Quote Originally Posted by the other bob wilson View Post
Ah, so now we're moving the goalposts and the claim is that Madine could become another Les Ferdinand or Ian Wright (I'll add Jamie Vardy to the list as well). The obvious difference between that trio and Gary Madine is that, for whatever reason, they fell out of the system for a few years, but once they started being noticed again, they made it to the Premier League/First Division in quite a short time and had long and successful careers at that level for club and country. By contrast, apart from the forced break he had to take from the game, Madine has been in the system for ten years and I'm not aware of any Premier League club expressing an interest in him in that time - Grant Holt is the only realistic comparison that has been made with the situation Madine is in and he had a lot more going for him in terms of confidence and goals going into the Premier League at quite a late age than our player has.

Around a day ago I asked what is it that I'm missing with Madine? I said I was someone who wanted to see the good in any City player, but I've just not seen anything from Madine to make me think he can cut it at top half Championship level, let alone the Premier League. Barely anyone has answered my question and those that have done have have made him sound a bit like a lower division bruiser (there are plenty of players from the eighties and nineties who would name Billy Whitehurst as the toughest striker they faced, but that wasn't because of his footballing skills) when I'd accept he's better than that.

Madine has had a few good halves for us and he has two assists to his name, but, even allowing for his injuries, he has had enough game time to begin to justify the large fee we paid for him - the only way I can see that an argument can be made in favour of this is that the six million quid led to better performances from a striker we already had at the club. For me, Danny Ward, at a quarter of the price Madine cost us, contributed a lot more before his season ending injury and I have to say that if it had been Russell Slade who had spent six million on Madine, he and the player would be getting absolutely slaughtered now given the lack of an end product from him.
Its not Madines fault that he cost £6m, so he doesn't really have to justify the fee. Danny Ward is a different type of player to Madine but he also played 20 games before his injury and scored 4 goals. Bearing mind Madine only started 6 games for us, perhaps you should give him rather longer before you jump to the conclusion that he isn't good enough. Everybody has favourite players and those they dont like as much but surely every player should be given a reasonable chance to prove themselves before they are written off. I think that some people opinions of Madine were formed before he even kicked a ball for us, based on the fee and his previous disciplinary record and criminal problems. Thats unfair by any reasonable persons standards.