Rumor: Jozy Altidore - New European Interest

It's a fairly simple concept. I guess I shall explain it to you. There are X amount of players who play football professionally. Every single one of them falls somewhere on the "work-rate" spectrum. Some work incredibly hard. Others do the bare minimum to get by.

Jozy is on the "not so good side" of the work rate spectrum. Lots and lots of players at all skill levels have been described as "lazy."

Many players much much better than Jozy have been described this way by people much more qualified to comment than yourself. They still played hundreds of games at the highest level. The idea that, "He can't be lazy or else he wouldn't play" is ridiculous.

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/8-notoriously-lazy-players-who-were-allergic-hard-work?page=0,1

Totally disagree. "Hard-working" has never described Altidore.

 

Reluctant to repost myself, but here goes

The French team might have been Bourdeaux; they just sold their main striker without getting a replacement in and without telling the coach (one Gus Poyet), who blew a gasket at the news and called the owners "a disgrace". The owners were not impressed and suspended him, whereupon the players went on strike. It's unlikely that Poyet will return, and they have no replacement lined up. A complete shitshow all-round.

It's not an implausible scenario: Poyet was reported to be trying to sign Lee Cattermole on a season-long loan three days ago. He might well have wanted Jozy as well.

You might think that Poyet trying to sign Lee Cattermole and Jozy was what prompted the club to sell the striker, hoping that Poyet would resign as a result, but I like to believe the best about people ​

 

Well, unless a deal was made and never announced, I don't think he is going to Serie A as the window has now closed. There were unreported rumors that a recently promoted team was the team interested.

I think the Serie A team interested might have been Frosinone. Although, he may have been plan C if the team did not get the other players they wanted.

 

You completely invert my point. The fact that "many players much much better than Jozy have been described as lazy" help make my point. You, in general, have to be very good, almost to the point of special at something to be "lazy" in soccer.

El Pibe, who was often described as "lazy" was a maestro in the circle. Gazza and Best were both described as "lazy" (though they were really more likely hung-over) but both had extraordinary touch, vision and guile.

Jozy is a plugger. He draws double teams, moves to find space. At S'land he defended a ton. Aside from fans who think he walks with his hips too tight from lack of yoga or bench pressed too much to be effective, I doubt you will find coaches, trainers or managers who have accused him of being lazy. I've never seen it.

 

Dempsey is treated differently because Dempsey is and has always been a far superior player, who always showed up in big games and who, while he would loaf around on occasion against the minnows that Jozy tended to bumslay against, always brought top effort when it mattered most. Trying to compare the two is a farce.

 

You don't have to be a "super-star" to make it with a less than ideal work-rate. The line of thinking, "Well he is a professional and not a super-star therefore intrinsically he isn't lazy" is ridiculous. It literally makes no sense.

Here is Brede Hangeland describing a full XI of players he thought were lazy

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/3ba884ee-f70c-4d8e-93e2-4dfa81aaa0ad

I watched Luis Landin's butt walk around a center circle and eat pies for half a season with the Dynamo. He was lazy. He wasn't a star. He is still playing somehow.

The fact that no one in the sporting world has openly ripped Altidore for his work-rate doesn't mean anything. Have you not been around sports these last 30 years? It's pretty damn rare for a coach/front office person/fellow player to absolutely rip a player in the media like that. Usually they just say, "it didn't work out we wish him the best moving forward." (A German coach/front officer person maybe more candid).

Nobody from the Dynamo came out and said, "Landin was fat and lazy so we shipped his butt out" - they just did it. That' s how it works.

 

Um... Jozy is not on that list.

The Jozy is lazy canard continues to be a dead duck.

 

I don't think a move makes sense for Altidore.

Altidore has remained the top US striker in MLS while healthy. Just staying healthy and scoring goals in MLS should keep him in the US picture, if not a starter. Nevertheless, if Weah/Sargent successfully develop, or if Wood re-discovers his form, then they will likely leapfrog Altidore no matter where he plays, whether in MLS or Europe. OTOH, if the US striker pool collapses spectacularly, then it won't matter where Altidore is playing, as long as he is playing and scoring. Plus, Toronto seems likely to offer Altidore a big money extension, because they're thrilled with his tenure with the club.

If anybody on Toronto should think about risking a new transfer to Europe, it's Bradley. A new contract with Toronto would likely be smaller because he's older, and the US national team is much less likely to be a consideration at all for him.

 

All reports I've seen in last 2 days lead back to Carlisle or Usry

I think Serie A is closed for fall transfers? Altidore has said the past Toronto is his last club, fwiw.

