Of Ivorian extraction this tall languid midfielder was named Canada's Young Player of the Year and has signed from Montral CF. Has all the requisite tools to be an excellent central midfielder barring his shooting which he can certainly work on. Above average football IQ too. An excellent debut today where he showed his ability and composure on the ball both defensively and in progressing the ball. Could work on his setpieces though and as mentioned shooting.
Best player on the pitch by a long way. Very promising start but please let somebody else take corners
Can ****s come on and take them - sure he did for West Ham and Bilic can be stood in the area ready to get on the end of the cross?
The a profile piece on Kone in The Athletic today. A decent read, but they quoted the fee we paid was £8.8m. Seems a bit high to me, but it's certainly a significant investment.
It does make you wonder if we have had any external investment of some sort. It seemed even last season in the Prem that we were barely able to afford half that on a single player.
Not at all, most clubs recruit first and foremost for the needs of the team, then if the player does well they’ll naturally be sold on for a profit. Gino buys random players in positions that are not a priority, with the sole aim of flipping them for a profit.
So we don't need a midfielder ? Do you think we might be able to squeeze him into the side somewhere....?
Our (known) interest in him dates back to at least November. He wasn’t just signed as emergency cover was he.
I'm sure we have interest in hundreds of players as evidenced by the numerous threads. Hopefully we don't need to make too many emergency cover signings, and certainly he wouldn't be classed as such. I doubt very much we'd have bought someone of his quality for any reason other than to play him rather than simply as an investment.
Do you think that is the same for Kone. He looks exactly what we need. I'm not saying we don't do what you're saying as well but I don't believe that is the same for this player
There was some suggestion when he signed that if we didn’t go up Kone might get moved onto Udinese but might just be someone drawing the wrong conclusion.
It’s 100% the same for this player. The fact he ticks a box for the what the team need is great and I’m sure it was a consideration. But he is pretty unlikely to be with Watford long-term.
Wouldn’t a large external investment had to have been disclosed by now? If it involves new shareholders, I don’t see how that stays off everyone’s radar - and the holding company almost certainly have an obligation to make that kind of thing public. And I doubt anyone has invested without getting some sort of grip on the club internally, be it small or big. I’d say we are either spending money we don’t have and gambling on promotion… …or spending money that’s been promised from coming investors… …or there is more loans that we don’t know about/spending the money that’s been loaned already.
In fairness, while I don't doubt Koné could be off to Udinese in a flash, it's not as if any player with potential is likely to be here long, the longest serving players we have are Cathcart and Kabasele...
That goes for every player we sign. I guess the difference with Kone is that it looks like he will be useful while he’s here
For all of the stick Cathcart gets, he was genuinely a good Prem player for a year or two, now he's just the best of an average bunch more than likely
How refreshing it was to see a new midfielder who can tackle ,shoot and actually pass the ball forward with great awareness cracking home debut lad keep it up
Hard to believe he's only 20. Has pretty much every attribute you would want from a midfielder He was dead on his arse though in the 2nd half, but what impressed me was he adapted from buzzing around to just sitting and dictating play. All the reports were that he was incredibly raw as a player, and I've not seen anything to suggest that
Two games on the bounce now where he’s been rightly hooked having done absolutely fook all other than look like a child thrown into a Sunday League grudge match. Is he injured?
I don't think so, just incredibly inexperienced and shouldn't be starting games just yet. Seems to be struggling with the pace of the game but I guess the only way he'll learn is if he keeps playing.
Well Doucoure was harangued and slated and look how he turned out. Kone has great ability. But young players are up and down. The best ones learn and develop from the bad games. However in our set up youngsters always seem to struggle. The only thing we seem good at is to coach out the confidence, skill and swagger from them. There's a reasoN Asprilla is touted as a central pillar for the Cafeteros in the future and Kone was at the WC with Canada at his age. What will happen to Martins also highly rated by the selecao ? We've not even been able to fully develop Pedro from the ability he had certainly as a finisher at Fluminense by messing him around positionally as well.
That attempted turn in the first half under pressure was criminal. He's about as inexperienced as they come, but again he's got the potential to be very useful for us
I think he will take time to adapt to the speed of the championship. He is obviously a very talented footballer but the difference in pace from international football to English football is night and day.