Ben Godfrey

[unique 435]

I hope there were some substantial add-on clauses to Ben Godfrey’s sale price.

The way Everton fans are eulogising over him suggests we let him go far too cheaply.

[Indy 3,297]

47 minutes ago, unique said:

I hope there were some substantial add-on clauses to Ben Godfrey’s sale price.

The way Everton fans are eulogising over him suggests we let him go far too cheaply.

And lots on here didn’t really rate him! He was our best central defender by a long way.

[TheGunnShow 5,940]

1 minute ago, Indy said:

And lots on here didn’t really rate him! He was our best central defender by a long way.

To be fair, during last season, he was our ONLY central defender. 😉 

[cambridgeshire canary 6,715]

Is an absoloute unit who will no doubt end up playing for England very soon

[king canary 7,604]

44 minutes ago, Indy said:

And lots on here didn’t really rate him! He was our best central defender by a long way.

He's a great example of how you have to evaluate the individual player rather than the team he's playing in.

Godfrey always had all the attributes that would naturally stand out in a team with better quality around him and playing on the front foot. Same with Aarons. Doesn't matter if we conceded a ton of goals last year.

[Ken Hairy 3,772]

I see he's been caught on camera telling United players to **** off when Everton equalised..........good lad 😁

[Capt. Pants 4,227]

2 hours ago, Indy said:

And lots on here didn’t really rate him! He was our best central defender by a long way.

He's pretty good in midfield too 😉

[Mr Tea 105]

7 hours ago, unique said:

I hope there were some substantial add-on clauses to Ben Godfrey’s sale price.

The way Everton fans are eulogising over him suggests we let him go far too cheaply.

You don’t think SW has a few nice little bolt  ones for added payments ?

I do.

 

[FenwayFrank 2,459]

From the Athletic

What is the structure of the deal?

Norwich valued Godfrey, 22, at £50 million last season. But they were forced to lower their price after relegation to the Championship.

 

This summer they have demanded £30 million, eventually accepting an offer of £25 million from Everton, which approaches their asking price when potential add-ons are considered. Godfrey's first club, York City, will receive 10 per cent of the fee due to a sell-on clause.

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 1,749]

He's only just got a centre back place in the last couple of games, after playing a full back fir most of the season, this will be where he's judged if thats where he's going to play.

   ...they did let 3 in yesterday...

[Thirsty Lizard 3,162]

9 minutes ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

He's only just got a centre back place in the last couple of games, after playing a full back fir most of the season, this will be where he's judged if thats where he's going to play.

   ...they did let 3 in yesterday...

And none of them were anything to do with him. Watch the highlights. 

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 1,749]

8 minutes ago, Thirsty Lizard said:

And none of them were anything to do with him. Watch the highlights. 

Funny how often that always seemed to be the case here too?!

...this us where he'll be properly judged from now on.

If theyve been eulogising over him playing at full back, maybe that is his better position??

[Thirsty Lizard 3,162]

15 minutes ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

Funny how often that always seemed to be the case here too?!

...this us where he'll be properly judged from now on.

If theyve been eulogising over him playing at full back, maybe that is his better position??

Most of the time last season it was precisely the case. A load of clueless clowns who don't understand football were blaming Godfrey because he was the one near constant in our defence (a defence which conceded a lot of goals).  Asking them to actually understand that we kept losing the ball in midfield and being outnumbered defensively was far too much for them. 

Early days yet I grant you, but the Everton fans were absolutely raving about Godfrey's performance in central defence in their away win at Leeds last week. 

 

[AJ 1,218]

He's got big things ahead of him and he's gone to a great club with a great manager. Really pleased for him. Those who didn't rate him here will hopefully be realising what Everton did

[Christoph Stiepermann 1,135]

Forget his age, before he moved to Everton he'd only been playing and training as a CB for 18 months in his career. A couple more season of practice working under a coach like Ancelotti and he'll be one of the best defenders in the PL. 

[Yellow and Green 334]

13 hours ago, king canary said:

He's a great example of how you have to evaluate the individual player rather than the team he's playing in.

Godfrey always had all the attributes that would naturally stand out in a team with better quality around him and playing on the front foot. Same with Aarons. Doesn't matter if we conceded a ton of goals last year.

