Laurent Robert to Toronto FC

[sicsfingeredmong]

sicsfingeredmong - Souness was three managers ago, it is time to move on....

 

I was simply offering an angle regarding Robert's rapid fall from grace - ie. post-NUFC - and how Souness played a part in it, and i'm of the opinion that Souness trampled over Robert's reputation as a player prior to him leaving here, and approaching the later stages of his career he was going to find it hard to re-ignite his career elsewhere. Souness has that unique ability of being able to demotivate a player after he finishes putting them through the ringer.

 

I thought my earlier post would provide a healthy diversion from the usual cliched 'lazy French bugger' atuff, or the 'oh, i loved him' stuff that will no doubt rear it's head somewhere down the track/within this thread.

 

As i said earlier he was was at the wrong end of his playing days, when & after he ran into Souness. Having no prospect of playing on the international stage, and most likely playing at a lesser club & probably as a bit-part player because he was about leave here/and did depart here with a reputation as being 'damaged goods'. This is a far cry isn't it Dave, from having previously plyed his trade, and being a major contributor as a player as well, at club whose majority of fans had taken him into thier hearts. You could probably throw Robert's personality into the mix as well, as he appeared to be 3 parts aloof & arrogant & egotistical and 1 part volatile/mentally fragile, because one could make a case that his temperament only served to magnify the effects of what has been mentioned in the section highlighted.

 

James: Perhaps you could offer the same line towards those who still take some sort of satisfaction when dancing on the proverbial footballing grave of a player who made a cracking contribution here.

 

 

[sicsfingeredmong]

Not really arsed about Souness and what went on, the truth is that he has been crap and basically unheard of since he left.

 

Portsmouth, Benfica, Levante, Derby. (3 goals)

 

Quite possibly it was the right time for him to leave, looking back.

 

When he was still our most productive attacking midfielder by quite a margin.

[Lenny]

Not really arsed about Souness and what went on, the truth is that he has been crap and basically unheard of since he left.

 

Portsmouth, Benfica, Levante, Derby. (3 goals)

 

Quite possibly it was the right time for him to leave, looking back.

 

When he was still our most productive attacking midfielder by quite a margin.

 

That is just simply not true. By the time he left us he either had no abililty to take on and beat his man or just couldnt be arsed, he was shite in his last season  for us.

[Shearergol]

Not really arsed about Souness and what went on, the truth is that he has been crap and basically unheard of since he left.

 

Portsmouth, Benfica, Levante, Derby. (3 goals)

 

Quite possibly it was the right time for him to leave, looking back.

 

When he was still our most productive attacking midfielder by quite a margin.

 

Compared to who?

[Guest alex]

Huh, was watching the MLS highlights this weekend and thought about Robert. Good for him.

Yeah, what a move for him, eh?

 

Well all things considered it is tbh. Football there isn't that bad. He's clearly finished when it comes to top flight anywhere, class place to live for a while I suspect and he'll probably be getting decent money.

I know you like the football there but I've seen it and I have to say you're talking out of your arse. And just look at the garbage that rolls up there, Paul Dalglish gets a game ffs. Or he did anyway. Can't see the money being good in football terms either. And yes, Canada is a nice place to live but I thought you meant it was a good move football-wise, which it clearly isn't.

[Karjala]

How much will Robert be on there? No more than £10k/week would have thought. Oh, if only he'd stuck in at NUFC...

[Guest alex]

I'd guess he'll be on nowhere near that.

[Guest BigAl2]

Robert = Show pony always said it always will, great ability when it suited him but you just couldn't rely on him.

The amount of times his crosses hit the first defender or went for a goal kick or throw in was incredible, yes he could hit a good cross and some of his strikes for goal were great but overall he just wasn't a great footballer.

[Shearergol]

Robert = Show pony always said it always will, great ability when it suited him but you just couldn't rely on him.

The amount of times his crosses hit the first defender or went for a goal kick or throw in was incredible, yes he could hit a good cross and some of his strikes for goal were great but overall he just wasn't a great footballer.

 

Hope you've got a strong tin hat mate.

[Baggio]

Robert = Show pony always said it always will, great ability when it suited him but you just couldn't rely on him.

