Ryan Leonard

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Rodley said:
A full preseason is a prolonged block of time working on shape, roles, technique, fitness and how your teammates play. Coming in in January is always difficult as you’re picking up a new system either in a game scenario or within a couple of training sessions which aren’t focusing on specific tactics for the upcoming Saturday or Tuesday. Plus settling in out of work, etc. I’m more surprised people think pre-season doesn’t make a difference.

I think Leonard will make a quality centre half or more orthodox right back. He’ll also be alright in a centre midfield pair.
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The stuff that is done in pre season is done during the season. It's not a "prolonged" block of time - it's actually less. The major difference is that it is usually a more intense period of training, because players come back from the summer break out of condition. So, it's more geared around "fitness" than the other technical or tactical stuff. Just because a player is missing for a "pre season" doesn't mean they are at a disadvantage. If they are not fit when they arrive they will be given extra training or different fitness routines in order to catch up. Within the same sort of period, i.e. 6 weeks, any player coming into the club should be at the same level of fitness they would have been had they joined for "pre-season".

I'm afraid this "pre-season" is just being used as an excuse for some players who aren't cutting it. It's really that simple.

As for Ryan Leonard...all I will say is that I'll hold off judgement for a while longer yet. There have been many players down the years that have taken a while to settle in and show what they can do and he could be another one of them. However, how anyone can say..."he'd be good here" or "good there" based on what we have seen so far defies logic. He has been very poor in every game he's played and frankly he needs to up his game a bit or get the hell out of here quick - because we can't afford to carry passengers.
 
Shrimperama said:
It's a shame it hasn't worked out for you with lenny.

It' worked quite well for us.

We got some much needed cash and unearthed the best youth team player I've seen in my 25 years following the club.

Dru Yearwood is the best player in our squad at 18. Future prem player for sure.
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Don't come on here trying to sell us any more of your players mate. We're still reeling from buying the last one off you. BTW - Didn't you also sell us Chris Guthrie some years ago?:oops:
 
Cerberus Blade said:
Don't come on here trying to sell us any more of your players mate. We're still reeling from buying the last one off you. BTW - Didn't you also sell us Chris Guthrie some years ago?:oops:
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No way is Yearwood anywhere near ready for Championship football. Too often young players think they have arrived after some good early reviews, Jackie Payne being a good example when he went to Huddersfield a few seasons back and now on loan in FL1. As for Lenny, he will obviously need the time you offered him above in post #96. I still think he has it in him to be a Championship player but we shall see if it's with you guys or not. As for Mr Guthrie, you bought him if I recall rather than us selling him to you. He was a good player for us.

Phil Brown always reckoned that a good pre season for a player gave him the stamina for the season.........but Phil was often good for a bollox quote or two.
 
Rootshallbloke said:
No way is Yearwood anywhere near ready for Championship football. Too often young players think they have arrived after some good early reviews, Jackie Payne being a good example when he went to Huddersfield a few seasons back and now on loan in FL1. As for Lenny, he will obviously need the time you offered him above in post #96. I still think he has it in him to be a Championship player but we shall see if it's with you guys or not. As for Mr Guthrie, you bought him if I recall rather than us selling him to you. He was a good player for us.

Phil Brown always reckoned that a good pre season for a player gave him the stamina for the season.........but Phil was often good for a bollox quote or two.
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Oh yes, we bought Chris Guthrie off you alright. This messageboard didn't exist back then. It was in the days before the tinterweb. In fact, it was in the days before mobile phones an' all. Yes, there were days in years gone by when folks didn't walk around in a mobile device induced trance, bumping into folk and being aurally impaired too due to them having earphones, or, as is the case now, wearing huge headphones like they've just wandered out of a recording studio. It didn't used to be like that. You could walk down the street and no one would bump into you. You speak to them and they could hear you. You could drive a car without fear of someone being on a phone and nearly killing you. But best of all, you could go out in them days and no one knew where you were and couldn't get in touch with you. It wor reight good am tellin yer!;)

