Quiz What have DEVANTY Cole and Alfie May got in common ??

[Colemans Left Hook]

???

[builder jon]

Both left a sinking ship

[Colemans Left Hook]

Both left a sinking ship

No but funny you mentioned that - a minute ago on te Man City thread i touched on that !

[Pliskin]

Neither took penalties?

[ravenrover]

Oh!  That's what you meant CLH

[Colemans Left Hook]

Neither took penalties?

Nope

[Colemans Left Hook]

Hopefully you all were not kept awake all night wondering what they had in common.

Talking of penalties Alfie May's "weak penalty" (according to the BBC) meant Cheltenham missed out from todays final at Wembley.

AndY DEVANTE Cole is very nearly 28 and Alfie May will be 30 in July.  That's not the point I was after though.

The then Cheltenham manager turned May into a goalscorer - yes you could say the team was maybe set up for his  strengths - gave him confidence and the rest and the confidence to eventually get his hair cut.

As for Andy Cole we ( including yours truly) mocked "brassic" Barnsley when it was their turn to re-sign him on a free transfer in June 2021

and the penny has finally dropped with Cole - I think they said he had 14 goals this season as for the second time the X-Cheltenham manager has worked wonders with a "non performing" striker.   That's the answer

Schofield and McSheffrey talk like timid creatures when interviewed -answering questions with a Geoff Boycott style straight bat  and their best friend is FEAR.  With the same fear as a visit to the dentist.

 Duff (who ought to be sued under the Trade escriptiona Act - for not living up to his name) as I have said many times on here is streets ahead of any manager in this league.

His first match this season was at Plymouth where they were getting murdered at 0-0 til Plymouth scored late on and I thought they were in for a midtable finish at best - end of.

Early in the season away at Cambridge ten man Barnsley were getting overrun by mighty Cambridge and as i have said many times on here he made a career changing decision for both him and the club.

He made a couple of changes and brought on two forwards and attacked them and won the match and the rest followed .


maybe tyke will send me a Christmas card this year.

[drfchound]

CLH.
I think you mean Devante Cole.
No wonder no one got the answer you were looking for matey.
Andy Cole is much older than 28.

[Colemans Left Hook]

sorry mate --    anyhow it hopefully got a few of us out of our depression modes

[tyke1962]

Michael Duff has the ability to improve players with his man management and coaching methods .

Alfie May and Devante Cole are far better players than they were at Rovers .

Duff has even made 31 year old James Norwood a better player .

From what I'm told Devante isn't the easiest player to manage but Duff clearly found a way to press the right buttons and make use of the assets he does possess .

Managers who can improve average players are absolute gold dust today which is just as well in our case because we haven't a pot to pyss in these days over here .

The owners have had to put in £6m through Rights Issues just to keep us afloat this season .

Without Michael Duff I suspect the same players wouldn't be in the very good position we find ourselves this morning .

The question is , if we don't go up this season and the no doubt highly regarded Duff is offered a job in the summer he can't turn down then what ?

The next few weeks are critical for my club on a number of levels , we simply have to get the promotion one way or another .

[ravenrover]

Sorry Tyke but both were still good players at Donny, it's just that the management didn't get the best out of them

[adamtherover]

Devanty? Lol,  one more chance to say who you mean?

[tyke1962]

Sorry Tyke but both were still good players at Donny, it's just that the management didn't get the best out of them

Well I can only really comment on Devante because I've seen the improvement he's made under Duff with my own eyes .

Devante was an extremely limited footballer to say the least up until possibly Christmas just gone .

No real goalscoring instinct which is surprising given his dad's goalscoring exploits .

The ball would often come in from the wide areas with Devante not getting on the end of anything , he just didn't seem capable of seeing the picture and anticipating anything which all goalscorers do .

His hold up play and bringing players in wasn't great , it still isn't but it's improved .

What he was good at was getting in behind defences with his pace and his movement , you couldn't criticise his movement in that aspect of the game .

Only trouble was he'd then pick the wrong option or he'd completely make a hash of his cross in to the box .

He was a highly frustrating footballer to watch and to make things worse he has a general demeanour that looks like he doesn't give a shyte .

Throw in his little rich boy background and it's never going to go down too well with the Oakwell faithful .

At this moment in time Devante works his socks off for the team and presses the life out of defenders .

He now gets on the end of things in the box , gambles more and gets the rewards .

He's a very good league one striker today and before he was probably average at best .

I suspect this is his new level and 15 championship goals would probably be beyond him but you never know I suppose , some players can be late bloomers .

The only thing I can say about Alfie May and I'd have loved him at Oakwell in league one under Duff is that he was available last summer on the back of 26 league one goals and there were no takers either in the championship or the bigger clubs in league one .

Nobody was prepared to take a punt at £500k which is extraordinary and maybe tells a story .

In the form he's demonstrated since leaving Rovers it's a shame it didn't quite work the same way especially when Marquis was leading the line for you at that time .

[Campsall rover]

You found a gem in Duff.
He is exactly the type of manager we are crying out for.

Unbelievable improvement he has got from both Alfie May when at Cheltenham Town and Devante Cole at Barnsley.

Cole didbpnt even look interested when DM signed him on a very short term contract. It might have been only a week to week one, not sure.
You would have thought he would have worked his socks off to get a contract as Rovers but hardly looked interested.
Look at him now.
Alfie May dispute work his socks off for us but we rarely saw an end product to that work. He didn’t hit it off with John Marquis they rarely clicked when playing together. Alfie was played out wide in the vast majority of games he played but never looked like a player who would nail down a regular starting place due to lack of an end product. Quality assists and goals scored.
Just look what Duff got out of him at Walden Road playing as a twin striker.
It just shows right manager right time and it can transform a career.

[tyke1962]

To be honest the improvement in Norwood is perhaps the better story of what Duff has brought to my club .

Norwood was signed because he was a free agent with a very good goalscoring record in league two but not quite the same numbers in league one , the do a job for us signing and not much more than that .

I personally think Norwood as a younger man could and should have had a very good career in the championship if someone had gotten hold of him sooner .

Norwood is a complete shytehouse and I suspect spent more time fighting with opposition defenders than what was good for him .

He got sent off in an early season EFL trophy game at home to Lincoln  , complete fruitcake sending off , elbowed the defender right in front of the referee , who the hell gets a straight red in such a game at 31 years of age ?

Duff clearly got hold of him and told him in no uncertain terms why he'd been brought to the club .

Be a shytehouse by all means but be clever with it and whilst your at get yourself fitter .

Norwood has a turn of pace I suspect he thought he'd hadn't got , he's surprisingly quick over those important five to ten yards and whilst he's still the proverbial shytehouse it's channelled in the right way .

Duff is a remarkable coach given where we were when he came through the door , it really was toxic here after last season's debacle .

We dropped on our feet hiring him we really did , I expected no more than half way in league one this season given the size of the task that Duff was facing .

If it can turn the right way over here then it can turn for Rovers too because the similarities of your present predicament and where we were aren't too far apart .

Got to get the right man in to the club for the position you are in currently .

Duff's done this on no budget what so ever , not a cracker , it really is a two bob outfit but he's made better what he's inherited and we've done well in the free agent and loan market .

[Donnywolf]

Their first names both end in E ?