A Straw From The Nest: Super Danny Graham

A Straw From The Nest:
SUPER DANNY GRAHAM

please log in to view this image

Most fondly remembered for: Bringing vests back into fashion
Least fondly remembered for: Claiming to be Watford's best table tennis player without beating me.
He was: A prime example of persistance paying off.

Anyone determined to keep prejudice in check can write a balanced article about the likes of Don Cowie or Mike Williamson. Unfortunately for the purposes of this piece I only have one grievance with Danny, which is pretty much covered above.

To even try to be uncharitable, I'd have to go back to his early career, and even then I can base it on nothing more than Wikipedia and Soccerbase. His strike rate was one goal in ten after his first 50 league appearances. Perhaps most worryingly, this was a mere five goals more than fellow Gateshead lad Liam Henderson!

Unlike him though, Danny did manage to stay in the Football League, and after a prolific loan spell Carlisle proved to be the right permanent move. In his first full season he struck up a fruitful partnership with Joe Garner, and took Carlisle to the brink of giving us six Championship points a season, before an agonising playoff defeat to Leeds. The next campaign started well for him if not Carlisle. In hindsight we should count our lucky stars that the goals dried up entirely in his last 18 games; had he kept scoring a richer club would surely have snatched him from under our noses.

That transfer - masterminded by the current Swansea manager - does highlight one saving grace of the EPPP (Point of order: Legally I'm told that I'd be unwise to refer to it as anything stronger than the English Premiership Poacher's Pact. My original P's involved references to the biggest clubs, children and profit). However wrong it is that Arsene Wenger can peek through the fence and potentially take a world class 16 year old for a fixed fee of £250k, at least it will reduce clubs' dealings with the tribunal system. And look on the bright side, if the EPPP were in place Southampton would be £20m worse off, and we would probably be three points closer to the top of the table.

Going into 2009/10, it's no exaggeration to describe Graham as our one glimmer of hope. The manager had gone, and it was inevitable that Smith, McAnuff and Priskin would keep the exit door swinging. He didn't disappoint, racking up six goals in nine league games and putting in some stellar performances even when he wasn't the main man. Leicester at home is a great example, despite many fans opining that he and Heidar didn't work well together.

Then came a run that some might describe as a blip. Goals wise perhaps, but performance wise certainly not. Never before has a Watford striker scored so few, for so long, and remained so popular with so many. There were calls for Hoskins to be given a chance, but everyone recognised that Danny never let his head drop and created space for those around him. Tracking back as much as he did probably costed him and Watford a few goals on the break, but that's to be expected with a player who has spent most of his career in the lower leagues, led by a manager who brought players back at every opportunity anyway.

For balance it's not as if the competition were inspiring confidence. Hoskins' best performances in a Watford shirt did not last anything like 90 minutes, and beyond him you had an academy lad who never scored a Football League goal, a player who was (rightly) sent out on loan to get experience at a good level, and a man who made his name in a town famous for its pies.

Faith in Danny paid off though, and while two braces in the last two games obscured a disappointing goal tally, there were no questions about his place going into his golden season.

I can't really put my finger on what Danny did differently last year. I've picked up on his backtracking above, but if anything he did more of that second time around. His quality of movement between full back and centre back was always there, and while he did miss a few sitters in his first winter, it was generally poor execution rather than poor decision making. While they're very different players, in those respects it's the same story with Marv this time around.

Ultimately it doesn't matter. Finishing as Championship top scorer, with performances that merited many more goals, instantly propelled Graham among the ranks of the greatest non-academy players seen at the Vic. Save for Ashley Young and John Barnes, he's quickly establishing himself as one of the bigger names we've exported to a top flight club. Heck, if the FA don't routinely ban him for having the temerity to display hienous messages such as "Get well soon McGinn" under his shirt, the Graham for England campaign which I take partial credit for could yet achieve its aim.

Even after the tribunal debacle and Bassini's white flag to the media during negotiations, in pure financial terms he was one of the best bits of business the club has ever done. We were still shortchanged though.

please log in to view this image

With thanks to:
BSaD for the inspiration to do these articles.
BHaPPY for being the closest current thing that I can plug.
From The Rookery End for Vest Day and this article's images.

===================================================

It'll be once a month from now on, but I wanted to get a largely positive one on the board early doors. I've tentatively posted this on the Swansea board, given that there shouldn't be too much in here that they'll object to.

 

One other good article.

 

Nice work NNW the man himself played a typical DG game tonight!

 

dont score enough for me im afraid, he gets his chances but he is not a natural premiership player by a long way, he will get the odd goal but so would any striker in any league, nice lad but there are much better out there....

 

Graham is awesome !!

 

yes he is as a championship player and nothing else..

 

Well he's scored more goals so far than a bunch of strikers who cost 20mil+ Dai so I think you should readjust your standards as they're off.

Good article!

 

yes but others are scoring as well as the striker, we have nobody only danny and he is a one game wonder, you can put a league two striker there an he will get the odd goal here and there just like danny, he is out of his comfort zone just like 80% of our one game wonders...IE..lower leagues......qpr are the same, fair play to norwich they do show us two teams you can score goals in the premiership.

 

Good Article, by the way Dai, the men in white coats are coming for you!.......................

 

results proves im right ...you need to apply for a new white stick me thinks.....

 

Good finish today Danny Boy!! Doing a fine job with such little quality service....

 

Very good striker, great attitude and willing to run his nuts off. No, not world class, but will get by in a smaller Prem club and will score goals if given a run - how many goals has Torres and Carole put away this season?

 

Great article NNW, thanks for this. It was great to see him score again today, and such a DG goal . Shame he's not appreciated by all! Quite remarkable really when you look at his work rate and the goals he scores.

We'd have him back in a heartbeat!

 

God knows where we'd be without him! He's easily been one of our stand-out performers until now, even if he was guilty of missing some sitters in the first few games. Most Swans fans rate him very highly.

 

Don't pay any attention to some on here. Most Swans love Danny Boy. He's scored 6 and will get many more. What has not been mentioned is that the service he gets is absolute crap. If he had anything like decent support he'd easily be in double figures by now.

 

double figures.....oh is that a pig fly past my window...

 

Well he'd be on 9 if he took penalties, he missed a sitter in one of our first games so that would easily be 10, Dai.

 

why is he not on double figures.....because he is not good enough, leroy lita would have put more goals away if he had the game time danny has had, he is more skillful by a long way....danny has run his socks off for very little return an dont say he dont get chances as thats rubbish and a cop out as an excuse...dont mention the top teams strikers either as they play an all round game where everyone except the keeper takes a shot and scores, we have danny who is a great championship player and no more who will score once in 10 chances that any league two striker can match....

 

Dai, you're talking complete tripe and no-one is going to agree with you...because...well, you're wrong. World class DG may not be, but he's a good striker who gives his all for the cause, and that, combined with as many goals as he can be expected to score in our current team, is good enough for me.

 

For a life-long supporter of Swansea City you have a mighty strange way of showing your 'support' with the constant put-downs and negative comments towards your own team. You're living in cloud cuckoo-land with your expectations so far off the top of the scale it's unbelievable.