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Bassong - yes or no?

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I''m in 2 minds...

on one hand he''s a fantastic player, good in the air and can pass the ball out from the back (rather than the good old English hoof!)

on the other hand his attitude slipped massively during the 2nd season.. particularly with his "we cant wait for the season to be over" comment during the run in to relegation... not the words you want your captain saying.

I''d say he wants to leave...a shame, but if he can''t his head to the level it was when he first arrived at the club then he is wasting his and our time...

only Alex Neil and Seb Bassong can have that chat though!

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So, according to the story on the homepage, Seb is back in from the cold, and proving himself to the manager.

Good for all concerned, and I suspect Alex won''t put up with any nonsense from him!

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None of us know what really went on but it''s obvious him and Adams never saw eye to eye. I''m not going to go into who was right or who was wrong as i''m too uninformed to judge.

I did note that his brother retweeted the Adams resigning story, so i''ll let you all make your own conclusions on that one.

I thought he was harshly treated when he was basically dropped for giving away that penalty versus Stoke. That was basically the turning point in our season as well.

The move to make him captain was a disaster as he clearly suffered with the extra responsibility but i''ve seen him marshaling our defence to victory against the likes of Gareth Bale and Wayne Rooney so at the end of the day if we even get half that player back, we''ll be better for it.

As the new manager states, the teams interests must take priority.

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IF what is alleged to have happened between Bassong and Adams at the end of last season did happen then bassong was hugely out of order and I feel he should at least be asked to apologise to his team mates for the way he behaved.

However he is a good player. Top professional players must be used to having team mates who are good players but have serious egos or even who are tw*ts but i am sure they respect them as players. If he can get back to the level we know he can perform at then he is a playing asset and ultimately the whole Bassong episode is an example of why it was so ludicrous to appoint Neil Adams as manager. It doesn;t make Bassong''s behaviour right but had we appointed a proper manager in the summer from outside of the club and with experience of managing adult players then i believe the whole situation would have been sorted out there and then.

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It worked for Sutton and Shearer or Cole and Sheringham. Polar opposites off the pitch but on it, they clicked.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2012/feb/10/secret-footballer-team-mates-friends

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[quote user="Jim Smith"]IF what is alleged to have happened between Bassong and Adams at the end of last season did happen then bassong was hugely out of order and I feel he should at least be asked to apologise to his team mates for the way he behaved.

However he is a good player. Top professional players must be used to having team mates who are good players but have serious egos or even who are tw*ts but i am sure they respect them as players. If he can get back to the level we know he can perform at then he is a playing asset and ultimately the whole Bassong episode is an example of why it was so ludicrous to appoint Neil Adams as manager. It doesn;t make Bassong''s behaviour right but had we appointed a proper manager in the summer from outside of the club and with experience of managing adult players then i believe the whole situation would have been sorted out there and then.[/quote]

It''s like any job, you will always have the guys you get on with really well and so their job or you will have the bell*nd''s that think they are above their current role and who know best.

Maybe Bassong was right about Adams?

Either way our new man has had a chat with him and he''s obviously willing to keep his head down and fight for the squad and if that''s the case then we now have a good CB to come back in our starting XI

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If you show lack of respect to your boss, in any walk of life, then theres only going to be one outcome.

A famous manager said "no one player is bigger than the team"

I think Seb forgot that.

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Win-win for AN hopefully - he can either:

a) ...get a fit, motivated Bassong back, which would be like a new signing, OR

b) ...he can make an example of him and make a show of his authority (pour encourager les autres).

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[quote user="morty"]If you show lack of respect to your boss, in any walk of life, then theres only going to be one outcome.

A famous manager said "no one player is bigger than the team"

I think Seb forgot that.[/quote]I 100% agree with that.

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The direct quote from our new manager says - ''...I assured him as far as I was concerned all that is done and dusted and we''ll see what happens with him in the coming weeks.'' That suggests the ball is very definitely in his (and his agent''s) court. I don''t see it that its a clean slate with the rest of the squad and I doubt they''ll quickly forgive and forget what happened.

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Woodman,

I agree entirey and this could be a problem. They will never forget but they may forgive, it''s akin to a judge saying "The jury will disregard the last remark." Well just how do you do that then, you''ve heard it and therefore it is in your brain (memory).

The players will have formed an opinion of Seb''s behaviour and it will take a while for that opinion to change, also any minor slip by Seb will only serve to re-inforce their opinion. It''s going to be a tough one for all concerned and maybe a situation we can do without?

Personally I think a fully fit, firing on all four, Seb of two years ago would be a good thing for our club, if only he had not done and said what he did, but he did and every action has an equal and opposite reaction (consequence).

