For those still interested in Cornelius

Quoting Ståle Solbakken, the manager of København:

- I must be honest and say that I, as a manager, has not succeeded in getting enough out of Cornelius´potential.

- As a manager, I must help Cornelius becoming sharper and better. He is missing too much, and he is too seldom getting into positions where he can score, compared to e.g. N. Jørgensen and S. De Ridder.

http://www.vg.no/sport/fotball/europa-l ... /23343425/

It might serve as consolation, that neither Malky was able to get much out of him..

Quoting Ståle Solbakken, the manager of København:

- I must be honest and say that I, as a manager, has not succeeded in getting enough out of Cornelius´potential.

- As a manager, I must help Cornelius becoming sharper and better. He is missing too much, and he is too seldom getting into positions where he can score, compared to e.g. N. Jørgensen and S. De Ridder.

http://www.vg.no/sport/fotball/europa-l ... /23343425/

It might serve as consolation, that neither Malky was able to get much out of him..

consolation? are you kidding me?


it just confirms that he should have never bought the waste of air in the first place

I'm not

Quoting Ståle Solbakken, the manager of København:

- I must be honest and say that I, as a manager, has not succeeded in getting enough out of Cornelius´potential.

- As a manager, I must help Cornelius becoming sharper and better. He is missing too much, and he is too seldom getting into positions where he can score, compared to e.g. N. Jørgensen and S. De Ridder.

http://www.vg.no/sport/fotball/europa-l ... /23343425/

It might serve as consolation, that neither Malky was able to get much out of him..

consolation? are you kidding me?


it just confirms that he should have never bought the waste of air in the first place

Yeah well, that also a way to see it. In sum, København made quite a profit on him, though.

I'm not

Thanks for taking your time to let me know

I'm more interested to know why Malky & Moody thought Cornelius was good enough to command a 10 million, 45K a week salary, & wear the No 9 shirt???

I'm more interested to know why Malky & Moody thought Cornelius was good enough to command a 10 million, 45K a week salary, & wear the No 9 shirt???

Same here.

I refuse to believe that was a deal based purely on Malky and Moody being naive. It may never be proved or maybe nothing was ever done except an extreme case of bad judgement.

For me more is to come of this and other deals.

I'm more interested to know why Malky & Moody thought Cornelius was good enough to command a 10 million, 45K a week salary, & wear the No 9 shirt???

Because they just probably looked him up on youtube and thought he was the dogs bollocks.

I'm more interested to know why Malky & Moody thought Cornelius was good enough to command a 10 million, 45K a week salary, & wear the No 9 shirt???

Because they just probably looked him up on youtube and thought he was the dogs bollocks.

Over malky's on a sunday afternoon with a beer and a take away,

Moody ''Aye malky lad look at this lad ere like on youtube like''

Malky ''Aye Ian, this wee lad is sound like''

''How much we got, send them 9 Mill''

I'm more interested to know why Malky & Moody thought Cornelius was good enough to command a 10 million, 45K a week salary, & wear the No 9 shirt???

Because they just probably looked him up on youtube and thought he was the dogs bollocks.

Over malky's on a sunday afternoon with a beer and a take away,

Moody ''Aye malky lad look at this lad ere like on youtube like''

Malky ''Aye Ian, this wee lad is sound like''

''How much we got, send them 9 Mill''

Sounds about right.

A Corn made Cameron Toshack look like a lethal striker, I honestly think Chris Pike at his age would have made a bigger impact in the PL given the same game time as A Corn. Another baffling momento of the Rebrand era, this is living proof he is abysmal at being a centre forward and early injury helped cover that up a tad. DJ would got half a team with that kind of moola that was wasted on A Corn.

I'm more interested to know why Malky & Moody thought Cornelius was good enough to command a 10 million, 45K a week salary, & wear the No 9 shirt???

Because they just probably looked him up on youtube and thought he was the dogs bollocks.

Over malky's on a sunday afternoon with a beer and a take away,

Moody ''Aye malky lad look at this lad ere like on youtube like''

Malky ''Aye Ian, this wee lad is sound like''

''How much we got, send them 9 Mill''

A story goes that Moyes and Everton were looking at him, Moyes got the move to ManU, and Malky was tipped off about him on his visit to Everton, obviously not enough research was done and whatever happend we wasted the best part of £10Million, and it was probably one of the main reasons we were relegated ...........

