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allways travelling

francis questioned again

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Not been to the southend game but couple of articles ive seen suggesting francis was one of those small band of players who was not putting in the effort.find this if accurate very disturbing and worrying this close to the season starting.Not to mention the end of season antics we had to put up with from him lazing around.If it carries on i hope worthy packs his bags no room for prima donnars at our club.

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If I was the manager the midfield four to start against Coventry would be...

Huckerby Safri Jarrett Hughes

Jarrett and Hughes are players who worked hard and gave their all for their previous clubs. Safri is another player who gave 110% when he played last season and we don''t need to question Huckerby''s contribution. If Francis starts and plays with the same level of performance he had at the end of last season I can see many fans treating him in the same way Rivers and Easton were during their time here. To be honest... I''ve never really seen this great player that everyone talks about.

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Okay, I wasn''t there, but if the EDP and Pink Un can be relied on, it wasn''t just Damo who lacked enthusiasm, hell, even the God Huckerby came in for some criticism!.

So lay off Damien.

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[quote]Okay, I wasn''t there, but if the EDP and Pink Un can be relied on, it wasn''t just Damo who lacked enthusiasm, hell, even the God Huckerby came in for some criticism!. So lay off Damien.[/quote]

Or was he just hanging his head in shame because he hasn''t committed himself to the canary cause like you want Green to

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Francis is "potentailly a great player" hes big, strong, gud passer, gud tackler etc and he scores goals! When he really gets stuck in his is quality! Hes the type of player that every team wants in the centre of their midfield!

Almost the whole team didnt turn up 4 the southend game, except a few! There is no doubt that player 2 player, Jarrett 2 francis, that francis is better!

So IMO i believe that the southend game was a whole team one off, and was just one of them games, (e.g fulham aswel). but come the big time we will perform! incudin francis! 

So come 6th August 2:59, a min before kick-off, IMO francis wil be feelin and breathing the yellow and green passion and pride of norwich city fc! in a sense i do believe that he rises 2 the big ocassions aswel!

So give the guy the benefit of the doubt 4 saturdays match, agianst southend! and believe in him!

Lets be ''avin u!!!!!!!

On the Ball city...!!!!!!!    

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[quote]Francis is "potentailly a great player" hes big, strong, gud passer, gud tackler etc and he scores goals! When he really gets stuck in his is quality! Hes the type of player that every team wants in t...[/quote]

Nah ...   there was no bigger occasion than Fulham  !    and Francis ambled around with the urgency of a dead cockroach ..  mind you , he took the heavy defeat well  ,   laughs in the face of defeat  , so he has a sense of humour !   pity his  possible future employers didn`t see the joke  

 

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i cant see why people are saying francis should be dropped. before he was injured last season he was scoring goals and was getting us points. so he was scoring goals int he premiership which should mean he is able to score goals in the chamionship. i hope to see francis in the starting line up in the coventry match (even tho i wont actually be at the match as im on holiday) and i hope by the end of the season everyone thinks that he is a good player like they were before he got injured last season.

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IMO unless Damo plays out of his skin at the start of the new season, he will get criticised from fans.  It is understandable though.  He let a lot of people down last season and needs to win back the support of the fans.

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Francis has it all to prove. from minute one against coventry, he more than anyone is going to be under scrutiny. Personally, and i axccept that this isnt everbodys opinion, i wish we had found a buyer, and moved him out of the club. I think he is bad news. The lack of serious interest in obtaining his services this summer, closely stems from his attitude last season.

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[quote]IMO unless Damo plays out of his skin at the start of the new season, he will get criticised from fans. It is understandable though. He let a lot of people down last season and needs to win back the...[/quote]

Francis let all of the fans down for virtually the whole of the second part of the season.

Why anyone would defend someone who takes the mickey out of the club, the fans, the manager and his teammates is beyond me.

Francis just does not care about our club - simple as that.

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[quote]Okay, I wasn''t there, but if the EDP and Pink Un can be relied on, it wasn''t just Damo who lacked enthusiasm, hell, even the God Huckerby came in for some criticism!. So lay off Damien.[/quote]

The reason i and others are annoyed is every time francis gets poor headlines its always linked to him being lazy and not looking to bothered.i dont remember anyone accusing hucks of not trying he may have had a bad game but he still puts the effort in.i can accept francis having a poor game but not when its down to his lack of effort and desire. which you have to admit francis and his desire to play for this club keeps cropping up week in and week out.i think he thinks he is to good for this league if any prem club comes sniffing he would be gone before the coventry game. 

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this campaign against Damien is getting very tiring.

he was an asset for most of the season and had a dip in form towards the end. This doesn''t justify the constant vilification.

overall he was still the best midfielder at the club last year (and probably still is). He was no worse than most of the players on Saturday but sadly too many seem intent to drive hom out of the club and shoot ourselves in the foot.

Give it a break....

