More than once!
He saw a lot of himself in Geard.
He tried not to favour him,but could probably given him more support and mentoring.
I guess he was busy running a successful football club.
When you look at players like Tuck,Horscroft and Chapman,they had nowhere near Geards ability,but at the time Geard was at the club they were looking for Div One (Premiership) players.