Rudy Gestede - GONE

[KRS]

His goalscoring record last season speaks for itself...give him decent balls into the box and he'll get on the end of a few. The problem is that crossing is a very low percentage tactic, defenders are much better in the PL at dealing with crosses and we lack consistent good delivery into the box. Without the service he needs we may as well have Gabby up front doing nothing. 

[luke:lamf]

Welcome, great first post Luke.  Can I ask how you came to be living in Benin, I have to admit my dreadful ignorance and had to look it up to see where in Africa it was.  I've certainly never met anybody from there before.

Thank you. I'm here because my wife is French-Beninese. With two young kids, we wanted them to experience Africa properly and really 'know' this part of their heritage, as well as being optimistic about the future of Africa (or Benin at least - stable & democratic since 1991, which is a rarity on the continent) and wish to play our part, as opposed to the creeping climate of fear and economic stagnation in Europe.

There's no need to excuse any ignorance. Most African countries only get a mention in the press for war, terrorism, corruption or famine, so as such there's no reason to have heard of it. However, should any H&Vers ever wish to discover the other side, we have a spare room and I'm always more-than-willing to show interested people around and show off my new motherland. We play South Sudan sometime in March as well, for those who wish to see Rudy in Beninese yellow as opposed to claret-and-blue.

[Malandro]

Welcome, great first post Luke.  Can I ask how you came to be living in Benin, I have to admit my dreadful ignorance and had to look it up to see where in Africa it was.  I've certainly never met anybody from there before.

Thank you. I'm here because my wife is French-Beninese. With two young kids, we wanted them to experience Africa properly and really 'know' this part of their heritage, as well as being optimistic about the future of Africa (or Benin at least - stable & democratic since 1991, which is a rarity on the continent) and wish to play our part, as opposed to the creeping climate of fear and economic stagnation in Europe.

There's no need to excuse any ignorance. Most African countries only get a mention in the press for war, terrorism, corruption or famine, so as such there's no reason to have heard of it. However, should any H&Vers ever wish to discover the other side, we have a spare room and I'm always more-than-willing to show interested people around and show off my new motherland. We play South Sudan sometime in March as well, for those who wish to see Rudy in Beninese yellow as opposed to claret-and-blue.

It's a pity you've been quiet for so long. Welcome!

[paul_e]

I've met someone from Benin, from a place called Kandi. She was a teacher in a school there and was involved with a charity that worked with to get computers into schools in Africa.  Her exact description was that it was a very 'boring' place because, unlike most of the countries around them, they're happy, so no one ever hear about them.  I've been trying to remember her name for weeks (since I noticed Gestede was playing for them) but it's just gone completely.  The only reason I remember the place she's from is because when she said it I remember thinking "isn't that in Sri Lanka?" and having to look it up on a map later.

She was a fantastic woman so my rating of the country is 100% positive!

[peter w]

Welcome, great first post Luke.  Can I ask how you came to be living in Benin, I have to admit my dreadful ignorance and had to look it up to see where in Africa it was.  I've certainly never met anybody from there before.

Thank you. I'm here because my wife is French-Beninese. With two young kids, we wanted them to experience Africa properly and really 'know' this part of their heritage, as well as being optimistic about the future of Africa (or Benin at least - stable & democratic since 1991, which is a rarity on the continent) and wish to play our part, as opposed to the creeping climate of fear and economic stagnation in Europe.

There's no need to excuse any ignorance. Most African countries only get a mention in the press for war, terrorism, corruption or famine, so as such there's no reason to have heard of it. However, should any H&Vers ever wish to discover the other side, we have a spare room and I'm always more-than-willing to show interested people around and show off my new motherland. We play South Sudan sometime in March as well, for those who wish to see Rudy in Beninese yellow as opposed to claret-and-blue.

Been to Casa Del Papa in Ouidah, Benin and it is absolutely stunning. Amazing the difference when you cross the border at Seme from Nigeria into Benin how the mobbed roads and lack of any discipline on roads is transformed into an orderly calm where drivers observe rules of the road and understand what markings on the road are for. Food was great, people friendly, place was chilled - an undeniable and unmistakable hidden treasure and a great secret of West Africa.

