He wasn't as bad as some were making out. Just, well, disappointing. He often worked great positions only fuck it up with a shit cross. Or even a good cross which arguably wasn't good because it was pointless sending it in to no one despite the fact it had a great shape and speed to it.
I'm glad he's dropped a league as I'm sure he's going to have a fantastic season and everything he does will suddenly start coming off.
The abiding memory I have of him was at home (can't remember who it was against, Portsmouth I think). He came on as a sub for Ritchie (so playing on the Right), and about 4/5 times in the space of ten minutes he got the ball, pushed on, beat the defender, got into the right position for a cross, with 5/6 bodies waiting for it, then, inexplicably, doubled back on himself towards, dribbled across the face of the box from the right wing all the way to the left, where he promptly lost the ball or made a poor pass.
I still can't understand what he was doing. Either cut inside and shoot, or stick the cross in. That's your job as a winger. Not to inexplicably dribble across the edge of the box to the other wing like a headless chicken and then lose the ball.
Fans did get on his back way too much, and stuff that he did wrong would be exaggerated by the moans from the stands that wouldn't have happened if Ritchie or Ferry had made the same mistake. But I wouldn't go as far to say he was a good player for us, because he wasn't. His head never really got in the right place to do what he's obviously capable of. After the Crawley away game (first one after Ritchie had gone), I saw glimpses of him doing the right thing and was excited that he might finally come good. Nope.
He's a great example of why wages should be linked to performance. He's got skill, it just never showed. Sods law he'll go and be both top scorer and have top assists in L2 now.
