[Football] The Zaha Factor

[Kalimantan Gull]

We used to chant 1-0 to the one man team as a change from When the ball hits the goal.....

It was Reading in particular who leveled that at us wasn't it? When he got sent off at Oldham we didn't win any of the three games he missed, and threw away a two goal lead against Notts County after he got injured. Then Waynie Gray turned up at Colchester and the rest is history.

Speaking of whom, wonder if we made any attempts to sign him that summer? Could have been a decent improvement on Molango, Mcphee and Barrett during that championship season.

 

[A1X]

There's a big risk that he will - and aggravate his injury, putting him out for the rest of the season and sending Palace down...

There's one of those interesting moral dilemmas, would it be better to get Zaha off his backside to play and risk us not beating them, then put himself out for the season and send Palace down, or us beat them when he's not on the pitch but he comes back and keeps them up?

 

[HastingsSeagull]

Currently you could argue Bissouma is the closest but still nowhere near as much so as Haha so I wouldn’t count it. At the start of our EPL era you could say the same for Dunk.

The closest I can remember (about 25-30 years) would be Zamora but I can’t remember which season he was head and shoulders above any other striking option rather than merely a lot better. I’m sure there was one in particular though. I also think there were a couple of months before the rest of the team clicked, that Elliot Bennett stood out but it didn’t last long. That quickly became a very fun team and era. Early Poyet at the end of a shit season before the first amazing one under him?

 

[Easy 10]

Its weird how they've managed to keep him for all these years. Not saying he would be a superstar or even a starter wherever he went but he would be useful in any PL squad.

Nothing weird about it at all - every transfer window they've simply priced him out of the market by slapping a ludicrous £80-£90m pricetag on his head. Then there's the fact that he's trousering £130k a week there - not many clubs would be willing to pick up a tab like that. And the longer its gone on, the more his resale value has diminished.

Then there's the eyewatering 25% sell-on clause that goes to Man Utd if they sold him, and the fact they'd be signing their own PL death warrant if their one man team was allowed to leave. Its plain to see they are locked into a loveless marriage. He is well and truly STUCK there.

 

[Springal]

29 this year too..

 

[HastingsSeagull]

Nothing weird about it at all - every transfer window they've simply priced him out of the market by slapping a ludicrous £80-£90m pricetag on his head. Then there's the fact that he's trousering £130k a week there - not many clubs would be willing to pick up a tab like that. And the longer its gone on, the more his resale value has diminished.

Then there's the eyewatering 25% sell-on clause that goes to Man Utd if they sold him, and the fact they'd be signing their own PL death warrant if he was allowed to leave, and its plain to see they are locked into a loveless marriage. He is well and truly STUCK there.

Good points well made. I do think Arsenal should have taken a punt on him 2-3 years ago. Now far too late all round. Expect he’ll move to Turkey or somewhere aged about 35 else could be ideal for a US franchise for a couple seasons. Right style of player to make a difference as long as he gave a toss at that point and wasn’t thinking of the money and retirement.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Currently you could argue Bissouma is the closest but still nowhere near as much so as Haha so I wouldn’t count it. At the start of our EPL era you could say the same for Dunk.

The closest I can remember (about 25-30 years) would be Zamora but I can’t remember which season he was head and shoulders above any other striking option rather than merely a lot better. I’m sure there was one in particular though. I also think there were a couple of months before the rest of the team clicked, that Elliot Bennett stood out but it didn’t last long. That quickly became a very fun team and era. Early Poyet at the end of a shit season before the first amazing one under him?

2001-02 when Zamora was banned he was replaced with 18 year old Chris Mcphee, didn't win any of the three games Bobby missed. When he got injured end of the season we signed Wayne Gray on loan and Lee Steele came back from injury, memorable 2-1 win over Bristol City to put us on the brink of promotion

 

[Acker79]

I remember when we first started taking note of Palace's results without Zaha, we had a similar pattern when Dale Stephens was out of the team. Though it was a smaller number of Stephens-less games, and we broke that hoodoo long before Palace got a win without Zaha.

 

[Guinness Boy]

The obvious parallel for us in terms of “first name you want to see on the sheet” was Zamora in his prime.

Always remember when he was out injured for a bit, and then unexpectedly came back earlier than planned for an away game at Peterborough. The buzz among the fans as word spread that day was awesome.

Even the Peterborough stadium announcer made a huge ZAMORRRRAAA!!! when reading out the line-ups.

If memory serves me right, he then missed a penalty after about 5 minutes, but still scored the winner of course!


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I was there, what a great day out. One of the things I miss the most about the sanitised Premier League, even without Covid, is that away end at Posh. Anyone who's been knows what I mean.

 

[Yoda]

We used to chant 1-0 to the one man team as a change from When the ball hits the goal.....

We even sung "4-1 to the one man team" at Colchester when he was out injured.

