His Bobness wrote:I think Agar knew that Hall had ability and gave him plenty of chances. In the end Agar ran out of patience which is understandable.
In these days of salary cap restrictions coaches are forced into these type of decisions.
Obviously I hope Craig Hall does well at Rovers so good luck to him.
I don't really see Morgan's task as making Hall good at things he has not been good at in the past. Morgan didn't sign Hall in the belief he could turn him into a tackling machine. No he signed him because of what he CAN do not what he can't. Hall will be given a few do's and don'ts to comply with but mainly I think he'll be asked to express himself and show his ability.
Hall's pace and his ability to ghost through gaps definitely add value for Rovers. We'll have to see if this outweighs any negatives. Either way he is not a top earner and he is not crucial to Rovers hopes for 2011.
Morgan knows this so there's really nothing to lose.
Fair points. At FC however, particularly in 2008 and 2009, Hall, who was a good fringe player who ended up playing a lot of games due to injuries to Tony, Byrne, Raynor, etc, and in those cases you
do have something to lose. If Rovers, say, lost Briscoe for the season tomorrow, and Cockayne for 3 months the week after, Hall would be an automatic pick somewhere in the backs, possibly fullback, facing the bombs of Danny Brough and being Rovers last line of defence trying to hold up the likes of Crabtree over the line. As I said, it was that sort of situation that did for him. In your ideal scenario of having a full strength squad to pick from every week, you're right, there's nothing to lose, but that's not necessarily the actual situation you find yourself in every week.