John Terry

[jim]

Arry was on TS earlier crying about not getting JT. Apparently they offered him the moon on a stick but he reckoned Bruce did more leg work and woo'd him more and Arry felt he missed a trick by just making the offer and not following it up.

[villan-scott]

Harry Redknapp is a tosspot full of shit! 

[Rodders]

27 minutes ago, sparrow1988 said:

What exactly constitutes a best seller? I'm not sure that the books that Steve Bruce penned were best sellers.

Er, how can you possibly suggest this isn't best-selling material? :

 

http://shocko.info/words/2015/7/16/striker-by-steve-bruce-the-full-review

Quote

STRIKER! by Steve Bruce - Review for The Sliced Pan

July 16, 2015

Bright red blood on the knife blade.

The knife in my hand.

Duffy’s dead body stretched out on the locker room floor…

And with such drama, begins STRIKER! the first novel by footballer, manager and actual published novelist, Steve Bruce. Written in the first person, Striker puts the reader in the shoes of Steve Barnes, manager of Leddersford Town, a small but historic club hoping to rise to the premiership from English football’s second tier.

But there’s trouble afoot!

Barnes finds young Irish striker Pat Duffy stabbed to death in the changing room and, becoming suspected of the murder, spends the rest of the book struggling to clear his name. He decides to do so by solving the case on his own, despite (a) the police already being involved, (b) he being a suspect himself and (c) his having neither the expertise, training, nor free time available to investigate a murder.

On his quest, Barnes encounters gun-toting Irish thugs, disgruntled baby mamas and treacherous, heavily armed coaching staff. Not to mention a gay, nightclub-owning drug dealer with a glad eye for middle aged football managers and a thrilling top-of-the-table clash between Leddersford and Fulham that’s watched over by a rogue sniper intent on killing our trusty hero.

This is the fizzing geyser of hot nonsense that is Striker.

Written in 1999, Striker is generally regarded as the best of Steve Bruce’s novels, and certainly the most readily available. Harper Lee has famously only published one novel in her lifetime. Well, she can eat shit because Steve Bruce has published three. Having said that, no copy of follow-up DEFENDER! has yet been detected on Amazon or eBay, while putting a hand to SWEEPER! will cost the truly dedicated masochist a sanity-warping £70.

Even the book’s front cover could itself be a topic for long, detailed discussion. On it, we see our eponymous striker himself, Pat Duffy, face down and bleeding on a drastically awful Photoshop representation of a football pitch, itself so poorly scaled as to render him roughly 40 feet tall. That’s not to say he looks a bit big. He is literally scaled 30-40 feet tall. The great painters call this artistic license. Sprawled sideways, on an actual pitch beside a tiny little linesman, Duffy looks like a recently divorced dad, reduced to crying himself to sleep each night on the Subbuteo mat he leaves laid on his absent son’s bedroom floor. It’s not going to bring him back, and he’ll ruin the little plastic nets lying on them like that. Astute observers will also notice Duffy is also wearing the number 13, because even Steve Bruce must tire of subtlety sometimes...

 

[VillaCas]

4 hours ago, markavfc40 said:

Also those questioning his age and stating you don’t see many 36/37 year olds playing in the Championship then no you don’t. You don’t though see players of the calibre of John Terry dropping down to the Championship. In fact it is almost unheard off. He has been one of the best centre backs of his generation, arguably the best captain/on pitch leader of his generation. If the likes of Paul Robinson at 38 can still hold their own at this level then John Terry is going to be giving master classes every week in the art of defending. In terms of reading the game he will be head and shoulders above any other defender at this level.

I hope you're right - I can't really make my mind up until I've seen him play half a dozen games. The comparison with Paul Robinson is not that helpful in my opinion - there is a world of difference between an ageing goalkeeper and an ageing centre-back. The thing that declines most quickly with age is pace and I'm concerned that Terry, not the quickest in the first place, has not got a lot of pace left. I have a second concern around his fitness and therefore our ability to field a settled back four that can grow as a unit

I don't think many would argue that in his time Terry has been a top class player and few could dispute his leadership abilities. My hope is that his vast experience coupled with the fact that the championship is a step down in quality will mean that he will be a very effective defender for us - my worry is that his lack of pace will lead to us defending very deeply and will hinder the style of football probably required to become serious promotion contenders. I had high hopes of Lescott (not in the same league as Terry admittedly) but his form fell off a cliff when joining us fresh from being WBA player of the year months earlier

I dont believe Terry's pride would allow him to come here if he was not confident he could do the business and if I had to jump one way or the other it would be to cautious optimism but at the moment but I think talk of 'defending masterclasses' is premature

Can't stand the bloke by the way, but I hope he is a huge success for us

[markavfc40]

6 minutes ago, VillaCas said:

 The comparison with Paul Robinson is not that helpful in my opinion - there is a world of difference between an ageing goalkeeper and an ageing centre-back.

I am on about the Paul Robinson playing centre back/captaining Blues last season who has just signed a one year contract extension meaning he will be playing at 39 next season.

Edited July 4, 2017 by markavfc40

[Mammoth10]

5 minutes ago, VillaCas said:

I hope you're right - I can't really make my mind up until I've seen him play half a dozen games. The comparison with Paul Robinson is not that helpful in my opinion - there is a world of difference between an ageing goalkeeper and an ageing centre-back. The thing that declines most quickly with age is pace and I'm concerned that Terry, not the quickest in the first place, has not got a lot of pace left. I have a second concern around his fitness and therefore our ability to field a settled back four that can grow as a unit

I don't think many would argue that in his time Terry has been a top class player and few could dispute his leadership abilities. My hope is that his vast experience coupled with the fact that the championship is a step down in quality will mean that he will be a very effective defender for us - my worry is that his lack of pace will lead to us defending very deeply and will hinder the style of football probably required to become serious promotion contenders. I had high hopes of Lescott (not in the same league as Terry admittedly) but his form fell off a cliff when joining us fresh from being WBA player of the year months earlier

I dont believe Terry's pride would allow him to come here if he was not confident he could do the business and if I had to jump one way or the other it would be to cautious optimism but at the moment but I think talk of 'defending masterclasses' is premature

Can't stand the bloke by the way, but I hope he is a huge success for us

Think Mark meant the cretin that is Paul Robinson of Small Heath. 

