Most liked posts in thread: Anthony O’Connor wants to stay next season

When AOC makes an error or has a poor game it’s immediately jumped on but his good performances always seem to go under the radar. It’s almost like he hasn’t put in a string of strong performances and been part of a defence which has served us very well of late. He’s not perfect, but he adequately covers two positions and we’ve got far bigger issues to address further up the pitch.

Keep.

 

Time to move on for me. We need better if we want to progress. I'd prefer players that will be strong in both this and league 1. He's been here for 3 years and hasn't brought enough to the side to say he deserves another contract.

 

If talk of AoC being on ~3k per week is true - and it sounds likely given when he was signed - thats a top, top end salary for a league 2 player. And he's not a top end league 2 player. He's a fairly average, versatile defensive player, but one who could be replaced with someone as good for half that wage.

 

He has "upped his game of late" - I think we'd all agree he's done well recently but that is also the problem.

He's one of our highest paid players and was on a three year contract. Where were these "solid performances" (let's not get carried away and pretend he's Maguire - solid) when we needed them over the whole of the last THREE years??

Oh wow, Anthony has suddenly had an epiphany that he better put in a shift and contribute in line with him being one of the highest paid players!! I'm sure that has nothing to do with his contract ending soon....

Compare him to Canavan who had been a defensive leader and role model since he got in the team at the START of his contract. O'Connor has never been a role model defensive leader. He's competent when things are going well. When it's tough he gets all slopey shoulders and starts pointing at others.

Next season, expectations will be high and he has shown already that when expectations are high and things start going wrong, he will not stand and fight and lead. He'll rather moan and lose the effort.

 

Definitely won’t struggle to improve on Wood, he’s not that special in my opinion. We’ve had so much dross in recent seasons he’s stood out as a better player.

 

Is it really a positive for him that he's been "integral and vital" in our continuing decline?

If it were me, I'd be advising my agent to leave out everything about the past 3 years if I'm at all bothered about securing a new contract here.

 

I’ll get his cars washed for free and drive him to his his new club.

Even put a few free air fresheners in his car, as a goodbye present.

 

Absolutley bang on this post. Hes average at best. Playing as a fullback, he has zero ability going forward, always takes the safe option and turns and plays the ball backwards. Not what we need in a team with aspirations of promotion. A constant in our decline over the past few years. Get rid. Better needed

 

Aoc should be given a new contract he is consistent wherever he is asked to play and just gets on with it . We would have struggled without him in the last few weeks

 

I think the point is that people are suggesting we wouldn't struggle without him next season because we've signed natural replacements in the positions he's been filling in at.

I actually think he's done well recently and is forcing a decision to be made which I'm not sure was the case 6 months ago.

 

Even if we got someone like Hosanna from L**ds (which personally I doubt - think City is being blamed for rushing him back and exacerbating his original injury) he's not the finished article. AOC for me has 2 or 3 years at CB, DM or emergency RB. Good age,good experience, wants to be here. No brainer. IMHO

 

We can't have him continuing at right back if he stays.

We need a proper right back.

 

I agree with the point of the post but I'm not sure if he's better. He's definitely younger though and has some potential.

 

It’s probably best for both parties to have a fresh start, same with Wood. Both have had some good and not so good performances whilst here but have been part of the club that were top half in league 1 fighting for promotion to bottom half league 2. By no means am I blaming them, but sometimes it’s best to get fresh eyes in the club who haven’t been part of non stop negativity like they have the last 3 seasons. I think he’ll be on far more than his worth as he came in when Rahic was throwing money about.

I wish them all the best in the summer but I’d be looking at both full back positions especially if we are to persist with a formation that is heavily reliant on them. It’d be nice to have full backs who make more of an effort to stop easy balls into the box for a start.

 

Completely agree with this. He's good competition for what are two very slow centre backs in POC and Canavan. Also covers more than one position pretty adequately which is more than can be said for other 'utility' players we have.

 

He's also reportedly amongst the higher end of the wage structure though. Do we really need a back up or utility player eating up that much of the budget?

 

I won't be outside VP protesting; because he ain't worth the effort. Neither do I have an axe to grind about arm-band-gate.
I just think we've been watching so many average and dross players for far too long that we're now discussing which average players to keep.
If we've the ambition Ryan spoke about last night then AOC needs to be one of those heading out the door come the summer. That's no disrespect to him but I think there are better players out there and that we can recruit better now that we've got our sh!t together.

 

Good squad player at a good age and is versatile enough to play anywhere which with smaller squads and injuries is essential you have at least one player who can do that to an adequate level which he does and his height helps as well, If we can do a deal financially then we should sign him for another 18 months / 2 years