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Connor Sammon


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Hearts are on the brink of beating Aberdeen to the signing of former Kilmarnock striker Connor Sammon after the 29-year-old was released by Derby County. (The Sun, print edition)

Would have be interesting to see him back to Rugby Park but looks like we aren't in the running for him.

 

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does he still have the pace he had 5 years ago ?

do we, Aberdeen or Hearts have a player in the eremenko ,mould that can point him where to go and put the ball on a plate ?

I am thinking not . but maybe wrong . his scoring record since leaving at any level of english football has not been great 

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43 minutes ago, offday281 said:

do we, Aberdeen or Hearts have a player in the eremenko ,mould that can point him where to go and put the ball on a plate ?

I'm sure somebody on here debunked that at one point by watching all Sammon's goals for us and it turned out Eremenko only ever set up something like 2 of them.

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1 hour ago, Fletch said:

I'm sure somebody on here debunked that at one point by watching all Sammon's goals for us and it turned out Eremenko only ever set up something like 2 of them.

From Splstats on Twitter:

Connor Sammon scored 3 goals in 46 games for Killie without Eremenko in the team, and 14 in 19 with him.

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I don't remember much about most of Sammons goals, just going by what someone else had said on here previously.

I'm not denying what Eremenko contributed but to say "do we, Aberdeen or Hearts have a player in the eremenko ,mould that can point him where to go and put the ball on a plate?" is ridiculous. Sammon had a great season, he hit 18 goals in half a season. To say Eremenko was putting the ball on a plate for him and telling him where to run is a joke.

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Don't play down Mixu's roll in his turn around. You can have as many balls on plates as you want. If you don't have the composure to finish, it is all for nought.

Sammons composure in front of goal was night and day from previous seasons. Taking his time, and having the composure to give the keeper the eyes instead of listening to the crowd & shooting for the sake of it, got him a fair few goals, that, in previous seasons, would have ended up rolling down Rugby Road.

The net result of one on one training with a clinical striker. 

I've often felt some of our shot/goal shy strikers would benefit from a striker coach.

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remember that for the fish to receive the passes from Losa he had to be making the right type of runs, he always had that in him but something just clicked that season.  Some his goals were superb, especially the one at the Tattiedome when he went round their keeper and slotted home.  he was denied a few other as well that game.

He then went to Wigan full of confidence which was soundly ruined by Martinez, even when he came on in the beginning of his time there you could see his confidence.  I remember watching a match at Old Trafford where Wigan were abject, brought big Connor on and he ran the united defence all over the place, but had f**k all support to make it count.

Big man will score a bucketful up here, as he is quick, had good feet, decent in the air and his speed will scare defenders.

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OK So its not all down to Losa . but they defiantly built up an understanding in that team that he has never recreated anywhere else .

Sheff Utd 25 Jul, 15   Loan 15 (12) 5 2 (1) 1 1 (0) 0 1 (1) 0
Rotherham 15 Jan, 15 15 Apr, 15 Loan 11 (4) 3 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
Ipswich 14 Aug, 14 05 Jan, 15 Loan 8 (11) 1 0 (1) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
Derby 20 Aug, 12   £1,200,000 45 (38) 10 2 (1) 1 3 (0) 2 0 (1) 0
Wigan 31 Jan, 11 20 Aug, 12 £600,000 9 (23) 1 0 (1) 0 1 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
Kilmarnock 01 Aug, 08 31 Jan, 11   43 (22) 17 3 (0) 1 7 (1) 7 0 (0) 0

If he comes back I'm not sure if he will be the scoring sensation we sold to Wigan . How high a level are Rotherham ? 

 

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I don't entertain the notion that Eremenko wasn't directly responsible for Sammons form. The season he scored 19, Taouil assisted more goals, however, why did it take until Eremenko arrived before Taouil and Sammon had their best seasons?

He may not have had the final pass... but he brought Bryson and Taouil into play to allow them to "Feed the Fish".

Will Sammon score in this league

Definitely.

Is there better out there?

Definitely.

I'm not a fan of going backwards. Ben Gordon, Eremenko and Jamie Hammil all examples of those who left at their peak and never returned to their form.

Enjoy the 4th place finishes this year Connor!

