What to do with Hannibal? (revisited)

Fortitude said:
When he arrived at the club he was known as highly technical and creative - he looked a real talent. Opponents targeted him non-stop with dirty, cynical play and he was forced to “man up” and become something he wasn’t on a trajectory to be. He not only transformed in terms of toughness, but it became something that preceded him. He became over zealous, easily distracted and put off his game, like preoccupied with battling and scrapping, and gradually his skills started to be compromised because he was so far tilted with the physical aspect and just scrapping and proving his machismo that I personally think it consumed him and indelibly changed his career path.

The player we see in the adult game running around and being a nuisance is a 180 of the player who initially got here who was silky, composed and had a game supposed around his ability, not his physicality or gameness to scrap.

I don’t think Hannibal really has an identity anymore, tbh. This Scrappy Doo stuff is detrimental and he’s clearly not composed enough to do it, but he’s boxed himself in and the player he was barely gets a look in, which is a real shame. So when you ask if it’s not applying, I’d say he doesn’t really know how to apply himself as this player, isn’t the guy a lot of us were initially impressed by when he came to the club.

I’ll hazard a guess, he’ll never be the player he was again - fundamentally, that touch of class and composure he used to have is rarely seen and most of his game looks forced and hurried, which is why it’s hard to get a real impression of what he is or what he’s about.

For me, there’s zero chance of him making at United, but his challenge at the moment would be to be a pro who is top league worthy, and see what he can go on to do from there. With his temperament, that’s far from assured.
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Fantastic post. I agree. It seems like we concentrated so much on coaching him to be physically ready for the Premier League that the nurturing of his natural skills and composure was neglected. He would have been amazing in the 90's when hard but fair tackles were a big part of the game but its 2024 and the game is completely different. He's also been unfortunate that the club has been so unstable during the most important years of his development. I think it's our failure as a club that he hasn't progressed and become a first team regular.
 
Fortitude said:
When he arrived at the club he was known as highly technical and creative - he looked a real talent. Opponents targeted him non-stop with dirty, cynical play and he was forced to “man up” and become something he wasn’t on a trajectory to be. He not only transformed in terms of toughness, but it became something that preceded him. He became over zealous, easily distracted and put off his game, like preoccupied with battling and scrapping, and gradually his skills started to be compromised because he was so far tilted with the physical aspect and just scrapping and proving his machismo that I personally think it consumed him and indelibly changed his career path.

The player we see in the adult game running around and being a nuisance is a 180 of the player who initially got here who was silky, composed and had a game supposed around his ability, not his physicality or gameness to scrap.

I don’t think Hannibal really has an identity anymore, tbh. This Scrappy Doo stuff is detrimental and he’s clearly not composed enough to do it, but he’s boxed himself in and the player he was barely gets a look in, which is a real shame. So when you ask if it’s not applying, I’d say he doesn’t really know how to apply himself as this player, isn’t the guy a lot of us were initially impressed by when he came to the club.

I’ll hazard a guess, he’ll never be the player he was again - fundamentally, that touch of class and composure he used to have is rarely seen and most of his game looks forced and hurried, which is why it’s hard to get a real impression of what he is or what he’s about.

For me, there’s zero chance of him making at United, but his challenge at the moment would be to be a pro who is top league worthy, and see what he can go on to do from there. With his temperament, that’s far from assured.
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I reckon that player is still there. Last pre-season against Lens (or some other French club), he was played in his position with the second string and showed the skills you refer to after a ropey first few minutes. He was by far the best player.

His first game for Sevilla, he was quite good as well, dribbling, passing, moving, and then he had to go and fall out with the dressing room.

I take the point though, that part of his game has not been nurtured at all. Birmingham played horrible football and bypassed the midfield all the time and relied on them to harry the opposition (his stats were actually among the best there weird enough) but Sevilla was an absolute waste and he would have had more game time staying.

I do hope we give him a good loan to a technical team which he makes the best of rather than cut him loose, because his talent level was elite and I think is still there. For instance, folks talk about lacking a "passer" and Hannibal was displaying long, mid-range, short passes for fun in addition to having silky dribbling ability. If anything his wide array of skills may have counted against him as he was played as a 6 sometimes, as an 8 sometimes, a 10, and as a LW as well which meant in the senior team, he was always an option to fill in for various random positions. What he really needs to develop is the composure to bring it all together.
If we have to sell due to PSR, I hope there's a buy back option in there.
 
