The Grass Isn't Always Greener

So Winnall getting released has got me thinking about the fortunes of our great team a few years back, specifically the big group of players who left in 2017.

Winnall has scored 11 goals in 3 and a half seasons.
Watkings has played about 50 games and scored 4 goals.
Scowen has been a steady Championship player for a couple of years but is now in League 1 and only made 1 start for Sunderland since joining in Jan.
Roberts is in the Champ with Birmingham but is just another cog in the machine there.

It's quite sad to see that they've not really gone on to achieve anything.

Only Hourihane has pushed on, although to be fair they'll all have picked up a great pay day. They could've carried on being heroes here and built on that great team, but instead their careers are coming towards their ends and they won't have much to show for their post-Barnsley days

 

Apart from the fact they have set themselves up for life financially - so it's a bit greener from that perspective.

 

James Bree anyone...

 

Davies and Lindsay are better examples for me- seems they are lucky to get a spot on the bench.
Not sure stoke will be paying ‘set up for life’ money and their next step could be a real step down After a season or so without playing.

 

I heard Roberts went to the board and asked for him and his family to be made for life and he'd stay.

 

£20k per week on a 3 year contract would certainly set me up for life.

 

Aye but do you have the expensive lifestyle of the modern day footballer - the chintzy Cheshire mansion,the wag's Botox bill,your tattoo bill,the baby Bentley,it all adds up tha knows

 

I’d take 13k a week to be a stoke reserve reserve goalkeeper for 3 years. Might not set you for life but wouldn’t be far off. Lindsay is on more than that I believe so definitely the right decisions for both.

 

When I got my first big money contract, I said to the wife “I’ve just got a massive contract love, pack your bags”. “Are we going on holiday?” she asked. “No love, just pack your bags.”

 

Why does everyone go on about playing at a higher level, achieving more, game time etc, they go for the money simple as

 

Yeah obviously it all comes down to money, and it's hard to picture yourself turning down those sums. But it's just sad to see that it hasn't really worked out on the pitch for them. The team we had here, with a bit of vision as a group, could've achieved something special

 

If somebody said to me we will quadruple your wages and we wont need you to come and work as much, would I say naah I have a loyalty to my previous employer ? Eremmm no, where do I sign

 

I’m pretty sure most of them believed they’d get games at the clubs they joined. I think the only one who was never realistically going to get games & joined solely for money was Winnall who joined a club who already had 6 first team strikers with 4 of them been big names who he was never going to replace.

It’s definitely a combination of money, game time & location rather than it all been about money.

Say Marc Roberts is on 12k a week at Birmingham, my belief is we offered 10k a week with the same contract length he’d probably stay. None of us know that for sure but the whispers are we didn’t offer anything close to Birmingham did. I’m not criticising us for that either. They’re in massive debt & will feel the consequences of Redknapp’s spending spree for years to come.

 

Its not like they will look at us and think "I should have stayed"

 

I'd hope they look back on the first few months of the 16/17 season and with us being 7th in January on the fringe of the play-offs and think I could have achieved something there.

Although Hecky still had Roberts, Watkins and Scowen and Kent on loan until the end of that season and went to 4-5-1 to shoe horn in Matty James. (Who was a good player). I just think he should have given Mowatt a proper go after suspension and made more use of Moncur before last few games of the season. Also why he stopped playing Bradshaw and Armstrong together was beyond me.