Hucks - The Alternative View

[greenTshirt 2]

Two excellent posts from Shak and Barclayman putting the case for both sides.

Thing is we''ll never know. All I can say is we should never have let him leave. No manager can guarantee a player a start in every game. But having Huckerby in the squad could only be seen as an asset from a playing point of view and thereafter on the coaching side of things.

But let''s look at it from Huckerby''s point of view. Sometimes you need a change. And the attraction of some regular sunshine in the states must have been great. The promise of another tough Championship season at Carrow Road couldn''t have been that appealing ... what would you have done in his shoes?

[GJP 79]

[quote user="greenTshirt"]Two excellent posts from Shak and Barclayman putting the case for both sides. Thing is we''ll never know. All I can say is we should never have let him leave. No manager can guarantee a player a start in every game. But having Huckerby in the squad could only be seen as an asset from a playing point of view and thereafter on the coaching side of things. But let''s look at it from Huckerby''s point of view. Sometimes you need a change. And the attraction of some regular sunshine in the states must have been great. The promise of another tough Championship season at Carrow Road couldn''t have been that appealing ... what would you have done in his shoes?[/quote]

Stayed at Carrow Road, if I could.

As would he have done.

[Trent Canary 0]

"Whenever Hucks received the ball in the left corner there would be an

end product. Either a foul, a corner, a cross in or Hucks would drive

past and shoot. Whats happening now?More good posts on the topic, well put barclayman as well. Id agree with what you say, although I take issue with the statement above. I lost track of the amount of times he would knock the ball past a defender, get outmuscled, fall to the ground, whinge at the ref, then slowly trot back to the half-way line. However thats not too say he hasnt got a better end product than all of our current players put together!

[venta icenorum 0]

[quote user="Fuglestad"]I''ll ask again. Which player in our squad is better than Darren Huckerby?[/quote]

David Marshall and Sammy Clingan are probably better players than Hucks currently is, although I assume what you mean is who is better than Hucks in his prime. The answer to that of course is no-one, although our Reading loanee isn''t far off IMO.

[lucky green trainers 0]

the alternative view is correct to a point - in that hux played below par for most of last season, which is explained by his hip injuryand maybe the poor formof the team generally - but there can be no argument, that in his last five appearances, he was playing at a more than acceptable level of form - and we gained the necessary points to escape relegation,,,but back to his best??? looks like he saved that for the yankee league...whatever you say about the standard of U.S. soccer - even if its comparable to our league 1 - the fact is, hux has simply torn that league apart...asked if he could do a job back in the champs - hux immediately and emphatically answered ''yes'' - i have no reason to doubt the bloke on this score,,,his boots are doing the talking///and whether he could still do a job for us???clearly, thats a big yes...in the best interests of ncfc, the boy should still be here,,,but yeah - i should be ''getting over it'' while watching our new bunch of hero''s fail to deliver most weeks!!!imo - there was no credible football reason for not keeping hux on at the end of last season (unless thats how roedy tempted hooley here as No1???) - or economic - he said he would take a big pay cut - and he did just that stateside - for me, it looked personal,rather than professional-cud be wrong, but he didn''t get any sort of send-off, and i for one will be giving him a welcome home on saturday - like holty, humble enough to take a seat in the stand with ordinary punters to sit with his kids,,,says it all for me... 

[Shack Attack 0]

[quote user="tribes"]Football is all about opinions, unfortunately there are a few who consider theirs to be due to some remarkable insight into the game that they posess, which many supporters do not have. It is called arrogance and they make a habit of patronising those who do not agree with their opinions.[/quote]

I do hope that was not directed at me as all I was trying to do was open up an argument which, rightly or wrongly, has become pretty one sided of late.

That aside there are some really good posts on this thread which I am glad to have read and taken on board. The main point of my original post was that it was the right time to let Hucks go but GR has made poor choices when it comes to replacing him. I still stand by that opinion. Those of you who have asked who in the current squad is better than Hucks have perhaps missed the point I was trying to make. With the lack of funds available to GR he should have been looking to build a tight knit squad with no stars who would grow as a team over the course of his ''three year plan''. Instead he promised us ''new heroes'' which artificially raised expectation and gave the disciples of The Cult of St. Darren [;)] a stick to beat him with.

[Fuglestad 0]

[quote user="venta icenorum"]

[quote user="Fuglestad"]I''ll ask again. Which player in our squad is better than Darren Huckerby?[/quote]

David Marshall and Sammy Clingan are probably better players than Hucks currently is, although I assume what you mean is who is better than Hucks in his prime. The answer to that of course is no-one, although our Reading loanee isn''t far off IMO.

