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On 02/12/2021 at 07:52, La Parka said:

(gomez) He was an eccentric liability. Tim Howard just played forever. 

 

 

 


Howard should have an extra one too if Paul Durkin hadn’t bottled it at Old Trafford.

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5 hours ago, Yorkie said:

Can't add anything beyond what KI said. Definitely not a joke, he was a tremendous signing for his contribution between 2016-18. £10/12/13m, whatever it was, he more than repaid in those two years. 

 

I agree. He played a massive part in getting us straight back up at the 1st time of asking. He's well past his best now but that's hardly his fault. If he's selected to play he'll always give his all. He's just not at the required level now.

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13 hours ago, kisearch said:

Likewise Ritchie. It makes me squirm a bit seeing the pelters he gets when you think back to him being a huge part of us coming up and staying up. The criticism's absolutely fair but it's 99% that he's past it/playing in the wrong position/should have been improved upon ages ago rather than him not putting the graft in.

 

 

 

 

One thing about Ritchie - and I've been as critical as anyone - you can never accuse him of throwing the towel in. Even yesterday when he was beaten at the back post, he was running like hell to get back in position and he was clearly gutted when he didn't make it. I thought him and Joelinton fought harder than anyone else in that game. 

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All these guys had their last best days under Rafa, 18-24 months ago!  Not only have they been coached down but their legs are going.  Clark was a canny player here.  We talked about Lascelles for England.  Schar, Fede, Radgie, Hayden all shined under Rafa and some before.  That was a long fucking time ago.

 

Fuck Mike Ashley and fuck anyone who doubts he fucked his own team over.

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Clark like quite a few others were signed with the objective of getting us promoted, we always thought the plan was to then start building a solid Premier League squad, not immediately but over time

 

Yet here we are 9 windows later and we still have Clark, Lascelles, Ritchie, Gayle, Hayden etc and to compound things we've added Krafth, Manquillo, Hendrick to that list

 

Clark and the others represent the Ashley ownership, it's all about doing things on the cheap

 

 

 

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3 minutes ago, Geordie Ahmed said:

Clark like quite a few others were signed with the objective of getting us promoted, we always thought the plan was to then start building a solid Premier League squad, not immediately but over time

 

Yet here we are 9 windows later and we still have Clark, Lascelles, Ritchie, Gayle, Hayden etc and to compound things we've added Krafth, Manquillo, Hendrick to that list

 

Clark and the others represent the Ashley ownership, it's all about doing things on the cheap

 

 

 

 

Not sure about the last sentence, some of the players that have moved through our doors in the Ashley era, under Graham Carr in particular, have been frankly very good, or gone on to be very good. Cabaye, Tiote, Ba, Thauvin*, Debuchy, Enrique, Wijnaldum*, Sissoko* are the some that come to mind, I'm sure there's others that I've missed. Those starred obviously had quality but never showed it here for whatever reason among many at the time.

 

I would say in the past few years the quality of incoming transfer has rapidly declined, coinciding with the loss of Carr as our chief scout. I think we'd do a lot worse than just re-approaching him to be honest.

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1 minute ago, HawK said:

 

Not sure about the last sentence, some of the players that have moved through our doors in the Ashley era, under Graham Carr in particular, have been frankly very good, or gone on to be very good. Cabaye, Tiote, Ba, Thauvin*, Debuchy, Enrique, Wijnaldum*, Sissoko* are the some that come to mind, I'm sure there's others that I've missed. Those starred obviously had quality but never showed it here for whatever reason among many at the time.

 

I would say in the past few years the quality of incoming transfer has rapidly declined, coinciding with the loss of Carr as our chief scout. I think we'd do a lot worse than just re-approaching him to be honest.

 

The names you mention are from 5+ years ago, I should have been more specific in that I'm talking about the second relegation onwards

 

The contract extension for the likes of Clark, Gayle despite clearly not being of the level we need shows it was about saving money

 

Carr clearly identified some good players, him with a bigger budget would be interesting but he is 77 so not sure if he's capable of doing the same level of work 

 

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1 hour ago, Geordie Ahmed said:

 

The names you mention are from 5+ years ago, I should have been more specific in that I'm talking about the second relegation onwards

 

The contract extension for the likes of Clark, Gayle despite clearly not being of the level we need shows it was about saving money

 

Carr clearly identified some good players, him with a bigger budget would be interesting but he is 77 so not sure if he's capable of doing the same level of work 

 

 

For sure we've made some shocking decisions, especially recently, and I was putting  the point across these seem to have gotten worse since Carr has moved on. Our whole infrastructure stunk to the core, and has only gotten worse the longer Ashley has been at the helm and made more and more decisions based on saving £ or minimal investment.

