The general feel on the Brighton forum was negative to say the least when he joined from us, its nice to see now how quickly that has changed after putting in a near MOM performance last night against Wednesday along with other solid performances he seems to have nailed down a first team starting place. Good for him is all i can say and it can't of been easy to make the move back but he's done it well and if it wasn't Brighton i might want them to do well this season
Most of the fans I spoke to after he signed were pretty happy he came back. Forum posters being overly negative due to something he said when he scored against them. It was something out of nothing though. He's a great Championship player
I shall watch to see how he goes this season with special interest. I keep a little eye on all ex-Saints, when I can, to see how they're going along, be they Jonathan Forte or Kevin Davies, for example, recent or long past. The Football League Show retains an interest, to that end.
Imagine if Brighton fans came on here after one of our defeats, they would think we were all manic depressives!
Just remember that whatever you read on internet football forums is probably nonsense................
He's a fantastic leader and tries his heart out for the team. Tremendous workrate. He should have got his chance in the PL with us. Now I hope he gets his chance in another side in the PL and proves Nigel wrong.
My heart agrees with you. My head agrees with Nigel. Mind you, he's only signed on loan. He's still a Southampton player.
I don't think he should have got his chance in the Premier League with us. We have a good 5/6 players in his position better than him, why should we sacrifice their chance, and detriment our side, just because Hammond "tries his heart out"? No time for being sentimental. Play the best players - everyone else, thank them for their work and move on.
I blame Ward-prowse, we shouldn't have youth holding back experienced, hard working players who have got us to the Premiership!
Hammond was a leader/captain/motivator. I know the other players are technically better but his workrate and never say die attitude rubbed off very well on the side in the past few seasons. I think we were a better team with him playing. It isn't always as simple as picking the best 11 players. I also think he did a very good job dealing with the referee, he was a clever captain in several ways.
I don't buy it, I think that does a disservice to our other players, to assume they don't try their hardest just because they aren't watching someone worse than them do a lot of running around. I think these are media generalities that sound nice ("works so hard it rubs off on everyone else!") but don't actually make much sense - it's hardly like Schneiderlin and Cork were a bad midfield partnership. Which of Davis, Schneiderlin, Lallana, Ward-Prowse and Cork would you chuck to one side to allow someone who "works hard" (which really means he has to run a lot to make up for bad positioning) into the side? I just find it hard to believe that top level sportsmen only give 80% unless they're in the same team as a "workhorse". I suppose they would have to work harder, to make up for his shortcomings, but other than that I see little actual reasoning outside of "work hard" cliches.
Hah yeah it seems that way! A much different attitude to some of my mates who are at the Amex every other week
It isn't necessarily motivation in workrate but guiding them to make the right decisions. Slow the tempo of the game, keep the ball, don't panic, encourage them let them know they are good enough, get on the referees back etc etc. If it rubs off on all the players it gives them confidence and determination to succeed. Looking at the team today no one is a leader, no one has taken the game by the scruff of its neck and told the side to sort its **** out..