I'm more interested to know why Malky & Moody thought Cornelius was good enough to command a 10 million, 45K a week salary, & wear the No 9 shirt???

Because they just probably looked him up on youtube and thought he was the dogs bollocks.

Over malky's on a sunday afternoon with a beer and a take away,

Moody ''Aye malky lad look at this lad ere like on youtube like''

Malky ''Aye Ian, this wee lad is sound like''

''How much we got, send them 9 Mill''

A story goes that Moyes and Everton were looking at him, Moyes got the move to ManU, and Malky was tipped off about him on his visit to Everton, obviously not enough research was done and whatever happend we wasted the best part of £10Million, and it was probably one of the main reasons we were relegated ...........

All the evidence point to this being the single most reason why Malky was eventually sacked.

If it had not been for the Cornelius transfer then I believe that Malky Mackay would still be our manager today,,,& we would still be playing Premiership football!

I'm more interested to know why Malky & Moody thought Cornelius was good enough to command a 10 million, 45K a week salary, & wear the No 9 shirt???

Because they just probably looked him up on youtube and thought he was the dogs bollocks.

Over malky's on a sunday afternoon with a beer and a take away,

Moody ''Aye malky lad look at this lad ere like on youtube like''

Malky ''Aye Ian, this wee lad is sound like''

''How much we got, send them 9 Mill''

A story goes that Moyes and Everton were looking at him, Moyes got the move to ManU, and Malky was tipped off about him on his visit to Everton, obviously not enough research was done and whatever happend we wasted the best part of £10Million, and it was probably one of the main reasons we were relegated ...........

All the evidence point to this being the single most reason why Malky was eventually sacked.

If it had not been for the Cornelius transfer then I believe that Malky Mackay would still be our manager today,,,& we would still be playing Premiership football!

Probably right, if he had used that £10Million ish better who knows ???????????

I'm more interested to know why Malky & Moody thought Cornelius was good enough to command a 10 million, 45K a week salary, & wear the No 9 shirt???

Because they just probably looked him up on youtube and thought he was the dogs bollocks.

Over malky's on a sunday afternoon with a beer and a take away,

Moody ''Aye malky lad look at this lad ere like on youtube like''

Malky ''Aye Ian, this wee lad is sound like''

''How much we got, send them 9 Mill''

A story goes that Moyes and Everton were looking at him, Moyes got the move to ManU, and Malky was tipped off about him on his visit to Everton, obviously not enough research was done and whatever happend we wasted the best part of £10Million, and it was probably one of the main reasons we were relegated ...........

All the evidence point to this being the single most reason why Malky was eventually sacked.

If it had not been for the Cornelius transfer then I believe that Malky Mackay would still be our manager today,,,& we would still be playing Premiership football!

You haven't heard about his texts or e-mails to Moody then?

I'm more interested to know why Malky & Moody thought Cornelius was good enough to command a 10 million, 45K a week salary, & wear the No 9 shirt???

Because they just probably looked him up on youtube and thought he was the dogs bollocks.

Over malky's on a sunday afternoon with a beer and a take away,

Moody ''Aye malky lad look at this lad ere like on youtube like''

Malky ''Aye Ian, this wee lad is sound like''

''How much we got, send them 9 Mill''

I think it was more like....

Moody "Have you read the dossier Malky?"

Malky "Aye, is he a chinky?"

Moody "No, he's Scandinavian"

Malky "Darkie?"

Moody "No, he's whiter than matthew mcconaugheys teeth"


Malky 'Great! send em 9 million and make sure the agent renews my BNP subscription as a part of the deal"

It wasnt long ago that he was playing well for them. He will be OK and was not the reason we got relegated! That said the transfer and salary werecrazy. He wasnt very good in the brief spell with us - only slightly better than Macheda is now!
Also he wasnt quite as lazy as Kenwynne Jones!

I'm more interested to know why Malky & Moody thought Cornelius was good enough to command a 10 million, 45K a week salary, & wear the No 9 shirt???

Because they just probably looked him up on youtube and thought he was the dogs bollocks.