The amount of times his crosses hit the first defender or went for a goal kick or throw in was incredible, yes he could hit a good cross and some of his strikes for goal were great but overall he just wasn't a great footballer.

 

Hardly a show pony, he was lazy and didn't like tracking back but he was one of our most productive players in his time here when we were a top 5 team, I read this forum and see people falling over themselves about N'Zogbia and Milner but neither of those two were anywhere near Robert for productivity and consistency or likely ever will be from what I've seen of them.

 

Sparks made a post on here before about the top 3 players for the chop under Souness back in 2005...

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/Sparkynufc/newscreen-1.jpg

 

If his stats are that of a show pony then I hope Keegan buys a few more of them in the Summer.

 

[Shearergol]

63 assists is immense tbh.

[Guest alex]

Typical of Souness that his idea of clearing out the deadwood was to get rid of the three of the most productive players at the club that season/the following summer. Someone should have pointed that out to him when he was having a pop at the fans recently. It still fucking irks me that if he'd managed to keep those three happy and utilise them correctly, until the season ended at least, then we would have had a great chance of winning the Uefa Cup at least. Of course, had Robson not been sacked I'm sure he wouldn't have pissed on all our chips in that manner.

[Baggio]

Typical of Souness that his idea of clearing out the deadwood was to get rid of the three of the most productive players at the club that season/the following summer. Someone should have pointed that out to him when he was having a pop at the fans recently. It still fucking irks me that if he'd managed to keep those three happy and utilise them correctly, until the season ended at least, then we would have had a great chance of winning the Uefa Cup at least. Of course, had Robson not been sacked I'm sure he wouldn't have pissed on all our chips in that manner.

 

Robert wasn't blameless, he struggled to keep his mouth shut in the press back in France and even if what he said was true there's a time and a place to say it, the day before a Uefa cup quarter final second leg match not being the ideal time to say the manager was using you as a scapegoat and the the squad were happier when Robson was in charge

 

Souness not having any sort of man management skills and leaving him out of the game cost us our best chance of silverware in a long time.

[Mowen]

Souness fucked up massively with his treatment of Robert, but given how poor he was for Pompey the next season he was clearly on his way down. If N'Zogbia ever turns out to be as good/productive as Robert was in his first three seasons here we'll have struck jackpot.

[Guest alex]

Typical of Souness that his idea of clearing out the deadwood was to get rid of the three of the most productive players at the club that season/the following summer. Someone should have pointed that out to him when he was having a pop at the fans recently. It still fucking irks me that if he'd managed to keep those three happy and utilise them correctly, until the season ended at least, then we would have had a great chance of winning the Uefa Cup at least. Of course, had Robson not been sacked I'm sure he wouldn't have pissed on all our chips in that manner.

 

Robert wasn't blameless, he struggled to keep his mouth shut in the press back in France and even if what he said was true there's a time and a place to say it, the day before a Uefa cup quarter final second leg match not being the ideal time to say the manager was using you as a scapegoat and the the squad were happier when Robson was in charge

 

Souness not having any sort of man management skills and leaving him out of the game cost us our best chance of silverware in a long time.

None of those three players were blameless but, as you allude, Souness's man-management skills were non-existent.

[Karjala]

63 assists is immense tbh.

Got to agree, being involved in 95 goals is pretty amazing. Wish we had that kind of creativity these days, tho it helps that Robert was an important cog in a good team - we were good back then, loads of creative players and players who could finish - namely Shearer.

 

At the same time, i was fed up with Roberts lazy attitude by the end, and glad he went. Getting rid of Robert wasnt the problem, it was who Souness (or Shephard) replaced him with. (Same goes with all players we got rid of after Bobby leaving - Bellamy included)

[UV]

Typical of Souness that his idea of clearing out the deadwood was to get rid of the three of the most productive players at the club that season/the following summer. Someone should have pointed that out to him when he was having a pop at the fans recently. It still f****** irks me that if he'd managed to keep those three happy and utilise them correctly, until the season ended at least, then we would have had a great chance of winning the Uefa Cup at least. Of course, had Robson not been sacked I'm sure he wouldn't have pissed on all our chips in that manner.

