Is Konate the answer?

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It’s been widely reported today that we’re in advanced talks with RB Leipzig over the signing of 21 year old French centre back Ibrahima Konate but is he the answer to our defensive woes?

Konate has youth, pace, he stands at approximately 6’4, with an arial duel success rate of 84% this season and a reported release clause of €40 million, on paper he seems to tick a lot of boxes.

Here is where the warning signs start however. In the last two seasons, the player has only managed 26 appearances – 11 last season and 15 this, with only 9 of those 15 seeing him play from the start. In fact, since the start of the 2019/20 season, he was unavailable for a whopping 393 days, the majority of which seemed to be a recurring muscle fibre injury and this season he’s been troubled with an ankle injury.

The question then is, has the kid just been unlucky or is his injury history a forewarning of an injury ravaged career ahead?

For me, this one is simple. We simply cannot afford yet another injury prone CB. Virgil is our only (senior) CB with any kind of durability at all and we’ve witnessed first hand the devastating consequences of trying to rely on injury prone players in his absence. There’s no guarantee Virgil comes back with the same durability levels he had before his injury and it’s very likely in fact, that he’ll pick up some niggly injuries on his return, as tends to be the way with players who have been out for such an extended period.

The other question is, where does it leave the rest of our CB’s? There’s been talk of Matip leaving but that would mean after Virgil, our next oldest CB would be Gomez at 23, which is still very young for a centre back. You would have to assume the signing of Konate would signal the end for Nat Phillips but what about Kabak and Davies?

Personally, I don’t think this signing makes sense. He’s a good player no doubt but that injury history gives me the fear and his arrival also prompts a lot of questions about where it leaves the rest of the squad.

Thoughts then troops, Konate – yay or nay?