Ironically you could say that about 3/4 of our defence last season. Lewis, Godfrey and Aarons are all excellent players but they had zero PL experience between them and our playing style often left them ruthlessly exposed.

[hogesar 9,658]

20 hours ago, unique said:

I hope there were some substantial add-on clauses to Ben Godfrey’s sale price.

The way Everton fans are eulogising over him suggests we let him go far too cheaply.

That's not how it works. We can't sell at a price of a proven top 6 prem player because he hadn't achieved that. If he achieves that with Everton his value will increase, of course.

[ged in the onion bag 855]

18 minutes ago, hogesar said:

That's not how it works. We can't sell at a price of a proven top 6 prem player because he hadn't achieved that. If he achieves that with Everton his value will increase, of course.

Just an observation.  Arsenal paid £72m for Pepe!    Far too many of our fans didn't appreciate how good Godfrey was (dont think you were one of them)... as Thirsty so eloquently put it (a load of clueless clowns) had no appreciation of the circumstances he was working in....    Last season, he and Aarons were sensational given that they had no experience around them and had no cover ahead of them since our CDM options were pretty ineffective add to that opponents attacks became relentless when the likes of Drmic couldn't hold it up front.   

For me £25m was always a bargain given some of the prices out there.    Similarly, Maddison has proved a bargain and there is no doubt Buendia who is worth over £50m will be a bargain too.    He's a top 4 player, his stats evidence that and whoever buys him is getting the same player whether he is sold by us or Barcelona.    

[......and Smith must score. 1,342]

41 minutes ago, hogesar said:

That's not how it works. We can't sell at a price of a proven top 6 prem player because he hadn't achieved that. If he achieves that with Everton his value will increase, of course.

That’s the problem if a young raw player makes a big impact at Norwich. We’re not a big enough outfit to resist any decent bid that comes in which means we never get to see him grow into a better player. No player who ‘ arrives ‘ while at Carrow Rd stays very long.

With hindsight people say we lost out on players like Maddison and Godfrey but the reality is that if they’re that good they aren’t going to be here long enough for us to benefit from any increased selling price.

[king canary 7,604]

On 08/02/2021 at 02:24, Yellow and Green said:

Ironically you could say that about 3/4 of our defence last season. Lewis, Godfrey and Aarons are all excellent players but they had zero PL experience between them and our playing style often left them ruthlessly exposed.

Yep. As much as we may love him, there is a reason no Premier League team ever made a serious effort to take Tettey off our hands at any point yet Godfrey got snapped up after one season.

[sgncfc 1,227]

I've watched a lot of Everton games this season. Godfrey has done well, generally. His positional awareness doesn't seem to have improved much - he still gets lost sometimes; as a full back he struggled to stop crosses; as a centre back he still  often turns away from blocks and tackles rather than towards them. He is still quite poor in the air, particularly on set pieces. He is strong in the tackle, fast on his feet and his distribution is good. Alongside better players, his deficiencies are not quite so obvious.

He always had lots of potential and is a skilful, athletic and watchable footballer. Whether he is any better for Everton than he was for us is debatable, but I'm sure under better coaches he will improve.

Whatever, it was still a hell of a deal for us.

 

[Thirsty Lizard 3,162]

2 hours ago, sgncfc said:

I've watched a lot of Everton games this season. Godfrey has done well, generally. His positional awareness doesn't seem to have improved much - he still gets lost sometimes; as a full back he struggled to stop crosses; as a centre back he still  often turns away from blocks and tackles rather than towards them. He is still quite poor in the air, particularly on set pieces. He is strong in the tackle, fast on his feet and his distribution is good. Alongside better players, his deficiencies are not quite so obvious.

He always had lots of potential and is a skilful, athletic and watchable footballer. Whether he is any better for Everton than he was for us is debatable, but I'm sure under better coaches he will improve.

Whatever, it was still a hell of a deal for us.

 

Ha ha. This faint praise delivered through gritted teeth comes from one of the forum glitterati who regularly stuck the boot into Godfrey last season. 

