My personal opinion is that the Chairman last season took a last ditch gamble to finally seek out his ultimate ending of his five year dream. With that came one of the biggest gambles he had played, refusing large multi million pound offers for our star player Bradley Dack. Obviously all this is only my personal thoughts and none of it based on fact, I don't know Paul Scally personally and don't pretend to, I could even be well wide of the mark, but it's what I would have done in his position as Chairman. I believe our Chairman often gets a lot of unfair criticism, after all he could quite easily have banked speculated offer figures of up to 3.5 Million straight in to Bank Dubai (said in jest). So let's take a look at our boy wonder through my eyes, it was only a few seasons back we took League One by storm, I even quoted at the time one of the best performances i have ever seen from a Gills team, that's until disaster struck around Christmas of that season. But let's just concentrate on those first few months, Dack was ripping teams apart, Cody was out injured and as unkind as it may seem, I was hoping Cody's in a non malicious way, return would be delayed. I've always consistently maintained that these two players can not be part of the same team. Cody and Bayo, yes, Cody & Dack no way. Personally if i had been in charge I would have dispensed with Cody's services a few seasons back. Yes, he is a Gills great, he kisses the badge, that I do not doubt in any way shape or form, as strange as it may seem I do love Cody but...yes there is a but, it's about building a team, not a team around one player. There never was going to be another player that filled the Akinfenwa role, to chest, drop down, tap to Cody, GOAL!!!! Even Cody's chasing down of keepers stopped as his ageing years were catching up on him, I'm not saying he wasn't fit and strong, I just felt that those little annoying bits he brought to the opposition were missing. He could twist and turn quicker than a ferret up a drain pipe, but it all became too much, too predictable, yes the goals came, but glory is never built on a one man team, unless you are a Maradona and call on the hand of god. Dack's enthusiastic energy was not played to it's forte, Taylor came and went, and came again, but then the writing was on the wall. Dack was not going to hang around with boring, negative genius Taylor in charge. So what next we sell our star man to our same League opponents, have we gone mad?...well if you think about it maybe not, questions i would ask is could Dack work under Taylor, also when does Dack's contract expire, it all comes down to take the money now and let Dack move on, basically we blew our chance, the bubble burst and we lost the gamble. Interesting point made on here though, as big as Blackburn once were, a top three position is being questioned, let's just hope the young star does not in the very near future meet his ex-team comrades Keds and Payne at Ebbsfleet. However, having said that within a few seasons, Ebbsfleet could be showing Scally the way it should be done, wouldn't hindsight be a wonderful thing right now. Many will disagree with me i know that, but football is about opinions and in my opinion we have cocked this up big style, I'm now trying to await Scally's next party trick, because at the moment i'm just not seeing it, unless Paramount's withdrawel is coming to Medway instead...genie lamps and miracles required.
Brb, you clearly didn't read my post on the Cody thread so naughty you. So I'm going to have to reiterate this point again, Cody being in the team made no impact on Dack's drop in form that season, if anything he was better with Cody in the team. Dack scored the majority of his goals at the start of that season, a time when Cody was playing regularly. In fact Dack had scored 11 of his 15 goals by the time Cody got injured on the 19th December at Millwall. The downturn in form came in January, a time whilst Cody was still injured. The killing blow in that season for us was the injury to John Egan and NOT Cody. Why do I state this? Well Ehmer at the time wasn't as competent to play next to Oshilaja and we hadn't changed the shape when Cody was in or out of the team, instead playing Dominic Samuel who offered very similar qualities to what Cody does (albeit faster and a bit taller). Our season turned because we no longer had a leader at the back as Egan missed considerable time in February and March. The 16/17 season also confirms my point as we didn't have an as able CB last season in Egan and we therefore leaked too many goals. Add to that Edinburgh in persisting in using a diamond system that had been found out by the rest of the league and was leaving the defence vulnerable, we became a downward spiral. Cody didn't return to the team until the 9th April, of which by that point we were already struggling to gain any wins together. Edinburgh often leaving substitutions until 85 mins often meant we had blown our chances of any positive results. Dack's last goal that season came in February therefore again disproving the point that Cody made Dack worse. So I'm sorry to say brb but on this occasion, I can safely say you're wrong in thinking that Cody made Dack worse as the stats that season prove otherwise. If you want to point fingers for our demise, point them at Justin Edinburgh and the loss of Egan in February.
It's either I'm going senile or am drinking too much beer, possibly a combination of both... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/33744300 No Cody in the team nor is he on the bench. We also went on to beat Bradford...again no Cody... That was followed by beating Wigan, errr again no Cody. I think we would all agree, that is some achievement against what were three quality teams, Sheffield United, Bradford & Wigan. Cody who
Bradford game Dack didn't score and Wigan game Cody was on the bench. Just face it brb, you've lost. Dack was better with Cody and the team was built more around Dacky than it was Cody. They've both gone now so you can celebrate our demise with the rest of us.
You're wrong again mate... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/33944433 Dack scored both goals albeit against Wigan As i originally said Cody was out injured for a while even though he was on the bench he was not fit to play believe it or not, think you're getting your seasons confused....oldie over young mind Quick edit there, think i got away with it
So up to Wigan we went four games unbeaten with three wins against top teams, and Cody never played in a single game, how did we cope without him
I still think our demise was other teams working out our game plan, Jed only had the one. Keep Dack quiet and no one else in midfield had a clue, put pressure on our defence by breaking quickly and it would collapse. Game over.
Look we full well both know that Dack didn't score against Bradford as I said and the only reason Dack scored twice against Wigan was because he knew his old mucker Cody was on the bench to cheer him on. Regardless of that, the point still stands that Dack was worse off after Christmas when Cody wasn't in the team at all and it wasn't them playing together that cost us the promotion, it was Edinburgh that did.
True....Cody was a good bench warmer, glad we agree on something After all let's look at the REAL history...bench warmer at Norwich....bench warmer at Coventry....and finally bench warmer 2015 at Gillingham
At the end of the day, we both know Cody was so much more than a bench warmer. The stats have been proven that Dack played better when Cody was in and around the tram and you're clutching at straws buddy. Either way we've got a massive void up front and at number 10 I'm sure it won't be too long before we are bemoaning the fact that we let both of them go in the same transfer window.
I had this sudden vision then of Cody sitting on one of those little 3 legged stoles with a number 10 attached to it, worrying part is i was sober when i thought it.
I have noticed in all the video sessions from Ireland that Parker is wearing the #10 shirt, "the times they are a changing" if you need help knowing where those song lyrics come from, your probably too young to understand anyway.
lets hope he is a bench warmer at wombles and does not score against us. Bet he scores more goals than any Gills player next season. Hope i get this one wrong.
