He'll never play consistently and won't play for a top half Championship or PL side. He just doesn't have the heart, exactly the kind of player who's infested the club for years ... ... exactly the kind we should avoid.
Could also say the same about Mcgeady in the first leg, doesn’t make him a poor player. LJ didn’t even play him in the second leg, so who knows what would have happened. Still the most bizarre decision I’ve ever seen by a football manager, bringing Flanagan on instead of him when we needed a goal.
Its really not though is it? Souness signing Ali Dia? Mario Zagallo playing Ronaldo in a World Cup Final only hours after he's had a seizure? Gullit dropping Shearer for the derby? But of course, a manager who's looking for a goal bu lumping high balls into the box brings on the tallest player he's got rather than a 5 foot 8 winger is the strangest thing you've seen. I think not.
I think most will agree he has talent and of course he is quick. What I always found frustrating was his awareness of danger. He seemed to not be able to react to his defensive duties and a couple of occassions I can recall he contributed to goals conceded. For someone who has the talent he doesnt seem to have done it at the higher levels. I wouldnt be so sure he could cut it in the championship for example. He hasnt had many caps for Northern Ireland for example. Rangers never seemed to play him much. His 3 seasons at Kilmarnock seemed his most consistent run in a team but on the face of it he hardly set the world on fire. All in all something is not working for him because he has natural ability. We need to be looking at more reliable players in my opinion that contribute week in week out.
That 1998 world cup final and the Ronaldo story still troubles me. I would like to think nothing like that could ever happen again. As to bizarre management decisions I can think of plenty worse. The fact Thomas Helmer only played 2 games for us after leaving Bayern Munich was one that springs to mind from our own history.
I read "Thomas Hauser" for a while until it clicked who you were on about! Didn't Helmer have a bust-up with Bobby Saxton and after that Reidy refused to play him?
I thought the bust up was with Reid but not that it matters. Wasn't it about the type of training we were doing, with Helmer alleging that he received better coaching as a schoolboy in Germany? Or was that Stefan Schwarz?
Yes but McGeady is towards the end of a career. Jones us starting out. Should be massively trying to impress at every opportunity. Not tossing it off. as fir the most bizarre decision, it wasn’t even the most bizarre decision in that game, even Johnson has said a 6’ 4” player is far more use than a 5’8 winger in the “hit it long and hope for a set piece “ scenario. Why bring on a player who has looked disinterested in the hope he decides “today I’m going to try”? Plenty of far more bizarre decisions. If that’s the most bizarre then I’d guess you haven’t watched much football ever
Schwarz played all the time fir Reid. Helmer was a crazy decision!!! One if the best midfielders we’d ever signed and probably have ever signed! And he couldn’t get a game!!
Schwarz played all the time because he was more circumspect in his comments and didn't push it Helmer may have been a little more outspoken I thought Helmer was a centre back/ libero in the Beckenbauer mould?
Thought he was a CDM but hey ho. Either way, one if the best in his position SAFC have ever signed. Schwarz liked a party! I used to drink at Durham Cirpty AFC and Schwarz and a number of others were in there. He could handle his beer!! I couldn’t! Amount of times I told him I loved him is slightly embarrassing!!!
Helmer was a centre half / sweeper. Played alongside the likes of Mattheus and Sammer at Bayern. 60 odd caps for Germany. Free transfer and chose us over Liverpool. Supposedly made some suggestions about training methods. Sent out on loan to Hertha and played in Champions League final for them. Came back to us and we paid his contract up. Who knows what goes on behind the scenes but on the face of it we sign a genuine world class player and refuse to play him for non footballing reasons.
He only played 12 games for Hertha and 6 of those were in the Champions League (none in the final, btw- Hertha have never reached it) so maybe there was something in Reid's assessment that his legs had gone. Only wheeling him out for Champions League games suggests that they might have been saving him for the big games and he couldn't hack playing regularly. I think its more likely though that his game wasn't suited to the way were playing under Reidy. Which of course begs the question, why sign him in the first place?
