We Miss Maher

[Rayleigh boy]

I have to say the same about Moussa. Some people on here seem to rave over him, but can anyone tell me when he had a good game.

I think the professional footballers employed by Brighton were thinking Moussa and Granty were having a good game and were going to beat them -

 

[Beefy]

the thing is this Maher captained and played centre-mid in a team that was relegated from the CCC .

not a glory season for Maher as some-one suggested but a season that saw young mobile fast midfielders flooding past him - and us losing again and again -

Maher could only play one way - slowly - and from deep - he dominated our shape and our thinking -

painful but he had to go - well done for Tilson for getting rid of him in good time - he was becoming a ball and chain around our team...

he took us as far as he could go and now its time for another generation -

Moussa has vision and passing ability - he also does the miles and the competing for possession and the getting a foot in ..... the reason he is not a stand out player in the last three games is cos he and Granty have been busy holding the midfield and the defensive duties there are paramount - the back four have actually been better protected now than with Maher -

at age 19 and 21 Moussa and Grant are unproven but not only do I think they can play at this level i am sure they can play above this league - Maher couldn't.

I think Maher left the club for footballing reasons - otherwise any other problems would have been resolved.

I think winning league one was as far as Maher could go - and credit to him for lifting that trophy - we should have called it a day then

Top post. I agree with pretty much all of this.

Regardless of any conspiracy theories, Tilly let Maher go for one reason and one reason alone - he wasn't good enough to be a part of a team at the sort of level that Tilly wants us to be at. It's nonsense to suggest that it is to do with any other reason. We've all heard the rumours about a supposed training ground confrontation between Maher & Moussa. None of us know whether it happened or not but I suspect that it did simply because of the number of people I've heard it from. But these sorts of incidents happen at every training ground around the country. By all accounts it happened between Efe Sodje and Gary Hooper a year or so back and both of these continued to be picked and Nicky Bailey heatbutted Alan McCormack during a game only a few months ago and it didn't stop them lining up together in the Playoffs.

The fact is that at before the incident had even happened, Maher had lost his place in the side. Nicky Bailey and Alan McCormack had come along and not only surpassed him as a player but had crucially shown us that our midfield didn't have to be as stagnant and un-dynamic as it had been for the previous five years. Maher is a good passer and a very clever player who reads the game brilliantly, but he's never had a great engine or decent mobility. Whilst I'm in a minority on this I think this was never shown more than in our Championship season when Kev could manage nothing more than sitting in front of the back four spreading the play no matter that the match situation (with us usually being a couple of goals down) and the personnel situation (with him often having an out of position defender alongside him) often demanded so much more from him.

We've all got our theories about why it didn't happen for us in the Championship. You can look at specific issues and claim we should have had a point here and a win there but for me it boiled down to us having taken a set of players further than their natural level of ability. We had a core of players who had come through from League Two and lower and who had overachieved to get us into the fifth biggest division in Europe. If we're to establish ourselves as a Championship Club we need to have a Championship team first and foremost and that means having players in the squad that have the talent and and physical capabilities to be able to play at that level. How many of our players from our Championship team could really say at that time that on ability they belong in one of the top two divisions? Freddy Eastwood and Mark Gower certainly. Alan McCormack and Steve Hammell, possibly. Kevin Maher won the player of the year and he tried his very best in every game that he played but would he have got into the first team of any of the 21 clubs who finished above us? I doubt it.

If I had to pick a team for Saturday at Walsall and had to pick two of Moussa, Grant & Maher then Kev would be in my team. I think most of us would agree on that. But that clouds the bigger issue here which is what is good for the Club in the long term. Is it building another team around an ageing holding midfielder playing at his level? Or is it trying to build a team around younger players with the talent and potential to take us forward?

 

[steveo]

good post Beefy but if Tilly is building a team around young players let's hope the fans won't be expecting promotion this season and also that while we are building we don't get dragged into a delegation battle

 

[Beefy]

Well fingers crossed we get an experienced Championship-quality midfielder in this week to complement the youth and talent that we've got in the squad. I don't think many of us think that Grant & Moussa are the answer at this stage.

 

[slimshaney]

its ok building a team of young players but you need a exprience as well, we had flav,barret,maher, goater, which gave us old heads with younger players around them.
that year we got promotion. look at Arsenal this year with the heart removed it looks very hard for them to stay in the top four. it would be nice to see one young kid come though as a centre back and a winger. But our heart still needs an old head on it.