Over malky's on a sunday afternoon with a beer and a take away,

Moody ''Aye malky lad look at this lad ere like on youtube like''

Malky ''Aye Ian, this wee lad is sound like''

''How much we got, send them 9 Mill''

A story goes that Moyes and Everton were looking at him, Moyes got the move to ManU, and Malky was tipped off about him on his visit to Everton, obviously not enough research was done and whatever happend we wasted the best part of £10Million, and it was probably one of the main reasons we were relegated ...........

All the evidence point to this being the single most reason why Malky was eventually sacked.

If it had not been for the Cornelius transfer then I believe that Malky Mackay would still be our manager today,,,& we would still be playing Premiership football!

You haven't heard about his texts or e-mails to Moody then?

He wasn't originally sacked because of those texts or e-mails though was he? No, That all came to light during the later investigations into their (Malky & Moody) transfer dealings,,,,of which Cornelius was far the biggest issue.

I'm more interested to know why Malky & Moody thought Cornelius was good enough to command a 10 million, 45K a week salary, & wear the No 9 shirt???

Because they just probably looked him up on youtube and thought he was the dogs bollocks.

Over malky's on a sunday afternoon with a beer and a take away,

Moody ''Aye malky lad look at this lad ere like on youtube like''

Malky ''Aye Ian, this wee lad is sound like''

''How much we got, send them 9 Mill''

A story goes that Moyes and Everton were looking at him, Moyes got the move to ManU, and Malky was tipped off about him on his visit to Everton, obviously not enough research was done and whatever happend we wasted the best part of £10Million, and it was probably one of the main reasons we were relegated ...........

All the evidence point to this being the single most reason why Malky was eventually sacked.

If it had not been for the Cornelius transfer then I believe that Malky Mackay would still be our manager today,,,& we would still be playing Premiership football!

You haven't heard about his texts or e-mails to Moody then?

He wasn't originally sacked because of those texts or e-mails though was he? No, That all came to light during the later investigations into their (Malky & Moody) transfer dealings,,,,of which Cornelius was far the biggest issue.

You said, ""If it had not been for the Cornelius transfer then I believe that Malky Mackay would still be our manager today,,,& we would still be playing Premiership football!" and made no mention of the texts or e-mails, in whichever order the transgressions came!

So do you genuinely believe that Malky was only sacked because of the fact that VT was unhappy with the signing of Cornelius, because that's how you worded your initial post?

I'm more interested to know why Malky & Moody thought Cornelius was good enough to command a 10 million, 45K a week salary, & wear the No 9 shirt???

Because they just probably looked him up on youtube and thought he was the dogs bollocks.

Over malky's on a sunday afternoon with a beer and a take away,

Moody ''Aye malky lad look at this lad ere like on youtube like''

Malky ''Aye Ian, this wee lad is sound like''

''How much we got, send them 9 Mill''

A story goes that Moyes and Everton were looking at him, Moyes got the move to ManU, and Malky was tipped off about him on his visit to Everton, obviously not enough research was done and whatever happend we wasted the best part of £10Million, and it was probably one of the main reasons we were relegated ...........

All the evidence point to this being the single most reason why Malky was eventually sacked.

If it had not been for the Cornelius transfer then I believe that Malky Mackay would still be our manager today,,,& we would still be playing Premiership football!

You haven't heard about his texts or e-mails to Moody then?

He wasn't originally sacked because of those texts or e-mails though was he? No, That all came to light during the later investigations into their (Malky & Moody) transfer dealings,,,,of which Cornelius was far the biggest issue.

You said, ""If it had not been for the Cornelius transfer then I believe that Malky Mackay would still be our manager today,,,& we would still be playing Premiership football!" and made no mention of the texts or e-mails, in whichever order the transgressions came!

So do you genuinely believe that Malky was only sacked because of the fact that VT was unhappy with the signing of Cornelius, because that's how you worded your initial post?

Yes, of course he was, & probably one or two other transfer dealings during the Summer of 2013.

Do your own research on this matter,,,,up until July 2013, when Cornelius was signed, Tan thought he had a very good & (i quote) respectful relationship with Malky,,,Tan even said so on National TV after our promotion clinching game the previous April.

It was the transfer deals that Tan was not happy with, including the Cornelius contract, first & by far the biggest one.
The later charges of racism came as a consequence of the investigations into these transfer deals, & not before, IMHO!

I'm more interested to know why Malky & Moody thought Cornelius was good enough to command a 10 million, 45K a week salary, & wear the No 9 shirt???

