[Official Site] LIAM KITCHING DEPARTS OAKWELL

Correct. The timing is bad (unless the coach is happy) but anyone moaning about this given the level we are at and expectations of what constitutes a classy defender is not thinking straight

 

Herbie Kane should be looking for a new agent.

 

Bit of an enigma in my eyes, was Liam.

I really liked him. Thought he was a good player for us.

But he was fundamentally a defender, and defending is really not a strength of his. It was everything else that made him a player.

He’ll be missed, but not as much as Mads or Norwood in my opinion.

 

Best of luck Liam, you’ve give us some great memories

really can’t see how we could hold him back with the money offered. We have secured a great price for him imho.

A bit concerned at the lack of cover purchased at centre back. Albeit Shepherd looks the part, perhaps we are planning to play him consistently- if he plays as he has done so far this could be a great piece of business

 

If Coventry have a place in their team for an overlapping centre half, or they want to play a centre half in a free role, then I can't think of a better candidate than Liam. And it's such a niche position that the price they've paid is probably justified.

But I have some experience of watching teams under Mark Robins. Unlike quite a few others on this forum, who found his style really dull, I thought Robins was a very good manager. I liked him and thought Patrick Cryne made a big mistake by letting him go with little or no effort to keep him. However, I can't disagree with the argument that Robins likes his teams to be solid, he likes to build from the back and he likes his defenders to defend. Flamboyancy is not high up on his list of essentials. Some think his style is really boring, I'd argue it's effective. But in his system, paying £4 million+ for Kitching to simply be a solid defender seems like a radical misjudgement of the player.

I'll remember Kitching fondly for lashing the ball in to the top corner from the edge of the area after bursting through the opposition's back line. Or riding the opposition's winger like a donkey on multiple occasions, because, well, he's a bit nuts. What I'll be trying to forget is the number of times he was megged, or turned inside out by a simple drop of the shoulder. I ended up liking Kitching, he's got lots of good attributes, he played with passion and worked hard to improve, but, as you say, ultimately he wasn't a great defender, which is an odd thing to say about a centre half. Particularly one who a Championship club has just paid over £4 million for.

 

Well even tho it's the good old undisclosed we turned down 4 mill if true and the club saying he wanted to go and getting everything we wanted surely it's 4 mill +.