Mendez-Laing has contracted terminated with immediate effect!

Posted on September 9, 2020 by The other Bob Wilson

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.

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Neco Williams rescues a lost weekend of televised football watching.

Posted on September 7, 2020 by The other Bob Wilson

Maybe it’s different for others, but i’ve found that there have been times when it felt like my unconditional love of football has shown signs of waning. This has been down more to the hype surrounding the game and the corrupt and selfish people that can attach themselves to it than football itself, but there are times when the so called beautiful game can be hard work as well.

When I mentioned hype earlier, Sky were uppermost in my thoughts, I’m sure they were giving this weekend’s televised matches the usual hard sell, but it really was a losing battle for them for about ninety nine per cent of the four games I’ve watched some or part of over the past two days.

First up was dodgy Derby County against those other Bluebirds from Barrow in the League Cup. I was able to retain some enthusiasm for this match despite the fact that barely anything of note happened in the ninety minutes, because it was great to see a club which left the Football League when I was a teenager and never really showed much sign of coming back until 19/20 are starting in League Two next week as proof that there is hope for the Bradford Park Avenues, Southports and Workingtons of this world.

Dodgy Derby won the penalty shoot out of course (they probably would have appealed against the result and won if Barrow had scored more spot kicks than them) after a turgid 0-0 draw and it was much the same in Sky’s second offering when shady Sheffield Wednesday ground out a bore draw at Walsall with penalties needed to take City’s opponents next weekend through after another 0-0.

Surely England, with seventeen goals in the last three pre lockdown games, would provide some entertainment and goals, but no, ninety minutes passed with only a red card for that lovely bloke Kyle Walker to savour in their match in Iceland, but then a truly barmy few minutes of added time  produced two penalties, one scored by England and one missed by Iceland, and a red card for the hosts – this drama couldn’t hide the fact that it had been possibly the worst televised football day of my life in terms of all entertainment value and goalmouth action.

It was somehow typical that I missed the goal fest that was Brentford 1 Wycombe 1 this lunchtime  which provided another penalty shoot out win for the home team to celebrate their first game in their new stadium, but I wasn’t bothered because the best was being saved until last – seven games unbeaten Wales against one win in fifteen Bulgaria at Cardiff City Stadium!

Even though the 1-0 win in Finland on Thursday had not made for great watching, there is an excitement and momentum about Welsh football at present as a stream of fine young prospects break through into the team to the extent that Ryan Giggs is now having to say that, whereas previous managers may have had the odd tough decision to make as to who to leave out of the starting eleven, he is having those same tough choices when it comes to who misses out from his squad.

However, all that was for nothing during a first half which I’d rate as the worst I watched on this weekend of woe for lovers of good football. It needs to be said of course that you tend to react in a more extreme manner when a team which mean a lot to you are involved, but it really was boring with Sky deciding that the highspot of the forty five minutes was a completely mishit volley from twenty five yards by the fit again David Brooks which was about ten yards off target.

Things had to improve and they did – slightly. There was more urgency about Wales and they provided a glimpse of their exciting young talent when Daniel James and Brooks combined for the latter to show excellent technique in getting a shot away which hit junction of crossbar and post before flying out for a goal kick.

If not exactly piling on the pressure, Wales were certainly forcing the issue for the last quarter of the match, but a fussy referee wasn’t helping things and in truth, as a fourth goalless ninety minutes of the weekend was reached, it seemed it would just be a case of looking for consolations like at least we hadn’t lost and a more involved and impressive Gareth Bale had played the whole game amid the gloom of a dismal encounter.

Bale had what I believe was the only on target effort in the opening half when his optimistic free kick from distance bounced through to an unconcerned Bulgarian goalkeeper Georgiev, but a shooting opportunity a couple of minutes into added time looked more promising – it was the sort of situation where Wales’ record scorer has made the net bulge plenty of times in his career, but this time, his well struck effort flew not too far over.

That looked to be the end of it, but in the three minutes that remained, Wales came up with something which excused much of the poor stuff that had preceded it – it was, by some distance, the best piece of concerted play I saw this weekend and it said a lot about what this team have the potential to become.

Despite the urgency of the situation, Wales moved the ball patiently and efficiently to the extent that, at a time when minds and bodies were tired, they had completed twenty two passes when the ball hit the Bulgarian net. Sub Hal Robson-Kanu, who was an improvement on Keiffer Moore who suffered at the hands of an unsympathetic official, played his part in working the ball out to another sub Johnny Williams whose cross was a beauty towards, as the Sky commentator thought, Gareth Bale – it wasn’t him though, it was the third Welsh sub who was closing in on it.

Back in early November, Neco Williams scored twice for Wales Under 17s in a draw with Russia across the road in Leckwith Stadium in what was ultimately a successful qualifying campaign for us. It was the first time I’d seen him play and you could see he had something special even in a team full of good quality players, but I certainly didn’t think he would make anything like the sort of impact he has done for club and country in the succeeding months in the senior game.

Today, coming on for Connor Roberts, Williams added a dynamism and urgency which it seemed to me had a positive impact on his team mates – now, with a sense of adventure reminiscent of Trent Alexander-Arnold, the man he is currently understudying at Liverpool, he got in front of his marker to guide an unstoppable header into the corner of the net.

Finally, this long and frustrating football watching weekend had something to commend it – a move and then a moment to really savour.

One final thought on the goal, the other Welsh player in the six yard box besides Williams was the other full back, Ben Davies – Wales aren’t supposed to do things like that!

Finland have just beaten the Republic of Ireland 1-0 in Dublin in a game which ideally would have ended in a draw, but, with six points, we are three in front of the Finns, while Ireland and Bulgaria have a point each – we visit the teams in third and fourth next month and I’d say even just one more point from those matches would leave us well placed to win the group for the two home games in November.

Yesterday, Barrow and Iceland were happy to play for a 0-0 draw from the early stages against opponents they figured they could not compete with in a game where they went out with a more positive attitude. Bulgaria were exactly the same today, they were scared of us.

There were reasons why today’s game was hard going most of the time – one of them being that, just as in the three other matches, an awful lot of the players were a long way short of optimum fitness, but it’s also true to say that our opponents were almost solely concerned with stopping us playing – we’re getting a reputation for ourselves. 

Once again, can I finish by making a request for support from readers by them becoming my Patrons through Patreon. Full details of this scheme and the reasons why I decided to introduce it can be found here, but I should say that the feedback I have got in the past couple of years has indicated a reluctance from some to use Patreon as they prefer to opt for a direct payment to me. If you are interested in becoming a patron and would prefer to make a direct contribution, please contact me at paul.evans8153@hotmail.com or in the Feedback section of the blog and I will send you my bank/PayPal details.

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