Dean Hammond - a bad signing for footballing reasons.

[hans kraay fan club]

I saw Hammond at an away fixture (it proved to be his final appearance in an Albion shirt - or so we thought) intentionally dive in two footed, about fifteen minutes into the match. He got a deserved straight red card and, arguably, cost us the match. He subsequently moved to Southampton for a knockdown £250,000, where he served out the remainder of his suspension.

He didn't 'cost us the match' because we drew it 1-1. And nor did he move to Southampton. Carry on.

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

Just to address this post, I refer you to the title of the thread in addition to the CONTENT of my OP. Christ. FOOTBALLING REASONS.

But for FOOTBALLING reasons he's an amazing signing. Captain of a promotion winning side two years running. That's good enough for me.
For OTHER reasons, he could be considered a bad signing, but really, short of pissing a few of us off... does that bother Gus? Probably not one jot.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Should've gone for Bobkin. Stevenage desperate to get rid...

 

[BensGrandad]

I am amazed that he is getting so much stick on here,my only reservation about him and his playing is that he tends to dive in on tackles and give away free kicks just outside of our penalty box in dangerous areas, we are not the best at defending set pieces. If with age and maturity he has learnt to curb that he will be an able deputy for Crofts and will provide an attacking option at set pieces in the air for us.

 

[MattBackHome]

Has anyone mentioned yet that he was pretty much an ever present last year playing football in a football team that was promoted from this very football division? That would be my top footballing reason.

 

[Silk]

Has anyone mentioned yet that he was pretty much an ever present last year playing football in a football team that was promoted from this very football division? That would be my top footballing reason.

He played 19 games according to Wikipedia. That's less than half.

 

[Codner pharmaceuticals]

Why on earth we would want a box-to-box midfielder who has aerial scoring ability and has experience of captaining a team to promotion from this league is beyond me.

Bring back Kevin McLeod.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Why on earth we would want a box-to-box midfielder who has aerial scoring ability and has experience of captaining a team to promotion from this league is beyond me.
.

This.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Why on earth we would want a box-to-box midfielder who has aerial scoring ability and has experience of captaining a team to promotion from this league is beyond me.

Bring back Kevin McLeod.

This. If he scores some belters this season and we do really well all this nonsense will be forgotten except by a few.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

He didn't 'cost us the match' because we drew it 1-1. And nor did he move to Southampton. Carry on.

Indeed he went to Col U and if memory serves they were in the Champ at that point (albeit struggling) so he moved UP a division.

 

[MattBackHome]

He played 19 games according to Wikipedia. That's less than half.

That's weird - I though it was much more than that. Are you sure that's not 19 starts?

 

[Silk]

That's weird - I though it was much more than that. Are you sure that's not 19 starts?

Can you be sure about anything on Wikipedia?

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Indeed he went to Col U and if memory serves they were in the Champ at that point (albeit struggling) so he moved UP a division.

And at that point were apparently splashing the cash.

 

[Silk]

That's weird - I though it was much more than that. Are you sure that's not 19 starts?

According to Dean Hammond | Football Stats | Southampton | Season 2011/2012 | Soccer Base it's more like 43!!

Conclusion: Wikipedia is a pile of shite.

 

[MattBackHome]

According to Dean Hammond | Football Stats | Southampton | Season 2011/2012 | Soccer Base it's more like 43!!

Conclusion: Wikipedia is a pile of shite.

Yeah agreed - especially when it comes to anything football related!

 

[glasfryn]

I understand that the sending off in his last game he was a very angry young man who probably wanted to stay at his hometown club and we are never going to get to the bottom of his transfer to Colchester,he has come from a team that has just got promotion to the premiership and surely he had something to do with that,we all know that he is a very good player and Gus wants his experience to show for the Albion.
forget what happened anytime before he will be playing in the blue and white stripes Gus wants him here and that is good enough for me.

 

[wardy wonder land]

Why on earth we would want a box-to-box midfielder who has aerial scoring ability and has experience of captaining a team to promotion from this league is beyond me.

defo this

plus i believe he can depotise as a Centre forward or Centre Back if required as a stop gap or 10 man situation

boo him if you wish - but you will be drowned out by those of us that will cheer a local lad where the right coloured stripes !!

 

[DIFFBROOK]

Havent we all done/said something that we regret? In the heat of the moment (maybe because Harding was getting abused) he gave some of our fans some stick back. So what, we dish it out so should be able to take it.

To my mind his ability is not in question, so for footballing reasons he a fantastic signing.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

I personally find the signing of Dean Hammond extremely disappointing. Hammond was, for us, a decent League One player many years ago - in the context of a middling side. We are now a Championship team who, I believe, should be strengthening in our push towards the Premier League.

I saw Hammond at an away fixture (it proved to be his final appearance in an Albion shirt - or so we thought) intentionally dive in two footed, about fifteen minutes into the match. He got a deserved straight red card and, arguably, cost us the match, I would say not coincidentally in the middle of his ongoing contract dispute with Wilkins/Knight. He subsequently moved to Southampton for a knockdown £250,000, where he served out the remainder of his suspension.

Subsequently, playing (and captaining) one of our rivals hasn't helped his popularity here (neither than infamous gesture he made at Withdean) - the guy isn't exactly proving himself to be a real fan favourite. In fact, he comes across (even now, I'm sure) to most as a lower-league mercenary - like most professional footballers.

But my reasons aren't actually personal, I genuinely question what exactly Hammond offers that Dicker, Sparrow or even Vincelot don't already within the squad. Hammond was always a plodding, hard-working box to box midfielder with a good touch but no real pace or outstanding quality to shout about; is this what we need? From what I have seen, when we are poor it is often due to a LACK of pace and ingenuity in the side; we can look extremely one-dimensional with so many square-passing midfielders in the side (these rigid (i.e. Bridcutt/Dicker/Sparrow)line ups under Gus often coincide with our very poorest performances/results under his tenure)) - I would argue that Hammond is exactly what we DON'T need. As a season ticket holder at the time of Hammond's 'success', he was playing alongside the likes of Kerry Mayo, Richard Carpenter and Marc McCammon - who I'm sure are all lovely guys, but not exactly pushing-for-Premier-League material. Now, a few years on - surely no quicker, loathed by some fan and not needed by a struggling Premier League side, I question our ambition in signing him.

In earnest, I think this signing is extremely negative; re-signing Crofts - a better all-round footballer who went on to get Premier League experience after leaving us, and who left on good terms, was one thing - re-signing Hammond is a different kettle of fish and very troubling. I'd go for Vincelot (deemed surplus) over Hammond any day.

He was a decent yet highly under rated player (imo) in our side and a player who a lot of our fans later admitted we missed after he left for Colchester (somewhere he moved to because he wanted to play at a higher level) He was playing in a relatively poor team, if he had better players around him and he would still have done well and maybe impress the doubters more.

He has been playing at a higher level for a while now and captained a promotion winning side last season in Southampton so it sounds like he is good enough for this division.

I wonder if fans who criticise, like you have here, were also the same fans who used to say players like El-Abd weren't even non league standard and shouldn't be playing league football - look how he proved his doubters wrong. So how about giving Hammond a chance to show what he can do for us before condemning him like you have above.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

A lot of people were pissed off with him 'cos he left (for whatever reason) and now people are pissed off 'cos he's back.
I favour those on here who think he will be a great squad player for us. We are going to need a lot of midfield backup, and you can hardly say we were flush with decent backup midfielders last season. He's got a good pedigree in this division but obviously wasn't quite up to inclusion in a Premiership squad. We have him for a year - happy days.