Tonge to the Dingles.

[William Large]

Sounds as though Michael Tonge is on his way to Barnsley for the rest of the season. It will be interesting to see how he does. When he first broke into the side at United he was awesome but for me he never fulfilled his potential. I remember he looked absolute class tearing the pigs to bits at Hillsborough as we managed to lose 2- 0 despite battering them, on other occasions he looked shite. Was a strange signing for Stoke who preferred to buy goliaths at the time and he has just festered in the reserves for 2 years. Hope he can be the shining star in relegated team!

 

[Highbury_Blade]

I thought he'd gone off to scotland?

 

[Grecian2000]

Michael Tonge will always be one of my favourite players if only for the fact he was the man who finally replaced the first Bobby Ford and cast him into the wilderness never to darken our midfield again.

Here's hoping Kevin McDonald has fulfilled a similar function a decade or more later!

 

[Chris1012]

Hit and miss player. In hindsight would have accepted the offer from Liverpool when they bid for him after scoring two in Carling Cup against them.... was reported around £6 mil wasn't it?
However I wouldnt have a problem with him coming back to the lane for the rest of the season.

 

[raul]

I thought he'd gone off to scotland?

Sadly not.

Edinburgh or Barnsley......Edinburgh or Barnsley.......toughie.

 

[AlienWoodward]

Sadly not.

Edinburgh or Barnsley......Edinburgh or Barnsley.......toughie.

He must have thought Edinburgh or Brazil ............. Edinburgh or Brazil .....

 

[Tuns]

Good player, good bloke, gave something different to the team on his day.

Stoke was always going to be a bad move for him but I think it was a one minute to midnight panic on transfer deadline day by Stoke when their main targets fell through and they had a right fax machine at their end.

Hope he does well as I think he genuinely cares about United.

 

[Jehovah]

Got fed up in the end of his shit free kicks and corners. Constantly failing to beat the first man or just plant it safely inthe keepers hands.

 

[jodman]

Hit and miss player. In hindsight would have accepted the offer from Liverpool when they bid for him after scoring two in Carling Cup against them.... was reported around £6 mil wasn't it?
However I wouldnt have a problem with him coming back to the lane for the rest of the season.

I can't imagine there will ever be a time when Sheffield United would refuse £6 million for a player, even one who was playing as well as Tonge was at that time.

He was my favourite player during his time at SUFC but his performances declined as he got older and he was never able to live up to his early potential.

I would have been happy to have him back and i wish him all the best at Barnsley.

 

[JohnDenver]

Tongey will always be, to paraphrase SV, officially ace.

 

[JJ Sefton]

He struggled to find a role, outside left, centre midfield...

 

[bricktop]

When he first came through, it looked like we had a potential superstar on our hands, but after one season where he was absolutely superb, he went off the boil, and never recaptured the same form.

From 2003 onwards, he was the most frustrating player i have seen at the Lane, we all knew there was a still an excellent footballer in there, but for unknown reasons we never saw the footballer again, and he has drifted away and still made a career but would have been a lot, lot more successful.

 

[Chris1012]

I can't imagine there will ever be a time when Sheffield United would refuse £6 million for a player, even one who was playing as well as Tonge was at that time.

He was my favourite player during his time at SUFC but his performances declined as he got older and he was never able to live up to his early potential.

I would have been happy to have him back and i wish him all the best at Barnsley.

£6 mil may be off the mark.. however that was the season when United got to two semi finals and a the play offs. Could have rejected a sizable bid thinking we were on the up and had a superstar on our hands.

Anyways hope he does well at the Dingle's, i really think he could find his feet in League 1. I would let Monty go if it meant Tonge coming back till the end of the season. Doyle is on play exceptionally and Ertl can always be chucked into the ball winner role

 

[judge]

i always thought tongys best run of form was in the prem coinciding with us playing our best football and having a safety net of 12 points over the bottom 3

either side of that he never really showed that sort of form

 

[madeinsheffield]

I think he would be better suited to our current style of football if he ever came back, which I doubt. I had a chat with him once, really nice bloke and not big time at all

 

[axel smeets]

Why is this under Blades General Chat? He has not been a SUFC player since August 2008.

 

[mpjacko]

Of course he will shine. He will be the big star in a small team - just like Britton, paul shaw etc

 

[Bladesman]

When he first came through, it looked like we had a potential superstar on our hands, but after one season where he was absolutely superb, he went off the boil, and never recaptured the same form.