[/quote]

I guess it''s difficult to compare defensive players to Huckerby, but I don''t think we have any attacking players who are as good as Huckerby is now (or as Huckerby was performing in the last few games of 2007-2008), Lita included.

[gazzathegreat 0]

Shack Attack, you have made some good points in your original post - I can''t say I agree with all of it, but you have made your opinion stand out amongst all the Huckerby related posts on here just telling many of us to get over it, etc.

GR made a decision to let Hucks go. Sadly, I guess only he knows the full reasoning behind this. IMO Hucks, even in his injured state, still had enough class, skill and most importantly attitude to be in the current side. No, he''s not as good now as he was in the promotion season, and I am not sure if this is solely down to age or more to do with the calibre of his team mates or the motivational skills of the manager.

Mr Roeder was surely in the know as to his budget for replacing Hucks - if in his opinion this wasn''t possible he should have held on to him. Hucks has more than once stated that he would have been prepared to take a pay cut - so what was the problem. We can all speculate, but I suppose we will never know.

As for his three year plan, whatever that is - Hucks was here during the first year of that, so he was well aware of what he had to replace. Where are the heroes? I suspect some of them maybe here, but for varying reasons they are either not showing their worth and potential or have been frozen out, again for reasons we can only speculate on.

Shack, my expectations, after the departure of Huckerby actually went down. I didn''t expect Mr Roeder to be able to replace him - not like for like.

Yes, we can all use the departure of Hucks to slate Mr Roeder, but IMO there are other more pertinent reasons for this, a few being his constant changing of the team, lack of motivation for the players, his attitude towards the fans and the fiasco with Neil Adams.

[7rew 0]

[quote]
Why is it that David Beckham and the MLS is good enough for Capello and England but Hucks and the MLS isnt good enough for Roeder and the Championship? Is international football not as tough as the Championship? Obviously not. Has Hucks done better in the MLS this season than David Beckham? 100% yes.
[/quote]

I''m not going to argue that the Championship is higher quality than the MLS - it isn''t. It is in fact of a much lower standard. 

However, that is the problem. Having seen Youtube videos of many of Huck''s MLS goals, I am quite confident that they wouldn''t have been scored in the Championship.  Some lump would have flattened him and the free kick wasted (by us anyway).

I think the game that sealed his release was Bury away in the FA cup.  Roeder put out a team based on hucks, gave him the freedom of the final third, freedom to go where he liked left/right or central, 3 defensive midfielders to cover for him so he didn''t have to defend.  What happened?  Darren had less impact than usual and stayed on the touchline at halfway sulking.

[Stone Cold 0]

Couldn''t agree more Shack.

[tribes 0]

[quote user="Fuglestad"]I''ll ask again. Which player in our squad is better than Darren Huckerby?[/quote] Mr Nobody.

[bringbackterraces 0]

Releasing Hucks, keeping Eagle who will never be good enough, Koroma on loan who isn''t good enough!

 

Croft and Pattison will never be consistent enough to be any good!

 

End of the day terrible decision!

 

Nothing to do about money cause Hucks would of taken a cut and Carl Moore paid some of his wages anyway!

 

Roeders no good!

 

 

[John Boubepo 0]

The very fact we are having this debate shows we have missed Hux, If the season had been a success instead of an abject failure we wouldn''t be talking, thinking, discussing a hypothetical Hux in the first place

[Mello Yello 2,293]

I don''t think we''d have seen Hucks playing at his best under Roeder the Eroder.....I really don''t think they see eye to eye.....

If the crowd start singing ''Oh Huckerby''.....I just might join in from the City Stand....That''ll stir and shock a few around me - and maybe awaken them from their deep slumber and hopefully, disrupt their fawning and adulating thoughts of our Delia.....and shatter their dreams and hopes for the Donkster to be the next Norwich Lord Mayor.....

[AndyJR 0]

[quote user="greenTshirt"]Two excellent posts from Shak and Barclayman putting the case for both sides.

Thing is we''ll never know. All I can say is we should never have let him leave. No manager can guarantee a player a start in every game. But having Huckerby in the squad could only be seen as an asset from a playing point of view and thereafter on the coaching side of things.

But let''s look at it from Huckerby''s point of view. Sometimes you need a change. And the attraction of some regular sunshine in the states must have been great. The promise of another tough Championship season at Carrow Road couldn''t have been that appealing ... what would you have done in his shoes?[/quote]Have to say, I don''t think he wanted a change, if that was the case than so be it.  Evidently he wanted to play for Norwich and still does, the interviews have told us that. He''s a realist, Glenn Roeder is in charge and does''nt rate him, simple as that. 

