Probably because he's just started a contract after having an excellent season. He'll cost more than a few bob.
This beggars the question that considering the amount of money they are on (and what they could get at a higher level) surely either themselves or the coaches would want to better their game so why aren't they putting in the hard yards. Miscuing with their 'wrong foot' surely requires a bit of extra work on it so that it doesn't happen again.
Some people just don't have the coordination of their weaker foot to play properly with it, like some people can't roll their tongue. Coaching them not to use a weak foot and how to avoid using it would be of more benefit to those players than a long fruitless training programme to try bring it up to scratch.
When I was at primary school the PE teacher who took the school football team made us practice by taking off the boot on your natural side, to encourage you to use your weak side. It worked for me, and I was able to kick both left and right foot.
Completely agree and Ive said just that for years. The most one footed player I have ever seen was Juan Sebastian Veron. Training is, usually, 4 hours a day max. What else are footballers doing with their time that they cant spend just a mesely 2 hours a week working on their wrong foot? The difference that would make to them as a complete package would be extraordinary. I remember seeing a training session from Crewe in their Academy heyday when Dario Gradi took a session every week where all players had to use their wrong foot. It's really not rocket surgery. Hands up - and be completely honest here - how many of us saw John Walters becoming an established Premier League player and one of the best at an established club? I know he had personal problems when with us but seriously, nobody in the world - even Walters and Wallaseyhead - saw that coming.
I certainly didn't and the same could be said of Keith Andrews, Vaz Te, Delaney or even, to a lesser extent, Ashbee or Dawson. Players have different strengths and weaknesses and it's not as simple as conditioning you to learn to do something. Case and point, I've always been a goalkeeper. I was a YTS at Scarborough, spent a season at York (I followed Eric Winstanley, who was awesome to work under), then decided to go to uni where I played for Coalville Town (and a couple of games at Oadby). Now, all my coaches have said I'm a decent shot stopper, my comm was good and my positioning and distribution was fine. However, I've always been weaker diving to my right than I have to my left. No matter how hard I tried (and still try to this day), diving to my right is a real issue for me. I mean I can do it, it's not like I can only dive left, but about 80% of the goals put past me are to my right hand side. I've practiced this for hours and hours, but to no avail. I eventualy worked out that it's because I'm right footed and when diving to the right, you spring off on your left and with that being the weaker foot, there's less of a tendancy to use it to jump. You can be coached for hundreds of hours on a flaw in your game, but if you can't do it, you can't do it. It doesn't make you a worse footballer for it, it just means you have to rely on other parts of your game to help you through. Tom Cairney is going to be a great footballer in the future (how he hasn't been called up to the Scotland squad is beyond me) and I think we were too quick to let him go. I know plenty of players who have a weak left foot and have made it as professionals, the same as others who are weak at heading or taking on a man.
Not the point and sorry to nitpick but I'd disagree with all of them being 'established Premier League players'. Delaney has had 1 season, Ash and Daws had 2 in their careers, Andrews dropped back down to the Championship and none of them were 'one of the best at an established (Premier League) club'
in my primary school, the PE teacher labelled the lefties "cack-hooved" and make them play netball with the girls
Well no maybe not, I was actually pointing out that it surprised me that they went on to be PL footballers at all, given their careers with us. You could chuck Aaron Wilbraham in there too, although he hasn't really played much for Palace and was hardly a regular for Norwich.
Looks like a non-starter, Wolves are reported to have made a £2 million offer to Leicester for Wood's today.
