Quote Originally Posted by the other bob wilson View Post
Was widely regarded as the best player in the Championship when he made the move to Villa, but, despite all of his goals, Fulham were always struggling while he was there. From a distance, it looks like the only motivation on his part behind the move to Villa was money and, from a football viewpoint, the last few years of his career have been a waste of time, but I'll always argue his corner because I remember how good he was when he first came here. I agree he should never have been second choice to a Michael Chopra who was a shadow of the player he was in his first spell for us, but, despite Chops having fairly obvious problems maintaining his prime fitness, Dave Jones, like a few other of McCormack's later managers, did not seem to have full trust in him.
Quite interesting to note that, after he left us, he would score near enough 20 goals a season in 4 of his next 6 campaigns. His goals arguably kept Fulham up. Fulham finished 17th and 20th in the two seasons he was there; their 20th placed finish was down to having the 3rd worst defence in the division that season despite having one of the best attacks. Not sure his move to Villa was about money, either. Villa had just been relegated from the Premier League while Fulham were making no suggestions that they might manage a top half finish. As it was, they made the playoffs, Villa finished below us in the bottom half and McCormack had made the wrong choice.