Bassong - yes or no?

[morty 0]

Really Jimmy, EVERY SINGLE Watford fan said they wanted him back?

Did that really happen?

[Green and Yellow 0]

With a firm manager. Yes, Bassong is a country mile better than any current defender at city.

[Ray 111]

For those of you wanting him back, be careful what you wish for. Whilst I don''t doubt that when his mindset is right he can be a top player, I believe his mindset is the issue and this can spew out across the club.

What follows I posted elsewhere but IMO worth repeating and I have added a bit.

Imagine this,

You are a premiership player for NCFC, your board appoints a guy who is inexperienced but has won the FA youth Cup with the U18’s and was a decent player previously. You obviously know who this guy is and respect him for what he has achieved with the youth team. He is then introduced to you officially as your manager. Your so called Captain speaks on your behalf and dismisses him immediately and publicly. How do you feel about this, personally I would feel my Captain’s remarks undermined the board, the club, the management, the team, the fans and you as an individual (the new manager himself at this moment has done nothing wrong).

The newly appointed manager takes a stance, quite rightly in my opinion and relegates the Captain to the bench (or the naughty step if you like). Your Captain then refuses to take his pace on the bench.

What choice did the manager and for that matter the board have, how could they allow this individual to poison the club, they couldn’t, they had to find a way out, which could of included an apology, which wasn’t forthcoming.

Thereafter the ''so called captain'' refuses to accept any blame for his predicament, deciding instead to call the integrity of all the other players, the manager and the CEO, into question.

What happened happened, irrespective of who the manager was and the fact the encumbent of the position has changed IMO makes no difference. There are many others at the club who will no doubt still feel now how they felt at the time, on the playing side and on the administration side.

Guys, think about how the other players think about this, would they want this divisive character back, I very much doubt it.

[Ginja 26]

Bassong is a good defender, though his weakness seems imo to be an arrogance or over confidence, at times he looks very casual and while I welcome a cool head in the defence I often felt he''d play the team into trouble. I''m amazed at how many people are willing to write him off when our defence situation is in need of bolstering and Bassong does have proven ability. We have a new manager in and it''s a clean slate for everyone, I hope AN can get him to perform.

[Tetteys Jig 830]

[quote user="morty"]Really Jimmy, EVERY SINGLE Watford fan said they wanted him back?

Did that really happen?[/quote]

I am on a Championship banter page on facebook (varying degrees of intellectual comments balanced out with some real childish stuff as expected) that has over 6000 members and all the Watford fans on there say they want him back. Not seen one post saying otherwise despite them agreeing he can look disinterested at times.

[Ray 111]

Ginja,

I agree with most of your post, however if only it was that simple, it isn''t a clean slate for everyone, it may be for Seb and the new manager, but there are many other personalities involved.

[Tetteys Jig 830]

Ray, i''m hoping the new manager lays it out like this:

- not interested in what went on before

- as long as you perform 100% and don''t rock the applecart, there''s no problem

- if there is any interest, we''ll let you know but the best way to get back to the top is to play back into form at your current contracted club.

At the end of the day, it''s not like the olden days where a bunch of die hard Norwich fans turned out for us. Yes there will be one or two in our squad and there will be some long serving members of our team that develop an affinity towards us but they are professional footballers doing their job.

I don''t need to see Bassong kissing the badge and tweeting "NCFC 4 lyf" or any of that rubbish, I just need to see him contributing to us winning games. I really wouldn''t care if he was a closet binner as long as he was performing!

[Buh 0]

It''s all on him

If he wants to play for this club he has some bridges to rebuild and that means giving completely committed performances when given the chance.

If not, Brighton awaits

[Ray 111]

Jimmy,

The manager may not be intersted in what went on before but there are many who will be and I agree wouldn''t it be great if as employees they could all suck it up and ensure past issues are totally forgotten, it doesn''t happen like that though does it. I''m sure they will all be professional about it but they will still harbour emotions that may not be 100% positive about his return and this could impact, they are all human after all.

[Tetteys Jig 830]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2844275/SEBASTIEN-BASSONG-hard-falling-favour-Norwich-ve-touch-Watford-Cameroon-s-World-Cup-embarrassment.html

Hard to read much into this other than he got dropped when Adams came in as he didn''t rate him.

I don''t know what the other players thought of him tbh.

[morty 0]

A handful of Watford fans on a football forum (I''m assuming all 6000 aren''t Watford fans) hardly constitutes a unanimious opinion really Jimmy, does it?

