Well yes, I broadly agree, but I was mainly questioning the idea of ‘never’ taking someone back. I would say that Des 2 was a great help to Daws 1 and that Daws 2 and Reidy 2 will have helped the young players who were coming through when they came back. But yes, few returnees had the impact that Bomber, Birtles and Harry had.
Quite simply and quite rightly they regard Harvey Barnes as a better option, Elanga is solely about the pace, Barnes has much more to his game than just that. I'd still take Elanga back fir the right price, but would Newcastle accept a big loss on him after one season?
I would say Reid was better in his second spell until the everlasting 2 weeks. And while Des was not what he once was - one of the best defenders in the world - no 37 year old who hadn't played for a year had any right being that good.
Ahem. One of...???
Agree, his value has tanked in one season. I felt at the time we rinsed Newcastle, still see it that way now.
He was wasted on Italian football. Let's sign a central defender renowned for his pace & ability to recover balls in behind the backline & instead of playing to his strengths with a high defensive line allowing us to attack, we'll stick to the boring 90s Italian mantra of defending deep & play him at left back on the odd occasion instead.
Book value £44M
And sell them Angus Gunn for £20m to balance the books (All before the 30th of June so he is still in contract)
Good crosser - yes, good finisher - yes, of course, dribbler - no way and when his inability to dribble was paired with his limited footballing intelligence it wasn't looking good. I completely understand wingers struggling against low block, but Elanga for me was almost always a guarantee of losing the ball in a situation that required holding it for a little longer in place or doing some more fancy stuff with your legs when trying to go with the ball into penalty area, the ball was usually easily taken from him or he lost it himself by trying to make an impossible pass bound to fail from the start. Does he struggle in Newcastle because he suddenly became worse footballer by just switching shirts? No, but he is and probably will be an effective tool when the tactics are simple - long pass, run for it as quickly as you can, when the tactics demand more, well, Hutch is miles ahead of Elanga already even if he surely isn't a finished product yet.
Totally. Can't be bothered to find it but there's a video of all his goal involvements last season (and there were a lot) and plenty of them have nothing to do with fast breaks behind a high line.
So long as the career damage inflicted by Newcastle can be repaired
I feel like based on the two seasons with us, the thing with Elanga is that he does start the season slow but almost like with Taiwo where you have to get him really match sharp to get the best from him, you have to give Anthony a few full games to get going.
Eh, I don't think we're a possession based team still and I think when we are, it's because teams know we can have the ball with them back and we won't break them down. It's not just about the counter, if you've got someone like Elanga, you're likely going to have to commit not just a full back but also a centre back or a central midfielder to double up, which leaves space for others. The threat of the pace and him getting in is as much of a problem as the actual pace. That and the boy could take a set piece.
