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Top 10 SWFC Players of the last 10 years (Owlstalk Ratings)


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He’s our striker, he’s our number nine. Lee Gregory is next on the list. Perhaps his position in this top ten is a little false, as he’s played at a lower level than most of the other players in contention with all of his games coming in League One.

 

Certainly it seems a little odd to see him one place above Bannan, seeing as Bannan comfortably outperformed him in the last season in League One according to the Owlstalk votes. But still, any average rating above 6.5 can’t be sniffed at, and Gregory proved himself in the difficult run-in to the season.

 

For a long time Gregory’s average rating score was tracking at around 6.2-to-6.3, at a similar score to Florian Kamberi. But an explosive run of form at the end of the season, with three Man of the Match performances in the last four games (9.7 vs Fleetwood, 9.0 vs Portsmouth and 7.7 vs Sunderland in the second leg) saw his rating soar above the 6.5 mark. With five man of the match awards for the season, and never once voted our worst player, Gregory has had a very strong season.

 

Time will tell whether he can back this performance up over time, but taking the past ten seasons into consideration he’s on top of the goalscoring charts for an individual season:

 

 

Screenshot 2022-06-10 at 17.15.01.png

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On 09/06/2022 at 02:52, Emerson Thome said:

Coming Friday.... number 9.

 

Clue: There's something every other player in the Top 10 has done for Wednesday but he hasn't (although he's done it against us).

What’s that then pal?  The never voted worse player bit?

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On 28/05/2022 at 13:29, Emerson Thome said:

Need something to keep you cold over those long, warm summer months?

 

I've een a few threads about best SWFC players in recent days, so....

 

Over the next few weeks I will post who Owlstalk posters have voted as our best player over the past 10* years (well, 9 year actually, but that didn't sound as good) in the match threads, counting down from 10 to 1.

 

The ratings will include all games from the 2013/14 season to 2021/22.

 

I'll only include players who have played 25 games or more, so if you want to have a go first at who your favourite / top 3 / top 10 players are first, here are the players in the running:

 

25 SWFC appearances or more (alphabetical order):

BANNAN, Barry

BORNER, Julian

BOYD, George

BUXTON, Lewis

COKE, Giles

DAWSON, Cameron

DELE-BASHIRU, Fisayo

DUNKLEY, Chey

FLETCHER, Steven

FORESTIERI, Fernando

FOX, Morgan

GREGORY, Lee

HARRIS, Kadeem

HECTOR, Michael

HELAN, Jeremy

HOOPER, Gary

HUNT, Jack

HUTCHINSON, Sam

IORFA, Dominic

JOAO, Lucas

JOHNSON, Marvin

JONES, David

KIRKLAND, Chris

LEE, Kieran

LEES, Tom

LOOVENS, Glenn

LUONGO, Massimo

MAGHOMA, Jacques

MAGUIRE, Chris

MATIAS, Marco

MATTOCK, Joe

MAY, Stevie

McGUGAN, Lewis

MURPHY, Jacob

NUHIU, Adthe

ODUBAJO, Moses

PALMER, Liam

PATERSON, Callum

PEACOCK-FARRELL, Bailey

PELUPESSY, Joey

PUDIL, Daniel

REACH, Adam

RHODES, Jordan

SASSO, Vincent

SEMEDO, Jose

THORNILEY, Jordan

VAN AKEN, Joost

VENANCIO, Frederico

WALLACE, Ross

WESTWOOD, Keiren

WILDSMITH, Joe

WINDASS, Josh

 

Post your thoughts below, I'll start the countdown next week.

When you look at that list you can see why we ended up where we are!

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1, Wee Wossy Wallace - loved watching him play for us, a great balance of skillful and shithouse!

2, Barry Bannan - Not just for this season, though it helped.   But has always been committed to the cause for us, we are gonna miss him in a couple of years when he sails off towards retirement.

3, Forestieri - Sure there were issues here, and in the end it soured, but when he had the ball and ran at teams it was for a while the most excitement we have had at Hillsborough since the days of Carbone, Di Canio and Waddle.

