Hey guys, great start to the season by the way, pochettino looks like he could do a good job for you guys and all the best for the season ahead! I'm just writing to ask about michael dawson really from a supporters point of view, we are apparently close to agreeing a deal, just wondering what you all make of him?
He used to be the best English CB in the Prem (according to Tevez). Always very strong and accurate in the air, so great to have at the back during set-pieces. However, over the past couple of seasons, his lack of pace and agility has really been exposed. He's no longer a "top 4" defender. However, he's definitely a player to have in your squad if you intend on ensuring top flight survival. I'll wish him well, should he leave us.
No nonsense, boot it out of danger, type of player. I always liked that part of him but, saying that, it's pretty much all he did for us. You just know he's the type of lad who turns up early and goes home late. Always got the kits he needs. Never going to get silly reds. Never cause the manager problems. Wont be on the front pages of the paper. Says hello to the tea lady and cleaners. A proper nice bloke.
I think he'll suit Hull down to the ground, great defender on his day but like the rest of the defence in the second half of last season he made a number of stupid mistakes leading to goals. Sad to see him leave, he was a top defender at his best(our player of the year 5 years ago) and gave a lot to the club. I don't think his career's over by any stretch though, he just doesn't suit pushing high up the pitch with an attacking side ahead of him. He'll be good in the air, a strong tackler, has great character(AVB tried to sell him, he chose to stay and proved him wrong) and you can expect to see plenty of his diagonal balls out to the wings. Some didn't like the long passes thing with Dawson but, as Spurcat said sometime ago, he's had a lot of managers and not one has tried to stop him doing it so it clearly has some use. Hull were already my second team in the league with Tommy, Livermore and Bruce, who I always rated. Second seasons are notoriously difficult for promoted clubs even if they do well in the first, but I think with a good striker added to your squad you could surprise a lot of people again this season.
Thats great to hear yid vicious, tom and jake have suited the club down to the ground and we seem to have a good team, who seem to all get on well and i think joining dawson back up with tom and jake can only help that continue. I think we should be ok at staying up, theres a few teams i'd name before us to go down! but we will be stronger with a solid backline, a creative midfielder and a striker! ...just hope when we play you, we dont get some dodgy handball decision, the refs seem to have it in for us alot! I think tottenham could defienately be a dark horse this year and I'm a big fan of pochettino (i can't spell his name though)
He's still a very good defender and a very nice person, by all accounts, he just hasn't suited the style of play of our last few managers. Joining a side that doesn't play such a high line, where he already knows some of the squad and is probably one of the first names on the team sheet will be great for him. He's captain material, he's played quite a few games in Europe which will be handy if you can get past Lokeren and he never kicks up a fuss about anything. I think he'll be another successful transfer from Spurs to Hull and I'm sure that 99% of Spurs fans will wish him good luck and welcome him back to the Lane when we play each other.
Cheers for the well wishes Wolfy. As for Daws, he's a fantastic defender, one of the best in the League providing you don't play a high line (which I don't think you do?). A typical old school English CB. He has leadership qualities and will literally bleed for the shirt and the badge. He will throw a foot, leg, chest, back and head into any situation to try and help preserve the goal from an opposition shot, regardless of how hurt he may come off. He's strong in the air, positions himself generally well for the most part, won't shy away from a challenge and can ping a long ball out from the back with pretty good accuracy. Expect him to link up in a great partnership with Davies. Having Jake and Tom with you will help ease him in nice and quickly and I guarantee you, the £3m figure you're shelling out on him will be the best £3m you've spent in a long time, possibly ever. I'm not sure who your captain is but I guarantee that if Daws does join you, he'll be an influential character and wouldn't surprise me if Bruce handed him the captaincy at some point. Aside from the footballing abilities, he's also a great guy and extremely loyal to his employer. He'll build a great rapport with the fans and overall I think you guys will get to love him just as we do. I'd still happily keep Daws with us but for his own benefit, a move would suit him. He's easily got another 2-3 seasons of top level football in him, possibly more as long as the defence stays rigid. I think I speak on behalf 99% of Spurs fans when saying we wish him nothing but the best should he join you. A Spurs legend.
i'm looking forward to getting him, seems a good lad! we obviously had his brother andy here, and he's a legend at the club, so we hope he will be too! ...we do like to pass it out from defense and I've read that he likes to hoof it abit, so that might be a downfall, however sometimes we need to just hoof it out haha!....thats great to see, spurs fans seem to have huge amount of respect for their ex players, tom and jake got a great reception aswell in hull and in tottenham, thats always great!...you got any strikers we could borrow haha?
As much as the handball given against you last season was the wrong decision as it came off the player's thigh first, the ref couldn't see that so I don't think it was an awful decision. I think lots of sets of fans think they get a raw deal, and we're one of them too. Moss is a **** ref though, I don't know how he's not realised that it came off a Stoke player for the throw in.
We'll always respect the players that done well for us and left on good terms, as I'm sure most clubs would. Daws and Tom are/ were with us for a long period and helped us get back into European places in the league after we languished in mid-to-bottom half of the table for years. Jake was a local lad and a success story of our academy, I met him a number of times, mainly at semi-pro boxing events which he was a big fan of and he was an absolutely top guy, coming out of the VIP section to pose for photos with fans (one with myself ) and always had time for a chat, he done really well in the chances he got here but unfortunately we just had too many experienced midfielders who were pretty much in their prime for him to ever get a solid run in the side. It's great seeing him and Tom do well, though it's expected as both are great players, as I'm sure you already know. Daws only really hoofed it when under direct pressure, he was no-nonsense which I think defenders need to be. He can ping a ball though make no mistake about it, a key part of his and our game for a period was relying on him and others to find the likes of Lennon and co in wide areas to then allow them to get the ball into the box, he was pretty accurate too, I'd say a good 6 or 7 out of 10 pings from distance found their desired target and for a CB, that's pretty darn good.
Cheers, Wolfman. Dawson now might still be our best defender against teams with some combination of good aerial threat and not too much pace up front (1/3? 1/2?). But you'd want someone faster against the quickest and best attackers. I still think he'd be a good sometime starter for us, despite us playing a high line. He should be a good player for you, and one that sets a standard of professional behavior and dedication.
He's arrived at the KC and is having his medical today, hopefully we'll finally get this one over the line tomorrow.
Moss is a terrible ref, made some bad decisions again staurday for us, he seems to always miss things and relies on his assistant refs too much!....I know what you mean, but it was 1-0 to you and the handball was your 1 goal, so was a massive kick in the teeth, 3pts could of been the difference between staying up or going down, refs have to be bang on with these things, if there not sure, dont give it! its water under the bridge now. I don't feel bad towards tottenham just think the officials need to use common sense sometimes!
Yeah, I wasn't saying it didn't have a big influence on the game but I was just sympathising with the ref as at the time I thought it was nailed on too. Not just because I'm Spurs though, I remember when Huddlestone got sent off for us awhile ago(forget who against) and there was a hush around the crowd as we all thought he going to be sent off, which he was, but in the replays it showed he hadn't done much wrong and the other player went in just as bad. Sometimes you can be sure of something even if you're wrong. That said, I agree there are too many bad decisions made where you just think, "what on Earth was the ref thinking" and also too much leniency given to bigger teams at times too. It's the inconsistency that really irks me about refereeing, like Oliver who booked Costa for diving last week and then refused to give Can a second booking for diving a week later. The rules are partly to blame as they're so vague and open to interpretation.
