Makoun Watch

[eamonn]

It seems Jean II has been used as sparingly at Olympiakos as he largely was with us. But he did climb off the bench to head what proved to be the winner in 3-2 win over Salonika at the weekend. His team-mate Olof Mellberg did a bit of a ''Hutton'' to help Salonika get back into it, but Olympiakos held on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt9EVRImR_Y&feature=related

This was Jean Deux's plea to the Villa faithful afterwards (to Ian B in particular):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_9sB92dJzM

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Sparingly? He's yet to start a game over there. I think Olympiakos appointed a new coach not long after they signed Jean II, who obviously didn't fancy him. Apparently we've agreed a sell-on clause of €3.5m should they wish to keep him in the summer.

[eamonn]

Yeah, sparingly, as in not used much.

Maybe his goal will get him a start. Was it ever confirmed the price we paid for him? I seem to remember Houllier making a point of saying that it wasn't even close to the reported figure (£6.2m I think). I hope not if the sell-on is less than half of that.

[Mazrim]

From what I heard it was about a potential £4m deal but based on appearances and suchlike.
We've probably ponied up about £2.5m in actuality.

[Slaphead]

Why did we get rid of him again? I moved house in summer and had no internet access, never found out why he went.

[bob]

I'd completely forgotten about him.

[Clampy]

When you buy a player from another country, i think giving him more than 7 games to settle in might be a good idea.

[brian green]

Amen to that Clamps

[Legion]

When you buy a player from another country, i think giving him more than 7 games to settle in might be a good idea.

Very much so.

[Vanilla]

When you buy a player from another country, i think giving him more than 7 games to settle in might be a good idea.

Absolutely. N'Zogbia has had a few months, and he has played in the Premiership before.

[Risso]

When you buy a player from another country, i think giving him more than 7 games to settle in might be a good idea.

Unless of course, it's apparent in training that he has no pace, and can't tackle, and is the worst of your five or so central midfielders.

[brian green]

Riss, would you say he is worse than Stephen Ireland?

[Eigentor]

Sometimes I get the feeling that Risso's judgement of Makoun is based on his opinion of the man who brought him here, rather than the ability/potential the player showed in his few games for us last season.

[Zhong Yi]

When you buy a player from another country, i think giving him more than 7 games to settle in might be a good idea.

there were many people using this forum that were not too bothered to see him go, when the story first broke. At the least Makoun could have been a good squad player.

He obviously wasn't a pub-enough player for McLeish to want to retain his services.

[Chris Smith]

In an ideal world we'd have kept Makoun to see if he could adapt but to bring in Jenas he had to be sacrificed. We can arue about the merits of the players (I think JJ is likely to have more impact) but we have to accept the economic reality.