February 22 2003

Ade Akinbiyi

Jamesey Owls with grief and wonders seriously about Ade Akinbiyi's footballing credibility...

What a sad day it was at Selhurst when three points and a potential advance towards a play-off position were squandered by a rotten performance.

Do you ever get that dream where you are playing as a striker for Palace, or even bowing a violin in a symphony orchestra, or talking wisely at a seminar on a subject you really know little about?

As the rosy light of dawn intrudes upon your slumbers you start to panic as reality tells you that you have no skills or credibility and should never have been there in the first place.

Now I am sure that Ade Akinbiyi is a really good bloke, a pleasure to talk to in the pub or coffee house and that he is a model father and husband to his children and all the rest of it.

In my occasional column on this site, I have never got involved with the technical side of football, preferring to deal with gossip and periferal matters. And, I would never want to hound an individual player.

But I have to say that I was stunned by Ade Akinbiyi's lack of any noticeable football aptitudes at the Sheff Wed game. Worryingly this bloke appears to be Trevor Francis's ideal, and a costly one too. I am at a total loss to understand why he is in a Palace shirt.

Every ball given to him, he usually lost to a defender, and the rare ones he won were passed back to a midfielder or defender to start again.

He showed zero ability in trapping, heading or doing anything useful at all, apart from the abortive bicycle kick late in the second half which gave us all a giggle.

Please put me right, HOL members, but am I missing something or is this a question of a multi-million pound mistake which a manager has to justify? Of course, I could be dreaming..yawn....snooze...

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