As soon as junior was dropped to the bench we beat Liverpool at home and Palace away - unfortunately it was all too late - Macca against Man U epitomised the fight but too many games with Macca and Curtis dropped, Maguire farmed out having to put up with junior in the centre of a premier league defence was unforgiveable and got the relegation it deserved
Macca played in the majority of our Premier League games last season. I know he got to be a bit of a cult player, but he really wasn't a great footballer and him leaving was no great loss. Rosie's another story, he should have got far more game time last season and we should have held on to him.
Neither of them were capable of making the team consistently or being able to galvanise it last season, I don't see why it would be any different this season.
Really!?! Rosenior's team seem to be doing alright!? Maybe he's helping galvanise them? Rosey didn't play because of the 3-5-2. It's pretty hard to have an effect from the bench. He was certainly capable of playing that level. It could be argued he's more consistent and a better defender than Moses. If we had played 4-4-1-1 last season. He would have certainly been a much better right back than Elmo. I thought we looked a much more stoic and aggressive team with Macca in too. Oh for either one of them in the last 6 weeks...
They're both good but not great players and certainly not influential enough to change a dressing room as people are eluding to on here. I'm sure they would have done a job had they played more but I'm not convinced they could have stopped us getting relegated last season or could have galvanised the team this year. It takes more than a couple of players to achieve that I'm afraid.
For me keep Rosy is a better defender than Odubajo, albeit Odubajo is a better prospect with pace and will get better whereas Rosy maybe has another 2-3 years left in him? I personally would have preferred had Rosy stayed and we kept £3.5m in the bank. If we were selling Odubajo tomorrow would we get our money back?
Maguire played 3 league games , Macca 20 , Curtis 21 Junior 22, Chester 23 and Dawson 28 - bearing in mind that we had Chester Dawson and Curtis as our top 3, followed by Macca and Maguire with Junior a distant 6 it makes you wonder why Junior got so many games when the objective was to stay in the PL
Nope. Curtis fell on his arse last week. Still one of our better players this season. I'd have kept Macca all day.
Staying up last season could have been as little as beating Sunderland at home which would have put us above them. It really didn't need much. Considering the sheer level of mismanagement, we could and should have stayed up quite comfortably. Little things add up. We have more talent and a ton less points than Burnley and Brighton. It's certainly not down to ability, and it's not hard to see we lack leadership and character.
The last 6 weeks wave hello. I'd have Macca and no Bruce junior. He'd have been on the bench 25 games and started 10. With Dawson's absence earlier this year and again now he'd have come straight in. Far better than Bruce jr.
Would he have taken back up money? No. Just in case people dont remember. Mcshane was a laughing stock at this club until Steve Bruce got into him and resurrected his career.
Will he be on much more than Junior is at Reading? No. Junior got a tidy deal for us... Can't think why. Casting Steve Bruce as the saviour of McShane's career is off the mark. He succeeded at City despite Bruce more than because of him. He was farmed out to Palace and Barnsley by him and only injuries and lack of performance from his replacements saw him back in. If anything McShane proved Bruce wrong as he clearly never rated him.
Not massive differences but... Macca is a better athlete, quicker, plays with more passion, better leader and less injury prone.
Love him or loathe him, Mr Joey Barton is clearly inspiring Burnley's lesser lights In the not so distant past we had leaders all over the pitch - Deano, Barmby, Ash but these are characters who came through the divisions with City and bled black & amber.. where do you find them now?
