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Author Topic: Stefan Moore  (Read 11170 times)

Offline supertom

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Re: Stefan Moore
« Reply #45 on: October 22, 2014, 02:44:28 PM »
Said this a couple of times previously, so sorry to sound repetitive, but if he'd had a crack when through on goal and roofed it in that game at VP against the dogshitters we drew 2-2, instead of doing the 'right thing' and squaring it to JPA who was in a better position (but missed), I think he would've had a decent run at Villa. It would have given him a lot of confidence and he'd have been an instant holte end hero, which would have bought him time and made it hard for him to be overlooked by the manager.

Sorry just realised thread title is Stefan Moore, but Luke was being discussed the last few posts, which is who I was talking about obv.
Yep, it's a game of fine margins really. I recall Bosko Balaban in one of his few games, I think against Utd. He found himself through, 1 on 1 with the keeper but fluffed it. Had he scored, thinks might have been very different for him here.

I was at that game and remember clearly Bosko being through on goal in the second half when we were 1-0 up. He looked scared, never really in control and knowing what he was going to do. He fluffed his chance and I was fairly certain there and then that he was shit. I saw him again in the 3-1 win at Saints a few weeks later and realised he was really shit.  Shitter than any player worth £6m could ever dream of being.

Southampton had that fella on loan who claimed to be George Weah's cousin. He was shit - uber shit-  but at least they didn't buy him. Bosko has to be the worst value signing I have ever seen.
Lamberts signed a few players who've bordered on looking like Weah's cousin (Ali Dia I believe his name was) in a few games. I'm beginning to wonder if Tonev was pitched to us as Stoichkov's cousin.

Offline PeterWithesShin

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Re: Stefan Moore
« Reply #46 on: October 22, 2014, 07:19:47 PM »
My mate used to cover the reserves for WM and even for the reserves he said Bosko looked shit and out of his depth. Which is weird when you consider he was useful everywhere else he played.

Online PaulWinch again

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Re: Stefan Moore
« Reply #47 on: October 23, 2014, 03:14:29 PM »
I thought Luke looked really promising in O'Neill's first season, that shoulder injury really wrecked his chances.

Offline Phil from the upper holte

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Re: Stefan Moore
« Reply #48 on: October 23, 2014, 03:38:18 PM »
I thought Luke looked really promising in O'Neill's first season, that shoulder injury really wrecked his chances.

And his attitude

Offline AGRIPPA

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Re: Stefan Moore
« Reply #49 on: October 23, 2014, 08:18:18 PM »
My mate used to cover the reserves for WM and even for the reserves he said Bosko looked shit and out of his depth. Which is weird when you consider he was useful everywhere else he played.
Is that Ish who used to cover the reserve games??

Offline aev

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Re: Stefan Moore
« Reply #50 on: October 24, 2014, 08:23:10 AM »
Probably not the correct thread fort his but not sure where else to put it.....story of Richard Flash (Villa fan) and how he was touted as the next big thing.

