Make Way For Massive Miles

During a busy week of transfer activity at Oakwell, the spotlight most certainly fell on the departure of the Red's Player of the Season and Captain, Jason Shackell.

Whilst opinions may be mixed on the merits of the deal, I began speaking with @CSpaceram (on Twitter) from the Derby County Blog Ramspace about the movement occurring between our clubs and the confirmed loan agreement which has secured the services of Miles Addision for Barnsley FC until January 1st 2012.

Providing his insight, CSpaceram tells us what Barnsley fans can expect from the Derby County midfielder.

"Miles is one of those players you occasionally get who seems to have been around for ages but remains in the “young” category at only 22 years old.

Miles Addison

A product of our academy, Miles career at Derby has very much been a stop start affair.

He actually made his debut way back at the end of the 2005/2006 season. However this proved a false start, with the appointment of Billy Davies the following summer.

Anyone who has had the misfortune to support a team managed by Billy, will know that he has no interest whatsoever in youth development or what’s happening in his club generally outside of the first team squad. Thus Miles went back to what was left of our Academy until 2 years later when he got another surprise end of season appearance at Blackburn.

The following summer, Paul Jewell and Adam Pearson spent big (in Championship terms) on an immediate return to the Premiership and within the first month it was obvious things weren’t going to plan. This is where Miles story really starts.

Thrown in almost out of desperation by Jewell in a holding midfield role, Miles was superb. After the horror story of our Premier league campaign and a trail of poor signings who didn’t care about our club, here was a young bear of a guy from our academy, running round smashing people and giving everything for our team. Obviously the fans loved it. After a largely Miles inspired surge up the table, the season fizzled out but Miles form remained constant and he deservedly won young player of the year and was at one point linked with a move to Stoke.

At the start of the following season he also made two appearances for England U-21.

As a player he’s all about commitment, strength and power. He’s not the most gifted technically however when he’s powering through midfield with the ball, it’s a brave man who get’s in the way.

With the arrival of Nigel Clough, Miles was used more as a centre half and Clough even went on record as saying that was where he saw his best position. He started the 2009/2010 season with a couple of goals but then started missing most games with a mystery foot problem, (which turned out to be bone related as opposed to an actual injury he’d suffered) although he did get chance to put in one biblical performance in a 0-0 draw at Newcastle, in the pouring rain, where he was clearly struggling to walk.

In February 2010 he went under the knife for a specialist operation which involved literally breaking his foot and re-building it – Ouch! Not surprisingly, we didn’t see him in a Derby shirt again for around a year. Then for the remainder of last season he was very much a bit part player as he tried to regain his fitness and form.

The first thing that will strike you about Miles is that he is physically massive. If you ever get the opportunity to be actually stood next to him, he’s even bigger than he looks on the pitch. During his rehabilitation, he was actually told to keep off weights for a while as our medical team were worried about his mobility!

Miles is a well liked and popular player at Derby and there was widespread outrage when it was first suggested his move might be permanent (alongside the backdrop of a rumoured fall out with Clough). However, now with new contract confirmed, there is equally widespread opinion that this loan is a great move for Derby, Miles and Barnsley."