Thank **** for that. Can't fault the guy's commitment and love for the club but he's got limited ability as a CB and his injury record quite frankly takes the piss.
Had decent potential (U21 captain i believe) and there were good times with him - like leading the Premiership a few years ago when Colo and Taylor were (inexplicably) amazing and reliable. A good Premiership player who had so many injuries that he progressively got worse rather than better. If he had half the footballing intelligence of someone like Ledley King (who also suffered badly) we would still be in the Premiership and he would be an integral part for the 10 or so games he can play a season. Sadly all he has now is passion, this is a season or 3 too late - I actually wouldn't have been averse to having him in the Championship as it's possibly his level now but he's on a good salary so can go away.
Poorly developed by the club and as a result never became what he should have. In recent times, has often been a hinderance. Best wishes to him, we should have done more with him but this is 100% the right call for all parties.
Not sure how you can blame the Club. Could quite easily have been down to the player not progressing or not having the right attitude or being unable to learn or etc.
Well quite simply since he broke through we sacked Robson, and proceed to appoint garbage coaches and managers from that point forward. his formative years were wasted. He looked to have a certain degree of potential which has been wasted. The fitness side of things is a joke. The number of times he was asked to play through issues which have led to long term problems is so poor. I know first hand that the lad has a number of imbalances in his body due to the way he has been handled. I can't fault his attitude and nor do any of his managers. So the question must be, why has he not progressed and been such a regular visitor to the physio room?
I don't doubt that he had his limits. But his handling and lack of development from where he was at 18-19 is pathetic. This is a lad who has ad England calls, but not had the basic errors in his game eradicated by good coaching. Sadly I think its all too common if you look at the period between Bobby's departure and now. We have had a few promising players who have just not progressed at all. The good thing is young lads like Armstrong, Lascelles, and Aarons now have a manager with a track record of putting in place structures geared towards development of players of all ages.
Saw a list of defenders he was playing along side and they were all rubbish. Just some of the names I remember from the list: David Rozenhal Claudio Cacapa Titus Bramble Jean Alain Boumsong Fitz Hall And that's when he was playing next to a recognized CB not a Left or Right back plugging a gap. You can't develop properly when you are playing with that lot as your defensive partner! Anyone got any other horror defenders since Saylors been playing?
I actually thought Rozenhal wasn't shoddy in the limited time we had him though that could be rose-tinted glasses. Fitz Hall did a job that was asked of him but doesn't deserve to be on a list with Boumsong and Cacapa who were shocking. As regards performances for us, Mbiwa was worse
End of an era, had good times and the not so good suffering a double relegation. Wish him well, but now its time to Sayl-orf into the sunset.
I wish him well. Had passion a lot of players could do with, Gave us some good laughs with him stalking keepers at free kicks, falling down shot in the chest to name but two. Pity his injuries over the years kept him from developing his early potential and I blame numpty managers for that. Like to see him and Shola sign for the Heed to assist in getting them up from the conference. It's not as if they need the money.
Not sure how you write a Saylor eulogy without being too damning but I'll have a go....on my 2004/05 DVD there's a section about him being a star of the future, he quickly got a first team place after that and was capatinjng the England U21 in an excellent euros campaign in 07, strong, mobile and also had a goal in him, future looked bright, but since 08....all unfulfilled potential really, constant injuries, only ever seems to play 10 games a season, and when he does they're full of glaring errors and lapses in concentration. In a perfect world we'd remember him for some steely defending and thumping in that header in Europe in 06 followed by his Forest Gump run...but in reality we'll remember his endless injury spells, his cringe worthy play acting when he hand balled against Villa, and his horrendous defending when Shane Long walked past him at the end of this season, leading Rafa to finally give up hope. 30 now with a few years left in him, will probably be picked up by someone like Fulham or Birmingham as his career fizzles out. You really can't view him as anything other than a massive dissappoinment considering what we could have achieved, the likes of Bramble will be more fondly remembered than Saylor.
Only if you're thinking of Bramble playing against us after he left such as his tackle on Andy Carroll in the 5-1 game.
