Delaney was a donkey at left back but with McAuley they forged the best centre back partnership we had since we had players like De Vos and Hreidsrsson. I'm not saying he's in Hermann's league but it was the starting point for the defence we have now. Alex Bruce is doing alright too and he is definitely no better than average... It's about getting the best out of the players and Garvan is a talented lad that we wasted.
Delaney IMO was better than McAuley but only for the fact he had a bit of commitment and aggression two things that Ol'ShandyPants never had. Garvan for me never progressed from day one till the day he left he was ok at the start and ok at the end but not special.....I don't know if the club failed to make him progress or the player himself just wasn't that driven to improve once he had got to the first team, that said he does not seem the kind of player that could handle being shouted at by Roy Keane.
I have to completely disagree with you Weighty on that one and it's not often I do. Looking back at some of the performances of Delaney and McAuley I still say to this day if we were to go back and analyse his positions during the game you would not say that was a strong partnership McAuley went walk about in most games leaving McAuley often having to mark Delaneys player, during that McAuley was in the form of his life, he was outstanding and I honestly think he got Delaney out of alot of trouble, the following season you look at when it was Delaney Sonko, then you see how much McAuley got him out of trouble. I certainly wasn't one of the best defensive partnerships we've had, McAuley was IMO probably the best defender we've had since McGreal although he did take a while to find his feet, he certainly needed a manager to give him abit of confidence and I don't think Keane was that manager. In terms of partnerships, I though De Vos, Bruce was decent although both were limited players they seemed to work well together, I actually think Bruce could be a good CB if he was a bit bigger, he's actually not bad positionally or at reading the game his problem is I think due to his size he over compensates sometimes and gets a little overzealous. I think the Smith, Chambers partnership was one of the best we've had in a long time but again neither are probably the best defenders we've had. As for Garvan when he first came on the scene he was outstanding as a 17 year probably one of if not the best I've seen, how many players come into a team at 17 and are able to dominate a game like that and he continued to do that for a while his fortunes seemed to turn like the clubs when ME came in and that age between 19-22 is a difficult one for alot of footballers, they often go through peaks and troughs at that age usually if you had a good manager and a stable environment players come out the other side unfortunately we didn't and like you say he didn't seem like the kind of player who would have responded well to Keane (if there's any player?), it's a shame because the boy is very very talented, i'd imagine there is a mix of things though, i've heard his attitude wasn't great but it's about managing peoples personalities.
One player I really wish we had is Jaime Peters. He would absolutely flourish in this group of players.
Fair enough PTC I never really rated either McAuley or Delaney as I've said before I think the one Roy Keane was spot on was when he said that 'McAuley should have taken morrisons head off ' the first game of the season which we should of won IMO and that was for me what McAuley lacked for want of a better term 'killer instinct' I really hope that Garvan returns ands proves that he has developed into a consistent performer he certainly did have a good eye for a pass on his day....IMO.
I agree McAuley didn't look great if he didn't have alot of confidence, he did look poor in alot of the games he played for us, I think he got given the captains armband which weighed heavy on him and then I don't think Keane was the right manager to suit his probably more perhaps withdrawn personality, to be fair once Jewell came in he looked a different player, i guess it shows some players just suit different styles of management. Buy the end though I struggle to remember a defender in such good form, I truely believe had he signed on the past 2/3 years would've been a different story!!
