Two totally unrelated stories, just combined them for no particular reason. West Ham after Tony Gardner according to Skysports.com. Good defender on his day but they are very rare these days. Just heard Adrian Durham talking about Aaron McLean and his exact quote was "if he comes back, as is rumoured..." Durham being a Peterborough fan if you didn't know. Anyone heard this actually rumoured?
TalkSport are usually pretty good with their transfer stories. I've heard it floating around, but for them to mention it on air shows something could be in it. But for what its worth, he'll probably stay. Gardner is undoubtedly a Premier League defender, but his injury and fitness record is woeful. Would do a great job for WHU in this league, providing he stays injury free
The Sky story says Gardner's talking to the Hammers, now his move to Birmingham has broken down, but I never heard anything about him going to Birmingham. Mclean returning to the Posh in exchange for CMS would be a good move, but it looks like he's already on his way to Norwich, so it seems highly unlikely.
I also heard this, was just coming on to post. If we can get our money back I would snap their hand off. I like him more than most on here but I would rather have Fryatt and Simpson as our "small" strikers and see a new striker come in. We should have got CMS in the first place, too late now.
We'll never get £1.3m for an unproven Championship striker who's passed the prime of his career, surely?
CMS was never destined for our club sadly, the lad has his eyes well and truly on the PL, as for McLean going back to the posh that would take AP admitting it was a mistake to bring him here in the first place, can`t see i happening I`m afraid, although you can never say never in football. As for how much it would cost Posh, I very much doubt we would get back what we`ve spent.
He's probably bottom-half Prem standard, the guy just can't keep fit. Though as he was signed by Brown, I guess we have to just pretend he is, and always has been, ****? That's how it works on here right?
Sure is, Steven Hunt was ****, Geovanni was shocking, Jimmy Bullard is absolutely crap!! Jay Jay Okocha was ****e, Frazier Campbell was crap, George Boateng was bollocks, you get the drift. I'm sure theres some more obviously shocking players that I missed
Gardner reninds me a lot of Alton Unwell he had the talent but my god you ca'nt throw that kind of money around for someone that has a hard time getting fit to play a game. I know injuries happen and Bullard comes under this umbrella too, but FFS they get paid every week and these are players that can't help us in anyway shape or form. No sentiment in football we just hoofed Garcia our because he is pretty much finished now with his injury at his age and I personally did'nt like that because he gave his all for the cause. Gardener never really was an integral part of the team to be honest he was just a (hope he can come good) player.
Matt Duke deserved a contract after the last few seasons he has performed at the highest level and is an obvious number two! If we can release Matty then I think releasing bloody Anthony Gardner is a no brainer he really has to go if we want to move on
Releasing Duke was bloody-minded and stupid, I wouldn't care if Gardner was released tbh, I just get annoyed at this "Pretend anyone who's left is ****" attitude some have on here.
Gardner was called up and represented England once, so he must have been doing sth right; however it seems his injuries and lack of football took their toll and he never regained his initial potential. You don't get to play for Spurs and England by being crap, he just wasn't as good as some thought. Michael Turner was a much better CB, when he went Gardner couldn't fill the void in a sinking ship. He doesn't have a future with us; if he gets a call from Wet Sham then he's done well.
Or is it that after 2 seasons in the PL and one he started as first choice here he didn't fancy dropping down onto 2nd choice keeper wages in the Championship so would rather go and play first team in L1? Which club has beaten the rush and signed him up for next season btw?
Gardner's already gone, where he ends up is nothing to do with us now. The Same us true of Matt, who's a nice fella, but a fairly average keeper. He wasn't released for anything other than football reasons, so it was neither bloody minded nor stupid, it was simply common sense.
Common sense to have no keepers on the books, true. Risky game to play, Matt Duke is a decent keeper who'd have been a good backup for us, it was a daft move.
If that's the case then good, but I still don't think it would have harmed us to keep Duke on as #2. I know they say there's no room for sentiment in football, but it wouldn't a go a miss now and again.
