Kieron Dyer: A Career Wasted
Another day and another shock signing of yet another footballer who could of been among England's best if not for his horrid luck with injuries. Today Kieron Dyer signed for Neil Warnock's Queen's Park Rangers after being released by West Ham. The ex-Ipswich and Newcastle United midfielder, now thirty-two must now wish for an injury free season in which allows him to finish his career on a high.
A fit Kieron Dyer was a very good player; with his speed his main attribute - unfortunately a fit Kieron Dyer is a very rare phenomena. After impressing at his hometown club Ipswich, Rudd Gullit splashed out £6million pounds to bring him to Newcastle Untied and did so full of promise. He played a total of 190 games for the Magpies and showed signs of brilliance in those appearances scoring twenty-three goals. He scored some good goals, one that sticks in my mind is the one away to Southampton when he went on a maize run before slotting past the goalkeeper.
However injury and attitude, the downfall of so many players hampered his progress into a true Newcastle United legend - he is credited with a major role in the incident that lead to Sir Bobby Robson being fired by the Magpies, not forgetting the embarrassing scrap with team mate Lee Bowyer in front of 52,000 Geordie's. However injuries which usually effected hamstring or shins, in which he got the nickname; splintershins and unfortuantely restricted him to leaving his mark on the Premiership.

A rare appearance.
He moved to the West Ham for a suprising £6million fee in August 2007, impressing in his debut game agaist Birmingham City but then succumning to injury; not featuruing for over seventeen months and then only mangaging one game before falling to injury again. In the three years at Upton Park he managed thirty appearances on £60,000 a week. He had a brieft loan spell at Ipswich at the end of this season making four appearances before being called back to the Hammers to be part of the squad that was relegated to the Championship.
QPR have taken a massive gamble on Dyer but as noted above a fully fit Dyer can turn a defence inside out and even though his trademark speed has no doubt gone, I still believe that his ability to pick out a pass is still there and I for one hope, like Jonathan Woodgate that he manages to pay back the faith to the manager and club which has taken the gamble on him.