Does anyone hate any footballer? Bit sad if you do really. Grealish is incredibly annoying but I'd still love to have him at Watford. Zaha is probably the most dislikeable footballer around and I'd still love to see him playing for Watford. If you hate any footballer you're probably way too invested. Gray is just extremely, extremely limited and it is really frustrating to watch. It's not about stats, goals, assists, minute per goal ratios all that stuff, none of that matters in this case because what people have repeatedly seen with their own two eyes when Gray is on the pitch is mishit horribly weighted passes, awful control of a football, a horrible first touch, scuffed shots and the rest. That's why people have given up on him.
Yep. Football is all about hope. We hope the team will play well. We hope the team will score a goal. We hope we will win. We hope. When Gray enters here, we abandon all hope. Hope is replaced with despair and the whole crowd is resigned to failure and disappointment.
Vega basically downed tools and said he didn't want to play when results went bad. That's why he's the worst in my book.
I don't remember that happening. I remember that season that defensively we were OK. Stephen Hughes and Stephen Glass in midfield were mostly injured and upfront, Marcus Gayle was crap, but better when he stayed on as a left sided centre half. Blondeau, Vega and Issa get a lot of abuse, but I think this is mostly revisionist, as at the time, I don't think anyone had a problem with them, it's just that the burden of their wages were not sustainable and nearly sunk us. People have gone on to then suggest they were terrible players, which they weren't, they just weren't worth the money we were paying them at the time according to our budget.
I thought he looked good when he played but clearly needed more experience. Never rated Danny Rose however.
Agreed. None of them were bad at all. The problem was that the club was massively underachieving versus expectations (we were touted as Champions hopefuls thanks to Vialli fervour and the signings we made) and people lost their minds as a result. Vialli certainly didn't do us any favours there, with his ambitious promises and the "Man Utd of the Championship" nonsense.
I hate Gray as a footballer, not as a person. I don't know him as a person and therefore do not and cannot hate him in that sense, that would be weird, but as a footballer playing (horrendously) for this club, yes, I "hate" him. I hate watching him play for us.
It's alright now trying to backtrack on what you really mean by 'hate' and I for one don't believe it for a second given the vitriol and spite you regularly regurgitate on this forum. The level of your praise when we win never matches your level of bile when we lose and you behave like the leader of a shoal of frenzied piranhas when you get a sniff of blood and turn on your own. I really don't get why some people are like that. No-one deserves to be treated the way you and some others on this forum treat Gray. Total lack of empathy for a player out of form and low on confidence who always tries his best despite his limitations. He may not be good enough in our current situation and of course that is frustrating, but.... 'hate'? Gray's not perfect, but neither are any of us. I wish him the best whether he stays with us or moves on.
When you find yourself saying “we should’ve taken Ashley ******* Barnes off them instead” a little piece of you dies inside
Nath, I often stand up for your right to be outspoken and air your views on players as you see fit. But I need to comment on you labelling people as 'complete weirdos' just for holding a different view to your own. Very few, if any, people on here are 'leaping' to Gray's defence - they are just not so quick to jump on his back after every thing that goes wrong with the teams performance. You need to come up for air every now and then.... From what I can read, almost to a man/woman, everyone agrees that it is right that he is moved on if the terms suit the club - but some just go OTT with their vitriol of the player. Its becoming quite distasteful in my opinion - and now you feel the need to label others as 'complete weirdos'? It just shows immaturity or a level of not being able to constructively make your point without resorting to abusing those you disagree with.
For whatever personal reason our Nath is simply an attention seeker and does it on purpose to wind up the moderates. If you don't like Gray fair enough, say it once or twice to make your point, we've been hearing this from him 10 times a week, for the last year. More boring than a Going Down Simpsons GIF.
As much as I think the vitriol aimed at Gray goes too far at times, he doesn’t help himself with his efforts. He was dreadful tonight by the sounds of it - not one shot on goal. He needs to move on, for everyone’s sake.
Apparently he got lost in the defenders pocket due to the fog and as the driver was on the meter we didn't have time to find him before leaving. Shame for tranmere because I don't think he'll be able to help them in their survival fight either
No I haven’t. Where is the needless abuse in my post? Some posts about him in recent weeks have gone OTT in their criticism - some couldn’t wait on Tuesday to have a go, even though he played for just a few minutes when we were being stretched and outplayed. Tonight he played 120 minutes and was woeful. The criticism of his performance is fair. As for him moving on, I think it is best for all sides. It leaves us short and ideally we need to get someone else in. But I don’t see how he plays his way back into contention from here. Had we remained in the cup, I think he was worth holding on to if we didn’t sign a replacement - now we are out, I’m less bothered about him going.
Fair enough. But maybe what some people saw in that 10 minutes against Villa just compounded what they have seen of him over his 18 or so months here? I doubt people were solely judging him on that cameo. Have they now not been proved right? As he’s played 200 minutes against Tranmere and barely mustered half a chance. It’s sad to have a striker on the bench who can’t even get you a bit excited that he may came on and nick one. I foolishly still believe he’d score goals in a two with Deeney but we’re not good enough to compensate for two up front across the rest of the pitch. I do agree though no need for personal abuse or name calling of Gray himself. I’m sure he wants to succeed here. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk