Other football - 2017/18 edition.

[aRdja]

That Bakayoko is a horrendous footballer. Ligue 1 must be really shit (other than the two top clubs) if he was one of their best midfielders last season.

[Guest]

That Bakayoko is a horrendous footballer. Ligue 1 must be really shit (other than the two top clubs) if he was one of their best midfielders last season.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-02-07-why-bakayoko-is-the-worst-player-in-the-premier-league-but-the-best-player-in-fifa

 

Speak to any Chelsea fan and they'll tell you Tiémoué Bakayoko is the worst player in the team.

 

Bakayoko, who Chelsea signed from Monaco last summer for just shy of £40m, was supposed to form a devastating midfield partnership with fellow French destroyer N'Golo Kanté, and effectively replace Nemanja Matić, who was sold to Manchester United.

 

 

Bakayoko's poor form came to a head on Monday night when, clearly low on confidence, he had his worst game for the club so far. I say worst game, but in truth it was but a third of a game because Bakayoko got sent off in the first half for two yellow cards, each given for depressingly-bad challenges. All the while, poor Bakayoko couldn't find a fellow teammate with a pass, failed to track back and gave the ball away time and time again. He was so bad, you felt his sending off was some kind of mercy killing on the part of the referee.

 

All of this is in stark contrast to Bakayoko as a FIFA player. When FIFA 18 came out in 2017, fans quickly noticed how strong the player was in the game. While Bakayoko's overall rating of 82 is by no means a standout, his stats, which are based on his wonderful season at Monaco, combine to form perhaps the most useful midfielder in the entire game.

 

Bakayoko is first on the team sheet of many a FIFA Ultimate Team because of his all round effectiveness. This is a game that favours the tactic of chasing the ball with one defensive midfielder while the computer controls the positions of your other players in the hope you can make a tackle. Here, Bakayoko is at his best, with impressive aggression, stamina and strength stats.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVKhxc1_Wlc

 

He's also taller than many other defensive midfielders in his rating zone, so he'll win goal kicks. And he has this relentless habit of intercepting the ball pretty much all of the time. But the best thing about Bakayoko as a FIFA player is he's just, well, annoying to play against. Video game Bakayoko is the perfect balance of height, strength, pace and positioning.

 

As a Chelsea and FIFA fan, I've watched Bakayoko's car crash of a first season at the club with a wry smile because of the stark difference between the real like footballer and the virtual. As Chelsea fans declare Bakayoko the worst player in the Premier League and the worst signing in recent memory, Bakayoko sits on top of the world as FIFA's most useful card. You see him in so many FUT teams, his proliferation throughout the mode fuelled by his effectiveness and his cost. Bakayoko is seen as the best value CDM in the game. He's certainly cheaper than, but just as good as, the popular Kanté.

 

It's also, well, funny to see the FIFA community react to Bakayoko's performances. After the Watford debacle, one redditor photoshopped Bakayoko's card to make him the worst player in the game. Some commentators suggested the card would probably still be good, somehow, because it's Bakayoko.

 

EA releases improved versions of FUT cards throughout the season as real life players do well. There are Team of the Week cards, Ones to Watch cards, Path to Glory cards, even Halloween-themed Ultimate Scream cards, all introduced into FUT packs throughout the life of the game. EA does not downgrade players on a dynamic basis, however. Perhaps Tiémoué Bakayoko should be a special case.

[aws]

Bakayoko Ono.

[Red House]

That Bakayoko is a horrendous footballer. Ligue 1 must be really shit (other than the two top clubs) if he was one of their best midfielders last season.

 

 

Hazard, Mahrez and Kante. Have a guess where the last three PL player of the seasons come from. One of these even come from Ligue 2.

 

As for Bakayoko, he was not only of the top midfielders in Ligue 1 but he was also one of the best performing players in the champions league last season. He's a quality defensive mid that's been messed up being played as a box-to-box, even though they had Fabregas and Kante who are more suited to the role. Ended up fluffing his lines in front of goal a few times, and now his confidence is utterly fucked. He is playing like Momo Sissoko after his eye injury right now. He should get out of there and go rebuild his confidence elsewhere like Salah and many others did.

[Jairzinho]

In fact, can we have him?

[dylstar]

Accrington are giving out 1,200 club shirts today to kids from the area to encourage them to support their local team.

Brilliant idea, all clubs should do this outside the PL, more fun supporting your local team team too.

[an tha]

What a fucking shithouse Mahrez is.

 

Surely Leicester can dock his wages/fine him.

 

He is an absoute rat - disgusting behaviour.

[sir roger]

Accrington are giving out 1,200 club shirts today to kids from the area to encourage them to support their local team.

