05 Feb 2026 15:48:58
Hopefully young George coming in makes Dibling feel a little bit more at ease in his new home. By all accounts they are close from the national squad.
05 Feb 2026 16:43:05
That is interesting BN, this might give Dibling his chance to show us what he can do.
Let's hope for the sake of the club and and player he turns out be a good signing and could have a role to play for many years to come.
05 Feb 2026 17:03:25
Personally I think we are judging dibbling far to early, he was never a player who was going to come in straight away and be a player for us, look at a lot of the other players who joined new clubs that we were supposed to be interested in, none have done anything, it takes time and he needs time, what was harry kane like as a striker at 19, what was Stephen Gerrard like at19, probelm with us we need players to perform instantly as our squad is thin, so was a silly move by us if we don't have the patience for him to grow with the club.
{Ed025's Note - i would have been happy with the signing if the fee had been reasonable Pasty...say £10-12M, but i feel we massively overpaid myself mate as thats the sort of fee you pay for the finished article imo, but it is what it is i suppose and of course thats just my personal view..
05 Feb 2026 18:40:14
Fingers crossed Farmer Giles, hopefully a familiar face can bring some confidence and comfort to the lad.
Can't disagree with any of that BP, some great points and examples there. I certainly haven't judged Dibling just yet, as most of his minutes have come at the very end of games, where we are dead in the water e. g. City away, Liverpool away etc. When he has played, we have been without our best players and instead of having the likes of Ndiaye and KDH around him, he has had McNeil.
I will say I am extremely disappointed with his body language and application in the time he has played though mate. If you aren't playing and the manager doesn't seem to favour you, when you get the chance you should have a roaring fire in your belly to make an impression. It is not so much the attacking aspect I am referring to but when he loses the ball. There just doesn't seem to be any urgency. If it were me, I would be getting after the player like he had stole my child out of my arms. That should be the very bare minimum for me, even more so when you aren't really delivering on the attacking side of things. Young Aznou showed it in his fleeting app in the Cup and I think it is absolutely criminal that he hasn't got another opportunity since, especially with all of our injury/AFCON troubles.
05 Feb 2026 19:58:18
Totally agree again BN over Aznou this time, been plenty of opportunities to play him but has never been given a chance.
Somebody must have seen some ability in him to sign him in the first place. To keep him on the bench for over half of the season is baffling.
With someone like Grealish playing in front of him would have been an excellent mentor to help educate him, and bring him through in my view.
Sitting on the bench will never tell the club anything, unless he gets sent on loan.
05 Feb 2026 20:50:32
Absolutely spot on FG. You don’t get schooled at La Masia and Munich if you can’t play a bit. He came on and won the penalty, put a dangerous ball across the box but what impressed me most was his willingness to win the ball back for us. He didn’t shirk and tackles and went on full-blooded on Mukiele who is twice the size of him.
05 Feb 2026 22:24:19
I wonder how Dibling would do if Moyes gave him a free role in the team like Grealish has. Just go out and do your stuff.
06 Feb 2026 03:19:43
It's baffling why Aznou has not been given a chance again after playing well against Sunderland. He has pace which we are lacking, ran at the defenders in his short cameo and was given one of the highest scores of the team by most journalists.
Why sign him if you are not going to give him a chance, it's not that we have a long line of great players fighting for his position either as full-back or wing-half.
05 Feb 2026 23:13:53
I think if we are talking at the start of the season Dentie, he would perform but now, with his confidence and any rhythm from last season decimated, I am not sure how it would go.
The lad needs a clean slate over the summer and to start over. The player from last season compared to now is like comparing Kanchelskis to Alexandersson.
06 Feb 2026 19:29:06
Basically young players need time, some more than others especially after moving clubs.
Some will hit it straight away. Most dont.
How old is Ndiaye? Was he the player he is at 19/20? No
Only a few really smash it at that age consistently.
Next season i think we'll see big steps with Dibbling, Armstrong, Anzou, Barry, Tim and Rohl, plus OBrien and Branthwaite are all young still.
07 Feb 2026 10:47:48
Hope you are right BB, we should then be able to hopefully kick on, particularly if we can keep them together for a good few years given their ages.
We will also still have Pickford behind them for a few years yet.
07 Feb 2026 11:58:07
Charly is only 23 aswell.
07 Feb 2026 13:39:02
We all hope Dibling comes good.
Spending £45m on a prospect is daft given our predicament over the last few years. Our squad is paper thin on quality and if we had better depth, we could be competing higher up the table.
Aznou should have started last game ahead of Branthwaite - that was an odd one. The kid had pace and took players on. Sunderland couldn’t handle his cameo and he fully deserved more game time - even if it was to give Grealish a rest.
It would also help if Moyes had a proper plan B that doesn’t involve paying for CBs….