The biggest scapegoat we've ever had?

[Fifties Blue]

Alan Woollett - for his missed tackle in the 1969 FA cup final

[Zingari]

Alan Woollett - for his missed tackle in the 1969 FA cup final

i think it was most unfair for him to have to shoulder the blame for that defeat .

[Kitchandro]

We seem to have one or two every year since as far back as I remember.

The shite Wellens has received this year puts him right up there.

The treated dished out to Ricardo was a disgrace, he wasn't brilliant put people were making up problems and blaming him for things that weren't even his fault most of the time. Then Weale comes back in and fecks up more than Ricardo ever did.

The problem was, Weale was having a stormer of a time when he was senselessly dropped for Ricardo. Our form started to dip almost straight away. Weale was never very good with crosses but Ricardo was even worse, and our defence looked far more shaky all of a sudden.

It was inevitable he would be scapegoated for our poor form because it coincided with his arrival, partly through his own fault, though not entirely, as there were other failings in our team. But Sven killed his Leicester career before it started because he put him in to replace a goalkeeper in good form (what he did after he got his place back is irrelevant)

We also got worse when Bruma started getting picked, another scapegoat. If I had a scapegoat that season it probably would have been Van Aanholt, really couldn't stand him I have to admit.

I'd agree Wellens has to be up there, I've lost count of the amount of times other players' bad performances have been blamed on him this season. Gallagher as well. The thing is I don't even think they're the worst players in the squad, not by a long way.

McGivern on the other hand....now at least that made a bit of sense, he was completely hopeless in almost every game and clearly our weak link along with Neilson, I did feel sorry for the lad, but at least he didn't get booed, not to my recollection anyway.

[Guy]

From the mid 70s onwards...

Jon Sammels

Roger Davies

Gregor Stevens

Norman Leet

Tommy English

Mark Bright

Martin Hodge

Tony Spearing

Paul Reid

Lee Philpott

Jimmy Willis

Gary Coatsworth

Mark Blake

Ade Akinbiyi

Matt Jones

Junior Lewis

Lee Marshall

D****s W**e

Jacob Laursen

Alan Rogers

John Curtis

Kevin Pressman

Gareth Williams

Nathan Blake

Mark De Vries

Patrick Kisnorbo

Elvis Hammond

D J Campbell

Yann Kermorgant

Roman Bednar

The above is the classic "who's who hall of fame" of scapegoats from yesteryear alright - save for Ian Ormondroyd possibly! Other more recent obvious omissions (no names mentioned) are the two goalkeepers from last season (causing fans to be at loggerheads) - one who was chronically out of form and a shadow of his self from the previous season - versus a washed up international - and oh yes, the present starting eleven! - well certainly Mills, Pantsil, Gallagher, Wellens and Howard!

[Kitchandro]

They defend him because people went over the top, just like you have.

There were two incidents I remember more than the rest. One being against Derby when he got slaughtered for punching the ball rather than catching it, when people seemed to ignore the fact that he would have gone out of his area if he's caught the blooming ball. The other being him having the ball blasted at him from about 3 yards out and people wondering why he couldn't keep it out.

We took more points and conceded less with him in goal for his 9 games than we did in Weales previous 9. And Weale then proceeded to make error after error when he went back in goal, but received nothing like the hounding Ricardo did. In fact he'd feck up and get his name chanted.

Sorry Babs but that's hardly accurate.

As I said above, Weale, despite being prone to bad errors earlier in the season, was in brilliant form when Ricardo came along. He'd undoubtedly won us the match at Sheff Utd with a string of fine saves, then was dropped against Derby. In that game we barely left the Derby half for 45 minutes, but in the second half Ricardo showed glimpses of what was to come. He came running out of his goal and got nowhere near the ball, or not enough on it, on a couple of occassions, and Derby could have had a couple as a result.

I think Bristol City was the next game and once again, every long ball and cross caused him problems. This was constant in pretty much every game he played, and he was extremely lucky he wasn't punished more often, because in fact he dropped many clangers, they just didn't result in goals many times through fortune and good last-ditch defending alone.

High balls have been his nemesis throughout his career, just watch some highlights of Euros 2004 and 2008. He shouldn't have had the opportunity to score the winning penalty against England, because they should have been out when Campbell scored because of his poor 'attempt' at catching it.

As for the two incidents, you're forgetting Portsmouth at home where again, he hurtled out of his goal and got nowhere near the goal, allowing Nugent to put it into an empty net.

[Foxhateram]

Used to make me laugh how Lee Morriss used to get stick despite not even kicking a ball for the club.

Kermogant got harsh stick really. Even before the penalty miss he was written off and blamed for a lot, being used as a Pearson out aid.

[Kitchandro]

Don't anyone even get me started on the 'Kermorgant got too much stick for his penalty' debate

[Babylon]

No we didn't. In Ricardo's 8 games (not 9) we collected just 10 points. In Weale's previous 8 games we collected 19. Even when Weale was brought back we still picked up 11 points from 8 games, even though your idol Sven had wrecked his confidence by then.

You're correct I hold my hands up on that one. Although I believe they conceded the same number of goals over the two eight game stretches. But people should look at the teams we had to play in our "losing streak". The worst part was 4 games without a win when we played Cardiff (4th), QPR (Promoted), Norwich (Promoted).

My idol Sven You really are an utter cock, and you can report me on that one.

[Captain...]

Sorry Babs but that's hardly accurate.

As I said above, Weale, despite being prone to bad errors earlier in the season, was in brilliant form when Ricardo came along. He'd undoubtedly won us the match at Sheff Utd with a string of fine saves, then was dropped against Derby. In that game we barely left the Derby half for 45 minutes, but in the second half Ricardo showed glimpses of what was to come. He came running out of his goal and got nowhere near the ball, or not enough on it, on a couple of occassions, and Derby could have had a couple as a result.

I think Bristol City was the next game and once again, every long ball and cross caused him problems. This was constant in pretty much every game he played, and he was extremely lucky he wasn't punished more often, because in fact he dropped many clangers, they just didn't result in goals many times through fortune and good last-ditch defending alone.

High balls have been his nemesis throughout his career, just watch some highlights of Euros 2004 and 2008. He shouldn't have had the opportunity to score the winning penalty against England, because they should have been out when Campbell scored because of his poor 'attempt' at catching it.

As for the two incidents, you're forgetting Portsmouth at home where again, he hurtled out of his goal and got nowhere near the goal, allowing Nugent to put it into an empty net.

This was pretty much how I remembered it, Ricardo was a poor goalkeeper and past it and completely pointless and unnecessary signing, nobody would begrudge Weale being replaced by a better goalkeeper, i.e. Kapser, but first it was an unfit and out of form Kirkland, then Ricardo, neither of which were a significant improvement on Weale nor long term solutions, which pretty much summed up Sven's transfer policy that season (Bamba excluded).