Michael Tonge

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Houso

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Signed for Preston on loan and will face us on the 28th of December.

Alan Irvine has bolstered his midfield by signing Stoke City's Michael Tonge on a loan deal until after the Sheffield United game on 28th December.

The 26-year-old Mancunian joined the Potteries club on the last day of the transfer window in 2008, costing £2m from Sheffield United, where he has played the majority of his 300 career games thus far.

He began his career at Manchester United, but after being released at 16 he joined the Blades, where he soon made an impact given his debut by Neil Warnock and he went on to become a mainstay of the South Yorkshire side's midfield.

http://www.pnefc.net/page/NewsDetail/0,,10362~1879215,00.html?
 

Interesting. Especially given how Irvine likes to play. Will be interesting to see how he gets on actually. If he plays well, wonder if we'll be in for him in January. It's an opportunity for Tonge to put himself in the shop window
 
They certainly won't be buying him, they are on the verge of administration alledgedly.
 
Tonge

strong performance from tonge this evening i thought given his lack of match practice, named man of the match for preston over the tannoy. really wish we'd have snapped him up.
 
Why? He ws disillusioned and ineffective when he played for us last. I can't see that our Glorious Leader would have managed to get the best out of him again.

Alan Irvine's clearly managed to get him playing pretty well.
 
Why? He ws disillusioned and ineffective when he played for us last. I can't see that our Glorious Leader would have managed to get the best out of him again.

Alan Irvine's clearly managed to get him playing pretty well.

I'd wait and see.....he looked a world beater when breaking into our team and he's now playing for his future.

We've seen many players on loan look great to be let down when given a contract.

And that's without tactics etc..
 
Alan Irvine's clearly managed to get him playing pretty well.

That or he's realised he's wasting a career and needs to buck up before falling onto the scrap heap/scrapping around in the lower leagues :)
 
That or he's realised he's wasting a career and needs to buck up before falling onto the scrap heap/scrapping around in the lower leagues :)

Kabba???? :rolleyes:
 
Firstly, good luck to Michael. Hope it works well for him now he's playing again. But, player turning it on whilst on loan is not exactly unusual is it? If he strings 5 or 6 similar performnces together on the spin then I might think "wish we''d brought him back" but I rather suspect it would have been more Wayne Quinn-esque for him had he come here.
 
Tonge was a big reason behind us finishing the 07/08 season as well as we did, he really did play well and was important to the team and we haven't played much football since he left.

The 6 games at the start of the 08/09 season before he was sold brought a very good return - 4 wins 1 draw and 1 loss to birmingham where we were worth at least a point.

Then he left and it took us the next 11 games to equal 4 wins and a draw (with 6 losses).

But never mind, he was disillusioned and ineffective.
 
I agree I always liked tonge especially as a youngster with that extra bit of pace to get to the byline and pull the ball back like he always did in the 02/03 season. However he was never quite the same player in the middle of the park, still he's better than what we've got and has the qualities to still be a good player at this level in the central role
 
I've just watched Michael Tonge display over 90 minutes, precisely why he is a "nearly" player.

If only he was a bit quicker, a bit more incisive, a bit better in the air, a bit stronger in the tackle, a bit more inclined to shoot etc. etc.

He is not, and for me, never will be good enough to play regularly in the Premier League. Nearly though..............................
 
And some of you people have tried to make out in the past that players like Harper and Quinn are improvements on Tonge?

Complete nutters.

You dont know what you've got till its gone and thats the way with Tonge. Shame he got forced out the club by fans who obviously prefer to see the ball in the air for 90 minutes.

Should have brought him back here.
 
I've just watched Michael Tonge display over 90 minutes, precisely why he is a "nearly" player.

If only he was a bit quicker, a bit more incisive, a bit better in the air, a bit stronger in the tackle, a bit more inclined to shoot etc. etc.

He is not, and for me, never will be good enough to play regularly in the Premier League. Nearly though..............................

he's played once a month for the last 4 months on or around the 25th each month, bit like payday. nearly all of those things should be improved with a run in the side and he put in the strongest tackle of the game tonight and was prestons best player tonight, on his debut in a side above us in the table.

He was plenty good enough for us in the premier league and had a decent season imho featuring heavily for a team that went down with 38 points, a total that has comfortably been enough to stay up in 8 out of the last 10 seasons.
 

How come everyone was saying Tonge was crap when he played for us !
Short Memories!!!!!

I'd never say Tonge was crap when he played for us, but he was certainly not putting 100% in for the last 6 months he was with us.
He kind of drifted into a 'doing the minimum to get through a match' type player.
 
Tonge's big problem, reputation wise, is that his best United season - by miles - was his second season, very early in his United career. He played 5 full seasons after that and was never as good, though he had his good patches (2005-6 when he returned to the team, and the end of our relegation season spring to mind).

The result of all of this is that he gets a lot of stick for not getting better or living up to his early promise.

It is my contention, however, that if you took Michael Tonge from any season from 2003-4 to 2007-8 and stuck him in that 2002-3 team, you'd get the same sort of season out of him that he had then.

Why? Because he's got Brown and McCall in the middle instead of Monty and a cast of thousands.

I do not see how returning Tongey to our team now would yield better results than we were getting when he was sold, because he doesn't have the supporting cast around him that would allow him to thrive.
 
Tonge's big problem, reputation wise, is that his best United season - by miles - was his second season, very early in his United career. He played 5 full seasons after that and was never as good, though he had his good patches (2005-6 when he returned to the team, and the end of our relegation season spring to mind).

The result of all of this is that he gets a lot of stick for not getting better or living up to his early promise.

