THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

Can't see a thread for him in this section.
Since leaving us and joining Stevenage, he's having a very good season in league one - reaching double figures, and easily their top scorer with 10 goals so far, and helping Stevenage punch above their weight in mid table in the third tier.

Absolutely mystery how Kemp was unable to reproduce his form everywhere else while with us. He's shown his quality and attacking threat in loan spells at Hartlepool and Swindon in league two, and now Stevenage in league one. Scoring 35 goals so far in 81 games with those other clubs. While his time with us was a complete flop. Given how poor and underachieving we've been during that time, I'm pretty sure that's more on us than him but a terrible waste of what should have been a quality signing.

It's sad because by all accounts I heard he came back here with a tremendous attitude last season - that can't have been easy when things were going so well at Swindon and continued to fall back off when back here.. heard that from an "inside source" (ooooo interesting) when I thought maybe he wasn't arsed myself.

It's sad. Clearly he's a talented player and for the first month of him being g back here i could "see it" but it just didn't happen.
My mate is a Stevenage fan and loves him.

As you said, and absolutely mystery.

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I might get shot down here but did we ever really give him a fair chance?? He didn't play that many games for us, started even less and was never utilised in a system that really suited him. Last year we expected instant returns from him, but the side as a whole was pretty stop/start in the second half of the season.

We gave him a chance last season and he didn't fit the side, at all.
We can't then build the team around him when we'd built a team that was at the time suited to its job (until it wasn't.).

Before that, Alexander getting rid was an odd one but apparently they had a falling out for how he would play and where he'd fit. The way he ended up for us, Alexander was probably right.

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I'm not saying we should have built the team around him, more just observing that it could be one of the reasons we never saw the best side of him.

Yeah definitely. Weirdly (Or not weirdly given how he's performing) he'd be exactly the sort of signing Scott Lindsey would've made and hopefully tried to get the best out of. A 4 at the back formation with an outright no.10 is the position I feel he slots into (just based on how I saw him play for us, not that I know how any of the other sides he played for set up)

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Yes I agree. Interestingly enough I am pretty sure was the formation Manning was aiming to move towards in our relegation season. Something like a 4-2-3-1. Presumably Manning had Kemp earmarked for the 10 role. Our recruitment was poor and it forced us back into a back 3 with wingbacks. Kemp was poor in that system and the rest is history.

That was the missed opportunity for me, he should have been the replacement for Scott Twine, not saying he is the same level but having had a team built around a central attacking midfielder it seems odd not to slot him in, from memory Liam Manning seemed more invested in Matt Smith and Dawson Devoy neither of which paid off and haven't this far since leaving us suggesting he just backed the wrong horse.

I think in the second stint with us he might have been a bit guilty of trying to hard. Seems odd to say really but I always thought he just ran around like a headless chicken. No discipline to his play, rarely in the areas he would have been best in and all a bit manic.

Its a shame it didnt work out as hes clearly a good player for the level we are at and has proved it now more than once.

Yeah he definitely tried way too hard. Sad but true

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