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I think that's one of the downsides of using stats in a game like football. For a sport like baseball, it makes perfect sense since it's a series of 1v1 battles, and it can help a lot with football, but there's a lot that happens off the ball that isn't recorded in the stats. Eremenko's effect on the whole team and the way we played that year was immense. Even if he wasn't directly responsible for the assist - a term that even devotee of football stats will argue endlessly about - it was often Eremenko's vision and ability to move the ball accurately over 40+ yards that unlocked the space for the ball to come in and for the big man to attack. In an ideal world, we'd have kept that core together for longer, and who knows where it could've taken us with a bit of tightening up at the back and support from the board room... C'est la vie.

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I've no doubt both Mixu and Losa were instrumental in the goals Sammon scored. However the man himself must take a lot of credit. I was a member at Fitness First when Sammon started coming in. He realised he could get fitter, stronger and faster and got himself a personal trainer. He regularly came in to do another session after training. All of a sudden after some real hard work,he started scoring goals and became a real handful for defenders.

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If you want an obvious comparison as to whether he'd be successful in the league at this point.

Conor is big, strong, fast, he has a level of ability and while he's not the best finisher in the world he can do it given the service.

Josh has had a semi-successful season in the league and he's only 3 of the 5 things listed above.

I'd say in an Aberdeen or Hearts side Conor would be a 10+ goal striker.

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22 hours ago, Fletch said:

I don't remember much about most of Sammons goals, just going by what someone else had said on here previously.

I'm not denying what Eremenko contributed but to say "do we, Aberdeen or Hearts have a player in the eremenko ,mould that can point him where to go and put the ball on a plate?" is ridiculous. Sammon had a great season, he hit 18 goals in half a season. To say Eremenko was putting the ball on a plate for him and telling him where to run is a joke.

Eremenko was a major factor. Big Connor will tell you that himself. He was taught to move in a way that he never had before. A lot of that was down to Eremenko going through run after run with him in training. The other factor was Mixu keeping him back and doing a lot of extra work on finishing under pressure.

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First two seasons, Conor did a lot of chasing back & running shuttles between the opposition's back four in the lone striker role. He seemed to do less of that in his final six months with us, conserving energy to use in an attacking role, rather than "defending from the front".

On reflection, that may also have been Losa's influence...

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2 hours ago, livvy said:

Eremenko was a major factor. Big Connor will tell you that himself. He was taught to move in a way that he never had before. A lot of that was down to Eremenko going through run after run with him in training. The other factor was Mixu keeping him back and doing a lot of extra work on finishing under pressure.

He still had to hit the net. Eremenko didn't hit the net for him. It's ridiculous to suggest his success here was only down to a team mate. Sammon benefitted from having such a good player in the team, yes, but he wasn't the only reason he was a success.

Edited by Fletch
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The term major factor doesn't suggest his success was only down to a team mate. 

3 hours ago, Fletch said:

He still had to hit the net. Eremenko didn't hit the net for him. It's ridiculous to suggest his success here was only down to a team mate. Sammon benefitted from having such a good player in the team, yes, but he wasn't the only reason he was a success.

 

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Eremenko made everyone he played with a better player. He was the best player I have ever seen in a killie shirt and that's why we should have built a team around him for last season. Kiltie was certainly smart enough to make the runs and learn from him. Anyone could see that - oh, apart from Locke of course but then he is just a football manager with  more than 20 years experience in the game....

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3 year deal with Hearts confirmed.

 

Conor Sammon has agreed a three-year contract with Hearts as the striker prepares to leave Derby County.

The 29-year-old Irishman is expected to formally sign for the Scottish Premiership club next week on his return from holiday.

Sammon has negotiated an early release from his contract with the English Championship club.

His deal is due to expire on 30 June, but Hearts need to register players for the Europa League 10 days before that.

Sammon, who had a previous spell in Scotland's top flight with Kilmarnock, spent last season on loan to Sheffield United in League One, scoring six times in 33 appearances.

Having switched to Derby for £1.2m from Wigan Athletic in 2012, he was also farmed out to Championship rivals Ipswich Town and Rotherham United after falling out of favour in the last two years and has not been offered a new deal.

Sammon had joined Wigan, then in England's top flight, in 2011 after they had paid Kilmarnock about £600,000 for his services in January 2011.

He had spent two-and-a-half years at Rugby Park after arriving from Derry City and scored 25 goals in 75 games for the Ayrshire outfit.

Sammon, who had also been linked with Aberdeen this summer, has been capped nine times by Republic of Ireland but failed to make their squad for the Euro 2016 finals.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36455029

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