I think a mixed opinion is a slightly fairer assesment.

[Tetteys Jig 830]

I''d say i''ve read about 20 Watford fans who all wanted him back. Hardly mixed.

[morty 0]

Wow, they are quite some stats Jimmy.

If I were you though, I''d look up the word "unanimous"

[Nexus_Canary 1,016]

No

[Tetteys Jig 830]

[quote user="morty"]Wow, they are quite some stats Jimmy.

If I were you though, I''d look up the word "unanimous"[/quote]

Well of my estimated sample size of 20, all of them wanted him back, so i''d say that''s pretty unanimous.

[Madison 0]

I think Bassong was used as a scapegoat by Adams for our relegation from the PL, deflecting the blame away from board as he was Hughtons man. It suits both parties for his return to be a success and now the dust has settled. I for one think we and the new manager should encourage him to hit previous heights and become a club favourite again.

[Yellowbeagle 0]

The Bassong from first season - yes

The Bassong from second season - no

[lappinitup 629]

I''d like to see him back.

[Year of the tiger 54]

I''d like to see the back of him

[morty 0]

Odd that we have had no more press on this, it was announced the manager was having talks with Seb, and nothing since.

I wonder if he is assessing him in training this week, because it really isn''t about what Seb wants, its about what the manager thinks of him.

[Ray 111]

Morty,

And what the rest of the squad think about him and of course our CEO.

[River End Canary 0]

[quote user="Ray"]Morty, And what the rest of the squad think about him and of course our CEO.[/quote]

 

And you being in the know and all that you would know exactly what they are thinking. Epic fail

[Ray 111]

Canary,

Somewhat judgemental this morning aren''t we?. How the hell do you know what I know, so I suggest you take your epic fail and wear it as a badge of honour..

Who saiid I knew anything anyway but if you want to read something into it then you are probably right, insomuch I may know more than most and that appears, from your comments. to include you.

[morty 0]

Hahaha Canary, well done for posting probably the most childish, pouting thing I have seen in a while.

I bet your mum thinks you''re awesome.

[ROBFLECK 132]

Yes

[Wiz 0]

YES.

[Tumbleweed 106]

Its a marginal "no" from me. I don''t know what really happened with Adams and the loan etc but it seemed like he turned his back on us. I agree with Jimmy we don''t expect all the badge kissing from everyone at every game but we do want him to be committed to helping out his own employers and fans which he didn''t do.

Reading some of AN''s own comments and the accies fans views, our new manager seems to be more about building the best team rather than bunging in the best players, and when pushing for promotion or, hopefully, seeking to battle to stay up next season, we''ll need a big team spirit.

It''s tough since as others have said he can be a good defender, but for me, not really knowing much about the guy''s issues, its too risky.

[Tetteys Jig 830]

With our current injury problems, he''s worth a try. At worst barring injury, he''s had his MOT and will attract more interest. At best, he nods in the winner on Saturday and it''s as if 2014 never happened. Amazing things can be achieved with a MOTM performance, remember Tevez for Man City versus us?

[Indy_Bones 441]

There has to be a line drawn that once a player crosses it, they need to go - even if they are a top class player.Ferguson lived by this policy at Man Utd, even moving players like Keane on when they started to have a negative effect in the dressing room along with vocal criticism of players and staff.Bassong was clearly out of line with his words to Adams (even if he actually just meant it as a joke which was badly misconstrued), but should have then taken the punishment, worked harder and had to decency to apologise (again, even if it was only for a badly taken joke, which I don''t think it was).Bassong did NONE of that, and instead threw his teddies out of the pram and acted pretty unprofessionally IMHO.There''s no doubt that on his day he''s a premiership class centre half, but off he''s day he even struggles to look Championship class...I''d suggest that he may have simply burnt too many bridges with this whole debacle and if we can get a fair price for him without selling to a promotion chasing rival, we''d probably be better off cashing in.Let''s face it, if he couldn''t respect Adams due to his lack of experience, he''s hardly going to see Neil in a much different light is he?

[hogesar 9,670]

Problem I have with him, is the impact on the dressing room.

Whichever way you look at it he is at his best, a class above the rest of our defenders and the rest of the team would have known that.

But - when they needed him, when Hughton went, and we had 5 games to save our season - he acts like a spoiled child and it''s quite simply not on and if I were a Russell Martin, Johnny Howson or Bradley Johnson, as examples of players who always work hard and did try hard to retain our PL status - Bassong would go into the ''tw@t book''.