I think it's entirely fair to say that he hasn't been given a proper chance to show what he can do. And by that I mean a run of games in the side that Henderson, Suarez, Downing, Skrtel or any other player might get. When given a bit of a run recently, he's looked fairly good. I'm not claiming that his time here has been a success or that he wasn't slow at starting or anything like that, but you certainly can't blame him for that.
The other thing worth noting is that we haven't tried in the slightest to alter our style of play to suit him or even help him. He gets very little support or runs from midfield and the crossing in our team is borderline atrocious. The reason he doesn't score with his head (and yet, funnily enough, could do so at Newcastle) is because the quality of the ball has declined between clubs, with ours more likely to be floated or lofted in five yards behind him whilst he is occupied by three defenders.
I don't necessarily believe that he was the best way to spend £35m and I think it was stupidly rushed through for no good reason. If he leaves then we'll be lucky to receive anywhere near a decent fee for him - it'll probably be something like £10-12m - and he'll go off and do a good job for a team that is prepared to play to his strengths a little more, and we'll continue to wonder why we can't just magic up a world class striker. If you look at Suarez for instance: the way he is being played here doesn't stop him being a danger - I think that's naturally just how talented he is - but his goals contribution (like everyone else) has been really poor. So perhaps it's something more serious than simply missing a clinical striker which I believe it probably is.
The most frustrating thing of all is if you're going to spend £35m on one player - whether that's Kenny, Comolli or a combination of both - then you better make sure that (a) he's bloody good, or at least got the potential to be [which actually I think he probably has if you look at what he started doing at Newcastle] and (b) you know how to use him, or at least plan to alter things accordingly. To give up on him after less than a season (which is what it is if you discount his first few injury-plagued months, and take into account that Kenny seems to have given up on him already) then it's a fucking idiotic and actually shambolic decision-making process at every step of the way by those people. Simply not good enough.
