Football League World
·25 octobre 2024
Football League World
·25 octobre 2024
FLW's Coventry City fan pundit has given his view on striker Norman Bassette's start to life at the club.
This article is part of Football League World’s 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
Coventry City striker Norman Bassette has made a positive impression since arriving at the club this summer.
Bassette may have scored just once in 15 senior appearances for French side Caen, but he clearly showed enough potential to convince Coventry to sign him for a reported fee of between £2.1 million and £2.98 million in August.
The 19-year-old is yet to get off the mark for the Sky Blues, but he has registered one assist in six appearances this season, and he has shown plenty of glimpses of his ability during the early stages of his time at the CBS Arena.
Manager Mark Robins predicted last month that Bassette has a big future ahead of him at the club, telling Coventry Live: "In terms of attributes, he’s got everything. We haven’t really seen anything of him yet, just glimpses, but he will be... I am honestly excited to have him here because I think he’s a brilliant addition."
Bassette has made just two starts in the league so far, but with Coventry currently sitting in the relegation zone after a poor start to the campaign, it remains to be seen whether he will be given more opportunities over the coming weeks.
When asked for his thoughts on Bassette's time at the club so far, FLW's Coventry City fan pundit Ryan Murphy said he is excited by the potential the striker has shown, and he even compared him to former Sky Blues front man Viktor Gyokeres.
"Norman Bassette looks lively," Ryan said.
"He's lightweight though, he's only 19, he needs to mature a bit more, but you can see he's raw and he's got a lot of potential.
"He's fast, he's been unlucky not to get a goal or two, he's hit the bar and he's had other chances that have just gone slightly wide.
"He looks busy and he's probably not going to be the answer to our prayers this season, but I think in a year, he could be a real player.
"There are people saying he's got the attributes of Viktor Gyokeres, who was amazing here obviously, and while he's not as big built as Viktor Gyokeres and they are big boots to fill, there are signs there that he can be a real, real player.
"We've spent decent money on him, but he's at a very young age, and he's definitely a player that fans can get excited about over the coming seasons.
"Hopefully it happens a bit sooner for him because we could do with it this year to be honest, but he's a player to be excited about for sure and one for the future, I'm impressed."
It is difficult to disagree with Ryan that Bassette looks to be an exciting signing for Coventry.
While Bassette's career goalscoring record is not particularly impressive, he is still incredibly young and he has huge potential, which is underlined by the fact that he has featured for Belgium at Under-20 level.
Gyokeres scored 43 goals in 116 games for the Sky Blues before being sold to Sporting Lisbon last summer for a fee that could eventually reach £21 million, so if Bassette can make anywhere near the same impact at the CBS Arena as the Swede, he will be viewed as an outstanding addition.
Robins is understandably keen to be patient with Bassette, but with Haji Wright, Ellis Simms and Brandon Thomas-Asante all struggling for goals, he may need to take a risk and start him more frequently over the coming weeks, particularly with his job coming under increasing threat.