he was fairly regular for Blackburn and was involved regularly enough for us last season
a quick look at wiki and you can see he's played nearly as many games as Rodwell in the last two seasons depsite Rodwell being older
I was reponding to poster who felt we should have bid for rodwell based on his versatility
my point was that we have a versatile player already in Jones who has more experience than Rodwell (champions league, england squads last year) and IMO is a better prospect
Fair enough.
They have similar experience, think it would be silly - to in-any-way - insinuate that Jones is somehow more experienced.
Personally, I do rate Rodwell as a good prospect. But yeah, I don't get some of the extreme hype around him. He has yet to really make the step up after a promising start to his career.
Jones looks extremely promising, no doubt about that. However, I just don't see him as a centre midfielder. I hope that he can be a top class defender for us, in the years to come.
Maybe he is. I just haven't ever seen it.
Obviously they play in different positions and can do a job in each others respective ones but I hadn't really noticed Jones much earlier and when he came here I saw the talent and the reason for the hype. Of course he was calamitous at times in defence but there was huge potential and it was clear to see. Just haven't seen anything great in Rodwell whenever I've watched him.
I have seen Rodwell have some good games, even one or two outstanding ones - Jones, too. To me, they are very different players. Maybe one day Rodwell will be a top class midfielder and Jones will be be a top class defender. The potential is there in both.
I do feel that Rodwell - to an extent - has somewhat stagnated in his development, since making his debut at such a young age.