a new club, a very difficult choice to make.

[HybridFox]

7 hours ago, l444ry said:

Blame the soothsayers that virtually abolished reserve team football. All about "developing" young players now. Can't think of any better lesson for a youngster than to play next to a seasoned pro in a competitive environment.    

Used to be great to keep players match fit and bed in new signings. Wasn't as much pressure on the first team manager to rotate his squad for the sake of it.

[Babylon]

Errrr every team pays players who don’t play. 

[It'sblueupnorth]

It’s only like a company paying lads to sit at home twiddling their thumbs whilst there’s someone 15 minutes away getting 10 jobs a day