Just how good were/was/is/are (Wolves Edition)

[Kenny]

Controversial opinion for discussion purposes.

Edwards' best game for Wolves was when he played right-back under Mick.

Boro in the Cup?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

15 seconds in. Dicko's reaction :icon_lol:

My fucking God :icon_lol:

I'd forgotten all about that.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Could have been another one! Didn't we go straight down their end (Villa) after they had pulled one back and missed?

Edit - There was one in the Villa game - Not as bad as Dave's though as Mings was giving a half arsed attempt to cut off any attempted pass.

What a performance that was, such brilliant intensity to our play. 2-1 flattered them so much.

 

[sycophantia]

I liked Dave Edwards, grest bloke, always gave everything ( never noticed him hiding). Don't think he wad as bad as is made out by most of our fans....however David Silva he ain't

 

[AndyWolves]

Just back to the Locadia thing briefly, it shows how on the ball the management is when they wouldn't be held to ransom over last minute demands and end up paying over the odds

 

[AndyWolves]

I'd have Edwards over some of the 90s dross any day of the week.

 

[Derby Wolf]

Stunning opening goal mind...

I've seen a lot worse than that miss at Wolves. Going to take a lot a beat Neto's from this season in Espanyol and he also had a similar one to Edwards this season. A simple ball across and we score but he went for it himself and got it wrong(can't for the life of me remember who against though)

I don't know, what gets me most is him using his right foot to get into the area and then elects to "finish" with his left, doesn't open up, doesn't drill it, doesn't try and slip it past his nearside. There are definitely more glaring misses which you highlight but that miss never left me. I don't think it helps I'm row M of the North Bank lower it was right in front of me :icon_lol: I don't hate him (much) but that miss and Sky revering him as the Championship Lampard* and Lambert's excessive use of him really lost any goodwill I have for him.

*If Lampard routinely went 25 games without a goal.

 

[North Shropshire Lad]

I think it's wrong to hate as good a man as Dave Edwards. I certainly don't and I appreciate the effort he made while he was a very well paid employee of Wolves. I do wish he'd played about 300 less games for us though.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Yeah, I distinguish between the two. I don't hate Dave Edwards, I quite like him. I did hate watching Dave Edwards attempt to play football for my team.

Whereas someone like Roger Johnson, I don't mind simplifying it and just saying I hate him.

 

[Kenny]

I don't know, what gets me most is him using his right foot to get into the area and then elects to "finish" with his left, doesn't open up, doesn't drill it,

You can certainly see the speed of his footballing brain in the move...need to pass this, I need to pass this...shit its a scoring chance for me but I need to pass it...oh fuck!

 

[MARKakaJIM]

You can certainly see the speed of his footballing brain in the move...need to pass this, I need to pass this...shit its a scoring chance for me but I need to pass it...oh fuck!

I think it's just a classic shit touch.

Does alright to gather it up first touch, knocks it well ahead of him with the second and gives himself a clear run through with Dicko in support. Got the World at his feet at this point, plenty of space ahead of him and a team mate up alongside with only the keeper to beat, then he catches the ball and has a wank touch that means he's got to slam on the brakes or get the ball caught under himself. The recovering defender then gets the opportunity to catch up and that closes off the option to pass it square so he's panicked into taking a shot on his weaker foot before the defender completely destroys the opportunity.

In hindsight he should've just squared it to Dicko with the third touch and absolved himself of blame if it didn't end up in the back of the net but he backed himself to have three reasonable touches in a row which sadly proved to be too much for him.

 

[pr0sl0]

Laying his whole career out in a bio like that, in one go, does kind of show how much Edwards was one of those players who went from "mediocre squad filler" to "experienced veteran" just by dint of surviving longer than the majority of his generation of teammates from Mick's time.

By the time we were back in the Championship, after the League One season, commentators and opposition managers kept flagging him up as a particularly dangerous opponent, a kind of second-tier Lampard with late bursts into the box to score. But of course he was never actually that consistent or good at that, or anything else. He was just good enough to play at that level, but his reputation and stature by the time he left had somehow become much more than it objectively should have been.

Never really liked him for being part of the group of players (like Henry) who undermined Solbakken (whatever else may have been at issue with his management). I remember Edwards doing a post-match tunnel interview for whichever game was the first one after Solbakken got sacked, and he had this smirk on his face while insinuating that he and the other lads had got what they wanted. Never sat right with me, professionally, regardless of whether he's a decent guy off-field.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

40. Kevin Doyle

Kevin Edward Doyle (born 18 September 1983) is an Irish former professional footballer who played as a forward.

He played for Wexford F.C. (formerly Wexford Youths), St Patrick's Athletic, and Cork City in his homeland before he moved to English side Reading. He was part of Reading's record-breaking promotion to the Premier League in 2006. In June 2009, he moved to Wolverhampton Wanderers for a then-club record £6.5 million and finished his career in the United States with Colorado Rapids.

Doyle made his debut for the Republic of Ireland national team in 2006. He scored fourteen goals in 62 appearances for Ireland, and played at UEFA Euro 2012.

In February 2018, Doyle took a job with the Wexford Under-20s GAA football team. He will be an advisor to the team.

Doyle joined newly promoted Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers on 30 June 2009 when he signed a four-year contract for a club record fee, reportedly £6.5 million. However, he immediately had to undergo an operation to remove a hernia, which hindered his first pre-season at his new club. He picked up another minor injury while on international duty with Ireland that caused him to miss the start of the league season. He finally made his debut for Wolves on 22 August 2009, as a half time substitute at Manchester City.