But there is nothing in English language rumor-sphere I can find that has more info than the original "someone who knows something said" sourcing, fwiw.

 

I think the issue is that his endurance is poor, and he knows it, so he doesn’t expend a ton of energy pressing or working to get the ball back. Contrast with Bobby who runs his ass off all game. You can see the difference.

 

Of course he isn't on that list.. He never played with Hangeland... the point of the list, which I guess went over your head, was that there are "lazy" players who aren't superstars.

Whether someone is hard-working or not is a matter of opinion. Apparently you've figured out some way to think Altidore is hard-working after watching him trot around the center circle for years. I formed a different opinion.

 

I just looked the 10 richest people in America. I am not not that list, so I must be very rich...

I have found a way to think Altidore is hard working by watching him work hard.

I have also noted a number of his coaches and teammates mention his hard work.

Perhaps, by the "if he's not on the list he must therefore fit the criteria" argument, I've also not seen him on any "hardest working player in soccer" lists, so clearly he is...

 

Well, you're entitled to your opinion.

From what I've seen, Altidore is not a hard worker. His work rate is incredibly poor.

I find your, "Where have you seen any coaches or teammates criticize his work ethic?" line of reasoning totally laughable.

You've followed the USMNT for 30 years you claim. Have you ever seen a USSF official, coach or player come out in the media and criticize a player like that? Answer - No. Does that mean USSF has never had a player with poor work ethic in the last 30 years? Give me a break. That, as a general rule, is just not done in sports.

Compliments flow much much more easily in the sports world than criticisms. A player/coach paying lip service to Altidore on rare occasion would prove absolutely nothing.

 

So a list of lazy people produced by publication in UK:

1. Uruguayan
2. Italian
3. Muslim
4. Polish
5. Ghanaian
6. Brazilian
7. Nigerian
8. Argentinian

Uh, couldn't they included some token Brit to make this less obvious?

 

I didn't realize fourfourtwo was an alt-right publication but yea, I suppose someone has to try and turn this into a racism thing. Congrats to you.

 

Bradley is fortunate to have a team still trying to structure it’s starting XI around him in MLS; no European team would ever, ever buy him at this stage of his career.

 

His international record is

Friendlies - 18/51
Competitive games - 23/59

His record in Holland and MLS is pretty incredible but that hasn't translated into a higher level. Maybe

Eredivisie - 1 goal every 1.7 games
MLS - 1 goal every 2.1 games

Maybe he needs a team to be built around his strengths.

"Manchester City have acted after one of their youth scouts referred to black players as “BBQs”.

Dean Ramsdale was the subject of a club investigation after using the “BBQs” term – meaning big black and quick – during a meeting with colleagues and two scouts.

The Daily Mirror say that those present were “taken aback” by the “racial profiling” at the time, and that one individual was ‘so angered’ he filed an official letter of complaint."

I think that attitude is not uncommon among English football coaches and sports coaches in general. Have you ever wondered why there are so few white sprinters? Where do college coaches focus their attention when they are recruiting sprinters, under-served urban neighborhoods or middle-class suburban schools? No genetic link has been established between runners of African descent and speed or endurance. Are black high school kids being put on the football team while white kids play soccer or run track? What if a tall, fast, physically strong black high school student wants to play soccer, is his coach going to let him or is he going to put him on the football team. I'm sure there's an element of that.

Certainly there would be a temptation to put Altidore in the middle and make him a target man (I think that's what happened at Sunderland) but his real strength is when the ball is at his feet with his back to goal.

 

Good article in Sports Illustrated about the last white Cornerback in the NFL, and how any white college corners are always converted to Safety.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/04/26/white-cornerbacks-jason-sehorn-kevin-kaesviharn-donny-lisowski

 

in discussing the stereotyping of players by coaches, you are stereotyping coaches.

 

Boring.

 

2008: He's going to be the best ever, we'll win the World Cup

2011: Hmm

2013: He's going to be the best ever, we'll win the World Cup

2015: Why the eff can't he meet all of the expectations I had for him?

 

Pretty sure nobody ever really said any of those things.

At best, people projected some sort of poor man’s Drogba for him until around 2012 or so when it became really obvious that he was more comfortable playing on the wing than playing physical.

 

Not best ever, but Altidore definitely had some heightened expectation. I recall posters here thinking Sunderland would do for a season or two before he made the switch to a Champions League team.

 

Lol. Haven’t been good for 5 years dude. The schwdenfreude in me loves it when their shite TFC performances prove how awful they are every week.

When Doyle throws in the towel on an American in MLS, you know it’s over.