It is my contention, however, that if you took Michael Tonge from any season from 2003-4 to 2007-8 and stuck him in that 2002-3 team, you'd get the same sort of season out of him that he had then.

Why? Because he's got Brown and McCall in the middle instead of Monty and a cast of thousands.

I do not see how returning Tongey to our team now would yield better results than we were getting when he was sold, because he doesn't have the supporting cast around him that would allow him to thrive.

I liked Tonge and was sad to see him go and I think Brown & McCall not being there did have an influence but my best memory of Tongey was Millwall at home in the 2002/2003 season playing on the left, taking on player after player, crossing it for Sarbs to score then scoring a beauty, again cutting in from the left.

Even when he played on the left in the 03/04 & 04/05 season he seemed to lack confidence, speed, trickery to recreate skinning the full back.

That said, he developed into a good central midfielder and played really well in our Premiership season and played really well with Speed when Blackwell first came. I got fed up with people calling him a nesher too, if anyone went to Birmingham on the opening day, the way the midfield & Tonge put their bodies in the line was really impressive stuff and although Speed & Tonge played little part in that season, it set the marker for the dedication & effort required.
 
I'd never say Tonge was crap when he played for us, but he was certainly not putting 100% in for the last 6 months he was with us.
He kind of drifted into a 'doing the minimum to get through a match' type player.

Check out the 1st post by 'Blade'.

and isn't your comment about Kilgallon coz that sums him up perfectly at the mo
 
I'd never say Tonge was crap when he played for us, but he was certainly not putting 100% in for the last 6 months he was with us.
He kind of drifted into a 'doing the minimum to get through a match' type player.

There are plenty of things that get my goat up on here (any post by Disorderly for example!!) but nothing quite as much as some wishy washy comment that players weren't or aren't trying hard enough.

He might have been trying too hard, I'll give you that, but why equate a coupkle of poor performances with a lack of effort?

We were poor at Barnsley for example but I don't think anyone can cite a lack of effort.

Sorry to sound a bit OTT perhaps but I really think your comments are poor - unless you know Tongey and he has told you that he went to work for 6 months not wanting to show his best and with no regard for his family or future.
 
Short memories some of us have.

Tonge for me was a talented player, but never reached his potential (apart from the 02/03 season) with us.

There were times when he was 'better' - but he still wasn't what we were looking for.

He was also never going to fit into our long ball game under Blackwell either, so it made sense to offload him. The price we got for him was absolutely fantastic too.
 
He was also never going to fit into our long ball game under Blackwell either, so it made sense to offload him. The price we got for him was absolutely fantastic too.

I've said this about players in the past, most recently Cotterill. On saying it this time round, it made me realise just how badly we're talent-stripping the squad of creative flair players and replacing them with the likes of Cresswell, Davies, Henderson etc...
 
I'm sure I heard a few "booos" from the Preston fans when he was named MOM.
 
He is a player we never replaced he could play football, i thought he used to give us a good balance, pace on the right and skill on the left. He never gave to ball away and was always positive in his play. I think his lack of pace meant he never made it in the premier league, that and stoke play similar to united now long ball but pullis gets results thats why beattie fitted straight in.
 
There are plenty of things that get my goat up on here (any post by Disorderly for example!!) but nothing quite as much as some wishy washy comment that players weren't or aren't trying hard enough.

He might have been trying too hard, I'll give you that, but why equate a coupkle of poor performances with a lack of effort?

We were poor at Barnsley for example but I don't think anyone can cite a lack of effort.

Sorry to sound a bit OTT perhaps but I really think your comments are poor - unless you know Tongey and he has told you that he went to work for 6 months not wanting to show his best and with no regard for his family or future.

I have to agree here; it seems to be in vogue to accuse players of not giving 100% if they have a dip in form or a poor game.

Tonge may have lacked a yard of pace and he may have lost a bit of self confidence towards the end of his United career but i would never suggest that he was giving less then his all for the cause.
 
I have to agree here; it seems to be in vogue to accuse players of not giving 100% if they have a dip in form or a poor game.

Tonge may have lacked a yard of pace and he may have lost a bit of self confidence towards the end of his United career but i would never suggest that he was giving less then his all for the cause.
Its fair to say that "better quality" players rarely produce consistently good form under Blackwell, probably because of his preferred style of play. We need a manager who can coach and motivate ALL the players, not just a few of them.
UTB
 
Its fair to say that "better quality" players rarely produce consistently good form under Blackwell, probably because of his preferred style of play. We need a manager who can coach and motivate ALL the players, not just a few of them.
UTB

So when we had our most consistent, unbeaten away record for many a year last season ?

Back to your point, there isn't a manager in football who can motivate ALL of his players ALL of the time.
 

There are plenty of things that get my goat up on here (any post by Disorderly for example!!) but nothing quite as much as some wishy washy comment that players weren't or aren't trying hard enough.

He might have been trying too hard, I'll give you that, but why equate a coupkle of poor performances with a lack of effort?

We were poor at Barnsley for example but I don't think anyone can cite a lack of effort.

Sorry to sound a bit OTT perhaps but I really think your comments are poor - unless you know Tongey and he has told you that he went to work for 6 months not wanting to show his best and with no regard for his family or future.

WTF
It was pretty obvious to me and many I know that he wasn't putting the effort in and strolling through games fr at least 6 months.
If you don't agree so be it.

It wasn't a wishy washy comment, it was how I saw how he played.
and it also has nothing to do with how United played against Barnsley a few weeks ago.

He certainly wasn't 'trying too hard' thats for sure
 

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