Adam Aznou: A (Thierry?) Small Problem

I didn't post this sooner as I didn't want to ruin the excitement of the signing of a young potentially good player for Everton. However, now some time has passed, things are panning out the way I feared they would. So here is what we didn't hear much of (in England) when we signed Adam Aznou.

In May, Bayern Sporting Director Freund said of Aznou:

“Adam Aznou has gained valuable experience at Real Valladolid and developed very well. His regular playing time proves that he’s held his own at this high level. We now want to reintegrate him into our first team at the Club World Cup so that he can take the next steps.”

What the next steps in Freund's mind might have been remains a mystery... but Aznou himself felt the next step was for him to be the starting left-back immediately. He made this aim public (which was apparently news to the club) bizarrely on an interview on the video gaming streaming service Twitch. When he told a Spanish reporter:

"My future is uncertain. I want to play. If I don’t get minutes at Bayern, we’ll have to look for a solution.”

Upon arriving in the USA, Aznou apparently learned he was not going to be the starting left-back for Bayern in their Club World Cup campaign and, according to Sky Sports Germany:

"We heard from several sources that he let himself down in training during the Club World Cup and no longer showed the attitude that is needed at FC Bayern. If there is one thing Kompany doesn't like, it's when players drag their feet in training -- and perhaps think a little too highly of themselves."

Aznou's camp inferred youngsters weren't given a chance at Bayern — to which the club's board member Maz Eberl publicly responded:

“With Josip Stanisic, Aleksandar Pavlovic, and Jamal Musiala, we have three regulars from our own academy. That’s not a common thing. We’ve developed numerous players at the campus and I consider that positive.

"We also have plenty more players with real prospects,” Eberl continued. “Paul Wanner has a great opportunity.“ Then, when asked specifically about Aznou, he said, "You can't force a dog to drink." Which is a German saying that means roughly the same as the horse to water saying in English... ie, You can give someone an opportunity but you can't make them grasp it (train hard, work, have a positive attitude, improve).

His public comments after Aznou left were a bit more measured but had the same theme:

"We regret that we couldn't continue our partnership with Adam. We aim to focus even more on our talented players in the future. This season, young players, such as those who participated in the Club World Cup, will train regularly with the first team." 

"In general, the door is open to anyone who gives their all every day to achieve our common goals to establish themselves permanently with the FC Bayern professionals.”

After the transfer, Freund added:

"He's a very talented player. But the player has to be convinced by the club's plans. It wasn't our desire to sell him but it was his big desire to make the transfer. At the end of the day, we decided together that it had to be best for everyone, including him. He has to be convinced, full of energy and passion behind what he's doing. That's why we agreed to the move."

And so now, here we are at Everton... with Moyes saying recently:

"This boy’s a young boy, maybe not quite ready yet, but we hope he will be shortly. We see a lot of good things in him, technically very good, athletic, might need just a little bit to get himself built up and ready for the Premier League, so we won’t be putting him under any pressure.”

So in other words, Moyes has reaffirmed exactly what Bayern said. The kid has potential but is not ready. But given he threw down his tools and wouldn't train at Bayern — German champions and a Champions League club — how might we expect Aznou to be feeling about not getting game time at a 14th-placed mediocre side? Not very happy, I should imagine.

Rather like Thierry Small must have felt after he stomped off to Southampton.

And to that point, rumours are surfacing on African sites that Aznou is indeed unhappy and agitating for a January move. These may or may not be from credible sources, but they seem likely to reflect the reality. A kid with a big ego, who isn't that good, wants to be the belle of the ball at a successful club and now finds himself as a spare part at a mediocre one = unhappy camper. 

My question then is: Why did we sign him? Any scout or club official worth his salt would have been able to read the comments about him from Munich, including the cause of his "woes", before we signed him. Presumably, discussions over the signing (short of guaranteeing a first-team spot) would surely have given some indication as to how he would fit into Moyes's plans?

And yet we signed a guy who thinks he is top class already and should be turning out in the Champions League every couple of weeks. Congrats to the recruitment team. 

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