[Albion] Knockaert joins Fulham on initial one-year loan

[smudge]

Stat's don't really fly with me when it comes to Knocky. I sat through some dross last season; several games when the atmosphere was flat, a piece of Knocky magic lifted the crowd, which in turn lifted the team & quite often we went on to get a result.
No stat's for that though.

 

[Simster]

In some ways, it kind of is though. My biggest fear is that over the past two seasons we’ve lost Rosenior, Sidwell, Bruno, Hughton and now Knockaert. Such big parts of our identity as a club have departed in such short a space of time.

I don't think we should fear change, it needed to happen. Most of those players were getting on in footballing terms, Hughton went because the style of football weren't justified by results, and so Knocky is the first one who is going when he could feasibly stay. We do need to rebuild and I am convinced Potter is the right man to do that.

 

[dazzer6666]

It’s the right time for him to leave. Palace wondergoal aside, as hard as it is to say that, his decision making has been shocking so many times I’ve seen him shoot from ridiculous positions instead of pass or falter with his final ball.

Love him for his passion, but quality and consistency wise we need better if we are going to progress as a PL team and not just survive, Potter has clearly identified this as well. Best wishes Knocky

I agree, but I think the general concern is we don’t appear at the moment to be bringing in the ‘better’...........tick tock.......

 

[Justice]

Miles ahead of March though who’s about as much threat on the wing as my Nan, god rest her soul.

 

[BN41Albion]

Stat's don't really fly with me when it comes to Knocky. I sat through some dross last season; several games when the atmosphere was flat, a piece of Knocky magic lifted the crowd, which in turn lifted the team & quite often we went on to get a result.
No stat's for that though.

I agree, and I had been quite keen to see if GP managed to get the best from him in a new, more attack minded system. I always wondered how much of his hissy fitting last season was down to frustration with how we were playing. I'll be sad to see him go - huge personality at the club and fantastic to watch on his day.

Having said that, I trust TB. Think I'll wait until the window closes before bemoaning our squad and chances next year...

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Seems to be a lot of faith in the sun reporting these figures?


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[Johnny RoastBeef]

Yes and we didn’t really need those 14 points, did we.

The question is, is there a player we could buy now who could have done better?

Anthony Knockaert in the Championship was amazing, we now need to find the same for the Premier League. Unfortunately that is not him.

 

[Stat Brother]

In some ways, it kind of is though. My biggest fear is that over the past two seasons we’ve lost Rosenior, Sidwell, Bruno, Hughton and now Knockaert. Such big parts of our identity as a club have departed in such short a space of time.

Yeah silly me, after all the club has never lost influential players before.

It's never recovered from losing Cullip Butters and Oatway.

 

[Hugo Rune]

Miles ahead of March though who’s about as much threat on the wing as my Nan, god rest her soul.

But March is much better at quick, one touch possession based football which is Potter’s style. Knocky may well have been one of the most skilful players to grace the stripes but his decision making and ‘football brain’ are not up to the standard Potter requires.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

Stat's don't really fly with me when it comes to Knocky. I sat through some dross last season; several games when the atmosphere was flat, a piece of Knocky magic lifted the crowd, which in turn lifted the team & quite often we went on to get a result.
No stat's for that though.

No......be interesting to see your list of those games though.....just for a bit of reflection....no stats.

 

[The Wizard]

Stat's don't really fly with me when it comes to Knocky. I sat through some dross last season; several games when the atmosphere was flat, a piece of Knocky magic lifted the crowd, which in turn lifted the team & quite often we went on to get a result.
No stat's for that though.

I agree with you in some ways but I also think we shouldn’t be planning to be in that position this season, sure he gave us a lift when he came on but so did Kaz, doesn’t make him good enough. What about how many times he started and had little to no impact or acted like a petulant school kid. He’s probably one of my favourite players but that’s purely based on his effort, quality wise he’s been lacking for some time now, you can’t let emotional attachment to a player cloud you on that.

 

[Stat Brother]

Personally there's an awful lot of similarities between this decision and the CH sacking.

Just because I understand why the decision has been made, and on a level completely agree.
That doesn't mean I'm not very sad that it's happened and would be much happier if things had worked out differently.

 

[Mancgull]

Surely there will be a payment down for the one year loan, maybe something like £3m. Fulham take his wages for the year at c£45k pw. Then, if Fulham get promoted they have the option to buy at a further £10m.
If we could drive a better deal I'm sure we would but we obviously haven't had many Premier League clubs coming in for a player that wasn't a first team regular with us last season.
Will be sad to see him go, but he seems to get to the point where he argues with other players during matches due to his frustration and that can't be constructive. Will excel again in the Championship with a good team. I fully expect Fulham to get promoted again.