But not all things were better back then. If we were rumoured to be after a player, we usually knew nothing about him at all, unless we'd seen him in the highlights of a game shown in black and white on Match of The Day, or Soccer Sunday. We couldn't do a "google" on him and find out all about his past, where he was born, what he likes for breakfast, how many lovers he's had, what car he drives, or how he urinated in a glass once and got in trouble for it. We couldn't go to "YouTube" and see videos of him skipping past opposing players like he had just been transformed to earth from another planet as a superior athletic being. We couldn't watch clips of him scoring goals. We could just read about it in the paper, if we were lucky there might be a grainy black and white photo of him - and we could stare at that for ages, and just imagine. Imagine if that football shirt he'd got on had red and white stripes on it. Imagine where he might fit into our team. Imagine how much he might improve us, even though we really hadn't got the slightest clue if he would be any good.

This, I'm convinced, is what happened with the signing of Chris Guthrie. For years many Blades fans had bemoaned our lack of a BIG centre forward. We had a super centre-forward in the 1970's called Bill Dearden. A converted right winger from Chester City, Bill was not a BIG centre forward, He was fairly lithe and quick though and had the heart of a lion. The player that has most reminded me of him since then is Ian Rush of Liverpool. Bill was that kind of player - always in the right place at the right time, gave everything, and could finish! However, that wasn't good enough for some Blades. They wanted a BIG centre forward. Someone a bit like Malcolm McDonald, who at the time was bullying centre halves for fun, at Luton Town.

The move for Chris Guthrie was spawned with that kind of player in mind. We'd heard about Guthrie, scoring goals for fun at Southend. We'd heard he was BIG too. But I don't think we'd ever seen him play. We were very excited when we signed him, because I recall we paid about £100,000 for him, which was a lot of money back then, and is still a lot of money to us now strangely enough. The guy was a complete flop. So much so, that for years since, whenever we think of "a waste of money", those of us from that era automatically see his face and think of his name.

I do hope young Leonard Ryan isn't going to go the same way!:eek:
 
You must type bloody fast!. Yes a perfect description of Guthrie.
 
Cerberus Blade said:
Oh yes, we bought Chris Guthrie off you alright. This messageboard didn't exist back then. It was in the days before the tinterweb. In fact, it was in the days before mobile phones an' all. Yes, there were days in years gone by when folks didn't walk around in a mobile device induced trance, bumping into folk and being aurally impaired too due to them having earphones, or, as is the case now, wearing huge headphones like they've just wandered out of a recording studio. It didn't used to be like that. You could walk down the street and no one would bump into you. You speak to them and they could hear you. You could drive a car without fear of someone being on a phone and nearly killing you. But best of all, you could go out in them days and no one knew where you were and couldn't get in touch with you. It wor reight good am tellin yer!;)

But not all things were better back then. If we were rumoured to be after a player, we usually knew nothing about him at all, unless we'd seen him in the highlights of a game shown in black and white on Match of The Day, or Soccer Sunday. We couldn't do a "google" on him and find out all about his past, where he was born, what he likes for breakfast, how many lovers he's had, what car he drives, or how he urinated in a glass once and got in trouble for it. We couldn't go to "YouTube" and see videos of him skipping past opposing players like he had just been transformed to earth from another planet as a superior athletic being. We couldn't watch clips of him scoring goals. We could just read about it in the paper, if we were lucky there might be a grainy black and white photo of him - and we could stare at that for ages, and just imagine. Imagine if that football shirt he'd got on had red and white stripes on it. Imagine where he might fit into our team. Imagine how much he might improve us, even though we really hadn't got the slightest clue if he would be any good.

This, I'm convinced, is what happened with the signing of Chris Guthrie. For years many Blades fans had bemoaned our lack of a BIG centre forward. We had a super centre-forward in the 1970's called Bill Dearden. A converted right winger from Chester City, Bill was not a BIG centre forward, He was fairly lithe and quick though and had the heart of a lion. The player that has most reminded me of him since then is Ian Rush of Liverpool. Bill was that kind of player - always in the right place at the right time, gave everything, and could finish! However, that wasn't good enough for some Blades. They wanted a BIG centre forward. Someone a bit like Malcolm McDonald, who at the time was bullying centre halves for fun, at Luton Town.

