Anthony Knockaert signs a 3.5 year deal with the Albion

[dangull]

Money! They will make around 2.5 plus million profit in 6 months.

Should have got him 6 months ago then.

2 million to spend on another player then.

 

[dazzer6666]

This does, once again, make a mockery of staving the team and by association us fans, last season.

£6.3m of unexpected transfer income, in.
Player budget increase £3m, in an always rising market.

Or Lord Bloom had already got to the point where he didn't trust the Burke or Sami to spend it wisely.........

 

[Stat Brother]

With some of our play this season, I can't imagine there are too many wingers who wouldn't jump at the chance to play for this Albion team under CH.

 

[Stat Brother]

Or Lord Bloom had already got to the point where he didn't trust the Burke or Sami to spend it wisely.........

So he'd rather throw away £23m on a lost cause.
Not to mention lost revenue, punters and potential relegation.

 

[dazzer6666]

So he'd rather throw away £23m on a lost cause.
Not to mention lost revenue, punters and potential relegation.

Looks that way I guess.......

 

[Giraffe]

Looks just what we need. Like the fact that for a winger he actually looks fairly physical, willing to battle back for the ball. Kazenga is good at that. Murphy less so.

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

Gallic flair. Nice.

Only downside I can see is that he's a glove wearer.

But glove wearing adds at least 2.3 to the flair index?

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Think most players can be accused of being lazy

It was my key attribute as a player.

 

[Bigtomfu]

But glove wearing adds at least 2.3 to the flair index?

Granted it does especially when combined with a short sleeved shirt.

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Just out of interest, has he not had a good season at Liege if they are prepared to sell him so soon?

He hasn't settled and wants to come back to England.

 

[Bladders]

He hasn't settled and wants to come back to England.

Finland is pretty dull....

 

[dwayne]

I enjoyed this write up from a Leicester forum.....

Knockaert’s arrival harked back to the days before the internet when players would suddenly turn up at clubs without the faintest hint prior to their arrival. In contrast to the protracted negotiations and hundreds of column inches associated with the signings of Esteban Cambiasso and Andrej Kramaric, Knockaert was pictured at the training ground holding a City shirt before anyone had heard of him.

*

He had been spotted by scouts while playing for Guingamp in the French second division. What they saw was a short, tricky wide player with a low centre of gravity and excellent technical ability. City needed a winger but nobody was quite sure whether Knockaert would fit the bill. He soon demonstrated that he would and, despite fluctuations in form during his first season in English football, there was enough to get excited about.

*

To say there were highs and lows would be an understatement. Knockaert announced himself to a wider audience with an audacious second goal at Huddersfield three months into his City career, a barely describable backheeled volley from behind his head. It was the sort of thing that wasn’t really seen anywhere, let alone in a Leicester City match.

*

Entering the final moments of City’s last league game of the season at the ground of rivals Nottingham Forest and the score tied at two apiece, a goal for either side would mean a prized play-off place. Forest threw men forward but were hit on the counter attack. Knockaert ambled towards a baying away end with his unique running style like an Olympic walker on fast-forward, his limbs always doing more than seems necessary. Pace has never been Knockaert’s strong point but on this occasion he didn’t need to be any quicker. They weren’t catching him. He exchanged passes with Chris Wood and swept the ball into the net before whipping off his shirt and leaping towards the ecstatic City supporters behind the goal.

*

So those were the highs. The season was extended into the play-offs and the low was sadly yet to come. The score was again level at 2-2 at Watford’s Vicarage Road, this time on aggregate after 180 minutes of nerve-shredding action, City fans again found themselves watching Knockaert running towards them. This time he felt a touch and flung himself to the ground. Improbably, a penalty was awarded and Knockaert insisted on taking it. The sequence of events: Knockaert shoots. Saved. A chance on the rebound. Saved again. Cleared. A Watford counter-attack. Goal. Watford win. City’s season over, within thirty seconds of being a single kick from Wembley. Knockaert in tears, surrounded by jubilant pitch-invading Watford fans. Devastation.

*

There would be no lows in Knockaert’s second season in English football. On his return to Vicarage Road, he lashed the ball into the same net he had been unable to find earlier in the year as City bagged three without reply on their way to a magnificent league title.

*

City fans had enjoyed numerous flashes of Premier League class from Anthony Knockaert in those two seasons in the second tier, but would see very little of him at the top level. Whether this was down to his efforts in training, the form of his fellow wide players Jeff Schlupp and Riyad Mahrez or an interview given to the French media in which he was quoted as saying City were merely a stepping stone in his career, Knockaert’s time appeared to be coming to an end.

*

The reason a loan departure of an unfavoured squad member deserves comment is for that moment in Huddersfield when a Leicester City player produced a moment of quality you see once each decade. The nearest equivalent in recent history is Muzzy Izzet’s overhead kick at Grimsby in 2002.

*

It isn’t so much the moments of brilliance that Knockaert has given in a blue shirt that tinges his departure with sadness – it’s the emotion in the way he plays football and the effect he has on others. He both displays and provokes emotion far more than the average footballer and certainly more than most players who leave to fall down the league ladder.

