Gabby Agbonlahor

[GENTLEMAN]

4 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

I dont know how I would feel if gabby scored 20+ goals and got us up. Is all forgotten? Probably not but he certainly would have repaired some of the damage he has inflicted with the fans.

But in all honesty I expect this to be his last season at the club. 

If he plays a positive part this season, he will get a new deal IMO but probably 12-24 months (max). I imagine he also has an optional year like Hutton & Bunn did. Come on Gabby, we are counting on you buddy. 

[AntrimBlack]

7 minutes ago, GENTLEMAN said:

If he plays a positive part this season, he will get a new deal IMO but probably 12-24 months (max). I imagine he also has an optional year like Hutton & Bunn did. Come on Gabby, we are counting on you buddy. 

I hope we are not.

[PaulC]

If he helps gets us promotion I think we should say thank you very much Gabby but you are not part of our future plans. He could end his career at Walsall. 

[AntrimBlack]

28 minutes ago, R.Bear said:

I still have a dream that Gabby will play a huge part of our promotion and do right on last few years' wrongs. Problem is I said the exact same thing last summer.

But IF he can, it seals his legacy as club legend without a doubt.

Absolutely no way. Even without the shenanigans of the last few seasons, I do not think he would achieve that status. But I will remember, fondly,  his dopey look and his incredible speed in his heyday.

And, in a charity match, taking out the guy from the group. That was daft, but also very Gabby.

[bannedfromHandV]

He's a conundrum Gabby, its easy to see why he divides opinion so much.

We often focus on what he's not achieved during his time here and no one can deny that the last 5 years have basically been a horror show but:

Record PL scorer

Multiple winners vs Blues and goals against WBA AND Wolves

Winning goals against United, Arsenal and Chelsea

A 7 minute hat trick against Citeh

Took out that idiot from one direction in Stan's charity match, injured him and made him cry

 

When you take all that into account it shows how woefully short he's been of any form of standard in the past 5 years to be so disliked by so many

[AntrimBlack]

1 hour ago, bannedfromHandV said:

He's a conundrum Gabby, its easy to see why he divides opinion so much.

We often focus on what he's not achieved during his time here and no one can deny that the last 5 years have basically been a horror show but:

Record PL scorer

Multiple winners vs Blues and goals against WBA AND Wolves

Winning goals against United, Arsenal and Chelsea

A 7 minute hat trick against Citeh

Took out that idiot from one direction in Stan's charity match, injured him and made him cry

 

When you take all that into account it shows how woefully short he's been of any form of standard in the past 5 years to be so disliked by so many

A conundrum wrapped in an enigma.

[Dave J]

4 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

What an incredibly patronising response.

I forgot you couldn't have an opinion on players unless you were above a certain age 

I remember Byfield very well, I'm really not sure what he has to do with this conversation.

 

I'm not for one second saying gabby or Vassell were as good as the likes of Little or yorke. Merely that AT THEIR PEAK they weren't "very poor". That's rewriting history.

There is a middle ground. I'm not saying either player was amazing, or even "very good". I'm just saying calling them "very poor" is incredibly harsh, and I think your hatred of Gabby is clouding your judgement.

May I politely suggest you take a look at some of your own responses to posts before saying this - also Stevo you ought to drop the word hate in posts In my opinion  - this is a football forum and a spot of fun for me - I have absolutely no hatred of Gabby whatsoever and would appreciate if you could acknowledge this? Yes I think he is a very poor professional footballer - but hate never ventures on to my radar. It's football for goodness sake!!!

 

[TRO]

On 7/24/2017 at 22:45, VillaChris said:

Comparable would be someone like Vassell, I think he played 4-5 full seasons for us upfront. Did he even reach 50 goals for us, one year him and JPA linked superbly for half a year and so Vass got into double figures but can't remember him having another season like that.

JPA aswell, one brilliant year where he scored 23 goals in all competitions but other years where he only got 5 or 6.

It's not that easy. Gabby might actually have been close to 100 prem goals for us if he hadn't messed around from 2013 which would've been quite an achievement as Yorke didn't manage that for us.

Just for comparisons....Yorkie 73 goals in 232 games.

                                           Dublin 48 goals in 155 games

                                           Benteke 42 goals in 89 games

                                          JPA          44 goals in 175 games

                                          Carew       37 goals in 113 games

                                          Vassell    35 goals in  162 games

                                          Gabby      74 goals in 335 games

Benteke.

Dosen't look good for Gabby but he's still been making 20 odd appearences a year on average for us since 2013 when he started declining and has scored very few goals so around that time his ratio probably wasn't that far off Yorke.

but when you compare Yorke and Gabby, it shows that Stats are very dubious.

no comparison as players.

