Scott Hogan

Crowley did play for Ireland at under 17 level, but it was only a friendly. You'd  hope he had a passport at that stage

About time this was cleared up , the FAI and the lad himself have been silent on the subject. England are unlikely to come calling but he is potentially an asset for us. Perhaps the huge demand for Irish passports in the UK as a consequence of Brexit will help increase our future player pools.

The story is that he's doing exactly what he's always done. Has a purple patch for 4/5 games; then goes missing for 5/6 games; then another purple patch etc etc. He's the very definition of a "form player".

Banjaxed wrote: I think you're being a bit generous to Scott there. He had an extended purple patch at Brentford (which is what garnered him all the attention). Through poor form/injury he flattered to deceive once he left Brentford. And then he had a purple patch from the new year to Covid with Birmingham. That's pretty much the only purple patches I can see that he's had.

That's about right. If he's not scoring goals, he's not doing heavy lifting either, unlike say McGoldrick or Long. He does make good runs, he's quick and a good finisher on his day but the West Ham move never happened because Bilic had doubts as to whether he was worth the silly money being mooted at the time. So he was destined not to become the next Jamie Vardy, making the Premiership late from the lower leagues, or in contention for England. He was one of those who wanted to ' concentrate on his club career ' for quite some time before committing to Ireland. Aston Villa was probably his last big chance for the Premiership but Dean Smith, who got the best out of him at Brentford, gave up on him there. He's still a goal scorer, still capable of doing it in the Championship and still an option for Ireland for the time being, but I can't see him hitting any further heights now. I see Birmingham are now very much in a relegation struggle also.

Mr Brick wrote: The O'Shea wrote: Banjaxed wrote: I think you're being a bit generous to Scott there. He had an extended purple patch at Brentford (which is what garnered him all the attention). Through poor form/injury he flattered to deceive once he left Brentford. And then he had a purple patch from the new year to Covid with Birmingham. That's pretty much the only purple patches I can see that he's had.  Look at his record for Brentford and Rochdale, it's exactly the same pattern. He would have a few matches where he would score braces or hattricks, and then he'd go 5 games without scoring. It's one of the reasons I questioned why West Ham were so interested in him at the time, because although he was nominally averaging a goal every other game, that wasn't really the reality of it. What was actually happening was that he'd score 6-7 goal over 3-4 games, and then he'd go on a barren run. So although he looked like a consistent goalscorer based on the way the numbers averaged out, in actuality he was a "streak" goalscorer. It's been similar throughout his career imo. The trick with Hogan will be to only pick him when he's in the middle of one of those streaks, otherwise you're wasting your time. So, by your calculations (7 goals in 3-4 games then scoreless for 5 or 6) - and allowing for six out-injured games - Hogan would score 24-27 goals per Championship season. Even if dropped for a few games - unlikely within your scenario - he would still be a 20-plus goals a season striker. If any of our young likely-lads did likewise you'd be choking on your own superlatives.

He's one of our top goalscorers this season and he's been in and out of the team.

Banjaxed wrote: Missed a penalty against Birmingham.

He's a Villa player really.