 

[JBizzle]

Zamora, Stephens and bizarrely Hemed. When Hemed was out in the Boro season, it filled me with dread.

Now, it's genuinely no-one other than possibly Sanchez, and that's because I have no faith in our back ups at all

 

[Thunder Bolt]

It was Reading in particular who leveled that at us wasn't it? When he got sent off at Oldham we didn't win any of the three games he missed, and threw away a two goal lead against Notts County after he got injured. Then Waynie Gray turned up at Colchester and the rest is history.

Speaking of whom, wonder if we made any attempts to sign him that summer? Could have been a decent improvement on Molango, Mcphee and Barrett during that championship season.

We even sung "4-1 to the one man team" at Colchester when he was out injured.

Sunshine on a Waynie Gray.

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

I remember when we first started taking note of Palace's results without Zaha, we had a similar pattern when Dale Stephens was out of the team. Though it was a smaller number of Stephens-less games, and we broke that hoodoo long before Palace got a win without Zaha.

I know it was a bigger concern for us in the Championship but I think I’m right in saying one of the PL level games that broke the hoodoo we had with Stephens was the 3-1 win at home against Palace?

 

[pasty]

Lost 84.9% without him? That really does seem quite astonishing

 

[JBizzle]

Lost 84.9% without him? That really does seem quite astonishing

It's amazing how much harder it is to get a point from a game when you're not guaranteed a penalty once every three games for Zaha falling over

 

[Giraffe]

I remember when we first started taking note of Palace's results without Zaha, we had a similar pattern when Dale Stephens was out of the team. Though it was a smaller number of Stephens-less games, and we broke that hoodoo long before Palace got a win without Zaha.

This was the first thought that came into my head. At the time we seemed to struggle hugely without him. I'd argue we coped without Zamora better, but he was rarely injured.

 

[Sheebo]

We all know the prick will make a sudden recovery for the game... Yes’ CPFC2010 are saying he’s out but are we really going to take the word of a club that:

Let a national paper run a story that our party had shat on their floor knowing full well it was their party - and kept quiet about it.

Cheated twice and left St John’s Ambulance owed thousands - prob the same muppets are now clapping along to the NHS

Let thousands of their fans regularly sing dirty homophobic songs without gasping anything about it

The list can go on...

And on...

And on...

Ps - whoever plays it’ll always be a tough unpredictable game - I always just think ‘don’t lose’ so let’s see...

 

[Thunder Bolt]

We all know the prick will make a sudden recovery for the game... Yes’ CPFC2010 are saying he’s out but are we really going to take the word of a club that:

Let a national paper run a story that our party had shat on their floor knowing full well it was their party - and kept quiet about it.

Cheated twice and left St John’s Ambulance owed thousands - prob the same muppets are now clapping along to the NHS

Let thousands of their fans regularly sing dirty homophobic songs without gasping anything about it

The list can go on...

And on...

And on...

Ps - whoever plays it’ll always be a tough unpredictable game - I always just think ‘don’t lose’ so let’s see...

In the interest of fairness, (I know, I know) although the club didn't pay St John Ambulance, their fans clubbed together and paid it.
London Ambulance Service, on the other hand, had to rely on taxpayers' money.

 

[casbom]

We all know the prick will make a sudden recovery for the game... Yes’ CPFC2010 are saying he’s out but are we really going to take the word of a club that:

Let a national paper run a story that our party had shat on their floor knowing full well it was their party - and kept quiet about it.

Cheated twice and left St John’s Ambulance owed thousands - prob the same muppets are now clapping along to the NHS

Let thousands of their fans regularly sing dirty homophobic songs without gasping anything about it

The list can go on...

And on...

And on...

Ps - whoever plays it’ll always be a tough unpredictable game - I always just think ‘don’t lose’ so let’s see...

Yep based on his latest twitter post, looks like he'll be ready for the game..

 

[blue-shifted]

We all know the prick will make a sudden recovery for the game... Yes’ CPFC2010 are saying he’s out but are we really going to take the word of a club that:

Let a national paper run a story that our party had shat on their floor knowing full well it was their party - and kept quiet about it.

Cheated twice and left St John’s Ambulance owed thousands - prob the same muppets are now clapping along to the NHS

Let thousands of their fans regularly sing dirty homophobic songs without gasping anything about it

The list can go on...

And on...

And on...

Ps - whoever plays it’ll always be a tough unpredictable game - I always just think ‘don’t lose’ so let’s see...

And other songs they they sing, are even more disgusting and defamatory even than that. Our marvellous captain certainly knows how that lot will plumb the depths of depravity to make some sort of point

Their club just turns a blind eye to anything.

And the toilet thing. It's not just the embarrassment to the club. Decent, loyal blokes on our staff nearly lost their livelihoods over it. They just kept schtum.

Repulsive club