The real Treadmill issue from way, way back

Stan et al,

Your difficulty in reading constant, repetitive negatives over the same story are nothing new. My wife always hates it that my family bring up the same old stories, over and over again!!
I also remember thoroughly pissing off 999s for a period where I was continuously haranging Tone - admittedly this was in the very early days and I can reconcile my complete apathy towards the club I will forever have an association with, with the fact that I can say I told you so for calling out our Tone a long way back.

However, it is not just Tone that needs to be brought to task - everyone quite rightly brings up that first horror week of his tenure where we made the "magnificent" purchases of SWP, Traore, DJ, Some right back from Villa, Anton Ferdinand and of course the great man himself, the model of proffesionalism and what every human should aspire to Herr. Barton. But, amost to a fault, one galring ommision is made when recollecting - Nedum Onouha.

Written it before and I'll write it again - and yes, this is me picking on someone who appears to try their best, or at least that is the perception to you all - I see something different.

I see that this man is the only constant with El Tone in regards to seniority at the club.
This man has been made club captain when he has not one cajoling or motivational bone in his body.
This man is built like the proverbial but is knocked off the ball by eager featherweights.
This man must have hexagon edges on the end of his boots, as he surely cannot find a pass.
This man for all the praise, always and I mean always has a minimum of one major brain fart per match (often laugh at the match reports where people write "Onouha was a giant in defence apart from the time he left his man completely free to score!!"

No organisation can flourish or even likely survive with piss poor leadership -in football you generally have 3 key positions, the owner/chairman, the manager/head trainer/, the playing captain.

We know the owner has been an unmitigated disaster for us. Took us from the Premier League with some assets to where we are today with an expenditure of hundreds of Millions - Disaster for our club and although his investors have lost heavily - our inheritance from surviving the Briatore years has been fluttered away.

We know that a series of bad managerial calls has further compounded the ineptitude of El Tone - well documented and all comment.

What surprises is how Onouha gets away with so much - take your rose tinted glasses off, raise your bar of expectation a little higher - with the money we have spent on this man and the responsibility we have given him, can you honestly say that he has not been a significant cog in us being where we are. Not because he's a bad person, not because he's not trying, but simply because he doesn't have nearly the tools to the job he's been tasked to do. Some will say he's been loyal - I will leave you with something I said to a partner at my firm who contested my view of one of his staff by stating he is at least loya by staying with the compåany for years.

I replied, look at that chair over there, it has been here for years - does that make it loyal?
Probably more useful than the employee as it does what it's meant to - but does it make it loyal?
My claim is that Onouha has played a significant part in our club's downward trajectory since his arrival - he simply hasn't the tools to do the job he's meant to.

Am I picking on Onouha? - Don't care, I know he's useless, not somebody to take inspiration from and is as loyal as a chair because he doesn't have the capacity for more.

 

Good to see that those cold Danes haven’t knocked the Spanish passion out of you.

Don’t get me started on loyalty, I’ve bored for Britain on that subject elsewhere.

Onuoha is the perfect embodiment of our club 2012 to the present.

This will enrage you further, apologies for the source.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...xtend-contract-club-captain-Nedum-Onuoha.html

 

I like Ned

 

Me too.

 

I am on record here as saying that I thought Ned was a crap captain. I have definately changed my mind, I think he is a quiet but competent and a motivational captain.
The team like him and he is definately working, talking harder.. our results are better when he plays than when he doesn't (maybe because he often replaced by Lynch).

No Ned is not the problem in our team.... yes he has the occassional brain farts, but everyone in our team has that is why we are where we are (e.g. Robbo back passes to Scowen badly, Scowen tries to keep it in by passing to MKDons and they score)....lack of scoring power is our problem....If we could score, then every goal conceded would not be a death sentance

 

Onuoha is journeyman. Robinson is a much better footballer.

 

Agree Robbo is a much better footballer. But Ned is a better footballer than Baptiste and a much much much better footballer than poor old Lynch

Sent from my STF-L09 using Tapatalk

 

Wow I'm all for debate and difference of opinion but what absolute tosh of the highest order. Ned is just about the only good thing to have come out of the 2012 shambles. The guy has played over 200 times for us and deserves much more respect. We've got former players on far fewer appearances being lauded as legends in the forever r's club. Give Ned the Cred I say.

 

Ned is honest, hard working, by all accounts a nice chap and has been paid a lot of money since 2012 to epitomise the club - not good enough for the PL, ok on a good day for the Championship.

The biggest disappointment for me is that I thought we were going to get this player, and was quite excited when we signed him. But aside from Austin and Smithies I’m struggling to think of any signings in 6 years that you could say were unqualified successes.

 

If the club were serious about it's future they'd make Robinson the captain. Ned nothing better than average, he always has a mistake in his game like several others at the back...

 

They should at least be doing all they can to get him signed up to a new contract. Robinson, that is.

 

I don't understand all the Ned bashing to be honest. Yes, Robinson is a better player but then, Robinson is better than any of our defenders and we probably won't hang on to him.
Ned can be dodgy on the ball, can switch off at times and often has a mistake in him. However, his pace and tackling regularly gets us out of the ****, but people who don't like him seem to not notice this. He always seems to always give 100% and genuinely seems to care.

We have a lot worse players and more urgent problems than Ned imo.

 

Ned was at his best playing alongside Dunne, someone who commanded the backline and read the game so well. Sadly, he doesn't have that quality to 'lead' the backline in the same way...

 

Agreed.

 

Which, at 31 with PL experience, is what he is meant to be doing I suppose.

 

Yes, but many. many centre backs go through their careers without being thought of as "leaders". Many benefit from having an organiser alongside them.
If Ned is as poor as some people seem to think, Lynch is positively Sunday league!

 

Absolutely, and I really have no problem with Ned as a character and a championship level CB. Sooper’s point is very good, and I hadn’t really thought about it, we clearly need a regular starter who can marshal the back line. And Danish’s vitriolic OP made me think of Ned as a symbol of what we have been through since he has been at the club, and it kind of works. Which is a bit unfair on Ned, not his fault.

 

And you agree with the point then, we have had a man in this vital position as "leader" who even in your own view is not up to the job. I will agree he appears to be a thoroughly decent chap - couldn't play for his club after the passing of his mother - (note to self not to comment on persons such as Frank Lampard playing through that pain). Lovely guy who the 3 times I have seen has played like a thoroughly nice chap and not harrased the opponents. Come on Danish, Onouha is allowed a few lapses per game, it's not as though he's on tens of thousands a week and he's still raw.

The OP is me being naughty - Onouha himself is not the problem, it is the continuous stream of incompetents at the other leadership levels that fail to see such straight forward things. I'm also amazed at the amount of slack he gets for being downright poor - 200 games you say? The word "chair" springs to mind.

 

I simply don't think he's half as bad as you do and I think a lot of people fail to recognise his good points.

We disagree.
Opinions eh?

 

I think Danish is being a tad harsh on Ned, he's apparently very highly thought off by his colleagues and you don't necessarily have to be a shouter, chest thumper to be a leader, articulate thoughtful characters have the capability of being a leader as well.......

I'd rather have someone like Ned earning a reasonable wage and playing a huge number of games per season instead of that awful waste of space Caulker who took the club for Millions and gave nowt back in return............

And don't get me started on all those other wastes of space that we've employed since 2012 who bled the club dry and gave feck all in return. No sorry Danish, Ned is the least of the clubs problems.........