He scored his first Wolves goal on 20 September 2009 to earn a 2–1 win over Fulham. Throughout much of the season he operated as a lone striker in a 4–5–1 formation. His contribution helped the club finish 15th in their first season in the Premier League. He also won the club's Player's Player of the Season Award and their Top Goalscorer Award after reaching nine goals.

Doyle continued to play the lone striker role throughout most of the 2010–11 season, despite the arrival of Steven Fletcher who equalled Doyle's club record fee. After Mick McCarthy rotated systems using various strikers, he eventually reverted to his previously successful 4–5–1 formation, with Doyle playing the lone front man role. He went on to score five goals for Wolves in the second half of the season – including the winner against Manchester United that halted their 29 match unbeaten run. On 26 March 2011, Doyle tore a knee ligament while on international duty with Ireland, which kept him out of action for up to 6 weeks. He returned to action on 14 May against Sunderland, coming on as a substitute, but played no part in their final game in which they narrowly escaped relegation.

Doyle was part of the Wolves squad who suffered successive relegations in consecutive seasons, to drop from the Premier League to League One during the 2011–12 and 2012–13 seasons. New Wolves manager Kenny Jackett stated that Doyle's wages were "too high for where we are" and that he expected him to leave. No bids materialised for the striker though during the Summer 2013 transfer window and he featured instead for Wolves' first team during the first part of the season as one of the few remaining players from their time in the Premier League.

On 31 January 2014 Doyle was loaned to Championship side Queens Park Rangers in a deal due to run until the end of the season. He scored on his debut against Burnley on 1 February 2014, and netted a second goal for the club against Reading, as the team chased an immediate return to the Premier League. However, a knee injury sustained against Birmingham City saw him spend a period back at Wolves during March and April as he underwent treatment. After returning to Loftus Road, Doyle featured in all three games of QPR's successful play-off campaign as they won promotion back to the Premier League.

On 1 September 2014, Doyle was loaned to Premier League side Crystal Palace until January 2015. He made only three substitute appearances for the Eagles in the Premier League, failing to score in any of these appearances. His final appearance during his loan spell saw him score his only goal for the club when he netted in an FA Cup tie against non-league Dover Athletic. At the end of his loan, he returned to Wolves, making a handful of appearances as substitute before his contract expired at the conclusion of the season. In total he scored 33 times for Wolves during 179 appearances, spread across playing from the Premier League to League One level.

On 20 March 2015 it was announced that Doyle had signed a pre-contract agreement with the MLS club Colorado Rapids. The two-and-a-half-year deal was originally due to take effect from 1 July 2015 upon the expiry of his contract with Wolves, but the club reached a settlement on 6 May 2015, following the conclusion of Wolves' season, to allow Doyle to join Colorado earlier than planned.

 

[Deano]

Doyle was brilliant in our first Premier League season, we definitely wouldn't have stayed up without him. We needed to pack the midfield and play one up top and he was brilliant at the lone striker role, holding the ball up, running the channels and hard to knock off the ball and dispossess.

He had some decent games the season after but he could never really work with a strike partner which was weird as he worked with a few quite well at Reading, he regressed very quickly as a player unfortunately and should have probably gone a couple of seasons before he actually did. Well worth the money we paid out just for that first season alone as he was a massive reason we stayed up.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Genuinely excellent in that first season and a clear cut above anything else we had in the squad. Back then he wasn't just a workhorse, he'd get the ball on halfway, turn and run at defences as well as putting in the graft and being our focal point. There was proper noise at the time about him going to Arsenal. Looked a serious Premier League player.

Downhill from there unfortunately. I don't know what caused it, burnout, instructions or whatever but he lost all goalscoring instinct. His lack of goals contributed heavily to us getting into trouble in late 2010, Fletcher and SEB were both better than him that season. Rubbish in 2011/12 (as was everyone bar Jarvis and Hennessey) and he doesn't get a free pass after that, you'd think he'd have ripped the Championship apart but nope, just more of the same. Seemed more interested in chasing corner flags than scoring goals. Shite in League One as well and he shouldn't have got as many games as he did, he wasn't contributing anything.

On the whole still a good signing as Deano says, by all accounts a diamond of a guy too, but disappointing just how badly he dropped off.

 

[Kenny]

Can his drop off be linked to the head injury that eventually ended his career. The headaches etc would have started when at Wolves

 

[Aikiwolf]

Fun story related to Kevin Doyle.

After we signed him I was at a wedding near Middlesbrough (Boro vs Reading was the next day). As I drunkenly walked through the reception area where the Reading team were waiting for their rooms.

Full of bravado I said "cheers for Kevin Doyle lads!". They didn't find it funny, I'm fact I'm pretty sure they all wanted to kick my head in so I scarpered quickly!

Boro won the next day, I like to think I helped with that victory!

 

[YoungWolf]

Really was excellent in that first season, I loved him for his performances. Selfless but also with quality (apart from his ball striking, which was pretty terrible :icon_lol: )

Maybe we had run him into the ground, or as Kenny says possibly the headaches started then, he just didn’t seem to have the aggression and edge to his game that he first had for us.

Was weird how he didn’t seem to work well with any other striker either, had to play up top on his own to get the best out of
him. Well, it seemed that way anyway could have been down to how we played and the various managers tactics.

 

[Alan]

For whatever it's worth, he was dreadful for Colorado, too. Whatever happened that robbed him of his good form, it messed him up permanently.

 

[Kenny]

For whatever it's worth, he was dreadful for Colorado, too. Whatever happened that robbed him of his good form, it messed him up permanently.

Well certainly at Colorado it was the head stuff that messed up his time there, alhough I remember a decent diving header goal he scored for them