you can sugar-coat his errors with the ole cliches like 'never say die' attitude, passion, commitment, etc all you want.... not gonna make him into top-class CB..... he's a trier, we've all seen blokes like that at work: salt of the earth, very keen, will do all the minor jobs and look good doing it, everyone's favourite goffer... but when it comes to stepping up to executive-grade..well... I think you know the rest..
nice blokey bloke tho.... and does okay with the right players next to him, etc etc....