by Snowball »
03 Apr 2011 23:55
cmonurz Royal Rother That's strange. I'm very clear in my recollection of what he did when he came on here which was to big up Jimmy Kebe's contributions to the team at a time when he was being lambasted week-in week-out by the vast majority of this board. And then he moved on to Shane Long's contribution at a time when he was receiving similar treatment...
What do you think he did?
I think I was lucky enough to miss the Kebe stuff, but with regards to Long, Snowball tried to show that Shane was a proven goalscorer when he simply wasn't, that he was worth his place in the side based on his goalscoring when he simply wasn't, that his record when starting games was good when it wasn't, that he was bringing as much to the side as players like Doyle and Kitson did when he wasn't, and so on.
I don't dispute that Snowball's
intention was to highlight the positive contribution that Long brought to the team then, and his opinion that he was a player who could (and would) improve immensely,
and that opinion has been wholly vindicated, but I'm not going to pretend Snowball came on here simply saying 'give the lad a chance, he's got potential', because that's not what happened in the slightest.
I came on and said he was A MUCH BETTER PLAYER THAN HE WAS BEING GIVEN CREDIT FOR.
I said his goals per minute-played ratio was excellent.
Season 1 (age 18-19) he played 565 Minutes and got 3 Goals, a goal every 188 Minutes.
Season 2 (age 19-20) he played 1110 Minutes and got 4 Goals, a goal every 277 Minutes
Combined that's 1665 Minutes for 7 Goals, a goal every 238 Minutes, very respectable.
I also said he would be a:
10-Goal player in the Premiership,
or a 20-Goal Player in the Championship,
or a 30-Goal Player in League 1,
IF he played all games and started.In his two Premiership Seasons he was scoring at a goals/minute rate that was the equivalent of a 10+ season. He just didn't play enough. I said at the time he needed to be played, needed to start, and wasn't getting many consecutive starts (and many of his starts were cup games)
Season 1 = 01 League Starts. 5 Cup Starts
Season 2 = 09 League Starts. 3 Cup Starts 10 League Starts Cumulative (2 Seasons - average 05 per season)
Season 3 = 07 League Starts. 3 Cup Starts 17 League Starts Cumulative (3 Seasons - average 06 per season)
Season 4 = 11 League Starts. 4 Cup Starts 28 League Starts Cumulative (4 Seasons - average 07 per season)
Season 5 = 22 League Starts. 2 Cup Starts 50 League Starts Cumulative (5 Seasons - average 10 per season)
FOUR SEASONS, FOUR YEARS, 28 League Starts.
FIVE SEASONS, FIVE YEARS, 50 League Starts
And this season he will hopefully have 45 league starts