SWP

[john68]

Sadly it seems that he has gone beyond his city sell by date and will be moved on. For most of us, that will be sad news but as a club we are moving upwards and the lesser players will drop off the conveyor to make room for our new superstars.
What I don't get is the disrespect being shown by a few city fans towards hm. Let's not forget that for some time, he was the only WOW factor that we had and we rejoiced every time he touched the ball.
Why some can't respect that and be graceful in the comments about his present situation is beyond me.

[john@staustell]

Sadly it seems that he has gone beyond his city sell by date and will be moved on. For most of us, that will be sad news but as a club we are moving upwards and the lesser players will drop off the conveyor to make room for our new superstars.
What I don't get is the disrespect being shown by a few city fans towards hm. Let's not forget that for some time, he was the only WOW factor that we had and we rejoiced every time he touched the ball.
Why some can't respect that and be graceful in the comments about his present situation is beyond me.

I think I've been pretty graceful in expressing that he clearly isn't good enough now, John. But it staggers me that some respected, intelligent posters actually advocate keeping him. Not just on sentimental grounds, but on 'ability'.

It's frightening why some cant see that we must keep the ball at this level, more than anything, and they are willing to trade 2 great runs for 10 give-aways of the ball, potentially leading to goals against us and lost matches and lost trophies. This is why the likes of GazBaz will always be chosen at this level above SWP, and why some people cant fathom it is scary.

You can be a flair player AND keep the ball - Tevez, Silva etc. They aren't mutually exclusive.

[john68]

To be fair John, I wasn't targetting you mate and neither do I disagree with your opinion that he has not performed fully to the standard that we require or might require in the forthcoming years. Nor was i suggesting that we should allow sentimentality to cloud our player policy for the future..
I was merely attacking the disrespectful shit that some were throwing up.
It is not that difficult to identify that a player isn't good enough or out of form and stil respect the role he has played during his city career.

[john@staustell]

Yep, I wasn't thinking you were John. But there's a section of fans at any club I guess that are just blinded by 2 minutes of brilliance and ignore the other 88. AJ is heading for a similar sort of area. Absolutely everybody outside our club, 'experts' (I use the term loosely), fans of other clubs etc, think he's absolutely fantastic, and that we're potty not to play him all the time, because they only see his 'highlights'. We who see him every week of course know that sometimes it looks like you are playing with 10 men, and giving the ball away as well. But in amongst that is his undoubted brilliance. That can sometimes change a game.

But if he wants to be a regular he needs to be consistent.

[ronk]

Dickov came back, tried as hard as ever but didn't set the world alight. Still a legend.

SWP: legend, also mightn't finish his career with us, but he might.