Owen Garvan - A Crystal Palace FC View.

[tonymikejoe]

The ponderous Owen Garvan has a nice habit of being sorted out with a new job every now and then by his ex boss's.

His former Ipswich manager George Burley paid something like £100,000 for him to bring him to Selhurst Park and now Dougie Freedman has brought him to your place.

Owen Garvan has hardly kicked a ball for CPFC in years, but was in the first team when Freedman quit Selhurst Park, and filled a useful role taking set-pieces, which suited him because he has difficulty keeping up with the ball when it's on the move.

If Freedman loves all these CPFC players so much, eg. Moxey, Moritz and now Garvan then why did he leave? and from a Bolton point of view does it show an utter lack of imagination that he can go no further than his former club for players - none of whom have exactly set the Reebok on fire?

[bobo the clown]

If Freedman loves all these CPFC players so much then why did he leave? and from a Bolton point of view does it show an utter lack of imagination that he can go no further than his former club for players ?

Questions pretty much to the fore in our minds Tony, or Mike, or Joe.

Do you want him back ? I'm busy till Thursday but could bring him down then if you wish.

[LeverEnd]

1 No idea.
2. Yes!

[SmokinFrazier]

I think it's more about Freedman liking certain agents than the players themselves, and the same logic can be applied to him making some strange decisions to sell whilst in charge of Palace which the Palace chairman was pissed off about. As long as the agents get paid, that's all that matters to some managers.

[Jugs]

He was rubbish today. Looked like a little boy lost.

[William the White]

I think it's more about Freedman liking certain agents than the players themselves, and the same logic can be applied to him making some strange decisions to sell whilst in charge of Palace which the Palace chairman was pissed off about. As long as the agents get paid, that's all that matters to some managers.

I doubt that. He just wants to assemble a bunch he knows will be subservient and obedient.

Anyway, he is the pits.

[LeverEnd]

I think it's more about Freedman liking certain agents than the players themselves, and the same logic can be applied to him making some strange decisions to sell whilst in charge of Palace which the Palace chairman was pissed off about. As long as the agents get paid, that's all that matters to some managers.

I doubt that. He just wants to assemble a bunch he knows will be subservient and obedient.

Anyway, he is the pits.

I agree, I think SF is going a bit far down the conspiracy route there.
He wants grateful yes men because he is a poor man manager and can't deal with strong characters I think. Speculative I admit, but that is my view.

[wigan white]

I think it's more about Freedman liking certain agents than the players themselves, and the same logic can be applied to him making some strange decisions to sell whilst in charge of Palace which the Palace chairman was pissed off about. As long as the agents get paid, that's all that matters to some managers.

I doubt that. He just wants to assemble a bunch he knows will be subservient and obedient.

Anyway, he is the pits.

I agree, I think SF is going a bit far down the conspiracy route there.
He wants grateful yes men because he is a poor man manager and can't deal with strong characters I think. Speculative I admit, but that is my view.

I'm convinced we don't actually have any scouts at the club. Freedman harps on about gone are the days where you send a bloke in a flat cap to watch a player, and this is were his management style is let down. He seems obsessed by stats ( in a "Moneyball" style) and thinks this is the be-all and end-all in recruiting players. And because of this we are missing out on a shit load of players that other clubs are getting.

[officer_dibble]

Said it elsewhere, jobs for the boys. No different to coyles ping pong club.

[Andy Waller]

Said it elsewhere, jobs for the boys. No different to coyles ping pong club.

Exactly, like that Andy Hughes, our new Robbie Blake...

[LeverEnd]

Said it elsewhere, jobs for the boys. No different to coyles ping pong club.

Exactly, like that Andy Hughes, our new Robbie Blake...

Robbie did once score a free kick. Where's Andy's huh?
Poor man's Robbie Blake, that's what we're reduced to.

[Andy Waller]

Said it elsewhere, jobs for the boys. No different to coyles ping pong club.

Exactly, like that Andy Hughes, our new Robbie Blake...

Robbie did once score a free kick. Where's Andy's huh?
Poor man's Robbie Blake, that's what we're reduced to.

[boltonboris]

I've not seen a player so out of his depth, since the last shithouse we signed from Palace.

I'll reserve judgement for the time being, but that was the first time I'd seen him play and I was chewing my fingers to the bone

[Bruce Rioja]

I've not seen a player so out of his depth, since the last shithouse we signed from Palace.

I'll reserve judgement for the time being, but that was the first time I'd seen him play and I was chewing my fingers to the bone

Did Moxey escape your attention, Boris?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I've not seen a player so out of his depth, since the last shithouse we signed from Palace.

I'll reserve judgement for the time being, but that was the first time I'd seen him play and I was chewing my fingers to the bone

Did Moxey escape your attention, Boris?

since the last shithouse we signed from Palace

[Bruce Rioja]

I've not seen a player so out of his depth, since the last shithouse we signed from Palace.

I'll reserve judgement for the time being, but that was the first time I'd seen him play and I was chewing my fingers to the bone

Did Moxey escape your attention, Boris?

since the last shithouse we signed from Palace

Was Moxey the last one before this one though?

[boltonboris]

He's the one I was referring to to be honest

[Bruce Rioja]

He's the one I was referring to to be honest

Ah reet. I was hoping that Moxey's debut at Watford might just have been a poor day at the office, but on Saturday he confirmed my opinion thus far that he's the worst defender I've seen pull on the shirt since Cid. Absolutely fecking dreadful. I'm amazed that the Ref didn't send him off, and we wouldn't have missed him playing with 10.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

He's the one I was referring to to be honest

Ah reet. I was hoping that Moxey's debut at Watford might just have been a poor day at the office, but on Saturday he confirmed my opinion thus far that he's the worst defender I've seen pull on the shirt since Cid. Absolutely fecking dreadful. I'm amazed that the Ref didn't send him off, and we wouldn't have missed him playing with 10.

I was worried on that pre-season tour... I hope for all our sakes he pulls out of it, we've already got enough passengers to start carrying liabilities too...

And he won't be promoting the kids instead, according to these quotes:

The kids have been put in and I’m not afraid to do that but there are times when you have to get someone more experienced to do a job,” Freedman added on his problems at right-back. Both Oscar and Hayden have done okay, not fantastic, but definitely okay, but I have told them both that they have been thrown in too early. I think both of them will be good enough but I think it’s too early to be playing them for a long period of time. That’s why I wanted to bring Greg [Halford] in to shore up that position, but it wasn’t to be.

PS the Palace thing. In between Moxey and Garvan we signed young defender Quade Taylor from Palace; young goalkeeper Ross Fitzsimons signed the day before Moxey. The only player before that whom Freedman signed from Palace was Andre Moritz, although 2012/13 loanee midfielder Jacob Butterfield had been loaned to Palace after Freedman left (he played against us in the 0-0 down there) and hapless defender Danny Butterfield played alongside Freedman there for half a decade. Danns(y) was also on the Palace playing staff with Freedman for six weeks before the Scot was loaned to Leeds, where he met Beckford.

So, by my calculations: we've got five players direct from Palace, eight who have played for Palace at some point. We've also got four players (Feeney, Trotter, Wilkinson, Lee-Barrett) from Millwall. Maybe our scouting network has shrunk to covering two grounds within eight miles of each other.

[Little Green Man]

Maybe our scouting network has shrunk to covering two grounds within eight miles of each other.

Troubled times when the travel budget for scouting can only run to a couple of outings on a Boris Bike.