danoafc

I'll be stark Dan. Is it because it's Leeds? Really, is it?

 

We've helped his career twice? You're making out he'd be stuck in Brums stiffs for 4 years. In the same statement you state he's wanted? Make yer mind up. He'd have gone to another club on loan if it wasn't us anyway.

 

It all smacks of sour grapes, along with the rest of the 'big ego' and 'arrogent' rubbish. Because that's never been proven and it's all due to a few people going on about how he comes accross in person (when by the same token the opposite has been said about him many times). Everyone's acting like a complete baby about it. Footballer leaves for bigger club and more money. It happens.

 

The comparison with Holness, well, perhaps crass but hurridly came to mind at work. But other footballers have left OUR club for the exact same reasons Kilkenny has yet sod all has been said about it. Which smacks of total hypocrasy in my eyes.

Grow up mate. Is it cos he went to Leeds. It would have been worse had he gone to Donny!

What's difficult to grasp? We helped his career twice while he was sat in Brum's reserves, particularly this time after his latest falling out with Bruce on their pre season tour of wherever it was. He was wanted here, and we were prepared to break the bank for him.

And the thing about other footballers leaving OUR club for the exact same reason and nowt being said. Like who then?

Let's think who went for more money and supposedly bigger and better things?

Beckett? Nah, he got slagged off.

Betsy? Nah, got slagged off.

Porter? Oooops.

Wellens? Hmmmm.

Rachubka? Too good for this level? I suppose he managed in the end with Blackpool!

Wijnhard and his phone calls?

The only one I can think of is Lee Grant, and lets face it, we never had a snowballs of signing him perm, AND he went back to his own club to fight for his place.

And has anyone had a go at Marcus Holness today? because he's left under similar circumstances (leaves to local 'rival' for arguably more money, more prospects etc.). I thought not.

Sorry J, but that comparison is absolute

KK was wanted, Holness wasn't.

Holness has gone to a side in a lower division to get regular football, as he wasn't getting a sniff here. It's a good move for the lad and I hope it works out for him.

KK was guaranteed a start, would have been our highest played player (which might have still been lower than at Leeds he would still most definitely have been on a decent screw). As Lags pointed out we've helped KK's career twice now and we were prepared to break the bank for him and both times he's blown us out for what he perceives to be bigger and better things.

That's twice Latics have helped out Kilkenny's career. In the close season he was bleating to come back here so he could escape reserve team football. Latics gave him his wish, the fans sung his praises and played to his ego. Now where is he when the club tolds him we'll build a team around you and here's the money to prove it? gone that's what, well that's the last time Neil. You better hope it all works out.

Bang on Lags.

Was reading about it in the paper here this morning and SOD is furious apparently that the bid got out as he likes to keep everything quiet. Also comments that we bid for him in the summer but Birmingham wanted 400k which at that stage we wouldn't pay so we didn't follow it up.

So if he signs for Donny, where does that leave Wellens in view of this 'story' that they hate each others guts?

Surely if that the case, SOD wont want to knowingly be driving wedges into his squad morale?

I'm not necessarily saying that TTA should, but simply pointing out that this is how it currently is. Having to rebuild in close season is the reason why it is unlikly that we'll go up this year.

 

If you don't keep a good squad together, you don't progress.

I couldn't agree more Corporal, but if the alternative is to start waving around silly contracts that we can't afford, then I don't want us to have any part of it. If offering silly money guaranteed promotion within a set timescale then fine, but Bristol City and Wigan are both testament to that fact that it simply doesn't work like that.

1 and 2 year deals are obviously a problem as they don't allow enough continuilty to build and develop a squad. Perhaps the answer would be instead of the club offering straightforward 2 or 3 year deals like they did for Ricketts, offer 2 years with the option for us to exercise a third year at a minimum agreed % of uplift in salary for the player?

The hard message is: pay up or lose them. That's the way it is now and there's no way round it without fundamental reform of the game. It might kill the game at this level eventually.

 

Maybe Porter and Wellens have been replaced, but aside from the disruption of losing them, there is only any real benefit to the club is if those who replaced them remain here long-term. You can't progress with a team of temporary journeymen and loan players.

