Jonny Evans Agrees to Join Leicester City

[Pig on the Wing]

On 22/05/2018 at 09:40, Stan said:

the transfer fee is very cheap, yes.

But he's on ridiculously high wages and his agent wants £4m out of it.

When was the last time an agent got a higher fee out a transfer than the actual transfer fee itself?!

That applies to literally every signing we have made since Jonny 'Not a Thug, Honest' Evans ended Stuart Holden's career.

£3m fee is a steal, but as has been said, yet another football agent has made a killing by doing the grand sum of nothing. 

When are (can?) the regulatory bodies of this sport going to act on these leeches?

[Stan]

Been working well with Morgan since Maguire got injured.

Maguire is a top defender for us, aerially and comfortable on the ball. But would leave Morgan exposed at times. Said in the match thread after the Watford game that Morgan's partnership is like that of a few years ago, mirroring the Morgan/Huth partnership. Solid as a rock and Morgan looks much more confident with a more experienced head next to him. The positioning of both was perfect on Saturday but for a couple of chances, if that. Evans is calm and level-headed, doesn't seem to get too flustered and seems to have fitted in quite comfortably, really. A bargain of a signing considering how much experience he has gained over the years.

[Dr. Gonzo]

45 minutes ago, Stan said:

Been working well with Morgan since Maguire got injured.

Maguire is a top defender for us, aerially and comfortable on the ball. But would leave Morgan exposed at times. Said in the match thread after the Watford game that Morgan's partnership is like that of a few years ago, mirroring the Morgan/Huth partnership. Solid as a rock and Morgan looks much more confident with a more experienced head next to him. The positioning of both was perfect on Saturday but for a couple of chances, if that. Evans is calm and level-headed, doesn't seem to get too flustered and seems to have fitted in quite comfortably, really. A bargain of a signing considering how much experience he has gained over the years.

Interesting you say that, because I also remember thinking that Maguire was a bit of a liability whenever he played for you against us and I remember the much more solid defensively Leicester. Although last year he had Salah utterly humiliating him, which was a pretty ordinary occurrence for many defenders last year. But he looked totally shite against Salah.

Having said that, Maguire is obviously a very good defender and the best English CB at present. So that's a bit weird.

[Dan+]

I do think Maguire is a pretty ordinary defender if I'm honest. He's very good on the ball, capable of bringing the ball out of defence and instigating attacking moves but it does leave him exposed on occasion and I think that while I'd rather have him in the squad, and while he's obviously a good and popular character, we made an error not taking the money if Man Utd's offer of £70mil+ was legitimate. I don't think our whole side is good enough to really compensate for the risks that Maguire takes and we suffer as a result - Morgan certainly isn't compensation for him, they have never really worked as a partnership and it's no co-incidence that both have looked better with different partners.

While Evans looked frankly shoddy on his debut, we are undoubtedly better at the back with him in the side - I wonder if it's his organisation because he doesn't actually seem to be involved all that much, it's still Morgan making the bulk of the blocks and tackles as he always did before, but we seem to have a better balance with Evans in the side, Chilwell's having a good year and Ricardo's starting to come good too. I think the defence has improved for his involvement and it's mad to think really that a fit Maguire wouldn't start at the minute.

Morgan also deserves credit - in fairness to him, I do think he was hung out to dry by the tactics but the whole situation was utterly baffling. At least if we're not leaving our defence on the half way line against rapid attacking players and if you limit him to blocks and tackles, he's still quite effective. I still think we're at our best when we play on the counter in all honesty, we have improved at keeping the ball but we are not at our best as a team when we're slowly building up because we've got too many players without the necessary quality to give it a killer instinct.

Better though. Been fairly happy with him so far. We're really well covered at centre half as well - Soyuncu has looked decent when he's played and Benkovic is getting compared to van Dijk by Celtic fans.