Leander Dendoncker

[Indigo]

He's obviously a limited player to the extent that he's steady at best on the ball and is a bit cumbersome athletically relative to the standard of this league, but I think he's proving himself to have been a more than useful signing and hasn't really put much of a foot wrong outside of the Stevenage disaster. Happy to have him.

[skarroki]

16 minutes ago, ender4 said:

I don’t understand this. 

Ironbunam may or may not ever be PL quality. We shall see in a couple of years, but 100% not ready this year and most probably not next year either.

Donk at £12-13m is a cheapish reliable back-up in a league where back-ups for the top 6 teams cost £30-50m.

There's maybe 100 transfers in the history of the league that have cost £30mil+

There's 3 teams in the top 10 currently that have never spent that sum of money on a player in their history. 

Backups in this league at any level do not cost that much unless you are embarrassingly badly run a-la Chelsea and Everton. 

You look through our midfield options who could play in a similar role and you have McGinn £3mil, Chambers free, Kamara free, Luiz £15mil, Ramsey free. Dendonker on his wages and price tag does not fit in that group. 

Everton as the example of £30mil backups, they had Davies and Gordon in the starting lineup ahead of those options earlier in the season from their academy and £1mil Gray on the wing too. 

I don't think just because the market is distorted we should be accepting expensive players to come in on high wages and occasionally play, there are always bargains to be had and always academy players to be given a chance, especially when it seems that's what the owners were hoping for long term when they invested so heavily in youth recruitment and academy coaches and infastructure. 

[Thug]

12 minutes ago, skarroki said:

There's maybe 100 transfers in the history of the league that have cost £30mil+

There's 3 teams in the top 10 currently that have never spent that sum of money on a player in their history. 

Backups in this league at any level do not cost that much unless you are embarrassingly badly run a-la Chelsea and Everton. 

You look through our midfield options who could play in a similar role and you have McGinn £3mil, Chambers free, Kamara free, Luiz £15mil, Ramsey free. Dendonker on his wages and price tag does not fit in that group. 

Everton as the example of £30mil backups, they had Davies and Gordon in the starting lineup ahead of those options earlier in the season from their academy and £1mil Gray on the wing too. 

I don't think just because the market is distorted we should be accepting expensive players to come in on high wages and occasionally play, there are always bargains to be had and always academy players to be given a chance, especially when it seems that's what the owners were hoping for long term when they invested so heavily in youth recruitment and academy coaches and infastructure. 

Err… which three teams would that be?

[brummybloke]

6 minutes ago, Thug said:

Err… which three teams would that be?

Fulham Brentford Brighton 

[Thug]

1 minute ago, brummybloke said:

Fulham Brentford Brighton 

I thought he was referring to the Dendoncker fee.  I see he meant the £30m

but 6 out of the top 7 do have £30m+ back ups

 

[brummybloke]

6 minutes ago, Thug said:

I thought he was referring to the Dendoncker fee.  I see he meant the £30m

but 6 out of the top 7 do have £30m+ back ups

 

But all 6 of them generate far more income than we do, so they can afford to spend more on players than we can.

 

Irrespective of costs which are considered modest for a premier league to premier league international signing, donker has proved his actual footballing value to the club this season. 

Edited April 26, 2023 by brummybloke

[Thug]

1 hour ago, brummybloke said:

But all 6 of them generate far more income than we do, so they can afford to spend more on players than we can.

 

Irrespective of costs which are considered modest for a premier league to premier league international signing, donker has proved his actual footballing value to the club this season. 

Absolutely correct.

£13m for an international footballer is a very modest fee.

I wasn’t suggesting that we should be spending £30m on back ups.

I was merely stating a fact.

A bit like the fact that 8,9,10 positions have never spent £30m on a player.  You can make things sound better or worse with the words you use.

’3 out of the top 10 have never spent £30m on a player’.  True.

Every single team that is in the top 7 has spent at least £30m on a player.  Also True.

