So you are essentially criticising me for not making my mind up on a player immediately?
Udogie started his Spurs career reasonably ok and he looked promising, but a bit like the team as a whole under Ange, sometimes early impressions can be misleading.
It's like whenever a new player makes his debut, you look at them and think optimistically, ok he looks like he could be good, you are hoping. But then over time reality dawns on you, as you see how they deal with situations on a football pitch, every time they get to the box and make a terrible pass or cross, or lose the ball. Or every time you see attackers lose him and score a goal, when he fails to track a runner. You begin to see where their weaknesses are.
With Udogie, as I have pointed out his many weaknesses, why don't you show me evidence of where his strengths are? His first few months he looked ok, but even in those games what exactly did he display which makes you think he's going to be a good player for us? For me there is no doubt about it, he needs to be moved on. He won't ever cut it.
He doesn't have any redeeming qualities. He's really really poor technically, mentally he doesn't seem switched on either, and he's made of glass.
I'm criticising you for being overly harsh on Udogie, I'm not trying to make the case that he's a superstar, just that he's not "terrible" or "absolute shite".
You start this post off with a much more balanced assessment, but by the end of it you're back to saying he has no redeeming qualities.
Watching him play right now, I could get onboard with the opinion that he's a bit of a nothing player, absolutely. I don't see anything to make me think he's abysmal though. Early doors though, he looked pacey, athletic, could dribble, got into good attacking positions. Things that you would expect from someone who was a wing back prior to joining really, his crossing seemed lacking but he was more of a cutback type, he also looked capable of popping up at the back post for a tap-in too.
On the negative side, he was capable of the odd brainfart, and yes his defending in general at times wasn't as tight as you'd like it to be, but bearing in mind he was a teenager and playing in a position with more defensive responsibility than he was used to I think that's forgivable.
What you hope for in that situation is that coaching can clear up the flaws, and maximise the positives. Unfortunately he had this guy:
And then this guy:
Overseeing that for 30 months, and a bunch of injuries to contend with hampering any chance of getting back into a rhythm.
I reckon it's 50/50 whether he's with us next season, not sure there'd be huge interest in his signature, if there is any it would be from Italy where there's never much cash to be spent anyway, and I reckon RDZ might want to work with him. If he stays, and can get a grip on the injury problems (having another actual LB in the squad would help with this!) I think there's every chance he forces people to change their current tune on him.
