Boubacar Kamara

[eye digress]

It might be controversial, but as much as it was cynical and blatant, it wasn't particularly shocking and it's a bit unfortunate it ended up nailing his season, and claiming it was feels a bit like how they've whined for the last couple of years about a fairly routine trip by Cash on Bentacur.

Having said that, he is a snidey, dirty prick and a later 'tackle' on Rogers was worse and was lucky it didn't do serious damage, I wouldn't be adverse to seeing John turbo-arse him into the Trinity at some point.

Agree with that, yes. It wasn’t a terrible tackle and the damage was caused more by Kamara’s momentum. He didn’t attempt to play the ball, however, which made it both dirty and cynical. But not a Roy Keane over the top of the ball affair.

[Mellin]

I think we average over 2pts per game with him and just over 1 without him

Couple of weeks old and the other players may have moved around, but:

If any of the above is implying we need to move on from him, that is a terrible, terrible idea. We just need him to stay fit all season, and going off that, we'll win the league. Happy days.

I'm not quite sure what that is saying, over and above the point about Kamara being very important to us. There appear to be lots of Arse players in that list ...

It says when Kamara played this season we were the best team in the league. It's not down to fixtures either as we played both Arsenal and Man City inside that 2.33.

It also says if he, McGinn and Tielemans hadn't been injured we'd probably still be in a title race.

[Percy McCarthy]

^^ Precisely.

[Stu82]

I think we average over 2pts per game with him and just over 1 without him

Couple of weeks old and the other players may have moved around, but:

If any of the above is implying we need to move on from him, that is a terrible, terrible idea. We just need him to stay fit all season, and going off that, we'll win the league. Happy days.

I'm not quite sure what that is saying, over and above the point about Kamara being very important to us. There appear to be lots of Arse players in that list ...

It says when Kamara played this season we were the best team in the league. It's not down to fixtures either as we played both Arsenal and Man City inside that 2.33.

It also says if he, McGinn and Tielemans hadn't been injured we'd probably still be in a title race.

With Bouba hopefully fit for new season, the deadwood culled, and a couple of exciting signings and we could be challenging in April and May next season.

[Smithy]

I think Bouba is incredibly important to the way Unai wants to play, and is clearly an undervalued part of our team - but I also think we have to end our reliance on a single player, the way it has played out the last few years.  We don't have a true like-for-like replacement, who can do what Bouba does, close to the level Bouba does it.  Onana can come close on the defensive front, but not as cultured on the ball.  Luiz and Barkely can do the 'on the ball' bit, but arenn't close on the defensive side.  Bouba is an almost unique mix.

That's an Unai job, whether it means coaching someone to do the Bouba job well enough, or finding a way to play that doesn't rely so heavily on a press-resistant Bouba-style player.

We were at our best and most resilient this season when both Bouba and Onana were playing behind Youri, with SJM able to tuck into the middle and do a job in CM job too.  I don't know what the answer is, but that's why Unai gets the big bucks!

The role Bouba plays is SO important in the modern game, where it's all about control and possession.  It's not a coincidence that Man City finished 3rd when they lost their own 'Bouba' in Rodri for most of last season.

It's a shame his injury record has been so unfortunate.  On the plus side, if we can get a full-ish season out of him next year, and we have Champions League money to play with this summer, you wouldn't bet against Unai building a side capable of fighting on every front, with Bouba at the heart of it.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

That kind of player costs a lot of money.  About £50m maybe? Our major problem is that we have two very good players (one who is potentially world class in Kamara) in a specialist position who can’t seem to stay fit for a while season.

He was doing well, until Paulinho’s shocking tackle.

It wasn't even a tackle, he made absolutely no attempt to play the ball, none. Bouba running at pace, he decides to take him out, fuck the consequences. The consequences are there for all to see and some continue to comment 'if Kamara can stay fit'. Nobody can stay fit if you're assaulted in that way.

I really hope we destroy Spurs and send them down though Palhinha will just piss off back from his loan and return to Bayern Munich. If he's brave enough to play against us I hope Villa Park give him pelters all game and in the last 5 minutes Unai brings on Mings and Barkley to chop the fucker into pieces. He can sit at home in the summer with his legs in plaster reflecting on his actions whilst watching the World Cup.

He's utter, utter scum.

[paul_e]

As much as Palhinha is a dirty c**t who wasn't making an attempt to win the ball in the slightest my anger over the whole thing is targeted firmly on the ref. He let an early yellow card for Tel go which showed they could get away with a few and up stepped the hatchet man to try to take out a player or 2, and then not booking him left him free to kick Rogers later as well.

Then just to make sure the pisstake was complete he booked Garcia about 30seconds after he came on for a fairly nothing tackle.

[Nev]

As much as Palhinha is a dirty c**t who wasn't making an attempt to win the ball in the slightest my anger over the whole thing is targeted firmly on the ref. He let an early yellow card for Tel go which showed they could get away with a few and up stepped the hatchet man to try to take out a player or 2, and then not booking him left him free to kick Rogers later as well.

Then just to make sure the pisstake was complete he booked Garcia about 30seconds after he came on for a fairly nothing tackle.

The Ref who was backed by one of his mates on TV when asked about it. Let the game breathe my arse.

[SamTheMouse]

I didn't think the tackle was all that bad, it was just a block really. It wasn't a Ben Mee special. Kamara's just got dodgy knees, unfortunately.

[PaulWinch again]

It was a tackle that should have been a booking, it was massively cynical, but the outcome was unfortunate as opposed to the tackle being inherently dangerous.

The issue was the ref didn’t give the yellow, and allowed him to continue kicking players.

[paul_e]

It was a tackle that should have been a booking, it was massively cynical, but the outcome was unfortunate as opposed to the tackle being inherently dangerous.

The issue was the ref didn’t give the yellow, and allowed him to continue kicking players.

Yep, it wasn't a nasty foul but it was a clear 'taking out the man' which is a yellow card 9 times out of 10 and again, I'm not sure if he does it if Tel had been booked for his one a couple of minutes earlier.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Again, it wasn't a tackle and it's not like Palhinha doesn't have history of cowardly assaults. He even had the nerve to put his head on Watkins celebrating in front of the Villa fans at the end of the game. He wasn't so brave when Rogers turned up though.

A pox on his house.

[PaulWinch again]

It was a tackle, for me, in that he was trying to stop the player progressing with the ball. It was a blatant foul and a cynical one. I don’t like him as a player, and he was kicking people all game and should easily have had two yellows.

But I do maintain the outcome was more unfortunate than inevitable. He meant to stop the man, I don’t think he intended to do serious injury and most times it wouldn’t have resulted in that. Compare that to something like the Thatcher incident with Pedro Mendes, where he clearly intended to seriously hurt him.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Doesn't a tackle need to involve a ball somewhere in the equation? His sole objective was taking the player out. It was at best reckless.He gave no consideration to the outcome.

Funny thing is I used to like him at Sporting but back then he wasn't a wannabe hardman c**t.