Quote Originally Posted by jackal2 View Post
It's unusual for a manager to publicly slate a player like that, but Nigel Clough does do this from time to time. He did the same with Dean Leacock and Paul Green when he was at Derby: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...ty/9326949.stm

If Clough was some young, brash manager with no record of success I'd be more inclined to question such an 'outburst', but maybe this is his way of trying to get a reaction out of players who don't react to anything else. We saw Dean Leacock playing for us after his Derby career and I sometimes wondered if the guy even gave a damn. He had ability, but he often only used 50% of it and seemed half asleep at times. Maybe Clough takes the view that if it takes public humiliation and provocation to jolt a player out of their lethargy, potentially saving their career from terminal decline, then it's an action worth taking.

Elliott Hewitt's career is certainly on the verge of terminal decline. Any player who twice finds himself with a team losing its league status would be hard-pressed to argue that they aren't part of the problem. He is the worst right full-back I've seen in my thirty-plus years watching Notts County. He didn't react quickly enough, he didn't close down, he didn't tackle and he didn't show any passion or aggression playing in a position that demands all of those qualities.

I've been critical of Kevin Nolan in some respects, but something I definitely give him credit for was moving Hewitt into centre-midfield where I saw for the first time that this player actually did have something to offer, forming a very good partnership for a while with Ryan Yates. He was a pretty average central defender at best, so maybe his future (if he has one) is in midfield. So far, his career is one of meandering under-achievement.
Agree with a lot of this but worse RB in the last 30 years? Please sir. How could you forget Brian O'Callaghan?