Ah, Gary Madine. Those of you that read my work regularly will know that I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with dear Gaz. The man employed by Neil Lennon to lead the Wanderers line just over a year ago has had a bit of a torrid time during his first season at the Macron, so let's look back on just how average he was.
Appearances - 32 (10 of which were as a sub)
Madine actually started plenty of games under Lennon, his youth being preferred to the likes of Shola Ameobi and Emile Heskey. What he actually did in those 32 games amounts to very little, however. His first half of the season was okay - but very much that - average. His second half was plagued by niggly injuries, meaning he never really got going again after Christmas.
Goals - 5
Fucking dreadful. Seriously, for a 25-year-old centre forward, just five goals in 2,245 minutes of football is atrocious; a number that equates to 0.16 goals per game. Many would argue he didn't have the service he needed but I'm not party to that. Mr Madine is a forward of League One standard and nothing more, so if Phil Parkinson decides he can stay, we should expect him to score for fun next season. Expect being the key word there.
Review
Points won - 21 at 0.65 per game. Again, pretty poor but the entire team only won five games all season so what did you expect?
Passing - 60.6%, the second-lowest of all our forwards, behind only Emile Heskey but he uses WD-40 on his knees so we can let that one slide.
Assists - 1. No idea who it was against but I can assure you it was an accident.
Bookings - 2
Red cards - 0. Surprising for a bloke that was dropped from the squad on numerous occasion for clashing with Lennon and, before joining Wanderers, spent 18 months in prison for assault.
Overall Season Performance - C
A victim of the entire squad's downfall but ultimately isn't good enough to compete at Championship level. With better service from our midfield/wide areas I think he could seriously compete in League One next year, although I'm not entirely sure he should be our first choice hit man. Volatile, unpredictable and a general bad egg, anyone who spends their international break in Courtney's Bar, Bolton, should be released immediately.
See you next season.