Glorio said:
I reckon that player is still there. Last pre-season against Lens (or some other French club), he was played in his position with the second string and showed the skills you refer to after a ropey first few minutes. He was by far the best player.

His first game for Sevilla, he was quite good as well, dribbling, passing, moving, and then he had to go and fall out with the dressing room.

I take the point though, that part of his game has not been nurtured at all. Birmingham played horrible football and bypassed the midfield all the time and relied on them to harry the opposition (his stats were actually among the best there weird enough) but Sevilla was an absolute waste and he would have had more game time staying.

I do hope we give him a good loan to a technical team which he makes the best of rather than cut him loose, because his talent level was elite and I think is still there. For instance, folks talk about lacking a "passer" and Hannibal was displaying long, mid-range, short passes for fun in addition to having silky dribbling ability. If anything his wide array of skills may have counted against him as he was played as a 6 sometimes, as an 8 sometimes, a 10, and as a LW as well which meant in the senior team, he was always an option to fill in for various random positions. What he really needs to develop is the composure to bring it all together.
If we have to sell due to PSR, I hope there's a buy back option in there.
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I am fairly sure he is entering the last year of his contract and is unlikely to extend if he is being shipped out on loan. I don't see him ever being a starter for us although I am a believer in his talent so I would not be bothered about a buy back clause but I would sell for whatever we can get and make sure we negotiate a really good sell on percentage.
 
When was the last time a United player handed in transfer request?
 
I always thought he would develop into an elite ball progresser, some one who could pick up the ball from deep and beat 1-2 players before playing a pass. And in one of his first game I remember he did just that, but he just didn't kick on and became more likely to make it in the MMA instead of football.

8-10m and a sell-on clause would be an okay deal.
 
Redivy said:
I always thought he would develop into an elite ball progresser, some one who could pick up the ball from deep and beat 1-2 players before playing a pass. And in one of his first game I remember he did just that, but he just didn't kick on and became more likely to make it in the MMA instead of football.

8-10m and a sell-on clause would be an okay deal.
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Tbh the tackles that were allowed on him in youth and reserve team football were verging on assault!
 
I'm glad he handed in a transfer request. We were dicking him around, not selling him, not giving him chances either.

Sell him and get whatever you can get. Pellistri too. I'm sure we can get 18-20M for the pair.
 
He was great fun to watch at under 18's and under 21's level.

Good luck to him.
 
Longlivekeano said:
5m pounds with a 25% sell on clause sounds fair
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Only because of his contract situation (due to the old regimes poor man management of him).

Otherwise, it's another giveaway that we've been forced into due to having litte choice at this stage. Which, hopefully, going forward we'll make better choices about loans or selling when stock is higher. After a good loan in the championship, and establishing himself in the Tunisia national squad, we could have either sold for a much higher fee or given him a serious go at established himself in the first team.

Instead, we wasted the first half of the season, chose a poor loan for the 2nd half, and now his stock is lower, contract winding down, and we're in a poor position from a selling point of view.

A waste of a promising talent as regards promoting him to the first team, and a waste of a good transfer fee as regards selling him at the right time like some other clubs are good at.
 
now we're on good terms with Panathinaikos maybe they can do us a solid here :lol:
 
The Redemption of Hannibal thread incoming 5 weeks into the season :drool:
 
GueRed said:
He was great fun to watch at under 18's and under 21's level.

Good luck to him.
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And whenever the senior team was dire, which was a lot, I'd go and watch him and the likes of Amad (during his stint there) toying with opponents just to give me some hope for the future.
 
He needs to leave and Burnley would be a very good choice for him.

Stays in England, plays in Championship where his level is.

Also very important for his self confidence because he thinks too high of him so will be good for him to have this step back
 
Highfather_24 said:
Sell him and get whatever you can get. Pellistri too. I'm sure we can get 18-20M for the pair.
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I felt like I underestimated the 20M figure for both at the time of writing this, but now it looks like I overestimated it.

Would be lucky now to get 10-12M for the pair.
 
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