Recent pre match press briefings by Neil Harris have seen him list the players who would not be available for the upcoming game. Last weekend he talked about the six players missing on international duty and the injured Joe Ralls and Lee Tomlin, before adding that Nathaniel Mendez-Laing was unavailable for “personal reasons”.
The term “multitude of sins” springs to mind when thinking about what those “personal reasons” could be when it comes to a footballer who is not being considered for action and I’d guess that, in the large majority of occasions, the word “sins” is inappropriate because there are perfectly innocent reasons for this like, say, family or home based concerns that are taking priority for the player at that time.
I’ll admit though that when what was being said was a repeat of what our manager had told the media after the Cheltenham match and that the player had not been involved in the earlier game at Bristol Rovers (I don’t think he was against Newport in our first warm up match either), it did cross my mind that there could actually be some kind of sin involved this time.
It was no more than a fleeting thought which I soon forgot about completely, but this lunchtime brought the bombshell that Mendez-Laing had, in effect, been sacked by City!
“Curt” is probably the best word to describe the club statement announcing the departure of a player who could certainly blow hot or cold, but, at his best, was able to give Trent Alexander-Arnold, announced as PFA Young Player of the Year yesterday, the most uncomfortable afternoon I’ve seen him subjected to in his career so far.
Mendez-Laing was one of those players who you struggled to work out which one was his strongest foot, he was very quick, but, unlike some in his position, he also had plenty of power to go with it – very occasionally, City used him in striking role and although I can’t remember him doing much to take the eye while he was there, he had so many of the assets of a modern striker in abundance.
The Mendez-Laing seen at the back end of the 18/19 season in the Premier League was a player worth tens of millions of pounds. However, back in the Championship last season, he was devastating (nearly always away from home) on the odd occasion and strangely quiet and ineffective on many others. I’d say his transfer value at the end of 19/20, with just a year of his contract to run was a small fraction of what it had been a year earlier.
Nevertheless, this is a very significant footballing loss for City – if all of our wingers were fit and firing at their best, I think I would have gone for Mendez-Laing as first choice.
Gavin Whyte scored a late equaliser for Northern Ireland in Romania last week to remind everyone at City that he was still around, so we had four wingers to choose from. Therefore, with the benefit of hindsight, the loan signing of Sheyi Ojo from Liverpool on Monday made little sense under those circumstances.
Ojo, who is on a long term contract until 2023 at Liverpool, has been loaned out to various Championship clubs, Ligue 1 side Stade de Reims and Glasgow Rangers over the past five seasons and it’s probably fair to say his record during that time is mixed – he certainly has something to prove after his time at Ibrox petered out to the extent that he played no first team football for them after February.
The need for a fifth senior winger at the club becomes clearer if those involved knew it was soon going to be cut to four, so I’d say it’s reasonable to speculate that at least the possibility of Mendez-Laing being dismissed by the club existed a fortnight or so ago.
I’m speculating there and I think doing too much of that regarding Nathaniel Mendez-Laing is both unwise and, possibly, expensive! However, I will say that when you see how clubs have stuck by players charged with criminal offences, use of performance enhancing/recreational drugs etc then you have to think that something serious is involved for City to act so drastically and decisively.
I daresay the truth will emerge eventually, but, for the meantime, with the backdrop of that miserable performance and result at Northampton on Saturday, this is hardly the ideal backdrop to start a new season against.
