The Great David Nugent Mystery

Knocking around a bit after work today, I came across an interesting thread started by 'jimmygreaves' at a favourite site of mine, VillaTalk.

It seemed a little out of the blue, but it's thought-provoking nonetheless.

What did happen to David Nugent?

Nugent kicked his career off as a trainee at Bury, as the Soccerbase link above will demonstrate. But it was at Preston North End where he became a household name in English football. In two and a half years at the club, Nugent showcased an unerring knack for finding the back of the net, doing so 37 times in total.

Goals like this one for North End, which brings back memories of David Ginola in particular, sent Nugent's stock into the stratosphere and earned him a goalscoring appearance for the full England team (well, sort of) and a £6m move into the Premier League with Portsmouth.

That was in July 2007.

So where the hell is David Nugent?

Well, he's not spent much time in the Portsmouth squad, that's for sure. He's started just eight matches for Pompey in over a year, and he was all but dumped on the transfer list before his first season even started. Money well spent once again by Harry Redknapp, but all completely innocent I'm sure.

There seem to be several schools of thought on how and why Nugent fell out of favour so quickly at Fratton Park - most of them beg the question "why hasn't he left?"

1. He bottled it. Sometimes players just don't have the mentality to deal with the pressures of Premier League (and even international) football. It's a big jump from the Championship, and the thought of playing in front of that tosser with the bell at Portsmouth must be pretty terrifying.

2. Redknapp "changed his mind". Read between the lines here, folks, but it is of course possible that Redknapp spunked six million notes at Preston and then decided, either unfairly or after Nugent put in some poor showings in training, that he wasn't the man for the job. Curious, but it happens.

3. Perhaps Nugent and Redknapp fell out? It's not beyond the realms of possibility. The theory goes that Nugent was on the bench in pre-season, prompting ex-Preston boss Billy Davies, by then at Derby, to enquire about his availability. Redknapp thought Nugent had tried to pull a fast one and, being the arrogant old fool he is, announced that the man was for sale.

4. David Nugent isn't good enough for the Premier League.

Either way, Nugent needs to have a good think about his future. It seems obvious that he needs a new club, but the question is whether he goes to a bottom-half Premier League side to prove once and for all that he's capable of playing at that level, or drops down to where he might return to being a star player.

If he is good enough, a few goals might just kickstart his career. Personally, I'm not sure he is.

(Photo Credit: TheFA.com)