Sol Long Bamba

[Babylon]

The fact nobody agrees on who the best defender (particularly CB) at the club (excluding Konchesky who most people will agree deserves credit for his seasons work) is and was during last season, and each calls the opinions of others uneducated or stupid only proves that very few people on here actually understand what makes a good defender, and how a good defender plays.

Didn't you just do the same?

[chris_lcfc_85]

The fact nobody agrees on who the best defender (particularly CB) at the club (excluding Konchesky who most people will agree deserves credit for his seasons work) is and was during last season, and each calls the opinions of others uneducated or stupid only proves that very few people on here actually understand what makes a good defender, and how a good defender plays.

Yes and i rate Morgan, he's proven at this level.

SSL was beaten too many times for strength and also in the air.

Who is a good defender in your opinion then?

[ealingfox]

Didn't you just do the same?

Not really, I meant opinion is least divided on Konchesky. I didn't claim to know what makes a good defender, and as for our CBs, I don't think any of them are good enough based on the defensive displays I saw and the mid-table finish.

Oh I see what you meant now. Yeah I guess so, but my main intention was to point out the fact that nobody is in agreement on the CBs and it says a lot.

[ealingfox]

Yes and i rate Morgan, he's proven at this level.

SSL was beaten too many times for strength and also in the air.

Who is a good defender in your opinion then?

Honestly, I don't know. I think a larger part of being a good defender is working within the defensive unit rather than individual attributes.

(Hence Morrison-Hobbs-Brown-Berner finishing 5th)

[Corky]

No doubt he will shine their and go to a Prem Club or La Liga, he is a talented defender make no mistake about that `but he isn't cut out for the championship style of defending.

So we didn't make the most of his attributes then?

[foxes2011]

i loved Bamba but he was far to risky to play for any team at cb hus skills ment he could have played a more attacking role. All in All im not disapointed but as far as im concerned we need to plug a gap at cb Morgans decent but he needs a partner.

Schemichel

De Laet Morgan ??@??? Konchesky

Marshal Danns King ??@???

Nugent ??@???

[Fox92]

Yes and i rate Morgan, he's proven at this level.

SSL was beaten too many times for strength and also in the air.

Who is a good defender in your opinion then?

To be fair, same can be said about Bamba. Couldn't handle strong strikers, in my opinion. For example, gave a penalty away against Millwall as he couldn't handle Henderson. Also, after watching the season review again, Bamba gets turned quite easy; Jason Scotland as a prime example when he turned Bamba and then scored.

In my opinion, St Ledger and Morgan are better centre backs than Bamba. They have both proved to be a defensive unit at their previous clubs, and have both been solid at this level for many seasons now.

[Guest MattP]

Kasper

De Laet Morgan St Ledger Konchesky

Marshall Danns James Vardy

Nugent Beckford

Sure there is more to come but that side already looks better than anything we had last year.

[Mack]

In my opinion Bamba does not suit Championship Football.

However Southern European Football where the odd flash of wonder is what the game is all about will be right up his alley.

[i luv u foxes]

this has pissed me off, i really liked him my type of player athletic powerful tall bit of class likes to do something but u suppose pearson thinks morgan is better. shocker

[Guest MattP]

People actually being serious when they think Bamba was the best player in the squad?

[Charl91]

Made a profit on him. Possible big wages gone. Good bit of business. Had one good game. Ta da Sol.

Had one good game? Nice bit of revisionism going on there....

[adamkhalifa]

Dissapointed with 750k. Might be a wages issue.

Leicester always seem to overpay or under sell a player.

Can only count 4 or 5 players where we got some decent value for.

[brockmyster]

When he turned up as just a defender you could see he was alright, but at times he was a bombscare waiting to happen.

[bmt]

When he turned up as just a defender you could see he was alright, but at times he was a bombscare waiting to happen.

I hate to nitpick but surely he would be a bomb scare or a disaster waiting to happen. If he was a 'bomb scare waiting to happen' that wouldn't be that bad.

[Mark_w]

On his day I'd say Sol is one of the best defenders in the division, however he has an erratic style that I think must make him difficult to play alongside especially given the talent of defenders at this level. While he was probably one of the most entertaining players to watch I think we'll be a lot better off at the back with two solid predictable defenders who are focused solely on keeping the ball out of the net. Although I'll admit there are going to be some boring 0-0 games next year where I'll be wishing we had Bamba running up and down the pitch and keeping me from falling asleep. Hope he does well, but I'm not devastated that he's gone.

[Bob Weasel Fox]

http://www.lcfc.com/...2815063,00.html

Leicester City can confirm that an agreement has been reached for the transfer of Sol Bamba to Trabzonspor for an undisclosed fee.

The 27-year-old defender has agreed personal terms with the Turkish club, bringing to an end his 17-month spell at King Power Stadium.

Bamba joined City from Scottish club Hibernian in January 2011 and made 55 appearances in all competitions for the Club, scoring four goals.

Good luck Sol

[hornyhollthefox123]

if the court article was correct ( and i see no reason it shouldndt be ) then 3k a week was not that high wage... we still need to replace him and so need to pay a new defender a wage also...

