You don't need the full gamut of stats to know of Anthony Stokes' worth as a striker in Scotland, but here they are anyway. In his time in this country, with Falkirk, Hibs and Celtic, he's had 190 starts (plus 38 appearances off the bench). He has scored 114 goals (just six of those were penalties) and assisted in 64 others. It is rare that a guy with that kind of artillery in his locker becomes available on loan in the Premiership, but he's up for grabs until the end of the season. Given those numbers, no wonder that Mixu Paatelainen's tongue has been hanging out of his head for a few weeks. Stokes is precisely the kind of player he needs if Dundee United are to stage any kind of act of defiance at the bottom of the Premiership. Up in Inverness, John Hughes hasn't so much fluttered his eye-lashes in Stokes' direction as give him the full come-hither routine. Stokes is not returning his calls, so Hughes has been left to do his serenading in public. It has been a bit desperate, but entirely understandable because Hughes knows better than anybody what Stokes can do for his team. Hughes has applied the defibrillator to Stokes' career on two separate occasions - when he took him on loan from Arsenal to Falkirk and when he signed him for Hibs after the striker had endured joyless spells at Sunderland and on loan at Sheffield United and Crystal Palace. Hughes' management worked wonders on Stokes - and Stokes worked wonders for Hughes - and it was on his watch at Hibs that the striker got his big move to Celtic. The Dubliner owes the Inverness manager a lot, the least of the debt being the returning of a phone call. please log in to view this image John Hughes (left) says Anthony Stokes has not returned his calls Stokes is bound for Easter Road and the care of Alan Stubbs. It could prove a good move because Stubbs looks like the kind of manager who understands how to deal with players who have a pretty loose interpretation of what it is to be a good pro, on and off the pitch. He has turned Jason Cummings around and if Stokes is ready to listen then he might well do the same for him. Stokes is just 27 - old enough to know better but young enough to have some fine years left in him if he can get himself on track. The player has clouds on his horizon that he needs to clear. He faces a trial in Dublin on charges of an alleged assault on an Elvis impersonator at a nightclub in the city in June 2013. His ability to score goals in Scotland is beyond question. His judgement in other areas of his life is far less certain, however. As a footballer, he has a future but only if he can rid himself of the attitude that has seen him fail to kick a ball for Celtic since late August. The sight of Nadir Ciftci and Carlton Cole ahead of him in the pecking order at Parkhead should both embarrass and inspire him. In ability terms, he's better than the pair of them and nearly everybody at the club would accept that. It's what's termed "the other stuff" that has held him back. Former Celtic boss Neil Lennon first mentioned "the other stuff" more than three years ago and the fact that we're still talking about it now shows that Stokes is slow to learn his lesson. To avoid the grim prospect of looking back on his career with a ton of regret the player needs to start making better decisions, on the pitch and off. He looks to have made a good one in committing to Hibs for the rest of the season. Everybody knows that he has the talent to be a success (again) in Edinburgh. It's his temperament that will be on trial in the coming months. (source : Tom English on BBC Scotland) ____________ What a wasted career. Obviously very talented, obviously very, very thick. He can't even return Hughes' calls! - well, lucky old Caley Thistle. And how lucky are Sunderland to be rid of him.
I've got little sympathy for footballers who have talent but do their best to throw it away on drugs and booze. All they have to do is hold it together until they can retire, rich and famous, in their mid thirties. After that they can party and get pissed to their hearts content.
Compare this story with the ones about Tommy Lawton in last week's papers. (Sorry they are too long to post in full) and it just about sums up how the players are running the show now.
Yes. Di Canio's biggest mistake was thinking he could treat players as before. There were good things to say about Paolo, but that was never going to work
Would depend what bad boys meant. Dennis Law was the goal scorer for ManU in the '60s and went and asked for more money because his goals were winning the games. Matt Busby told him the other ten helped him to do that, Law said he wanted away so he was on the list then and there but Busby also informed the Manchester Evening News who had it on the front page. He pulled his neck in after that but eventually left for Italy where he last a season or so before coming back. Apart from George Best, who is well documented, a big fellow named David Herd was fond of a pint or two so Busby had him shipped out sharpish when he did not rein himself in. No bad ones at Sunderland though, but somebody will know different, plus they only earned a living wage from the game and travelled on buses to the matches.
They've always been there to some extent. Alf Common, the world's first £1,000 player, was stripped of the Middlesbrough captaincy and never played for England again after one incident of 'drunk and violent conduct'. That was about 1911. Hughie Gallagher was once actually sent off in the middle of a game for being drunk and disorderly! I think that was in the early-1930s. (Hughie, apparently, often enjoyed a couple of drams at half-time, even in international games!) But they were exceptions. As Nostalgic's said, it's much more common now. Today, even the Anthony Stokes's of this world do just what they like.
It was all to do with him hurting his son. Real interesting read. He scored 5 goals in a match 4 times. Check it out mate. Its all on wiki.
He had real problems with booze & a vicious temper didn't he? I remember my granda talking about him.
Yep. Relic keeps throwing these names up. Some real interesting stuff. Not for everyone but i enjoy them.
Sorry, I missed out on that, lads - had to go to bed. I've got two photos of Hughie somewhere. They were taken 10 years apart. O.k., everybody will expect him to look different - 10 years does that to any face. But you won't believe these. One's in his early twenties, when he'd just joined Newcastle - a slim, smart, straight-shouldered, lad. But you won't recognize him in the other. His face aged 25 years in ten! I'll see if I can find them later today and get them up here. By the way, Alf Common, mentioned in #9 is the feller on The Outlaw's avatar.
Think I could have been guilty of that a few times on a Saturday morning. Shame the ref just put them through as horrible tackles.
Phew! Them little buggers took some finding! These are the Gallagher photos I was on about. The first is dated about 1925, when he was transferred from Airdrieonions to Newcastle. The second is from close to when he left Chelsea (1934). please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Just nine years to turn a razor sharp kid into something so much darker!
