City players who were panned, or not rated by most, but who you quite liked (1 Viewer)

Legia Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
He was definitely a fans' favourite during that period despite a clear lack of ability. He was a lower level leage 1 players at best.

We'll have to disagree on him being a fans favourite. In my view he wasn't targeted by our fans because he so obviously gave his all, but that didn't make him a 'favourite'. I do agree that League 1 was probably his more natural level, but he did well there, the season after leaving us being top scorer at Blackpool as they got promoted to the Championship. Our match with Walsall recently posted on here showed he was a capable goalscorer when given the opportunity to play up front, so playing him on the right wing still baffles me to this day.
I really don't get the ire you and David Van Day have towards him, particularly when we subsequently had forwards like Kyle, Platt, O'Donovan, Nimely, Ball, McDonald, Manset, Tudgay, Beavon, Henderson and Bakayoko, who would all be much more worthy of your disdain.
 

Legia Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
Panning? Think most considered would be justified. Are we saying then that now the likes of Burge-Haynes-Willis et al, have moved on that we have not moved forward and in a better position?[/QUOTE

Surely a large reason we have moved on is due to the financial windfall the club received from the sale of Wilson, Maddison, Bayliss etc.
 

Adge

Well-Known Member
Indeed. Them being the “exception” rather than the rule.
 

ccfchoi87

Well-Known Member
We'll have to disagree on him being a fans favourite. In my view he wasn't targeted by our fans because he so obviously gave his all, but that didn't make him a 'favourite'. I do agree that League 1 was probably his more natural level, but he did well there, the season after leaving us being top scorer at Blackpool as they got promoted to the Championship. Our match with Walsall recently posted on here showed he was a capable goalscorer when given the opportunity to play up front, so playing him on the right wing still baffles me to this day.
I really don't get the ire you and David Van Day have towards him, particularly when we subsequently had forwards like Kyle, Platt, O'Donovan, Nimely, Ball, McDonald, Manset, Tudgay, Beavon, Henderson and Bakayoko, who would all be much more worthy of your disdain.

I was only young but seem to remember we did the same to Jamie Scowcroft. I just checked his stats and he wasn’t as impressive at Palace as I thought he was. Am I recalling it wrong or was he a decent striker that we shoved out wide?
 

Legia Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
Of course, but that applies to the youth system of any club. Only the best of the best make it through, most fall by the wayside. Doesn't mean we shouldn't get behind those youth players given their chance in the first team though, as those few that do succeed, make it so worthwhile for the club.
 

Legia Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
I was only young but seem to remember we did the same to Jamie Scowcroft. I just checked his stats and he wasn’t as impressive at Palace as I thought he was. Am I recalling it wrong or was he a decent striker that we shoved out wide?

I'm not sure Scowcroft was ever an out and out striker like Morrell was, and I think before moving to the wing he had mostly played in a deep lying number 10 role (if you know what I mean).
 

Brighton Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
Yeah just before he went out on loan he was awful, I remember he managed to miss an open goal from a few yards out. When he came back though he was actually immense.

He was one of if not my favourite players from the FL era, certainly in the Championship.
 

oscillatewildly

Well-Known Member
Not exactly the question asked... but I don't mind the Villa, or Leicester, or indeed any other club. TBH I find all the hate stuff a bit childish.
Same here, trenchie. It's something I thing most of us have grown out of (that's if we ever indulged in the first place) I'm at an age now where a brief mutter under my breath serves as an adequate act of catharsis.
 

mark_ccfc

Well-Known Member
Freddie Eastwood. Should have stuck with him. Although he struggled to score his technical ability was fantastic. His passing was fantastic, rarely wasted a ball. I remember a work colleague who used to have a season ticket said he watched him warming up. The players were aiming for the crossbar from the edge of the area, apparently Eastwood beat all of the other players hands down.
 

rob9872

Well-Known Member
Freddie Eastwood. Should have stuck with him. Although he struggled to score his technical ability was fantastic. His passing was fantastic, rarely wasted a ball. I remember a work colleague who used to have a season ticket said he watched him warming up. The players were aiming for the crossbar from the edge of the area, apparently Eastwood beat all of the other players hands down.
Our main striker, over £1m and scored 17 goals in 113 games. Not for me. Never rated him at the time and looking at those stats I think justifiable.
 

Sky_Blue_Dreamer

Well-Known Member
See I disagree. The recycle the ball well. They looked for the best pass. The fact our strikers weren’t always best placed isn’t Clingan’s/Hughes fault.

they regularly played with people who were not on the same wavelength.

I use Joe Cole as another example. You could see he was thinking 2/3 moves ahead of the rest of the team. Ultimately it rarely came off. Interestingly it was only Maddison who could read Cole

Afraid I have to disagree. McAllister you could see was looking for more intelligent balls that the players around him couldn't read. Arguably the same with Cole.

Clingan and Hughes IMO didn't do this. They trapped the ball and passed it sideways or back often without so much as a glance to see where people were or what was on, or if they did they looked at one option and if that wasn't on back it went. They killed so much impetus for us and negated any attacking threat we may have had
 

Sky_Blue_Dreamer

Well-Known Member
He was genuinely shit, about 2 leagues to high for him

He was brought in as a goalscorer, but not given the chance to show his worth in that respect. He was played out of position (as was Scowcroft) and his abilities didn't suit it. If you played Messi and Ronaldo as a centre half pairing they'd be shit.

Never understood the move by managers to play strikers on the wing instead of putting an extra full back in more accustomed to the wide positions. It must have been in the coaching courses because loads of managers did it and it almost never worked.
 

Sky_Blue_Dreamer

Well-Known Member
Paul Williams and Richard Shaw.
Probably not the best but maybe forgiven because of the team they were in.

They were the weak link in some impressive attacking teams and were the reason we kept on struggling. Successful teams are built on defence and these two weren't up to the standard we needed them to be and we never pushed on because of it..

I actually felt they were liked far more than they deserved to be at the time, because they tried but were massively lacking in ability.
 

Speedies_Chips

Well-Known Member
Our main striker, over £1m and scored 17 goals in 113 games. Not for me. Never rated him at the time and looking at those stats I think justifiable.
If you've got those stats from where I think you have , 41 of those 113 games were as sub, so not sure how many minutes that would equate to. Knowing City, some of those appearances would have just been for 2 minutes.
 

rob9872

Well-Known Member
If you've got those stats from where I think you have , 41 of those 113 games were as sub, so not sure how many minutes that would equate to. Knowing City, some of those appearances would have just been for 2 minutes.
If you discount all 41 of those when undoubtedly he would've scored some too, it's 17 in 72 which is hardly prolific. Some of those were pens too!
 

SkyBlueCRJ

Well-Known Member
Freddie Eastwood. Should have stuck with him. Although he struggled to score his technical ability was fantastic. His passing was fantastic, rarely wasted a ball. I remember a work colleague who used to have a season ticket said he watched him warming up. The players were aiming for the crossbar from the edge of the area, apparently Eastwood beat all of the other players hands down.

He showed flashes of his potential a few times a season but his attitude was god awful. It was pretty obvious why he didn't succeed in his career beyond us.
 

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