Northstander
Well-known member
- Oct 13, 2003
- 14,031
He is Flllllaaaaaair!!!!!!
:albion1:
:albion1:
he needs a hair cut!!!
No.Is he the chap that was sat with Calderon at the Gillingham reserves game a couple of weeks ago?
Hi folks, I'm a United fan so thought I'd register here to tell you a wee bit about "The Sandman". We signed him in the summer of 2008 and our manager at the time said he would get 20 goals in the SPL without any problem. He didn't get a proper pre-season with us because of the difference in the times that the Spanish and Scottish seasons start so he was behind in fitness from the off. He made his debut against Celtic as a sub and scored a late equaliser - somebody has already posted the clip on this thread.
During his first season he was in and out of the team mostly due to lots of niggly injuries - this was put down to the fact he hadn't had a proper pre-season and him not being familiar with the hurly burly of the SPL. Still, when he did play he was a class act. He got 10 goals from something like 25 starts, not too shabby.
Last season was a right-off. He had a hernia injury which was apparenly mis-diagnosed in the summer so yet again he missed pre-season. We were told he'd be out for 3 months, which then turned into 6 months... Throughout this time there were lots of rumours coming out the club that he was a chancer and wasn't making a proper effort to get back to fitness etc. Anyway, he eventually made his comeback making a few sub appearances around March, he looked overweight and well off the pace of the game. He scored a very good goal against Hibs a few weeks later and it finally looked like he was back.
He started a game a couple of weeks later and went off with a hamstring injury after about 20 minutes and didn't play again that season.
He got himself back to fitness over the summer, then in a pre-season game at Livingston he tried to back-heal a ball that was going out of play and went down injured again! I wasn't at the game but my mate was and hes said it looked like there was nothing wrong with him!!! He walked back to the bench without limping or anything. He was out for a couple of more weeks and when he did come back he wasn't included in the 1st team for a couple of friendlies - I'm not sure if by that point our manager just had had enough of him.
We annouced a few weeks back that he would be available for transfer and we wouldn't be hard to deal with. He went to Swanses for a trial and it looked like they wanted to sign him. The deal fell through at the last minute as apparently they wanted him on loan and we wanted rid of him (maybe they had doubts about his fitness long-term?)
If you can get him fit and keep him fit then he will be a fantastic player for you... He's a fantastic finisher - he's quite tall but not a target man - he likes the ball into feet where he can roll defenders and is very good at linking up play.
All the best to Fran, I really hope he can go on and get his career on track, he could have bee a great player for us but it just didn't happen. I'll be watching him with interest down there.
If he is a chancer/waster he won't last long with Gus Poyet, see the long list of players that left over the summer.
Good update then, just seems he needs to be in a place he wants to be and kept injury free? The hernia thing scares me though, mis-diagnosing one, what club would do that in this day and age
It wasn't the club, it was a doctor he went to see in Spain. He eventually went to Real Madrid to sort his injury problems out.
Only saying that as our striker Glenn Murray missed most of a season as our club doctor missed a hernia and mis-diagnosed what turned into a double hernia, or something similar