Having been the first to jump ship last season i have spent 12 months resenting Herman, but today I watched him enjoying celebrations on the stage and I honestly can't hold it against him any more, such pleasure in winning, this time last year he was the record holder for taking clubs down, now he's Pompeys loon, well down Herman - Harry was good for you.
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As for a him playing shocking a lot have n the past ut seem to improve once left...........why is that ?
There were plenty of players who under-performed last year, HH was one of them. Maybe he needed a new club.
Bit harsh there Ledge. I don't think his form was a "major factor" in our relegation although it certainly could have been a contributory factor.
The Dowie/Reed debacles are what sunk us last season, not the performance of a single defender.
He is proving what a good player he is at Pompey and he did a great job for us for a long while albeit his form did fall away last year but then again so did the quality of his colleagues.
Pound note pratt.
He did not leave us in the lurch like Parker or Murphy and has never bad mouthed the club either so I don't get the antipathy towards him at all.
Had a great passion and gave his all. Maybe in the last couple of seasons his pace let him down but at Portsmouth he has two quality defenders to back him up in Campbell and Distin, what did he have with us? Exactly. Not that it excuses him.
Lack of effort is something i don't think you could ever accuse him of.
Even if its just for his penalty at Stamford Bridge and his acrobatics (??) afterwards he will always be looked favourably on in my eyes.
I agree, can't believe anyone would say anything against HH. That clause done us a very big player, otherwise we would of had a player that realistically no one would of paid for and whose wages we could not afford to pay.
We knock some of our ex players, like Scotty etc, and yes I felt absolutely gutted when he left, but I think sometimes it is easy to forget that these players are young blokes, and I'm sure there are plenty of us on here who would have got up to at least as much mischief, got their heads turned and gone for the money and the stuff that goes with a bit of fame, had we half the chance at their age.
I, of course, would have been much more sensible, and would have settled down every night with my cocoa, read my manager's autobiography, and made sure I was in bed at a REASONABLE hour. ;)
"He made a lot of other people smile, too. Not least when he ran through his team and said people had told him he was mad to sign most of them.
"You've got Hermann Hreidarsson for a start," Redknapp said. "He holds the world record for getting relegated at left-back"
One fact missing from this thread ........ Herman spent much of last season playing with a bad knee injury, injections immediately before the match, rarely training between matches and no period for recovery.
How many players are going to be able to perform at the top of their game like that?
And how many players would have cried off and not played at all.
Short memories, folks ....... credit to Herman for playing week in, week out in a Charlton shirt when it was common knowledge he was playing with injury.
if he was injured he shouldn't have played - it couldn't have been that bad an injury he passed a medical at Portsmouth so makes me doubt this to be honest.
How motivated was he going to be in the last few game sof that season knowing that he could go & pick up a lovely signing on fee somewhere else. Match fixing comes to mind here.
the football world has gone mad
Hi Ledge,
Perhaps that should have been Pardew's decision. Or was.
Perhaps Pards decided better to play him than not to.
He's not the only player that plays through the pain barrier when they shouldn't have been playing at all - but supporters frequently don't know that and are quick to slag off a player if he's not playing up to expectations.
Herman was one of those players who was always up for it and never hid in the game, even if he wasn't playing well.
Look at the top WSS photo above - does it strike you as a picture of a player that didn't care?
Herman gave 4 or 5 seasons of intense committed service to Charlton - and we certainly got value for money.
I was surprised he left so soon after the end of the season - but that's his agent doing what agent's are good at.
HH was 33 at the time - I don't blame him for wanting to stay in the Prem when the chance came.
He had the summer to recover and get fit.
This is a player's career and livelihood we're talking about here - so nearing the end of his career, he's got to do what he feels is best for him and his family.
And I'm pleased for him that he's got his FA Cup winners medal - players like Herman don't often get the chance in this day of big money club domination.
Cheers, Ledge. At the end of the day it's only discussion
My best memory of him was when he sent Dickov flying into the hordings in the Lower North with a neatly timed shoulder barge.