Bradley’s Comment

[HC Green]

“I think we have got something going here. Potentially, we have got something special.”

“If we keep this squad together next season, maybe with a few more additions, I don’t see no reason why we can’t compete at the top end of League One.”

Ok so maybe he was saying this to get DA to give him the contract that he wanted but I can’t help feeling that the extra quantity of players need not have been so great so we could have paid Sonny what he wanted.

He was a colossus at the back and a leader to boot - I thought we would miss him and Vyner - we didn’t have much choice with Zak but we did with Sonny.

Big mistake I think.

The bulk of the regular first team starters were kept, so if Bradley really thought there was something special going to happen this season why didn’t he want to stay and be part of it, especially after seeing Taylor and Sarcevic sign new contracts?

 

[greenking]

Why is this even a thread?
The guy is gone.

He wasnt even that great anyway. He was good.... but not to the level that some people on here are holding him up to.

 

[Kevb77]

Why is this even a thread?
The guy is gone.

He wasnt even that great anyway. He was good.... but not to the level that some people on here are holding him up to.

Hoo-bloody-ray!! Well said that man!

Bradley was decent. Nothing more. He had some absolute howlers last season. He wasn’t quick. His distribution was mediocre. He wanted more than we were prepared to pay for a defender who was released by Crawley the season before.

Yet other released players from equally poor teams who have signed this season are written off after a handful of games that none of them have played all of.

Typical fickle knee jerk janners. Give it time. They may come good. They may not. None of us can say either way at this juncture.

 

[Since I Was 33]

Why is this even a thread?
The guy is gone.

He wasnt even that great anyway. He was good.... but not to the level that some people on here are holding him up to.

Hoo-bloody-ray!! Well said that man!

Bradley was decent. Nothing more. He had some absolute howlers last season. He wasn’t quick. His distribution was mediocre. He wanted more than we were prepared to pay for a defender who was released by Crawley the season before.

Yet other released players from equally poor teams who have signed this season are written off after a handful of games that none of them have played all of.

Typical fickle knee jerk janners. Give it time. They may come good. They may not. None of us can say either way at this juncture.

Yes at the end of the day he rejected what was offered and I'm sure it would have been decent. There's a lot of speculation about precisely what but at the end of the day only a few people will know and none of them are on here. I'm fairly sure on these pages two years ago there were some disparaging remarks about Bradley's signing but he proved them wrong. The new arrivals may come good in time just like Bradley did so we will see. At this level footballers move on all the time and that's what he did. Good luck to him.

 

[Pilgrim28]

Why is this even a thread?
The guy is gone.

He wasnt even that great anyway. He was good.... but not to the level that some people on here are holding him up to.

Hoo-bloody-ray!! Well said that man!

Bradley was decent. Nothing more. He had some absolute howlers last season. He wasn’t quick. His distribution was mediocre. He wanted more than we were prepared to pay for a defender who was released by Crawley the season before.

Yet other released players from equally poor teams who have signed this season are written off after a handful of games that none of them have played all of.

Typical fickle knee jerk janners. Give it time. They may come good. They may not. None of us can say either way at this juncture.

I agree. Canavan has shown, albeit it less so on Saturday, his disribution is better then Bradley's. The defensive attributes are there, and we have seen glimples. Under the right stewardship, Derek is the right steward, he can become as good and probably better then Bradley.

 

[arrythewurzel]

I suspect we would have needed to match the 3 year deal and wages which would have been a massive risk for us if he were to get injured.

Sonny was huge for us - to say he had limitations tastes of sour grapes to me. When you see the limited Wootton (a £1m signing for Leeds) I think people underestimate quite what a player we had there.

A lot of us consoled ourselves that DA has always been able to replace with better - my take is that hasn’t occurred this season on what I’ve seen so far .... but early days ...

 

[jimsing]

Exactly - Early Days.

 

[Emu]

I suspect we would have needed to match the 3 year deal and wages which would have been a massive risk for us if he were to get injured.

