Is there anything more exciting....

[queenslandpie]

Ultimately Aborah had a few tricks but definatley was not cut out for the EFL on any level.

[optipez]

And we saw how far that gets you in League 2.

I'm amazed some are still trying to make out that Aborah was a quality player when his career shows he clearly wasn't.

I thought he was a decent footballer, better than Boucaud or Fotheringham but not a patch on Gavin Mahon who all played the holding role.
Aborah was small and slow and was prone to dwelling on the ball making us easy to defend against with slow build up play.
In truth I think the holding midfield role gives a third of the pitch away if you're not careful, Harrogate showed the formations weakness with Doyle playing the role.
I thought it worked best under Martin Allen's 4-1-3-2 where we kept two up front and had full backs that pushed right up to boost the midfield with Mahon playing almost as a third centre back when we were attacking. It helped that he was big too as he cut out aerial threat and he moved the ball forwards quickly. Really rated Mahon.
Doyle is a good footballer no doubt and I'm sure he can jog a marathon but he's slow on the pitch and am hoping that he's used sparingly and not going to play 30 plus games from the start. Bit off topic but part of the problem of judging holding midfielders is the effectiveness of the formation. Big difference between a holding midfielder and a link man.

[laddo]

And we saw how far that gets you in League 2.

I'm amazed some are still trying to make out that Aborah was a quality player when his career shows he clearly wasn't.

I'm certainly not but it's all relative, look at the other midfielders in the squad at the time. He was far from the worse. You have to have a decent level of ability to play for Ajax at any level.

He was certainly popular with the supporters in the Kop for a sustained period. Shows how bad we were for a lot of that season.

[laddo]

Ultimately Aborah had a few tricks but definatley was not cut out for the EFL on any level.

Agree wasn't a good fit for the EFL especially lower league same with Moniz.

[Freeman25]

Freeman, you really should give up before you dig an even deeper hole. So Aborah was a really good player, but none of the many managers he ever played under managed to maximise his potential? Seriously? By the way, did Van Persie end up in the Irish leagues?

This is like a quiz question where you've just had a sneaky peek at the answer sheet. The history books show that Aborah was a very limited footballer who never did much at any of the clubs he played for. If you really want to you can claim he was massively talented but misunderstood, you can claim that nearly all Notts fans loved him, you can claim he became a legend at Portsmouth in his two hour career. The professionals in the game would laugh at you however, because none of them agreed with you.

I would've bet the mortgage on you mentioning Van Persie Ravel Morrison as mentioned by someone else is a great example, Freddy Adu would be another and a lesser known one would be Fabio Paim, thought of as a bigger talent than Ronaldo and went on to do absolutely nothing in his career because he was a d*ck and didn't have the application -

PaÃ*m was once regarded as the most promising young player in Portugal by Cristiano Ronaldo, who said upon arriving at Manchester United: "If you think I'm good, just wait until you see Fábio PaÃ*m"

Just because a player doesn't reach their potential it doesn't mean there ability is non existent. Aborah's ability was there to see for most people, though obviously not you, but getting it out of him proved to not be worth the effort and hassle of dealing with him for most of the managers that signed him and that's fair enough, it's not my career he wasted it's his own.

-

As for what he did to make me an admirer? My first season as a Notts fan was under Allardyce in the promotion season, since then it's basically all been utter dogsh*t until the Munto season came along, then we had one more decent season when we missed out on the playoffs before going back to being terrible most years until Moniz came along and we actually played entertaining football.

I barely remember the Allardyce season as I was about 7 so other than Munto, the Moniz season was just about the only time I looked forward to going to Meadow Lane and went there expecting to win games, Aborah was a key part in that football in the same way Jorginho was for Chelsea under Sarri when they played a possession game and Sergio Busquets was for Barcelona (different levels, please don't wet yourself). Jorginho's performances also went under the radar and he was critisised by simple minded (or old school) pundits because they looked at his stats and decided he should get more assists with the amount of passes he makes.

So in short, the majority of my time supporting Notts has been cr*p, Moniz's football was enjoyable, and Aborah played a big part in it.

[Elite_Pie]

Aborah's ability was there to see for most people, though obviously not you.

I've always said he had very good close control in tight situations, and would frequently leave an opponent on their arse. Most of his passes found a Notts man, but that was the limit of his ability. Those passes were never defence splitting, they were simple 'keep possession' passes. He didn't create chances, he didn't score goals. He didn't work hard, his attempts at winning tackles and headers was invariably half-hearted and the amount of ground he covered was minimal for a midfielder. In short, he didn't influence the game at all. You might drool in appreciation at a fancy turn on the halfway line followed by a square ball out wide, but it takes a bit more than that to impress me.

[SwalePie]

Some great examples of his eye for a pass and close control here. He had great skill and obvious potential but IMHO simply chose to waste it. I have to say I don't believe he was lazy on the pitch though, simply not one for chasing lost causes like a headless lower league chicken.

[forwardmagpie]

Some great examples of his eye for a pass and close control here. He had great skill and obvious potential but IMHO simply chose to waste it. I have to say I don't believe he was lazy on the pitch though, simply not one for chasing lost causes like a headless lower league chicken.

Looks decent player is he available ?

[laddo]

His passing, close control and strength were superb at that level. So often he would be dribbling in his own half or just in front of the back 4 with one or two opposition in closer attendance and he would never lose possession. It uses to give me kittens to start with but soon realised there was very little danger.

Great pass completion but agree with Elite rarely were they defense splitting more, to get us further up the field which is never a bad thing.

He passed the ball how you would want a player to pass to you.

[Elite_Pie]

Looks decent player is he available ?

I've just re-watched the highlights vid of another of one our Dutch maestros, Julian Jenner. He looked quality.

I wonder if he'd consider dropping to the National League?