will knight be good enough for the championship

[Albion Rob]

And he's likely to nick a few penalties too.

Quite right. Everyone else does it so why not us?

 

[BensGrandad]

Given the service to his feet and not his head he will as I said Earnshaw did it and he is no better than Leon certainly not as good as Bobby.

He played for Wales yippee my wife is good enough for that!

 

[brighton rock]

Will Andy Johnson be good enough for the Prem, BR?... got offloaded from there, didn't he?...

think so

he looks a more complete striker these days with real pace a very high work rate good conrtol and he now nows where the goal is

he cost £750,000 as part of the 4.5 million deal that took morrison to the brums think we might have got the better deal there?

 

[b.w.2.]

You definitely got the better end of the deal, BR... time will tell for AJ, as it will for Leon...

 

[BrightonFoxDave]

This is Knights make or break year, that's for sure. There's still some pretty physical defenders in div 1 / championship / whatever as well as some pretty nippy ones, plus they're gonna be generally more skillful, less clumsy, so will he win / score as many pens?

Personally I think he'll do OK. If he's your top scorer then he better get nearer to 20 than 10. Depends how many balls bounce off the head of 6' 20" Hungarian target men...

 

[The Laughing Bluebird]

Given the service to his feet and not his head he will as I said Earnshaw did it and he is no better than Leon certainly not as good as Bobby.

Robert Earnshaw scored 21 goals in 46 First Division matches last season. Bobby Zamora managed 5 in 20. Earnshaw was playing for a mediocre mid-table side, Zamora was playing for a side who made the play-off final. I reckon earnie did pretty well by comparison, don't you?

(I would mention his 7 goals in 12 international appearances, but then he only plays for Wales, which apparently doesn't count).

The previous season, Leon Knight managed just 3 goals in 24 First Division matches.

Earnshaw and Zamora are in a different class to Knight. As you are about to find out.

 

[ditchy]

The good thing is that most Division One defences probably won't know much about Knight, unlike in Division Two where practically everyone was wary of him.

He will be well known and well marked !!

 

[Marshy]

I admit I haven't seen too much of him - only a few live televised games and the play-off final. But he doesn't appear to have anywhere near as much natural ability as the likes of Zamora or Earnshaw.


LB. You siad it yourself, you havent seen enough of him to know.
If you had you would know he has more natural ability than both of Earnshaw and Zamora combined, its just a case of wether he will use it, and if he gets some decent service.

 

[CHAPPERS]

I think he'll prove his doubters wrong next season. Personally I think he is more dangerous than Zamora and will give defences a lot of problems.

15 goals + i reckon.

 

[Uncle Buck]

I think he'll prove his doubters wrong next season. Personally I think he is more dangerous than Zamora and will give defences a lot of problems.

15 goals + i reckon.

Agree with you there. I think the whole Wendy incident has left him with something to prove.

Also I know it is only pre season, but we have been playing a lot more football than at anytime under McGhee, is it going to carry through to the season?

 

[Set of Tracksuits]

god, if leon knight ain't good enough then we truly are f*cked! however well cullip, butters and then rest of the back four played, if it hadn't been for leon's goals we wouldn't have gone up, plain and simple. we seem to be struggling to sign anyone, let alone another striker better than him, so he'll have to be good enough!

personally i think he'll be fine, provided he gets enough quality service from the midfield and whoever partners him up front. think he'll score about 12-15. whether he'll get that service will determine whether or not we stay up, i reckon.

 

[brighton rock]

hope butters is a lot better now, he was never a division 1 player like cullip he has a real lack of pace. and division 1 forwards are quick

 

[Tooting Gull]

Rocky, aren't you a bit worried about losing Julian Gray? I did see Palace a couple of times last season for reasons I won't bore you with, and while much of the attention went to Dowie (rightly) for the turnaround, the run also coincided with Gray getting a decent run in the side and giving the team balance.

Obviously he's a bit of a twat as a person, but I honestly think he could even solve England's problem on the left if he continues to play like that.

 

[Set of Tracksuits]

hope butters is a lot better now, he was never a division 1 player like cullip he has a real lack of pace. and division 1 forwards are quick

i've mentioned on other threads that i reckon we could do with another centre half, cos neither butters or blackwell have much pace and we'll come up against a lot of quick forwards.

however, with the limited funds we have, we need to prioritise and we need a couple of midfielders and a striker first.