That was when we signed him last January. He then signed a contract extension in September of 2011 extending his deal until 2014, so i'm sure there would have been an increase given he was linked with premier league clubs in the months before it. Also, Mills had just signed, and was getting a considerable amount more than Sol. I'd imagine then that Sol was on a lot more than 3k, so the wage was a factor that needed looking at before selling him I'm sure.

Even the biggest critics of Sol would surely be happy for him to stay if he was on 3k a week?

[hornyhollthefox123]

Shocking decision. Very unhappy about this.

Anybody that tells me that SSL, Mills or Morgan are better players that Sol are from a different planet.

Not only our best defender, but also prob the most talented player in our squad.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion but i struggle to see how you can suggest he was our most talented player.

SSL and Morgan may not provide quite as many 'entertaining' moments but read the game far better than Bamba. I agree Sol easily has what it takes to compete at this level, but he is prone to poor decision making and his pace gets him out of so many difficult situations.

But for me pace is nowhere near as key as having a footballing brain defensively in the Championship. People have been pointing out how solid we were as a back 4 when Hobbs Morrison Hobbs and Berner, none of whom had pace. In my opinion SSL and Morgan would have been my pairing for last season and probably would be for this season coming unless we sign someone in the mould of Chester.

Either way i really don't see it as the end of the world, and let's face it, our defence couldn't get more shaky than it was at times last season. Hopefully this will start to appear more solid again.

[brockmyster]

I hate to nitpick but surely he would be a bomb scare or a disaster waiting to happen. If he was a 'bomb scare waiting to happen' that wouldn't be that bad.

God knows, all i know is he scared the shit out of me when he had the ball on the edge of our box

[Bert]

Sol was A big earner.... Remember he recently signed a new contract after only being here for a year at the time.

[dobbylcfc]

Think its a schrewd bit of buissness by Pearson tbh 750k for a defender that was vastly over rated in my opinion plus he was probably on a big wage so to get him off the wage bill is also good with all the financial fair play coming round soon.

[absolutelegend]

I saw SSL outpaced by Matty Fryatt this season. I am just hoping NP doesn't see him as Sol's replacement.

I am sure we will sign somebody else, otherwise our squad has just got worse, not better.

[Guest ttfn]

Always liked him; disappointed to see him go.

Good luck for the future Sol, you were one of the few City players to make me smile in recent times.

[Freeman's Wharfer]

People seem to forget that up until he went to the African Cup of Nations Bamba was astoundingly good. Game after game he was dominating opposition strikers and throwing in more than a fair share of audacious flair with it.

People talk about 'bombscare' and 'waiting for a mistake' but that's all too easy to say. Yes,Bamba used to pull a turn here and take it past three opposition players there, but too readily did people look at that and render it a threat to the team. It's easy to equate that with risk, but not so easy, when asked, to equate that with goal-costing mistake. I struggle to think of a single goal that we lost through Bamba turning, twisting or teasing his way out of trouble, anyone else feel free to step forward and name one. Some people looked at Bamba's style of play and concluded: "That's risky. Bamba's a bombscare. Get rid." But in the cold, harsh reality of it all, not once did he get caught and cost us a goal. Yet countless times he 'got away with it'.

As I've said before, football is all about possession. The basic principle goes: you don't have the ball, you can't score. And here's something that people don't often think about with Bamba; the amount of times he retained possession. Picture this: the opposition plays a ball down the channel, Bamba comes across, he has two options, Option A is to put it in the stand, and Option B is to take control of the ball and try and bring it away from the opposition. If he puts it in the stand the opposition have a throw-in, they have possession and thus the potential to score. If Bamba fashions an opportunity to keep the ball, they don't. But we do.

Yes that is not a fool-proof principle or theory, but the point I'm trying to make is that Bamba's extravagance was too readily related to risk rather than reward. The one time in ten, twenty, even thirty times that Bamba gets caught and costs us a goal he has to hold his hands up. The other nine, nineteen, even twenty-nine he's well worth a place in our team. Not once did I see him holding those hands up.

Now I'm not saying that Bamba never cost us a goal, sometimes a mistake in his positioning or in losing his marker did cost us. But that happens to every defender, if it didn't half of the goals scored in football wouldn't be scored. What I'm saying is that people look at his style of play and assume that he's a liability. If the evidence is there, draw that conclusion. But I don't think it is.

As you might guess, I'm disappointed to see him go. But strangely that doesn't mean that I don't think it's a good or the right decision. Bamba never was a Pearson defender and I'm confident enough that Pearson will find someone a little more predicatable and suitable for a Pearson team. And that's the difference between the pre-ACON Bamba and the post-ACON Bamba. In a Sven team Bamba could flourish, not so much a Pearson one. And I'm fine with that. Yes, he was brilliant to watch. At times he had my jaw-dropped or me off my seat like a winger only normally could. But if that's not Pearson's cup of tea then it's not mine.

But please don't label one of the best players we've had in recent times a 'bombscare' or a 'liability', because he deserves a little more respect than that from a club that has seen Wayne Brown, Darren Kenton, Paddy McCarthy and Patrick Gerrbrand pass through it's doors recently. And by that same token, the fee is also a pittance.