Got to go with Ric on this one..sorry..I've known him or a few years from our previous forum and is a decent very well informed guy..sometimes think he needs to get out a little more as he has a too much knowledge....or is making it up...!!! How are you Ric ? - (BIB)
It's definitely the need to get out more. My information though generally came from remembering what you lot had already posted. I think the only itk claim I made was that you'd agreed a deal for Delaney and that our chairman had described the deal as too good for either the club or the player to turn down. I was quite happy with £600k for our 3rd choice centreback, we'd have been offloading him in the summer anyway because he was too good at CB to be happy as a sub or getting played left back for us with his weaknesses there. I'm not too bad, spent yesterday watching us **** up a 2-0 lead with 25 minutes left after McLean (I told you he wasn't a £1M player) decided to try an overhead kick in our area and only succeeded in booting an opponent in the stomach so hard he flew up in the air and landed in a crumpled heap. Then people complained when the ref gave the penalty against him. I've tried. As soon as I say it's QPR related but that I'm not a QPR fan they tell me I'm not a high priority for them. Apparently they've got far too many QPR fans who've got far greater problems thanks to the off field events of the last 15 years or so.
Ric- Is McLean really that s#### ? Just there were more than a few fans of our club asking for us to sign bright young talent and his name was mentioned. Seems if he cant make it in the championship then he certainly wouldn't make it in the Prem
He's not a Championship quality striker. He's also not that young, he's 28 now (moment of self realisation, I just described myself as not that young) and will be 29 by the start of next season. Most descriptions of him start "he works hard for the team, but...". I think the nearest comparison I could make is to say he's our Agyemang, nobody can claim he doesn't try, he just lacks the quality. Works hard, very good in the air/holding it up considering he's about 5'7" (that's not an exaggeration), and if given a snap shot can really hit them. Give him time to think and he worries row Z more than the keeper. After about a month I stopped getting excited even when he got himself 3 yards out in front of an open goal because I expected him to miss. I had someone on our board complain about my signature last season so I made an agreement with them, I'd change it when he scored 10 goals in a Championship season or left the club. Since he joined us last January he has 7 league goals, 4 of them this season from a total of 42 starts and 13 sub appearances, with his last league goal over 3 months ago now. In slight defence of his strike rate, since Barmby took over we've had a 4231 like you used last season and McLean has been playing wide right. And it's not a lack of chances, as a side we regularly have about 20 shots a game, it's just nobody seems able to finish consistently. Where him being good came from is what happens every few years, some players in the lower leagues score a load of goals and the press jump on the bandwagon. His price is massively inflated compared to other players doing the same job and every arm chair fan in the country decides their club should sign them without ever seeing them play. Any L1/L2 player that's going to cost over £1M isn't worth the gamble IMO. Yeah, you might miss out on a Lambert, but in order to find a Lambert you need to sign about 10 of these players, and £10M for a Lambert isn't a good deal. It's just too easy to look good at that level, we had Stuart Elliott as a left winger score 29 goals in 33 games or something in L1, and he couldn't handle the Championship. And more for you guys, Taarabt last season and the fees being talked about in the summer despite him being unproven at PL level.
Sorry mate, I only just saw your full and very interesting answer. Most appreciated. I didn't realise he was as old as that. I would suggest he is more your Jamie Mackie than Pat Agyemang, IMO.
