So Cody has turned down our contract offer and signed for AFC Wimbledon. Where would he rank in the pantheon of Gills strikers? He leaves as our 9th highest goal scorer and of the 8 who are ahead of him I personally have only seen Steve Lovell in a Gills shirt. In my opinion watching The Gills since 1988 he might scrape into the top 10 (but only if I leave out Rod Wallace)
I think the real question has to be -- just what sort of contract did Gills offer, that, ( no disrespect intended ), was worse than the deal offered by Wimbledon ? --- surely we could have done better than the Wombles ?
In my view not good news. OK he was better with a "beast" with him, he could score a few though. With him gone need some firepower upfront. Tom eaves ????? not sure but a good old fashioned striker... Steve Morrison from Millwall??? drops down a div though
It has been suggested that it is the length of the deal that has been the deciding factor, though Wimbledon are not disclosing the length of the deal. If it is pretty much the same money for more seasons then you can understand him taking the security of the longer deal
The players so far have probably all come cheap, let's hope they are a bargain and not bargain basement.
It's been no hidden fact that I've not been one of Cody's greatest fans and that is right a very questionable opinion considering his fantastic record. So he's off the AFC, I could argue it shoes his level, hence why Norwich and Coventry used him as a bench warmer. Fair enough my views are a bit unkind and strangely enough I did like him, and I certainly wish him all the best for the future. I think what I find odd, most modern supporters these days are glory hunters, yet in this transfer alone proves he was never going to play at the next level. I know some would argue he saved us from relegation, my opposite argument is the team was constantly having to be built around him. His chasing in his early days was great but as he got older he was certainly no Dack on that level. I felt a bit agrieved many a time that he stood selfishly in the way if Dack's progress. Examples I could give you but that's regurgitation of old debate. All the best Cody and none of this is personal, all I'm saying is if I was manager things would have been done differently.
81 goals in 223 games. 9th on the all time goalscorers list and only 4 players have ever had a better goal to game ratio, those being Brian Yeo, Brian Gibbs, Tony Cascarino and Steve Lovell. In a time when fewer and fewer players remain loyal to clubs anymore I can honestly say I'm truly gutted at this decision. I'm now going to counter-argue @brb because let's face it, we all know he likes a lemonade or two. Brb you argue that for too long the team has had to be built around Cody when in actual fact the last 2 seasons the team has been built around Dack and not Cody. Yes Dack quite deservedly got L1 Player of the Year for 15/16 but last season he was no better than the rest. Last season we continued to play a system to fit in Dacky when he was clearly out of form or just no longer interested in playing. In that time Cody had to often play a role on his own, a role that he publicly stated that he was trying to adapt to and 30 years of age no mean feat. He still finished the top goal scoring striker with 12 goals with a team that didn't create an awful lot (our player with the most assists was JET and he left in January). So at 30 years of age, to still score 12 goals with poor service and not played to his strengths goes to show the talent of the player that Cody is. Add to that you won't find many other strikers who will work as hard as he did every game in attack and defence then you will see that we now have a rather large void up front. Yes ok so I wasn't lucky enough to see the Cascarino's, Yeo's, Lovell's etc but as I stated earlier, football is no longer about loyalty and about where the next bigger pay check is, are we honestly going to see another player score as many goals in a Gills shirt as Cody again? I'm certainly not convinced. As for the contract offer, Nick Bull (ex Gills media man) tweeted that AFC Wimbledon offered him the same terms he was on with us and that the offer we made was nowhere near the same (ie a lot further reduced). Bitter pill to swallow really. Thanks for the memories Cody. You will be sorely missed by me and others.
Cody is a bit of an enigma to me - when I think of the Gills strikers I have seen and I try to compare Cody i find myself thinking he's not a classy 'thoroughbred' striker in the mould of Carl Asaba or Marlon King, he doesn't have the quality and technique of a Bob Taylor or Paul Shaw, the power of an Iffy Onuora, or the speed and directness of a Simeon Jackson, but despite often looking slighty overweight and off of the pace he has scored goals particularly when partnered with the right player and scoring goals is the most valuable commodity in football. They used to say that Lineker wasn't much of a player but he came alive in front of goal and thats Cody a league 1/2 Lineker and in the end I thinks thats high praise.
Think you've nailed it there really. He was a finisher, and if he'd been able to play further up the pitch more often probably would have scored many more. Also a bit like Allan Clarke at Leeds, although the only reason he ever left the 6 yard box was to avoid being offside. Yes, bit of a shame we couldn't keep him, and I wouldn't mind betting that if we'd have come up with a half decent offer he'd have stayed. But reading between the lines I believe that GFC think he's still OK for L1 but not for very long, and Wombledon reckon he's got several more years in him, and the offers were drawn up accordingly. Life will go on.
I think one of my biggest bugs with me is when the team were storming the season a couple back when Cody was out injured and Dack was playing at his best. I blame the manager and Cody for selfishly rocking that boat, guess I've just never forgiven the lad for his return, which despite his goals saw us spectacular crash, the worst ever apart from Tranmere I think it was to record.
I am sorry but I think comparisons even at lower league level with Lineker (or Sniffer) are wide of the mark, these were the best of the best, Lineker is finest poacher I have ever seen Cody is not even the best poacher I have seen at the Gills. I think if I was going to compare Cody to a premier league striker at a lower level I would probably suggest Tony Cottee still a very good player but not in Linekers league. That said the I totally agree with the first part
For finishing....Yeo. Contributed little else and couldn't be trusted with penalties However what a record.....what price a Yeo now????
I don't think Cody had any impact on the way we finished the season. We were still playing two up top in Samuel and Norris and Samuel probably wasn't too dissimilar to what Cody offered. The reason why the season came crashing down is that Egan got injured in February and JE never had a plan b. Teams found out how to deal with us and Edinburgh would often leave substitutions til about 85 mins when it was too late to make a difference. Don't get me wrong, Cody isn't perfect and I never claimed his, I just think that to blame him for us not getting promoted and for Dack's dip in form (which was also the rest of the squad that dipped) is massively wide of the mark. If you want to point fingers, point them at Edinburgh.
