BladesPod - latest episodes

[Selly]

Cheers Rev. Yeah LWB is really tricky. Of the ones I'd jotted down as eligible for this (so played 25+ games in last 25 years), I'd probably go:

1) Enda
[daylight]
2) Wayne Quinn
3) Gary Naysmith
4) Chris Armstrong
5) David Unsworth
6) Daniel Lafferty
7) Derek Geary (who was a good player for us, but have a hard time seeing him as a LWB in a 3-5-2)
8) Osborn

Obviously we've had many crapper ones than this in this period as well.

Harsh you aren`t including John Harley in there - in 02/03 he was brilliant at LB whilst on load with us.

Ha, yeah we enjoy doing them as well! Got a few more planned for sure. Weirdly I enjoy the off-season episodes from one of the NFL podcasts I listen to more than their regular review/preview stuff, not sure what that says about my relationship with the actual sport itself.

Can we expect "Fly on the Wall" soon then?

 

[Beans]

Harsh you aren`t including John Harley in there - in 02/03 he was brilliant at LB whilst on load with us.


Can we expect "Fly on the Wall" soon then?

I forgot Harley, he'd be pretty high on there actually - probably more suited to a wingback than Unsworth and Naysmith.

Oh and what's that phrase, "talent borrows, genius steals"?

 

[BettingBlade]

Looking forward to the worst team pod Beans could be a three hour special mind.

 

[Gimli]

Looking forward to the worst team pod Beans could be a three hour special mind.

I was thinking the same whilst listening to the best team one, would be several candidates for each position…

I did think it might be maybe a bit harsh to do that though, but then again, I’m not sure if Jordan Stewart listens to the pod…

Craig Beattie already got a mention in this weeks pod, he’d be a contender for sure!

 

[Revolution]

BTW I'm sure Craig Beattie would not run on the pitch if his son scored. He'd stand there, shouting and waving his arms about, whilst others ran past him.

 

[brownblade]

Also this really threw me:

View attachment 161700

We don't know eachother and we don't like each other.

Also a real Browny uses a Y.
My Neil Warnock autobiography remains unread because he signed it "To Brownie". Well, that and I can't get past the first pages about the last day of the Tevez season.

Finally, that capital B screams LOOK AT ME. Real attention seeker this guy. Brownieblade

 

[Brownieblade]

We don't know eachother and we don't like each other.

Also a real Browny uses a Y.
My Neil Warnock autobiography remains unread because he signed it "To Brownie". Well, that and I can't get past the first pages about the last day of the Tevez season.

Finally, that capital B screams LOOK AT ME. Real attention seeker this guy. Brownieblade

Reads to me like you know me pretty well ha ha

 

[Bath Blade]

Don’t know where he’d have fitted into a 3-5-2 but surprised to hear no mention of Devlin.

 

[Selly]

Don’t know where he’d have fitted into a 3-5-2 but surprised to hear no mention of Devlin.

Or indeed Graham Stuart (maybe he wasn`t here for enough games)

 

[Beans]

Don’t know where he’d have fitted into a 3-5-2 but surprised to hear no mention of Devlin.

Roy and I discussed beforehand whether to do 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 and in the end plumped for the latter - we thought it might be more interesting to have to choose six midfielders and six centre-backs between us, whereas there's not been a great depth of wide midfielders for United in these 25 years (largely because our best sides have played 3-5-2). Plus we wanted it to be about building a team rather than just picking your best four defenders, best four midfielders, best two strikers etc and ending up with someone like Michael Brown playing "right wing" in a 4-4-2.

Had we gone for 4-4-2 though Devlin would've been pretty high on the list of RMs, I really liked him. Peter Ndlovu probably the first name to play on the other wing unless I'm missing someone obvious.

Or indeed Graham Stuart (maybe he wasn`t here for enough games)

Maybe I'm misremembering but I never thought Stuart was all that. He did have a good goalscoring rate now I look at it (12 goals in 57 games including 2 penalties) but I found him a very unmemorable player. I was still only a teenager when he played though so maybe I'm being harsh. Not to mention the 1994 elephant in the room.

 

[CaptainMorgans]

.....................Henderson
.........Anel.......Jagielka......JOC
Baldock ...............................Stevens
...............Brown............Fleck
...........................MGW
.................Ndiaye.......Beattie

Subs: Kelly, Borbokis, Maguire, Norwood, McGoldrick, Sharp, Hulse.

Surprised so many went for Walker.
He didn't do enough in a Blades shirt to justify selection.

 

[Revolution]

.....................Henderson
.........Anel.......Jagielka......JOC
Baldock ...............................Stevens
...............Brown............Fleck
...........................MGW
.................Ndiaye.......Beattie

Subs: Kelly, Borbokis, Maguire, Norwood, McGoldrick, Sharp, Hulse.

