Having Sebastian Bassong Back?

[Canaryboy]

This is an interesting prospect....

As Adams' stock falls sharply, does Bassong's frustration at his appointment become more understandable?

Or did Bassong let us down at a time of need, with us still having a chance of survival, and if Adams were to be sacked would his actions still be unforgivable?

Or maybe with Adams gone we will hear the other side of the story, if there is one, from a player who has said nothing about the situation. Possibly through fear of being fined two weeks wages if he did?

Any new manager will surely want to use the best players available to him. I thought Bassong was a liability at times last season, but Hooiveld's performances since arriving have made Bassong look like Alessandro Nesta.

Football fans are fickle. I definitely am.

I'm fed up with seeing Russell Martin at centre back, I'm fed up with seeing Michael Turner on the left side of the defence, Hooiveld is a donkey, and I've never seen Miquel kick a ball. Bassong was playing very well for Watford before his injury.

Earlier in the season I did say that I never wanted to see him in a yellow shirt again. The problem is I don't think I want to see Hooiveld in a yellow shirt again either, so this is a real moral dilemma. Bassong is a twit, but he's better than we have, and we're 10th in the league and shipping lots of goals. Any new manager is going to be stuck with Hooiveld and Cuellar for the rest of the season so probably won't have license to direct any of his modest transfer budget to a player in that position.

Step forward Sebastian Bassong?*

* With the possible caveat that he doesn't get the captains armband?

 

[Din]

Grant Holt handed in a transfer request, Wes Hoolahan also handed in a transfer request as well as reportedly calling Norwich a "F*cking shithouse club". Admittedly the reason they were forgiven is because they are both club legends who had done a lot for us over the years, whereas the whole thing with Bassong happened off the back of a poor season, but it shows that we as fans and the board have forgiven players for a lot less.

Bassong ultimately let us down by throwing his toys out of the pram when Hughton left. However, if Adams was sacked I would be more than happy for him to come back into the squad. Watford fans have been saying since he signed how good he's been, so it's obvious he can perform at this level. We also know how good he can be from his first season at the club, when he won POTS and rightly so. It seems stupid that considering centre back is a position that we've struggled with all season, that if potentially our best centre back becomes available we don't use him. That said Cuellar did impress me against Nottingham Forest, and Ryan Bennett did show some good form before his injury. But as I said, Bassong on his day is an excellent centre back, and if Adams went I would definitely be supportive of us using him. As long as he doesn't ever have to be captain.

 

[Surgeryman]

Player of the season in his first season, yes night so good in his second but still on his day a quality player. Better that what we have now so yes would have him back.

 

[GJP]

In my opinion he wasn't that bad last season. Yes, he let himself down in some games but he still played his part in something like 10 Premier League clean sheets and yet here we are struggling to keep clean sheets in the Champs without him. 

It seems that he took a lot of the blame for our demise with all the stuff about his poor attitude weighing us down etc. Problem is, he's out of the picture now and the much more popular and media savvy Martin hasn't really shown great leadership qualities lately.

For me it seems we're no better off without him and, if anything, we're probably worse off.

Of course there are rumours going around about why he has been ditched and they may well be true but it also wouldn't surprise me if people at the club are happy to let Bassong be the fall guy for the bad feeling caused by relegation. There was a whole squad of players, coaching staff, board members etc etc responsible for relegation and yet Bassong probably gets far more stick than anyone else.

I do understand if he's a really bad influence then he can't be involved but I also knew that his removal from the team for that run-in was the final nail in our coffin.

 

[Dubai Mark]

Agree, he certainly wasnt as bad as some make out last season, but certainly some way off the form the previous season,as we could all see.

My guess is, that whilst Neil Adams is at the helm there is no chance of seeing Bassong in a CIty shirt again.....stating the obvious I think, so sorry about that....BUT, if a new man came in.....he will pick up the phone and get him back immediately!  Why?.....because he is, when motivated and fit...THE best centre back we have, and possibly one of the top two or three we have had in our history. 

Thankfully we have one other excellent centre back in Turner and a nice selection of other CB's too.

Dont get me started on the loan to Watford........

 

[Jimmy smith]

I think it was partly the clubs prudent approach in trying to get him off the books this summer. He's probably on £30k a week still.

 

[Lake District Canary]

If we got a manager with a bit of steel who wouldn't care about niceties, he would be back imo.  He's on our books and on form the best CB we have.  We need good players performing and I think that if the manager changed, Bassong coming back would be like getting a new player and one that could dominate defence and distribute the ball well.

 

[hogesar]

If we got a manager with a bit of steel who wouldn't care about niceties, he would be back imo.  He's on our books and on form the best CB we have.  We need good players performing and I think that if the manager changed, Bassong coming back would be like getting a new player and one that could dominate defence and distribute the ball well.