From 2003 onwards, he was the most frustrating player i have seen at the Lane, we all knew there was a still an excellent footballer in there, but for unknown reasons we never saw the footballer again, and he has drifted away and still made a career but would have been a lot, lot more successful.

I agree with that.

His move to Stoke was the end of him but it suited both us and him at the time.

Although I was surprised we didn't try get him back on loan after his first year at Stoke as that was a time he really needed to be playing.

Just 12 appearances for Stoke in 4 years I mean that is a crap move by Pulis and he has wasted Tonge.

 

[yorkshirecoast]

I thought he was brilliant when he first got in our team - up there with Oh Lord & Jags - scoring some class goals after cutting inside defenders. But I've rarely seen a player become so ineffective so quickly. I think defenders started to read him too easily when they realised he always cut inside because he didn't have the pace to beat them on the outside!

 

[oaklandrdblade]

I thought he was brilliant when he first got in our team - up there with Oh Lord & Jags - scoring some class goals after cutting inside defenders. But I've rarely seen a player become so ineffective so quickly. I think defenders started to read him too easily when they realised he always cut inside because he didn't have the pace to beat them on the outside!

And that is the reason Liverpool didn't actually ever make a bid. I work with one of their ex Yorkshire scouts and he said to me they never put an offer in just an enquiry.

 

[Russ]

Good luck sir Michael. You should have stayed with us though.

 

[ShockingBadBuy]

What a free kick against the grunters at the Sty ! And do I remember him smacking in a screamer, from a similar position, at home to the spammers the year we went down ?

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

My feelings about the demise of Mr Tonge were well documented on the old BU site but I reckon he'd fit in really well in the current set up. For the record, he was much more 'feisty' when I saw him for PNE last season (or was it the season before) than I remember.

I'm starting to remember him much more fondly as time goes on and history erases the many non-appearances he made for us in the last couple of seasons but he certainly left us with a few great memories and never really fulfilled what we thought he could be I don't think. Maybe that was down to expectations, maybe he found his top level too soon but as others have said, it'll be interesting to see how he does and at 28, he should still have a few good years left in him.

 

[stannyblade]

Went downhill rapidly after all the talk of him signing for Liverpool. Was glad to see the back of him by the time he left.

But yes what a freekick against the pigs

 

[Sothall_Blade]

I agree with that. His move to Stoke was the end of him but it suited both us and him at the time.

It might have suited our bank manager to sell Tonge for £2M and replace him with Matthew Spring on loan but it certainly didn't help the team.
Blackwell was starting to get the best out of Tonge again when he took over and got good results and performances at the end of the 07/08 season.
We started the next season with 4 wins and a draw from our first six matches, things were looking very good and then we sold Tonge too late to sign a permanent replacement.
That was one of the main reasons we failed to go up that season IMHO. We only finished 3 points short and Tonge could have made the difference.

 

[SRBlade]

I think people forget what he contributed after THAT season. I find it hard to believe people when they say it was his only good season.....

03-04 he had 16 assists to his name, the highest in the country that season.

So I would say its at least 2 good seasons! After that I think he lost that spark but carried on over the years as an average midfielder.

 

[Slugger]

I think he would be better suited to our current style of football if he ever came back, which I doubt. I had a chat with him once, really nice bloke and not big time at all

100% agree with that. Met Tonge in Longford, Ireland on Robson's pre-season. T'was my eldest lad's 1st ever Blades match. Tonge spoke to us before the match and afterwards when he saw us as he was going towards the team bus he came over especially to ask my lad if he'd enjoyed the match etc. Top fella. Also no matter what, the goal v piggies cements his place in Blades folklore!

 

[broomhillblade]

Sounds as though Michael Tonge is on his way to Barnsley for the rest of the season. It will be interesting to see how he does. When he first broke into the side at United he was awesome but for me he never fulfilled his potential. I remember he looked absolute class tearing the pigs to bits at Hillsborough as we managed to lose 2- 0 despite battering them, on other occasions he looked shite. Was a strange signing for Stoke who preferred to buy goliaths at the time and he has just festered in the reserves for 2 years. Hope he can be the shining star in relegated team!

He was never 'awesome' but he had some good moments. However, he was never a 90-minute player, even when he was doing relatively well, and he would disappear for long periods. He benefited most when Michael Brown was in the side.