 

[BensGrandad]

I think that the doubts over Butters pace is why MM has been trying both Virgo and Hinshlewood in the centre during pre season friendlies. I have been Adam Hinshlewoods biggest critic in the past but he has shown a a different side to his game so far in the friendlies.

 

[brighton rock]

Rocky, aren't you a bit worried about losing Julian Gray? I did see Palace a couple of times last season for reasons I won't bore you with, and while much of the attention went to Dowie (rightly) for the turnaround, the run also coincided with Gray getting a decent run in the side and giving the team balance.

Obviously he's a bit of a twat as a person, but I honestly think he could even solve England's problem on the left if he continues to play like that.

gray has been replace with a finnish international winger in the mark overmars style called kollar

agree with you that gray is the best left winger england have and he should get his chance soon.

 

[Albion Rob]

Robert Earnshaw scored 21 goals in 46 First Division matches last season. Bobby Zamora managed 5 in 20. Earnshaw was playing for a mediocre mid-table side, Zamora was playing for a side who made the play-off final. I reckon earnie did pretty well by comparison, don't you?

(I would mention his 7 goals in 12 international appearances, but then he only plays for Wales, which apparently doesn't count).

The previous season, Leon Knight managed just 3 goals in 24 First Division matches.

Earnshaw and Zamora are in a different class to Knight. As you are about to find out.

While the raw figures seem to back up what you are saying I think it only reveals half the story. Earnshaw is a settled Cardiff striker and rightly loved by the fans. Zamora came to West Ham after a dreadful time at Spurs and hot on the heels of Defoe who was clearly a class act and whatever I think about him, a cut above Bobby. West Ham fans would have settled for nothing less than automatic promotion last season and must surely have been expecting to parade the Championship trophy around the boelyn Ground in May - the reality was a lot tougher and a lot of quality players were hounded by the fans. Zamora copped the brunt of that in a big way and I would imagine his confident is shot to shit at the moment.

As for Knight, well, his spat with Turner seems to tell the tale. He was an immature 20-year-olod last season so Christ knows what he was like as a Chelsea loanee at Hillsborough playing out of position with a manger who hated him.

Whil I don't agre that he sho0uld behave like a petulant little shit, I can only admire his goal tally from last season and I feel now that he is settled at Brighton and seems to be happy down here he will prosper next season and score enough goals to keep us in The Championship until Palace come and join us for the 2005/06 season.

 

[Tooting Gull]

I agree with Albion Rob about Bobby. Like a lot of Brighton fans I've stuck up for him at work etc against people who are just saying he's been shit at Spurs and West Ham.

I genuinely don't think he was given a chance at Spurs (played 90 minutes twice?) and at West Ham none of them were performing well last season.

But this is crunch time for him, he's got to do it this year, and he's been rattling them in pre-season so hoepfully he will. There's a big doubt as to whether he's Premiership class, but I believe he will do it in Division One.

The only like-for-like comparison you can do with Earnshaw was when they were both first choice, playing every week for the whole season against the same defences. And as we know, Bobby whipped Earnie's arse. Incidentally, I think many of the reservations Premiership managers had about Zamora also apply to Earnshaw. It would be another gamble.

 

[The Laughing Bluebird]

The only like-for-like comparison you can do with Earnshaw was when they were both first choice, playing every week for the whole season against the same defences. And as we know, Bobby whipped Earnie's arse. Incidentally, I think many of the reservations Premiership managers had about Zamora also apply to Earnshaw. It would be another gamble.

A direct like-for-like comparison is almost impossible.

Earnie spent a lot of time (something like 15 or 16 games) on the bench during season 00/01, and he was out injured for more than a quarter of 01/02 (the two seasons that the players were playing in the same division). Zamora was an automatic choice and a virtual ever-present at Brighton during those campaigns.

The difference between the two is that Earnshaw has continued to score plenty of goals at whatever level he has played, whereas Zamora has seemed to struggle in the upper levels. That said, I believe he is a class act and is likely to have a far better season at West Ham this year.

Knight, however, is not in the same class. His career went backwards - Premiership Chelsea to First Division Sheffield to Second Division Brighton.

He did well enough last year in a poor division, but I reckon he will struggle this year. I'm not just saying that to be antagonistic either. Zamora has always looked a classy player, no doubt about it. Earnshaw is the most natural goalscorer I've ever seen at Cardiff. Knight, on the other hand, looks nothing special.

We'll see.

 

[Tooting Gull]

I agree about Knight TLB, he is not in the same class as the other two and my fear is that he will get muscled out of it in Divison One. But I would be delighted to be wrong about that and see him bang in 20 goals.