*

Any goalscorer can create elation, but not all can create wonderment. Any footballer can show their disappointment, but not many are ever inconsolable with tears to the point where fans can empathise with them. This emotional quality should be cherished, especially in the modern game when so many players are seen as uncaring mercenaries who are force-fed statistics and programmed to be effective and efficient rather than volley the ball in off the crossbar with their heel from behind their head.

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Finland is pretty dull....

Eh?

 

[Hampster Gull]

He hasn't settled and wants to come back to England.

Or they got him on a free and can make over 2m

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Or they got him on a free and can make over 2m

I was just relaying a snippet that I read earlier

 

[Hampster Gull]

I was just relaying a snippet that I read earlier

Ah, i didnt bother with the other pages

 

[Diego Napier]

Gallic flair. Nice.

Only downside I can see is that he's a glove wearer.

Is that a euphemism?

 

[Marshy]

So what's the price ? 2.5 million euros ? £1.8 million roughly ... Bargain

 

[HastingsSeagull]

Awesome signing. Just hope all goes through smoothly next day or so

 

[Super Steve Earle]

I enjoyed this write up from a Leicester forum.....

Knockaert’s arrival harked back to the days before the internet when players would suddenly turn up at clubs without the faintest hint prior to their arrival. In contrast to the protracted negotiations and hundreds of column inches associated with the signings of Esteban Cambiasso and Andrej Kramaric, Knockaert was pictured at the training ground holding a City shirt before anyone had heard of him.

*

He had been spotted by scouts while playing for Guingamp in the French second division. What they saw was a short, tricky wide player with a low centre of gravity and excellent technical ability. City needed a winger but nobody was quite sure whether Knockaert would fit the bill. He soon demonstrated that he would and, despite fluctuations in form during his first season in English football, there was enough to get excited about.

*

To say there were highs and lows would be an understatement. Knockaert announced himself to a wider audience with an audacious second goal at Huddersfield three months into his City career, a barely describable backheeled volley from behind his head. It was the sort of thing that wasn’t really seen anywhere, let alone in a Leicester City match.

*

Entering the final moments of City’s last league game of the season at the ground of rivals Nottingham Forest and the score tied at two apiece, a goal for either side would mean a prized play-off place. Forest threw men forward but were hit on the counter attack. Knockaert ambled towards a baying away end with his unique running style like an Olympic walker on fast-forward, his limbs always doing more than seems necessary. Pace has never been Knockaert’s strong point but on this occasion he didn’t need to be any quicker. They weren’t catching him. He exchanged passes with Chris Wood and swept the ball into the net before whipping off his shirt and leaping towards the ecstatic City supporters behind the goal.

*

So those were the highs. The season was extended into the play-offs and the low was sadly yet to come. The score was again level at 2-2 at Watford’s Vicarage Road, this time on aggregate after 180 minutes of nerve-shredding action, City fans again found themselves watching Knockaert running towards them. This time he felt a touch and flung himself to the ground. Improbably, a penalty was awarded and Knockaert insisted on taking it. The sequence of events: Knockaert shoots. Saved. A chance on the rebound. Saved again. Cleared. A Watford counter-attack. Goal. Watford win. City’s season over, within thirty seconds of being a single kick from Wembley. Knockaert in tears, surrounded by jubilant pitch-invading Watford fans. Devastation.

*

There would be no lows in Knockaert’s second season in English football. On his return to Vicarage Road, he lashed the ball into the same net he had been unable to find earlier in the year as City bagged three without reply on their way to a magnificent league title.

*

City fans had enjoyed numerous flashes of Premier League class from Anthony Knockaert in those two seasons in the second tier, but would see very little of him at the top level. Whether this was down to his efforts in training, the form of his fellow wide players Jeff Schlupp and Riyad Mahrez or an interview given to the French media in which he was quoted as saying City were merely a stepping stone in his career, Knockaert’s time appeared to be coming to an end.

*

The reason a loan departure of an unfavoured squad member deserves comment is for that moment in Huddersfield when a Leicester City player produced a moment of quality you see once each decade. The nearest equivalent in recent history is Muzzy Izzet’s overhead kick at Grimsby in 2002.

*

It isn’t so much the moments of brilliance that Knockaert has given in a blue shirt that tinges his departure with sadness – it’s the emotion in the way he plays football and the effect he has on others. He both displays and provokes emotion far more than the average footballer and certainly more than most players who leave to fall down the league ladder.

*

Any goalscorer can create elation, but not all can create wonderment. Any footballer can show their disappointment, but not many are ever inconsolable with tears to the point where fans can empathise with them. This emotional quality should be cherished, especially in the modern game when so many players are seen as uncaring mercenaries who are force-fed statistics and programmed to be effective and efficient rather than volley the ball in off the crossbar with their heel from behind their head.

Wow. Who would have thought Leicester fans so literate. Great comments. Create a really strong picture of the guy we might be signing.