I thought Gardner was decent in his first season, he and Turner made a perfectly decent Premier League centre back pairing, though he obviously faded badly later and his injury record was appalling. I remember one decent performance from Sonko, the rest of them(and I was at almost every game) we're fairly shocking, he's not a Championship quality player, ever mind a Premier League one.
You have to say that, it's the uniform opinion. It means nothing now because they've both gone, but it did my head in when Sonko used to get so much stick while Gardner single handedly dragged us into the Championship with his constant errors, and nobody seemed to notice them. Some people still say he's a good defender, it beggars belief.
This was from the Guardian last season when Sonko was at Portsmouth, "The key man, though, was Ibrahima Sonko, who brings to mind Djimi Traor̩ on a bad day Рa botched clearance on jelly legs. Sonko appears to have an uncontrollable urge to give away the ball, a goal, the game. All the arguing about Palace's second goal, which came when Pompey looked far more likely to score, missed the point. Maybe it was offside, maybe Jamie Ashdown was at fault, but Palace shouldn't have had the ball in the first place. Sonko, who not for the first time had gone forward for a long throw that never happened, needlessly lost possession near the halfway line. Game over. It was he who scored the own goal in the cup tie, and the way he grins after a bad mistake adds to his entertainment value, except to Pompey fans. In the first half, Sonko was lucky not to give away a goal when Vaughan dispossessed him just outside the penalty area, and how he conceded a corner when he had a four-yard start on his man only he will know. His thought processes seem to be as wayward as his ball control. Sonko is apparently a classically trained pianist. It's easy to picture him grinning away while he runs through the Charlie Chaplin film scores. I'd love to hear from fans of Reading, Stoke and Hull: has he been like this for a while, since his 2006 injury perhaps? If Pompey carry on in this vein they will be adrift by October, as they were in the Premier League last season. And the waterfall? There was a torrential early downpour and all the rain sluiced down the middle of the main stand roof. There were no spectators beneath it but, like Ibrahima Sonko, it was truly spectacular."
Upson had a shocking season and is living off previous reputation alone, ask any West Ham fan and they'll tell you how bad he was last season. If he gets another Prem club then the world has gone mad.
Sonko had a really good game in the first one he played after he'd been left out for ages. He was dire at Liverpool. Otherwise, he was just ordinary. Gardner was mostly terrific when he played in 08/09. He wasn't great in 09/10 and then was garbage last season. I was certain last summer that regardless of any other position, we were safe at centre-half with Garner and Zayatte. Clowns.
Gardner started well with Turner but with Zayatte & Sonko he was pants.. any of our CB pairings minus Turner were not good enough for the PL. Turner could have played alongside Hooch but he wasn't on our books..
Now there's a sensible post. Gardner was injured for a lot of the 08/09 season, and I remember reserving judgement on him until I'd seen him for a bit, but everyone was saying how good he was and I just kept thinking "Hmmm I'm not so sure." But it was indeed in the 09/10 season when he really started showing how ****e he could be. I've said this a few times but for anyone who thinks I'm a bit over the top about Gardner, go and watch all the goals we conceded in 09/10 and watch what Gardner does in them.
