I did say almost half and then pointed out that whilst his wasn't as good he was playing as a RWB not an out an out winger. That 5 assist was also better than 3 out of Maloney's 4 PL seasons. And the one better season from Maloney he only got one more assist than Elmo last year. Koren was not over 30, no. Like I said, as a FA, at a time when we didn't have two quid to rub together, I was happy to see him come in. We're in a bit of a healthier position now.
But we didn't sign them at the time thinking "they'll go for **** loads", we signed them because we wanted good players and they were available to buy. The fact that we sold them for a decent profit is a bonus, but it shouldn't dictate how fans perceive the player. I'm not saying we wouldn't get money for the likes of A-Bob and Maguire, just that it's not important right now. If there was a bidding war over them then it'd be different, we as fans would want the best value for the club, but that's the only time money should really come into it. The focus should be on how good the player will get, not how much money the club will get when they sell him. I know I go on about it, but I honestly don't give a **** how old a player is. Imagine this scenario: There are two strikers in the league below us, a 30 year old who managed 28 goals and a 23 year old who managed 15. Which one do you go for, based on those stats? The one that scored the most goals, obviously.
Maloney's career record according to Wiki is: 339 Games 74 Goals 98 Assists He will rip up the Championship.
You mean almost half. Everyone over 30 is actually a "synth". Enjoy the remaining years of your human life.
And like I said, you really need to actually look at performances over statistics. Something only the ignorant solely focus on.
Of course not, but would you rather have done what we did in the PL and sign a good blend of youth and experience or go out and sign the Rio Ferdinand's and Joey Barton's of the league, get relegated, and realise that we had no sell-able assets, no way to raise any money to buy players to get us promoted, and end up in a rutt? I absolutely agree, that in the short term, you go for the player who on paper will perform. But if you do that you end up turning over players year after year, getting no continuity in the side, and ending up like a Wigan, who held on to Premier League status for dear life for as long as they could and have now collapsed in a thud. Fulham the same.
I didn't say I solely focussed on that, did I? That was your presumption. But as I have repeatedly said, if he's off playing in the MLS, and there aren't mid- to lower-table Championship clubs trying to fight us off for him, he's hardly an in demand player is he?
Tell you what, like I said yesterday. If he signs and plays well, I'll be happy as pie as the rest of you and will happy to receive all the abuse and degrading remarks you see fit to shower on me - even though of course I'm not the only one unenthused with him joining - and if he comes and plays a less than inspiring role in the side I'll be unhappy and moaning like the rest of you too.
Also as a bit of self-defence about my judgement of age - in AFL here (cue the we don't give a **** etc. remarks) 32 is basically retirement age, I always forget that football players play a bit longer. Still think he's past it though.
But that's my point, people harp on about age being such an important factor in terms of playing ability and potential fees etc, but in reality it doesn't matter; if he's part of a side who gets us promoted then he's a means to an end, such is football. It's good to have constants in the side, totally agree, it's why I think keeping hold of Thudd, Elmo and (sigh) Meyler is important. In Fulham's case, they lost pretty much their entire first team squad as it was poached and they had to rebuild, they just couldn't name a settled side.
I don't get what your point is - we seem to have signed a few young players and in Taylor and Maloney experienced ones - we're not actually signing loads of old players are we? What are you on about?
I'm talking pre-relegation for Fulham. They brought in guys like Berbatov and Bent up top who really did two-fifths of **** all for them instead of going after younger hungrier options, and when they went down Berbatov skipped off on a freebie.
How old was Windass when he rejoined to fire us to our first ever Premier League season? Just saying.
Well as was previously said, I'd classify experience as 25-26. Also we already have a fair bit of experience. As Bruce has said recently his aim was to bring in youth to balance out our generally older squad.
But that's easy to say in hindsight, at the time they were probably rubbing their hands together, I know I would've been.
There are always exceptions. I've said it about three times now, I'm happy to just drop this discussion and we'll see in 12 months, won't we?
