there aren't many wingers around who virtually guarantee 5-10 goals a season. pilks is one of them. that's without mentioning the fact he offers the best delivery in the squad.
I can only think it`s a combination of his injury record ,being on the last year of his contract and Adams stamping his own print on the team by giving Murphy more games .Pilkington was a Lambert signing and Adams wants his own team perhaps?
Straw clutching perhaps? Whatever, he seems to be the one thing (apart from another CB) that we lack in the squad. Hope it goes OK for you this season it must have been a bigger blow for you going down than us to be honest. We were nailed on for the drop from the start of the season in the opinion of many, but I didn't expect you to join us down here.
You have bought arguably our best player on his day, an absolute steal for you guys and i hope you get the best out of him.
Wingers who guarantee 5 to 10 goals a season, but not last season. Even if he was the worlds greatest player, he still needs to be fit to play. If I was to make a list of all the players I didin't want to lose in order, I don't think he'd make the top half of the list. Yes he would have been okay to keep as a squad player, but I can't say that i'm that bothered he's gone.
i would think you'll be very much in the minority then. by the way, pilkington managed 23 appearances last season despite playing with injections. the injury thing, although relevant, is made too much of. last season was the worst of his career in terms of niggles. he had a serious injury at huddersfield and recovered well and then he had a spell out two years ago which again, although disruptive, he still managed 30-odd games. we are arguably losing our most talented player and i think its quite reasonable to be bitterly disappointed, especially given who he's going to.
Too right what on earth are they playing at selling them to a rival? For 1 million quid! That's desperate even by our cheapskate antics. People seem to forget how good Pilkington was in his first season especially the amount of goals and assists he provided, perhaps that is a testament towards the chumps this club chooses to employ as managers being unable to get the best out the players.
surely that would have been a better move though. they are of no relevance to us this season. i'm sure he'd have fancied that move but £1m is too expensive for villa these days what's the betting pilks nets the winner against us - its written in the stars
I am as mystified as everybody else but something inside me is saying ' just hold your fire' It doesn't make sense. This is not Chase all over again - we are not selling the family silver on the cheap. McNally screwed Hull over Snodgrass and St Etienne over RVW. We know he has turned down sizeable offers for Redmond and, if rumour is correct, turned down offers for Fer, Hooper and Olsson. Only £1m for Pilks - not logical. Is there something we don't know?
I don't mind being in the minority. Pilkington is a good enough player, but his injury record is very poor. Yes he played with injections and thats commendable, but he's too fragile for my liking for the Championship. He only had a year left on his contract. Clearly he's out of step with Adams, which surprises me as generally I think Adam's a good man manager, if nothing else. His wages must have been fairly high, so we save that expenditure. We don't know if there's any add ons and we don't know what the money from the sale / saved on wages is going to be spent on. Certainly McNally's track record in getting a good deal is pretty good. There are many players in the squad I think are more important to our long term future and would keep over Pilkington Fer, Ruddy, Turner, Martin, Redmond, Howson, Tettey, both Bennetts, Hooper, Olsson etc. To be honest I can't get sentimential over what Pilkington has or hasn't done in the past I just don't see him as being particular key to us getting out of the Championship & I don't think he's Premiership quality.
I'm not sure what 'too fragile' means. We got 66 games from him over 3 seasons and I dare say it could have been higher still if he had been picked for every game where he was fit. That remains a very useful contribution. After watching Sunday, and every game before it, I don't know how anyone can say Redmond is a more important player than Pilkington. I agree that McNally is no fool though so surely there must be more to this than meets the eye? Maybe a lot of appearance based add-ons, given the injury concerns. If he's as fragile as everyone thinks, hopefully he'll fail the medical!
But then we'll miss out on the appearance-based add-ons! Reading that we turned down a £3m bid from Swansea in January doesn't make this any easier...
Sigh. Just got off a flight and met with this news. This season is starting to have a bad feel about it. As much as I want to stay positive the club keeps on offering up reasons not to be.