[Stevo985]

12 minutes ago, Dave J said:

May I politely suggest you take a look at some of your own responses to posts before saying this - also Stevo you ought to drop the word hate in posts In my opinion  - this is a football forum and a spot of fun for me - I have absolutely no hatred of Gabby whatsoever and would appreciate if you could acknowledge this? Yes I think he is a very poor professional footballer - but hate never ventures on to my radar. It's football for goodness sake!!!

 

It's a forum for opinions.

In my opinion you hate Gabby, and it clouds your judgement.

[Dodgyknees]

2 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

I dont know how I would feel if gabby  got 20+ goals and got us up. Is all forgotten? Probably not but he certainly would have repaired some of the damage he has inflicted with the fans.

But in all honesty I expect this to be his last season at the club. 

I'd be delighted. Bloody delighted.

[markavfc40]

2 hours ago, TRO said:

but when you compare Yorke and Gabby, it shows that Stats are very dubious.

no comparison as players.

Yes they are a million miles apart in terms of ability. If Gabby was as good as Yorke he’d have pissed off to a Man Utd/Chelsea/Arsenal years ago as well.

I don’t know where you would put him in terms of ability against other strikers we have had. I don’t know if I really class him as a striker anyway given at least half his games for us would have been as a wide forward.

I think he has more natural ability than some give him credit for though and is more than just a pace merchant. He is decent in the air as shown by him scoring a fair few headed goals for us. He is also two footed and when he doesn’t have too much time to think about things as shown a natural scoring instinct. I also think he is decent at holding the ball up.

I think he will play a fairly big part this season and if Kodjia is still out would not be at all surprised to see him start the first game along with Hogan. It is then up to him to continue to apply himself as he has done since Bruce arrived if he wants to stay in the match day squad. I think at this level, as he showed in his brief appearances last season, he is still more than capable of making a positive contribution.

Edited July 27, 2017 by markavfc40

[VILLAMARV]

It's all so subjective this 'legend' business. And with Gabby I just don't know. No surprise his best 3 years were partnering Carew in a settled team and system in front of a bloody good midfield.

Angel, Vassell, Baros, Luke Moore and Phillips were here when he made his debut under O'Leary (and scored) in a 4-1 loss away to Everton. MON took over, bought in Sutton, got rid of Vassell and Phillips and in January did the Baros-Carew swap. Bought in Young and Maloney and Angel left. HAREWOOD, yep that happened. Delfouneso and Heskey get added, Harewood, Maloney and Luke Moore all leave. Then Milner goes, MON goes, Carew leaves and we get Bent in, Weimann comes through and we sell off our midfield and it all goes wrong. Houllier comes in and doesn't rate him Houllier leaves and we go get bloody McCleish in and who's going to thrive up top under him?

There's a mini revival when Lambert gets here to be fair in Benteke's first season by Gabby standards with 9 league goals (to Benteke's 19) including the 2 that kept us up at Norwich. Which is the sort of thing, along with the derby goals and the coming from the academy that makes it hurt so much that he went missing in such a big way in the relegation year. As well as his goal tally just falling off a cliff for the last 4 years.

For me he ranks pretty highly compared with the players he's actually played with notably Carew and Benteke the obvious exceptions as strikers and Young out wide. But easily above the likes of Bent and Heskey for their times here however good they were elsewhere or in patches. Angel had maybe a season overlap and Vassell was pretty much gone by the time he popped up on the scene. But trying to be objective and judging him on his era he ranks pretty highly against most of his teammates.

In the last 10 years he's up there in the pick of the forwards - Benteke, Carew, Young, Kodjia, Agbonlahor, Bent

Only the era he belongs to has it's purple patch in almost achieving something and ends up in relegation. We've never got a cup final performance out of him like Dalian (or even Savo for that matter) to hang our hats on. No trophy in the cabinet to cap it all off (yet..).

The role call for forwards that preceeded his era has names like McInally, Atkinson, Yorke, Saunders and Dublin as well as some 'what could have beens' like Nilis and Collymore. And some old hands like Regis and Merson. And for me, he wouldn't make it very far up that list of names and that's without having to go back as far as Shaw/Withe/Little/Gray/Morley and beyond. Carew, Young and Benteke wouldn't look so out of place though. But then they have/had ability.

And that's the thing with Gabby, for every goal there's a shinning it into the advertising hoardings and a blasting it wide and blazing it over the bar and so on. He's never been blessed with silky skills. He was never a finisher like Owen or Lineker. He was however blessed with pace. Raw pace. And for a few years that was enough. He's definitely added more to his game since the early days but so little of that is on the ball. No strikers in our current squad can match him for speed or strength imo and that's how he can still come on and stretch the play a bit. However tinted the shades were last year when he came back it showed he could at the very least offer that again. What a shame it isn't 2 years ago again though.