 

[Johnny RoastBeef]

Stat's don't really fly with me when it comes to Knocky. I sat through some dross last season; several games when the atmosphere was flat, a piece of Knocky magic lifted the crowd, which in turn lifted the team & quite often we went on to get a result.
No stat's for that though.

What about those matches when he started sulking and throwing tantrums on the pitch. When Bruno would have to pull him to one side and calm him down?

 

[Ecosse Exile]

Going for £10m which is why people are upset. The only reason I can think of why we are selling so cheap is that he had a "match highest earner clause" in his contract and we wanted him off the books before making our major signings.

This has to be the case, doesn't it?

Surely.

If reports are to be believed we are not getting anything up front, 4 mil or 10 mil in a years time? Seriously, which part of that actually makes sense?

Trouble with this highest earner thing if true, is the other player always mentioned is Dunk and i tend to believe that one more, simply down to the amount of new contracts he has had.

So is he next? Is their more to the rumours than speculation? If he does go then Barber has his words confused because that looks far more like revolution than evolution.

I will withhold judgement until we see how things look including formations etc, perhaps we wont be using wingers at all and will be using a more central 3 behind the striker, but right now we look like we need to do a fair bit of business just to survive imo.

 

[Wellesley]

But March is much better at quick, one touch possession based football which is Potter’s style. Knocky may well have been one of the most skilful players to grace the stripes but his decision making and ‘football brain’ are not up to the standard Potter requires.

I agree. As gutted as I am, and I'm reeaallly gutted, if we'd sold March I would have felt even worse. To me Knocky is a huge loss but March is the better player over all. It's amazing really that here we are in the Premier League and after spending millions of pounds, our two local lads are still arguably our two best players.

 

[Frankworthington]

What nonsense is this? How is the timing right? Happy with Locadia and Ali J and some unknown quantity as wingers? Why would you want to dispense with one of our best players and one of the few 'flair' options we have? And someone who has a real passion for the club. You'll be trying to convince us of the benefits of a no-deal Brexit next.

Locadia is not a winger!!

 

[Stat Brother]

Over 2 seasons
His goals record is,

1 v Palace, we won.
2 were in drawn matches.
1 v Swansea when match was already won.
1 v Spurs, we lost.

His assist record is,

1 v Swansea, we won 1-0
1 v Man Utd, we won 3-2
3 in drawn matches
1 v Burnley, we lost
1 v Huddersfield, we won 1-0

So by my calculations he has directly earned 14 points in 2 seasons, minus 2 red cards.

Enemy of the fans Big Jurg has generated 7 points and got us to Wembley.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

Messi’s and Ronaldo’s are rare and very few teams have such a player.

I agree....but some on here are making out that he is some sort of talismanic genius.
It's too rose-tinted for me. Very good in the Championship, which is his true level. Unfortunately, he makes far too many basic,simple errors at PL level and that is why he doesn't hold down a regular place in the starting line-up. He lays the ball off without looking, over and over again. He drove CH to distraction. He hasn't got the delicacy of touch that you would expect either. His dead-balls are all very similar. All whipped in with pace and mostly overhit.
On the other hand, he is frustratingly capable of moments of brilliance. These are few and far between at the highest level because he is up against much more clever players, who know how to unsettle him and ruffle him up. The moment he tries to overplay, its a lost ball and the opposition are in possession.
Believe it or not, I like Knocky and have huge respect for what he did in the Championship but he has driven me mad in the PL with his inability to knuckle down and simplify his style. This is his achilles heel. When he stops over playing, keeps the ball moving quickly and simply, he looks a different player. Unfortunately, he cannot stop reverting to type ( loose extravagance ) which then moves him more towards being a liabilty and indicates a lack of footballing nous.
He is a top of the ground, seat of the pants, heart on the sleeve, emotional, complex mixture, that can work at a lower level. The PL is a cold, calculating, ruthless environment, not best suited to him.

 

[Stat Brother]

Stat's don't really fly with me when it comes to Knocky. I sat through some dross last season; several games when the atmosphere was flat, a piece of Knocky magic lifted the crowd, which in turn lifted the team & quite often we went on to get a result.
No stat's for that though.

Wow.

Yep you're right there are no stats for us getting a result, last season.