Jason Denayer - decisions made by ignorant fools

It's easy in hindsight to say we should have kept Jason Denayer with the 1st team squad this season.

I, for one, said this last summer. He should have remained with the 1st tam squad instead of MDM or as an addition to the squad. He's U21 so doesn't count towards the 25 man squad list anyway.

But he went out on loan so that he could get some game time. Good idea. But we should have had a clause in that loan deal that we could call him back during the winter break (in the country he would be playing in).

If he wasn't playing at the club he was loaned to, then he loses nothing coming back home at Christmas. If he was playing 2-3 matches a month, then he's had maybe 8-12 games at 1st team level which would be good experience for him and getting him ready for the PL.

If we have injures, or players lose form, then he would be in with a shout for playing for us. You've got to think ahead. With 4 CBs, we could end up losing a couple to injuries or suspension and then you are royally screwed.

And guess what, we've lost Kompany for a huge chunk of the season and Mangala too. MDM has shown he's past it and Otamendi has been up and down for form.

So, if we'd recalled Denayer at Christmas, he'd have been playing a reasonable amount of games in the league and FA cup. We knew Kompany was injured and out for months and MDM was over the hill and Mangala was in between injured and playing bang average.

We'd have lost nothing having that clause and Denayer would have a reasonable amount of PL experience for the club to decide whether he was going to make it or not.

Now we are talking spending big money on Stones and Laporte which will push Denayer even further down the queue at CB. If we keep Mangala and Otamendi, he'd be 6th choice CB and he'd be on his way permanently to another club.

Rank poor management by all concerned.

It's possible that the powers that be don't think Denayer is good enough.

Why do I say that? Well, just look at those who they DO think can cut it. See what I mean? They don't appear to have a collective clue.

It'd be a damn shame to lose a kid who wants to play for us and would give more heart and soul in his performance than someone from some backwater European league who's only heard of the $$$ that is associated with us.

Didn't MP get asked about whether he could recall him, and he said "yes, if we want to"?

But clearly hasn't. TBF...as much as I've said before, that he should be given a chance, I've not seen enough of him at a high level to say whether he's as good as the others or not. Can't be as poor, thats for certain.

For me, the absolute no brainer who has played European football was Rekik. That was a bloody odd decision if you as me...he was naturally left footed and could play LB, CB and left MF.

I still think Adara-yoyo! and Humprhries will probably get opportunities in the cup next season.

Add to that Manu who already has experience, Kelechi, Diaz, Celina, Angelino, Maffeo, Aleix Garcia...these seem to be the ones who have he best chance.
Barker's been given chances, he just hasn't took them so far...so it could be a shit or bust summer for him.

Adarabioyo 

Yes, I looked it up...

I used that term only because of the pundits the other week! They kept calling him adabeyoyo!

Ha ha, yeah!  Muppets.  I remember the commentators congratulating themselves on learning his name for a week to make sure they got it right as well.

Fred Eyre always amuses/annoys me with his pronunciation as well.  He always calls Clichy "Cliché", which irritates the crap out of me.  What was the other one he did now...  Oh, that was it, against Stoke, when Arnautovic and Shaqiri were tearing us apart.  Or, according to Fred, we were getting hammered by Shakira and Artonovic.

Oh yeah...and Fernandina, Aguera.....ffs, get it right!!!!!!!!!

Thing is about Fred, he's been on GMR commentating on the City games since 2009, but he never actually played a single game for City....yet they always relate to him as an ex City player though.

I personally don't like him, surely they could get an ex City player who's much better at commentating/giving their views....ya know, someone like Danny Mills maybe

If I have it right, he was the very first result of our youth academy back in the day.  He signed for about 20 different teams and didn't play for any of them!

shakencity wrote:surely they could get an ex City player who's much better at commentating/giving their views....ya know, someone like Danny Mills maybe

Or Joey Barton, he's never short of an opinion or six.

Or we could get in our own blinkered pro-club, everyone else is a wanker pundit in the shape of Mike Summerbee.  It'd be like listening to the Deluded Scouse Commentator!

leopold wrote:If I have it right, he was the very first result of our youth academy back in the day.  He signed for about 20 different teams and didn't play for any of them!

