The Championship 2020-21

Andre Gray 88 games 41 goals in the championship. One of the best strike rates in championship history! Deeney 205 games 77 goals (including penalties) Vydra 156 games 62 goals

 

Gray is nowhere near to being the player he used to be though, go watch highlights of his previous Championship goals and it'd be apparent quickly. He's lost any pace and mobility he once had and is now like a rusty car. His first touch has never been particularly good but even that has got worse over the years.

 

Good to hear from u Troy

 

I remember the goal Grey scored against us for Brentford, he looked so quick and strong. I was pretty impressed when we signed him but from very early on I was surprised by his lack of pace. I think it was his debut against L’pool where he ran down the channel but was comfortable beaten for pace by Lovran.

 

I was in Gran Canaria when his signing was announced and the fee. I thought my son in law was joking but unfortunately he was not. I think Dyche still likes him so why not try to swap him for Vydra because I can't see us ever getting a fee for him and it would be good to get his salary off the wage bill.

 

Sensible posts only please. 2!!

 

Question about playoff final. Free kick to Fulham. C&ck centre forward Mitrovic smashes Brentford defender to floor. Ref spots it. Yellow. Fulham then take free kick and score because keeper is useless.

Why is it not a free kick to Brentford when the idiot slams a defender into the floor?

 

To be fair to Gray he hardly plays, gets scraps here and there so he’s bound to look crap. If he’s declined then Deeney has declined a lot more.

 

A 'Premier League' ref too

 

I’m more than happy to have Gray next season. However if we can shed the 70k per week that has to make sense

 

So that crappy Fulham side we wiped the floor with only last season, are now in a higher league than us.

Crazy how quickly things change in football.

 

Had the ref stopped the game before Mitrovic's chokeslam? If so, that's why. Same reason why we didn't get a penalty when Gray was shoved to the ground by the Arsenal keeper before a corner was taken that time.

 

What are you people talking about. Gray is finished. So will we if that useless sack of sh1te is still with us. Move on .

 

Another way of looking at it is. A pretty awful Premier League side bounces straight back at the first opportunity.

Let's hope history repeats next season!

 

guess so. Off the ball when dead I can do what I want but risk a red card? Or criminal charge if I mount the chap I am marking?

 

Saw the last 40 minutes and quite frankly they were both poor. Constantly looking to go long. Can't wait for the new season if that's what I've hot to witness week in week out.

 

Sounds like Atkinson was very lenient on Fulham players throughout

 

Would be surprised if Brentford manage to be a major threat again next season. That squad is going to get picked apart over the next couple of months.

 

You'd get sent off but not concede a free kick if the whistle had already gone.

Also, Fulham promoted. Yawn.

 

Tbf it sounds similar to our Playoff Final against Palarse. Brentford, like us, completely underperformed when it mattered.

 

Brentford were spookily like us in 12/13. Goals galore, not great at the back, blew it on the last day with a last minute goal, came back in the Playoffs but didn't show up in the final losing to a boring well organised team.

 

Memories

 

Let's be honest they'd blown it way before the play offs.

 

Be interesting to see if they can hold on to their better players now.

 

Completely agree, but it’s fairly rare for players to completely lose their talent before they even hit 30, however based on the fact he gets the odd 10 minutes every 3/4 games it’s far more likely his confidence is just completely shot rather than his footballing ability having mysteriously evaporated. It’s something we saw happen with Igahlo.

 

Correct. Punishment for original Brentford foul: play stopped, free kick to Fulham. Punishment for Mitrovic violence: yellow card.

 

I thought it was a good game. Love to see Hector, Reed and Kabano at Watford. But Mitrovic should have been off and also their keeper after Brentford scored.

 

Completely disagree. If he's performing during training and making the team selectors think, he would of had more opportunities. He's dire and has no right being at this club. Personally from what I've seen he offers absolutely nothing apart from an instinctive goal or two.

 

Off for pushing someone? He went down like a sack of sh1te and should be embarrassed. Be a man and get on with it.

 

Tell me the precedent for a player performing well up to and beyond their mid twenties, having a solid championship scoring record and even a PL one, and then mysteriously losing all their talent? It’s not Space Jam.

You get it with young players but you don’t randomly get it with players who haven’t otherwise been injured badly until well after their thirties.

He could’ve been pulling up trees in training but nobody was about to dislodge Troy were they?

Drop him into a lower league with regular game time and he’ll score goals regularly. I don’t like the guy and I’d be glad to get rid of him and his wages bit it’s just simple common sense.

 

I thought the same thing at the time, but I suppose that as the Mitrovic foul was an off the ball incident and play had already been stopped for the Fulham free kick, then that free kick took priority and the Mitrovic foul only warranted a yellow card?

Not sure if that is right, but that is the only explanation I can think of?

 

It's not common sense, it's guess work.
So by what you say is if we play Gray and DeeKnee up top next season we're guaranteed over 40 goals between them because they've done it years ago in the Championship?

 

How is it guess work? He’s got a good championship goal scoring record! Tell me how a professional footballer completely loses their ability before 30 without being injured? Give me some examples? People just can’t use their common sense.

Look at Igahlo, looked like a world beater, then looked worse than Gray, couldn’t pass the ball 5 yards, he looked completely shot. He dropped to a lower level and scored goals for fun, now he’s at Man Utd. Had he lost the ability to play football? Or was it that his confidence was shot?

Look at Darius Henderson, a great championship striker but woefully out of depth in the premier league. Did he lose his footballing ability in the Premier League, or was he just out of his depth? Surprise surprise when he dropped back to the championship he was fine again wasn’t he.

Gray is out of his depth at PL level and has no confidence because he gets the odd 10 minutes every month to try and do something. Whatever ability he does have hasn’t disappeared, that literally never happens.

 

Ighalo had a bad year or so, Gray has looked extremely ineffective any time we don't play the exact system to suit him, plus Gray is reliant on his pace which is fading, no chance he bangs 20 again in the Championship, he'd do well to get 10. I get the need to mix it up a bit, but there are more exciting, and cheaper, options on our books at the moment, should cut our losses with Gray and get his wages off the books (or as much as we can anyway, doubt anyone else is up for paying him £70k a week!)

 

His pace isn't just fading, it's gone. He has none. It was his one real, redeeming quality years ago, but I can't remember the last defender I saw him comfortably outpace. He seems to get outrun by big, clogging centre backs you'd never expect to be beating a supposed "pacey" forward.