[tribes 0]

[quote user="Shack Attack"]

[quote user="tribes"]Football is all about opinions, unfortunately there are a few who consider theirs to be due to some remarkable insight into the game that they posess, which many supporters do not have. It is called arrogance and they make a habit of patronising those who do not agree with their opinions.[/quote]

I do hope that was not directed at me as all I was trying to do was open up an argument which, rightly or wrongly, has become pretty one sided of late.

That aside there are some really good posts on this thread which I am glad to have read and taken on board. The main point of my original post was that it was the right time to let Hucks go but GR has made poor choices when it comes to replacing him. I still stand by that opinion. Those of you who have asked who in the current squad is better than Hucks have perhaps missed the point I was trying to make. With the lack of funds available to GR he should have been looking to build a tight knit squad with no stars who would grow as a team over the course of his ''three year plan''. Instead he promised us ''new heroes'' which artificially raised expectation and gave the disciples of The Cult of St. Darren [;)] a stick to beat him with.

[/quote]No, it was not directed at you. All you did was to give your opinion in a fair and reasoned manner. It was directed at whoever implied that your argument was based on an understanding of football which many posters do not possess, implying that he/she also had that understanding.

Whilst I disagree with most of what you said, it is your opinion and football is all about opinions. We all have them and that is what helps make football so fascinating to discuss.

As for Cult of St Darren as you call it, that was always going to raise its head if the team were not performing. A big factor is also the dislike that many fans have for GR partly due to his arrogance and raised ego. GR himself has played a massive part in creating and sustaining The Cult (your words) which started with the ridiculous (in many peoples view) decision of not offering Darren Huckerby a contract. That there were ulterior motives in GR''s decision will always be felt by many fans. That may be right or it may be wrong, but in reality it will never go away.

[canary cherub 1]

[quote user="Trent Canary"]"Whenever Hucks received the ball in the left corner there would be an end product. Either a foul, a corner, a cross in or Hucks would drive past and shoot. Whats happening now?

[/quote]

Totally agree Trent.  Winning free kicks was a key part of his game that came into play if he was being heavily marked.  If he was penalised by a referee who couldn''t tell the difference between a dive and buying a foul, that was when Hucks used to lose his rag.

 

[lucky green trainers 0]

[quote user="Potless Percy "]

[quote user="Trent Canary"]"Whenever Hucks received the ball in the left corner there would be an end product. Either a foul, a corner, a cross in or Hucks would drive past and shoot. Whats happening now?[/quote]

Totally agree Trent.  Winning free kicks was a key part of his game that came into play if he was being heavily marked.  If he was penalised by a referee who couldn''t tell the difference between a dive and buying a foul, that was when Hucks used to lose his rag.

 

[/quote]yeah - and hux would have at least 2 players in close attention, with sometimes a third covering...tying up the oppositions defensive resources...mind you, we rarely took advantage of this - except for francis, who had the uncanny knack of arriving into the box or onto the edge of it at exactly the right time to receive/or shoot...

[king canary 7,606]

[quote user="lucky green trainers"][quote user="Potless Percy "]

[quote user="Trent Canary"]"Whenever Hucks received the ball in the left corner there would be an end product. Either a foul, a corner, a cross in or Hucks would drive past and shoot. Whats happening now?[/quote]

Totally agree Trent.  Winning free kicks was a key part of his game that came into play if he was being heavily marked.  If he was penalised by a referee who couldn''t tell the difference between a dive and buying a foul, that was when Hucks used to lose his rag.

 

[/quote]yeah - and hux would have at least 2 players in close attention, with sometimes a third covering...tying up the oppositions defensive resources...mind you, we rarely took advantage of this - except for francis, who had the uncanny knack of arriving into the box or onto the edge of it at exactly the right time to receive/or shoot...[/quote]Exactly what and Russel should have been able to do.

[Houston Canary 0]

Roeder the Eroder - Mello Yello

AWESOME!  That is hilarious.  Thanks for that,best nickname I''ve seen yet for Glenroeder Glenn Ross.

[John Boubepo 0]

[quote user="Houston Canary"]

Roeder the Eroder - Mello Yello

AWESOME!  That is hilarious.  Thanks for that,best nickname I''ve seen yet for Glenroeder Glenn Ross.

[/quote]Roeder the Eroder - Quality nickname Mellow, lol