Because they just probably looked him up on youtube and thought he was the dogs bollocks.

Over malky's on a sunday afternoon with a beer and a take away,

Moody ''Aye malky lad look at this lad ere like on youtube like''

Malky ''Aye Ian, this wee lad is sound like''

''How much we got, send them 9 Mill''

A story goes that Moyes and Everton were looking at him, Moyes got the move to ManU, and Malky was tipped off about him on his visit to Everton, obviously not enough research was done and whatever happend we wasted the best part of £10Million, and it was probably one of the main reasons we were relegated ...........

All the evidence point to this being the single most reason why Malky was eventually sacked.

If it had not been for the Cornelius transfer then I believe that Malky Mackay would still be our manager today,,,& we would still be playing Premiership football!

You haven't heard about his texts or e-mails to Moody then?

He wasn't originally sacked because of those texts or e-mails though was he? No, That all came to light during the later investigations into their (Malky & Moody) transfer dealings,,,,of which Cornelius was far the biggest issue.

You said, ""If it had not been for the Cornelius transfer then I believe that Malky Mackay would still be our manager today,,,& we would still be playing Premiership football!" and made no mention of the texts or e-mails, in whichever order the transgressions came!

So do you genuinely believe that Malky was only sacked because of the fact that VT was unhappy with the signing of Cornelius, because that's how you worded your initial post?

Yes, of course he was, & probably one or two other transfer dealings during the Summer of 2013.

Do your own research on this matter,,,,up until July 2013, when Cornelius was signed, Tan thought he had a very good & (i quote) respectful relationship with Malky,,,Tan even said so on National TV after our promotion clinching game the previous April.

It was the transfer deals that Tan was not happy with, including the Cornelius contract, first & by far the biggest one.
The later charges of racism came as a consequence of the investigations into these transfer deals, & not before, IMHO!

I don't need to do any research Rick, as the info you've provided in this last post was already known to me!

You miss my point however, as I quote you again, ""If it had not been for the Cornelius transfer then I believe that Malky Mackay would still be our manager today,,,& we would still be playing Premiership football!"

Firstly it's a matter of conjecture as to whether Malky would have kept us up or not and it's also a matter of conjecture, as to whether Malky was sacked for his 2013 Summer dealings (Especially the signing of Cornelius), as IMO, he would not have been sacked at the time he was dismissed, had it not been for our results on the pitch!

Clearly, I suspect that had he still been manager when the e-mails and texts became common knowledge, then VT would have immediately dismissed him, but I've quoted you above again, as in your quote you make no mention of these indiscretions and state that if it wasn't for Cornelius's transfer, then Malky would still be our manager!

Surely you can't believe that VT would not have sacked him, as soon as these communications to Moody became known to him?

I'm more interested to know why Malky & Moody thought Cornelius was good enough to command a 10 million, 45K a week salary, & wear the No 9 shirt???

Because they just probably looked him up on youtube and thought he was the dogs bollocks.

Over malky's on a sunday afternoon with a beer and a take away,

Moody ''Aye malky lad look at this lad ere like on youtube like''

Malky ''Aye Ian, this wee lad is sound like''

''How much we got, send them 9 Mill''

A story goes that Moyes and Everton were looking at him, Moyes got the move to ManU, and Malky was tipped off about him on his visit to Everton, obviously not enough research was done and whatever happend we wasted the best part of £10Million, and it was probably one of the main reasons we were relegated ...........

All the evidence point to this being the single most reason why Malky was eventually sacked.

If it had not been for the Cornelius transfer then I believe that Malky Mackay would still be our manager today,,,& we would still be playing Premiership football!

You haven't heard about his texts or e-mails to Moody then?

He wasn't originally sacked because of those texts or e-mails though was he? No, That all came to light during the later investigations into their (Malky & Moody) transfer dealings,,,,of which Cornelius was far the biggest issue.

You said, ""If it had not been for the Cornelius transfer then I believe that Malky Mackay would still be our manager today,,,& we would still be playing Premiership football!" and made no mention of the texts or e-mails, in whichever order the transgressions came!

So do you genuinely believe that Malky was only sacked because of the fact that VT was unhappy with the signing of Cornelius, because that's how you worded your initial post?

Yes, of course he was, & probably one or two other transfer dealings during the Summer of 2013.

