Player contracts and transfers


David123
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Dobbie was the main reason I never took to Coyle. He was clearly a very talented player and we were an average team yet Coyle let his obsession with body condition rather than fitness cloud his judgement. 

Is it true he made him run to the stadium from training in town rather than get the team bus?

 

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Dobbie was the main reason I never took to Coyle. He was clearly a very talented player and we were an average team yet Coyle let his obsession with body condition rather than fitness cloud his judgement. 

Is it true he made him run to the stadium from training in town rather than get the team bus?

 

Discarded by Hibs for fitness issues and quite possibly Rangers too although not sure of that one.A good player who could have been a better one.Good luck to him at QoS

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Dobbie was the main reason I never took to Coyle. He was clearly a very talented player and we were an average team yet Coyle let his obsession with body condition rather than fitness cloud his judgement. 

Is it true he made him run to the stadium from training in town rather than get the team bus?

Can see both sides of the argument on this one. Sure he had ability, but if he wasn't putting in the effort in other areas such as fitness and conditioning (which presumably the rest of the squad were) and Coyle played him anyway then what kind of a message does that send to the other players?

One of our best qualities in recent years has been that we have a squad full of guys that aren't afraid to give you 100%.

Perhaps what Dobbie needed was the kick up the ar*e that came from dropping down the leagues in order to really find his potential. Look at the shape the guy was in when playing for Swansea and Crystal Palace compared to Saints and QOS. It's like a different person. He could do it, but was obviously deciding not to.

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The mistake Coyle made was not giving Dobbie a chance when he came back from Dumbarton, not what happened before that when he was out of shape. Dumbarton had been a kick up the backside and Coyle should have been able to see that. He hit the ground running at Palmerston, so Saints could have similarly benefited.

We did have Milne, Scotland and MacDonald at the time but you only need to look at how many games Derek Lilley got to see Dobbie would have featured and obviously it was always likely we'd lose Scotland that summer.

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Dobbie did had a few chances when he came back. I remember a sub appearance after he returned where he looked completely disinterested and contributed nothing and you could see Coyle's frustration. Think having Scotland in the side at the time didn't help his chances either.

His time at QoS where he was the "main man" brought his best out him and as others have pointed out he clearly looked a lot fitter after moving down south. Would have been disappointed had we signed him now though.

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Dobbie did had a few chances when he came back. I remember a sub appearance after he returned where he looked completely disinterested and contributed nothing and you could see Coyle's frustration. Think having Scotland in the side at the time didn't help his chances either.

His time at QoS where he was the "main man" brought his best out him and as others have pointed out he clearly looked a lot fitter after moving down south. Would have been disappointed had we signed him now though.

He didnt play for us after his loan spells did he? Was on loan at Dumbarton Aug 2006-Dec2006 then went straight to QOS a few days later for the rest of the season, and then joined them in the Summer. He made 27 appearances for us in 2005/06, scoring five goals, but didnt score a single one after August.

At the time the reasoning behind his departure/freezing out was justified, its just his career since that makes it look daft.

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I was a big Dobbie fan. Loved the way he always wanted to take long range shots and his vision was fantastic. There was one particular game towards the end of his time with us where he played up front with Jason Scotland - pretty sure it was away to Hamilton - and he was the best player on the pitch. Scotland said afterwards that Dobbie was his favourite strike partner to play with. I seem to remember Dobbie hardly ever played for us again after that, if at all. Very strange, but clearly there was some issue between him and Coyle.

That said, I saw Dobbie play a pre-season friendly for a Crystal Palace XI a couple of seasons ago and he was awful. Wandered around with his head down for the whole game, barely spoke to his team mates and hardly ran at all. Not convinced he'd be good enough or hard working enough for Saints these days.

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