Richard Flash

Aged 13, Birmingham-born midfielder Richard Flash received offers to join 13 different clubs. His mother told him not to sign for any of them.
I was born close to Birmingham city centre, the son of Jamaican parents. Growing up on an estate near Edgbaston, the youngest of three, in a multicultural environment was a very positive experience.
I played football every day, often against bigger boys. I didn't have any coaching, but I became a good little footballer on those streets.
Aston Villa, my team, were European champions in 1982, but I played football more than watching it, initially for an under-10s Sunday team.
My dad was into cricket, but mum loved football, supporting West Brom because of the Three Degrees—the three black players, Cyrille Regis, Brendon Batson and Laurie Cunningham.
I was asked to train with West Brom at 11. Their manager, Nobby Stiles, a World Cup winner, took the session. I saw my hero Regis there, but I didn't speak to him. My mum did, but then she was an inspirational lady, later awarded the MBE for services to sport and the community.
She'd drive young footballers to games all around Birmingham. She was like a mother to many young boys lacking parental guidance in their lives.
I trained with Birmingham City—wearing a Villa shirt under my tracksuit—and they wanted me to sign, but my mum said no. She didn't think I should be pressured.
I then trained with Villa, but there were a lot of egos; some 13-year-olds thought they'd made it because they received free football boots. My mother kept my feet on the ground. She was a scout for Villa and Birmingham and still is at 73. She knew football.
I was a central midfielder who could pass long range, turn and score. I could be a right winger, took free-kicks and I was very strong. I wouldn't lose tackles, and my nickname was "Tank."
Word spread, and I soon had 13 clubs after me: Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs and all the Midlands clubs. At 13, I was probably the best player at my age in the country.
Manchester United's Midlands scout approached my mum. He'd watched me several times and invited me to United in the school holidays. I did well and became captain of a team called Manchester Eagles—a feeder team in the Midlands.
Terry Cooke and David Johnson had both played for it. They'd become professionals.
United hadn't won trophies like Villa, but their coaches were friendly and attentive. The mood was much better, and there was no pressure to sign anything.
I was introduced to Sir Alex Ferguson but didn't really understand his accent. I think he said that: "If you're good enough, you're old enough. We have a lad here called Ryan Wilson [Giggs], and he's got a great future here."
Giggs was the carrot for us to work hard for two years to get an apprenticeship, but I played far too much football.
I was in three or four teams in Birmingham. With training, I was playing football every day.
In one game when I was 14, I stretched to reach a ball and ended up sitting on my backside with my legs in front. I heard a crack in my knee. I got up but struggled to walk. The United scout was watching, shaking his head.
I waited to be seen in the hospital for three hours. They discharged me, and my knee swelled up. I'd dislocated my kneecap, not that I realised it. I'd get a sharp pain in the back of my knee, but I pretended I was OK and started playing again.
My knee never felt right, but I didn't tell anybody. I was under pressure to earn a United contract, more so because my injury was hampering my game, but I won a two-year contract after a few more trial games.
I remember seeing Paul Scholes; he was tiny, and I didn't think he was any good.
I moved up to Manchester in 1993, still wearing my brother's boots; I'd always worn his hand-me-downs. I earned £39 per week and lived in digs with David Beckham near the Cliff training ground.
Pete Smith, another guy in the digs, didn't get a professional contract and became a postman. I didn't tell anyone about my knee, but I kept picking up niggling little injuries—probably associated with the knee.
I couldn't lift any weights on the problem knee in the gym, but I disguised that.
I travelled to the Milk Cup, a famous youth tournament in Northern Ireland. We performed poorly and decided to go out for a few drinks after the final game. We were 16 and not allowed to drink alcohol, but that didn't stop us.
Word of our drinking reached Sir Alex. After training a few days later, he asked us face-to-face if we'd drunk alcohol. Most of us admitted it; some lied. The dressing room was never the same. We all had a warning letter sent home saying that we'd be out of the club if it happened again.
A few months later we went for a night out. The gaffer again heard of this and got us all into his office, where he made us sit down while he told us that we wouldn't make it as professionals if we weren't professional.
He told us the year group above us were far ahead of us. It was true.
The class of '92 were regularly beating us 7-0 in training. I frequently tried to mark Scholes but struggled. I was fast, but I couldn't read the game as quickly as he could. He could turn and leave you for dust.
In a B team game, my knee cracked again. I couldn't run and came off. Because I'd had a few injuries, the perception was that I was soft. The physio didn't look at my knee but told me to have a bath. My knee swelled up that night.
I went into training the next day, and the physios looked at me properly. That was the beginning of the end. I had three operations over the next year-and-a-half and tried to build my fitness up, but I couldn't twist and turn.
I often watched my team-mates from the side while on crutches.
Sir Alex gave me an extra year to get fit as I'd been injured. I got fit and played for the reserves, but I was never a star of that team. I'd missed the best part of two years' learning, and that damaged me mentally.
I had the ability but not the confidence. In the end, I ran out of time at United.
Sir Alex told me that I was a good player and helped me arrange trials.
Wolves gave me a year's contract. I was 19 and felt like I had a chance of making the breakthrough, but Graham Taylor, the manager who took me there, resigned. I was told that I wasn't wanted.
I later went to Watford as Taylor was there but was let go—though Taylor wrote to clubs recommending me.
I joined Plymouth Argyle, played first-team football as a professional, and things went well for two months until my other knee dislocated. I was told that it was unlikely that I'd play again.
I had to start thinking about my future and decided to do a university degree.
The perception was that I was a thick footballer, so I had to do a bridging qualification first. I worked hard and really enjoyed university—doing all kinds of part-time jobs.
Then I did a Masters and a teaching qualification before getting a job as the head of the academic department at UCFB—a higher education institution delivering degrees in sports and the football industries, based at Burnley and Wembley Stadium.
I call upon many of the contacts I made in football for speakers.
I look back at my football career with positive and negative feelings. I should have sorted my knee out when I first did it. I played too much in my early teens, and that led to an injury, but I made good friends at football and learned much, which helps with my current job.

