He's St Etienne's top scorer this season. He won't be coming back. Sad to say but he's a very good striker, always has been, and we totally messed him up - thankfully he's beginning to recover.
So you think booting the ball towards his chest, failing to play to through balls, Snodgrass stealing the penalty against Villa in the 4th game of the season and later playing him for four games with a severely injured toe which then meant he missed a huge chunk of the season was just bad luck? We totally destroyed the lads confidence. Maybe he should be a stronger character but he was flying when he joined us. He scored a hattrick for Sporting the week he signed his deal. He was a good striker when we signed him and he's a good striker now he's left. Funny that. He may have been overhyped by some quarters but we messed up big time. How many good players have we wasted over the years? Lafferty is another.
But Becchio was crap to be fair! Can't get fit, won't get fit. Not really a surprise nobody wants him. Even the Rotherham manager Steve Evans was pretty damning of him.
The way he was treated by management can only mean something happened in training, there can be no other logical explanation!
But he was scoring goals for fun for Leeds and he looked pretty good on the rare occasion he played for us imo. Just saying, his career kind of ended when he came here.
There's no secret. Well known that he hasn't been fit since we signed him and hasn't got the appetite to get his fitness levels up. Hence why three managers in a row haven't bothered with him. Hence why Rotherham didn't want him back. Hence why no club wants him. We really did buy a bad'un! Would have been better off keeping Steve Morison in hindsight but he wanted to go and we gambled on someone who had been banging in goals at the lower levels but as soon as he was seen at close quarters in training he had no chance. Not the player we thought we were getting! And originally on nearly £30k a week too. Shocking.
He's still on £18k a week, alright for him eh. We should have kept morison, remember when Arry wanted him for £6m at spurs but we held out for £8m. Mad how fast football changes.
This really isn't a big issue for me Supers, but whatever factors may have been involved, one goal in a whole season certainly didn't help our fight for survival. There was fault on both sides, but Ricky has to accept a measure of the failure as well and 5 goals in 22 appearances for St-Etienne is OK, but it's hardly setting the league on fire.
5 in 22 is a bit harsh... He's got 9 in 33 matches in all competition. And a lot of those games he didn't play the full 90, so if you go by minutes his record is nearly a goal every other match.
6 of those 22 games he came on as a 2nd half sub... Regardless glad he's finding better form and wish him luck.
That's fair enough, Rob, and you're usually right about that sort of thing. I'm pleased that he's doing well at St. Etienne because I like the guy.
Only "usually"?! I've got some catching up to do to get to Carrabuh's level then! I'm glad I'm not the only on who likes him, Rick. I think fans often judge a personality on their performance, which isn't fair. He had a shocking time here, no doubt, but even then he had the good grace to say some nice things about the club when he left. Top bloke IMO, just a shame he couldn't be a top player for us.
The premier league is tough & unforgiving Wolfswinkel was not good enough to compete against some of the best players in the World, Hughton didn't help things by playing horrible negative football but 1 goal in a whole season is not good enough. Lafferty was given a few chances up front and failed to impress notably the cup exits but he is not as good as the 3 strikers who between them have bagged 31 goals. It's a shame Elmander was guaranteed a start even though he only scored 1 and Becchio only got the odd 5 mins at the end of games we were losing but something must have happened behind the scenes. If we go up I wouldn't be surprised if RVW returns if St Ettienne try to haggle with the agreed price tag .
Personally, I'd love to see Ricky back - he got a bum deal with us 1st time around and it would be great if he returned to set the record books straight.
If we manage to achieve promotion, I think he should be asked back for pre-season evaluation/comparison by the new management team if nothing else, rather than just being let go.
Got a feeling we've got a reasonable first refusal sell on price agreed with St Etienne. No idea if that was just rumour but thought it was loan with a view to more. I personally would be keen to see him go again for Norwich and believe a more appropriate system and set up for his style would make the difference. He didn't turn into a bad player when he came here.
The way we have played in our strikers recently like hoopers first goal against Blackpool. These through balls are what ricky needed a we never even tried to play like that.
