City drew 0-0 with Grimsby earlier tonight in away from home. Our players built up their fitness even more in the record breaking heat but as we have seen with all of our pre-season games so far, Chris Maguire was not involved.
Maguire signed for City last year, as Michael Appleton’s second signing of the summer. The signing went against the recruitment model of signing players with resale value however Appleton described him as a leader that would be able to help the group through difficult moments throughout the season. At first glance, it looked to be a good signing on paper with his goal record and with him being labelled a fan favourite at Sunderland.
I even said at the time it was a good signing and brilliant coup for us, and I believe if we had a good season and finished in the top half, he would have been successful. However, his antics frustrated fans as we were losing games while he was doing them, if we were leading Rotherham by a goal for example and Maguire started to wind up the opposition then it would have been more welcome. On top of that his performances on the pitch didn’t back up his attitude, which many fans had a problem with and rightly so.
He was no worse last season than Lasse Sorensen for example, however Lasse didn’t go shouting at the officials and arguing with the fans when things were not going his way. Maguire seemed passionate but sometimes he was too passionate and it rubbed off as him being arrogant. He may have also played a part in MA departing as well. Michael always seemed reluctant to drop Maguire even after strings of poor performances, and if a manager keeps picking a poor performing player the fans often turn on the manager.
The turning point for Maguire was that Hartlepool game. Although he scored the hattrick a few months later, a massive part of the fanbase didn’t like what they saw and when he was performing poorly they remembered that. At the end of the day, the old saying goes that the fans pay his wages, so the last thing he should do is have an altercation with a fan for voicing their displeasures. As much as I don’t like people booing and complaining at players there is nothing stopping you doing that once you’ve paid your entrance fee. There was times when John Marquis didn’t play well but he put 100% in and at the end of the game, he would come over to the crowd and show his appreciation without fail. Even if it is not going right for you, fans will appreciate the effort if it is there and unfortunately Chris Maguire never showed that or had that connection with the fan base.
While some will not, I wish Chris Maguire all the best in the future purely for that hattrick against Sunderland.