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[quote]Francis let all of the fans down for virtually the whole of the second part of the season. Why anyone would defend someone who takes the mickey out of the club, the fans, the manager and his teammate...[/quote]

Hi Dicky - that wouldn''t be a negative post I have just seen from you?  You have spolit my image of you as THE model fan.

Perhaps it was just constructive critisism

Damos pre injury form was superb as he acquitted to the prem himself far better than anyone expected.  Following the injury was only half the player, whether that was because he had not fully recovered from the injury or lack of application we will never know.   What I do know is a fired up Francis makes him on of the best midfielders in the country (prem incl), otherwise he is only just above average for the champs - that still puts him ahead of the majority of city squad midfielders and most champs teams midfielders.  He is an asset for this club 

It does seem to be the way he plays, little apparent effort, and that has been visible from the very first game he played for us - I took a lot of criticism for highlighting this during our promotion season.  Sometimes you have to take the rough with the smooth - I would rather have Francis, with all my frustrations for him,  in the team week in week out than a committed tireless runner who cant pass tackle shoot head or score - the latter looks good because of the effort but what do they actually add to the team?   

The bloke has never spoken about a move and seems pretty happy in training etc.  Like any other player I would not begrudge him a move if someone came in for him.

What I am hoping is that the signings of Hughes and Jarrett will finally mean Worthy has a real alternative to Damo, which will mean he is dropped when the effort/performance is not good enough and finally show Damo that he is not irreplaceable - Worthy has not had that option before. Hopefully this will mean a more consistently high level of performance from a player who COULD be as good as Keane or Vieira if he applied himself fully.

 OTBC

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[quote]this campaign against Damien is getting very tiring. he was an asset for most of the season and had a dip in form towards the end. This doesn''t justify the constant vilification. overall he was stil...[/quote]

FTFW - I am starting to get worried - I appear to be agreeing with you more and more...

 

OTBC

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[quote]Francis let all of the fans down for virtually the whole of the second part of the season. Why anyone would defend someone who takes the mickey out of the club, the fans, the manager and his teammate...[/quote]

I challenged you before Dicky, to produce the hard evidence of your nasty accusation that Francis doesn''t care about City, or be quiet, remember tick tock tick tock?.

Still we just have just your hearsay, rumour and your silly bias against him, and nothing more.

Evidence, where is it?, again I ask you, where is is it?,

Tick Tock, Tick Tock.

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The Francis fans seem to forget that we also got bossed around in midfield constantly in our Championship winning season, often looking second best in the middle and relying on a solid central defensive pairing to protect Green. It was largely the attacking flair of Harper, Crouch, Huckerby, Svensson, MacKenzie and Cooper that got us the goals which masked a poor central midfield. The Premiership exposed major deficiencies.

Also, I just wonder how if Francis was so good in the EARLY part of the season that we gained so few of our points. We improved in the second half because (a) Deano arrived and (b) the rest realised that Francis wasn''t going to contribute much.

When Francis gets stuck in he can be superb. However we need someone who is prepared to get stuck in for a whole match, not 10 minutes here and there. McVeigh, Mulryne and Rivers are others who have been criticised for workrate and two of those have been dumped and the other given a last minute reprive following relegation. If Francis does not get his act together at 3pm on August 6th then he should join that little band.

Zipper- I find myself agreeing with you a lot of the time, but on this one we are a long way apart!

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[quote]I challenged you before Dicky , to produce the hard evidence of your nasty accusation that Francis doesn''t care about City, or be quiet, remember tick tock tick tock?. Still we just have just your h...[/quote]

Evidence - I saw what a lazy sod he was on the pitch.  How can you not have seen that?

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Like many of you I was disappointed with Damiens performances towards the end of last season but I think that if he returns to form he is a very valuable asset for next season.  At his best he is athletic, powerful, and scores more goals than most midfielders.

What is worth remembering is that the idea of playing for the "shirt" is just a misnoma.  The majority of footballers (with some notable exceptions) treat playing football as a job/career with there main goal being to make as much money out of the game as possible.  It is clearly obvious that both Francis, and Green want away to places where they can earn more money and play at a higher level.  However as things have materialised neither look like they are going to get moves.  Once footballers are on the pitch the majority automatically play as they have done for years and will play as hard as they can whatever shirt they are wearing.

Both players are also surely aware that if they do want to further their careers (earn more money) that the best way to do it is to play well between now and the transfer window in the New Year.

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[quote]The Francis fans seem to forget that we also got bossed around in midfield constantly in our Championship winning season, often looking second best in the middle and relying on a solid central defensi...[/quote]

Hi Tumbleweed - to be honest I do not think that we are a million miles away with our views on damo and if I recall rightly you were one of the first to back my suggestion that Damo was too inconsistent.

As you state in your post Damo CAN be superb and I certainly agree with that.  I also agree that Damos under-performance games have been overlooked by the manager in the same manner as Flems.  Where Damo differs from Flem is that there were good games mixed in with the poor.

