We havent got any phenomenal players. And he was woeful. Pearson moved him to accommodate Hobbs and it made us a worse team. He also tried him at right back and that had the same effect. We've got enough players before we start sticking square pegs in round holes. Not picking on you here btw, just both posts I wanted to respond to were yours...
If Augero, Diega Costa and Falcao were in our attack and not scoring goals I would certainly criticize but they are not in our attack and never will be. Who is 'odd'?
If Jelly scores 27 goals this season I will strip naked in front of the KC Stadium, stick a didgeridoo up my @rse and fart "Falling in love with you" whilst standing on one leg and whistling "Waltzing Matilda"! You are plucking stats out of 'wiki' just to suit your argument. Those stats are not from Premier League games (which is where we are in case you have forgotten) and Altidore was 'banging them in' for his Country against Nations ranked in triple figures on the World Scale. The Club dropped a pillock when signing these players who (sadly for us) couldn't make it in the top level of English football. If you look at Ben Arfa's game closely you will see that although he shows signs of talent at times he only has one foot and will not let go of the ball so runs into brick walls and loses the ball more often than not. He and Aluko went to the same "Keep-the-ball-to-yourself" football coaching school. I think that the January window will see us off-load a few players and an effort made to sign (or loan) a Striker who can perform at this level.
You know we spent zilch signing Altidore or Graham, two of the strikers you're having a go at, and Jelavic and Long both had decent returns last season. You seem to have expressions you fall back on like the 'football coaching school' thing, and Ben Arfa's your latest target, which if you'd seen much of his play you'd realise was rubbish.
We had Altidore on loan for a season and whereas we had an option to buy him for 6.5 million quid at the end of his loan we didn't take the option up because he managed a staggering 1 goal from 28 appearances. There was no 'signing on' fee but we were paying his wages. At Sunderland he has managed 1 from 36 appearances and you reckon I'm 'having a go' at him? Graham managed 1 goal from 18 appearances with us and was goalless at Sunderland despite 13 appearances. And you reckon I'm 'having a go' at him? My opinion of Ben Arfa is my opinion only and he could well prove me wrong but I don't think so. He couldn't get a game with Newcastle and (again just my opinion only) appears to play to the crowd rather than work with his team-mates. And he only has one foot. Bernard Mendy was a similar player who preferred to show the crowd what HE could do rather than work with the team. It's all right taking an 'ostrich view' of our situation but the facts are that we are having little, if any, end results up front and don't appear to be much of a threat.
I remember them well Tuck. I know a striker when I see one and I haven't seen one playing for Hull City for a long time. Jelly is doing a spartan job but has little or no support. I am, like the jury, still out on Hernandez. I haven't seen a 10 million quid player yet but he still has plenty of time to make a name for himself. He has taken two good goals from limited opportunities so I will remain optimistic rather than pessimistic.
The last good striker I saw was Chris Chilton but of course we were in the old Third and Second divisions in those days. Chris did hit the big-time by moving to Coventry who were then in Division 1. He said after he retired that at Hull City when Butler, Henderson or Waggy got the ball he knew instinctively where the ball was going to be but at Coventry he could have had a cup of tea and a bun in the middle of the pitch waiting for a ball. Maybe this is what has happened to those strikers who have come here and fired blanks, I don't really know.This, I guess, is the difference as, after scoring almost 200 goals for us, he managed only 3 from 27 appearances for Coventry. Before he went to Coventry he had offers from Spurs and Leeds but stayed loyal to Hull City as did Waggy who had offers from Derby I believe. I was in the 'wilderness' after 67 when I came to Australia as it was a few years before we got the games live on TV when we hit the Premier League so I cannot comment on strikers during this time. My sons were very impressed with Danny Allsopp and Ben Burgess but again that was in the lower leagues. Ben came to Australia and played for a season with a now defunct team called Northern Spirit or something like that whilst Danny came back to his home town Melbourne and played successfully for the Victory side winning the "Golden Boot" award in the A League as highest scoring striker. He was capped for Australia but the then team Manager (who's name I can't pronounce let alone spell, after one performance, declared that he was "Bloody Hopeless". I also saw ex-England Internationals Stan Mortenson and Wilf Mannion play for City but they were way, way past their prime when they came to us. Norman Moore was a great 'Centre Forward' too. So I really can't answer your question but will stick with Chillo as the best I saw for us.
Long Fryatt Windass Campbell Burgess Parkin Alexander Linton Brown Edwards Payton the next best 10 IMO...all after Chilton..
And it's not a personal thing against him. I love Quinny, legend, but the way he handled our finances was crazy, the wages have anchored us for half a decade. If it wasn't for the tv deal it could well have made it a full decade to recover. Quinn had to go too. I know Bruce lost some big players for good money. Hendo and Bent made a nice profit, we got our money back on Gyan, problem is he got all the money back to spend and he didn't spend it well. Bruce and Quinn Crippled us, how we've remained in the league is a mystery, had we have been relegated we could have been looking at winding up orders. The OPs point is non comparable to you lot imo, though you are increasing the money you give him, which does make me worry for you lot, from genuine experience and nothing else, of course it doesn't mean he'll repeat the mistakes, but he doesn't seem to have evolved tactically. Defending one goal leads only to concede has always been his way, not just with us, but at Birmingham too. He can't be sacked yet no way, would be well harsh but if you've timed his contract right you could move him and upgrade. He has his limitations.
The problem is we've had such a chaotic 12 years both in terms of team and divisions. The longest we've spent in on one division is three seasons. With had plenty good strikers and plenty of bad ones. There aren't anything wrong with the strikers we have at the moment. If we went signed strikers every time we have a duff spell in front of goal we'd be signing 5 strikers a season. If one of our strikers gets 8+ goals in a season it's a decent return. I think some people have unrealistic expectations on our strikers. Last season only 5 strikers scored more then 15 goals in the Premier League.
It was actually 8 players (7 strikers plus Yaya Toure). But that is the crux of it - of those 8 players, only one (Bony) played for a club outside the big/top 7. It's unusual for anyone at a club outside that top 7 to score more than 15. When I was growing up, a good season for a striker meant 18 (or maybe 20) league goals or more; for those of you who grew up in the 50s and 60s it was probably more like 25. Now, at this level, it depends on who you play for - and if it's Hull City then 12 would constitute a very good return.
I use http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/premier-league/2013-14/top-goal-scorers.html I guess there stats are wrong. But what ever stats are the point stands. I think people's expectations have been distorted by the the ridiculous records of Messi and Ronaldo. In Premier League only 9 times have players scored 30 goals or more and five of them between 1993/94 and 1999/00.
It's ironic, that having posted a load of dodgy stats to prove your point, you've now suggested the best striker you've ever seen was Chris Chiltern, who has a top flight goal scoring record on 1 in 9, somewhat worse than Danny Graham's record of 1 in 5. I'm obviously not suggesting that Chillo wasn't a good striker, just that your stats were complete bollocks.
It's hard to take when you're paying good money and not getting the results you expect, I'm with you there. Although it could get worse for us after the next couple of games, I'm confident SB will get us over the winning line which is next May, not the end of November. I guess I have more faith in Brucey than you and more prepared to take the rough with the smooth. Remember this... David Brent: 'If you want the rainbow, you've gotta put up with the rain - do you know which philosopher said that? Dolly Parton. And people say she's just a big pair of xxxx.'
God no he's not that bad. He's not a bad manager in general really, done a good job with you so far. But he's getting regular spends now so his time to be judged on whether he's the man to take you forward is soon.
