Brian Howard

[Big Foot]

Anyone know why he wasn't in the squad at Watford?

[andrew1957]

Anyone know why he wasn't in the squad at Watford?

I have heard a strong rumour that Chelsea were so impressed with Howard's all action performance against Norwich that they have offered £5M for him, but he is not allowed to play for us again until the window re-opens. So we had to get a replacement in urgently.

[winchester_royal]

Tweaked hamstring apparently.

[Snowball]

Tweaked hamstring apparently.

While running?

[Row Z Royal]

Tweaked hamstring apparently.

Tweaked ego, more like.


Still, one shocker doesn't make a season. He's old enough and ugly enough to get over it.

[Snowball]

agreed. He is, or certainly was, a very good player

[Upper West?!?]

He is a legend in his own mind


(but a bit crap from my perspective)

[Gordons Cumming]

Plays and acts like a teenager.

[Blue Biscuit]

He's average when things are going well, but as soon as we go a goal down he is nowhere to be seen. As one of the more senior players that should be the time he becomes more influential , not less. I seem to remember he was lauded as a goal scoring creative midfielder, not seen much evidence of the goal scoring ability.

[teignmouth hoops]

Just not good enough, if he played as well as he talks we'd have a world beater

[Terminal Boardom]

All this talk of him being such a wonderful passer and creator of chances makes me laugh. He is a poor mans Marek Matejovsky.

[Wimb]

All this talk of him being such a wonderful passer and creator of chances makes me laugh. He is a poor mans Marek Matejovsky.

He's got more assists this season alone then Marek had in 3 years if I'm not mistaken... could well be wrong but didn't Marek actually only have 3 assists or something stupidly low like that?

Snowball?

[Hoop Blah]

All this talk of him being such a wonderful passer and creator of chances makes me laugh. He is a poor mans Marek Matejovsky.

More like a poor-mans Caskey, just without the devestating free kicks!

[Snowball]

According to the OS Marek had the grand total of ONE League assist and ONE Cup assist


Last time I looked Howard had 3 league assists this season in 11 (1) games and 2 Cup assists in 2 games


Last season he had 5 assists. 10 > 2 and he has been known to tackle. He's also scored 3 times as many goals as Marek

46 (07) = 47.17 Appearances - 03 Goals - 10 Assists - - 41 (05) League 05 (02) Cup Appearances - Howard
35 (27) = 39.50 Appearances - 01 Goals - 02 Assists - - 34 (27) League 01 (00) Cup Appearances - Marek

[brendywendy]

yet another example on people not really being able to trust their own eyes, blinkered and tinted as they are.

[Wycombe Royal]

yet another example on people not really being able to trust their own eyes, blinkered and tinted as they are.

Well it backed up what I thought. Marek, although a very telented footballer, was not suited to us. Howard on the other hand has a terrific workrate, is quite creative, is nearly always involved in the game and always wants the ball. Yes the quality lacks at times and maybe he should try and slow things down occasionally, but the main problem with most fans views of him is that they still expect him to keep up his goalscoring exploits of his Barnsley days. He had this same problem at Sheffield United. I think he is a very good player and at the end of last season his partnership with Jay Tabb was one of the main reasons for our continued upturn in performance.

[andrew1957]

Howard>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Marek and Howard has been average so far.

[Ferris]

Don't understand the Howard bashing. I loike him.

[brendywendy]

yet another example on people not really being able to trust their own eyes, blinkered and tinted as they are.

Well it backed up what I thought. Marek, although a very telented footballer, was not suited to us. Howard on the other hand has a terrific workrate, is quite creative, is nearly always involved in the game and always wants the ball. Yes the quality lacks at times and maybe he should try and slow things down occasionally, but the main problem with most fans views of him is that they still expect him to keep up his goalscoring exploits of his Barnsley days. He had this same problem at Sheffield United. I think he is a very good player and at the end of last season his partnership with Jay Tabb was one of the main reasons for our continued upturn in performance.

yeah well, me and you can obviously trust our eyes a darn sight more than some of this lot then

[andrew1957]

Don't understand the Howard bashing. I loike him.

Howard is ok and has been infinitely more successful at RFC than Marek ever was - as the later always flattered to deceive but did not score and did not create anything - so was ultimately a waste of space.

The trouble with Howard is that he is very inconsistent - sometimes brilliant (against Cardiff) and sometimes poor (as against Norwich - although he might have been injured which could have had an effect).

I much prefer Howard of the two, but do wish Howard was a bit more consistent.