Gardner wasn't on the fringes of the England team for nothing, he was a decent player in our first PL season but Turner's age, fitness and positioning made him the better all round player imo.
This is an internet forum, you can't always pick out from what someone types if they are being serious/not serious. Anyway, forgive me for my mistake.
There isn't a debate here. If a defender is 'quality' or even 'average' they would have to sometimes make tackles, blocks, headers etc. and not just stand outside of a permanent 5-yard radius from his marker ALL the time, and then wave his arms around and put them on his hips when the ball hits the net. Zayatte was clumsy and daft, but he got stuck in and was a decentish defender. Gardner came nowhere near doing this ever. I never saw him have one good game in 2 years, just a succession of utter **** week in week out.
You really are a ****ing halfwit. How you attained the grades to actually make it to university I'll never know. Your only lodging yourself up gardners arsehole because brown signed him. He was **** and useless in a city shirt and wasn't as reliable or anywhere near as good as turner or even zayatte and sonko. Go back to ****ing school and learn your football ****wit!
He wasn't as reliable as Turner, but I think he was slightly better than Turner in terms of footballing ability. My opinion of him's got nothing to do with who signed him, I doubt you could say the same TBH.
How on earth was any aspects of his game better than turners? Is gardner any better at kicking, heading, winning, contolling or playing a football or football? No is he bollocks. Turner is either better or a lot better at all these things. Your opinion has everything to do with who signed him! He's not a Pearson or pearson signing so you decide to love the dodgy bastard! You should rename yourself to phil browns love child. How can you say my opinion is solely based on who signed him? Do I agree with all of pearsons signings? No, did I agree with all of adam pearsons decisions? No. Do I dislike all of browns signings? No! Just this one in particular. Bullard and king maybe arseholes but at least they have genuine talent unlike gardner.
"He wasn't as reliable as Turner, but I think he was slightly better than Turner in terms of footballing ability." Gardner, beside's his constant injuries, seemed to have no sense of awareness of his surroundings. It was his fault that Roberts scored for Blackburn in our first PL away match. Turner is a real defender. He's not one of these players who thinks he can pass or dribble but can't defend properly.
Finally! TWF realising that we can't keep Bullard. Nice one TWF/Percy, only a matter of time until you realised the error of your ways. Maybe at some point you might get to understand that NP is building from the back. Give him another season and then see if he's improved enough for your satisfaction. It's a sign of youth with you. As you've said you don't remember the dark days, only the meteoric progress up the leagues to the top flight. The people with more experience on here are a bit more aware that our level is probably the Championship and we are happy not to be lower anymore like we were for a LONG time. I'm very happy to have NP continuing the work in progress and I've enjoyed the (mainly away) games I've seen this year. I also respect NP's professional approach to the media and his honest, considered opinion. I think he's got genuine integrity. In my opinion, obviously!
] This is one of the best posts I've seen on here in ages. He was actually at fault for almost every goal we conceded in the Prem when he was playing. The goal that relegated us (Darren Bent for Sunderland), 2 of the 3 West Ham goals in our 3-3 draw, and hundreds of others were solely down to him. Milwall this year for ****'s sake, we conceded 4 goals from headers, all of which were scored by Gardner's man. What you say about Turner is right. People harp on about 'technical ability' for defenders, but it's completely unnecessary in that position. They need to tackle, head, mark and get stuck in before they should ever be considered as a defender. Gerrard has this, which is why he was good. Hobbs and Ayala have it, Turner had it. Zayatte had it and that's why I often stood up for him despite his clumsiness, but Anthony Gardner never ever had it. He is just not a defender.
Managed to stay in the top flight because they are top flight defenders! Gardner was not good enough for us I agree but that was definitely down to his injury problems
Gardner brought a history of injury problems with him when he arrived, when PB signed him. Unfortunately PB was then of the mind-set to attempt to sign players based on their premier league reputations rather than current form, without consideration for injury issues. In his time Gardner was a good defender - just a shame it was 2 seasons prior to his arrival.
