Whelp, this has been a disappointing season no matter how you cut it, and by the way he’s playing looks like he’s extremely low on confidence. Ball bounces a meter off his feet when receiving, he’s never been like this. Does not seem his teammates give him much support, and really haven’t since the beginning. I guess that is part of the “tough” nature of the EPL, especially for players who thrive in a constructive and supportive environment. I think everyone’s disappointed, most of all him.
All that being said, I’m surprised at the comments about his national origin, “driving him back”, behavior of his “fan base”, etc. Makes me wonder if there is more than meets the eye behind the hyperbole, and whether if he was a good white lad from the English countryside if people would be disappointed but not rude or condescending as they are now.
Here’s hoping he gets loaned out of the UK, maybe to Bundesliga or La Liga, think he’d do better in a league style with more skill and less brute force.
"I'd drive him there myself" is an English football idiom or in joke. It just means he's not very good in the opinion of the writer.
We've had plenty of hopeless Brits and Europeans just in our Amex history. Off the top of my head Gary Gardner, Ryan Harley, Stephen Dobbie and Billy Paynter have all stunk out our team and have been ruthlessly called out on here. The last three also supposedly attacking players who contributed nothing positive to the scoreboard. And that's the issue. ZERO goals. ZERO assists. And looks like a fish out of water. He's just not good enough - at the moment. That's why I suggested a loan to the Championship. The defenders there are arguably more physical but nowhere near as good. If he doesn't rip that up he's never going to survive the Premier League.
And let's forget the nonsense about supportive team mates as well. For the whole of Hughton's time here the togetherness of the squad and their willingness to work for each other has been a massive factor in our success. If anything it's his reluctance to put in a shift that would isolate him.
But yeah, his legions of fanboys certainly won't be missed on Insta or FB with their latent homophobia and inability to accept that (at this level) he's not very good.