McAnthony is a career salesman, a historic conman to a degree (see the mayhem he caused on the Costa) and a bit of a wild man. He’s also pretty straight up and open. I believe a lot that he says, I know a few folk who works for MRI and they have a hell of a lot of good things to say about him.
That Roker Report artice was done because of the McAnthony interview and the subsequent ****storm it created with our fans with his 'doesn't fancy him' comments, hence Hill coming out with his side of it. And if it was after that, when exactly was it? That Roker Report article was from 27th August, so not too much of the transfer window left. So I'm guessing it must have been Jan when Maddison went to Hull, when we probably had no cash or movement on the wage bill. And the only club willing to take him were a pretty **** Hull side where he managed the grand total of 7 appearances. I think that Smozdics that Peterborough signed to replace him would be a better option tbh and would much rather see us go for him.
Peterborough were looking to sell him in January, before he went to Hull, so well before August. The £2million fee was last summer, clearly we weren’t going to pay that. He’s a free agent now, we aren’t going to sidestep that and pay a fee for someone else I wouldn’t have thought. The concern, always, with Maddison is that he’s another Maguire or McGeady, capable of winning a game in a blink but just as likely to disappear. We need a spark though, it’s a gamble worth taking. His stats over 18 month in this league before the Posh fallout were outrageous. 7 games for Hull, given lockdown and his loan ending before the restart is pretty much every game they played, surely? *just checked started 7 of 10 games while he was there.
My gut feeling is he'd do well for us, a better version of Maguire who (as far as I know) supports Sunderland would be popular I think and he'd thrive on that popularity.
The hope is being a Sunderland fan may smooth out the attitude failings. It’s a logical leap of faith.
Like I say Maguire is popular because of the type of player he is so a younger version who supports Sunderland is almost guaranteed to be liked, which is what that type of player needs to perform. We always appreciate a bit of talent don't we.
You could have them both in there as well. Maddison is a lefty, after the **** we’ve had for let 2 year imagine being set up with decent wing backs, and 3 up to with O’Brien central and Maddison and Maguire wife. He is usually a number 10 player of course, we haven’t had a proper attacking midfielder with some ability since Sessegnon.
He only played 338 minutes in those 7 games, got a full 90 twice. I know he's a good player for this level but I can't even see where he'd be getting played tbh. We've got Gooch, McGuire, O'Brien, McGeady (not wanted but still here) and hopefully Diamond to play out wide and unless Parky is going to change our set up, we don't play with an attacking mid either. I think we need someone for the right wide forward position but I'd rather we went for a young un to try and develop, preferably one with pace to burn. After having said that he'll now be pictured holding up the scarf about half eleven tomorrow morning.
Yeah I'd play both of them too, talent is talent after all. Keep the rest of the team solid and a front three like that will create.
If he played with the form he had at Peterborough the last season and a half I'd play him ahead of all of the above.
I agree with chunks of that, but McGeady won’t be in the picture, and O’Brien I think has been bought as striker. To be fair to Parky he’s not had the option of an attacking CM so he may well want to change that, or as I’ve said, O’Brien, Maddison and Maguire is a really talented front 3 for the league. I live the idea of developing kids but this season more than ever we need lads who know the league, who can get it ****ing done. We can’t stay down again, we’d be finished if a salary cap comes in. Maddison isn’t just proven in the league, he ripped it to shreds for 18 months.
Absolutely, and can play central and off the striker as well. We need options, we’ve lacked options, any team in the league would be delighted to have Maguire, Gooch and theoretically Maddison into 2 places. Of course they would. We are all agreed the CB options are absolutely good enough, looks like we are making progress with the wing backs, I’m genuinely starting to get a bit of excitement back for it. I love a box office player. I loved Sess, Steed. I loved Hutch, Richardson. I loved McGeady, Kenwyne, AJ. Yes they will at times be the biggest frustration in your team as they won’t do owt and you know what they can do, but when they do that’s ****ing magic. Maddison is one of them. He’s not gonna light it up every week, but when he does we will ****ing adore it. We need that. We wanna see that.