[cambridgeshire canary 6,715]

6 minutes ago, Thirsty Lizard said:

Ha ha. This faint praise delivered through gritted teeth comes from one of the forum glitterati who regularly stuck the boot into Godfrey last season. 

It's always hard to admit you are wrong

[Thirsty Lizard 3,162]

8 minutes ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

It's always hard to admit you are wrong

I think that sgncfc is one of the best posters on here, but for some reason he has nailed his colours to the 'Ben Godfrey isn't a good central defender' mast. He was wrong last season and he's even more wrong this season. 

[sgncfc 1,227]

5 hours ago, Thirsty Lizard said:

Ha ha. This faint praise delivered through gritted teeth comes from one of the forum glitterati who regularly stuck the boot into Godfrey last season. 

That's simply not true. I never "stuck the boot in" to Ben Godfrey. I did keep trying to make people understand his limitations as a player whilst at the same time recognising his potential. The fact is he is not the complete article - not even close - but I've always acknowledged that he is a fine footballer. I stick to my view that, for us, he was actually not a very good centre back; but he was the only one we had at times. He was responsible for many of the goals scored against us in full or in part last season and the season before. Everyone raved about him and ignored that. How many times did he fail to track a near post run by a striker?

He's still not a particularly good centre back and I've given you all the evidence you need - his positional awareness is not yet good enough; he isn't good enough in the air, and he turns away from blocks. There is plenty of photographic evidence for the latter - look at Wellbeck's goal for Watford against us last season; and he still does that in an Everton shirt. You can't have those basic flaws and be rated highly as a centre back.

He has great pace and athleticism which supporters put great store by; he's all heart and determination and there is every chance that he will get better, but I stand by my view that getting £25m for him at his current standard was unbelievably good business.

Anyone with eyes, and any understanding of football, can see that Ben Gibson is actually a better defender at the moment. Not a better footballer, but a better defender - he gets in the way much more effectively at this level than Godfrey ever did.

It's interesting that Ancelotti has said that he has been surprised at how good a defender Godfrey is - so presumably he thought he wasn't very good either from just watching our games and he's better in training when he can see him up close. When he translates that into games that matter I'll be very happy to acknowledge his improvement. And hope that our sell on clauses kick in.

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 1,749]

36 minutes ago, sgncfc said:

That's simply not true. I never "stuck the boot in" to Ben Godfrey. I did keep trying to make people understand his limitations as a player whilst at the same time recognising his potential. The fact is he is not the complete article - not even close - but I've always acknowledged that he is a fine footballer. I stick to my view that, for us, he was actually not a very good centre back; but he was the only one we had at times. He was responsible for many of the goals scored against us in full or in part last season and the season before. Everyone raved about him and ignored that. How many times did he fail to track a near post run by a striker?

He's still not a particularly good centre back and I've given you all the evidence you need - his positional awareness is not yet good enough; he isn't good enough in the air, and he turns away from blocks. There is plenty of photographic evidence for the latter - look at Wellbeck's goal for Watford against us last season; and he still does that in an Everton shirt. You can't have those basic flaws and be rated highly as a centre back.

He has great pace and athleticism which supporters put great store by; he's all heart and determination and there is every chance that he will get better, but I stand by my view that getting £25m for him at his current standard was unbelievably good business.

Anyone with eyes, and any understanding of football, can see that Ben Gibson is actually a better defender at the moment. Not a better footballer, but a better defender - he gets in the way much more effectively at this level than Godfrey ever did.

It's interesting that Ancelotti has said that he has been surprised at how good a defender Godfrey is - so presumably he thought he wasn't very good either from just watching our games and he's better in training when he can see him up close. When he translates that into games that matter I'll be very happy to acknowledge his improvement. And hope that our sell on clauses kick in.

...thats not true....apparantly he wasnt at fault for any of the goals we let in over the last 2 seasons.....for those who only see what they want to see...

[Thirsty Lizard 3,162]

45 minutes ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

...thats not true....apparantly he wasnt at fault for any of the goals we let in over the last 2 seasons.....for those who only see what they want to see...

What a ridiculous post - nobody ever said that did they? Of course Godfrey made some mistakes when he was playing for us. You do know that all players make mistakes some times don't you?