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No probsI respect this site and your good self, so don't want to cause trouble.
I smell fear, finish him
Thelonious
I imagine BAEnksy did it!! I THANK YOU!!!!!
Actually I think the portrait isn't that great, doesn't do him justice!
The transfer thread is talking about everyone's hard on for kicking BAE out of the club. One of the reasons given is that "AVB doesn't seem to rate him". Is that the case, though?
BAE's first appearance after injury was for 26 minutes against Man U. at home. He was selected for the bench in the previous match (QPR away), but he may have not been fully fit. Hell, he probably wasn't against Man U…
In the final 15 matches, BAE played 63% of the available minutes. He started nine times and came in off the bench twice more. He was completely dropped only at the Britannia (perhaps because we needed our real brickhouse back four for that match).
When he was not starting, he was dropped in favour of Naughton and Vertonghen three times apiece. Further, he missed out on consecutive matches twice (Newcastle and West Ham away, Swansea away and Everton), suggesting that he may have had some recurrent injury troubles.
I can't say one way or another whether AVB rates BAE. I surely believe that Vertonghen and Naughton both are worse LBs by any conceivable neutral skill metric. However, they both also had twenty-odd weeks of training under AVB in order to understand his system better. Clearly a player like Bale or Walker saw far more playing time over those final 15 matches than BAE, but to compare him to them is disingenuous. Who do you think would be a more suitable point of comparison? THudd? Parker? (where we hardly had a player to put in his place…)
BAE's first appearance after injury was for 26 minutes against Man U. at home. He was selected for the bench in the previous match (QPR away), but he may have not been fully fit. Hell, he probably wasn't against Man U…
In the final 15 matches, BAE played 63% of the available minutes. He started nine times and came in off the bench twice more. He was completely dropped only at the Britannia (perhaps because we needed our real brickhouse back four for that match).
When he was not starting, he was dropped in favour of Naughton and Vertonghen three times apiece. Further, he missed out on consecutive matches twice (Newcastle and West Ham away, Swansea away and Everton), suggesting that he may have had some recurrent injury troubles.
I can't say one way or another whether AVB rates BAE. I surely believe that Vertonghen and Naughton both are worse LBs by any conceivable neutral skill metric. However, they both also had twenty-odd weeks of training under AVB in order to understand his system better. Clearly a player like Bale or Walker saw far more playing time over those final 15 matches than BAE, but to compare him to them is disingenuous. Who do you think would be a more suitable point of comparison? THudd? Parker? (where we hardly had a player to put in his place…)
I'm surprised his leaving hasn't been announced yet.
Although I'll be gutted, think its only a matter of time before the announcement is made, at the last game, his body language was all about saying good bye
This is the key factor really, if he had recurrent injuries then 63%, 45%, 78%, doesn't really tell the story. If we're speculating whether AVB rates him or not, the number of minutes played will only be significant if he was actually fit to play.
If he had recurrent injuries, then he's done well to play 63% of the time I suppose. But if he wasn't injured, then him only playing 63% of the minutes available when the alternatives are Naughton or Vertonghen would be enough to suggest AVB doesn't feel happy with his current LB choices.
Sure, but there's also different levels of "unhappy" with his choices. There's "unhappy and wants to sell" and "unhappy, but understands that more bedding in is necessary". I feel that if BAE was such a royal catastrophe at LB and AVB didn't rate him at all, then he would have played far less (or been replaced far often during matches). But again, we don't have enough information to play Spurslinologist in a way that's satisfying.
Seems he's staying as first choice with Rose and Fryers as back up if AVB is to be believed: http://www.tottenhamjournal.co.uk/t...as_no_plans_to_replace_assou_ekotto_1_2212667
[itkmode]That's just to bump up his price[/itkmode]