Pay up or lose them? At any price?

I agree you have to speculate to accumulate, but at any price? No thanks. I do not ever want another summer like 2003 in relation to football.

They appointed Shez because people were not buying season tickets because they wanted Moore sacked and Sheridan in. Where are they now? They wanted Shez and then they stop coming because we don't get instant success.

 

Shez is still learning and doing an ok job of it. We should stick with him, our whole club needs to be settled. We keep changing managers and squads almost every season and that is what we need to stop in my opinion. We need a management team who want to be here - which it seems we have got now and we need a squad of decent players who want to play for the club and for each other, when we have that then success should follow. We have some decent players and some good young prospects but we need some experience because as soon as things don't go our way then there heads drop. If look at the teams we had under Royle and then Dowie we had players who would play their hearts out for the team, they weren't world beaters they just never gave up and when things were going against them they didn't start arguing on the pitch and they didn't let there heads drop they stuck together and worked through it. That is what we need. We are a small local club and we need to get the town interested in the club again, unnforunately the cost puts lots of people off, which is understandable and it's also understandable that TTA put the prices up as they want to get some money back into the club. We need to stick with Shez and give him time. I personally do not see us getting promotion this season unless we make some exceptional signings this month

A lot of good sense in there again Gemma.

It seems as though most of the squad are now working hard for each other - something they didn't appear to be doing in the first quarter of the season. There are fewer arguments now on the pitch (Kilenny excepted - if he stay he needs to learn to keep his trap shut more often).

No matter what anybody thinks, losing players like Porter and Wellens was a huge blow and one which was going to take some considerable time from which to recover. Shez has made a couple of mistakes in the transfer market, but then again, which managers dont? Particularly when they are as inexperienced as he is in management.

And just as a final point, for a plan B - we're hardly blessed with many options to change things from the bench at the moment are we? No other creative midfielder, not many striking options (Smalley and Wolfy who are both still inexperienced kids). Somebody like a fit Andy Liddell coming off the bench would give us real scope to change things round, but we don't have that at the minute. Lets see what happens if/when we get one or two more experienced faces in in the window.

As the Chaplin would say"It's the gospel". The good news is that you can use it in Currys in Leicester

Well that's made me feel a little less 'merked'.

Thank you chaps.

You can't use it for away tickets...........and breathe.........

Is that true Eau Savage or are you just saying it to make me feel better cos you're an all round good egg?!

I used my brand new TeamCard at the ticket office this afternoon. Bought my son his Forest and Walsall tickets and was awarded 40 points.

 

Alan Hardy said I was first to use it in the ticket office. In fact no-one was quite sure what to do!

Mine came this week!!

A week after I sent my missus down to BP to spend nearly £200 at the ticket office buying Leeds and Everton tickets for 4 adults!!!

moving on from the players we thought would be ledge's and turned out downright ordinary, which past loanees did you wish we had been able to sign permanently?

 

My offerings are as follows

 

Lee Grant

Leon Clarke

Luke Beckett

Simon Webster

Michelle Vonk

Paul Wilkinson (yes he was a tart, but just the type of player we needed at the time)

Aaron Wilbraham

Paul Rachubka

Mike Pollitt

Neil Thompson

Glynn Snodin

Danny Boxall

Tommy Wright (2nd spell, not strictly on loan but would've liked him to have got a deal)

Tomasz Cwyka

Neil Kilkenny

Lee Croft

I'd add Paul Mardon to that lkist as well because at the time he came into the squad, he was head and shoulders above what we had available at the time. Think he only played about another 8 or 10 games after he left BP before he retired. He was only about 31 I think though. Did he get injured?

What makes me laugh is that fact that all these fans of clubs like Millwall etc are saying he's showing no remorse and swanning round the pitch and all that stuff. They see him for what, 90 mins or maybe 180 mins in the season.

They have no interest in what he's doing in the community etc, it doesn't fit their agenda.

Morons.

Errr I think there are some very rose tinted spectacles being worn here. We do have a hooligan problem as do most clubs, as has been stated you tube provides many examples of that particular element. What about the 150 that travelled down to the QPR game a years ago (you can see a small section of these being escorted back to the train station on you tube) for a well known face from the 70's birthday?