Do your own research on this matter,,,,up until July 2013, when Cornelius was signed, Tan thought he had a very good & (i quote) respectful relationship with Malky,,,Tan even said so on National TV after our promotion clinching game the previous April.

It was the transfer deals that Tan was not happy with, including the Cornelius contract, first & by far the biggest one.
The later charges of racism came as a consequence of the investigations into these transfer deals, & not before, IMHO!

I don't need to do any research Rick, as the info you've provided in this last post was already known to me!

You miss my point however, as I quote you again, ""If it had not been for the Cornelius transfer then I believe that Malky Mackay would still be our manager today,,,& we would still be playing Premiership football!"

Firstly it's a matter of conjecture as to whether Malky would have kept us up or not and it's also a matter of conjecture, as to whether Malky was sacked for his 2013 Summer dealings (Especially the signing of Cornelius), as IMO, he would not have been sacked at the time he was dismissed, had it not been for our results on the pitch!

Clearly, I suspect that had he still been manager when the e-mails and texts became common knowledge, then VT would have immediately dismissed him, but I've quoted you above again, as in your quote you make no mention of these indiscretions and state that if it wasn't for Cornelius's transfer, then Malky would still be our manager!

Surely you can't believe that VT would not have sacked him, as soon as these communications to Moody became known to him?

The communications would probably never had come to light if it were not for he investigations into Cornelius, & a few other transfer dealings during that Pre Premiership Summer, end of. That's my personal view anyway, based on the timeline of the facts. Work the rest out for yourself!

It doesn't matter how the communications came to light Rick, the problem is that you don't answer the question, which is rather straight forward:-

Do you really think that VT wouldn't have sacked Malky, when the texts/e-mails came to light?

It doesn't matter how the communications came to light Rick, the problem is that you don't answer the question, which is rather straight forward:-

Do you really think that VT wouldn't have sacked Malky, when the texts/e-mails came to light?

You say "when", & not "If" the communications came to light? They only came to light Because of the Cornelius transfer investigations.
If Malky had bought a "Mitchu" type player ( the type of player VT said he wanted) for a fraction of the cost, & scored regularly in the Premiership, VT would have been more than happy with Malky, but there we go.

To answer your burning question though, then yes, he probably would have, might have sacked MM for the communications alone.
Would have, might have,, how do I know?? Doe's anyone other than VT really know???

Like you said earlier , its all a matter of conjecture now, although the matter is not quite finally closed, yet.
As for the main topic of this thread, Cornelius, then his contract came at a very high price, both for our club & Malky MacKay.
Malky was sacked for gross misconduct almost a year ago last December, was the reason at the time of his sacking the disclosure of the texts & e-mails? I don't know. Those certainly were not mentioned in the wider domain at that time.
It wasn't until about April/May of this year that Malky & Moody gave an unreserved apology to VT, & in doing so, dropped a multi million £££ law suit. Such actions do not defend an innocent person, but I am still of the opinion that if it was not for the Cornelius debacle, then Malky would still be here today.

It doesn't matter how the communications came to light Rick, the problem is that you don't answer the question, which is rather straight forward:-

Do you really think that VT wouldn't have sacked Malky, when the texts/e-mails came to light?

You say "when", & not "If" the communications came to light? They only came to light Because of the Cornelius transfer investigations.
If Malky had bought a "Mitchu" type player ( the type of player VT said he wanted) for a fraction of the cost, & scored regularly in the Premiership, VT would have been more than happy with Malky, but there we go.

To answer your burning question though, then yes, he probably would have, might have sacked MM for the communications alone.
Would have, might have,, how do I know?? Doe's anyone other than VT really know???

Like you said earlier , its all a matter of conjecture now, although the matter is not quite finally closed, yet.
As for the main topic of this thread, Cornelius, then his contract came at a very high price, both for our club & Malky MacKay.
Malky was sacked for gross misconduct almost a year ago last December, was the reason at the time of his sacking the disclosure of the texts & e-mails? I don't know. Those certainly were not mentioned in the wider domain at that time.
It wasn't until about April/May of this year that Malky & Moody gave an unreserved apology to VT, & in doing so, dropped a multi million £££ law suit. Such actions do not defend an innocent person, but I am still of the opinion that if it was not for the Cornelius debacle, then Malky would still be here today.

