I for one am delighted with our dealings yesterday.
Yes we sold our best player, but at a profit. At the beginning of the season everything went through him and I think we became too predictable and so were therefore easier to stop. Also he was too good a player to not play but where was his best position? He was too slow for the wing and he constantly crept inside, he was best suited to playing behind a lone striker but we seem better with two up. Also at times he slowed down attacks by beating a man or doing a trick that meant we lost momentum initially.
It has taken us a while to get used to life without him but now we look more of a unit and this season I do not think we will miss him too much, especially if Cook stays fit and is as good as he is rumoured to be.
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We can now play through ZZ, down either wings with Ambrose and Sam and even Varney pushing out wide. We also now have Andy Gray who we can pump it up to and is very adept at holding the ball and making something happening.
Thats without taking into acocunt two very good full backs who bascially can increase our attacking potential by 25% due to their positive forays into attack. Something we did not have at the start of the season.
Wish Andy all the best and I hope he does well, always seemed to come accross as a nice bloke, but he's gone now so lets move on and get 110% behind those that are still here.
Hopefully none will dredge this up in the weeks to come and say so we don't need Reid then. I think our successes of late have been all about pace, the one thing he lacked.
The 4-1 win over Blackpool was the result and every match since then, opponents have struggled to live with us.
And those opponents were West Brom twice, Watford & Stoke - 3 of the only 4 teams above us.
That fact wouldn't have been missed by the rest of the division. And that we did it without our best player.
i'm starting to look at it as though we've got shot of our highest earner, who we would've only got 2 years service during a 4 year deal. just hope lee cook only fills reid boots on the pitch and not in the 'cory gibbs treatment room'.
Reid doesn't have pace, and before the team didn't either - now that it does I think it would have been fantastic to see Reid playing for us with Youga and Moo2 bombing down the flanks and an improving Varney up front with Gray.
Ambrose, Holland, Gray, ZZ, even Thomas - are hardly what I would call pacey, and Mcleod has been dropped, I still think we're missing something to make this argument sound, even with the more attacking full backs, time will tell I guess. What's this cook fella like?
As a result of everything going through Reid as well it affected him, if you noticed after 3 games on the spin he would be crap for the 4th game.
I think Ambrose is quick enough, Sam is quick, as is Varney and both the current fullbacks.
I'd bet ZZ is one of the fastest players in the squad
I agree with every comment on every post in this thread apart from this one.
For me, a club captain doing the off from a club who's hit form at the right time for promotion to join a sinking ship so he can earn four months money at Prem rates instead of Championship rates speaks volumes.
Worse than Parker and Murphy IMO.
Really? Parker and Murphy both left for clubs that were BELOW us in the league didnt they? Reid left with a bit of a heavy heart in my opinion as a result of club needs and it was to a Premiership club. If he went to WBA, Palace, Stoke, Bristol City or Watford i would have been annoyed but not Sunderland.
Good luck Reidy.
I saw a few vids on you tube of him ,looks to have a good last ball and bit of pace ,
Also looks as if he will be a fans favorite,
(wish i was there to watch this team,it looks good on paper)
Don't think so, both Chelsea and Spuds were above us in the league at the time but that's not really the point. Both left to go to clubs who are perceived to be bigger than us, who can pay more than us and both moves could've been perecived as a step up and could arguably offer more than us in terms of competition (Europe etc). Besides, show me a professional who wouldn't want to try and cut it at a 'bigger and better' club and I'll show you a slacker.
True, the timing of Parker's departure was worse than Reid's. It triggered a massive slide for us at a time when we were heading for our best ever finish , maybe even Europe, and as fans it hurt us very, very deeply but it's since been widely accepted that very few of us would've turned down a three-fold increase in our salaries. Murphy left when we were, frankly, on the slide anyway so it can't be likened.
Taking the circumstances of the three as presented at the time, Reid's looks the most short-sighted, pointless and most money-motivated of them all.
In my humble opinion of course.
From what I've read the signs on Cook look good - should give Thomas something to think about too
The possibility of Reid going to Sunderland has been discussed since October or November so we were hardly unprepared even though the formalities were tied up on the 31st.
Reid will get a cheer from me when he comes back but that bald scouse twat will be booed with every ounce of my being.
So maybe we'll miss playing the bald Scouse twattish one - who'll be around 33 next season and won't be on every Prem manager's shopping list.
Who?
I thought we were going to loan him out to Hampton Wick?....;-)
not so fast with parker though len.
we knew something was up when he was left out of the gillingham cup game (with an 'illness' wasn't it?). and curbs was quoted as saying that parker had 'had his head turned' by another club.
not absolutely sure of the date of the gills cup game but am guessing it was in the 1st week of jan.
Bing's on the mark.
John Thomas? Because sometimes he acts like a bit of a ........ (fill the blanks in yourselves, folks)
Don't want to get sued now, do I? ;-)