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Ismael Kenneth Kone


MauditYvon

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17 minutes ago, DeRo_Is_King said:

Whatever the case, as @InglewoodJack said, Jebbison has not looked out of place. Don't forget he was suspended for a few matches as well just when he was starting to heat up. 

I know he is turning 20 soon, but a year makes a big difference early in a career. And we're talking about a player already with a Championship / Premier League-level side and who has been associated with the side for years. We'll be lucky to have him, if I'm honest. 

Yeah, I mean, who knows what he may turn into. He still has to compete with Jonathan David and Cyle Larin, two bonafide tier 1 league strikers with strong production records, so we'll see what he turns into, but I don't think he's the first player who would make his debut at 17 but only become a solid goal scorer at 21 or 22. We had Davies who burst on the scene at 15 and basically went on an upwards trajectory since then, we recently saw Kone come out of nowhere and just burst in a straight line towards England, so we've been a bit spoiled in that regard, but a better way to look at it is that this is a 20 year old on a Premier League roster with a very good chance at playing big minutes. The fact he's already scored in the premier league and has 3 years of pro ball under his belt is just gravy.

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10 minutes ago, DeRo_Is_King said:

For now, yes. But he will be in his prime once Larin is nearly or already retired. 

Yeah absolutely. Point was more just that he can't tap dance into a starting role because he is at a good club, there is legitimate competition for him because our strikers are actually very good. Though I think Herdman's ideal plan is for Jebbison to slowly take Larin's playing time around or right after 2026 and eventually become our 1/2 striker.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Something’s gotta give for this guy. Took a look over at the Watford boards and fans are in agreement that he’s their worst player and should probably be dropped from The lineup. The little I’ve watched of Watford this season, he looks very apathetic. My concern is that his minutes start to dry up and here is where his career goes sideways. He looks brilliant with Canada, but plays for Watford like he doesn’t wanna be there. 

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48 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

Something’s gotta give for this guy. Took a look over at the Watford boards and fans are in agreement that he’s their worst player and should probably be dropped from The lineup. The little I’ve watched of Watford this season, he looks very apathetic. My concern is that his minutes start to dry up and here is where his career goes sideways. He looks brilliant with Canada, but plays for Watford like he doesn’t wanna be there. 

He was their first guy off today at 46 I believe, pretty rough.

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1 hour ago, costarg said:

He was their first guy off today at 46 I believe, pretty rough.

His numbers looked average, but feedback says he just gave it away every time and didn’t really do anything. Since he’s been at Watford the entire team has been absolutely putrid and I guess as their most expensive player he’s going to get a lot of heat especially when he isn’t playing good, but I do think at least some of this just stems from how disappointing Watford is. In 2022 they looked destined to return to the premier league, and this year it looks like they’re closer to relegation than promotion. 

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24 minutes ago, Mitchryan11 said:

he has 1 assist in 30 games clearly not championship quality

How many "true" assists did he have in MLS? I am willing to bet it's just a handful. 

I agree with IJ here. I think the hate stems from frusturation with an underperforming Watford. If they were flying high I doubt many fans would care so much. It's also hard to shine in a team that's underperforming. 

I am not worried about Kone at this point. The season is young (and so is he). 

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10 hours ago, Obinna said:

How many "true" assists did he have in MLS? I am willing to bet it's just a handful. 

I agree with IJ here. I think the hate stems from frusturation with an underperforming Watford. If they were flying high I doubt many fans would care so much. It's also hard to shine in a team that's underperforming. 

I am not worried about Kone at this point. The season is young (and so is he). 

I wouldn’t say he’s been particularly good, but the impression I get is that Watford is kinda just Championship TFC. Tough situation for any young player to really shine through. 

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I haven't had a chance to watch him/them. Bad timings. So hard to comment on him.

Watford got rid or let go of a lot of veteran leadership. To be fair they were injured a lot.  They brought in Ince, who is a veteran, not sure he provides leadership.

I think the club model seeps down to players lacking that.  It is about young players brought in for the purpose of selling on or moving out rather than building a team.  So you do what makes you look good not what makes good football.

As for the weekend, the manager said that they got the press wrong and they corrected that at half. Hope that doesn't mean Kone wasn't doing his part. But that feels a possibility given the sub.

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15 minutes ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

I haven't had a chance to watch him/them. Bad timings. So hard to comment on him.

Watford got rid or let go of a lot of veteran leadership. To be fair they were injured a lot.  They brought in Ince, who is a veteran, not sure he provides leadership.

I think the club model seeps down to players lacking that.  It is about young players brought in for the purpose of selling on or moving out rather than building a team.  So you do what makes you look good not what makes good football.

As for the weekend, the manager said that they got the press wrong and they corrected that at half. Hope that doesn't mean Kone wasn't doing his part. But that feels a possibility given the sub.

Per message board feedback, this is exactly what it meant. Mostly stuff along the line about how their second half was encouraging, they're very close to breaking through, and to their credit all the players except that one specific one, played their hearts out.

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2 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

Per message board feedback, this is exactly what it meant. Mostly stuff along the line about how their second half was encouraging, they're very close to breaking through, and to their credit all the players except that one specific one, played their hearts out.

I know my West Ham board can pick on specific players and have a hard to time moving from the narrative.  But does not sound great.  If it's a press effort thing, that is totally in his hands, assuming he is fit.

Should watch whenever he gets a chance next.

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13 minutes ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

I know my West Ham board can pick on specific players and have a hard to time moving from the narrative.  But does not sound great.  If it's a press effort thing, that is totally in his hands, assuming he is fit.

Should watch whenever he gets a chance next.

I watched some of the game before last and at least to my (untrained) eye, what I saw backed up what the fans saw. But then again, I've watched him play poorly for Watford, then turn around and look like the best player on the field for Canada.

That doesn't mean he's the only player they pick on- they don't seem to rate any of their midfielders that high. Not sure what it'll take, because when he's on, he looks brilliant, but he's very often not on with Watford. That said, it seems like they all acknowledge he needs to play more, they think elsewhere, but I hope that they give him a run of games at some point.

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1 hour ago, Chad_Impact said:

I really wish young Canadians who still need time to develop would stop going to England already. Has it every worked? 

Especially the English Championship. Similar level to MLS. No chance at Europe. If you do get lucky and promote you likely will be replaced. Easy to bench a Canadian.

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I think we are as bad (or almost as bad) as the US in terms of expecting players to move to Europe and excel immediately.  They have had tons of highly touted “young phenoms” come crashing back to earth when they went across the pond and didn’t light the world on fire.  Pulisic may be a good player now but he had a lot of false starts along the way and some humbling moments.  Pepi was supposed to be the second coming of soccer-Jesus but has had to work hard to get any success.  Caden Clark, Gaga Slonina, etc - they will all (or mostly) probably develop into solid international players, but they were hyped like they were going to rip Europe a new one as soon as they made their move.  

We have a lot of guys who are now fighting for time in the context of solid European teams and leagues.  Someone like Kone will be fine.  He will have setbacks but he has the skills to overcome them and excel.   
 

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