 

The reason that most people here are un-aware of this element is that they rarely attend home games as most have banning orders. In fact to be fair they rarely attend matches at all these days; the last big turnout was after the Man City FA Cup game when there were serious disturbances near The Roxy.

 

The upside of the fact they don't go to BP very often means that it remains a safe place to visit for all; the downside being that when like minded people from Cardiff turn up and find no peers, they tend to start picking on anyone and everyone like the day they smashed their way into the Clayton Arms and caused trouble.

I'm presuming we don't have THAT much of a problem if these 'faces' haven't turned out in numbers in 23 months?

Back off the personals everyone - decent thread IMO - don't spoil it by letting it descend into a slanging match.

Shut it Rummy, your great big poof!

I hope that the Residents understand the alternatives should this get delayed and TTA eventually pull-out and sell the whole plot to Property Developers. Also, they need to realise if they make life hard for TTA, then I would guess that they are likely to get marginalised in the discussions.

Perhaps it should be pointed out to the residents that one of the alternatives could be turning the whole of the car park into a permanent 'traveller' settlement.

Wonder how they'd like that?

So was I!

I suspect they've left it in the drawing to give an idea of scale.

i was a little surprised with how few turned up to the meeting, after the controversy of the November meeting, i expected to see the place packed to the rafters.

 

but at least i can say "I was there"

Me too!

Well what do you expect... we obviously aint got the money to be throwing new keepers in, Beresford was an exception due to having no one else as back up! The chances are Shez will get a someone in on loan replacement once Ricketts has been offloaded but untill then an unfit keeper who probably wanted more time to recover from his injuries is doing ok and shouldnt be slagged off!

We had the same back up to Crossley when Beresford came in as we do now - Josh Bell, and an injured Pogs.

Crossley is doing 'ok'. Same as he was only doing 'ok' when he was fit at the start of the season. Can anybody honestly tell me at any point that they've been totally confident in him, right from off?

What I don't get on here is this whole attitude of 'well we're in the 3rd division - what do you expect? Permiership players?', like we shouldn't question the abilities of a player and should just lump it with our mouths shut and accept any old guff? And I'm not just talking about Crossley.

I'm certainly not gonna boo him during a game - it is simply counter productive to do so, but perhaps the club should come out and say he's still struggling with an injury if that's the case - perhaps that will keep a few of those who DO choose to voice their opinions at the match, off his back.

I should just add to all of this that I really do hope he comes good - when we signed him I thought it was an excellent signing - good experience and potentially a good coach for Pogs - now I'm just not convinced anymore.

Who knows? I doubt it. Perhaps another keeper would have saved the penno, or maybe he could have stopped the lad from Vale's snapshot volley on the turn. Either way those two, plus most of the others weren't exactly down to bad goalkeeping on Crossley's part and it certainly doesn't warrant the micro-analysis of his performances that is going on.

 

But then your main point Dan is the uncomfortable feeling you have when Crossley is playing. I've explained that I'm far more uncomfortable when Stam has one of his 'turns' (which he has just about every game). Now I'm not getting on his back, because I'm fairly happy with him in defence, but it illustrates how you must feel as regards to Crossley.

 

But this whole thread has emerged just purely through gut feeling and no solid fact or evidence. Are we sure it's just not set up for if Norm has a howler in an upcoming game it's so some folk can turn round and smugly claim "they told you so"? Depressingly, it looks like it.

In fairness J, I think Stam has looked a bit shaky on one or two occassions lately, but he's coming back from a long term injury. However, I think Hazell has been unlucky not to keep his slot in the central pairing.

Crossley looks as though he's still injured - he seems slow and not that mobile - and you're right with the uncomfortable thing - I just feel like he's an accident waiting to happen. Still, we're not conceeding too many - let's hope we can build more confidence throughout the whole side so this isn't an issue.

I absolutely couldn't agree more with you garcon. You've hit nail firmly on head with that one. Stam for me provides more heart in mouth moments than anyone on that pitch. I do know he is a decent player too, but he's far more prone to lapses in concentration.

