Allardyce: Lookman 'wanted to play some football'

Without going over the right's or wrongs of Koeman, and now Big Sam giving him game time, I do wonder about Lookman's attitude. This forced move and the comments by BS seem to imply that the lad might be a sulk. That doesn't worry me too much if he has the talent, which he appears to have in abundance, but it might cause problems in the future when it comes to contract negotiations, and his reaction if other clubs come sniffing.

I guess the success of the Red Bull Leipzig is if Lookman gets game time. If he does it could be great for his progression, but that's if he plays. Yes, he's played in the Championship before but Derby are near the top of the table and I think he would have been a starter in the chase for promotion. It would have been a very different experience to being in the bottom 3 with Charlton.

Interesting comment by BS on Klaassen's failed move. Questioning financial reasons over football. Bit ironic coming from BS who always moved for the most money in his playing days. He turned down returning to Bolton to play in the third division for Millwall.

Ridiculous comments from Fat Sam – Lookman could absolutely thrive out in Germany. What a wonderful opportunity for a young man to go out and see a new country and everything it has to offer.

Besides, what about when foreign players come here? Was it a bad move for Cenk Tosun to come to Everton, because he might not understand the language and the culture? Pathetic double standards.

First of all, don't paint yourself into a corner and say there won't be a loan unless you are 100% going to stick to that, no matter what.

Then just speak plainly. “I couldn't give him the guarantee of game time he wanted so we looked at loan options as well. He preferred the loan to Leipzig although we advised differently. We hope it works out well for him so when he comes back he is better suited to playing for our first team.”

Says it all without potential hints and slights that could further damage Lookman's relationship with the club.

Is he going to get in on front of Walcott, Bolasie, Vlasic, Tosun, Sigurdsson? Some people need a dose of reality.

As long as it's a loan, and he gets to play, I don't worry. Sam is seemingly looking to get old/experienced hands in at all positions, leaving only injuries, or game heap-ups, to give new youngsters a chance...

Regardless, if he was likely to feature as infrequently as he did in the first half of the season then it wouldn't be doing either the player, or club, any favours in the long run for him to remain on the sidelines. He needs to put together a run of games...somewhere...in order for his talent to progress, rather than be stifled.

"...from a cultural and language point of view, he could find it difficult..."

I have a sneaking suspicion Big Sam believes Lookman's discussion with his agent ("No, not R&B, Ademola. RB.") may have gone something like this:

Link

Don’t be so parochial Sam, it’s germany not friggin Turkmenistan.

I don’t blame the lad. He’s had fuck all chance with Allardyce or Koeman despite us being desperate for a bit of creativity. He needs to play and for me he should of been given a run of games. I can’t see him playing for us again and that’s a disgrace.

The managers and coaches watch players in training every day, see how they play, how they act. We just see what goes on on the pitch match days.
RK, SA and even Rhino haven’t seen enough in him to suggest he should be a first team player. Perhaps they will all be proved wrong, but odds are he just isn’t ready yet.

Who knows how this trial will pan out. I would tend to listen to the managers appraisal of the situation though.
And I don’t see that he has suggested that the player has a bad attitude, simply that lookman really forced the move through against the will of the club, in that light, had the club refused his motivation (as a young man being told he can’t do what he wants to do) May be affected. Look at Mayrez

Time will tell. But in the short term we have got a better player in Walcott and it’s a shame he won’t be around the club in the next few months to learn from a player who has played and scored goals in the PL, CL and at international level from a similar position

You don't, Mr Allardyce. In fact, your record is as atrocious as your man-management skills.