Briefly Brilliant Blades

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

D

dellasthunderbolt

Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2014
Messages
142
Reaction score
415
We have had plenty of rubbish players (Dean Hammond), some average Joes (Paul Thirlwell) and some legends like Delano but this is jjst to celebrate those whose brilliance in the red and white stripes was glorious but short lived.

Lee Morris
Owen Morrison
Jean-Phillipe Javary
George Donis
Steve Kabba (pre leg breaks)
Jean Calve
 

dellasthunderbolt said:
We have had plenty of rubbish players (Dean Hammond), some average Joes (Paul Thirlwell) and some legends like Delano but this is jjst to celebrate those whose brilliance in the red and white stripes was glorious but short lived.

Lee Morris
Owen Morrison
Jean-Phillipe Javary
George Donis
Steve Kabba (pre leg breaks)
Jean Calve
Click to expand...

Maybe could argue John Brayford, Jon Harley & Leon Clarke fall into those categories. Kyle Walker, Gary Cahill, Matt Phillips, Andy Reid..
 
Think the success of some of those was a little more prolonged -Clarke was great in the two seasons spanning promotion from League One and the first year back in championship.
 
The one youth player I always remember with a sense of ‘what if’ was Ian Ross. I remember McCall saying he was so much more talented than he himself has been at that age but it never happened for him. By al accounts he was destined for great things.
 
Martin Smith.
Aaaaaand.... who was the striker that broke his leg about 10 years ago I want to say? Striker? Our season imploded I think after that.
 
dellasthunderbolt said:
The one youth player I always remember with a sense of ‘what if’ was Ian Ross. I remember McCall saying he was so much more talented than he himself has been at that age but it never happened for him. By al accounts he was destined for great things.
Click to expand...
I don't know any details, but I believe he went through so extremely tough times while trying to make it, and unfortunately derailed/distracted him.

I remember Martin Smith having a brief purple patch before ditching us for Huddersfield
 

Jean Calve, Andy Reid. Both from that Blackwell/Speed/Carver/Adams season.

Calve scored on his debut then got gradually wanker.
 
dellasthunderbolt said:
We have had plenty of rubbish players (Dean Hammond), some average Joes (Paul Thirlwell) and some legends like Delano but this is jjst to celebrate those whose brilliance in the red and white stripes was glorious but short lived.

Lee Morris
Owen Morrison
Jean-Phillipe Javary
George Donis
Steve Kabba (pre leg breaks)
Jean Calve
Click to expand...

Paul Thirwell was never an average Joe .

He took the art of going missing on a football pitch to a whole new level . In terms of work rate , enthusiasm and commitment he made Dean Hammond and John Lundstram look like Nobby Styles and Trevor Hockey .
 
The number of times I came away from the game and was unaware whether Thirlwell had played that day was unbelievable. Christ knows where he went between the hours of 3 to 5pm each Saturday cos it sure as hell wasn't on the pitch. The invisible man.

Mind you, I'm sure us mere mortals that are just football fans just couldn't see / appreciate the hidden work that he put in which the coaches could..... Yawn.
 
Weasel said:
The number of times I came away from the game and was unaware whether Thirlwell had played that day was unbelievable. Christ knows where he went between the hours of 3 to 5pm each Saturday cos it sure as hell wasn't on the pitch. The invisible man.

Mind you, I'm sure us mere mortals that are just football fans just couldn't see / appreciate the hidden work that he put in which the coaches could..... Yawn.
Click to expand...

I well remember watching us playing an FA cup match against Arsenal in a bar in Tenerife .

In the commentary , his name was never mentioned until the 73rd. minute when he gave away an unnecessary free kick when we were on the attack .

That incident represented his entire contribution to our performance that day .
 
Sithblade said:
Mike Lake, looked a good prospect and just starting some games before breaking his leg in early 1990.
Had a brilliant purple patch of 4 or 5 wonder goals in the top flight in 91/92, then quickly plummeted down the league to join Wrexham.
Click to expand...

I compared him to Lundstram in our latest Tufty Club pod for mostly doing nothing then having this sublime spell!
 
dellasthunderbolt said:
Think the success of some of those was a little more prolonged -Clarke was great in the two seasons spanning promotion from League One and the first year back in championship.
Click to expand...
Not quite. He was injured and/or not doing much until the end of the promotion season, and then was great for the first two thirds of the first season back, but did little thereafter. You can split his career into 3 phases with us:

August 2016 to March 2017: 20 league games, 1 goal. Not very good and injured a lot.
April 2017 to 1 January 2018: 29 league games, 21 goals. Brilliant.
2 January 2018 to July 2020: 42 league games, 7 goals. patchy.

That middle spell is glorious, but I agree not short lived. It's basically a 30 game purple patch with not much around it. Adrian Littlejohn is another example of this phenomenon.
 
coaxingstar71 said:
Steve Wigley - brought in to replace Colin Morris, failed, but did score a wonder goal dribbling past a number of Blackburn players in a 3-3 draw

John Ebbrell - 45 minutes and 1 assist in a Blades shirt.
Click to expand...
Wigley scored what is still the best goal I've seen from a Blades player soon after he joined, but his purple patch was after that. He was really good in the middle of 1986-7, before we let him go to Birmingham. The feeling was that he was "playing to get away" so to speak.

Of similar vintage was Mel Eves' excellent 1984-5 for us after signing from Wolves in December - 16 games, 9 goals, including that fantastic winner against Leeds at the Lane when they were ripping the seats out of the BLUT (and throwing them down on their own fans). Unfortunately injuries meant he hardly played the following season and only got one more goal.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

Back
Top Bottom