Micky van de Ven

[Bishop]

Davies has been judged, approved of, retained and played by Poch, Mourinho, Conte, Numo Whassisname, various Wales managers and now Grande Ange.

The number of times he has been positively spoken about for both his play and professional presence has been an ongoing constant theme from all of them. And then there's you, Johnny Expert.

We can fully appreciate a keenness for promoting one of our promising own but at 19 he is lacking the sort of experience needed to be effective at the highest level. You can chuck on an inexperienced teen in certain forward positions, where there's time and space to recover from a gaffe, but not the backline. One mistake and the opponent is in on goal. Ange has publicly committed us to winning a trophy this season so, no space for Dorrington at present. Certainly not in league or Europa league play. Might have swung something for him in an early round cup match against some league one or two strivers, but certainly not at this stage of the League Cup.

Davies may not set pulses racing but he does offer an established level of skill and experience that we simply don't have an alternative for. That can change in January but we'll be hard pressed to find someone with more than all the attributes Davies offers who'd be as content to take the support role Davies does. Keep it real, Boychuk.

I don't know if Davies being a member of the team during these years when we've had an abject defence and really poor goals conceded numbers is really a selling point.

 

[greatwhitenorf]

Ever The Heavy.

Plenty of top managers have had the chance to move him along. None have chosen to. And then there's the strong feelings his team mates have for him. That speaks far more than anything his critics can say.

 

[spurspinter1]

No, "slagging off" is your narrative, not mine. I'm just calling what I've seen with my own eyes. I don't rate him and don't think he gets rated fairly either because of the makeshift tag. He gets away with mistakes that others simply don't because he is a good egg and popular with the fans. Part of me doesn't want him in the team because he is a good guy. He can then walk at the end of the season with his head held high. He might get horribly exposed in Ange's current setup. It's much tougher than Poch's, Jose's or Conte's.

As for his tenure at Spurs, it's been very bleak at our club since the 16/17 season where he played his part in that great season. Mostly, he has been part of the mediocrity unfortunately. What is a clear pattern is that all our managers have tried to find an upgrade for Davies. Conte wanted the Lenglet, Perisic partnership. Jose wanted Reggie and Sessegnon. Like Dawson before him, Davies has mostly made the most of other players misfortunes just like Dawson did with Naybet, King, Woodgate, Gallas etc. They all got injured or old and he found himself back in the team. We didn't buy well for LB either.

As for Dorrington, I would prefer him training in the squad as centre half cover at this point. That's all. I'd obviously like to see Romero and Dragusin play well together in VDV's absence and hope we don't have to call on others. If we did, then I'd happily see Dorrington given a start. That's because I don't want a repeat of Ben's career. I like to see youngsters succeed of fail fast, not linger for 10 years being just above average. Dorrington had that bad injury and was probably heading out on loan but for it. He's now put together a bunch of games for the UI21's and it would be great for Ange to reward him.

Is your "narrative" overusing the term narrative? It's very meta and I'm absolutely into it, commendable effort!

You're the one using the makeshift label so I don't know where to go with that one.

I'm sorry if gentle Ben has done anything to upset you or your family or has wronged you in any way whatsoever. If i ever meet him i'll tell him that Muttley of GG fame thinks he's been stealing a living, another narrative right? I'm on a narrative roll narrating left right and centre! Let's hope that Dorrington even makes a tenth of his appearances, at the minute he is a kid you've seen little of.

 

[Muttley]

Is your "narrative" overusing the term narrative? It's very meta and I'm absolutely into it, commendable effort!

You're the one using the makeshift label so I don't know where to go with that one.

I'm sorry if gentle Ben has done anything to upset you or your family or has wronged you in any way whatsoever. If i ever meet him i'll tell him that Muttley of GG fame thinks he's been stealing a living, another narrative right? I'm on a narrative roll narrating left right and centre! Let's hope that Dorrington even makes a tenth of his appearances, at the minute he is a kid you've seen little of.

Sort of proves my point. I've only ever constructively criticised Davies during his time at Spurs and I've always praised him when he has put in a good shift. You won't change my opinion. Only Davies can do that, and he hasn't done it for years of me watching him. He's a decent player and a great guy to boot, just not at the level I've always wanted my club at. He was always going to get a living in football.

