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Greg Cunningham - Pne (Merged)


pnefcok

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Good luck Greg!

 

Was a good player for us, amongst the dross we had accumulated in that doomed period where we survived and then relegated.

Desperately unlucky with that horror tackle that wiped him out for a season. But a testament to his character that he came back from that and got back to somewhere near his best.

 

Hopefully this deal doesn't come back to bite us. Having Greg waiting to come in on the sidelines definitely brought out the best in Joe Bryan. Only with someone meaningfully challenging for your first team place, will keep us playing as well as we have for the last season and a half. Somehow I don't think Levi Ives and the other young development team player will have Joe worrying too much.

Complacency could then set in!

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I agree with those who have expressed disappointment at Greg leaving, but I guess one has to be realistic. As an international, his ablilities are well known and respected in the game at our level and he's too good a player to be stuck on the bench week after week. I'm sorry to see him go - and he may well be sad to leave - but in his position I think most of us would have reluctantly come to the same decision.

 

It's a tribute to the confidence that there is in Joe Bryan and Derek Williams that we don't seem to have fought to keep hold of Cunningham (at least, as far as any of us knows), but the irony is that where the squad was very strong down that left side, we must now add that area to the list of positions for which we will have to actively seek more cover. Given the the fact that it's already proving to be hard work securing new signings, I would have thought this was a development that SC could have done without.

 

As pretty much everyone seems to agree, this additional and possibly unwanted departure leaves us looking very thin on the ground indeed. We have a decent starting eleven that should hold its own, but that bench as it stands at the moment does leave you feeling a bit worried, to say the least. With no sign yet of further permanent arrivals, I would think Greg's transfer will increase the likelihood of SC having to enter the loan market to strengthen the match day sixteen.

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The Greg Cunningham who leaves us is not the same GC. who joined the club and dazzled us with his swashbuckling attacking and hard as nails tackling.

I think his injury reduced his contribution and he may or may not get it back . I believe he is a solid pro and wish him luck but he could have been ' great ' instead he is now ' good ' but Joe Bryan outshines him .

Good business for the club i think .

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The Greg Cunningham who leaves us is not the same GC. who joined the club and dazzled us with his swashbuckling attacking and hard as nails tackling.

I think his injury reduced his contribution and he may or may not get it back . I believe he is a solid pro and wish him luck but he could have been ' great ' instead he is now ' good ' but Joe Bryan outshines him .

Good business for the club i think .

Can't disagree with that but also think GC will get 'it' back if he plays regularly. It didn't help him that most of the time he played regularly here after his injury we were a sinking ship and all round negative football club. Bryan has done brilliantly and kept him out.

The way I see it, GC wants the chance at first team football without dropping a division (as good an offer as he could have got really) and he now has an extra year of contract security. We let him go because PNE have paid some money when he only has a year left and because he's only back-up currently. Don't get me wrong he's as good a backup player that we could get but the reality is that we're not the sort of club to be able to demand two players of Bryan's and Cunninghams quality with one not playing much. If we were one of the big dogs in the league it might have been a different story but there was always going to be a chance that we'd have to let GC move on after Bryan's meteoric rise last season.

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Can't disagree with that but also think GC will get 'it' back if he plays regularly. It didn't help him that most of the time he played regularly here after his injury we were a sinking ship and all round negative football club. Bryan has done brilliantly and kept him out.

The way I see it, GC wants the chance at first team football without dropping a division (as good an offer as he could have got really) and he now has an extra year of contract security. We let him go because PNE have paid some money when he only has a year left and because he's only back-up currently. Don't get me wrong he's as good a backup player that we could get but the reality is that we're not the sort of club to be able to demand two players of Bryan's and Cunninghams quality with one not playing much. If we were one of the big dogs in the league it might have been a different story but there was always going to be a chance that we'd have to let GC move on after Bryan's meteoric rise last season.

 

That's pretty much spot on in my book. I think some posts have been a bit harsh about GC's form following his injury. Yes, his performance levels did dip compared to when he first arrived, and quite understandably so after what happenend to him, but we have seen time and again that players need a run of games to achieve or maintain their best. You're right to point out that in the Championship side that he returned to when he recovered, almost nobody was perfoming well, collectively or individually, and there were similar criticisms of many players on those grounds, notably Skuse, to take one prominent example at the time - and he hasn't done too badly since leaving us. I still think we've lost a very good player and that, like Skuse, his performances for PNE will probably confirm that view when he's had time to settle there.

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I think Preston fans are going to be very, very pleasantly surprised at the quality of our reserve left back during the League One campaign. I'd have had zero hesitation about GC in the Championship.

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Very strange that Levi Ives hasn't been announced yet considering a pic of him on the AG pitch appeared on twitter two days ago, as did a tweet from his agent confirming the deal, as did an article in the local Torquay paper confirming TUFC had agreed a package to let him go. You'd have thought they would have announced it prior to GC going or at least at the same time. Wonder what the hold up is?

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Very strange that Levi Ives hasn't been announced yet considering a pic of him on the AG pitch appeared on twitter two days ago, as did a tweet from his agent confirming the deal, as did an article in the local Torquay paper confirming TUFC had agreed a package to let him go. You'd have thought they would have announced it prior to GC going or at least at the same time. Wonder what the hold up is?

I expect it has something to do with the fact that the team and staff are travelling back from Portugal. Maybe we will have a "catch up" session tomorrow when Steve will introduce our ten new players!!

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Squad player, not going to play much and guess he wouldn't have signed a new contract.

Better to get money now rather than leave for free next year.

Thanks and good luck Greg..!

 

This is part of the problem with getting new players in. Who wants to be a "squad player"? They have to be good enough for the Championship, but content to sit on the bench a lot of the time. If they displace a current first teamer, then someone else becomes a squad player, not a regular.

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Disappointing but understandable if he wants regular first team football, was always a good option to have.

I agree.

Nice bloke, wasn't getting in the team and wanted to play.

Nobody could get annoyed about a bloke moving on to try and play in a first team. No mercenary stuff here.

Best of luck to him.

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I think Preston fans are going to be very, very pleasantly surprised at the quality of our reserve left back during the League One campaign. I'd have had zero hesitation about GC in the Championship.

Are Preston planning on loaning him to a League One club then? ;)

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