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What a shock !!!
Who would have thought it.
What a surprise.
Only surprise there is that some supporters actually believed that we were signing a player that was more or less the same player that left the club years ago.
Laughable.
Bring Glavin on.
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Wrong again YN , most of us thought he'd be a good 60 minute man and he'd play every other game perhaps and add his considerable experience to our midfield , his ability to deliver quality from set pieces was also factored in given that he'd played practically every game for Derby County the previous season and captained them to promotion .Originally Posted by Young_Nudger
Mind you there's some who believe you can sign free agents from non league who can simply come in and replace the best back three in the division and become a better team as a consequence because some rich kid plays real time football manager .
Now that is laughable and so it's proved .
Saying that if we were told when Hourihane re-joined the club last summer that he wouldn't be playing in any games what so ever I personally wouldn't have endorsed it .
But the club didn't say that did they ? , as I remember it he was signed as a player - coach .
Several questions remained unanswered .
1 , Hourihane has some kind of injury that's finished his career early , probably picked up last season at Derby County .
2 , The HC doesn't rate him as a player , which would be weird .
3 , The club knew he couldn't play again but hired him anyway because it would be good publicity and it would help shift ST's .
4 , Hourihane is a total fraud whose pillocked his way in to the club to get a coaching job and never had any intention of lowering himself to play league one for another season .
Take your pick but it's one of those four options with option 1 and option 3 the favourites .
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Excellent post Animal and the situation broken down beautifully
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From the start of the season the club said:
Roberts is here to play.
Situation with Hourihane is different - he is here to develop his coaching badges with the occasional appearance.
Anyone who watches football and saw Hourihane playing last season knew this was the case - as his playing days were over.
I was expecting to see him come off the bench late on in a game when Barnsley were comfortably in the lead to slow the game down - probably 3 or 4 times during the season.
However - some ?supporters? don?t listen to anything the club says - and were saying things at the start of the season like ?it?s a no brainer that Hourihane shouldn?t be in the starting lineup?.
And there lies the hilarity.
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Hourihane played 41 games last season for Derby , that is a strange being he was supposed to be past it, how many of last years reds squad made 41 appearances ? not many , you have to be pretty fit to do that and I feel sure his fitness will not have deteriorated in a few months to qualify for being over the hill .
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Well that's not what was reported when Hourihane 're-joined the club in the summer .
It was reported that he was here to develop his coaching credentials and it was a hybrid role and he would play a little bit , a little bit is open to interpretation but none the less a single appearance on the grass would still fall short of a little bit .
" Anyone who watches football and saw Hourihane playing last season knew this was the case - as his playing days were over " .
That would be to dismiss the 98 appearances for Derby County in the last two season's and 13 goals plus he captained the Rams to promotion at 33 years of age which isn't exactly old .
To also make such a statement would also have to be backed up by watching the vast majority of Derby County games last season which you clearly wouldn't have .
Generally speaking players want to play as long as they can even if that involves accepting limited game time , you are a long time retired and playing this game is way better than coaching it , I've hardly heard of anyone who couldn't wait to retire from playing football , the game generally retires them .
I suspect and not for the first time the club have been economic with the truth regarding the re-signing of Connor Hourihane , I think they knew all along he wouldn't be playing for what ever reason , the single appearance on the grass is apparently enough to cover the announced role of player - coach role .
They knew Hourihane would help drive ST sales and also help drive some of the apathy away from the club following a number of catastrophic decisions they made last season and that Hourihane would play along with it to gain the coaching role .
I find it pretty disrespectful myself but at the same time unsurprising .
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Well he's made his decision now and let's wish him good luck. Odds on him being a future head coach here anyone?
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It's always been a probability for me Pass
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Odds on certainty for me mate
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Depends on how he performs as an assistant coach for me personally Pass .
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