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FESTIVE FAILURE 27-12-05
Because it's Boxing day at the time of writing this and I'm entirely pissed off with football at the moment, the following will be a direct and to the point rant.
What I witnessed yesterday was truly appalling. Forget high prices, poor Public Awareness schemes and irregular kick off times. It is that kind performance that is convincing fans to stay away. I wish I had.
I'll get the only, slight positive out of the way now. Yakubu Aiyegbeni. The man is carrying us at the moment. We need more like him, but they don't come cheap.
The pressure on his broad shoulders is immense, because if he doesn't score at least once, we lose the game. Unfortunately, he missed our best chance when he headed over from six yards early on.
Mark Schwarzer was caught flapping yet again as Blackburn went one up inside the first half. Why the hell he left his line is beyond my understanding, and he was left horribly exposed in the dying stages as Craig Bellamy scurried towards goal. Bellamy got to the ball minutes before Schwarzer, and only Shefki Kuqi's horrible touch prevent him bagging a hat-trick.
I said last week that clean sheets have been hard to come by and that it might be time to start replacing Gareth Southgate and co. That suggestion has now become a demand. Before it's too late.
We are so short on midfielders it's unreal. George Boateng will be out for two months and joins James Morrison, Stewart Downing and Ray Parlour. This leaves us with Brazilian duo Doriva, Fabio Rochemback and Gaizka Mendieta, who has only just returned from injury himself, as the only recognised midfielders in the squad, and all of them started yesterday.
The fact that Steve McClaren took each of them off before the end is outrageous. 0-1 down at home to Blackburn with twenty minutes left, our midfield consisted of Franck Queudrue, Jason Kennedy and Adam Johnson. Queudrue is a left back and Kennedy and Johnson are inexperienced.
What the fuck? All the money spent on this club, and that is the midfield we have to play in order to try and snatch a draw at home to Blackburn. It doesn't inspire the players and it doesn't inspire the fans.
Why the hell take them off? Mendieta wasn't fit from the start, and his careless performance showed that, so maybe taking him off for Johnson would have been understandable.
Moments after Mendieta and Doriva went off, Blackburn scored a second and killed our chances in the process. Rochemback wasn't playing well but he and Doriva work tirelessly for the cause. When the whole squad is fit they won't play weekly, but to take them all off demonstrates sheer stupidity, as they are, at this moment, all we've got.
Stupidity, and desperation. It looks like McClaren himself doesn't know what's going wrong. So what chance have we got?
With rumours flying, it appears Mark Viduka could be set to leave the club in January and with Boateng's future still unresolved, the club could be nearing crisis.
We're notoriously bad over Christmas, but we need points as a matter of urgency now. Europe is out of the question, avoiding relegation is now a genuine aim. If we can't beat Blackburn at home, after two attempts in the space of five days, then trips to Bolton, Newcastle and Arsenal surely spell disaster.
I feel sorry for Steve Gibson. He deserves better. He is the best chairman in the league, the amount of his money that he has invested his club for the fans demonstrates that perfectly. If I was him, I would be feeling sick at this moment in time, and it wouldn't be because I'd had too much Christmas Pudding.
I feel sorry for the fans. We deserve better. It's understandable that gates are falling, the manager appears to have lost the dressing room, and that is reflected in lacklustre performances week after week.
And I feel sorry for myself. I'm going to Bolton on Wednesday.
It's a shame that my final article of 2005 has got to be so downcast. By the time the first edition of the Rockcliffe Files 2006 is published, we will have played three more matches. Let's hope by then, we'll be celebrating 9 points out of 9. But it is more hope than anything.
I hope you've all enjoyed what I've written over the last 22 weeks and I would like to thank you all for reading.
Same Time Next Year. UP THE BORO!!!
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