Kevin Maher's Future..

[Pubey]

Billericay Blue, there was a bust up between Maher & Moussa. I am good friends with a close friend of Moussa and i have hear it from the Moose himself.

END OF!

agree... my mate heard it from the Moose's mouth at some church thing he was at

 

[BILLERICAY BLUE]

Well my source is adamant that there was no bust-up, so I suppose we'll just have to disagree, but I know who I would believe.

 

[BTS]

Well my source is adamant that there was no bust-up, so I suppose we'll just have to disagree, but I know who I would believe.

mmm, your "source" or the player in question????? i think its an obvious choice isn't it, Moose isn't going to lie about a bust up with the skipper is he?? :thump:

 

[Shrimper2thecore]

ok you win have a James Walker Award.....

Hitting the bar

 

[Tommy2holes]

Anyone who thinks that kevin maher is poorer than alan mccormack is sadly mistaken. Tackling ,he has proved that his postion is spot on and doesnt resort to simply hackin his man down ala mccormack.
Passing, maher is without out doubt the best of the midfield for finding his man. People say that it tends to be forward or backward but ball retention is the name of the game rather than just lumping it forward.
Leadership. Two promotions and two cup finals and a man utd win to boot.

Anybody who says there not bothered about Maher going is talkin out of there ****. The man has given so much to this club and he may have made some mistakes , but he doesnt deserve to be just sent away and have ****s say things like the couldnt care. People have short memories of the type of football we where playing under martin newman and wignall all of wich there was one constant at the club and that was maher trying to push a hopeless bunch of footballers and make them turn in a performance to match his own.

I would like to know how many man of the match awards kev has picked up in the 400+ games in his southend career.

You can guarantee that very few if any have picked up more.

 

[Beefy]

Kev's been training with Gillingham since his release and they seem quite confident of getting him.

http://www.kentnews.co.uk/kent-news...to-sign-Maher-newsinkent13177.aspx?news=sport

 

[davewebbsbrain]

Anyone who thinks that kevin maher is poorer than alan mccormack is sadly mistaken. Tackling ,he has proved that his postion is spot on and doesnt resort to simply hackin his man down ala mccormack.
Passing, maher is without out doubt the best of the midfield for finding his man. People say that it tends to be forward or backward but ball retention is the name of the game rather than just lumping it forward.
Leadership. Two promotions and two cup finals and a man utd win to boot.

Anybody who says there not bothered about Maher going is talkin out of there ****. The man has given so much to this club and he may have made some mistakes , but he doesnt deserve to be just sent away and have ****s say things like the couldnt care. People have short memories of the type of football we where playing under martin newman and wignall all of wich there was one constant at the club and that was maher trying to push a hopeless bunch of footballers and make them turn in a performance to match his own.

I would like to know how many man of the match awards kev has picked up in the 400+ games in his southend career.

You can guarantee that very few if any have picked up more.

Top post!!

 

[The Big Shrimp]

Anyone who thinks that kevin maher is poorer than alan mccormack is sadly mistaken. Tackling ,he has proved that his postion is spot on and doesnt resort to simply hackin his man down ala mccormack.
Passing, maher is without out doubt the best of the midfield for finding his man. People say that it tends to be forward or backward but ball retention is the name of the game rather than just lumping it forward.
Leadership. Two promotions and two cup finals and a man utd win to boot.

Anybody who says there not bothered about Maher going is talkin out of there ****. The man has given so much to this club and he may have made some mistakes , but he doesnt deserve to be just sent away and have ****s say things like the couldnt care. People have short memories of the type of football we where playing under martin newman and wignall all of wich there was one constant at the club and that was maher trying to push a hopeless bunch of footballers and make them turn in a performance to match his own.

I would like to know how many man of the match awards kev has picked up in the 400+ games in his southend career.

You can guarantee that very few if any have picked up more.

He is past his best, so we have to move on. In the last two seasons he rarely made a forward pass & spent most of his time seeking his revenge on a member of the oppo, who'd kicked him or nicked the ball off him.

It almost felt like he was marking time until he got his testimonial. There used to be times when Maher was often suspended after resorting to simply hacking his man down ala mccormack, when you would miss his presence. This hasn't been the case for a couple of seasons or that matter his early career at RH.

We've had the best out of a very limited player who has served Southend well, but his underlying arrogance has been his downful in the last year or two!

 

[Kris]

He is past his best, so we have to move on. In the last two seasons he rarely made a forward pass & spent most of his time seeking his revenge on a member of the oppo, who'd kicked him or nicked the ball off him.

It almost felt like he was marking time until he got his testimonial. There used to be times when Maher was often suspended after resorting to simply hacking his man down ala mccormack, when you would miss his presence. This hasn't been the case for a couple of seasons or that matter his early career at RH.

We've had the best out of a very limited player who has served Southend well, but his underlying arrogance has been his downful in the last year or two!