Offline IamLegend

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Re: Stefan Moore
« Reply #51 on: October 24, 2014, 10:18:34 AM »
I thought Luke looked really promising in O'Neill's first season, that shoulder injury really wrecked his chances.

And his attitude

What are you basing that on?

Offline dave.woodhall

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Re: Stefan Moore
« Reply #52 on: October 24, 2014, 12:37:44 PM »
Probably not the correct thread fort his but not sure where else to put it.....story of Richard Flash (Villa fan) and how he was touted as the next big thing.


That's a great story. He comes across well, and so do Ferguson & Sir Graham.

Offline PeterWithesShin

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Re: Stefan Moore
« Reply #53 on: October 24, 2014, 12:40:11 PM »
My mate used to cover the reserves for WM and even for the reserves he said Bosko looked shit and out of his depth. Which is weird when you consider he was useful everywhere else he played.
Is that Ish who used to cover the reserve games??

Yep.

Offline Comrade Blitz

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Re: Stefan Moore
« Reply #54 on: October 24, 2014, 12:46:51 PM »

Offline frankmosswasmyuncle

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Re: Stefan Moore
« Reply #55 on: October 24, 2014, 12:47:35 PM »
That's a great story ev, and probably a classic in how such a promising career can go wrong, for whatever reasons.

Online paul_e

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Re: Stefan Moore
« Reply #56 on: October 24, 2014, 01:10:48 PM »
I see the (admittedly short) comments section of the mail article is as sensible as ever on that story.

To me this highlights why the current youth systems in football don't really work.  For a 14 year old kid to feel that he has to play through an injury to be able to make it means someting has gone wrong somewhere.  I don't know what the solution is but I'd be willing to bet that his story isn't particularly unusual and it really should be.

Offline aev

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Re: Stefan Moore
« Reply #57 on: October 24, 2014, 03:04:24 PM »
I read the story on the Bleacher Report website - there were another couple of stories about promising youngsters that were interesting but lacking in reference to the Villa.

Offline AGRIPPA

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Re: Stefan Moore
« Reply #58 on: October 25, 2014, 11:05:35 AM »
My mate used to cover the reserves for WM and even for the reserves he said Bosko looked shit and out of his depth. Which is weird when you consider he was useful everywhere else he played.
Is that Ish who used to cover the reserve games??
Hope he still ain't wearing them winklepickers.... Say hi to him from "Agrippa"... I used to sell shoes outside the oasis market where he sold them inside in the 80's....

Offline PeterWithesShin

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Re: Stefan Moore
« Reply #59 on: October 25, 2014, 11:49:54 AM »
Will do. That's where I met him when me and my sister worked in Oasis in the lateish 80s. Being Villa we soon got to know him! And he still likes his shoes!

 


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