I understand all that, but Villa didn't actually go up until the season after. Short term, I don't see that staying until the end of the season would have been that detrimental to his career. Actually, it would have been a win-win, as Villa clearly weren't going up. They were gash. However, it's still never been clarified how much Conor pushed for the move, and how much of it was the club wanting to cash in.
I know for a fact the reason Redfearn left us for Charlton....... it wasn't for footballing reasons. Now he is 'worshipped' by most Reds......
Granted we never will. But I've never known or heard of a player post match hours afterwards go and stand on the centre circle just looking around the stadium for a good few minutes. We'll never know the deal. The following 'fire sale' may never have happened. Who knows? I bet some of the club's that eventually took our other better players on big money wished they'd not bothered in hindsight.
He did not sell himself the club sold him & the club chose when to sell him, anyone who remembers our two trips to Wembley will also remember how influential Conner was on our success , the lad is a legend in my eyes & that will never alter .
Together with AH he was the heartbeat of the side. To me he acted with integrity and will always be welcome back with applause from me as and when he gets to Oakwell again.
He was one of my favourite all-time players too. I don't have to like what happened after he left though. If that's "puerile" so be it. Anyway I'm off to polish an effigy.
It's puerile to claim claim people worship him. It's not puerile to find what the club did that year unacceptable. I just can't for the life in me understand the reaction towards other fans simply for having the audacity to like, rate and respect Conor Hourihane.
I'm sorry you don't like the term worship, but some people tend to devote a lot of time and effort into following players that don't play for us anymore and, to be quite honest, it baffles me.
As I'm not on either Facebook or Twitter, I don't follow any player, past or present. However, in the grand scheme of things, following a past player is hardly as big an issue as, say, following Donald Trump, Boris Johnson or Katie Hopkins!
I don't exclusively mean following as in the social media sense of the term maybe I should have said caring instead of following. I'm getting out of this conversation now though, cos last time I got into something similar on here regarding Stendel I ended up deleting my account
Hero worship tends to be found in school playgrounds, hence puerile. If you're going to criticise others, you can hardly complain if someone gives you a taste of your own medicine.
He was a right player for us, didn't jump ship to the Fowls, worked hard and was a credit to the club he still feels part of. What's not to like, A1 attitude imo wherever he's been , came up through the divsions.
Steady, all I said was I don't understand the adoration of ex players? I haven't slagged him off (I said he was a good player) or slagged anyone off for liking him.
You were querying why people 'worship' him. I said said claiming that was puerile and I stand by that. To be honest, with us having such a fantastic season, I'm gobsmacked that Barnsley fans liking Conor Hourihane is even an issue, or causes any consternation.