FAO Stephen McPhail

I for one was one of his fans from when he signed in 2004. Even after a shaky first season i knew there was something good about this player and sometimes defended him on this board when he used to get slated. He proved a lot of critics wrong this season as he has proved what a good player he is. I for one want to say thank you for helping this team reach promotion as he has been an influential figure this season. He will be missed but i'm sure that Andy Ritchie has something up his sleeve. I hope that McPhail gets a decent reception when he returns to Oakwell with Cardiff. It may be money it may be something else that has made him decide to sign for Cardiff. At least the guy had some decency to tell everyone he didnt know where his future was. A lot of people whould have just gone and not said a word. No use dwelling on it and calling him this and that, its happened, hes gone. Now we need to look forward to the new campaign and hopefully AR will sign 3 maybe 4 good players to help us achieve a respectable league position this year. I know for sure that Cardiff are no better than us and hope we stuff them this year. Heres to a great season in the place where we belong!!!

 

Mcfail..white shi-ite work shy fop

put the effort in when he wanted a new club.</p>

Played well in 20 of the 66 games or so for us netting a mere 4 goals.</p>

 

got to agree with what you say but.....

I just wish we could have seen him play for us in the championship, because I'm sure he will shine in it.

 

shine?? like he did against donny?

<font size="2">Sorry but I don't think so.</font>

 

RE: got to agree with what you say but.....

i have to agree with what u say, im totally gutted hes gone and would have loved for him to at least stayed till january and then decide what do do as he'd have had a better idea where we were gonna finish. Top player in this division. Its a division where the ball is on the floor and you get beat by teams that are better footballers not by the bully teams like in league 1

 

Aye players stand off in this division and let you pass

with loads of time on the ball.</p>

Its so much easier in this division.</p>

I'll bet he bags loads of goals too afterall its easier to score in the championship...</p>

 

you seem to be in a cynical mood spartacus

summat eating at ya??

 

RE: Aye players stand off in this division and let you pass

ok ok you might not like the guy, may never have done but i think he has helped this team this year acheive something we never thought would happen at the start of the season. No he hasnt been consistantly good. yes he had a poor 1st season, but he is a championship player who will always create things even though he doesnt get many himself. We will replace him i know but id have hoped we could have built with him in the team

 

If he was so good then why did no-one want him last season?

He is a talented player do doubt but he just will not perform week in week out. If he wanted too much money and he has no stomach for a fight then I'm glad he fecked off. </p>

There's no room for such an attitude. He was largely absent in the play off games and we won through despite him.</p>

We will replace him.</p>

He won't pull up any trees at Cardiff either when he's in the comfort zone.</p>

 

no bottle.

 

RE: If he was so good then why did no-one want him last season?

no he wont pull any trees up but hes still a player that you would want in your team. if he was a barnsley player he would start. Maybe he is greedy, if i was a player and knew i could get some more money at a club that was at similar status as us id have to think about it. I just wanna thank him for helping get us up but in all, hope he does **** up at cardiff. still would like him back tho

 

RE: If he was so good then why did no-one want him last season?

Still, no bottle.

 

He only shined.....

after xmas when he had probably already made up his mind that he was gonna leave no matter what happened to put himself in the shop window

 

Oh! He's gone then! Bit of a bugger really in spite of the(understandable)annoyance in this correspondence.

Our midfield was a bag of ****** last season and without him it looks very very dodgy. Still, makes things easier for AR. Now their is no doubt where some cash needs to be splashed.

 

"Our midfield was a bag of ****** last season"

Was that a midfield with a certain Steven in it for the large part??

 

The midfield last season was a "bag of ******" in no small part because of McPhail. He did once or twice a game make accurate long passes across the park but rarely put in a killing pass that decimated the opposition. 75% of his passes were short sideways passes whose sole purpose was to ensure that he was not caught in posession, regardless of the impossible position that the receiver of the pass was put in. Hassel was the usual recipient - the main reason why he was caught in posession so often. If McPhail had stayed the central midfield would still have been a "bag of ******" and we would have been looking to strengthen in January. This way we can do it now!

 

Interesting

that he was voted MOTM on here 9 out of the last 10 games of the season, yet out of the wood work come crawling a load of well informed detractors now he's left.

when I say interesting, I obviously mean f.c-king typical fickle nonsense.

 

you're right, it is interesting

That he suddenly started playing near the end of his contract. Did the same last season as well didnt he?

 

Quite.

Unfortunately there are 46 games to play in a season and for too many of them he was injured or disinterested.

Weer tha watchin t'match t'neet?

 

He's a quality player

end of debate. I cant believe anyone can criticise one of their own promotion winning squad so readily and vociferously, and so soon after the end of the season. who cares what motivates a player anyway? and to say he's brittle? that'd be why he wanted to take the 5th penalty then.

was in Walkabout in Donny last night drinking with a load of Polish shot putters. not a good idea, feeling like ***** today so will be having a quite beer at home waiting for Rooney to come on.