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Craig Mackail-Smith



Simster

"the man's an arse"
Jul 7, 2003
54,110
Surrey
I don't think many players put more effort in than CMS. But he was just crap at scoring goals at Championship level for us - quite possibly one of the LEAST composed players in front of goal I have ever seen. Watching CMS in a 1 on 1 with a keeper was like watching a man with his trousers on fire, being chased by a bear.

Still, I wish him well and will keep an eye out for Wycombe's results this season, what with Bomber being there as well.


All of this, except to say that he was actually alright in his first season (although never looked like a £2.5m player to me), and was utterly shithouse the seasons after that.
 


JBizzle

Well-known member
Apr 18, 2010
5,796
Seaford
One of our worst ever forward signings. Great at running around. Problem arose when he had the ball. He proves that in lower divisions you just need 1 season where you score 25 goals plus and a championship club will pay you silly money and 3year contract hoping you can do it there. Will be interesting to follow Bogle who is now at Wigan after scoring loads for Grimsby.

Oh come on... Jon Obika? Leon Best? Chris Holroyd? Leroy Lita? Chris O'Grady? Roland Bergkamp? Stephen Dobbie? Adrian Colunga? To name a few...
 




Aug 23, 2011
1,864
Oh come on... Jon Obika? Leon Best? Chris Holroyd? Leroy Lita? Chris O'Grady? Roland Bergkamp? Stephen Dobbie? Adrian Colunga? To name a few...

Geez i'd forgotten some of them, the ones that sprang to my mind were Manu, Molango, Turienzo, Paynter, Agdestein, Sandaza, Rodríguez and going way back my favourite, Jamie Moralee who couldn't ever stay onside....
 


Simon Morgan

New member
Oct 30, 2004
6,065
Oxford
Didn't they also concede about 100 goals that season? That's schoolboy kick'n'rush stuff. Warning bells should have sounded about CMS at that point.

Mind you, George Boyd WAS The Fifth Beatle and would have been an elegant acquisition by the club at the time. CMS? Not so much.

This is true. I must admit to never quite getting on with CMS as a player even prior to his arrival due to his general reliance on pace and power. Didn't have a tremendous amount of grace or class on the ball, something that I pretty much always look for in a striker.
 








amexer

Well-known member
Aug 8, 2011
6,152
No comparison .All players mentioned were either here for short time or we had just taken a punt on. Of course he scored the odd goal but for money and wages paid expected a lot more then someone chasing hopeless balls and lack of control
 




sir albion

New member
Jan 6, 2007
13,055
SWINDON
I don't understand how the whole of America can grind to a halt for 8 hours watching a load of guys dressed in crash helmets run around trying to avoid a rugby ball? I most certainly don't love it.


TNBA

TTF
Absolutely and what's more concerning is I've noticed that this Americanised crap is gaining support here at a rate of knots.....why o why do people here follow ice hockey and American bloody football grrrrrr?
Christ I'm lost for words at the idiocy of people.....
 


Cheshire Cat

The most curious thing..
Oh come on... Jon Obika? Leon Best? Chris Holroyd? Leroy Lita? Chris O'Grady? Roland Bergkamp? Stephen Dobbie? Adrian Colunga? To name a few...

But given the relative transfer fees he might have been our most expensive failure, albeit not the actual worst.

Also Johnny Dixon who never actually kicked a ball for us in anger.
 


osgood

Well-known member
Apr 17, 2011
1,507
brighton
Oh come on... Jon Obika? Leon Best? Chris Holroyd? Leroy Lita? Chris O'Grady? Roland Bergkamp? Stephen Dobbie? Adrian Colunga? To name a few...

Yeah true , craig wasnt the worst weve signed , by a long way , but he wasnt good VFM was he ? ,probably amongst the worst value signings we have made ...
 






Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's Tackle
NSC Patreon
Oct 8, 2003
49,331
Faversham
Loved the bloke. OK, he wasn't Diego Costa.

But not everyone can be a ****.
 


rocker959

Well-known member
Jan 22, 2011
2,802
Plovdiv Bulgaria
Good luck to him.
 




AlastairWatts

Active member
Nov 1, 2009
500
High Wycombe
What's revealing about all this is that the manager at Luton is, of course, Nathan Jones. He, more than most, must have a pretty good idea of CMS' abilities - and he's let him go,presumably on a free. Says it all, doesn't it?
 


Grombleton

Surrounded by <div>s
Dec 31, 2011
7,356
What's revealing about all this is that the manager at Luton is, of course, Nathan Jones. He, more than most, must have a pretty good idea of CMS' abilities - and he's let him go,presumably on a free. Says it all, doesn't it?

Footballer in his mid 30's released by a club. He must be shit then...
 


Easy 10

Brain dead MUG SHEEP
Jul 5, 2003
61,673
Location Location
All of this, except to say that he was actually alright in his first season (although never looked like a £2.5m player to me), and was utterly shithouse the seasons after that.

Well, I think we all so DESPERATELY wanted him to do well. I had a hard-on for 2 days after we signed him, and was convinced he'd do brilliantly for us. But that first season turned into a gradual realisation that he wasn't quite as good as I thought he was going to be...then the injuries kicked in, and as you say, it was just shithouse CENTRAL from there. An expensive flop, all the more infuriating for the fact that we (in effect) binned off Murray for him. This PL adventure would've arrived a lot sooner had that not happened, but hey ho. Alls well that ends well.
 


Lower West Stander

Well-known member
Mar 25, 2012
4,753
Back in Sussex
Some harsh comments on here. I seem to remember him getting injured when he was on a decent goal scoring run and never being quite the same afterwards. The team was never really set up to play to his strengths and never really adapted to how different he was to Murray

He did run around like a headless chicken but some of his support play was very good. I think the fault lay as much with Poyet as it did with him.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 




Aug 23, 2011
1,864
He did run around like a headless chicken but some of his support play was very good.

Yes that may be but there was also value in that. I remember one game in particular (can't recall who against) where we were 0-0 at about 60 mins and CMS was taken off. As soon as that happened their defence pushed 10-20 metres further up which allowed the rest of their midfield more freedom and they scored within 15 mins. He may not have been as prolific as we'd have liked but he defended from the front and didn't let the opposition to build up from the back.
 


Simster

"the man's an arse"
Jul 7, 2003
54,110
Surrey
Some harsh comments on here. I seem to remember him getting injured when he was on a decent goal scoring run and never being quite the same afterwards. The team was never really set up to play to his strengths and never really adapted to how different he was to Murray

He did run around like a headless chicken but some of his support play was very good. I think the fault lay as much with Poyet as it did with him.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I don't think I'm being particularly harsh, and nor is Easy 10. His first season was ok, he was absolutely superb in the Friday night home 3-3 draw with Leeds and later scored a sublime volley at Burnley. I think he scored 13 that season - didn't pull up any trees but a perfectly acceptable return for a player at that price in his first season.

By then we could all see what we had bought though - a player without the required composure or footballing brain for a team with promotion aspirations, and the Palace 1-3 FFS Murray game sadly showed us what we were missing. Murray was actually bang average in that first season with the Nigels, but in that one game he looked far more comfortable at that level than CMS.

After that season, it was going to go one of two ways - he was either going to show he was learning how to play against better defenders and improve his composure, or he was going to continue being over reliant on his pace and never step up.

Yes he got injured and was never the same afterwards, but well before then he was starting to prove a very expensive failure.

No complaints about his efforts on the field from me though, and for that I will always wish him well. I just rather wish we had never signed him.

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