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Post by scfc1987 on Feb 19, 2016 18:24:22 GMT
Who will Dicko play for?!? Pato might turn up to...
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Post by Laughing Gravy on Feb 19, 2016 18:41:01 GMT
Sad news for the lad. Hope he's got something planned for the future.
Just get it sorted Stoke.
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Post by riccyfuller93 on Feb 19, 2016 18:42:47 GMT
The best idea was when somebody suggested the current team vs a selection of recent favourites, such as Fuller, Mama, Sorensen and so on. You could try a team along the lines of: Sorensen Griffin Cort Huth Higginbotham Lawrence Delap Whitehead Etherington Side Fuller Did fuller and griff ever get on the pitch together after slap gate ? Think Griffin slowly drifted from the team.
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Post by 2004 on Feb 19, 2016 18:52:47 GMT
Is Dicko still at the Vale? Yep he's their captain!
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Post by Staying up for Grandadstokey on Feb 19, 2016 19:39:44 GMT
Valencia home and away would be nice.
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Post by valeforever on Feb 19, 2016 22:23:40 GMT
Vale fan here in piece.
Have to say, whenever I have seen this guy play he was 100% and a credit to his town and club. Sorry to see such an honest pro have to pack in at an early age.
Hope the testimonial is a good one, as guys like this don't bless football very often.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2016 22:43:55 GMT
Vale fan here in piece. Have to say, whenever I have seen this guy play he was 100% and a credit to his town and club. Sorry to see such an honest pro have to pack in at an early age. Hope the testimonial is a good one, as guys like this don't bless football very often. He was mate. He was a proper throwback to when footballers were real men. He had his limitations as a player but he gave everything on the pitch and he put in performances over a period of time that a lot of Stoke fans never thought he was capable of.
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Post by tomcmod on Feb 19, 2016 23:07:19 GMT
Signed!
I can remember being up Hanley one night and he was up there. Me and me mate went speak to him and he was just like your mate. His mates were bigging him and he just looked shy about it! Proper local lad who didn't give the "i'm a footballer" big un! He never got the send off he deserved at the end of last season so his testimonial should allow this!! Hopefully for others too! VIS UNITA FORTIOR!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2016 23:26:37 GMT
Good luck mate and thank you for all the pleasure you have given us.
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Post by damagedswan on Feb 20, 2016 2:28:06 GMT
Vale fan here in piece. Have to say, whenever I have seen this guy play he was 100% and a credit to his town and club. Sorry to see such an honest pro have to pack in at an early age. Hope the testimonial is a good one, as guys like this don't bless football very often. He was mate. He was a proper throwback to when footballers were real men. He had his limitations as a player but he gave everything on the pitch and he put in performances over a period of time that a lot of Stoke fans never thought he was capable of. i don't really agree with the idea that wilko was worthy of respect because he was a 'real man', and to be honest i think that the english game features too many players who pride themselves on being physical, fearless and always trying really hard. (but then again i'm a new-generation, fifa-playing, social-media using 20-something football fan - and maybe even worse - southern to boot). but the second part of this that is the most spot-on thing about wilko, and not mentioned enough. for a lot of his premier league career, wilko wasn't just in the team because he was tough, or because he tried hard, he was in the team because he was literally the best right-back at the club, because he earned his position by pushing himself to be a better player than any stoke fan could reasonably have expected him to be, given his start at the club. the fact that wilko was a local lad is obviously a huge part of the fairytale, but why wilko should demand such respect - not just pride that there was one of us, a stoke fan on the pitch wearing the red and white - is that he made himself into a better footballer than he had any right to be. i'm not saying he was cafu running up and down the right flank, but he earned his place on a premier league pitch: positionally solid, very tough in the tackle, smart enough to play within his limits while being able to support his winger when needed. there are countless other players in english football who, like wilko, were apparently unremarkable, knocking around (let's face it) mediocre youth set ups like ours - but very, very, very few of them will have been able to do what he did with what he had.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2016 8:36:46 GMT
He was mate. He was a proper throwback to when footballers were real men. He had his limitations as a player but he gave everything on the pitch and he put in performances over a period of time that a lot of Stoke fans never thought he was capable of. i don't really agree with the idea that wilko was worthy of respect because he was a 'real man', and to be honest i think that the english game features too many players who pride themselves on being physical, fearless and always trying really hard. (but then again i'm a new-generation, fifa-playing, social-media using 20-something football fan - and maybe even worse - southern to boot). but the second part of this that is the most spot-on thing about wilko, and not mentioned enough. for a lot of his premier league career, wilko wasn't just in the team because he was tough, or because he tried hard, he was in the team because he was literally the best right-back at the club, because he earned his position by pushing himself to be a better player than any stoke fan could reasonably have expected him to be, given his start at the club. the fact that wilko was a local lad is obviously a huge part of the fairytale, but why wilko should demand such respect - not just pride that there was one of us, a stoke fan on the pitch wearing the red and white - is that he made himself into a better footballer than he had any right to be. i'm not saying he was cafu running up and down the right flank, but he earned his place on a premier league pitch: positionally solid, very tough in the tackle, smart enough to play within his limits while being able to support his winger when needed. there are countless other players in english football who, like wilko, were apparently unremarkable, knocking around (let's face it) mediocre youth set ups like ours - but very, very, very few of them will have been able to do what he did with what he had. I couldn't agree more with your second paragraph about Wilko, and you have put it into words better than I could have done. As for your first, I can see where you're coming from and it is an age/generation thing as to why we see things slightly different. I'm all for the skill and flair side of the game and always have been, but I also prefer how the game used to be played when not every bit of contact was a foul, and not every mistimed tackle was a yellow card. I also hate the diving and feigning injury side of today's game that has crept in over the years and has now cemented itself firmly as part of the sport, I'm not saying this didn't used to happen from time to time back in the 70's 80's and early 90's but incidents were few and far between. My comment about the game being played by 'real men' back then is probably a bit over the top but the game is certainly a lot softer these days,some of it for the good but most of it has taken a bit of the enjoyment out of football in my opinion. One thing we can agree on is that Wilko is more than deserving of his testimonial and I should imagine he will get a full house down at the Brit to applaud him for all that he did for us.
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