He hinted as much on social media the other day too, though, as with everyone, I'm sure if the price is right (say, £4-5m), he'll be off
Not defending Louza, after all he did break some rather reasonable rules, but he wasn't the only player to fall out with Ismael
His post hailing Cleverley's appointment seemed positive. Obviously you can almost never take what you see posted online at face value but Louza seemed happy to see his appointment. If he wants to play under Louza then he's welcome to bolster what is a desperately thin squad.
We could have desperately done with him yesterday Just to move the ball 10 yards, get it back, move it again, get it back, just to move People about. Too often we just ran into blind alleys, or stopped for a second or two looking for a pass. It was far to easy to play against & too easy to reset themselves. We lack, what I would call a nurdler, some who just keeps the ball moving, giving the runners options and opening up passing channels
Will Hughes, basically. Louza can and has done this for us under different managers so hopefully under Cleverley we can get that link back.
Yet Ismael still had most of our players looking more committed than they had done in years (basically since the season before Louza joined). The periods of poor performances under him seemed more down to lack of confidence and quality than lack of effort. Louza easily stood out this season as being the main player who just played as if he didn't give a to55. Why only him? It's not the first period of time that Louza has seemed more lazy and disinterested than those around him either.
I’m always a bit baffled - I just pass along the info I am given, when I can. This constant need to dig more and more and question it is pretty tiring. If you want to endlessly question everything, then I suggest you work on making your own contacts and then you can just ask them direct, would surely be easier? You are of course free to ask more questions - but the fact you regularly want to contradict things I say just to bend it to what you think is true, it’s pretty exhausting! For clarity - nothing I said or have said has questioned your view on Louza. I found him lazy, thought his attitude stunk and I have always believed he was a waste of valuable money. But that doesn’t mean the simple point I was given isn’t true - he doesn’t want to leave. Whether he does or not or changes his mind, I don’t know.
Maybe he realised he won’t get paid anything like what he’s getting with us, so why push for a pay reduction before his contract expires?
Unless the plan is to get some outside investment, I doubt we can afford his wages anymore. So likely he will be sold or loaned out
And for clarity, nothing I said has been been an attack or criticism of you personally for the comments you have passed on - I'm just wondering if you had any more info or insight in to the subject, and opening up the topic for more general discussion. Otherwise what is the point of you passing on info of we're not allowed to consider and discuss it? I'm aware you're mainly the messenger. Your reply here seems a bit overly sensitive. Sure it would be, but it's also a tad tricky when I've not been able to even as much as attend a game for over 6 years.
Pretty sure he would have had a 50% wage reduction clause for PL relegation when he signed. That's based on Giaretta's comments at the time at least. Maybe it's incorrect. I don't know what that would have left him on though, and maybe he still wouldn't be worth it.
You don’t need to attend games to make contacts - I live in New York and have them. You just have to be decent to people and make the effort. None of the contacts I have came from going to games for years. But fair enough on your first point - I wasn’t trying to attack you. More I just passed on (more or less word for word) something I was told regarding the player. Appreciate you were trying to spark debate/conversation - but I would say the style it was delivered in, very much came across as you questioning me as opposed to debating a wider point. Happy to move on.
I should hope many many more years - people bringing flasks into the stadium are quite frankly hooligans and Gino is quite right to issue the life bans he does to those delinquents who try to undermine him
That was actually an under-estimate - checking again it's actually been over 8 years. I think my last game was the 1-2 home defeat to Spurs in December 2015.
I rate Louza and thought he’d boss the league this year. If TC can get him motivated, happy and playing to his strengths I still believe he could be that player
Playing in his preferred position . Harry Kane , the ultimate pro , would Chuck his toys out the pram if he was asked to play full back .
Hopefully but wasn’t that the plan at the start of the season just ended ? I can see it starting that way again before he departs in the last week of the summer window.
I wouldn't be averse to having him back, maybe he didn't get on with VIs management style or tactics, which can happen between different personalities. We're gonna need bodies in central midfield this season and TC has already said they need to be technically good bodies. We're on a very limited budget and Louza is superb technically. If he wants to be here then I'd be happy for him to play.
I’m not convinced Louza has the physicality for the championship . From memory he seems to play better in the games where he is given loads of space to roam around but in games where it was more of a battle he’s gone missing. Maybe all down to attitude but I’m not entirely sure. In theory he would be a great replacement for Asprilla but we could do with getting his wages off the books and could be replaced with a more championship savvy midfielder .
He's definitely not physically up to being a 6 in the Champ. Not sure he's even capable as an 8. The only time he's briefly looked as if he could do well was in pre-season and the first game of the season, where he'd been given a bit more licence to play as an advanced midfielder and therefore his lack of pace and concentration wasn't as much of an issue; plus he appeared to have discovered some shooting boots. So yes he probably would make most sense replacing Asprilla if kept and if Clevs sticks with his 352 formation.
Louza himself said in an interview in France that he had struggled with the pace in England after his last injury. The genius VI did him no favours putting him in an intense central midfield role playing as a no. 8 in a 4-3-3. Big surprise it didn’t work. My take on it is that to get the most out of Louza he needs to either play more like a deep lying midfielder with protection in front of him, in a 4-1-4-1 or 3-4-2-1, or maybe in the no. 10 role in a 4-2-3-1 or 3-4-1-2. He doesn’t have a big engine but he can spot a pass like few others at this level.
