Agreed. There are quite a number of Sharps out there, strikers who were extremely productive in the Championship, but lacked the quality to step up to the PL. Happy for Sharp, but elite League One/good Championship player is and has always been his level.
Couldn't happen to a nicer feller. Did we axe him too quickly? Not sure, but like Deano he was taken out and shot pretty damned quick.
I'm going to disagree, really. I can understand that the players were likely disappointed not to get their shot, but I suspect it was the best thing for all of their careers. Being a Premier League player is wonderful and romantic right up until you are a Premier League unused substitute, and then a Premier League 2 overage player trying to maintain match fitness. Compare Hammond's couple seasons after leaving Saints to his one season in the PL: we loaned him to Brighton for a year, where he was omnipresent, and then he left on a free to Leicester, where he started the majority of their games and helped them on to promotion. In his one PL season with Leicester, he was a regular starter for about six weeks, and then basically disappeared off the face of the earth...he saw a total of 29 minutes of action in his final four months. And there's Chaplow, who did remain with the club. Three sub appearances allow him to always say he was a Premier League player, but that was presumably a very frustrating seven months. I'm certainly sympathetic; it cannot be easy to be a large part of promotion to the Premier League only to be told you won't be a part of the following season. But I think that the Hammonds likely had more fun going from strength to strength than Chaplow (and Richardson, and de Ridder) had watching from the periphery.
Speaking of Dean, he's currently employed at Leicester City as 'player loan manager' - keeping in touch with those on loan, aiding and observing development of academy players, dealing with practical issues relating to loan moves and also helping players with deciding on which suitable loan move is their best pick, if so desired. Aside from that, he's got coaching badges and continues to improve upon his qualification level. I believe he also coaches teenagers at Leicester while I know for a fact he's also been busy establishing his own property development firm. Sounds like that move to Leicester actually did him a right old favour, even beyond his playing days! Sounds like he's got his head screwed on, too.
I used to love playing Against Gravesend & Northfkeet. They always had a fairly noisey crowd for that level. I then came across a customer one day who supported them which made for interesting meetings!
All I need now is the rough area he lives and I’ll track him down and stalk him. He can’t be too far from me. Much man love
Cracks me up people talking about Sam Gallagher - who did okay-ish in the Championship - being given a chance, but totally write off Billy Sharp despite the fact that he is banging them in for fun down there.
How on Earth can you say that before he has even had a chance? Look at his numbers over the past few seasons. They're are Lambert-esque. 80 goals from 148 games for Sheff Utd. He knows where the bloody goal is, that's for sure.
Well, those include his time in League One, where he was far too good (for the sake of comparison, Will Grigg is also far too good for League One, but probably not a PL player), but which probably don't speak much to his ability to compete in the PL. Since leaving Saints, he has in 50 goals in 157 Championship games...certainly not bad, but not exactly numbers that suggest he would be a consistent goalscorer at the top level, either.
I still wince when I think about how we treated Billy...he should have been given more of a chance in the EPL with us. He was a natural goal scorer who had earned a chance. His holiness Ricky proved you can be polished into a top flight striker. Vardy is another example....not got enough vowels in his name to be really rated by the cogniscenti*...but he can still score those important goals. *Prior to Leicester's golden season.
If I recall correctly we essentially replaced Billy Sharp with Jay Rod, who hadn't played in the PL either.
I think any talk about Sam is because he is seen as one of our youngsters (he isn’t really as we signed him at 16/17) and a slightly rose coloured tint to views of him. I’ve always stated that I don’t think he’s good enough, yet hoped to be proved wrong. Nice lad, hard working, sad loss of his father at a young age.... but for me not what we need. In his three or four games when Ricky was injured, I thought he looked lost. He missed that chance after a couple of minutes against Arsenal and had that gone in, well you never know. He was very young and of course players can improve and learn, but he must now be 22/23?? I’ll be very interested to see how he does if he gets a chance in the PL, but I don’t think I’ll be in for a surprise. You are correct Black, he hasn’t ripped up League one or the championship yet.
Okay, but 60-70 of those games were during three loan spells with different clubs. Can't be easy to just walk into any old team and immediately fit their system of play and demand to be the outlet for all their attacking play. Simply doesn't happen like that. And no doubt he would have been coming off the subs bench a lot of that time. So its not a reliable statistic at all. When he is settled though, as he is with Sheff Utd, he is a scoring machine. And if he was playing with Premier League quality players around him, you just don't know. Maybe he would raise his level too. Until he is given a go, there is no way of knowing.