 

But with Crossley, occasionally yeah he makes me squirm but looking at his performances as a whole they've been pretty decent. If he was pulling us out of the crap on a weekly basis with a string of saves I'd be far more more worried which would mean we had serious problems in defence.

 

But we haven't. Shall we move on from this then...?

Hmmm?! Or perhaps if the oppo aren't being allowed to create too many decent chances, Crossley is the weakest link in an otherwise excellent backline? Would we be keeping more clean sheets with a different/better/fitter keeper?

True enough he could keep his mouth shut a bit more ... I just treat that as paper talk though and tend to ignore it.

He could of course just come out and say he want for the money - people might not like it but at leasty he'd be being honest. However, that's not gonna do him any favours with the Donny fans, so maybe - as you suggest - he should just keep his trap shut.

I would think if this is something they've heard from someone within the club then they'd rather not betray that confidence.

 

To be brutal, I saw nothing at all wrong with how Wellens left us. He was out of contract. We made him an offer. Donny made him a better offer (and/or he thought they have better prospects). He chose the Donny offer. As far as I recall he was pretty straight about it all and at no time misled us into thinking he was going to re-sign.

I think it's more to do with his comments since he left about how they are a better bunch of players, have more ambition etc. I know he has to ingratiate himself with the Donny fans, but we scoffed at the Blackpool fans who were telling us about him and what he was like 2 years ago, yet we seem to be saying exactly the same things about him now.

Oh my oh my! Crossley granted not the greatest keeper to have graced the earth but bleedin hell what do you expect! Dya think shez can get David James or Robinson on loan?? Even these two would be jeered by some so called fans of this club!! Crossley made some decent saves, kept the back line in order and all in all did a good job... His kicking granted was wayward (in terrible conditions) which Shez so kindly pointed out to him in the first half by a rolicking!?! To me Crossley looks desperatley unfit via his recent injuries and not being able to have the time off he needed from his injury to recover! Crossley is all we have no good throwing a rookie in and there is no one in the loan market worth throwing money at.. Granted he aint the best but i for one praise him for stepping in and doing a half decent job whilst unfit and kernobs at the game doing nothing but slating him!

 

You can look at all the stats in the world but the reason for us not being in the top half of the table is because of how we play in the final third and the lack of composure in front of goal.. NOT NORMAN!

 

I love all this 'what do you expect' bolox. Nobody's expecting James or Robinson, but Ronnie managed to get Lee Grant on loan from Derby a couple of seasons back and Grayson seemed to do ok getting Joe Hart in last year from City when Rachubka got injured, both of whom I reckon we'd all have in the side before Crossley.

Crossley made a couple of decent saves on Saturday but he looks desperately unfit - doesn't seem very mobile at all. He seemed to badly mis-judge a couple of shots on Saturday and he certainly doesn't give me a great deal of confidence. The other thing which I find very worrying about him at the moment is the amount of times he seems to keep looking over his shoulder to see where the goal is. A keeper of his experience really should know exactly where his sticks are without even looking back. I think it says it all when 'd much rather have Beresford between the sticks right now - it's a shame he got injured.

I sit in the NSM upper in the last block near the Rocky so could see everything that was going on without having to change my line of sight. I always check out the lino in such circumstances to see what he was doing and saw that he gave what seemed to be a free kick. He took 3-4 seconds before he put his flag across his chest after the ref had given the pen. He definitely did put his flag across this chest, though not straight away.

Agreed JLF - the liner DEFINITELY put his flag across his chest but it was a delayed reaction.

Quote "recent defensive RESULTS say otherwise"

 

P£ss poor defending cost us 2 points last night and could / should have cost us a goal against Crewe and Port Vale hit the post about 4 times.

 

We are not defending as well as you might think.

Sorry HTC, but pisspoor defending did NOT cost us 2 points last night. Our inability to find a 2nd goal did.

In our last 10 games we have only conceded 7 goals, and we've kept 4 clean sheets. All teams are gonna make mistakes/concede soft goals from time to time, but our inability to get goals -particularly at home when you considered we've lost something like 5 times to a 0-1 scorline is what is costing us.