Players that could have been more

[sjb]

Four of us went to Leyton Orient when David Jones made his debut for us. We were 4th division fodder at the time but I recall the game being played on an international weekend around March 89?. We had got Jones on loan from Orient and so when we saw this very elegant young man being swamped by youngsters in red and white scarves outside the ground we thought we must have got a decent player at last. Turned out the kids were all Arsenal fans who had come to see their rising star,Kevin Campbell, in his first match for Orient on loan. We lost 3-0, I think Campbell got one of them. We did see David Jones arrive; walking quietly down the street outside their ground just carrying a pair of boots. My son, then 9 years old, who posts on here now, spotted him and .ust be able to claim being the first Claret to get his autograph. Anyone else claim to have his autograph?

You're right about Jones' debut being at Orient in March 89 and about our losing 0-3. However he wasn't on loan - he was Frank Casper's first permanent signing. Jones played 4 games for us, all of which we lost without scoring a goal.
He did come back in 1990/91 with Doncaster and of course scored against us.

[Devils_Advocate]

We did see David Jones arrive; walking quietly down the street outside their ground just carrying a pair of boots. My son, then 9 years old, who posts on here now, spotted him and .ust be able to claim being the first Claret to get his autograph. Anyone else claim to have his autograph?

I had his autograph briefly but it was only in the form of a cheque that he paid me to buy my old Atari 2600 console and a boxload of games

[tarkys_ears]

Martin Paterson.

Or was he overachieving at what he did?

Either way I loved watching him!

[Silkyskills1]

You're right about Jones' debut being at Orient in March 89 and about our losing 0-3. However he wasn't on loan - he was Frank Casper's first permanent signing. Jones played 4 games for us, all of which we lost without scoring a goal.
He did come back in 1990/91 with Doncaster and of course scored against us.

Fair enough but my research says just 4 games on loan.

[KlyBfc]

Yet no one can actually explain what he did or was any use at.

You aren’t an effective midfield player if you can’t create or destroy.

Ha ha ha ha nonsense which proves lots of people watch football but fewer understand it.

Have a look at his 2016 chance creation stats as an example (more than anyone in the team) . He might not have been perfect but he was crucial to our success at the time through both his distribution of the ball, his use of it and the often overlooked, intelligence to hold the centre of midfield when others emptied it.

[Fretters]

Not sure if this is a myth, but Graham Branch was apparently the best player in training. You could see flashes of his skill at times, but was definitely a confidence player who suffered with the fans getting on his back. Stan even gave him whisky at half time!

[Shaggy]

Ha ha ha ha nonsense which proves lots of people watch football but fewer understand it.

Have a look at his 2016 chance creation stats as an example (more than anyone in the team) . He might not have been perfect but he was crucial to our success at the time through both his distribution of the ball, his use of it and the often overlooked, intelligence to hold the centre of midfield when others emptied it.

Chance creation? This must be a very subjective stat, what do you define as chance creation. Sideways and backwards 10-15yard overhit passes to players is not chance creation.

How many assists did he get and how many goals? How many tackles did he actually make and how many Ariel duels did he win?

All he done was stick in the middle of the park receive the ball and move it on to someone else. That’s the definition of limited. What used to really wind me up with him is when he received the ball and was put under any sort of pressure then the ball used to get pinged to a teammate already marked who then lost the ball because jones put them in a bad situation. Alexander was exactly the same. At least Alexander could pass the ball forwards occasionally.

Absolutely nothing of a player.

[KlyBfc]

Chance creation? This must be a very subjective stat, what do you define as chance creation. Sideways and backwards 10-15yard overhit passes to players is not chance creation.

How many assists did he get and how many goals? How many tackles did he actually make and how many Ariel duels did he win?

All he done was stick in the middle of the park receive the ball and move it on to someone else. That’s the definition of limited. What used to really wind me up with him is when he received the ball and was put under any sort of pressure then the ball used to get pinged to a teammate already marked who then lost the ball because jones put them in a bad situation. Alexander was exactly the same. At least Alexander could pass the ball forwards occasionally.

Absolutely nothing of a player.

In 2015-16 he got 7 assists (second highest in the team) including the ball in to Vokes which won us promotion, created 50+ chances (highest in the team) and had the best pass completion in the team.

To be fair we could keep going round the houses and clearly won’t agree on his importance / quality to the team during his time with us.

[ClaretTony]

Chance creation? This must be a very subjective stat, what do you define as chance creation. Sideways and backwards 10-15yard overhit passes to players is not chance creation.

How many assists did he get and how many goals? How many tackles did he actually make and how many Ariel duels did he win?

All he done was stick in the middle of the park receive the ball and move it on to someone else. That’s the definition of limited. What used to really wind me up with him is when he received the ball and was put under any sort of pressure then the ball used to get pinged to a teammate already marked who then lost the ball because jones put them in a bad situation. Alexander was exactly the same. At least Alexander could pass the ball forwards occasionally.

Absolutely nothing of a player.

How on earth can you compare Jones and Alexander. Jones was a class above Grezza.

[claretonthecoast1882]

Shaggy must be even more confused than he normally comes across when you consider with Jones we played with 10 men and also had a poor manager in Dyche at the same time.

He has no chance of understanding anything

[Deathtrip]

Although he was excellent Kevin Reeves would have given us so much more but for that horrendous injury he suffered