Simon Francis

[Gorshin]

Personally I'd regard him as our best option on the right of midfield, as Betsy is shocking. He has skill and a sweet right foot if not much pace. An intelligent player who needs confidence more than most. He'd be the first name on my team sheet. Hope he's an auto first choice (wherever he plays) next season.

 

[bucket&spade.f.c]

Personally I'd regard him as our best option on the right of midfield, as Betsy is shocking. He has skill and a sweet right foot if not much pace. An intelligent player who needs confidence more than most. He'd be the first name on my team sheet. Hope he's an auto first choice (wherever he plays) next season.

first name on your team sheet are you on drugs

id say the only time iv really seen him play well was when he played centre back he looked alot more confidence and happier apart from that not the best of players but does a job

 

[sufc_tom]

My first name on a team sheet will be a Goalkeeper then work on from there ;)

 

[wiggy]

Personally I'd regard him as our best option on the right of midfield, as Betsy is shocking. He has skill and a sweet right foot if not much pace. An intelligent player who needs confidence more than most. He'd be the first name on my team sheet. Hope he's an auto first choice (wherever he plays) next season.

Don't go upsetting the rose tinted's, they all love Sankofa!

 

[Gorshin]

Francis is class. Sankofa is ****.

 

[smudgster]

Francis is a good player without a position.

 

[grassroots]

Francis is a good player without a position.

SF in a nutshell - nice one smudgster!!

 

[Kris]

Francis is a good player without a position.

That's pretty much true if we're talking about the right hand side. Francis is arguably one of the best full-backs in the division going forward but this is negated by his consistent lack of concentration defensively - even Franno himself admitted in a BluesWorld interview he'd been poor - which has left us exposed down that side on numerous occasions. And at right-back, being a good defender is always the priority and he has been shocking this season.

So, all signs should point to him being far more effective as a right-sided midfielder, yet whenever he's played there he's been average at best. Why? Because he's not actually that skilful or blessed with natural pace from a standing position, which you need as a winger because a lot of the time you receive the ball in static positions and have a defender, sometimes two, up your arse. On the overlap from right-back Franno is more effective because he's often able to receive the ball at pace and in a decent amount of space to then move forward and whip crosses in, which he's pretty good at. At right-midfield he lacks the trickery to get beyond a full-back so he's not really suited to that position either.

However, his best performances this season have arguably been at centre-back, where he's barely put a foot wrong, probably because he's been forced to focus for 90 minutes. So maybe his future lies there.

 

[united we stand]

as everyone says he is a 'confidence' player , so its not really a surpise that playing on the right in front of the west stand that his confidence goes away is it.
I can't comment on the east as I don't sit there

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

as everyone says he is a 'confidence' player , so its not really a surpise that playing on the right in front of the west stand that his confidence goes away is it.
I can't comment on the east as I don't sit there

He plays just as bad in front of the East stand as well.

 

[Clinton Baptiste]

So to get the best out of him we should knock down the west and east stands??

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

So to get the best out of him we should knock down the west and east stands??

And avoid away games.

 

[Andyhsufc]

FWIW, I think that on his day Franny can be the best player on the pitch. He definately has technical ability and, when he is playing confidently, is a match for any player in this league. However, due to both his lack of confidence this season as well as his goldfish-like concentration, he has been a liability in most of the games I have seen him play this season. By all means, keep him until the end of his contract (next season i believe?) but I would be more than happy with a no-frills right back next season.

 

[Scottish_Shrimpers]

saturday just proved what a complete waste of time francis is. the penalty seemed harsh but the way he was playing he was going to give them a goal anyway, and the five minutes after the penalty he was the worst i have ever seen. sankofa is not much better but he is more solid.

i am struggling to remember such a weak and **** right hand side as we do at the moment. any combination of francis/sankofa/betsy/scannell is just not good enough and i would be more than happy to see those four chucked out the squad for next season. the whole squad bar the exception of about 8 of them, i would totally revamp!

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

saturday just proved what a complete waste of time francis is. the penalty seemed harsh but the way he was playing he was going to give them a goal anyway, and the five minutes after the penalty he was the worst i have ever seen. sankofa is not much better but he is more solid.

i am struggling to remember such a weak and **** right hand side as we do at the moment. any combination of francis/sankofa/betsy/scannell is just not good enough and i would be more than happy to see those four chucked out the squad for next season. the whole squad bar the exception of about 8 of them, i would totally revamp!

Under Peter Taylor and Alvin Martin, our right-hand side will have consisted of various combinations of players of the "talent" of Mark Hone, Andy Harris, and Mark Beard (and occasionally Keith Dublin) at right back and Julian Hails and Harry "Willis for England" Willis on the right wing. Remember under Taylor we were in the championship as well. Frightening.

 

[Scottish_Shrimpers]

Under Peter Taylor and Alvin Martin, our right-hand side will have consisted of various combinations of players of the "talent" of Mark Hone, Andy Harris, and Mark Beard (and occasionally Keith Dublin) at right back and Julian Hails and Harry "Willis for England" Willis on the right wing. Remember under Taylor we were in the championship as well. Frightening.

albeit it i was young but i remember liking Mark Beard, Andy Harris, Keith Dublin and even Julian Hails (after a sticky start) was fine in the end.

the current crop of right sided players we have just does not inspire me at all. as i said things need to be changed for next season (if funds allow!!!)

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

albeit it i was young but i remember liking Mark Beard, Andy Harris, Keith Dublin and even Julian Hails (after a sticky start) was fine in the end.

Oh dear.

Although I agree Hails did get better as we dropped down the divisions and he dropped back to wing-back.

 

[united we stand]

He plays just as bad in front of the East stand as well.

what I meant was does he get absue throught out the game from the east stand like he does from the West?

 

[united we stand]

So to get the best out of him we should knock down the west and east stands??

Or perhaps an even more radical approach ----------------not abuse him all game. !

Sorry, I don't love Francis either but I find it imcomprehenable that 'fans' get on his back when they know this will make him worse.

Oh yeah, sorry I forgot the 'fans' can then say 'see told you he was XXXX when he makes another error after they have abused him all game.

And the 'fans' pay their money and can do what they please--- and clearly abusing a player which makes him play worse gives them more pleasure than staying slient and hoping he gets better.

yes he should be able to take it, but he can't and we all know that

sorry bad day at work- rant over

 

[DTS]

Our whole right side is a farce really.

Francis is a class act on his day but that day is one once in every two or three games. The other times he is a danger.

W@nkofa is just awful on all fronts.

Scannell looks the part but rarely does anything worth doing.

Personally like Betsy a lot but as he never seems to be given more than a few games to prove himself can only assume Tilly dosent.

Francis I hope stays in the summer as I have seen times when he is a total class act (Ipswich away a few years ago for example) but if he went I wouldnt loose too much sleep as when he is bad I cant watch.