Surprised so many went for Walker.
He didn't do enough in a Blades shirt to justify selection.

To me (and I have heard others say this) it was obvious from Walker's first appearance that he was PL class and was going to be a PL regular. I have heard other people say the same thing. He kept that standard up until Spurs took him away.

He is the only youth product I have ever felt was that good.

He is also one of the two hardest choices for me: my second choice was Baldock. The other hard choice was Beattie over Sharp.

 

[Silent Blade]

To me (and I have heard others say this) it was obvious from Walker's first appearance that he was PL class and was going to be a PL regular. I have heard other people say the same thing. He kept that standard up until Spurs took him away.

He is the only youth product I have ever felt was that good.
.

Fully agree, best ever league debut (v Swansea in 2009) I have ever seen

 

[Selly]

For me - and appreciating I'm not drafting so basically have the pick of both teams:

.....................Henderson
.........Anel.......Egan......JOC
Walker...............................Stevens
...................Norwood
..........Brown............Fleck
.............Ndiaye.......Beattie

Subs:
Kenny
Maguire
Baldock
Tonge
Duffy
Sharpe
MGW

There's a lot of recency bias in there - but then at no other point in the last 25 years have we had 2 promotions to the top flight...

 

[CaptainMorgans]

To me (and I have heard others say this) it was obvious from Walker's first appearance that he was PL class and was going to be a PL regular. I have heard other people say the same thing. He kept that standard up until Spurs took him away.

He is the only youth product I have ever felt was that good.

He is also one of the two hardest choices for me: my second choice was Baldock. The other hard choice was Beattie over Sharp.

Completely agree re: how good he looked, his obvious potential etc... but did his abilities as an 18/19 y old outweigh Baldock at his peak in a United shirt?

The answer may well be, yes to you (and others) but I'd disagree.

If he'd gone on to have a more modest career (see Naughton) he wouldn't be in people's XI based on that brief stint in a United shirt.

 

[Beans]

Completely agree re: how good he looked, his obvious potential etc... but did his abilities as an 18/19 y old outweigh Baldock at his peak in a United shirt?

The answer may well be, yes to you (and others) but I'd disagree.

If he'd gone on to have a more modest career (see Naughton) he wouldn't be in people's XI based on that brief stint in a United shirt.

No way of knowing for sure but not sure I agree with the last sentence - he really was that good. Vas Borbokis only really had one great season and is still reminisced about as one of our best players in this era. Walker was a phenomenon from the first start. I love Baldock but yes, I do think 18/19yo Walker was playing better than Baldock has at his peak.

 

[Bladeinleeds]

To me (and I have heard others say this) it was obvious from Walker's first appearance that he was PL class and was going to be a PL regular. I have heard other people say the same thing. He kept that standard up until Spurs took him away.

He is the only youth product I have ever felt was that good.

He is also one of the two hardest choices for me: my second choice was Baldock. The other hard choice was Beattie over Sharp.

I’d say Maguire too - from the first time i saw him in the flesh in the youth cup. I was convinced he was going to be a PL player.

Heard many Barnsley fans say the same thing about John stones. One mate claimed to have placed a bet on him playing for England after his debut.

 

[Geordie Blade]

Re Walker, here are a few quotes from an old 2009 thread:

I'm still of the opinion that the £3 Million gotten for Walker was the best part of that deal.

I think he is a decent enough full back at our level, but I don't think he is worth £3 Million nor anywhere near Naughtons level.
Personally I'm still holding out hope of us fluking our way forward and putting a £3 Million bid to get Naughton back.

I wonder if Spurs would let us look at Bale? Eitherway the money gotten by our Turry looks better and better IMHO.

I'm sure in McCabe's interview (somewhere on here?) he stated that we got £4M for Walker and £6M for Kyle.

I'm with you. I think Walker's a decent championship fullback, but at £4M we may have removed their pants.

UTB

And yes, as said above, we made a killing on Walker, who looked nowhere near as good as Naughton. I firmly believe if it wasnt for Naughton, Walker would not have been sold - he only played about 5 league games so no one would have even heard of him.

 

[Revolution]

Re Walker, here are a few quotes from an old 2009 thread:

If you look you’ll find a lot of quotes claiming we’ve been fleeced, as we were of course.

 

[Geordie Blade]

If you look you’ll find a lot of quotes claiming we’ve been fleeced, as we were of course.

Not in the thread that I looked in (check that same thread if you don't believe me). My memory at the time was that people were far more worried about losing Naughton than losing Walker. In fairness, I think that thread was after the initial sale and before the subsequent loan spell.