The move for Chris Guthrie was spawned with that kind of player in mind. We'd heard about Guthrie, scoring goals for fun at Southend. We'd heard he was BIG too. But I don't think we'd ever seen him play. We were very excited when we signed him, because I recall we paid about £100,000 for him, which was a lot of money back then, and is still a lot of money to us now strangely enough. The guy was a complete flop. So much so, that for years since, whenever we think of "a waste of money", those of us from that era automatically see his face and think of his name.

I do hope young Leonard Ryan isn't going to go the same way!:eek:
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100K in 1975 worth just shy of one million today, on looking it up I'm amazed to see he scored 15 in 60 games for us as he was absolutely pony ( no offence Chris if you're reading).
 
As you say Guthrie scored goals for fun with us. Funnily enough on the modern technology front I thought about bumping a guy in my car that decided to walk across the road in front of me yesterday, headphones on, mobile up to face almost at eye level. It took two beeps of the horn before he even realised I was there, and when he did I was treated to a middle finger salute, priceless.

Back on the Leonard Ryan front (isn't it annoying when a player has two christian names?) We shall see what happens. We all thought he would suit you with his playing style, but it hasn't happened yet, and maybe never will with United. But I'm still convinced he will come good at Championship level with someone.
 
ChipButtyBlade said:
Coutts in his first season was a major scapegoat on here i recall,dont forget that Coutts dropped down from the Championship to Lg1 and he struggled,but that for me was down to his previous injury and lack of game fitness,he had the ability no doubt he just required sharpening up,also dont forget he was originally one of the players that was on Wilders exit list.
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Leonard hasn't had the opportunity yet, he came in after we lost a bit of confidence ( momentum ) so not surprising he found it difficult like Holmes.
Next season is there opoopportunity ,obviously they have to take it.
As been referred to previously could have been a mistake by Wilder he will move them on if that's the case.
 
Paisley Blade said:
100K in 1975 worth just shy of one million today, on looking it up I'm amazed to see he scored 15 in 60 games for us as he was absolutely pony ( no offence Chris if you're reading).
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And don't forget Richard Cadette, one of my all time favourites at Southend. Thinking about it, you haven't had much luck with our ex players, maybe time to never darken our door again?
 
Rootshallbloke said:
And don't forget Richard Cadette,
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AKA 'Space Cadet' as he was always in the space that his teamates didn't put the ball in.

What made it worse that the £125k was paid for by the fans ('Blades revival' scheme) and he was absolute dogtoss.
 
Snowman said:
You must type bloody fast!. Yes a perfect description of Guthrie.
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I do mate, yep. Learned to "touch-type" "back in the day" on a manual typewriter. I think even faster though, which isn't always an advantage.
 
Rootshallbloke said:
And don't forget Richard Cadette, one of my all time favourites at Southend. Thinking about it, you haven't had much luck with our ex players, maybe time to never darken our door again?
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Oh groan! Richard Cadette!:eek: Another one of yours!

Now I'm convinced you've got some sort of grudge against us.
 

Cerberus Blade said:
Oh groan! Richard Cadette!:eek: Another one of yours!

Now I'm convinced you've got some sort of grudge against us.
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You may think that, but I still haven't forgiven you for Tony Currie. With us for the 83/84 season, he managed to injure himself in a league pre match warm up and we never saw him again. Great value that was.
 
Rootshallbloke said:
You may think that, but I still haven't forgiven you for Tony Currie. With us for the 83/84 season, he managed to injure himself in a league pre match warm up and we never saw him again. Great value that was.
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He left us in 1976 and had played for L**ds, QPR and Torquay before joining Southend!!
 
He's slow in both the brain and in his pace, often made decisions far to late and for a big guy he get's pushed off the ball fairly easy. Other than that he's shit
 
Silent Blade said:
Rootshallbloke , was Terry Nicholl good for you? He scored for us in the 1-0 home win against Liverpool in April 1974. He left us to join you in 1975
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The records show that we squeezed 53 games and 3 goals out of him but I was working away during his time at the Hall and can't really offer you any thing first hand about the guy.
 
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