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Are we sure he "definitely" did anything?

He got dropped after that Stoke game and was out of favour. Perhaps Adams just didn''t think him good enough. You''re not exactly going to be happy sat on the bench week in week out or worse not even in the squad, are you?

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what exactly did Bassong do?  what do we know 100% happened?

i dont think th squad we really care either way if he comes back or not.  some will be his friends and welcome him back, others will not really be bothered if he comes back or not. 

its like any other work place.  some people get on, others dont.  i dont see the problem with him coming back as long as hes show respect to manager, fans, and team mates.  the rest is history. 

 

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I''m delighted Bassong is being welcomed back! Any good people manager should do exactly that - give a classy on-field performer a second chance and coach the rest of the staff to deal with it. As Ray says, others may not forget whatever it was he is alleged to have said, however they may well forgive. There is likely to be a huge ''obligation edge'' on Bassong''s part too - gratitude towards his colleagues for being forgiven. Either way, achieve a few solid wins, amass some valuable points and we''ll have a moving train which is on the right track towards the Premiership. In that scenario regardless of personnel, most will be want to be on board anyway...

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I''m glad the issue has been resolved, and I think this is a Win - Win situation as some others have suggested.

Good that the manager is sorting his ''pack'' out & deciding who is worth keeping & who should be discarded.

I''m really liking what I see & hear from Alex Neil at the moment & there is an air of excitement about this season again for me.

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Think it''s very easy to criticise his form when he was dropped and what was apparently done/said, when in reality it''s only rumours on what exactly happened.

It''s also not as if we have 2 centre backs playing brilliantly at the minute as it is. Id love to see bassong back with turner, and then martin/Whittaker left back

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AN has been brought in (amongst other things) to get the players motivated, if he get get Bassong ''back in the fold'' then all too the better.There appears that there was certain ''personality clashes'' that caused his drop in form, or interest. If they can be solved then why not ?If the same problems (ishoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooos) cannot be resolved then a parting on the ways will be the best course, but as it stands I''m all for giving him another chance.

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Bassong made a mistake - if he said something out of turn, it might have been through trying to be clever, or trying to be funny, or maybe out of frustration, or even anger.  It may have well been out of malice too, but judging what happened remotely, without having been being there is impossible at the time.    So it may have just been an error of judgement on his part. 

However, he will hopefully have learned from it - and weren''t there reports that he applied himself well with the development squad?   So he went on loan - will have got fitness and match time - and now the reason for the conflict has gone, he could well be like getting a new player in.  

Anyone of us that holds a grudge against him without knowing what was said, or what he was thinking when he said it, is just being bl**dy minded for the sake of it.  He made a mistake, its been resolved and we move on.   I wouldn''t be surprised to see Martin and Bassong as our centre backs on Saturday.

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I think Bassong made more than one mistake!!! Basically before he was dropped he was a liability - his heart hadn''t been in it all season. Yes the captaincy was a mistake and could have contributed, but he basically had, (and not for the first time in his career) second season syndrome - disinterested, mistake laden, clumsy, didn''t want to be here. he wasn''t dropped because he gave a pen away at Stoke in my opinion, he was dropped because he wasn''t playing well enough.If he can regain his form that will be great - I think he will struggle to make an impact with us again, but I am really hoping to be proved wrong.

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[quote user="jas the barclay king"]I''m in 2 minds... on one hand he''s a fantastic player, good in the air and can pass the ball out from the back (rather than the good old English hoof!)  [/quote]

I don''t think he''s that great at passing the ball about. I think Cuellar is better and actually Hooiveld probably is too.

 

But where I do think Bassong is good is reading the game. Spotting danger and killing it. When he''s on his game he gets to things before they really start to develop, which in some ways makes his good work less eye catching.

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The words from Alex Neil in the pink''un articles do not suggest to me that his will be a long term thing. He seems very single minded and determined and in his first week one of the things I have picked up is his strong view that if the players don''t buy into what he is doing then there will be problems, by which presumably he means they will be out of the door. Now I don''t know what did really happen with SB, but he also seems headstrong and maybe a bit, well, sulky, so while there may be a fresh start (and lets face it, this is pretty much exactly what we would expect him to say) there is stuff which could easily bubble up again and become a problem. So, much as I would like a strong committed and combative CB back in, my hunch is that at most it will be a temporary thing.

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Lets hope that Seb has enough about him to learn from what has happened, we are his best hope of getting back to the Premiership, if he did leave here, I doubt it would be to a Premiership club.

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He couldn''t even be bothered to warm up in front of the fans Saturday. I was prepared to give him a second chance and I expect others would have as well. Arrogance?

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