[brian green]

Luke, please excuse my ignorance but does Benin have a very progressive art culture. Benin bronzes of course are world famous but when my wife spent a year in La Jolla recovering from illness, she and my daughter looked after a group of African painters and sculptors. We still have some gifts from them including a glazed bowl with the inscription on it to my wife describing her as "a very high class woman". I am pretty sure they were Beninese. Great guys and very talented.

[luke:lamf]

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Luke, please excuse my ignorance but does Benin have a very progressive art culture. Benin bronzes of course are world famous but when my wife spent a year in La Jolla recovering from illness, she and my daughter looked after a group of African painters and sculptors. We still have some gifts from them including a glazed bowl with the inscription on it to my wife describing her as "a very high class woman". I am pretty sure they were Beninese. Great guys and very talented.

This is right up my family's street, Brian, as my sister-in-law is President of (and my wife vice-President) the Fondation Zinsou, which she founded to offer African artists a place in Africa to exhibit and also to do retrospectives on African artists who perhaps missed out on recognition on the continent during their prime years. It was recently(ish) featured in the Guardian. Tragically, although I create websites for clients out here, I cannot fathom how to insert hyperlinks, but a quick Google of the key words should see you find it if contemporary African art is of interest.

Benin had a reputation as the Latin Quarter of West Africa for its cultural development at one time and Romuald Hazoumé is the most well-known Beninese artist internationally - his Bouche du Roi (a full-size slave ship made out of petrol jerry cans) is still at the British Museum I believe -, but there are others, such as Kiffouli Dossou, Tchif and Gérard Quenum who are making a name for themselves in Francophone / African art circles for their sculptures and paintings. The plastic arts are very popular here and in addition to the Fondation there are plenty of small and ad hoc exhibitions taking place all the time in Cotonou.

Depending on how emotionally attached to the bowl you are - and you and your wife should be very proud of that, no-doubt accurate, inscription as every single Beninese artist I've ever met is allergic to BS or arse-kissing, some sort of artistic arrogance or pride - and who made it, you would do well to hang on to it for a few years and maybe get it valued. Prices are becoming faintly ridiculous (in my opinion, but I'm artistically-illiterate and poor) for contemporary African art at the moment and it could be a nice retirement bonus one day.

A fact which catches out many (including myself) is that Benin bronzes are actually from the Kingdom of Benin (capital city: Benin City) in modern-day Nigeria...

[brian green]

Thank you Luke. I went to a travelling exhibition of African art that came to Cambridge. There were fabulous examples of ceramics and fabrics but what stuck in my mind was the work of a group of women artists whose work was featured in a video and in photographs. Their matrix was their own houses which they painted in dazzling and arresting patterns. They did it as unpretentiously as a Brit might slap on a coat of magnolia masonry paint. My daughter still has loads of art knick knacks from the La Jolla days. She and her mother ran a stall pitched outside the gates of San Diego zoo selling the art. The artists would usually get sent packing by the zoo but my wife being a high class lady was left alone. Happy memories thank you for bringing them back Luke!

[PaulWinch again]

I'm not writing him off, but I worry that his lack of mobility is going to render him pretty ineffective at the top level.

[Risso]

I'm not writing him off, but I worry that his lack of mobility is going to render him pretty ineffective at the top level.

Yes, I'm afraid he's a bit of a one trick pony, and that trick isn't going to get him very far at Premier League level.

[aj2k77]

Two Strikers, one from the Championship and one with just 1 half decent season in France is not how we should have strengthened the attack. It's clear in every game that we are missing a centre forward.

[curiousorange]

Does Gestede do anything to hold the ball up? Is he actually any good in the air?

[aj2k77]

Does Gestede do anything to hold the ball up? Is he actually any good in the air?

I have no idea about his hold up play but most of his goals were bullet headers or 6 yard box balls being turned in as he dominated Championship centre backs from what I saw on youtube. He's not mobile at all is he? I can't see how he is going to work in the current team.

[curiousorange]

Somebody said on Twitter that in the first half, we put plenty of crosses in but had Gestede on the bench. He seems to be that 'we're penned in, best lump it' option we used Benteke for, but from what I've seen, he's rubbish at it.

[Matt Collins]

I didn't think he was that bad when he came on.

I did think - not for the first time - that we could have got Austin for what we paid for gestede and Ayew.