Sonny was huge for us - to say he had limitations tastes of sour grapes to me. When you see the limited Wootton (a £1m signing for Leeds) I think people underestimate quite what a player we had there.

A lot of us consoled ourselves that DA has always been able to replace with better - my take is that hasn’t occurred this season on what I’ve seen so far .... but early days ...

:clap:

 

[Kevb77]

I suspect we would have needed to match the 3 year deal and wages which would have been a massive risk for us if he were to get injured.

Sonny was huge for us - to say he had limitations tastes of sour grapes to me. When you see the limited Wootton (a £1m signing for Leeds) I think people underestimate quite what a player we had there.

A lot of us consoled ourselves that DA has always been able to replace with better - my take is that hasn’t occurred this season on what I’ve seen so far .... but early days ...

No sour grapes here, I was as gutted as anyone when he left but i also feel he wasn’t the messiah he is now being held up as. I have Pompey supporting mates who peed themselves when we signed Bradley; he was their Aaron Taylor Sinclair! He was part of a successful turn around last season and therefore held himself in higher esteem than the manager did.

I’ve seen Canavan twice; he was decent against Wycombe for which I gave him man of the match due to calmness and distribution. Against Peterborough the complete opposite. But Bradley also had Jekyll and Hyde games, it’s part of being a professional footballer.

 

[Frank Butcher]

It remains to be seen whether the new guys settle in and improve. Though not impressed so far, one would assume Wootton's credentials are better than Bradley's. Personally, I think Adams has incorporated them all too quickly - a back five of new players, with two of them very inexperienced, against one of the best attacks in the division was a big ask.

The one thing I did notice though was the lack of leadership after going 2-0 down. No-one reprimanding or directing colleagues - trying to fix the mess that our defence was. No-one taking responsibility. I do think Bradley would have had something to say in the same situation.

 

[greenking]

The problem is, people are comparing Woottons performance against Peterborough to Bradley's entire Argyle career.

How about compare a bad Bradley game to a bad Wootton game.
Take SBs performance vs Wimbledon at home last season.... torn to shreds by Lyle Taylor.

Hes not the messiah, hes a very tattoo'd boy.

 

[Hedge Hoghouse]

Most of you appear to be missing the fact that we were bottom of the league at Xmas last season with Bradley in the team,let’s give it a little more time and if it doesn’t work then start moaning ,but surely not this early in the season.

 

[chunkymonkey78]

Whoever we play in whatever position under DA can't deal with in your face, strong, physical, pacey teams that get at us and close us down.

Peterborough did exactly that on Saturday, Wycombe always do it, countless teams have done it to us at home and our form only picks up when we start doing it to them.

Any centre back will struggle when the ball is repeatedly coming back at them because the square peg in the round hole up front can't hold the ball up, Taylor the exception.

 

[Biggs]

Whoever we play in whatever position under DA can't deal with in your face, strong, physical, pacey teams that get at us and close us down.

Lots of (if not most) teams are like that in the lower leagues, yet we’ve finished 5th, 2nd and 7th with a manager with one of the highest win percentages in current English football.

So how’s that happened?

 

[chunkymonkey78]

The next paragraph in my original post probably explains it. I didn't mean to come across as detrimental as he has delivered year on year improvement and is just what the club needed.

However, I've had a season ticket since DA has been in charge, so I've seen all the home games for the past three seasons and 5 or 6 away.

When he gets it wrong it's really wrong. Heavy home defeats to the likes of Scunthorpe, Oxford, Luton. Dodgy home form that cost us the title, chucking away games like Orient at home etc.

In my opinion he got it wrong letting Sonny go.

His win percentage is so high because of the fantastic away record he has had since he's been with us. Funnily enough maybe that's why we're so good away because the pressure is off and we're not usually expected to win, we can be the ones knocking teams out of their rhythms and getting their own fans on their backs.

I guess what I'm getting at is the inevitability of it sometimes, when we are firing on all cylinders it's beautiful to watch, when we're not it's horrid. I've seen us get taken apart by teams at home because we have no answer physically and not been particularly surprised when we've lost heavily or not turned up.