Junior Stanislas

I don't think you can say it was a mistake as it was the right decision at the time. Sometimes these things don't work out.

A mistake would have been not offering it to him and watching him go elsewhere and get luckier with his injuries.

Agree some kind of farewell would be good. Although, if he's hanging up his boots, maybe something will happen in terms of coaching. Maybe attacking set pieces...
 
kirsikka said:
I don't think you can say it was a mistake as it was the right decision at the time. Sometimes these things don't work out.

A mistake would have been not offering it to him and watching him go elsewhere and get luckier with his injuries.

Agree some kind of farewell would be good. Although, if he's hanging up his boots, maybe something will happen in terms of coaching. Maybe attacking set pieces...
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Agree totally..
Never a mistake...such a talented player. One of the very best I've seen in 50 plus years
 
kirsikka said:
I don't think you can say it was a mistake as it was the right decision at the time. Sometimes these things don't work out.

A mistake would have been not offering it to him and watching him go elsewhere and get luckier with his injuries.

Agree some kind of farewell would be good. Although, if he's hanging up his boots, maybe something will happen in terms of coaching. Maybe attacking set pieces...
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To contradict myself and in the club's defence, he did play 30+ games in 20/21.

However given his track record of usually only managing 20 or fewer appearances before that, I think 2 years was a bit generous and overly optimistic.

He timed the contract extension VERY well with his longest injury free spell in his career.
 
Not fair to call the Stanislas contract extension a mistake, it’s easy to forget that he actually played 35 games during the first season back in the championship, and scored ten goals in the process. He had always struggled with injuries but that was actually his most successful season for us in terms of availability, there was nothing to suggest at that time that the situation would develop into the farcical state of affairs that it has over the past two seasons. The decision can’t be described as a mistake because it required the benefit of hindsight. Stanislas has also been a difference maker for us over the years, so the decision to take the risk to keep him on is one that made sense.

The decision to sign Fredericks however, was undoubtedly a mistake. I (and others) said at the time of his signing that all this would result in was a wasted squad space and two years worth of wages paid to a player for doing very little. Just look at his appearance record for West Ham in the two years prior to signing for us, he played 21 league games in two seasons. It really didn’t require hindsight to know that Fredericks would spend the vast majority of the season unavailable, we have actually been relatively fortunate that he has been just about available (even in some of his appearances he wasn’t fit to start) for just under a third of our games. The thing that gets me about his signing as well is that there isn’t even really anything that makes him stand out as being noticeably better than either of our other right backs either, perhaps if he was a really noticeable upgrade (or a difference maker like Stan) then he’d have been worth the risk, but he just isn’t. He has never been any more than a pretty ordinary PL right back. What basically happened I believe, is that the board were getting a bit twitchy at Scott Parker banging on their door for new players, so in an effort to appease him they sanctioned the (cheap) signing of his mate. We signed a player who was rarely ever going to play. In a position we didn’t even need to recruit in. And a player who wasn’t any better than what we had anyway. Total waste of money and a big mistake.
 
I consider it a mistake, didnt agree with the new contract at the time
Yes, as Kirsikka has said, he could have gone and played a lot of games elsewhere, which Id have said good for him, and lucky them. Wouldnt be a mistake, thats playing the percentages from business/financial point of view.
 
KingKieffer said:
Not fair to call the Stanislas contract extension a mistake, it’s easy to forget that he actually played 35 games during the first season back in the championship, and scored ten goals in the process. He had always struggled with injuries but that was actually his most successful season for us in terms of availability, there was nothing to suggest at that time that the situation would develop into the farcical state of affairs that it has over the past two seasons. The decision can’t be described as a mistake because it required the benefit of hindsight. Stanislas has also been a difference maker for us over the years, so the decision to take the risk to keep him on is one that made sense.

The decision to sign Fredericks however, was undoubtedly a mistake. I (and others) said at the time of his signing that all this would result in was a wasted squad space and two years worth of wages paid to a player for doing very little. Just look at his appearance record for West Ham in the two years prior to signing for us, he played 21 league games in two seasons. It really didn’t require hindsight to know that Fredericks would spend the vast majority of the season unavailable, we have actually been relatively fortunate that he has been just about available (even in some of his appearances he wasn’t fit to start) for just under a third of our games. The thing that gets me about his signing as well is that there isn’t even really anything that makes him stand out as being noticeably better than either of our other right backs either, perhaps if he was a really noticeable upgrade (or a difference maker like Stan) then he’d have been worth the risk, but he just isn’t. He has never been any more than a pretty ordinary PL right back. What basically happened I believe, is that the board were getting a bit twitchy at Scott Parker banging on their door for new players, so in an effort to appease him they sanctioned the (cheap) signing of his mate. We signed a player who was rarely ever going to play. In a position we didn’t even need to recruit in. And a player who wasn’t any better than what we had anyway. Total waste of money and a big mistake.
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I agree that signing Fredericks was a mistake. But I do think on his day he's better than Smith, or at least offers something Smith doesn't (pace). Unfortunately he's had about 2 of those days. He was exceptional away to Forest in the 2nd half.
 
They'll probably be lots of snarky comments but how about people try and not to make them for once? He's been one of the best players to ever wear the AFCB shirt and instrumental in us keeping our PL status for as long as we did the first time around. If he had been injury free in his career then he would have moved on to a club further up the hierarchy than us. He more than had the ability for that.

I wish him all the best. Maybe a coaching role in how to take a set piece could be useful for us?
 
kirsikka said:
They'll probably be lots of snarky comments but how about people try and not to make them for once? He's been one of the best players to ever wear the AFCB shirt and instrumental in us keeping our PL status for as long as we did the first time around. If he had been injury free in his career then he would have moved on to a club further up the hierarchy than us. He more than had the ability for that.

I wish him all the best. Maybe a coaching role in how to take a set piece could be useful for us?
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Agree with the sentiment of this. Junior’s injury record will have hurt him more than anyone. Not sure I agree that he’s one of our best ever players but he certainly played an important role in some of our best ever seasons. Wish him well.
 
I used to stick a fiver on Junior to score first occasionally when the odds were good, in case we got a free kick near the box.

Paid off at Old Trafford at stupid odds!

Edit: Very talented player, still managed some superb performances and goals despite the terrible injury record. My favourites are the Everton equaliser and rolling the ball in at Chelsea after a few one-twos with Callum Wilson left their defence looking daft. Fantastic goal that will never get the credit it deserved, except from Chelsea fans, weirdly!
 
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I remember when he got a bad injury at Watford some years ago. Apart from the 2020-21 season, he wasn't really the same again. Not his fault he got a two year extension. Obviously, he'd have been crazy to turn that down. Maybe he'll come back to us as a coach?
 
A very silky skilled player and probably my favourite of our recent years.

Such a shame about his injuries, and anyone who slags him off just because of that really needs to shake their head and think about what constitutes a quality footballer.

A great shame we did not have him at the weekend as he scored a few against Everton.
 
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