I liked him, at least for a while. You could see there was potential but ultimately lacked the mindset to further his career.
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I liked him, at least for a while. You could see there was potential but ultimately lacked the mindset to further his career.
I found this interview with him from last summer:
https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.c...r-club-2948671
Some quite interesting thoughts on the stereotyping of black footballers and how his lack of maturity at the time in relation to these expectations affected his game, which is quite interesting in relation to what's been said on this thread. Essentially aye, his age and inexperience didn't help him, but I thought he could have been decent with a proper bit of coaching and a few more years under his belt. Not to be.
He had quite a terrifying time in Romania!
Still laugh at his blunder vs Aberdeen ..
I think coaching played a part but he had several years at Chelsea working under Silvino Louro, one of the most respected goalkeeping coaches in the world. Guys like Vitor Baia, Julio Cesar, Peter Cech and Carlo Cuidicini rave about him.
I think inexperience and ultimately limited ability were the biggest factors in his lack of progression. It happens all the time in football. Talented youngsters just can't take that final step to the 1st team, be that because of a mentally issue or a stagnation in their development.
The first time I saw Ma-Kalambay was in a pre-season friendly at Stirling Albion in July 2007.
My first reaction was look at the size of this guy,with his arms up he looked about 10 feet tall.
I thought he should be fine with high balls and crosses.WRONG.
Also making his debut that day was Alan O’Brien.He came on as a sub and went off down the wing like a rocket.
One of the Bino players put him up in the air.O’Brien came down did a somersault and set off like a rocket again.I thought this guy makes Ivan Sproule look like he’s running backwards.IIRC he set up a cross for Clayton Donaldson to score.I thought this guy is going to be some signing for us.
WRONG AGAIN.
Malkowski, Simon Brown, McNeil, Ma-Kalambay, Stack, Smith, Mark Brown - our reputation for terrible goalkeepers in the late 00s and early 10s was entirely deserved.
Fortunately since then we've done much better with Williams, Oxley, Logan, Marciano and arguably Laidlaw.