Friend is a centre back who can play at left back. ie A Delaney replacement. To be fair, if I was Delaney I would have walked by now due the ott abuse from so called fans. He's an ITFC player for ****'s sake. Some of the **** is deserved but some of the bile being spewed out is not acceptable to me. Reminds me a bit of the Sam Parkin situation, now there's a lad who got some ****. If we seriously want promotion then this is exactly the type of player Jewell should be pushing for. Why haven't we signed him yet? He's quality, cheap and better than what we've got. Pull your fingers out
Good point Mr Monkey... Delaney at left back was abysmal but in fairness he's actually an honest, decent centre back. We need options there and as back up we could certainly do a lot worse.
good point Monkey. I will never boo/ shout abuse at matches about our own players (although I do often groan) but on here my views may go over the top. I honestly dont think he is good enough for us but also agree that there is no need to slag him off.
Yes I would say sign Friend whatever primarily as a CB but then he can always cover LB if need be!! As for Delaney as is the same for Norris (despite him leaving for a better deal) I think they are both hard working decent pro's with a good head on their shoulders and they always give 100% for the team but they are both cr*p, like I said previously not on the face of it but they have zilch awareness which is a real detriment to the rest of the team!! He's not decent he is rubbish and we could do alot better as back up!! I would never boo a player how many do during a game especially a good pro like Delaney, I'll probably mumble to myself during a game (Delaney your crap, infact that is probably what I say more than anything else) and sigh many times whenever he goes near the ball. I thought the abuse of Parkin was extremely unfair, I actually didn't think he was a bad player, he was a great finisher and in a better team he would have been much better. We were struggling at the time and really needed a player to hold the line (someone like Alan Lee), we weren't creating chances, to me he's a player who needed to be in a decent team creating lots of chances, if you look that season he rarely missed a chance which goes to show how much we were creating!! (Hamps......)
the one thing you can't criticise delaney about is lack of effort! unfortunately we are not a charity club who just employ footballers because they put effort in, we need some skill with this, there is not point winning the ball and giving it straight back to the opposition. I would never boo a player like some do just because he is on the team sheet, but no here i will vent my frustration to its fullest about certain players. As for Friend, I think he is just the sort of signing we are looking for, even if cressy stays so i would sign him PJ.
thats the problem PTC, I dont want to slag Delaney off and Im not sure if it is my dislike of the guy that I notice it more but everytime I see us (and being a season ticket holder it is 99% of home games) I see more mistakes from him then I do from anybody else. Its not only his sense, or lack of it, but the lack of ability to do anything useful with the ball once he has won it. If you wanted a guy for purely blocking and putting your body on the line then I can think of no-one better. Is attitude is not in question at all. As you have said both him and Norris both gave their all but I would rather have 95% commitment connected with intelligent play rather than 100% commitment of headless running around. On the Parkin argument. I tended not to have a go at anyone during that time. We were in a very different situation back then whereby we couldn't go out and get who we wanted and had to compromise a lot in all transfer deals. Some worked, some didnt but we just had to accept that.
Looks like we won't be getting Friend, whilst gauging from reports he seems like a decent CB and could cover LB I would say we could do with a bit taller CB with abit of experience. I appreciated you're height does not neccessarily mean you will be good or poor in the air but if we signed friend 3 of our CB's would be considered fairly small for CB's with the exception of Delaney (where the problem lies) and whilst they could probably beat the majority of strikers in the air when it comes to set pieces or the odd team who have a giant striker we could be a bit weak. Plus we have a relatively young/inexperienced defence, could do with someone who has a bit of know how!! Yeah I am the same at games, I seem to scrutinise everything that Delaney does and looking at him as closely as I do during a game, his positioning is just awful, he makes sooo many mistakes but as I say not overly obvious one's apart from when he is in posession. I end up blaming Delaney for nearly every goal we concede, say 'if Delaney wasn't in that position, that wouldn't have put so and so in trouble' etc!!
What happens if Chambers' form is shocking or the transfer doesn't work out? I thought Delaney was solid during the Cambridge match, Chambers not so much...... Opinions eh? Like why have our last two managers not really played Hyam when Hampy/Yorkie and others thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread...? Although I think Luongo's shift answered that little q