Haha, just wiki'd him....jeez, how bad was he....i see he even turn up at the famous Radcliffe Boro

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Eyre

He played alongside Virgil Van Dijk at Celtic and they were a solid partnership. In the 2014/15 season Celtic conceded 8 goals at home and 9 away, even given the lesser standard of football compared to the Premier League or even the Championship that is pretty good.
I watched him a few times on TV when he was with Celtic and he always looked composed on the ball and his positional awareness was good unlike Mangala, Demi or Otamendi and even Vinny at times. I would have him back like a shot and i would get rid of Demi and Otamendi, the jury is still out on Mangala due to his age but the money we paid for him was simply ridiculous, obviously Vinny should be kept  but only if he can demonstrate his fitness is improved.

I'm in Brussels, so have been chatting to my guys out here about the Belgium squad and Denayer in particular. He's hardly played with Vinny in the national team, but they agree, they think he'll be the number 1 CB for the next WC.

Still, the Scottish Premier League doesn't tell us anything...that's why I would have hoped Roberts would have gone to the Championship - a tough league that you have to earn your performances.

However, I'd like to see Denayer given a chance, but if we get Laporte and Stones - forget it, may as well sell him.

Would you say the English Division 1 is a competitive league for youngsters to go on loan?

ManCityMan wrote:Would you say the English Division 1 is a competitive league for youngsters to go on loan?

Yeah, hence Ian Lawlor's on loan at Bury

Would I say Div 1 is a step up competitively than Scotland? Yes.

Do I think kids from our academy - that are deemed worthy of a big future, should play in the Championship at the very least? Yes.

Shit, I even think Roberts, Denayer etc, would have gotten more game time at some of the lower level PL teams.

Would Roberts have had a bigger impact than a £15m Andros Townsend? I believe so.

Is Denayer better than Taylor at Newcastle - probably.

Why are we not getting these kids PL experience?

Other clubs give their kids a chance sometimes because they see they have potential and they don't have ready made alternatives. We are always looking for ready made alternatives.

Take Karim Rekik. He played 8 end of season games for Portsmouth back in 2012 (Championship) when he was just 17 years old I think and then 5 games for Blackburn (Championship) the following season.

Then 2 years with PSV playing 54 games and some European experience in the qualifying campaign for the CL (4 games I think) and EL games.

Then we go and buy Mangala for seriously big (and stupid) money rather than bring this kid back. Then we sell him for a measly £3.5M (with buy back clause).

Similar with Denayer. We don't bring him back and carry on with past it MDM and spend big money on a big name player in Otamendi.

Most likely Denayer will leave this or next summer forever, unless Pep has a good look at him and thinks he can make it.

My point was that i would judge the SPL below the Championship level and more akin to League 1 in England. The football in the SPL may not be in the same class as the Premiership but it's still a competitive league where young players can learn and with Celtic Roberts has a chance to play in Europe too.

Yeah, agree...but should we be loaning our young players to clubs for season after season....or quick, sharp loan deals for 1 year?

Take Kane for example...he went our on loan for short bursts, got experience then he was straight into the Spuds team.

We seem to send these on loan all over the world, some of them, in absolutely shitty, crap leagues...where the football is barely better than our EDS squad play every week.

What's the point of that?

Get them PL experience with clubs lower down the division - where they get to taste PL football, help those lower teams against our opposition - then, if they make an impact there, get them back if needed....or sell them on to those clubs for PL prices - not European pittance.

We could easily have 6-8 academy players playing for the likes of Newcastle, Norwich, Bournemouth, Villa, Swansea etc etc....with the money coming into the PL for these clubs next season - if we don't think we have a spare place for them whilst at these clubs - let them stay there or sell them for £5-10m....rather than the ridiculously cheap deals we keep making with these non-entity clubs that offer poor football and little reward to us after we've developed them.

It's a crap strategy.

If Rekik had played 6 months for Villa, he'd be worth a damn sight more than the £3.5M we sold him for.