All 7 teams have £25m+ pound players on their bench. 5 of the 7 have £50m plus players on their bench. (I haven’t fact checked this, but I think it’s true)

 

[CVByrne]

He does what is needed. He has a very high passing accuracy success which is key as the CDM as a bad pass puts opposition in a dangerous attacking position. He's also very good at all the key defensive stats and he's a big physical player to boot. 

For the price we paid to get a 27yo international with 100+ PL caps. It was a great bit of business and he's a clear upgrade on Nakamba. Add in that he can play CB if needed, or the CDM who drops in to make a back 5 (like we often do with late subs when leading). 

A lot of people have to admit. The squad assembled has been good work under NSWE more than it's been bad

[Vancvillan]

Ironbunam is not a direct replacement for The Donk. Different players.

[CVByrne]

5 minutes ago, Vancvillan said:

Ironbunam is not a direct replacement for The Donk. Different players.

He also doesn't have anywhere near the experience Donk has

[Vive_La_Villa]

I don’t rate him highly but as a squad player he’s job is to come in when needed and do an adequate job. He’s done just that all season so fair play to him.  Two of our best performances have been against Newcastle and Man U and he started both so definitely keeps us solid.
 

Still can’t wait for Bouba to return though. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

6 hours ago, Zatman said:

These games might suit him more compared to games we are expected to control the game

I was thinking the same thing. As per my previous post about the teams we beat when he played. 

[skarroki]

I don't mean to knock him as a player, I like him, he's doing a good job and I don't worry about him in the lineup, I'd just rather Kamara was there.

I was merely talking about my feelings on him as a whole since signing him in the summer. My opinion is that he was an expensive backup that we didn't really need, even though he's come in a few times I'd rather have seen an academy player given these chances.

I understand the opposite view though that he's not expensive and the academy haven't produced anyone good enough yet who could have done the job Dendonker is doing. I guess it's all opinions. 

[Rolta]

8 hours ago, Indigo said:

He's obviously a limited player to the extent that he's steady at best on the ball and is a bit cumbersome athletically relative to the standard of this league, but I think he's proving himself to have been a more than useful signing and hasn't really put much of a foot wrong outside of the Stevenage disaster. Happy to have him.

Is he that cumbersome athetically? He looked great yesterday.

[Wainy316]

He's not cumbersome at all he just has a very odd running gait.

[GarethRDR]

As opposed to McCormack with his not-running gate.

[The Fun Factory]

8 hours ago, brummybloke said:

Fulham Brentford Brighton 

Is that the Maxwell merger that never happened?

[Indigo]

43 minutes ago, Rolta said:

Is he that cumbersome athetically? He looked great yesterday.

Well technically or however you'd want to phrase it. Just that he isn't particularly quick nor agile etc, he's obviously a good, big athlete but we're talking in relative terms for a midfielder at the top end of the Premier League. 

[brummybloke]

2 hours ago, skarroki said:

I don't mean to knock him as a player, I like him, he's doing a good job and I don't worry about him in the lineup, I'd just rather Kamara was there.

I was merely talking about my feelings on him as a whole since signing him in the summer. My opinion is that he was an expensive backup that we didn't really need, even though he's come in a few times I'd rather have seen an academy player given these chances.

I understand the opposite view though that he's not expensive and the academy haven't produced anyone good enough yet who could have done the job Dendonker is doing. I guess it's all opinions. 

I understand what you are saying, however within what you are saying, you say we didn't really need him.

Well we do and he has played his part in our rise up the table. That's what happens when you get decent cover.

Pretty much all of our entire squad can be improved upon, however the current squad ( and I'm including Bailey and big phil in this) have the chance to continue improving with the club and adopting the new coaching methods and tactics or leave and when they are replaced, ideally it will be for someone more suited to emery ball. Cost will not be the key concern for emery, he will leave that to the money men who will have to juggle the finances.

Donk for 13 million, even just for this season, if his contributions help us get top 6 or 7 will be well worth it

[The_Rev]

Agreed with @brummybloke . Dendoncker coming in seamlessly is showing strength in depth.  We need squad guys who can come in a do a job when asked but won't fall out with everybody and throw tantrums when they aren't in the first XI.