Not sure Holden is ahead of him really....let's see how he does next season. But Danny Williams probably is.
Attacking mid? The guy who has 1 goal in 77 appearances in the last two season in the 2nd level of English Soccer? Really? Ahead of him - Bradley, JJ, Cameron, Klejstan, Beckerman, Williams, Holden and more. Not even in the picture in central midfield.
holding mid then is club plays him as a band-aid all over the park; right back, right mid, d-mid, holding mid. thats a useful guy for depth. Hes certainly better out wide than any of the aforementioned. Klinsy's beckerman fetish has fizzled out. Danny Williams butt was planted firmly to the bench for a team that needed relegation playoffs to survive. Kljestan for all the solid work he has done at Anderlecht just cant seem to put it together and has more off performances than on. The fact that Spector can fill any one of their roles, plus possibly the Zusi/Davis role makes him a good depth option.
I agree with this I think it is time for Specs to make a comeback and I have felt that way for a while now. He is getting plenty of playing time with Birmingham and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. He will be playing in the mid field and defense this year so he will be valuable to the national team as a fill in and maybe a start here and there.
To be honest, Spector would compete against a guy like Geoff Cameron. While his style is different, he is extremely versatile. Essentially, like Cameron, he is a jack of all trades but a mater of none. Coaches love guys like that. They can be plugged into the lineup and perform adequately no matter the role. Spector has done that virtually his whole career. Some say it's possibly held him back but I don't believe that. Spector has always managed to earn PT and play a role despite where he was positioned. I would love for him to stay at BC and battle it out in the midfield. What little I saw last season, he was one of the few consistent players on a BC squad that underperformed. With a few additions here and there BC could/should be a promotion contender. There is no reason not to believe he won't have an impact.
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...or-spurns-premier-league-interest-re-sign-bir Spector put pen-to-paper on a new 2-yr contract with BC. There was apparently some interest from Premier League clubs but he felt his chances were better at BC.
Does anyone know which EPL teams may have been interested because if they are newly promoted JS may have made a mistake!!!
I have no idea. His only mistake would have been going to a club and sitting on the pine. Playing is the key. Spector is well versed in knowing his limits and if an offer is worth the risk. I will always back the notion it is better to play in the Championship than grab spot minutes in the EPL. I'd rather him battle for promotion with BC than be in a relegation fight for an EPL club. There's an argument to be made that the Championship is still a top 10-12 European league. Spector made no mistake. He made a smart decision. It won't hurt his national team chances.
I guess time will tell but JK likes players in Europe to play in the top divisons of their respective country.
Perhaps he never should have left WH. They were only out of the Premier League for 1 year. Don't think Birmingham is returning anytime soon. I wonder how strong was the interest from Cardiff.
Birmingham City are as good as many MLS teams. The reason JS is getting no NT attention is because we have a load of CM's.
"As well as midfield he can play as a full-back, although I ultimately think that as he goes on he could be a decent centre-half because he's an aggressive player, he's got good aerial ability and he's mobile. Wow wasn't expecting that. High praise from his manager.
meh, a tad disappointed. Thinking he sold himself short sticking around. But it certainly could be worse. Hope the blues are competitive this season in the championship
I wonder if he looked around and realized this might be his level, he's got a starting XI spot locked down for a quality Championship team, he's comfortable, and making a Shiite load of money playing a sport. If he was a Premiership level player, at 27, he would be there by now. His best odds of making the move back to the prem is with Birmingham if they can get promoted, or if he has another solid season and a promoted team needs a cheapish solid defender next year. I think he's in a great position at this point in his career. While it doesn't seem that he's in JK's plans for the USNT, all he can do is keep playing games. Maybe enough people get hurt over this year that he'll be called back in for the RB slot. If SC doesn't recover well from his knee op, and TC gets a major injury this season (god forbid), I could see JK running the rule over Specs to provide some experienced cover in that role.
He plays mainly as a full-back now for Birmingham. He might've been able to land a Premiership contract, because he would've been a very cheap option for a newly promoted club to add a player with over 100 games experience in the Premiership. I think he made the right option though to stay at Birmingham and I don't think he's sold himself short as at the moment Championship really does seem to be his level.. I don't believe West Ham offered him a new contract, which is why he left.
My understanding is that he hasn't played fullback much if at all since around last Deecember. It's been mostly center mid, with some center back mixed in. Also, it's great that he's in a situation where the coach clearly has a lot of confidence in him.
If you trust football-lineups.com, he mostly played as a CM this past season. http://www.football-lineups.com/footballer/970_Jonathan_Spector/
Spector started at right-back in Birmingham's first preseason match: http://www.bcfc.com/news/article/20130708-the-report-shamrock-rovers-0-blues-4-901935.aspx
Interesting. Just an experiment or is this where he is projected to play? We need right back depth that's for sure.
I don't rate Spector at fullback but unfortunately for him the US is too stacked in midfield for him to get much run there, so fullback may be his best bet in terms of making it to Brasil.
I would agree about fullback (he wasn't the best there in the past) but with Dolo a "?" and Chandler/Evans next in line. He wouldn't be an awful option to have as depth. Anyway, that's for USMNT discussion. Interesting to see where he lines up primarily for B'ham this season.