Not much for our loanees to get excited about this week. McCarthy had a couple of chances to net the winner in his match, having one attempt tipped over and the other cleared off the line. Sam G was unable to add to his tally this weekend as Blackburn were beaten 3-2 for the third match in a row.
I did a bit of digging on some of the relevant forums to see what some of the fans of the clubs we’ve loaned players too think of them. However it was a bit trickier than I expected, mainly down to a lack of a search facility on some of the Blackburn ones.
Opinion of Dom Gape at Wycombe seems to be generally positive, with many fans saying his performances are greatly contributing to their unbeaten run. Here’s how one fan put it: “He seems a very good player who puts in consistent, mature, professional performances that have made a significant contribution to our recent winning streak.”
Most of the stick he’s getting seems to revolve around some fans preference to play one of their own academy prospects, Danny Rowe, instead. Sounds like he’s had trouble with injury which lead to them getting Gape in, with his good performances now keeping Rowe out of the team.
Gallagher goals seem to have put him in good regard with the Rovers fans, as has his work ethic. A fair few think he’s still pretty raw though. “Couldn’t trap a bag of wet cement” was one view. I’ve seen a few of his performances this season and felt that was rather unfair. On the whole his movement has been pretty good in the matches I have seen, although he does sometimes seem to switch off and not read a situation, leading to him looking a bit static at times.
When I have more time I’ll do some diging for info on you McCarthy.
Lot on fiverweb & in blogs that 1) Saints wanted 1 mil loan fee and 2) wanted a recall option in January. Villa & others wanted to sign him but already had a mix of strikers and Saints wanted Sam to get game time not rotation, so I think it was a case of what was best for Sam.