(Image Credit: Stoke City Football Club ©)
Before Saturday's encounter with Nottingham Forest, most Stoke fans would have given a clear answer to the question, should Rabbi Matondo be wearing the famous red and white stripes next season? The answer would have likely been no. However, after a man of the match performance against Nottingham Forest, in which he scored Stoke’s only goal in a scrappy 1-1 draw, he seemed to gain confidence from beating Forest left-back Ribeiro early on and beating 4 players on the counter-attack later on in the game too. Many fans are now debating whether he displayed enough potential in his latest showing to have earnt a full season at the Bet365 stadium. The question is did he?
Looking at the facts, Matondo’s had a tough time since joining Michael O’Neill’s men in January of this year. The Welsh international arrived to anticipation from fans who felt he had been brought in to replace currently injured star-man, Tyrese Campbell, at least on a temporary basis. He had previously been linked with Manchester Utd in the summer of 2020, Matondo’s talent has been clear to see from the day he signed, possessing supernatural pace, with his most impressive showing of pace undeniably coming in 2018 when he competed in Man City’s end-of-the-season 20m sprint tests, with Rabbi turning out to be the fastest player at the entire club. The Citizens had Leroy Sane and England internationals ,Raheem Sterling and Kyle Walker at the club during this time, Matondo ran 20M (Meters) in 2.62 seconds, the Welsh wonderkid has serious pace that could make Championship defenders in need of a new pair of shorts.
In just over 3 months at Stoke, he’s suffered from a few niggling injuries that have limited his game time, add onto that his lack of match sharpness thanks to little to no game time at recently relegated Schalke and Matondo already had a lot of catching up to do, ironically, he’s found this difficult.
Although not entirely his fault, before Saturday, he hadn’t shown enough to warrant a longer stay at the Bet365 Stadium in the 7 games prior, failing to register a goal or assist in any of them, but something ticked on Saturday after around 3 minutes in, Matondo skinned Ribeiro and became the player that Schalke brought for 10 million a few years ago for the rest of the game. Every aspect of his game was top class, he showed a willingness to run at and past his man, he pressed the back line and ran the line to support the team defensively and most importantly took his goal really well, ran into space beyond his markers and tapped it home for a lucky, yet sound finish. If Matondo can show that quality consistently, then he’s surely worth another punt next season?
Now yes, this may be somewhat premature after one impressive display from the lighting-quick wide man, however, when you consider his unfortunate injuries since joining the club and likely lack of confidence after a tough spell in Germany, Rabbi has shown in one game why he was held in such high regard at Man City during his time there. I do agree that he needs to show that more consistently, but I have a firm belief that if he can do that in these last 2 games, it could have the “Josh Tymon effect”, as if you remember at the end of last season many fans wanted him (Tymon) to be moved on in the summer, he had one Roberto Carlos esque performance, poetically against Nottingham Forest, and saved his Stoke career and Josh is now seen as a very useful member of the Stoke City squad. I think Rabbi should be given the chance to do the same and I think its clear that O’Neill will give him that chance, with the Northern-Irishman previously describing Matondo as “A good boy”, showing he’s well regarded as a character around the squad. In addition, O’Neill has stated a desire to add pace to his forward line, a winger that can run 20M in just under 3 seconds wouldn’t be a bad player to keep for that agenda, would he?
Just to round it up, is this deal next season still realistic, despite Schalke’s new circumstances as a Bundesliga 2 side? In my honest opinion, yes. While I feel it is unrealistic to expect Matondo to end up here permanently next season despite Stoke’s reported £8 Million loan-to-buy clause, it’s unlikely with FFP restraints that the Potters could even afford this, however there’s a strong possibility that O’Neill could consider another loan for the 20-year old, with it being fair to assume his career at Schalke is over, having only made 3 appearances for them in the last year, this debunks any possibility that he would return there to play in the second tier of German football. Matondo’s contract is up in the summer of 2023 at Schalke. A year before that, the Potters have 20 or more players out of contract, which may free up both wages and a transfer budget, allowing them to buy Matondo permanently if he impressed over a full season.
In conclusion I think Rabbi Matondo should be given these final 2 games to show what he can do, if he impresses again, sign him up next season, simple as that.
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