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Ciaran Clark (now a free agent)


Foluwashola

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Clark is nothing like Lescott, Richards, Bacuna, Agbonlahor in terms of being toxic CUNTS I'd gladly set fire to. That's the good news. His attitude is absolutely fine.

 

The bad news is he's genuinely not very good. Zero positional sense, constantly gets caught looking like he doesn't know where he's meant to be, it's like he doesn't really understand the fineries of defending. And that's based on six or so years of watching him.

 

On the bright side, though, he can score goals if he gets in the box. Don't get me wrong, he's no Martin Laursen, but if he gets in the box for corners, he's useful.

 

I vaguely remember him being played in midfield a few years back for a few games, and I thought he looked much better there. When Lambert came, someone asked him during a fans' forum if he'd play him there, and he ridiculed the idea, which struck me as odd at the time.

 

Honestly, I wish the bloke all the best, I am just a bit bewildered by this deal - I wouldn't have been distraught had we kept him, but then I'd take 5m for him every day of the week.

 

I just find it really odd. Odd that he actually had a release clause in the first place, and odd that someone would actively come in for him.

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How much of that "poor positioning" etc. was due to poor coaching in a poor team for several years? I mean, we were woeful last year but you were off the scale. Could anyone look good in that sort of environment?

 

Hmm, looked poor across six seasons with five or six managers? It's not like he suddenly went "rogue" last season.

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I always put a lot of stock in what fans (well the non lunatic ones anyway) of the club a player played for say, after all they've watched him for his career so far. Obviously though Rafa sees something in him, it could be arrogance in thinking he as a coach is capable of getting that thing out of him and develop the player. TBF to Rafa he's got a pretty good track record at doing just that, think this one could go either way, but if nothing else adds to our numbers after losing 3 CBs over the last couple of windows we need the cover and there is nothing coming through the ranks right now. Perhaps though there were better options out there for 5mill.

 

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Let's not pretend he's been anything better than average at any point in his PL career, however he's going to be 3rd/4th choice in the Championship which is more than adequate and you'd expect he'll improve under Rafa's watch, despite his mental capabilities apparently being on a par with Saylor. In this league if we have injuries and/or Mbmeba goes to the ACoN he'll be fine. In the PL I wouldn't feel comfortable.

 

Even if we sold him after getting promoted or a year after or whatever, with the amount of money floating about nowadays we'll easily recoup most of the 5m we've paid.

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Let's not pretend he's been anything better than average at any point in his PL career, however he's going to be 3rd/4th choice in the Championship which is more than adequate and you'd expect he'll improve under Rafa's watch, despite his mental capabilities apparently being on a par with Saylor. In this league if we have injuries and/or Mbmeba goes to the ACoN he'll be fine. In the PL I wouldn't feel comfortable.

 

Even if we sold him after getting promoted or a year after or whatever, with the amount of money floating about nowadays we'll easily recoup most of the 5m we've paid.

 

Yep, don't understand the minor fuss around this. He can play a few positions so is versatile and provides reasonable cover because we're building a squaaad to withstand potentially 50+ games. That's it, no big mystery.

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Guest firetotheworks

I'm really not so sure that we'd have paid that amount for a backup tbh. I know 5m is nothing in today's fees, but it would be very non-Ashley era NUFC to do that. We'll see.

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Rafa rotates and is known to always be trying to keep players fresh. He'll play a fair bit i'm guessing but maybe not always CB. I'd rather have cover and options (however poor they may be perceived to be) than be scrambling in January because we didn't plan adequately in the first place.

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I'm really not so sure that we'd have paid that amount for a backup tbh. I know 5m is nothing in today's fees, but it would be very non-Ashley era NUFC to do that. We'll see.

 

We have paid more for players who didn't start regularly. Anita for example cost nearly 7m and there's plenty of times where he didn't start, which was before the TV money is what it is now.

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You can only judge him on how he plays for us. It's encouraging we finally have a little depth in some positions. If it avoids us having to play Colback or some other square peg in defensive positions this is a snip at 5 million.

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Guest firetotheworks

I'm really not so sure that we'd have paid that amount for a backup tbh. I know 5m is nothing in today's fees, but it would be very non-Ashley era NUFC to do that. We'll see.

 

We have paid more for players who didn't start regularly. Anita for example cost nearly 7m and there's plenty of times where he didn't start, which was before the TV money is what it is now.

Tbf though, that was when our transfer policy and managerial 'style' were completely at odds with one another. We were signing technical players to, imo, start in a team whose managerial dream signing scenario was probably James Tomkins knocking it long for a Jan Koller headed goal.

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Settle lads, see how he does with us before declaring him a league above Bobby. Anything non-NUFC is an absolute irrelevance.

All this stuff is irrelevant - KK, SBR and Rafa are all excellent managers but in terms of trophies Rafa is the winner. That doesn't mean his style of play is always easy on the eye, but NUFC has had quite enough of being everyone's 'second' team and then finishing second, third blah blah - I certainly have. KK finishing 3rd in the PL was a great achievement in our first season back, but people began - rightly - to expect more after that. SBR was a great manager but past his best when he came to SJP with a more difficult job to do than he would have had he taken over from KK in 1997. He did well for us but we still didn't win anything despite a sizeable spend on players.

Rafa's job is to get us up this season and it will be tough to do...if he achieves that, we can start raising expectations of what we can do next but that also depends on Ashley.....

Rafa is probably the right man for the time and any judgment on him as NUFC manager must wait, at least until the end of the season.

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Tbh I wouldn't have minded a Taylor level player being 4th choice in the PL assuming he wasn't a crock. Even the best teams in the league don't have particular good 4th choice defenders.

 

:thup:

 

This has to be the deepest we've been at CB in some time. Lascelles, Mbemba, Hanley, Clark, Dummett + some other cunt I'm probably forgetting.

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I always put a lot of stock in what fans (well the non lunatic ones anyway) of the club a player played for say, after all they've watched him for his career so far. Obviously though Rafa sees something in him, it could be arrogance in thinking he as a coach is capable of getting that thing out of him and develop the player. TBF to Rafa he's got a pretty good track record at doing just that, think this one could go either way, but if nothing else adds to our numbers after losing 3 CBs over the last couple of windows we need the cover and there is nothing coming through the ranks right now. Perhaps though there were better options out there for 5mill.

 

I really just think its a case of get a 4th centre back in, which happens to weaken one of our rivals. Having a 4th choice CB with 6 years PL experience is useful even if he's been poor in the top league. Given the other issues villa have at the back even if he's not that great, i reckon they must be pretty pissed to lose him to us.

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Tbh I wouldn't have minded a Taylor level player being 4th choice in the PL assuming he wasn't a crock. Even the best teams in the league don't have particular good 4th choice defenders.

 

:thup:

 

This has to be the deepest we've been at CB in some time. Lascelles, Mbemba, Hanley, Clark, Dummett + some other c*** I'm probably forgetting.

 

Hayden can play there as well

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