I agree with your fist paragraph here, but it wasn't really a burning question, just one that I felt I needed to ask, given your opening sweeping statement, that Malky would still be with us, had it not been for the Cornelius signing!

Whilst none of us know the 100% truth about the financial implications of his transfer, it is clear that the transfer, or the cost of the transfer fee, was a huge mistake!

Yes, it's open to conjecture as you've agreed, but I still find it hard to see how anybody can doubt that VT would not have dismissed Malky as manager (Had he still been with us), as soon as the texts/e-mails came to light!

Thanks for finally answering the question though!

It doesn't matter how the communications came to light Rick, the problem is that you don't answer the question, which is rather straight forward:-

Do you really think that VT wouldn't have sacked Malky, when the texts/e-mails came to light?

You say "when", & not "If" the communications came to light? They only came to light Because of the Cornelius transfer investigations.
If Malky had bought a "Mitchu" type player ( the type of player VT said he wanted) for a fraction of the cost, & scored regularly in the Premiership, VT would have been more than happy with Malky, but there we go.

To answer your burning question though, then yes, he probably would have, might have sacked MM for the communications alone.
Would have, might have,, how do I know?? Doe's anyone other than VT really know???

Like you said earlier , its all a matter of conjecture now, although the matter is not quite finally closed, yet.
As for the main topic of this thread, Cornelius, then his contract came at a very high price, both for our club & Malky MacKay.
Malky was sacked for gross misconduct almost a year ago last December, was the reason at the time of his sacking the disclosure of the texts & e-mails? I don't know. Those certainly were not mentioned in the wider domain at that time.
It wasn't until about April/May of this year that Malky & Moody gave an unreserved apology to VT, & in doing so, dropped a multi million £££ law suit. Such actions do not defend an innocent person, but I am still of the opinion that if it was not for the Cornelius debacle, then Malky would still be here today.

I agree with your fist paragraph here, but it wasn't really a burning question, just one that I felt I needed to ask, given your opening sweeping statement, that Malky would still be with us, had it not been for the Cornelius signing!

Whilst none of us know the 100% truth about the financial implications of his transfer, it is clear that the transfer, or the cost of the transfer fee, was a huge mistake!

Yes, it's open to conjecture as you've agreed, but I still find it hard to see how anybody can doubt that VT would not have dismissed Malky as manager (Had he still been with us), as soon as the texts/e-mails came to light!

Thanks for finally answering the question though!

Amen.

I wish people would give the Cornelius bashing a rest. Cornelius was young player of the year In Denmark and had just broken into the Danish national team before we signed him. He had 2 bad injuries and it didn't work out for him. It happens and the deal was a huge flop. It was an expensive mistake and an unnecessary gamble. But if Cornelius turned out to be like another Benteke, things would have been different. Cornelius was pretty much the only mistake Malky made.

I wish people would give the Cornelius bashing a rest. Cornelius was young player of the year In Denmark and had just broken into the Danish national team before we signed him. He had 2 bad injuries and it didn't work out for him. It happens and the deal was a huge flop. It was an expensive mistake and an unnecessary gamble. But if Cornelius turned out to be like another Benteke, things would have been different. Cornelius was pretty much the only mistake Malky made.

This is true,,,& the relevant point I was making earlier. If Cornelius had turned out to be a goal scoring machine for us, & kept us in the Premiership, Malky would have been held in further high esteem.

As it turned out though,,he was a very expensive flop, so much so that his contract was terminated six months into a five year contract.

As for Malky's only mistake, player wise you can add a few other names into the mix,,but the subsequent investigations into these transfer deals opened up a whole new "can of worms",,,to which MM had no defense against.

I wish people would give the Cornelius bashing a rest. Cornelius was young player of the year In Denmark and had just broken into the Danish national team before we signed him. He had 2 bad injuries and it didn't work out for him. It happens and the deal was a huge flop. It was an expensive mistake and an unnecessary gamble. But if Cornelius turned out to be like another Benteke, things would have been different. Cornelius was pretty much the only mistake Malky made.

I agree apart from it being Malky's only mistake.

What about:

Velikonja
Catherine
Brayford (not picking him)
Gestede (selling him when he was clearly better than the Dane)
Mason
McNaughton (loaning him leaving us stupidly short of full back cover)
Conway (freezing him out when we were short of wide players)

That's just off the top of my head.