Adam El Abd

[Super Steve Earle]

When he broke through he was sometimes a right back, sometimes a left back, occasionally holding midfield and even rarer he would be a centre back. He smashed in the beauty against Leyton Orient but otherwise he was a bit of a joke. Filling in all over the show without any real quality in any of the positions (the original Solly March?!).

But then Gus Poyet came in and spotted his quality, made him a centre back and coached him to be absolutely brilliant. Winning player of the season in that League 1 dominating campaign is a remarkable achievement. Sad for Elliott Bennett, Glenn Murray, Ashley Barnes, Liam Bridcutt, Casper Ankergren, Marcos Painter, Inigo Calderon and Gary Dicker - but he was absolutely the right winner.

It's as if Poyet was some kind of early Bielsa with his wizadry at turning an average player into a Player of the Season centre back.

 

[Miximate]

Still got the image of him trying to chase Maty Vydra !

 

[Dancin Ninja BHA]

Apart from getting us to play excellent football from front to back, surely one of Poyet's crowing BHA achievements must have been the part he played into transforming El Abd into a ball-playing CB.

The improvements made to El Abd were quite remarkable I seem to recall.