Sorry for the delay, but I quite simply didn’t know what to say about this.
I started to hear this story early this afternoon, whilst at work, but my immediate reaction was that it was an utter load of rubbish.
“How on earth would it be possible for a player to be seen to be leaving a club and then to refute the story by saying he’s staying, only to change his mind again by actually leaving?” was my thinking.
It wouldn’t be possible, as the player would never live it down.
How naive I’ve been.
Given that I had my suspicions that both the loyalty statements were probably written by someone at the club and not Delph himself, I found myself wondering if all was as well as was being portrayed, but you just take categorical statements like “I’m staying at this great football club” at face value, don’t you?
So any doubt was put to the back of my mind.
Anyway, now the decision has been made, I find that I’m asking myself “what’s gone on?”.
And given that it seems he made his decision last night, my guess is that he found out Benteke is going and just decided enough is enough.
Which means that he really thought a lot about Benteke and his ability or he isn’t convinced about what’s happening at the club, which is somewhat worrying.
One thing caught my eye in Delph’s statement and it was the part where he apparently confirmed that Micah Richards definitely didn’t do anything to put Delph off about going to City.
Indeed, it seems he raved about the club.
Thanks Micah.
Oh, one other thing.
I believe Genk are entitled to around five million Euros from the Benteke sale, via a sell-on clause.
So it won’t be £40 million to spend (plus the usual stingy £15 million).
While a part of me doesn’t blame Delph for moving onward and upward to the Man City bench, I also feel that what he’s done here, is about as bad as anything I’ve witnessed in my forty five years or so of supporting the club.
He’s made himself and the club a laughing stock and the words “two-faced, lying bastard” spring to mind.
And while I agree with the thinking that no player is bigger than the club, this is a big loss when combined with Benteke’s imminent departure.
I just hope Tim Sherwood is as good as he thinks he is, as regardless of how poor you think Benteke, Delph and Vlaar might be individually, we’ve now got the spine of the team ripped out and it’ll take some replacing, especially when you consider that we need a team that can gel quickly, if we aren’t going to be involved in another relegation fight.
