De Jong gone

[waalsendmick]

I think, as an international playing in Serie A, Rafa expected more from Lazaar, he seems to enjoy the life of a footballer, more than he actually enjoys being a footballer.

also, Hanley, he was captain of a championship club and even had a little premier league experience with them, so it was fair to expect hi. to be a hell of a lot better than he turned out.

another thing with Hanley, we signed him before we signed Clark, and Clark is a whole lot better than we expected.

[Zippity]

Disappointed with the way it's turned out with de Jong. Been mightily unlucky with injuries but Rafa is clearly, for whatever reason, not a fan.

[waalsendmick]

Disappointed with the way it's turned out with de Jong. Been mightily unlucky with injuries but Rafa is clearly, for whatever reason, not a fan.

if we can't ship out our deadwood we need to sell players that other clubs will buy

De Jong was one of those, and, as we seen very little of him, then we won't miss him.

[NorthernRock]

Let's be clear on de Jong.
I'm not going to say that he could have been this and that if only he had the chance.
I refuse to believe for a second that he was injured or less than match fit for his entire time with us, barring the odd few games.

The man is made of glass. He's a wage thief.
He has no divine right to live on the past and any club signing him have every right to get something from him.

He's a weakling of the highest order.
He's a nobody.
His name will be cast into the far reaches of my little brain as quickly and as easily as all the other players that have followed the same kind of route as him.

If we got 4 million for him, we've robbed Ajax and I can't believe Ajax has scoured the place to get him.
Is he a nice lad? Could be.
Is he capable of playing good football? Absolutely.
Is he destined to play lots of football from now on? Most probably.

Why?

Because the glass man can't handle more than a few hours of the English game but can handle a lot more of the Dutch.

Good riddance to a wee taking weakling and may the rest of the wee takers follow suit as quickly.

Harsh but true.

I do think he's a very good player, but the lad could be Messi-esque, if he's never gonna play then what use is he to the squad? Disappointing though, another what might have been and there's been a few.

[NorthernRock]

if we can't ship out our deadwood we need to sell players that other clubs will buy

De Jong was one of those, and, as we seen very little of him, then we won't miss him.

This.

I don't think he was in Rafa's thoughts initially but if the others aren't moving and he sees better alternatives it makes sense.

Rafa is one of those managers who goes through a lot of players that's why I'm not too judgemental on specific ones as long as the current team is performing because theyre pieces to his jig-saw and when you're moving up through divisions/levels and you're not at the very top you need to evolve your team for specific reasons.

Harry Redknapp is also that type of manager, now I'm not going as far to label Benitez a "wheeler deal" but he does like to wheel and deal

I mean we're talking about signings or lack of but we've already made 6 whilst still knowing we need more- how many windows have been that fruitful under Ashley? Not many tbh.

Joselu, Merino, Atsu, Lejuene, Manquillo and Murphy all look like positive additions to me, already that's a vast improvement on a championship winning team and people slightly forget that given that they're not household names and we've "only" spent £40m... A few seasons back that would have given us even more for our money...

Everton are to blame, the daft *******s have proper spunked their wads about... 45m for Gylfie?? **** off and take that other **** they paid 30m for as well...

[Jammy89]

I think, as an international playing in Serie A, Rafa expected more from Lazaar, he seems to enjoy the life of a footballer, more than he actually enjoys being a footballer.

also, Hanley, he was captain of a championship club and even had a little premier league experience with them, so it was fair to expect hi. to be a hell of a lot better than he turned out.

another thing with Hanley, we signed him before we signed Clark, and Clark is a whole lot better than we expected.

I have some vague memory of Rafa saying that Hanley could be a club captain type figure when he signed him. I think he certainly expected more from him.

Agree about Lazaar but he also seemed to be unable to adapt to championship/English football, i thought he'd be decent i really did but he's never really clicked in. Seems fair that he went to Rafa and asked to leave for first team football.

I think it's a shame in regards De Jong, i rate him and think he could of done well here but we say this every season because he picks up an injury. Him and Toon haven't clicked and it's best he goes. The fact we've got a decent fee for him (i thought he'd go on a free so i'm count £4 million as decent) is great news.

[Davearmy]

To be fair to all those concered though,a prem player that accidentaly pokes himself in the eye,shouldnt miss two months football.
I agree theres something amiss,you would have at least thought that the MRI at his medical,would have shown a heart the size of a pea...

It was actually Riviere that poked him in the eye and it was quite bad apparently couldn't see out of it for days and thought he could lose his sight.

[Nephy]

Pretty classy and honest farewell there. Respect.

[Zippity]

Yup. Leaves on good terms...unlike so may others.

Good luck to him.

[toonviking]

Thank god.

Good luck to him.