I suspect the reason Damo is not summarily dropped like WLY is that there were no alternatives in his position - really it was Mullers or Holt last season.  Mullers really was a wasted talent while Holt was simply out of his depth.  On the wing Worthy was prepared to try others.    This season we have Jarrett and Hughes by way of competition and HUghes at least does have a record of scoring goals and I hope that a dropping will help Damo focus on what he should be doing.

As far as centre midfield is concerned that was never the doing of just one man and the likes of Mullers and Holt share the blame for our uncompetitiveness.  We looked more solid only when Safri stepped up to the mark and it was noticeable that we started winning midfield battles with the Safri/Damo partnership which only appeared at the end of the season.  That partnership MUST have Damo fully committed.   

I do disagree that it was the arrival of Deano (or shacks for that matter) that changed our performances last season; it was only the removal of two of our 3 worst players (Eddy & Holt) that results and performances picked up - Deano was in the side from Jan and Shacks from Feb but we played as poorly with them as without until the Manure game when the introuduction safri, helveg and bentley turned things around.   This is another reason why I cannot blame Francis alone for our relegation; we played the wrong team for too long and tried to do too much too late in the season; yes his performance against Fulham was poor but so were 9 other city players that day - with only Green and Hux coming out with ANY credit whatsoever.  I see no one blaming Safri, Bents, Leon etc etc etc for their equally non committed off day. 

What Damo brings far more than any other city midfielder is the ability to score a goal and change a game and that is a priceless commodity - whether that outweighs the increasing number of AWOL games is the crunch.    Damo has to show he can perform consistently.  However some players only ever play in fits and starts - look at stevie gerrards performances for liverpool last year - heis now on £100k pw yet his poor performances outweighed his good by at least 2:1 - yet he remained first name on the sheet because of what he can do - Damo is similar (but with less talent) for city. 

My hope is that the increased competition and a full recovery ensures he is motivated for the season ahead - otherwise he gets dropped - pure and simple.  I have to trust that worthy willmake that decision.

OTBC 

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I am the biggest critic of Francis, simply because of his lack of effort.  He is without doubt a very gifted player, very strong and physical when he wants to be.

The problem is that I do not think he has any desire to play for my club.

In Iwan''s book, he makes a couple of references to the fact that Francis would not usually socialise with the rest of the lads and could not wait to get off to London at every opportunity (he also stated that Greeno was not one for socialising with the rest of the players?).

It is my belief that Francis thinks he is above the club.  We have seen this type of attitude before with players like O''Neill and more recently Bentley and it is not good for the team spirit or performances.

And yes, I would rather have a player with less ability, but more desire to play for the club.

I am still hopefull that we can get £2million for Francis to strengthen the squad with players who want to be there.

And that''s my opinion!!

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An eloquent analysis Zipper, one that I cannot argue against.

I really really hope we get the fully committed version of Francis as we just do not have the quality in defence and around him to make up for it. Safri or Jarrett or Hughes may all work hard to cover for those AWOL patches, but it puts a huge and unfair burden on that one player.

I agree that we had no back up (Helveg in midfield? Almost as classic as John Deehan putting Rob Newman up front back in ''95) so I trust that Worthy has made it known that he now has four players who can play in the centre and that no-one is immune to being dropped.

I also suspect that there has been no public criticism (unlike the case of McVeigh, and Kenton before him) in order to preserve any transfer value should Pompey truly come knocking.

Whatever happens I shall remember many of Francis'' surging runs into the box, the way he set about Newcastle after we conceded that equaliser, and that blast into the corner against West Brom.

We must all hope he does not become another Lee Marshall, Andy Johnson, Darel Russell all of whom at one stage looked like being our next big midfield hope but to varying degrees didn''t fulfil their potential. His time is running out as I sense that we (and Worthy) will be looking very closely at him come Aug 6th.

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[quote]this campaign against Damien is getting very tiring. he was an asset for most of the season and had a dip in form towards the end. This doesn''t justify the constant vilification. overall he was stil...[/quote]

i bet you still think he is mr loyal now dont you. just heard he has pulled ouit of friendly with colchester so he obviously cant wait for the first prem side to come in for him.for him to jump ship good riddance to him and his agent both think they are something they are not just hope we can pass pompey on the way back to the prem.that would be a laugh.

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[quote]I challenged you before Dicky , to produce the hard evidence of your nasty accusation that Francis doesn''t care about City, or be quiet, remember tick tock tick tock?. Still we just have just your h...[/quote]

do you still think the lazy prima donna still cares about the club.read the official web site then you might want to apoligise to all the francis snipers.or will you say we drove him out

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[quote]I challenged you before Dicky , to produce the hard evidence of your nasty accusation that Francis doesn''t care about City, or be quiet, remember tick tock tick tock?. Still we just have just your h...[/quote]

do you still think the lazy prima donna still cares about the club.read the official web site then you might want to apoligise to all the francis snipers.or will you say we drove him out

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