 

Beat me to it. 

Edited July 4, 2017 by Mammoth10

[Reivax_Villa]

20 hours ago, Reivax_Villa said:

For those that are worried about John Terry's age

Last season, Gareth McAuley played 36 times for Albion and scored 6 times at the age of 37..

Again this signing is one of the Biggest coups in Championship history. 

just reminding the people above

[nazvfc]

Everyone concerned about Terry's age etc. May not be in the same league but when we got Paul McGrath he had dodgy knees hardly ever trained but his timing of tackles and perception of play and situations made up for his age and knees. 

If Terry can read the game like McGrath did and do the right things then what's the problem? 

Terry will be a great motivator and watch him give a right b****cking to anyone that doesn't pull his weight.

I bet you Terry is sharper and fitter than most of the players in his position in the Championship.

He will help the likes of Chester, Bree, Taylor and the young guns like Grealish and Green and RHM and the other good youth.

For 1 year contract - and what he will bring it's a no-brainer just my humble opinion.

 

 

[lexicon]

1 minute ago, nazvfc said:

Everyone concerned about Terry's age etc. May not be in the same league but when we got Paul McGrath he had dodgy knees hardly ever trained but his timing of tackles and perception of play and situations made up for his age and knees. 

If Terry can read the game like McGrath did and do the right things then what's the problem? 

Terry will be a great motivator and watch him give a right b****cking to anyone that doesn't pull his weight.

I bet you Terry is sharper and fitter than most of the players in his position in the Championship.

He will help the likes of Chester, Bree, Taylor and the young guns like Grealish and Green and RHM and the other good youth.

For 1 year contract - and what he will bring it's a no-brainer just my humble opinion.

 

 

But pace is everything on FIFA mate. 

[nazvfc]

1 minute ago, lexicon said:

But pace is everything on FIFA mate. 

yeah s**t - forget you must base all your opinions on Fifa whatever the number is and the only thing that matters - Pace.

I actually thought reading the game and knowing positioning and being able to string a pass or win a header when needed and make a tackle when needed was the thing! 

 

Never played it but I suppose I'll have to play Fifa to get a real grasp of football! 

[lexicon]

Just now, nazvfc said:

yeah s**t - forget you must base all your opinions on Fifa whatever the number is and the only thing that matters - Pace.

I actually thought reading the game and knowing positioning and being able to string a pass or win a header when needed and make a tackle when needed was the thing! 

 

Never played it but I suppose I'll have to play Fifa to get a real grasp of football! 

I'm glad you're looking to fix your ways Naz. You'll soon get on board the 'positional sense shmomisitional shmense train'. 

[Stevo985]

I think what we can conclude is that all players are different.

Age is of course a concern with Terry, but you can't just discard his ability next season because he's hit a magic age where a lot of players can no longer still perform.

Neither can you say that some players are still good at 37 and therefore John Terry will be too.

 

What you can say, in my opinion, is that John terry is a calibre of defender that doesn't usually make the step down to Championship level, which you would like to think gives him a headstart compared to other defenders in this league of a similar age. He's also never, to my knowledge, had any major injury or fitness issues in his career.
Therefore it's a reasonable assumption that Terry COULD be one of those players that performs well at this level and at this age.

It's by no means a guarantee. But I think we can all be fairly optimistic about this one.

Edited July 4, 2017 by Stevo985

[VillaCas]

1 hour ago, markavfc40 said:

I am on about the Paul Robinson playing centre back/captaining Blues last season who has just signed a one year contract extension meaning he will be playing at 39 next season.

Fair enough - I make it a policy not to know any of their players

Edited July 4, 2017 by VillaCas

[briny_ear]

3 hours ago, jim said:

Arry was on TS earlier crying about not getting JT. Apparently they offered him the moon on a stick but he reckoned Bruce did more leg work and woo'd him more and Arry felt he missed a trick by just making the offer and not following it up.

So I suppose that raises the question of whether 'arry is incredibly stupid or incredibly arrogant.

[Stevo985]

6 minutes ago, briny_ear said:

So I suppose that raises the question of whether 'arry is incredibly stupid or incredibly arrogant.

A little from column A, and a little from column B.

 

Him and that club really are a match made in heaven

[Dr_Pangloss]

Terry has never had a lot of pace, his 'lack of pace' isn't the worry, the legitimate worry is how many games he will play for us. If it's less than 30 then this signing really won't a good one at all, time will tell. 

[VillaCas]

1 hour ago, nazvfc said:

If Terry can read the game like McGrath did and do the right things then what's the problem?

No pressure then

[Stevo985]

13 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

If it's less than 30 then this signing really won't a good one at all

I disagree.

[Demitri_C]

15 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

Terry has never had a lot of pace, his 'lack of pace' isn't the worry, the legitimate worry is how many games he will play for us. If it's less than 30 then this signing really won't a good one at all, time will tell. 

If we see more leadership and battling then it would have in my view been the terry factor  so worth the cash

[Phumfeinz]

Hey guys has anyone mentioned John Terry's age? I know there's only been 57 pages of discussion but I feel like it might be worth talking about.