Quote from: passitsideways on October 26, 2017, 11:13:27 PMComplete and utter revisionism to suggest he was never good enough to be the starter. Decent backups don't hold their form for a full season like he did (after taking over from Given three games into the 2012-13 season), and his form only dwindled from the second half of the 2013-14 season.The absolute worst kicker I've seen at the professional level though - even when he was good, he was only barely capable of punting it up the pitch, so no surprise that becoming incapable of even doing that constantly would affect the rest of his game.He was released then re-signed when we realised an upgrade would cost more money than we would pay. It was one of those moments when we realised we were being run by an idiot, and it summed up our decline as a club. It’s not revisionism, I said at the time it was a bonkers decision to make a player our first choice keeper just weeks after letting him go for not being good enough. I never rated him from day one, he was rubbish in my opinion.
Complete and utter revisionism to suggest he was never good enough to be the starter. Decent backups don't hold their form for a full season like he did (after taking over from Given three games into the 2012-13 season), and his form only dwindled from the second half of the 2013-14 season.The absolute worst kicker I've seen at the professional level though - even when he was good, he was only barely capable of punting it up the pitch, so no surprise that becoming incapable of even doing that constantly would affect the rest of his game.
Quote from: saunders_heroes on October 27, 2017, 07:04:10 AMQuote from: passitsideways on October 26, 2017, 11:13:27 PMComplete and utter revisionism to suggest he was never good enough to be the starter. Decent backups don't hold their form for a full season like he did (after taking over from Given three games into the 2012-13 season), and his form only dwindled from the second half of the 2013-14 season.The absolute worst kicker I've seen at the professional level though - even when he was good, he was only barely capable of punting it up the pitch, so no surprise that becoming incapable of even doing that constantly would affect the rest of his game.He was released then re-signed when we realised an upgrade would cost more money than we would pay. It was one of those moments when we realised we were being run by an idiot, and it summed up our decline as a club. It’s not revisionism, I said at the time it was a bonkers decision to make a player our first choice keeper just weeks after letting him go for not being good enough. I never rated him from day one, he was rubbish in my opinion. Quote from: saunders_heroes on September 22, 2013, 10:16:47 AMGreat shot stopper and he saved us from dropping two points yesterday. I still think he occasionally flaps at crosses though. Are you sure it's not revisionism?
Great shot stopper and he saved us from dropping two points yesterday. I still think he occasionally flaps at crosses though.
Quote from: saunders_heroes on October 27, 2017, 07:04:10 AMQuote from: passitsideways on October 26, 2017, 11:13:27 PMComplete and utter revisionism to suggest he was never good enough to be the starter. Decent backups don't hold their form for a full season like he did (after taking over from Given three games into the 2012-13 season), and his form only dwindled from the second half of the 2013-14 season.The absolute worst kicker I've seen at the professional level though - even when he was good, he was only barely capable of punting it up the pitch, so no surprise that becoming incapable of even doing that constantly would affect the rest of his game.He was released then re-signed when we realised an upgrade would cost more money than we would pay. It was one of those moments when we realised we were being run by an idiot, and it summed up our decline as a club. It’s not revisionism, I said at the time it was a bonkers decision to make a player our first choice keeper just weeks after letting him go for not being good enough. I never rated him from day one, he was rubbish in my opinion. Lambert must have rated him in some of the cup games he'd seen as he made the move to bring him back and it proved a good decision for 18 months unless you want to point out all the errors he made in 12-13 and 13-14.Only surprise to me was Given starting that season as number 1 as his Everton home performance quickly showed he was no longer good enough to be a regular premier league goalkeeper.I'm sure you'd agree with that from watching his games for ROI in the 2012 euros SH.....
Quote from: saunders_heroes on October 27, 2017, 07:04:10 AMQuote from: passitsideways on October 26, 2017, 11:13:27 PMComplete and utter revisionism to suggest he was never good enough to be the starter. Decent backups don't hold their form for a full season like he did (after taking over from Given three games into the 2012-13 season), and his form only dwindled from the second half of the 2013-14 season.The absolute worst kicker I've seen at the professional level though - even when he was good, he was only barely capable of punting it up the pitch, so no surprise that becoming incapable of even doing that constantly would affect the rest of his game.He was released then re-signed when we realised an upgrade would cost more money than we would pay. It was one of those moments when we realised we were being run by an idiot, and it summed up our decline as a club. It’s not revisionism, I said at the time it was a bonkers decision to make a player our first choice keeper just weeks after letting him go for not being good enough. I never rated him from day one, he was rubbish in my opinion.I don't know how the personnel decision-making process taken by the club is supposed to have any relevance to the question of how objectively good a keeper he was.What we do have though is the fact that he was voted our player of the season, the same season we had a fella called Benteke banging in goals left and right. Maybe one could argue whether he really should have won it over the big man, but you must be talking about a different kind of rubbish compared to everyone else.
Quote from: passitsideways on October 27, 2017, 11:51:04 AMQuote from: saunders_heroes on October 27, 2017, 07:04:10 AMQuote from: passitsideways on October 26, 2017, 11:13:27 PMComplete and utter revisionism to suggest he was never good enough to be the starter. Decent backups don't hold their form for a full season like he did (after taking over from Given three games into the 2012-13 season), and his form only dwindled from the second half of the 2013-14 season.The absolute worst kicker I've seen at the professional level though - even when he was good, he was only barely capable of punting it up the pitch, so no surprise that becoming incapable of even doing that constantly would affect the rest of his game.He was released then re-signed when we realised an upgrade would cost more money than we would pay. It was one of those moments when we realised we were being run by an idiot, and it summed up our decline as a club. It’s not revisionism, I said at the time it was a bonkers decision to make a player our first choice keeper just weeks after letting him go for not being good enough. I never rated him from day one, he was rubbish in my opinion.I don't know how the personnel decision-making process taken by the club is supposed to have any relevance to the question of how objectively good a keeper he was.What we do have though is the fact that he was voted our player of the season, the same season we had a fella called Benteke banging in goals left and right. Maybe one could argue whether he really should have won it over the big man, but you must be talking about a different kind of rubbish compared to everyone else.Didn’t we once vote Stephen Ireland our player of the year? I wouldn’t look too much into that.
If I remember, that was just an accumulation of the largest number of MOTM awards from the 19 matches at Villa Park, rather than something anyone voted for.
Quote from: Dave on October 27, 2017, 10:53:26 PMIf I remember, that was just an accumulation of the largest number of MOTM awards from the 19 matches at Villa Park, rather than something anyone voted for.When the largest number of MOTM at home over a season is your goalkeeper.. well its not a good sign
Quote from: ciggiesnbeer on October 27, 2017, 10:58:10 PMQuote from: Dave on October 27, 2017, 10:53:26 PMIf I remember, that was just an accumulation of the largest number of MOTM awards from the 19 matches at Villa Park, rather than something anyone voted for.When the largest number of MOTM at home over a season is your goalkeeper.. well its not a good sign I know he did very little up front, but Stephen Ireland definitely wasn't a goalkeeper.
Agreed on Friendly to a degree. About right for a team regularly finishing sixth but I actually thought he'd be better. I wonder what Given says about us in his new book. The official store are selling it so I'm guessing it's generally favourable. Mind you, getting £10m odd off us over five years for one year's work is good going, he has every reason to speak highly of us.