How many people on here were absolutely slating him after his woeful performance at Swindon...?! It's all very well in hindsight to say we shouldn't have sold him, but he hadn't done much for us for a while... no final delivery and poor shooting ability. Just goes to show what a move to a new club and a regular place in the side can do for a player.
Some players just 'fit in' to different teams styles. Maybe the training is not so intense and players can relax more at other clubs. Maybe Gus has a severe grip and sets unrealistic targets for his players and they are fearful of messing up on the field of play? Lots of permutations to consider.
Said at the time the 'no end product' thing was a complete myth. Buckley & LuaLua fizz just as many crosses into the box for nobody but they're more exciting players so they're 'let off' that sort of shortcoming. There's not a winger in the land who isn't consistent. Whether it was right to sell him or not, £1.5m was an absolute mug's price, we should've been holding out for £2.5m before we let them talk to him. Although judging by the valuations on some tricky Championship wingers recently, perhaps it should've been £15m.
Massive impact for him, but that's football. Sometimes someone doesn't quite do it for you, moves on and suddenly looks brilliant. I don't think we moved the ball quick enough for Noone to be effective for us, from the highlights I've seen Cardiff are bashing balls in front of him, and he is getting in and behind, and knocking crosses in early. He was asked to do a lot more of the build up play and retention for us and to be fair he never looked comfortable doing that. He's found a place that suits him but that's life.
Let us not forget Watford let Buckley go for £1m. Swings and roundabouts.
All a bit irrelevant really, as he would not have done that for us, all the time we don't have a target man and play the way we do. Much like Lualua won't, although i'd rather have an on fire Lualua than Noone. Lualua just needs and arm around the shoulder and too get his confidence back, which obviously if he is not playing, could be a bit difficult.
We don`t have any one skillfull enough to score regularly from crossed balls,so despite Craig being our only winger not to be a sicknote was probably a good sale.But if we had better strikers he could have been immense for us
A big difference is that he is playing on the right of a three. Means he is cutting and and clearly it is working...
I was reasonably comfortable with the sale and to be fair I still am, he always had ability but his form is variable so probably a little early to know really...
He can cross a ball, it just never helped when we only had 1 player to aim for whilst circled by 4/5 of the opposition.
Good sale, doesnt fit into our style of play. Cardiff put body's into the box hence why he has so many assists already. He'll carry on doing well for them all season.