Brilliant idea, all clubs should do this outside the PL, more fun supporting your local team team too.

 

Accrington Stanley , who are dey ?

[sir roger]

What a fucking shithouse Mahrez is.

 

Surely Leicester can dock his wages/fine him.

 

He is an absoute rat - disgusting behaviour.

 

He's acting the complete prick but let's be honest it work both ways & if any Premier club wants rid of a player they try everything to get rid of them whether they are long contracts left or not. We are also talking about a club whose owners sacked the Premiership-winning Claudio Ranieri within months & were plotting behind his back with that Brexit-faced bastard , Craig Shakespeare and senior players.

[The Guest]

He's acting the complete prick but let's be honest it work both ways & if any Premier club wants rid of a player they try everything to get rid of them whether they are long contracts left or not. We are also talking about a club whose owners sacked the Premiership-winning Claudio Ranieri within months & were plotting behind his back with that Brexit-faced bastard , Craig Shakespeare and senior players.

Complete nonsense. If a player is shit or they want to sell the club still has to pay his contract. If a player decides to down tools he’s not doing his side of the deal. Add this to part of the reason they pay the wages in the first place is because they know he’s an asset that can be sold if the player is happy to move.

[sir roger]

Complete nonsense. If a player is shit or they want to sell the club still has to pay his contract. If a player decides to down tools he’s not doing his side of the deal. Add this to part of the reason they pay the wages in the first place is because they know he’s an asset that can be sold if the player is happy to move.

 

You've not seen the regular occurrence of teams having players train with the kids to humiliate them & get them to move when they have valid contracts ?

[The Guest]

They’re still fulfilling their side of the deal which is to pay the player. I don’t know what fantasy land you’re living in but if It was in a players contract that they couldn’t be told to train with the youth team or reserves then it wouldn’t happen as they would just sue the club. More and more players these days are downing tools which is exactly them not fulfilling their side of the contract. Its completely different and you’re talking out of your arse.

[dylstar]

Riyad Mahrez,,,,,I despair..... grow up ffs.....some people would love to be a pro footballer and this clown is refusing to play...

[Boss]

To be fair to him he has tried to leave amicably for the last two years. As far as I'm aware he hasn't refused to play up until now. The £90m fee Leicester wanted was outrageous. He probably feels that he'll never be allowed to leave unless he does something extreme like this. 

[Lee909]

It wouldn't habe been 90ml if City didnt wait till the last 48hrs of the window. City should have moved earlier

[Boss]

It wouldn't habe been 90ml if City didnt wait till the last 48hrs of the window. City should have moved earlier

 

They moved for him because of Sane's injury, so it couldn't have been any sooner. The fee Leicester demanded made it impossible and Leicester knew that.

[Ne Moe Imya]

To be fair to him he has tried to leave amicably for the last two years. As far as I'm aware he hasn't refused to play up until now. The £90m fee Leicester wanted was outrageous. He probably feels that he'll never be allowed to leave unless he does something extreme like this. 

 

Going into the window it was very clear that Leicester had told him a price he could leave for, it seemed to be somewhere around £50m. 

 

I think, reading between the lines, what happened was that when Leicester saw the bigger clubs come in for Mahrez they thought "ooh, we can make a bit more here" and reneged on their handshake deal with him regarding the price they'd let him go for. And since he had already given them a season more than he really wanted to he thought it was only fair to hold them to their side of the deal.

 

Don't blame him for being upset, don't even really blame him for downing tools. Look at it this way - if he doesn't do that, will they sell him in the summer? They could easily say to him again "nah, we know we told you in January to give us until the end of the season but we've changed our minds again, now give us another six months." Sadly, the only way he can 100% ensure that they sell him in the summer is to make things absolutely toxic between them right now.

 

It's a shame that's basically what football has come to. It's not that far off what might have happened with Phil had we refused the £142m from Barca and forced him to stay. He might at that point very well have said "yeah, the only way to guarantee they let me go in the summer is to strike." I think that's what Klopp saw coming and that's why he let him be sold.

[The Guest]

That’s Leicester’s right though Boss. If he had turned out shite then they would still have to be paying his wages if no other club would have been willing to. When you sign a contract you are agreeing to play for that club for those wages for that term. If you don’t want to do that then don’t sign the contract. Leicester can value that players contract at whatever they want. Saying he’s been trying to leave amicably is rubbish. He’s been fulfilling his side of his contract.

 

The equivalent opposite side would be the club saying to a player with 2 years left on his deal. Look we’ve been trying to sell you amicably for the last couple of seasons but you’re refusing to leave so what we are going to do is just stop paying your wages until you go.

