Players who started off great and stayed great/got better

[SCIAG]

I posted his stats elsewhere, but Doyle basically did this. 4 seasons that coincide with our best, kept in on for one season post-relegation and then goes for big money. Solid career thereafter but nothing as great as his time here.

I agree Kevin Doyle stands out for this. He wasn't even expected to be one of the first choice strikers, from a fans' view anyway, in the 2005-06 season - Kitson and Lita were. He took his opportunity once he got it and stayed at a very high level throughout his career.

Only real blips seem to have been the second Premier League season and the second half of the Championship season after relegation. I seem to recall he had fitness/injury issues in his final season, so I could realistically see him getting over 30 goals that season without them (as he basically didn't score in the second half of the season). If he wasn't the one with fitness issues/injuries, certainly the service was affected by key players around him having those issues.

Doyle also kept getting fouled in the area/when through on goal without being awarded the foul by referees. Like the opposite of Long.

The only recent* examples that even come to mind as potentially fitting this (all both very debatable and subject to mis-remembering) are Danny Williams and Lewis Wing (based on what he's done so far). Certainly not at the Kevin Doyle level of impact.

Thought Williams was a very inconsistent player. A big part of his game was taking speculative shots which were more about power than technique, so naturally most of them missed and occasionally he’d hit a worldly. Fell out of the team on a few occasions.

If you want players who were consistently good for us in recent years then it basically has to be someone who wasn’t with us for very long - Lewis Baker, Emi Martinez, Nelson Oliveira, Nelson Abbey. Maybe Josh Laurent counts, and I think Wing and Bindon definitely do. Or for an extreme example, how about Saeid Ezatolahi? Four really good games, seemingly solved our midfield issues, then got injured and acquired a sort of mystical status.

Imagine a midfield of Carrico, Ezatolahi, and Ake (or Pele).

[From Despair To Where?]

I posted his stats elsewhere, but Doyle basically did this. 4 seasons that coincide with our best, kept in on for one season post-relegation and then goes for big money. Solid career thereafter but nothing as great as his time here.

Slight tangent but for managers, going to go Pardew. The sense of inevitability under him is something I've never experienced since. He came in, we got good, we got better, we got better still. The John the Baptist to Coppell's Jesus.

I think it took Pardew a while to get going; Burns was sacked late September and we were in the bottom 4 in January on a long winless run and several fans wanted Pardew out and SJM took a lot of stick for going for a cheap option. Then he got the cheque book out and signed Martin Butler which was a huge signing back then for third tier and Forster got fit and it turned round.

my memory was we stopped losing so much, but checked and yes, long winless run. I had mentally filed that under Burns.

My recollection was that we turned a corner when he brought in Martin Allen to kick a few arses and fire people up.

A blunt tool with a limited shelf life but he brought the tenacity on which Pardew built the spirit and flair.

I particularly remember Allen really rattling Preston at Deepdale with his antics during the warm up

[AthleticoSpizz]

That’s a fair recollection

Mad Dog had our team warming-up in ‘their half’ pre-match

Very much part of his up-yours mentality


…..and so our upward trajectory began

[stealthpapes]

Mate of mine knows Martin Allen and says he's the scariest man he's ever met. Cheers for the correction.

Anyway, if you've got the time, the Under The Cosh podcast with him is a watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLzbrQMbtPQ&t=1s for part 1.