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He was a poor Premier League defender when he was at his peak in a shite Villa side. The fact he’s 32 now and still getting games at this level is terrible.

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29 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

He was a poor Premier League defender when he was at his peak in a shite Villa side. The fact he’s 32 now and still getting games at this level is terrible.

Sums up NUFC under Ashley full stop, the fact we still have half a Championhsip team/squad from our last promotion a few years on says it all.

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2 hours ago, Optimistic Nut said:

He was a poor Premier League defender when he was at his peak in a shite Villa side. The fact he’s 32 now and still getting games at this level is terrible.


Fourth choice in a team that got relegated. Still blows my mind

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 21/12/2021 at 06:54, Raconteur said:


Fourth choice in a team that got relegated. Still blows my mind

Tbf, it's easy to paint every player in a relegated team as shite. 

 

When you look at what was around him there wasn't any real Premier League quality. I think coming here he showed that in a low block he could be a suitable defender. At 32, he's now showing signs of decline and we should move him on. 

 

I'm hoping this new money doesn't make us ungrateful or disrespectful to some of those that performed well and are just sadly no longer up to it. In an ideal world he'd have left a year or two ago and we'd have remembered him fondly. His decision to stay was facilitated by a shite owner, nothing else. 

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5 minutes ago, Thiago said:

Tbf, it's easy to paint every player in a relegated team as shite. 

 

When you look at what was around him there wasn't any real Premier League quality. I think coming here he showed that in a low block he could be a suitable defender. At 32, he's now showing signs of decline and we should move him on. 

 

I'm hoping this new money doesn't make us ungrateful or disrespectful to some of those that performed well and are just sadly no longer up to it. In an ideal world he'd have left a year or two ago and we'd have remembered him fondly. His decision to stay was facilitated by a shite owner, nothing else. 


Well said. His attitude has been fine and he was easily our best defender in the Championship. He’s just not very good at this level and is still here purely out of the previous owner’s neglect. 

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He was on his way out under Rafa and had served his usefulness then. He can be solid and dangerous in the opposition box but overall he is too much of a liability defensively. Really hope we don't keep him at the expense of Fernandez once the window is shut. Clark should be the first out the door.

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28 minutes ago, Ronaldo said:


Well said. His attitude has been fine and he was easily our best defender in the Championship. He’s just not very good at this level and is still here purely out of the previous owner’s neglect. 

 

Totally agree. The likes of him and Ritchie served us well, and the fact we're still playing players we had in the Championship, with another 4.5 years on their age, is Ashley's failing, not theirs. Hope not to see them on the pitch, but no ill will.

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19 minutes ago, Ronaldo said:


Well said. His attitude has been fine and he was easily our best defender in the Championship. He’s just not very good at this level and is still here purely out of the previous owner’s neglect. 

Exactly. 

 

It's a sad truth that the core of that promotion squad simply hasn't been challenged. Even those signed under doors under Rafa, they've known the bar is 40 points per season, and those like Hayden that tried to push through a move ended up staying. 

 

Jonjo Shelvey is a good example of why we've been a frustrated fan base. 

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2 minutes ago, Inferior Acuña said:

 

Totally agree. The likes of him and Ritchie served us well, and the fact we're still playing players we had in the Championship, with another 4.5 years on their age, is Ashley's failing, not theirs. Hope not to see them on the pitch, but no ill will.

 

Think this and the comment it was replying to describes it brilliantly.

 

Can be said for many a player that's played for us under Ashley, including Clark.

 

Gayle was pretty good and scored plenty in the championship. Simply not good enough now.

 

It goea right back, too. For all the shit and hate he got, James Perch always put a shift in for us and was a good utility player in the Championship (CB/RB/CM). Lots of short memories but I remember him winning several MOTM awards one year.

 

The fact we HAD to play them isn't their fault.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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