I'm sorry but this is rubbish. In the Championship Maher was immense and I'd never seen him cover so much ground (which he had to do due to various inept partners until McCormack arrived). He also scored seven great goals (his best tally?), got forward more than I've ever seen him and provided possibly the most sublime through ball I've seen from a Southend player when he sent Eastwood clear to score against Coventry at home (debunking the myth that he never passes forwards).

While I agree he wasn't great this season, I don't think he's past it yet and there were still classic Maher moments - his hat-trick of assists against Huddersfield; a simple but fantastic first-time pass to Gower against Swindon that took out two players and allowed G to fire home a last-minute winner; and a superbly executed volley across the box for Adam Barrett to score against Doncaster at home. I doubt any player other than Maher would have had the vision and composure to play that pass.

As for being a "very limited player", what crap! Apart from Mike Marsh, there haven't been many other Southend players with Maher's consistency for finding the right pass at the right time. For me, Maher's downfall has always been that he made everything looked so easy and effortless at times that fans took him for granted. For example, his ability to ping crossfield balls to their targets was second to none, yet because he did it so often, sometimes fans wouldn't recognise what a difficult skill to master this is - and it's only when Alan McCormack consistently fails to find his targets in similar positions that you realise how accurate Maher was.

I'm not going to fall into the trap of suggesting Maher was a worldbeater because he wasn't but he played the holding midfield player role superbly in a Blues shirt, and his reading of the game and his intelligence, vision and composure on the ball was a pleasure to watch.

 

[Nobby Snide]

get over him! please!

thanks...but i bet you dont get as much crap as i get everytime i mention him!

 

[The Big Shrimp]

I'm sorry but this is rubbish. In the Championship Maher was immense and I'd never seen him cover so much ground (which he had to do due to various inept partners until McCormack arrived). He also scored seven great goals (his best tally?), got forward more than I've ever seen him and provided possibly the most sublime through ball I've seen from a Southend player when he sent Eastwood clear to score against Coventry at home (debunking the myth that he never passes forwards).

While I agree he wasn't great this season, I don't think he's past it yet and there were still classic Maher moments - his hat-trick of assists against Huddersfield; a simple but fantastic first-time pass to Gower against Swindon that took out two players and allowed G to fire home a last-minute winner; and a superbly executed volley across the box for Adam Barrett to score against Doncaster at home. I doubt any player other than Maher would have had the vision and composure to play that pass.

As for being a "very limited player", what crap! Apart from Mike Marsh, there haven't been many other Southend players with Maher's consistency for finding the right pass at the right time. For me, Maher's downfall has always been that he made everything looked so easy and effortless at times that fans took him for granted. For example, his ability to ping crossfield balls to their targets was second to none, yet because he did it so often, sometimes fans wouldn't recognise what a difficult skill to master this is - and it's only when Alan McCormack consistently fails to find his targets in similar positions that you realise how accurate Maher was.

I'm not going to fall into the trap of suggesting Maher was a worldbeater because he wasn't but he played the holding midfield player role superbly in a Blues shirt, and his reading of the game and his intelligence, vision and composure on the ball was a pleasure to watch.

I have to say you are talking boll0cks & must be wearing very blue tinted glasses.

I'm honest enough to admit I dislike Maher as a person, but as a player he was linking player. He would give the little pass to the creative player to be creative & try the riskier pass. Yes he did make forward passes, but as the team got better players in it, he made less of these passes & alway looked for the easier option, be it sideways or back.

Before replying to this Kris, do what I did & ask the opinion of somebody with his coaching badges who knows what they are talking about. Also if he was that good, why would Tilly & Brush get rid of him? He might have been a knob with the Moussa incident, but T & B won't get rid of a player who is any good. They didn't sack Bailey or Macca & they acted like tw@ts on the pitch, during a game & could have been sent off!

 

[SUFC Forever]

Erm when was he ever going to play in the prem!!!!!!

He was actually picked in several 1st team squads at Spurs so must have been close at one time.

 

[duncan bulgaria]

Good player , can't really get my head around the negative vibe's about him , yes may of been limited in his ability but that is what you get from League 1 players ,on league 1 wages , as if they weren't limited they'd be plying their trade in the Prem or CCC .

The fact is were are a League 1 side and will attract league 1 players , in Kev i felt we had in the last 4 season's a very accompliced league one midfielder who worked his nuts off for the cause of SUFC, he covered every blade of grass in some games , chipped in with goals and also assists .

That in its self deserves some respect and i have no time for people who are not willing to acknowledge that , yes we have 2 better midfielders now , but Kev is in the latter end of his career FFS.

I would say that his training ground antics did put a dampner on things but surely he has been dealt with by the club and that should of been the end of it from a fans view .

