Who do you think is more important to ICT!

Got to say Hayes cos he'll still be here next month

I voted Hayes.....coz i think the chances he creates would be scored by most half decent player,

I voted for Hayes too as i have always thought he was our best attacking player. If Rooney leaves then we have some real problems upfront though and out of anyone else at the club he is next in line for most important to ICT along with Ryan Esson. Shane Sutherland is not SPL quality and may be a good partner for Rory at Brechin once he becomes 21.

I believe that should Rooney go, he could be replaced. Hayes on the other hand, would be very difficult to do so.

in a realistic world i would like to keep both but i think a lot of rooneys goal draught is down to the fact that we are missing hayes not all of it but the majority and i think adan did create more with hayes in the team. I think adam is a vastly improved striker and can get better but he isnt the finished article and so i think hayes is more important

I too would have voted for Ryan Esson if you had of included him.

It would be interesting to see how many of Rooney's goals were scored having had the supply by Hayes, I would reckon a fair few and I'm sure someone on here will know. I voted for Hayes for this reason, a good striker will always be in the right position at the right time and more often than not it is down to the supply he gets from his team mates. I would much rather know that I had that threat down the wing or cutting in through the middle supplying the balls for the goals as a good striker will be there.

Yes Rooney scores the goals but he isn't the finished article, far from it, in an ideal world we'd be able to keep Rooney and see him progress and get better but for me if one were to go I would rather it were Rooney.

Terry Butcher

Wow....this is turning into a whitewash. I never expected this to be so one sided. I wonder how much of this is due to Adams almost certain iminent departure...so many peeps are hacked off OR....based on footballing alone?

Hayes deffo!!!

He's a major danger on the wing!

hayes creativity and delivery is almost ireplacable where as rooney could be replaced by foran, sutherland, odihambo or sanchez. hayes is a once a decade player imo

Grant Munro would get my vote

Edited January 16, 201115 yr by Top Six Next Year

Hayes would be much harder to replace.

Hayes because is more of a match winner.

Me.

If the transfer speculation was about Hayes I bet you'd all have voted Rooney though !

Personally I wont vote for either because no one player can make a team and without a team neither player can perform.

For ONCE....i agree with DC!

I haven't voted, one is injured and the other is involved in transfer speculation and both along with the rest of the team have got us to where we are now.

By looking at the poll it doesn't take long for the fans to turn when someone may be moving on.

It's a hypothetical question, some people should stop taking it so seriously.

For the record i think we would miss Hayes more, that has nothing to do with the fact that Adam will probably be leaving us soon, i just think he brings more to the team. That's not to say Adam won't be missed, he is a great striker and will be a tremendous loss to us, i wish he was staying too but he isn't and i wish him well wherever he goes. I don't think anyone is "turning on" Adam Rooney, Hayes himself will probably be moving on to bigger and better things before too long as well, that's just the nature of the game and the team we all follow.

All the best Adam and good luck wherever you go.

If I was a manager and looking to sign Rooney I'd also try and get Hayes as they seem to have a very good understanding and you'd get the pair of them for peanuts .

Hayes has a rarer talent than Rooney, and surely strikes more fear into opponents than anyone else we've got. And our results without him speak volumes too.

Alex, yes its a team game but some players are simply more important than others. That's why we have different wage levels.

Defo Hayes.

Rooney is great and we'll all be gutted to see him go but it will be easier to replace a striker who gets in positions and hits the target most of the time than a fast, skillful creative midfielder. I think both will move onto bigger clubs but i think hayes will go further.

[statto alert/]

SPL goals this season (excluding penalties) :

Hayes 5 from 17 games

Rooney 6 from 21

Jonny has an excellent scoring record for us, in both of his seasons. But prior to joining ICT, he had played for 5 teams and only scored 1 goal in total. It was against Dorchester Town whilst on loan to Forest Green.

[statto alert ends/]

Threads like this just show how fickle football fans are.

The last time this question was asked on here Foran was "voted" the most important with Rooney second and Hayes coming in behind that. However, most people commented along the lines that "no one player was any more important than another", even if some might prove harder to replace.

Even though people won't admit to it, the lack of "votes" for Rooney is definitely a result of the talk/likelihood of him moving on, it's how we tend to cope with rejection....the "They aren't very good anyway, we have better" defence. It happens every time we have one of these polls around the transfer window when there's speculation of a "favoured" player moving on.

I'm sure IHE will be along to tell us that it's all part of our coping mechanism, that we somehow find it easier to reject than be rejected or some other thing...and he'd be right (again). Not saying it's right or wrong, it's just the way it is and we'd have to be a fairly heartless and dispassionate bunch if we all just shrugged it off and moved on without thought or feeling.

Regardless of where the goals come from (open play, set piece or penalty spot), Rooney is a 20 Goal/Season Striker. Take his goals out of the equation and we're toiling towards the bottom of the table. Would others have contributed so many goals if he wasn't there? Dunno, maybe...it's all speculation. Will we find an equal or better replacement if he goes? Dunno, maybe...we've done not too bad replacing players over the past 16+years despite the regular rounds of "X Player is leaving, we're doomed" every time a transfer window comes around. Would Rooney have scored so many without the rest of the team? Not a chance....as good as we might think Rooney is, 1 man against 11 is a hiding to nothing.

As for Hayes...yeah he's a good player who can make things happen and causes problems for the other team. However, take the striker out of the picture and all you have is a player who is creating a lot of hot air and the team have no final product. Even if you were to credit Hayes with setting up every goal Rooney scored (that didn't come from the spot or a set piece), it's not all that impressive a statistic. Is that because Rooney is wasting chances, or is it because we have a rose tinted view of just how much Hayes provides? Who knows, I imagine we'd get 10 different angles put forward in response to the question and each of them would be subjective and based on our own view of the player.

So what's the answer? Who is the most important player? Neither or both and you are free to take your pick....personally I'm not going to lose sleep over it. In the past 16+ years we've been in this position more times than I care to remember, and on almost every occasion we've come out the other side of it doing pretty well (on the park, if not necessarily on the bank book). In the modern game, players moving on is almost as certain as death and taxes, so why sweat it and why turn it in to some kind of competition to either big up or beat down a player who is looking to ply their trade somewhere else?

Players come and players go, but so long as ICT remains I'll be happy enough.

tbh i dont no what rooney offer except his clinicality (is that a word?) because foran is our target man and hayes is our creative player but without him we wouldnt score nearly as many goals. it is clearly fate that he will stay to create the greatest irish trio of all time.