Gary Doherty has had to retire at the age of 34 with a Knee injury. I know he split the city faithful with his performances, but always a shame when an injury ends a career - albeit one that was almost over anyway. I think my abiding memory of his City careen was wondering how he didn't give away 3 penalties a game by holding in the box!! http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30530563
Not a great in terms of his play on the pitch but there's no denying his contribution to our team, especially in the league 1 season. I had forgotten how long he played for us to be honest!
I actually liked him although he was quite capable of making the odd blunder at the back, a bit like Craig Fleming giving away handball penalties all the time
That is bilge. He may not have been the greatest but his heart was definitely in the right place and was a good servant to us. Your comment is disingenuous to say the least.
Was he not voted in the top three of the Barry Butler on three occasions, winning it once? So a hell of a lot of City fans clearly don't agree either. Ah, I've missed Carrabuh and his one-eyed Doherty hate campaigns, I used to absolutely love our debates on the fella, they were brilliant.
Ginge deteriorated over the course of his time with us, and was not a great player, but was effective in the way he needed to be at key times. but a bad thing for the club, my fecking arse- what a complete and utter load of ****e. I was thinking this as I typed my more polite comment last night
Gary Doherty was the central focal point to one of the most disasterous defences we have ever had. He was in charge, the leader. Over the course of the time he was in this position the club sank lower and lower. The reason I say I cannot think of a player who caused so much damage is because he was allowed to do this over such a long period of time. Each year the team regressed as it could not rely on the defence. He was the one constant of that period as others came and went. He cost numerous managers their jobs and I will never forget the truly shocking performance against Burnley that finally cost Worthy his job. Oh, and Colchester of course. He turned the reasonable Shackell into a clown and their partnership was probably the worst I've ever seen in a City shirt, just dreadful. Why was he allowed to stay, because people confused effort with ability. He would get pulled out of position over and over again. He was constamtly trying to get involved with things that he had nothing to do with. He was hopeless and headless, flopped at Charlton and rightly found his true station in League Two? or wherever Wycombe were. He was never ever good enough for the Championship and will join the likes of Croft who were quite frankly embarrassing winners of the trophy. I honestly believe if we had never of signed him we would not have been relegated to League One. I was so relieved Lambert knew he was not up to the Championship, particularly as he'd done OK in League One.
If we ever decide to demolish the Geoffrey Watling stand to build a bigger one then I definitely think it should be named after him. The Doc that is, not Carrabuh
Your earlier basis was that he has done more than anyone else to damage the club and my response was answering that ridculous claim. What you have said above is somewhat different in that you have at least tried to back your claim up with some interpretations. There have been many players over the years who have taken the money and had a 'couldn't care less mentality' and Doherty was never one of those. What you now are doing is blaming everything on him. In your next piece you will probably say that he captained the Titanic and was at fault for the penalty that Villa scored to beat us in the League Cup Final. Your views are blinkered in the extreme in my opinion. The only thing I would say is that when he left it was at the end of his career in that division and thereafter the lower leagues were more suited to him.
I am not blaming everything on him. I mentioned the elements he was responsible for and the huge implications. If we'd signed better players we'd have stayed up. He was just very instrumental in our downfall. If he is 33 now then he probably left us before the best years for a CB. There may well have been some with a couldn't care less attitude. They however were not here long or rarely played. I watched Doherty a lot through those awful years and he was a constant thorn in the development of the defence. Anyone who disagrees either has rose tinted glasses, didn't watch him or do not know what they are talking about.
If we had signed better players we could have won the Premier League! To blame him for him not being replaced is very bizzare. Even if he did make our defence weaker, it's not his fault he was chosen and kept on by the managers at the time. You make it sound like he was some kind of puppet master, controlling all the managers and the board to force him into the team.
It was the fault of the manager to pick him. But that has no impact on my statement that he has caused us the most damage.