 

Solano was just as key to the team and Robson froze him out and then got rid for a lot less reason than those 3 tbf.

 

Robert = Show pony always said it always will, great ability when it suited him but you just couldn't rely on him.

The amount of times his crosses hit the first defender or went for a goal kick or throw in was incredible, yes he could hit a good cross and some of his strikes for goal were great but overall he just wasn't a great footballer.

1 goal & 2 assists from midfield every 5 games = Show pony 

[Guest alex]

Typical of Souness that his idea of clearing out the deadwood was to get rid of the three of the most productive players at the club that season/the following summer. Someone should have pointed that out to him when he was having a pop at the fans recently. It still f****** irks me that if he'd managed to keep those three happy and utilise them correctly, until the season ended at least, then we would have had a great chance of winning the Uefa Cup at least. Of course, had Robson not been sacked I'm sure he wouldn't have pissed on all our chips in that manner.

 

Solano was just as key to the team and Robson froze him out and then got rid for a lot less reason than those 3 tbf.

The Solano thing has been done a lot on here before, as has the Robert thing tbf. I sort of agree although I think not replacing him properly was the main problem. All I meant was that those 3 players and more particularly Robert and Bellamy would have been involved all that season had Robson still been manager and, given the draw we had and the weakness of the Uefa Cup in general that year, not only would we almost certainly have progressed further, we also would have had a great chance of winning it. We'd have finished much higher in the league imo too. I know Robson had his faults and was probably 'losing the plot' (and the players) but he was still a much better option than Souness as far as managing us is concerned.

[Guest BigAl2]

Typical of Souness that his idea of clearing out the deadwood was to get rid of the three of the most productive players at the club that season/the following summer. Someone should have pointed that out to him when he was having a pop at the fans recently. It still f****** irks me that if he'd managed to keep those three happy and utilise them correctly, until the season ended at least, then we would have had a great chance of winning the Uefa Cup at least. Of course, had Robson not been sacked I'm sure he wouldn't have pissed on all our chips in that manner.

 

Solano was just as key to the team and Robson froze him out and then got rid for a lot less reason than those 3 tbf.

 

Robert = Show pony always said it always will, great ability when it suited him but you just couldn't rely on him.

The amount of times his crosses hit the first defender or went for a goal kick or throw in was incredible, yes he could hit a good cross and some of his strikes for goal were great but overall he just wasn't a great footballer.

1 goal & 2 assists from midfield every 5 games = Show pony 

 

Robert did it when he felt like it the amount of times right backs went past him without the slightest bit of resistance was unbelievable.

Great ability when he fancied it so overall I would call that a show pony, it frustrates me when talent is wasted all of us on here would of given our right knacker to be as good as Robert and in time when he looks back he will feel that he didn't play to his full potential.

But then again it probably won't bother him.

 

[Guest alex]

Show pony suggests no end product. Obviously he was a frustrating player but if he'd been the type of character to get the most out of his ability he'd have gone to someone like Real Madrid for about £25m rather than us for less than half that.

[Optimistic Nut]

Show pony suggests no end product. Obviously he was a frustrating player but if he'd been the type of character to get the most out of his ability he'd have gone to someone like Real Madrid for about £25m rather than us for less than half that.

 

This.

[Optimistic Nut]

From the looks of the Toronto FC official site, he'll be wearing the number 32.

[Shearergol]

People used to call Joe Cole a show pony; basically because he'd do stupid tricks in the middle of the park which didn't create anything.

 

Then he worked out that he actually needs to get some goals and assists.

 

Robert has never been a show pony.

[The Bonk]

Awesome!  I might actually go to a game this summer! 

[Shearer9]

http://toronto.fc.mlsnet.com/news/team_news.jsp?ymd=20080402&content_id=147130&vkey=pr_t280&fext=.jsp&team=t280

 

Interesting that Carver cites his pace as important.  He was never really super pacy, he was quick, but not Dyer or Bellamy.  But surely he's lost that edge by now.  And has he been training on a regular basis with Derby?  Rushing him in on Saturday seems a bit soon.