[The Guest]

Oh and on top of not paying your wages you’re going to have to play when we want you to as well.

[Boss]

That’s Leicester’s right though Boss. If he had turned out shite then they would still have to be paying his wages if no other club would have been willing to. When you sign a contract you are agreeing to play for that club for those wages for that term. If you don’t want to do that then don’t sign the contract. Leicester can value that players contract at whatever they want. Saying he’s been trying to leave amicably is rubbish. He’s been fulfilling his side of his contract.

 

The equivalent opposite side would be the club saying to a player with 2 years left on his deal. Look we’ve been trying to sell you amicably for the last couple of seasons but you’re refusing to leave so what we are going to do is just stop paying your wages until you go.

 

There's no doubt that Mahrez has informed Leicester of his desire to leave multiple times over the last few seasons. He wants to go. You can't keep a player against their will. There's an unspoken rule between player and club that they'll sign a new contract to give the club more of a fee when the player gets sold and in turn, they pay the player a bit more money and don't stand in their way when that opportunity arises.

 

Leicester have stood in his way multiple times and he's tired of it, and that's his right. As you say it's also the clubs right not to sell him, but in this day and age, you have to expect the repercussions of that. So he's used his right not to play in protest. 

[Elite]

There's no doubt that Mahrez has informed Leicester of his desire to leave multiple times over the last few seasons. He wants to go. You can't keep a player against their will. There's an unspoken rule between player and club that they'll sign a new contract to give the club more of a fee when the player gets sold and in turn, they pay the player a bit more money and don't stand in their way when that opportunity arises.

 

Leicester have stood in his way multiple times and he's tired of it, and that's his right. As you say it's also the clubs right not to sell him, but in this day and age, you have to expect the repercussions of that. So he's used his right not to play in protest.

He's got NO right to refuse to play. He's incredibly fortunate to be a professional footballer on millions of pounds per year, he signed a contract so he needs to adhere to it. Imagine if one of us refused to do our jobs at work? We'd be out on our arse.

[thompsonsnose]

Carvahal seems like a good lad.

[Ne Moe Imya]

He's got NO right to refuse to play. He's incredibly fortunate to be a professional footballer on millions of pounds per year, he signed a contract so he needs to adhere to it. Imagine if one of us refused to do our jobs at work? We'd be out on our arse.

 

You wouldn't if you were so good at your job that every other company in the industry wanted to hire you at double your salary, though.

 

It's easy to look at this from the club's point of view - we are, after all, fans of a club. The club says "you signed a deal, now keep your word and play." But it's totally naive to think that the player doesn't have his side of the story.

 

From Mahrez's point of view, he wanted to leave 18 months ago. Leicester said "no, we want you to stay, you have a contract." Well, fair enough - he had only just signed the new deal. He stayed until the January 2017 window. Then he had some offers, but they said "stay, give us until the end of the season, we'll let you leave then if there's a reasonable offer." So he does. But they refuse to sell him, telling him "if we get £50m in January you can go."

 

So off his agent goes, spreading that news across the Premier League. We're interested, Arsenal are sniffing, City maybe, and Mahrez thinks this is it. He's finally going to get the big-money contract from a big club that he's been wanting. He's getting to the prime of his career and it's time.

 

But then Leicester say to him "nah, we've decided we want £90m" because they think City are desperate. It doesn't work, and the window closes with him still at Leicester.

 

At this point, he realises he has two options. Come back into the fold, play like nothing happened - and risk Leicester going back on their word AGAIN in the summer and forcing him to stay. Or he can make himself so toxic and destructive that they almost have no choice but to give in and sell him. That's literally the only way he can guarantee that they don't dick him around again. And he only has one career, and if that's the only way they're going to let him do it, well, he's going to make sure he absolutely burns all the bridges in the world so he can get his move.

 

I find it kind of hard to blame him. I know why Leicester did what they did, but it's still wrong and it must have upset him pretty badly.

[Boss]

He's got NO right to refuse to play. He's incredibly fortunate to be a professional footballer on millions of pounds per year, he signed a contract so he needs to adhere to it. Imagine if one of us refused to do our jobs at work? We'd be out on our arse.

 

He's not incredibly fortunate to be a professional footballer. Nobody plucked him off the street and handed him several million pounds a year. He is where he is based on his talent and ability with a football. Leicester have made a killing off his talent. They've won league titles based on his performances. He owes them nothing. 

 

Imagine if you handed in your notice in work and your boss wouldn't allow you to move to a better paying job with a better company. Imagine if your boss did that to you over and over for the next two years. How would you feel about that company then?

[TheHowieLama]

Titles!!??