How good was Paul Lake?

[blue dallas]

immense, great player.

such a shame.

who knows what he could have achieved at city without that injury.

but then again few years down the line,

alan ball would have probably swapped him for jason lee or ronnie rosenthal ! ;)

 

[Skip Donoghue]

put him anywhere on the pitch be it centre half, full back, central midfield even centre forward and he would do the job as if he had played that position all his career
how many players do you know who could literally play anywhere on the pitch at the top level
thats how good he was

was there the day he did his knee against villa playing centre half that day against tony cascarino and he never gave him a sniff
Lake was a geniune world class player who would have won umpteen caps for england, but maybe we would have struggled to keep hold of him the big boys in them days would have been willing to pay what ever it took to get him

 

[citybluesmith]

what i remember he was a good player,real talented midfielder.i can remember liverpool being very interested him in,so he probably would nt have been at city long

 

[lancs blue]

If Lakey had been around when we had Kinkladze that would have been an awesome pairing, Gio would have had someone else in the side that was on his wavelength.

 

[simo2MCFC]

gd thread LEGEND

 

[bluemoonmatt]

He was the bollocks. Oozed class, so composed on the ball. Such a shame.

 

[Billy City]

Watched Lakey in nearly everygame he played in with City he was a great player but for injury would of made the England side easily. I liked him in midfield but he could and played a fair bit at the back like another blue said the era Lakey was around someone like Liverpool who were the best team then would of taken him off us, injuries he had were terrible remember one game at maine road on the edge of the box at the platt lane end v Leicester he clashed heads and swallowed his tongue that was horrible to witness that.

 

[chedinho]

city were reportedly offered 2 million for him by liverpool,doesnt sound much by todays prices but that was a lot then.if city had sold him i think liverpool would of won more titles.lakey seemes to be in teams that got famous victories 10-1,5-1 captain of youth team that beat the rags in the final i think and im sure u21 for england was successful.he was wasted in any other position than cm! peter reid said he could play right back wearing an overcoat,of course he could,he was the best player we ever produced in my lifetime on a parr with king colin

 

[BrightwellsBoot]

He was good, very good, but everyone loved him becasue he was "one of ours" Came through the youth with Redmond, Brightwell, Moulden, Hinchcliffe & David White - blues through and through.

I recall Lake was superb against Watford & Forest (2 teams a division above City back then) in the league cup run about 1988 !

Just for the record, that game against Villa when he got injured, was one of the greatest games I've seen - Andy Dibble was outstanding and the atmosphere was mad ! I still don't know how we won that night.

 

[shlooney]

Like all great players he made the game look ridiculously easy. Always in space, quality passer, box to box. He had it all.