Has anyone else noticed that we havn't missed Johnson since he was sacked' Infact I think that the team has been better without him. It is more balanced and the work rate seams higher..
Yeah I think you're right - Not sure if it's coincidence or what but he hasn;t been missed which is surprising as he's, albeit spordically, a very good player. Guessing those who are with us have stepped up their game and made sure we didn;t miss him. Allardyce will no doubt have helped matters as he's meticulous in his preparation!
Dont know about that mind. I quite liked AJ as a player. Even though its really uncool to admit that.
Not at all - undoubtedly a quality footballer! I liked him as a player! But we don;t really miss him on the field - we are playing no worse without him
I think you're a more likeable team without that rat faced **** in the side, not that being likeable would be high on your list of things you'd care about. Just Borini to go and you might actually start to be a favourite of mine.
I wanted Johnson gone some time before the scandal broke. He had some talent but he didn't work hard enough and I always suspected that, if there was a rotten core to the club, then he was part of it. I wasn't wrong about that. Not missing Fletcher either for similar reasons.
Just coincidence to me. Whether him gone from the changing room has lifted the mood in there may be a factor. Who knows?
The lad undoubtedly had talent, however, it was wasted at both Man city and SAFC, with his partying off the field. When the shrink gave his evidence he mentioned his immaturity which was evident for all to see and something AJ never tried to hide hence his lifestyle off the field. Perhaps if his problems had been addressed by his managers, both football and business, earlier in his career he would have progressed further on the international scene and would still be playing today.
He was a good player, but it seems that he wasn't such a good influence. I think his talent was self-evident, but his application let him down and led to some pretty average performances. All of the players are grafting now and there's still enough quality without Fletch and AJ to do OK.
Going to put my neck on the line a bit here but as a footballer, I actually think we have missed him at times. Sometimes when it's been a bit 'kick and rush' we could have done with someone to put his foot on the ball and take someone on. Off the pitch, undoubtedly it's a good thing he's ****ed off.
The only thing that I would say is that if he was used as a sub then he was one hell of an impact player, with ALL of the antics that happened I just feel that we are a man down when we have to change things around tactically on the pitch.
I think Borini has been a good part of our new defensive record with the old fashioned hard work making a difference and relieving some of the pressure from the defence. Needs to score a few goals though. Not saying he is very good but has been the best of a bad bunch with Johnson, Graham and Fletcher letting us down badly. If we stay up I still think Sam would replace him with someone who can offer more threat.
We have missed the odd spark of quality from him but his overall contribution left much to be desired, just like many of the others recently shown the door we are a lot better off without them.
Lens should be able to do this for us but I don't think the manager fancies him. Which I reckon is why he's not looked interested since Advocaat left. Same with Toivonen to some extent
Agree, Lens is a talent, no doubt. Just look at the goal he scored against West Ham. Just seems his attitude is not what Sam is keen on. I reckon they were promised to be automatic starters with Dick. Toivonen played under him before and he and Lens had common ground being Dutch. Sam comes in and changes things and they've taken the hump. Fair enough not to play them I say.
Couldn't agree more! Though I do wonder about the decision making when we recruited players in the summer to suit Dick and then replaced him with a manager who, I would have said, operated in a markedly different way and wouldn't fancy half of those new recruits
I'm not his biggest fan but no doubt he was a talented player and when he could be bothered he was someone who won us some games, unfortunately this was few and far . I don't think he'd of got in the starting line up at the minute and I think we look a lot better without him in the side, having said that it would have been nice to able to call on a player like him from the bench particularly in the games we've drawn or lost by the odd goal.
The other stuff aside....AJ had the ability but never produced it on a consistent basis. At Man Citeh he could get away with quite a lot because of the quality behind him....couldn't do that at Sunderland. Such a waste of talent....the true inner person he was....led to his downfall.....maybe at the moment he is reflecting that.
