… and Rys is coming home …
Watford sacked him before he could sign him or maybe because he wanted to. 
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Loaned out to Bournemouth.
Comfortable situation for him. Recently extended his contract.
Can wait and see what happens with Joe and Joel in the next 1,5 years.
I don’t think that will be a topic for him.
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I wonder if we are playing the long game to increase Nat’s value? Turn down £7M transfer fee to accept £1.5M loan fee?
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I would say so. Club confident we can get much more but just needs the game time to warrant it for clubs to spend. Comfortable contract and gives us time to watch over our centre backs after their injury issues. Probably have a recall clause just incase aswell. If all goes well in the summer, sell.
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Very happy for him. He is a player who deserves to play regularly. Bournemouth is a good club and their promotion drive will give Nat the same impetus he had during our drive for CL spot last season.
Hope he gets to be a starter for them and plays well.
Other CB’s at Bournemouth:
Lloyd Kelly (club captain), Gary Cahill (could learn a bit from him), Chris Mepham and other two younger players in Zeno Ibsen Rossi and James Hill.
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This is a good move for Nat. Both Leicester and Newcastle wanted a loan deal but there’s more chance he gets games at Bournemouth. He was never the hipster’s choice but I’ll always be grateful to him for actually making the 20/21 season interesting and getting us in the CL. This season could have looked a lot different had it not been for him.
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This still makes me laugh out loud…I’ll always love Nat.
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He was never the normal football person’s choice.
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No, I was right the first time. He was a big fan’s favourite and a cult hero. You only have to go on any other LFC forum or fan media to find that out.
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I would say opinion about him has been polarised quite a bit since the end of the season. He’s definitely not better than someone like Gomez or Matip, mainly because he’s a lot more limited speed-wise. Unlike the adage commonly banded around, it seems like intelligence cannot compensate fully for lack of speed.
However, I do think that his ball-playing abilities are underrated, and he has a good pass in his locker (even if he’s not Virgil or Alexander-Arnold). I have no idea what Bournemouth are like, but I would have thought that he would be a good fit at a Premier League club that would be more comfortable with a deeper defensive line, and who might perhaps be more reliant on counterattacking football (and hence a player who can pass from deep).
Hope he dominates the Championship, and demonstrates that he’s a useful player for top-flight football.
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One thing that Nat comes up against in a side like LFC is that when we are competing at the top end of the scale in the CL against elite sides and elite players… every team member of ours has to be of the same ilk…
Yes it can be one week in the Premier League against the shin kicking sides… against which he could easily hold his own… to next game playing at Bayern and the differing demands that task would bring in which he would probably struggle…
Jurgen likes players that can play differing positions across a game… I’m sure he also prefers the players that can raise their game higher than the opposition when it matters most…
Unfortunately, this is where IMO, Nat begins to struggle…!
The lad has probably done enough in his time here to find a placement in lots of premier sides that never reach the higher levels or demands required of playing against very good European opposition…
I can only see a good career ahead of him, but without winning some of the major honours in the game
He’ll do well by living comfortably of playing football, which he is now. Because a few years ago, he was close to opting for something different. Not for our level, but I just wish him health and luck, so he can milk everything he can out of the game and enjoy it. Not a bad player at all, probably made a little step further than it was expected. Not a young player, physically strong, sounds like a normal bloke who gives 100%, probably used the best he can the opportunity to work with this amazing group and staff, his father was in the game, all that probably played it’s little part. Long term he’ll probably settle down somewhere at the top of the Championship or bottom PL.
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Sad to say I think he’ll be a “where are they now” player in a few years. He did us a solid, played far beyond his expected ability levels and really maximised on what he was best at whilst the team around him compensated as much as they could so our makeshift defence wasn’t humiliated. But I think that’s also put him on too high a pedestal, at best he’s a lower Premier League level player, maybe not even in the preferred starting 11, next in line type. Come in when shits going down and be solid and no nonsense. As such those clubs aren’t likely to be able to afford that kind of fee for that level player who is still actually quite inexperienced for his age. You’re essentially buying a 25 year old youth player who has had some good experience and looks like they may be really solid. But all the talk is so much higher than that and so over the top. Hope he has a good 6 months, Bournemouth go up and decide to keep him. I can understand fans loving the guy so hope theirs do too. He deserves that.
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One question I would urge all to ask is;
Did he ever really not fit as a player here?
My personal answer to that is an outright “no, quite the opposite in fact.”
He never really looked out of place, significantly
below par or simply just wrong at all in my book. I think he deserves a lot of credit for that.
It will be interesting to see how he goes at Bournemouth. Will they be able to say the same about him there down the line?
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On his debut no less. You couldn’t make it up!
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