Tbf, McGoldrick, along with the other youngsters, would have turned out OK if they weren't ruined by Portvliet and his team of youngsters
Yes, and I had high hopes for McGoldrick. In one season prior to breaking through to the first team, I remember him managing 44+ goals. There were one or two of us who were quietly confident that he was a real starlet, and I mean way better than Dexter or Leon, and then suddenly, someone thought he was rubbish and his goal scoring prowess never seemed to materialise again. I still think there's a real goal poacher in that frame of his somewhere, but it seems to have been buried under a series of bad career decisions. Strange one that.
Interesting different view if the game on this Ipswich Town supporters site. Some spelling errors for example Cory rather than Corby Moore and Sam McQueen get's some good press from them whilst he's not mentioned at all on the Saints site bar the team list.
McGoldriick certainly had an attitude problem. I do agree with you that he could have been a really good player. He could still be if Forest release him and someone gives him a chance. I'm not sure how our selection process works, but I gather we do a lot to rule out the bad eggs with poor attitudes and overinflated egos. Back to Sinclair though, he's got a striker's instinct of being in the rigt place at the right time, but to be considered for the first team, he needs to work on the consistency of his finishing. Judging by video highlights of him, quite a few of his really good chances go just wide, get well saved or hit the woodwork. With extra composure, he could greatly improve his goal haul. The service he gets is unbelievable, stick Lambert, Sharp, Guly or Barnard in Sinclair's position and they'd easily top 50 goals. That's credit to the strength of the unit.
I'm certainly glad you replied with that Itchen, because my memory of McGoldrick being a very fine prospect was getting a bit hazy. It was a fair few seasons ago.
He can't be more than about 24/25 now, so it can't have been that long ago. It will be at least 6 or 7 years before the lads are at the top of their game and that sort of timescale is very difficult to comprehend. Kelvin Davis is our only surviving first team player from back then and Lallana was just a skinny little kid. I'd love to have Stephens, Turnbull, Mugabi, Shaw, Chambers, Ward-Prowse, Moore, McQueen and Sinclair line up for us in 2019, captained by a 31 year old Lallana, but sadly football aint that beautiful or simple.
No, you're right, it isn't that long ago. That means the haziness I'm referring to is about when I and the few others considered McGoldlrick to be the real deal, because he has been anything but that for most of the time. He only came to the club in 2004, signed from Notts County as a 16 year old [I've looked this up, to make sure], and left in 2009 for Nottm Forest. In all that time I don't think he left a significant mark in the Southampton FC Archive, unless it was at Reserve level, where he was pretty much a revelation. Great shame.