4, Kirkland - Absolute baller of a keeper

5, Kieran Lee - Before the injuries robbed us his prime he was often spoke about as the best midfielder outside of the prem, and with good reason, and this was even with the competition he had for that spot!  At Championship level a Rolls Royce of a player who made the entire team better.

6, Michael Hector - One of those Defenders who loves to defend, and could play a sweet ball too.   There is a reason even now many Wednesday fans bring him up every transfer window.

7,  Stephen Fletcher - Again shame about how it ended, but when fit was a pure beast up front.  Premier league class striker with just enough injury problems to stop him showing it.

8, Gary Hooper - See Above, when fit was too good for the championship, but much like Fletcher, could not be relied on to finish a full season.

9, Giles Coke (mainly after the Swindon Loan spell)  - I still remember the excitement around him signing for us, and for a little while he looked to be the midfielder we had been missing and I wondered why we even let him go out on loan.  Still for 6 months he was impressive enough to get a mention.

10, Glenn Loovens - Such a tough call between him, Lees and Pudil for this last spot, but Loovens shades it for me purely by the fact he seemed to be the one pulling the string in that defence.

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I want to tell you about our number eight in the top ten:

 

One of our classiest players of the 21st Century, Kieran Lee was a fan favourite whose career spanned 8 seasons. Quick of thought and always bursting into spaces, he combined a silky touch with the energy to be everywhere on the pitch. Lee was a stand-out player in the first five of the last ten seasons.

 

Originally signed as a right-back from Oldham, he actually only ever started 4 games for Wednesday in that position, with Dave Jones converting him first to a right-winger and then a central midfielder.

 

Just as he arrived right on time in the box, he also arrived in the nick of time in the starting XI. With Wednesday deep in relegation trouble in 2012/13 he established himself in the first team half-way through the season and helped steer the team to safety.

 

He repeated the trick the next season. After injury ruled him out of the awful opening months, he return to lead another relegation escape under Stuart Gray. This included his most legendary performance, scoring 9.6 in the 6-0 demolition of Leeds. He didn’t even score a goal that day, but he was absolutely everywhere.

 

Firmly established in central midfield by now, he had a solid 2014-15 season under Stuart Gray, the highlight being his 98th minute winner at Rotherham. Then he really kicked on in 2015-16 under Carlos Carvalhal. It was his most appearances in a season, his most man of the match awards (5) and an Owlstalk average score of 6.82. This included his second 9.6 rating in the 2-0 playoff win over Brighton. This was the classic Kieran Lee goal – a darting run, a golden touch, a cool finish.

 

He remained an integral part of the team for the first half of 2016-17, earning another man of the match award for his brace against Nottingham Forest and scoring a 96th minute winner against Bristol.

 

But then, on the 17th December 2016, he went off injured at half-time in home game against Rotherham. And he was never the same player again. Originally the hip niggle wasn’t considered serious. He played again on the 2nd January, but was again withdrawn at half-time. He then underwent hip surgery. After being initially ruled out for the season, he came back ahead of schedule in April for the last five games of the season.

 

Having then missed the start of the 2017-18 campaign, he returned in September and October, scoring 3 goals in 10 games. But he wasn’t quite at the same intensity as before. He dropped to the bench for November and played his last game of the season on 9th December 2017. It would be 16 months before he played again, re-emerging for a couple of cameo appearances in the last two games of the 2018-19 season.

 

In his final season under Gary Monk, Lee was a diminished force, and needed to be nursed through the campaign. Subbed in 12 of the 22 games he started, he showed a few glimpses of the old magic but wasn’t the same player that had made such an impact under Jones, Gray and Carvalhal.

 

In fact, up until that injury against Rotherham in December 2016, Lee’s Owlstalk score for 163 games over four and a half seasons would see him ranked 4th out of the 89 players (qualification = at least 10 games). In his final four years, his score of 6.14 would have him at 44th.

 

 

Screenshot 2022-06-16 at 22.10.05.png

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