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CATT GOT YOUR TONGUE? 6-11-07
Toby Higgins
Fan mail is, as a rule, not something I get often as a COB writer. In fact, it's something I never get. So it was with great delight that I read a letter sent in by someone I can only presume is a Spurs fan commenting on the articles he had read on the site.
I know this isn't the Anti News, but hey, for at least a paragraph or two, let's do this.
The Rockcliffe Files couldn't believe its luck this week when, just moments before Boro played host to Spurs, we were handed a letter from a real life cockney. You know, like Grant and Phil off Eastenders.
It read:
"Mate do u honestly beleive that you are better than Spurs? Are u kidding?"
Given the horrendous spelling of 'believe', TRF could well ask the same in reply.
"You have been on an on-going decline since Soutgate took over"
apples-and-pearsed the letter.
It then continued:
"I have no doubt in my mine u will be relegated within the next few seasons"
This is something every football fan living anywhere south of the Tontine has been in 'no doubt' about since Boro re-joined the Premier League nearly ten years ago.
"That has got to be the most biased view I have ever heard"
it finished and as TRF crumpled up the letter and took aim at the bin, we wondered what on earth the writer was expecting to find on a website called ComeOnBoro.com.
The letter, which has been accurately transcribed above, got me thinking about how quickly things in football can change.
It was only as recently as August that many predicted Spurs, one of only a four-team cluster below us in the League table at present, would be the team to break the 'top four's' stranglehold over the rest of the division. Of course.
As for Boro it's been just eighteen months since we last faced a team under Juande Ramos' leadership, and for many, the significance of what happened in Eindhoven, and what has happened since, is still taking some coming to terms with.
Saturday's encounter was by no means a 'relegation six pointer' simply because in true 'six pointers' neither side is happy coming away with a point. You ask either set of fans if they'd have taken a draw before kick off and you'd be hard pushed to find one who expected nothing less than the maximum haul of points.
The reason for both sides limiting their expectations slightly is reserved for one key area of the team - the defence.
Much has been made about Boro's shortcomings in front of goal this term. Aliadiere's solitary strike at Old Trafford, Tuncay's and Dong Gook's inability to hit anything other than the woodwork, and Mido, who despite bursting onto the scene, hasn't scored since Newcastle in August.
But this isn't really our problem. More often than not the reason teams fail to survive in this league is not because they don't have a proven goal scorer, although this does help. No, it is at the back where a team's fate is often decided.
Proof comes in two forms and both are examples from recent years.
Andy Johnson, now of Everton, formerly of Crystal Palace, scored twenty goals the season that the Eagles went down (the fact that ten were penalties is quite irrelevant).
Manchester City are the second example. They didn't score a goal at home from the end of December last season until August of this and yet their Premiership survival was never really questioned because while they might not have been taking maximum points regularly, they were keeping their points tally ticking over nicely by being hard to beat.
It's something that, despite having one of England's best defenders in our squad and an ex-England defender with an equally impressive reputation as a player in charge, is quite remarkable.
An analysis of the stats does nothing to ease the pain. In Southgate's sixty-one games at the helm, Boro have kept just eleven clean sheets. That's roughly one every five and half games.
Some would say that this is a reason to boo and jeer the players, with some exercising their right at the weekend.
Performances haven't been great, and results have been no better, but booing the Boro at the moment is putting petrol in your diesel car - it's foolish, it will achieve nothing and could end up costing us dearly.
It's not as if the players don't realise they are playing badly - I'm sure they do.
But targeting players like Mark Schwarzer and Stewart Downing, both of whom have been fantastic for Boro during their careers on Teesside, isn't going to make them play better. Imagine having a crappy few days at work, and when what you need is the people around you to tell you that you're still the man, everyone sits around your desk booing everything you do. Would it help?
Something that certainly doesn't help is players taking matters into their own hands. While having the entire office sitting around your desk at work shouting abuse is something that would never happen, it's something footballers have to deal with. After all, it's one of several reasons why they command such an impressive salary.
Lee Cattermole's decision to tell the fans via a radio interview after the game that fans who boo shouldn't bother turning up is something most players in the dressing room are probably thinking.
But professionalism means that, unlike Cattermole, the rest of the squad don't say it. They prefer to leave it to the manager to speak on their behalf. That's the way things have got to be done at a level as professional as football.
Cattermole has unquestionable passion and desire for the club, and while he is one of many who have struggled so far this season, at least his heart is in the right place.
However, the last player who decided to take matters into his own hands was James Morrison at Old Trafford, and he never played at the Riverside again. Only if George Boateng's name appears on next weeks team sheet will we really know whether or not Southgate is going to turn a blind eye to Cattermole's outburst.
One thing is for sure. At a time when total, uncompromising unity was required, the last thing we needed was a young member of the squad telling the thousands of season ticket holders who pay his, and his team mates' wages, how to behave when they go to games.
Same time next week
UpTheBoro
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