I will give you some feedback though. You never mention my family or any other poster's family again if you have any class about you. This is a football forum.

 

[alekaras]

I'd love that, and I'm sure the assessment will be made during the close-season, but I would expect a Championship loan for at least the first half of the season would be strongly considered. If only to keep him getting regular game-time

It'll all depend who our CB options are. If Romero leaves and Davies leaves, we'd either have to buy two, or have Luka as a backup. With Europe he'd get plenty of game time

 

[spurspinter1]

Sort of proves my point. I've only ever constructively criticised Davies during his time at Spurs and I've always praised him when he has put in a good shift. You won't change my opinion. Only Davies can do that, and he hasn't done it for years of me watching him. He's a decent player and a great guy to boot, just not at the level I've always wanted my club at. He was always going to get a living in football.

I will give you some feedback though. You never mention my family or any other poster's family again if you have any class about you. This is a football forum.

I wasn't intending to change your opinion on Davies, just the label that you were attributing to him and I have been successful in that regard.

As for the "Davies has wronged you or your family" comment, it was a light hearted joke that was intended to be quite clearly an absurd imaginary suggestion, no need to go full on Will Smith on the situation. If you lack a sense of whimsy / humour then I am sorry to hear it.

 

[SpurMeUp]

Good for Dragusin. But we need to be agile ready against fast players when Micky is out. Or play a bit deeper.

 

[Muttley]

I wasn't intending to change your opinion on Davies, just the label that you were attributing to him and I have been successful in that regard.

As for the "Davies has wronged you or your family" comment, it was a light hearted joke that was intended to be quite clearly an absurd imaginary suggestion, no need to go full on Will Smith on the situation. If you lack a sense of whimsy / humour then I am sorry to hear it.

As we say on football forums, you played the man, not the ball. You changed the subject from Davies to myself. Cheap shot and I called you out on it.

I'd never want to discourage humour, but you do understand what you did can drag down football forums? Seen it so many times over the years.

I'll leave it there.

 

[spurspinter1]

As we say on football forums, you played the man, not the ball. You changed the subject from Davies to myself. Cheap shot and I called you out on it.

I'd never want to discourage humour, but you do understand what you did can drag down football forums? Seen it so many times over the years.

I'll leave it there.

It was anything but a cheap shot, even after explaining you still don't get it, your family wasn't the punchline, neither were you despite your best efforts to turn yourself into one currently.

If I'd said something disrespectful that reasonably caused offence trust me I'd sincerely apologise. Now instead, you're doubling down on this unnapointed comedy police routine, telling me what I can and can't say as if you're my mum*, which makes me a lot more likely to actually play the man not the ball and I could go in pretty hard but fortunately for you I'll gladly leave it there. Unless you're into "your mother is so fat...." jokes that is.

*I hope I'm allowed to mention my own family under the rules you have kindly set about but let me know if not!


New poster flimflam aside, solid news on VDV and good job we have able deputy CBs in Dragusin and Davies to step in.

 

[metalgear]

vdv needs to get extended time off to properly heal and strengthen his hamstring
so hopefully more minutes for spence and dragusin
davies is useful for protecting a lead but he won't do well in a high line

 

[Muttley]

vdv needs to get extended time off to properly heal and strengthen his hamstring
so hopefully more minutes for spence and dragusin
davies is useful for protecting a lead but he won't do well in a high line

I also wonder whether this might encourage Ange to play the double pivot midfield in front of the back four. City was probably the first game in a while where we started with it (Bents-Sarr) and finished with it (Bents-Biss).

Even with Dragusin playing, we've lost that express pace at centre half and will perhaps adjust in other areas accordingly to accommodate our most important player missing.

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

As we say on football forums, you played the man, not the ball. You changed the subject from Davies to myself. Cheap shot and I called you out on it.

I'd never want to discourage humour, but you do understand what you did can drag down football forums? Seen it so many times over the years.

I'll leave it there.

This is just @spurspinter1 welcoming you to the forum. No biggie.

 

[greatwhitenorf]

As we say on football forums, you played the man, not the ball. You changed the subject from Davies to myself. Cheap shot and I called you out on it.

I'd never want to discourage humour, but you do understand what you did can drag down football forums? Seen it so many times over the years.

I'll leave it there.

I'll leave this here: Lighten up, Francis: