Jordan Thorniley... Oxford!

Jaffa_The_Hut said:
So we failed to land a league one player (Brannigan) when we we’re in the championship and now one of our best players from last season in signing for them?
Que Oxford are a bigger club than Blackpool now. 😟
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We will finish above Oxford because we have higher ambitions than signing Thorniley.

I've consistently said he's not quick enough or tall enough to be a centre half.
 
Wizaard said:
We will finish above Oxford because we have higher ambitions than signing Thorniley.

I've consistently said he's not quick enough or tall enough to be a centre half.
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I’m not convinced we will time will tell however.

But yet he was one of our most consistent players last season even at centre half
 
Wizaard said:
Lowest scoring because no one else scored apart from Jerry Yates, including Thorniley. Three years on the books and one goal
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He’s a defender, scoring goals isn’t a defender’s main job. Although it’s a bonus if they do, if a goalie concedes a goal you wouldn’t blame Madine.
 
ItsGrimUpNorth said:
Catastrophic business from us. He’s been our best centre half, in my opinion, since he joined.

Not a clue why managers chose not to pick him during the start of their tenures, but then when shit hit the fan of recent, relied on him heavily.
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Our best centre half.😂
Player of the season 2021-22 was?
And it wasn't Bowler.👍
 
Albert Ross said:
He’s a defender, scoring goals isn’t a defender’s main job. Although it’s a bonus if they do, if a goalie concedes a goal you wouldn’t blame Madine.
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People did. 😉

I'd expect a centre half who goes up for every set piece to score more than one goal in three years. I don't think that's unreasonable, and one of the main reasons we were relegated. No one else was scoring other than Jerry.
 
Jaffa_The_Hut said:
So we failed several times to land a league one player (Brannigan) when we we’re in the championship and now one of our best players from last season is signing for them.
Que Oxford are a bigger club than Blackpool now. 😟
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Thorniley wasn’t one of our best players… stop being ridiculous. He wasn’t even one of our best defenders ffs👎. And that’s in the shittest defensive set up we’ve had in ages.

Brannagan (at least get his name right 😉) Lacked the ambition to make the move, didn’t want to upset the Mrs and has ended up being an overpaid White Elephant for Oxford.

Too many people on here equate spunking dough with success.!
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
Thorniley wasn’t one of our best players… stop being ridiculous. He wasn’t even one of our best defenders ffs👎. And that’s in the shittest defensive set up we’ve had in ages.

Brannagan (at least get his name right 😉) Lacked the ambition to make the move, didn’t want to upset the Mrs and has ended up being an overpaid White Elephant for Oxford.

Too many people on here equate spunking dough with success.!
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I thought he put his Koi Carp priority over a move to us?
 
Calm down for gods sake - remember when we last had a big clearance including the likes of Jay Spearing, Gnando, the Fonz and more. We went into meltdown saying too far how will we cope 🤔 well we got promoted
 
Wizaard said:
People did. 😉

I'd expect a centre half who goes up for every set piece to score more than one goal in three years. I don't think that's unreasonable, and one of the main reasons we were relegated. No one else was scoring other than Jerry.
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So would I and it’s not unreasonable at all. I was just making the point it’s not a defenders main job. Although a career total of 3 in going on for 200 apps is somewhat disappointing. And now my mate Big Gaz has gone we need some beef at the back.
 
I thought Thorniley was good but he wasn’t our best defender. I think Marv on his day is better and offers more. I saw Thorniley lose his man, and ball watch, giving away goals in more than one game.

He probably is a upper league 1 lower Championship defender however so we’ll need a similar replacement for but I’m not going to stress about it. I didn’t think he was going to stay here after we dropped him and sent him out on loan.
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
I suspect the Mrs (and the fish) are very well settled in Oxfordshire and Branners didn’t fancy rocking the boat


They offered daft money and it made for an easy decision…. They’ve gone backwards since that decision however,
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Because they sold players to fund his deal one was to Burnley if I recall, to give a Lge 1 footballer so much was bonkers rather than spread the money out and it nearly cost them last season.
 
Disappointing to see him join another League One team, but I guess he has spent enough time on the bench waiting for others to falter or get injured, and that is as close to a guaranteed first team slot as he will get. Probably good wages as well if Branagan is anything to go by.
Nice area to live too, and not so much travelling involved for away games.
 
poolseasider said:
Because they sold players to fund his deal one was to Burnley if I recall, to give a Lge 1 footballer so much was bonkers rather than spread the money out and it nearly cost them last season.
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I can imagine Robinson spat his dummy out and made silly promises or threats if they backed him / didn’t back him by keeping Brannagan.

It felt like an emotional decision from their perspective… It was certainly a very bad business / football decision…
 
From Ox forum...

"According to Blackpool's forum we are signing Josh McEachran apparently. Also, they seem to know all about our budget and wage offers as we are supposedly offering 'near Championship' wages. If it is anything like their budget/wage assumptions around Cam Bran then it'll be nowhere near."
 
voyeur said:
From Ox forum...

"According to Blackpool's forum we are signing Josh McEachran apparently. Also, they seem to know all about our budget and wage offers as we are supposedly offering 'near Championship' wages. If it is anything like their budget/wage assumptions around Cam Bran then it'll be nowhere near."
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They made a £4.2m loss in the y/e 30/06/2022, that's after £1.7m profit on player sales. Total spending was about £12.7m, which is about 75% of what BFC spent in the same period.

All of that is before Brannagan's new contract, Thorniley wages apparently surprised Critchley when he first came here. On a free, he would doubtless have had some interest from Championship clubs, he's not going to take a massive pay cut to go to Oxford, so they'll have had to offer him something close to what Bristol (or others) would've paid.
 
ItsGrimUpNorth said:
Catastrophic business from us. He’s been our best centre half, in my opinion, since he joined.

Not a clue why managers chose not to pick him during the start of their tenures, but then when shit hit the fan of recent, relied on him heavily.
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He wanted a new challenge. We had no say in it.
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
Probably the extent of Brannagan’s ambition to enjoy other team’s failures instead of his own success.

With a decent following I do think you’ll finish as high as 10th place this season. You’ve got to be happy at that for a little Club lime Oxford.
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I prefer Limes to shitty citrus fruits like tangerines.
 
I’m not being funny, but you’d think we’d never let a player go before.

If we’ve got any ambition and we want to actually make progress as a football club, beyond L1, then we’re going to have to get used to parting company with players like Thorniley.

As I said before this move was confirmed… “I’d bare my arse from the top of the tower if he got signed by a Championship Club”

Our edge as a Club will come from signing better quality players, with greater potential on lower wages. Getting involved in a bidding war to retain a ‘squad level’ player would be plain daft and self-defeating.
 
Wasn't here the year we survived in the Championship.

Was here the season we were relegated from the Championship.

That said, I'm a big fan and would love to have had him sign a new contract.

Big loss? No. Good luck to him at Oxford!
 
A lot will depend on who we sign whether we look back at this as a big loss. We will probably end up with a loan player barely out of nappies and forever questioning why we let him go.
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
I’m not being funny, but you’d think we’d never let a player go before.

If we’ve got any ambition and we want to actually make progress as a football club, beyond L1, then we’re going to have to get used to parting company with players like Thorniley.

As I said before this move was confirmed… “I’d bare my arse from the top of the tower if he got signed by a Championship Club”

Our edge as a Club will come from signing better quality players, with greater potential on lower wages. Getting involved in a bidding war to retain a ‘squad level’ player would be plain daft and self-defeating.
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One of our top defenders last year when playing championship football being more attracted to playing for bottom feeders in league 1.

Also leaving for nothing.

Great bit of business that.
 
SwannDangerous said:
One of our top defenders last year when playing championship football being more attracted to playing for bottom feeders in league 1.

Also leaving for nothing.

Great bit of business that.
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Yes, got a big earner off the wage bill who was a key part of the worst defence in the league.
 
A_Tense_Grin said:
A lot will depend on who we sign whether we look back at this as a big loss. We will probably end up with a loan player barely out of nappies and forever questioning why we let him go.
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Even more positivity! Do you bother to gef out of bed?
 
voyeur said:
Good servant Thorniley and I really liked his attitude but we can get as good or better. We were defensively solid under Critch and he preferred other options. Marv/Keogh was a better combo. I suspect JD was very keen to have regular first team football and may well be a squad player at a championship club. And Oxford may have matched any offer he got from Bristol or whoever, who would likely see him as back up and a lower wage earner for them.
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Keogh was an excellent player we got a bonus 9 months out of. Jud largely played well over three seasons with us when used and had more years in the tank. We'd never, ever get a 27 yr old pre Derby controversy Keogh. We got a not quite clapped out post controversy Keogh.

Let's also have the truth that Critch also preferred Michael Nottingham and Marv (disaster) Jimmy Husband and Marv (2 red card disaster) and had to go and bring in Dan Ballard to play there because he refused to play Thorniley. Irc, he also played Ollie Turton in central defence ahead of him (in a game I think we conceded 4 at home in if I'm recalling the correct match)

Only Ballard (a player we couldn't afford to sign full time) and Keogh (a short term stop gap signing) were objectively as good or better. He jettisoned the Viking despite him being a player with Thorniley qualities whio he signed.

I rherefore think the assumption that Critch will automatically find a better player is a bit flawed.

That said, as much as I like Jud (and I think the idea he's 'too short and too slow' is a simplistic reading ooa good player) there is no point keeping him if the manager palpably doesn't want him and I suspect Critch was in the pipeline for a while which probably shaped the view that wages are better spent on those a manager wants.

On balance, that's probably the correct decision.
 
Wizaard said:
We will finish above Oxford because we have higher ambitions than signing Thorniley.

I've consistently said he's not quick enough or tall enough to be a centre half.
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He literally is a centre half and remains so despite protestations to the contrary.
 
SwannDangerous said:
One of our top defenders last year when playing championship football being more attracted to playing for bottom feeders in league 1.

Also leaving for nothing.

Great bit of business that.
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A I’ve said… He wasn’t one of our top defenders.. He was actually one of our worst defenders. And that was in a shit defence…

What he was… was a genuine and honest pro, who could be relied on to give you 100%. But he lacked quality, pace and height, was frequently caught out as a result and simply fell short at that level.

I think a good few on here would benefit from actually watching the absolute blunderthon that was our defence last season.
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
A I’ve said… He wasn’t one of our top defenders.. He was actually one of our worst defenders. And that was in a shit defence…

What he was… was a genuine and honest pro, who could be relied on to give you 100%. But he lacked quality, pace and height, was frequently caught out as a result and simply fell short at that level.

I think a good few on here would benefit from actually watching the absolute blunderthon that was our defence last season.
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I'd love to know who was better than him? .

I saw 32 games live plus 4 pre season games plus a stream of every other game I didn't attend aside from the first game when I was on holiday and I would say in about 80% of them Thorniley was probably the pick of the defenders. I do tend to watch the games. I realise being 'the best of that lot' isn't quite the same as being 'Baresi' but I'm struggling quite a lot with your view that he was (one of) 'the worst'

Connolly? Filling in at right back gamely but hardly mastered that role and ropy at centre half.

Husband? One of my favourite post boycott players but ever more calamity prone as the season went on and directly responsible for quite a few goals. It hurts me to say that. It's nearly as bad as knocking wor Gaz.

Gabriel - mostly injured.

Lyons - very good going forward but not a stand out defender yet.

Marvin - Improved after a horrible start where he looked to have regressed in his development to the point where he was looking almost unpickable. He did get better tbf.

Williams - struggled in a lot of games. Got a bit of unjust stick but was rarely 'good'

Thommo - mostly in the wrong place whilst being very whole hearted. Definitely responsible for too many goals and lacking in positional nous.

Goode - broke five minutes after opening the box and switching on.

Nelson - did ok but definitely old skool and not exactly prone to building play from the back. I'd possibly accept him as a candidate.

Kenny Dougall did ok at centre back Vs Wigan tbf.

Grant Ward - played right back. Not aright back would be the kindest thing to say.

Have I missed anyone? Oh, the kid who came on at Norwich at left back did fine.

Perhaps they were all actually a crack defensive unit but for the malign influence of tiny sluggish Jud with his poor quality?
 
td53 said:
Keogh was an excellent player we got a bonus 9 months out of. Jud largely played well over three seasons with us when used and had more years in the tank. We'd never, ever get a 27 yr old pre Derby controversy Keogh. We got a not quite clapped out post controversy Keogh.

Let's also have the truth that Critch also preferred Michael Nottingham and Marv (disaster) Jimmy Husband and Marv (2 red card disaster) and had to go and bring in Dan Ballard to play there because he refused to play Thorniley. Irc, he also played Ollie Turton in central defence ahead of him (in a game I think we conceded 4 at home in if I'm recalling the correct match)

Only Ballard (a player we couldn't afford to sign full time) and Keogh (a short term stop gap signing) were objectively as good or better. He jettisoned the Viking despite him being a player with Thorniley qualities whio he signed.

I rherefore think the assumption that Critch will automatically find a better player is a bit flawed.

That said, as much as I like Jud (and I think the idea he's 'too short and too slow' is a simplistic reading ooa good player) there is no point keeping him if the manager palpably doesn't want him and I suspect Critch was in the pipeline for a while which probably shaped the view that wages are better spent on those a manager wants.

On balance, that's probably the correct decision.
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All fair comment. We won't automatically find a better replacement. Things just move on. And Critch did make us relatively hard to score against one way or another. Ive a lot of time for Jud, he has a great temperament. Im not glad to see him go. But i believe we will cope fine. A lot of it is down to coaching and organisation. Defending is a collective exercise. Football is.
 
So another ex pool player has been written off as a poor player just because he’s signed for another club.

Be interesting to see how these people sum up Jerry Yates soon.
 
td53 said:
I'd love to know who was better than him? .

I saw 32 games live plus 4 pre season games plus a stream of every other game I didn't attend aside from the first game when I was on holiday and I would say in about 80% of them Thorniley was probably the pick of the defenders. I do tend to watch the games. I realise being 'the best of that lot' isn't quite the same as being 'Baresi' but I'm struggling quite a lot with your view that he was (one of) 'the worst'

Connolly? Filling in at right back gamely but hardly mastered that role and ropy at centre half.

Husband? One of my favourite post boycott players but ever more calamity prone as the season went on and directly responsible for quite a few goals. It hurts me to say that. It's nearly as bad as knocking wor Gaz.

Gabriel - mostly injured.

Lyons - very good going forward but not a stand out defender yet.

Marvin - Improved after a horrible start where he looked to have regressed in his development to the point where he was looking almost unpickable. He did get better tbf.

Williams - struggled in a lot of games. Got a bit of unjust stick but was rarely 'good'

Thommo - mostly in the wrong place whilst being very whole hearted. Definitely responsible for too many goals and lacking in positional nous.

Goode - broke five minutes after opening the box and switching on.

Nelson - did ok but definitely old skool and not exactly prone to building play from the back. I'd possibly accept him as a candidate.

Kenny Dougall did ok at centre back Vs Wigan tbf.

Grant Ward - played right back. Not aright back would be the kindest thing to say.

Have I missed anyone? Oh, the kid who came on at Norwich at left back did fine.

Perhaps they were all actually a crack defensive unit but for the malign influence of tiny sluggish Jud with his poor quality?
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Hubby. A left back who was better positionally at centre half
 
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