 

[TRO]

1 hour ago, markavfc40 said:

Yes they are a million miles apart in terms of ability. If Gabby was as good as Yorke he’d have pissed off to a Man Utd/Chelsea/Arsenal years ago as well.

I don’t know where you would put him in terms of ability against other strikers we have had. I don’t know if I really class him as a striker anyway given at least half his games for us would have been as a wide forward.

I think he has more natural ability than some give him credit for though and is more than just a pace merchant. He is decent in the air as shown by him scoring a fair few headed goals for us. He is also two footed and when he doesn’t have too much time to think about things as shown a natural scoring instinct. I also think he is decent at holding the ball up.

I think he will play a fairly big part this season and if Kodjia is still out would not be at all surprised to see him start the first game along with Hogan. It is then up to him to continue to apply himself as he has done since Bruce arrived if he wants to stay in the match day squad. I think at this level, as she showed in his brief appearances last season, he is still more than capable of making a positive contribution.

I find all that hard to disagree with....never been a favourite of mine, but I do value his good bits and holding up the ball is one.

Gabby, will NEVER go to another football club, we might as well get used to that, for all his faults, he has claret and blue blood......I do recognise he lost his way, with many others during the Lerner demise and that has probably tainted some views of him in an even worse light.

paradoxically, I am happy he is in the squad for this season.....I think he and SB have an understanding and i think too he can bring something to our overall......he won't play every game but he will bring variety to the front line.

I am not sure about the out wide thing he has never been prolific enough to carry the flag down the middle like Benteke and Kodjia, so has been accommodated to a degree,but he does have something that we may need during the 46 games.

Edited July 27, 2017 by TRO

[AntrimBlack]

3 hours ago, DK82 said:

I'd be delighted. Bloody delighted.

And I'd be surprised. Bloody surprised. 

[meregreen]

4 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

It's a forum for opinions.

In my opinion you hate Gabby, and it clouds your judgement.

Not rating a player, is not the same as hating someone, a very silly word to use. In my opinion of course.

[Stevo985]

18 minutes ago, meregreen said:

Not rating a player, is not the same as hating someone, a very silly word to use. In my opinion of course.

I agree. It's not the same.

However posting as often and as passionately as Dave does, and refusing to accept anything remotely positive about the player, even referring back to when the player was CLEARLY a decent player is a level above "not rating".

I hate Leandro Bacuna. Dave hates Gabby.

It's not a big deal, it just tends to cloud your judgement sometimes. I'm probably overly harsh on Bacuna at times, as Dave is with Gabby

[CosmicVillan]

If Gabby can make double figures it will be a great season for him.

[AntrimBlack]

1 hour ago, Stevo985 said:

I agree. It's not the same.

However posting as often and as passionately as Dave does, and refusing to accept anything remotely positive about the player, even referring back to when the player was CLEARLY a decent player is a level above "not rating".

I hate Leandro Bacuna. Dave hates Gabby.

It's not a big deal, it just tends to cloud your judgement sometimes. I'm probably overly harsh on Bacuna at times, as Dave is with Gabby

Hate is an unnecessarily extreme word to use in this context.

 

[Dave J]

6 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

It's a forum for opinions.

In my opinion you hate Gabby, and it clouds your judgement.

 

6 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

It's a forum for opinions.

In my opinion you hate Gabby, and it clouds your judgement.

Stevo you are perfectly correct this is a place for opinions and I suggest you too acknowledge this - I would also reiterate that I would honestly prefer if you do not put the word hate in any sentance that relates to my opinion of Gabby - I can't state this any more clearer Stevo - I think he is a shockingly average professional footballer - this is my opinion and it will not change - but hate? Come on ! This is football - I do not hate anyone in life let alone a footballer - in fact I don't think I have ever said anything about Gabby as a person in anything I have posted - I keep my views totally about him as I footballer - if we can't agree on anything else and I doubt we will - I would like you to acknowledge that I certainly do not hate Gabby Agbonlahor 

[Dave J]

6 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

It's a forum for opinions.

In my opinion you hate Gabby, and it clouds your judgement.

 

6 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

It's a forum for opinions.

In my opinion you hate Gabby, and it clouds your judgement.

Stevo you are perfectly correct this is a place for opinions and I suggest you too acknowledge this - I would also reiterate that I would honestly prefer if you do not put the word hate in any sentance that relates to my opinion of Gabby - I can't state this any more clearer Stevo - I think he is a shockingly average professional footballer - this is my opinion and it will not change - but hate? Come on ! This is football - I do not hate anyone in life let alone a footballer - in fact I don't think I have ever said anything about Gabby as a person in anything I have posted - I keep my views totally about him as I footballer - if we can't agree on anything else and I doubt we will - I would like you to acknowledge that I certainly do not hate Gabby Agbonlahor