 

[Gimli]

For me - and appreciating I'm not drafting so basically have the pick of both teams:

.....................Henderson
.........Anel.......Egan......JOC
Walker...............................Stevens
...................Norwood
..........Brown............Fleck
.............Ndiaye.......Beattie

Subs:
Kenny
Maguire
Baldock
Tonge
Duffy
Sharpe
MGW

There's a lot of recency bias in there - but then at no other point in the last 25 years have we had 2 promotions to the top flight...

I think some of it could be put down to recency bias but also I just think we have had far better teams in the last 5 years than at any other time in the past 25.

Bobby Ford isn’t getting close to Duffy or Fleck…
Laurent Djaffo isn’t competing with Sharp or Ndiaye… etc etc

You could argue I’ve deliberately picked average players there to prove a point.

 

[Beans]

Not in the thread that I looked in (check that same thread if you don't believe me). My memory at the time was that people were far more worried about losing Naughton than losing Walker. In fairness, I think that thread was after the initial sale and before the subsequent loan spell.

Yeah it must have been, looking at the content of the quotes - he'd only played 5 times for us I think by that stage whereas Naughton had just finished a very impressive full season. Still surprised to see people thinking we got a good deal there though, especially how Walker played in that playoff final!

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

I think context is also key. Given the money we got for Naughton for example was that right in hindsight?
Clearly I got Walker wrong, but he'd played a handful of games and we were given £3M. For every Walker there is a Mellis or Slew.
In the past 18 months we've had folk advocating cutting our losses on Ramsdale, Berge, McBurnie, as well as Mcatee and Doyle.

 

[alcoblade]

Re Walker, here are a few quotes from an old 2009 thread:

I'd forgot this one as from memory I thought Walker was top drawer. But I thought Maguire would never get out of the championship, Coutts was shite and numerous other terrible predictions.

Whilst message boards are boring without us passing on our opinion, I'm happy to re state that my ability to predict the future ability of a footballer is terrible.

 

[Geordie Blade]

I think context is also key. Given the money we got for Naughton for example was that right in hindsight?
Clearly I got Walker wrong, but he'd played a handful of games and we were given £3M. For every Walker there is a Mellis or Slew.
In the past 18 months we've had folk advocating cutting our losses on Ramsdale, Berge, McBurnie, as well as Mcatee and Doyle.

In your defence, you also said we should have a look at Gareth Bale, and he turned out to be worth a bit.

 

[CaptainMorgans]

Re Walker, here are a few quotes from an old 2009 thread:

I'm glad you dug those quotes out because my memory of Walker was similar.
There were no North Korean style histrionics when he left (very cheaply) despite some very promising showings.

From memory, Naughton was seen as the bigger asset at the time and the sale prices reflected that.
Walker was sort of thrown into the deal late on.
I remember being disappointed at that as I felt, of the two, he might have the higher ceiling due to his size and speed... but he'd barely played (criminal of Blackwell in hindsight).

I won't be too revisionary, I didn't see a World Class talent in either of them but was very confident both would have strong PL careers.
Walker far exceeded what anybody could have reasonably expected from him and Naughton, for me, fell short on his potential.

 

[CaptainMorgans]

I think context is also key. Given the money we got for Naughton for example was that right in hindsight?
Clearly I got Walker wrong, but he'd played a handful of games and we were given £3M. For every Walker there is a Mellis or Slew.
In the past 18 months we've had folk advocating cutting our losses on Ramsdale, Berge, McBurnie, as well as Mcatee and Doyle.

You might have overlooked Walker but at least you knew there was a player in Bale.
Saved yourself with that last line.

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

You might have overlooked Walker but at least you knew there was a player in Bale.
Saved yourself with that last line.

I genuinely missed my comment about Bale. but I also wasn't sold on Maguire going on to be a £75m player. I wouldn't even have had him as a £30m player, so my eye is clearly out on occasion but Bale clearly looked special to anyone but Harry Redknapp.

Not aimed at The Captain, but out of interest, how much did we get for Walker in total once the sell on clause kicked in?

 

[CaptainMorgans]

I genuinely missed my comment about Bale. but I also wasn't sold on Maguire going on to be a £75m player. I wouldn't even have had him as a £30m player, so my eye is clearly out on occasion but Bale clearly looked special to anyone but Harry Redknapp.

Not aimed at The Captain, but out of interest, how much did we get for Walker in total once the sell on clause kicked in?

I don't know exact figures but £2-3m up front and 20% of £50m, so total around £12m (I think).

 

[brownblade]

I think some of it could be put down to recency bias but also I just think we have had far better teams in the last 5 years than at any other time in the past 25.

Bobby Ford isn’t getting close to Duffy or Fleck…
Laurent Djaffo isn’t competing with Sharp or Ndiaye… etc etc

You could argue I’ve deliberately picked average players there to prove a point.

D'Jaffo getting classed as "average" seems incredibly generous!

My only real memory of him is bundling Kenny(?) into the net to score for Bury.