 

[The Big Shrimp]

Good player , can't really get my head around the negative vibe's about him , yes may of been limited in his ability but that is what you get from League 1 players ,on league 1 wages , as if they weren't limited they'd be plying their trade in the Prem or CCC .

The fact is were are a League 1 side and will attract league 1 players , in Kev i felt we had in the last 4 season's a very accompliced league one midfielder who worked his nuts off for the cause of SUFC, he covered every blade of grass in some games , chipped in with goals and also assists .

That in its self deserves some respect and i have no time for people who are not willing to acknowledge that , yes we have 2 better midfielders now , but Kev is in the latter end of his career FFS.

I would say that his training ground antics did put a dampner on things but surely he has been dealt with by the club and that should of been the end of it from a fans view .

You have summed up what I've been trying to say. Average when he started at RH, then up until last season he was pivotal in what we did on the pitch. He just seemed to disappear during the relegation season.

I don't like him as a person, but respect what he did for us for most of his career at RH. The trouble is he is either loved or hated, with very little inbetween opinions!

 

[HudsonNo1]

Come on surely the people who slate or put down what kev has done for out club must be mad. Ten years of service in modern football is enough to be a club ledgend but combine that with the captaincy and his passing being some of the best ever seen at the hall and that makes a man who deserves a standing applause when he is next at the hall.

He is gone and its time to get over it a move on but he will always be worthy of a place in SUFC History

 

[duncan bulgaria]

I would be surprised if he is not playing league 1 football next season , surely there are clubs out there who'd need a player like Maher , Millwall for one could do with him as could Northampton, Bristol rovers and dare i say it Orient.

Will see how ambitious he still is , as to stay with Gillingham in my eyes is a bad move .

 

[Kris]

I have to say you are talking boll0cks & must be wearing very blue tinted glasses.

A little harsh, I feel. I cited plenty of examples to back up my opinion. Admittedly, I am the sort of fan who likes to see the best in every player but I'm still comfortable about my opinion on Maher.

I'm honest enough to admit I dislike Maher as a person, but as a player he was linking player. He would give the little pass to the creative player to be creative & try the riskier pass. Yes he did make forward passes, but as the team got better players in it, he made less of these passes & alway looked for the easier option, be it sideways or back.

But what's wrong with that? I've never claimed Maher was a flair player in the Maradona mould. But equally, I've never really understood the stigma attached to passing backwards or sideways if it means keeping possession. Remember that, as the holding midfielder, Maher would generally receive the ball in deeper areas of the pitch, where there is less opportunity for a probing forward pass because the opposition have more players behind the ball. So the best option was often to bring one of the full-backs into play in order to stretch the opposition. When he got himself into more attacking positions, he'd then generally look for a more probing pass because there were fewer opposition players ahead of him and therefore more options.

Maher's other great strength was the ability to find space and make himself available for a pass. Despite opposition managers regularly saying that if you stopped Maher then you went a long way towards stopping Southend, Maher's football brain allowed him to find space at the right time. His first touch was also exemplary, which then gave him a split-second extra to look for his next pass.

I think you've since mentioned that Maher was pivotal in our double promotion, which is why I'm a bit confused by your assertion that he was a limited player. We probably have different interpretations of what constitutes limited but I'd argue that the fact he was the heartbeat of the team in those two seasons made him a bloody influential player. And apart from Mark Gower and Freddy Eastwood, Maher looked the only other player in our squad comfortable at Championship level. He didn't win player of the year for nothing.

Before replying to this Kris, do what I did & ask the opinion of somebody with his coaching badges who knows what they are talking about. Also if he was that good, why would Tilly & Brush get rid of him? He might have been a knob with the Moussa incident, but T & B won't get rid of a player who is any good. They didn't sack Bailey or Macca & they acted like tw@ts on the pitch, during a game & could have been sent off!

I've actually heard a rumour that Tilly and Brush wanted to keep Maher but were overruled by Ron Martin, who has apparently wanted Maher out since January. I guess that's probably linked to the alleged Moussa incident but it could be contract issues as well. This rumour is from a well-informed Orient fan who knows Maher personally and socialises with him from time to time.

I should stress - and I realise I should have made this point in my previous post - that if Maher was a Southend player next season, he'd still be behind Bailey and McCormack in the pecking order and rightly so. I just think it's a shame that we no longer have the option of bringing him into the side if necessary - we certainly could have done with his composure on the ball in the two semi-finals against Donny, for example. At least we now have an emerging talent in Moussa in reserve, who will hopefully become the next Maher in the coming seasons.

 

[Einstein]

I have to say you are talking boll0cks

What was that about respecting others opinions?

Complete muppet.

 

[Angell Delight]

He just seemed to disappear during the relegation season.

I disagree, he was fantastic during our relegation season and deservedly won PotY - if he disappeared it was surely last season and not before.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Kevin Maher's future seems like an oxymoron to me.