Depends. Adams has steel, hence not letting him get away with what he apparently said.

Again, if a new manager came in - And Bassong came back, first thing he says is "And who are you supposed to be?"

I reckon the new manager will do the same.

Bassong is a player i'd like to have playing for us, but I fully understand why Adams done what he did. so did 95% of the fanbase when it happened. Now we're in a bad run, opinions change. Odd, because we've learnt nothing new about the situation. 

But that's football fans i guess.

 

[Boyerboy]

It's strange how last season and in the close season the predominant opinion was that Bassong was a waste of a shirt and should be "got rid" but now he is the King across the Water.

Strange also this prevalent opinion last seen when discussing why Hughton would not play Bechio that managers wilfully exclude players they know would improve he team.. Managers want to succeed and want to keep their jobs.  If playing someone that they don't particularly like is going to help them achieve that then most will do.

If Adams felt that his team would be better with Bassong involved then he would have him there.  It might be a football thing and it might be a management issue but Adams believes that he is better off without him.   Otherwise he would be cutting off his nose etc..

 

[Lake District Canary]

Depends. Adams has steel, hence not letting him get away with what he apparently said.

Again, if a new manager came in - And Bassong came back, first thing he says is "And who are you supposed to be?"

I reckon the new manager will do the same.

Bassong is a player i'd like to have playing for us, but I fully understand why Adams done what he did. so did 95% of the fanbase when it happened. Now we're in a bad run, opinions change. Odd, because we've learnt nothing new about the situation. 

But that's football fans i guess.

I wasn't suggesting Adams doesn't have steel or that Bassong should or should not be be welcomed back.   All I was saying is that any manager who came and who had the balls to do it, or was thick skinned enough not to bother about trifles such as "he said that about me therefore I'm not playing with him"  or whatever happened in the past, would look at the situation, recognise the quality of the player and have him in the team.   

Do you think McCarthy or Pulis would be bothered about what Bassong said to someone else?  A tough manager coming in to sort us out - which is what we would need if our poor run continues - would get the best players in, knock their heads together and start getting results. 

 

[morty]

It's strange how last season and in the close season the predominant opinion was that Bassong was a waste of a shirt and should be "got rid" but now he is the King across the Water.

Strange also this prevalent opinion last seen when discussing why Hughton would not play Bechio that managers wilfully exclude players they know would improve he team.. Managers want to succeed and want to keep their jobs.  If playing someone that they don't particularly like is going to help them achieve that then most will do.

If Adams felt that his team would be better with Bassong involved then he would have him there.  It might be a football thing and it might be a management issue but Adams believes that he is better off without him.   Otherwise he would be cutting off his nose etc..

I call it the Fox effect. Its where if a player isn't playing for us, he is immediately the answer to all our problems. 

 

[Din]

I don't think it's odd that a lot of our fans have changed their minds now that we're struggling. When Bassong was effectively excluded from the squad I was in favour of it, as most people were and wanted him to be sold. At the start of the season we simply didn't need Bassong. Even though Russell Martin was playing centre back which is far from ideal, we were playing well and winning games. However, since we've gone on this bad run, our defence has been a real problem area, which it wasn't at the start of the season, hence why a lot of opinions have been changed on Bassong. 

 

[Canaryboy]

It's strange how last season and in the close season the predominant opinion was that Bassong was a waste of a shirt and should be "got rid" but now he is the King across the Water.

I don't think its strange at all, I gave you the reason for my OP, I'm fickle! I didn't expect us to end up mid-table with almost half a season gone, or our defence to be as frail as it is. I also trusted Adams judgement on his signings, but now he doesn't seem to trust his own judgement. 

If Adams felt that his team would be better with Bassong involved then he would have him there.  

I wish I could share your confidence in Adams. If Adams felt that Cuellar, Miquel and Hoovield improved our squad then why haven't any of them nailed down a place in his XI? Nobody can tell me that he signed three centre backs as backup players, just in case he needed them. I'd quite like to know which one he envisaged being Bassong's replacement. My money is on Hooiveld, unfortunately he looks like a complete donkey.

In an ideal world we'd have signed a quality centre back and I wouldn't have started thinking about Bassong again. We didn't though, unless Miquel is the solution. Adams doesn't seem to think he is ready though? 

The sooner Ryan Bennett is back the better. 

 

[GJP]

My opinion hasn't changed. If it's a pure football decision then Bassong would always be in my Norwich team.

I have little doubt that if Turner and Bassong had been our CB pairing of choice this season we'd be a few points better off than we are.

 

[GazzaTCC]

Bassong from season one, definitely, but, the season two version, I'm not so sure about.