Article in the Sports Argus,re - Leon Knight

[Mustela Furo]

I preferred Anna Swallow's analysis:-

"I'm pretty sure Leon wouldn't get his manager's vote though. Which is a shame, given that Mr McGhee would certainly be runner-up in any list Leon made of his favourite Albion bosses".

Maybe a nice throwaway line as a joke but is actually untrue. I doubt she's even spoken to Leon about his relationship with the gaffer.

He really rates McGhee (as does Iwelumo), and accepts the fact that he is a tough taskmaster as helping him to improve his game.

His ambition is to be as good a striker as McGhee was - and believes that he can help him to reach that mark.

Leon is an emotional character - and as he told me after he kicked Malcolm Stuart's bucket - he wouldn't be half the player he is otherwise.

Likewise, McGhee likes a player to show that they care and had no issue at all with the bucket kicking exercise - far better they do that than walk off inert - as if they didn't whether they stayed on or not.

All this speculation about there being bad blood between the two of them is simply not true. McGhee is closer to the player than any of us and has determined the best strategy to use to drive an improvement.

We may not all agree with the policy of highlighting individuals to the media and comments of inertness, but clearly that is McGhee's method with certain players and he must believe that it works.

Time will tell I guess. Leon is certainly going to ground less since Christmas than before, and, within the boundaries of the job he is in the side for, has generally contributed more in the couple of games after McGhee has made a comment.

 

[London Irish]

Excellent post, RLZ, every nail hit on the head. We'll let Anna Swallow off, though, it was a good line and was her best column for a fair while.

 

[Wienergull]

I agree the deadly one is worth considering for the vote.... though I also have a leaning towards Chippy..
But as I'll only have seen 6 games live (not including play offs and TV games) am I able to vote, morally?

I'm even less qualified to vote, having seen only four live games this season (plus the QPR game on Sky and clips on Seagulls World), but possibly with the exception of Blackpool away Leon has done something in every game I've seen to show he's a cut above the rest. I thought he was a contender for MoM against Peterborough for his second half performance alone. His flick over a Posh defender to find Harding in front of the North Stand was a sublime bit of skill. Of course he's immature - but then how many young players have the scary self-assurance and maturity of the 17-year old Michael Owen? Sure, sometimes his attitude lets him down, but, let's face it, he's hardly had a Rolls Royce service from midfield and is probably entitled to get a bit pissed off when he sees the ball sailing miles over his head! I can even remember the venerable Zamora looking uninterested at times, especially towards the end of his reign.