Juan Pablo Angel speaks

[CJ]

Memories of happier times. Top bloke

[eamonn]

Loved JPA too, just for the extra bit of flair and class he had as well as his genuine respect for us.  He took a bit of stick for his Ryu champion on here and the double bogey of missing two penos at Fulham and scoring an OG and taking a weird corner against Spurs but when a combo of him, Merse, and later Nobby Solano and Henders were on the same wavelength, we looked the dog's doughnuts.

[dave shelley]

Nail on head Riss.  How did we go from JPA to Ireland and Gueye?

Stephen fucking Ireland!  You could put two defibrillator paddles on a a breezeblock and get more life out of it than we ever got from Ireland.

[Salsa Party Animal]

Love JPA. Never understood Martin O'Neill methods. I would have Angel playing with Carew upfront and Ashley Young and the Weazel Downing feeding them crosses with Merson as playmaker.  It is a heaven. Ditto for Paul Lambert for not developing Benteke and Bent Partnership.

[tomd2103]

Nail on head Riss.  How did we go from JPA to Ireland and Gueye?

Not quite right.  Didn't we go from JPA to Baros and then to Carew?

[olaftab]

Loved him as a player and was sad to see him leave  however all that changed when I met him.

[brian green]

I felt exactly the same about Charlie Aitken.

[KevinGage]

Loved him as a player and was sad to see him leave  however all that changed when I met him.

Sounds intriguing olaftab. Do tell.

[Diablo]

I like the way JPA says "this is a great opportunity to all come together and rebuild with a plan" - hmmmm.

[DB]

When he scored the 3rd vs Cov from 2-0 down.....oh baby.

Yeah. That was Merson.

He didn't say our third. 😉

JPA - I loved him.

Thanks Percy ;-)

[Lucky Eddie]

By the time Lerner and O'Neill came in Angel was over 30 and had lost a step for this level, by the time we had started challenging for things he was long gone. It's often been thought during the Lerner/O'Neill regime that we was one top striker away from definitely breaking into that top 4 and beyond. If only Juan-Pablo Angel had been a few years younger when they did arrive in convinced we would have achieved the targets and things would be a lot different now. Angel in his prime in a good team would have been special.

He'd have never been an O'Neill player

[Lucky Eddie]

I felt exactly the same about Charlie Aitken.

I've met him, I thought he was smashing.

[supertom]

I always felt it was a shame that his time here never really came along with Big John Carew. They could have been a very good pairing. I also felt we never quite had the manager that could get the best out of certain flair players we had. Gregory's style became turgid. O Leary lacked ideas and O Neill was pure counter attack. SGT, I suppose like O Neill favoured a direct big man little man combo, and so JPA didn't really gel with his side. I mean when Sir Graham came back here, he didn't take long to drop our top scorer and big Dion was the main man the following season.

There were times though, when Angel played some absolutely lovely stuff with the likes of Merson, Hendrie and Solano. More cultured managers might have had us playing more consistently great stuff. But then again, nothing has changed in that regard. Our managers in many ways have fit into a couple of types really. You've got the O Neill, McLeish, Bruce type, then the Dolly, Lambert, Timmeh type. Then there was Houllier and Remi who were different. In the first, it didn't quite work, even though some seedlings were put in place, and in the latter it was the absolute worst time, and someone without the required character to take on the task.

On his day though JPA was a lovely player to watch. When we played to his strengths. When Vassell was up alongside him it helped too as Darius would use his pace in the channels and allow Japes a bit more space. Pablo missed him when we sold him to City. But yeah, I do often wonder how he and Carew would have played together, and would there have been as crowd pleasing a twosome up front? Both had such a wonderful affinity with the fans. Probably my two favourites post Deano/Dalo (Dwight was better but his departure soils things a bit).

[supertom]

By the time Lerner and O'Neill came in Angel was over 30 and had lost a step for this level, by the time we had started challenging for things he was long gone. It's often been thought during the Lerner/O'Neill regime that we was one top striker away from definitely breaking into that top 4 and beyond. If only Juan-Pablo Angel had been a few years younger when they did arrive in convinced we would have achieved the targets and things would be a lot different now. Angel in his prime in a good team would have been special.

He'd have never been an O'Neill player

Ironically I think he was playing well for O Neill as the centre of a 3 man attack with Gabby and Luke either side. It was when Luke got injured and we went 4-4-FUCKING-2 that JPA then became surplus, and Sutton then became the stop gap until O Neill could get Big John. When O Leary had left it felt like JPA's time was done, but he started O Neill's season quite promisingly. We played okay football too initially. When we went from 3 in midfield to the flat 4, things become a lot more "O Neill" and we struggling in the middle of that season before the Jan window refresh.

[KevinGage]

Knee and ankle injuries put the kybosh on his chances of building on that outstanding 03/04 season.

Never looked the same player, always a yard or two off the pace after that.  The JPA of 03/04 playing alongside Carew could have been interesting.  The JPA of 06/07 wouldn't have been a whole pile of use, in all honesty.