 

[Beefy]

Yes but an old head who is also good enough for the level that we want to be at. We need an experianced Championship midfielder and Kevin Maher is an experianced League Two midfielder. He wasn't playing at that level for most of his career because he'd slipped through the net - he was playing at that level for most of his career because that was his level.

 

[leeblue]

Best thread for ages btw, the old kevin maher debate never dies...woooooooooooo

 

[steveo]

yep its a good Maher debate, but the player we need is Nicky Bailey, but due to a lack of ambition by the Chairman, he doesnt play for us anymore.

Thats another can of worms open then.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

the thing is this Maher captained and played centre-mid in a team that was relegated from the CCC .

not a glory season for Maher as some-one suggested but a season that saw young mobile fast midfielders flooding past him - and us losing again and again -

Maher could only play one way - slowly - and from deep - he dominated our shape and our thinking -

painful but he had to go - well done for Tilson for getting rid of him in good time - he was becoming a ball and chain around our team...

he took us as far as he could go and now its time for another generation -

Moussa has vision and passing ability - he also does the miles and the competing for possession and the getting a foot in ..... the reason he is not a stand out player in the last three games is cos he and Granty have been busy holding the midfield and the defensive duties there are paramount - the back four have actually been better protected now than with Maher -

at age 19 and 21 Moussa and Grant are unproven but not only do I think they can play at this level i am sure they can play above this league - Maher couldn't.

I think Maher left the club for footballing reasons - otherwise any other problems would have been resolved.

I think winning league one was as far as Maher could go - and credit to him for lifting that trophy - we should have called it a day then

He was one of only 2 players to come out with any credit in our CCC season along with Gower....You are talking out of the top of your head with that argument!!

 

[leeblue]

lack of ambition......................that is rubbish, if you honestly believe we can match the wages offered by charlton then you are officially a crackhead, then if you think we should actually pay someone 4 grand then you obviously want the club to go down the pan (again) for steveo of course

 

[steveo]

lack of ambition......................that is rubbish, if you honestly believe we can match the wages offered by charlton then you are officially a crackhead, then if you think we should actually pay someone 4 grand then you obviously want the club to go down the pan (again)

Bailey asked for an imporved deal and was immediately put on the list - as was, and stil is Clarke.

If the Chairman has sorted out a longer contract wiht more money Charlton might never have come knocking.

The point which escaped most people at the time, was that if Bailey had "progressed" with Southend, we would have had to pay Barnet a further £350,000.

Why would you get rid of your best player? Lack of ambition of lack ability to pay what would have been due.

Hope that makes a bit of sense, even for an official crackhead.

I know it was an emotive time but if Ron hadnt have putgim on the list he may still be here.

 

[leeblue]

ron offered him more money than he was on bailey said no, ron cashed in, if bailey had wanted to stay he would have accepted what was offered, but shock horror he went for more money, we can only offer so much wouldnt put that down to lack of ambition just being millions of pounds in debt and not as big as charlton.

 

[sufcintheprem]

ron offered him more money than he was on bailey said no, ron cashed in, if bailey had wanted to stay he would have accepted what was offered, but shock horror he went for more money, we can only offer so much wouldnt put that down to lack of ambition just being millions of pounds in debt and not as big as charlton.

OR we offered him a raise which took him from promising League Two player to League One regular and he thought maybe he'd like top League One player wages to reflect his status. So we thought we'd rather not pay that much and took the slightly draconian measure of transfer-listing him.

A bigger club playing in a higher league came calling (where had we heard that before) and he decided he'd quite like to do that.

Press releases aside, I'm not sure why this is considered so sinister. Good player moves to bigger club - it won't be the last time.

 

[OldBlueLady]

He was one of only 2 players to come out with any credit in our CCC season along with Gower....You are talking out of the top of your head with that argument!!

I think it was referred to as a "golden season" anyway, there's absolutely no doubt that it was, as a whole, one of the best seasons he had for us and right at the end of his time here, so the phrase IS appropriate.

 

[Beefy]

Maher was better the two seasons before the Championship season. He was made to look better than he was in 06/07 by how utterly out of their depth every other player apart from Gower & Eastwood were.

Bentley and Guttridge were both perfect partners for Maher in that they could do his running for him and he could do their passing for them.

 

[Cliff Pavilion]

Bentley and Guttridge were both perfect partners for Maher in that they could do his running for him and he could do their passing for them.

Same goes for McCormack. He needs a steadying influence next to him to be effective. I'm not suggesting that person is Maher by any stretch, but the principle is the same.