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LOYALTY! YERJOKINARNYA??? 1-8-07
Peter Holmes
Well cobbers we're off for another rip-snorting season of "Letter from Australia" and true to form there's a large lump of festering phlegm I need to get of my chest, as you'll read later!
At last the limbo existence of the bloody boring close season is nearly over and we can finally get on with the real reason for our existence. Dreaming, living, breathing and obsessing over football!
Here we go again into the maelstrom of another season in the top-flight of English football, in what is shaping up to be a fascinating nine months in the tumultuous recent history of Middlesbrough Football Club.
I don't know about you Gadgees but this close season for me has been one where I have watched the shenanigans of the transfer window from my computer screen in Australia with a mixture of hope, expectation, mirth and incredulity, mixed in with a fair smattering of disdain and even disgust. One thing is for sure, when the Fleet Street crowd put the words transfer target and Boro together, truthful journalism becomes a classic oxymoron.
In relation to the written word on Boro's burgeoning list of supposed red hot transfer targets, the majority of the crap had about as much truth as tales by Enid Blyton or the Brothers Grimm. The all summer long Alan Smith rumour needed its own website and appeared to hang around like a curry fuelled beery fart in a corridor. Only Mystic Meg really knew the answer to whether the Leeds Chav would sign but most of the players we have allegedly been on the verge of signing were so wide of the mark they reminded me of a Rocky direct free-kick!
So, make me an allowance or fifty and remember thrill-seekers that due to the dynamic nature of the transfer system, by the time you read this some of my waffle may be older than a winning goal from Yakubu.
Firstly the good stuff; which comes in the form of three new players who are on the verge of re-invigorating their careers at the Riverside, namely Aliadiere, Young and the Turkish wonder boy from Fenerbache, Tuncay Sanli. Add a fourth name to the list in the form of last season's loan star from Real Madrid, our own Johnny Woodgate, the most cultured and capable English defender in the game confirming his signature on the dotted line of a contract written in Park End blood. A bit of wriggly writing which hopefully should see Woody play out his injury plagued career while remaining fit, focused and on-form for his beloved home town club.
Reportedly, there were other offers from England and abroad but he was where he wanted to be. The main reason behind confirming his move from Real Madrid simply being that he always harboured an ambition to represent his home town team, the one he supported as a sprog, and just so his proud Dad can watch him every week in the red and white colours of his beloved favourite team. Romantic boy's own stuff alright but an extremely shrewd bit of transfer business securing a player from the top drawer.
Jon Woodgate is the talismanic keystone which the new Boro will be intelligently constructed round, thus, he needs to be made first team captain. I for one find nothing more uplifting than watching a Boro lad, a world class Boro lad at that, being the on field leader of my Beloved and to hear that Smoggy accent during radio and TV interviews.
Listen to Uncle Erimus and see to it Gareth!
Jezza Aliadiere is undoubtedly a skilful, pacey and at times stylish player with a good first touch and a much spoken about desire to be involved, to be playing week in, week out. Now that is the key for Gareth and Coops to reinvigorate the ex. Arsenal man's career by unlocking his potential and allowing him to unleash that desire. In essence, I think it was a very shrewd bit of business because at 24 he has time on his side and the transfer fee, by today's standards, was not too high for a player with so much unfulfilled potential. Let's be honest here, while at Arsenal, his desired role was taken by arguably the greatest player on the planet, an immovable colossus in the form of Thierry Henry, so his lack of games in that period of tenure in London can be explained away. I think Aliadiere is a player in the mould, type and style that Gate and Coops have in mind to establish their blueprint for their Riverside revolution.
Then we come to the lad who could just be the next big thing, a young man who injects a few liquid gallons of expectation into my veins, and the whirlwind that is Tuncay Sanli. Who, if the files of video evidence on YouTube are any illustration, will set the Riverside alight with sheer exuberant power, pace, skill and energetic goalscoring from midfield.
Tuncay, a star bright persona, the like of which hasn't been seen on the green grass of Smogdomia since a certain diminutive iconic Brazilian plied his compulsive trade. The amount of Fener fans who lament his Bosman transfer is astounding, they rate him as a veritable Turkish God and in Boro terms, dare I say, is a legend in the making.
There I just did!
Our latest signing, England International right back Luke Young, will become another player who the fans will take to very easily as he is a model professional who puts in a good shift week in, week out. Consistency is one key to being perceived as a quality player and we have not had that in the right back berth since the excellent Tony McMahon was ploughing that furrow prior to his career stalling injury. I always feel as a full back or a winger you are subject to a higher level of scrutiny by the fans simply by your geographical location on the pitch near to the terraces. Ask any poor bugger who plied the green baize of Ayresome Park up and down the infamous Chicken Run!
At a reported two million plus and approaching the best part of his career, Luke will prove to be one of the sharpest bits of business all summer.
Now to those Australians!
History illustrates that Mark Viduka had no intention of re-signing for Boro; it's as simple as that. His prior commitment to Middlesbrough's cause had been very wanting and his elevated form in the latter portion of last season was simply selfish, that was, to put his considerable bulk into the shop window known as transfer.
His simpering protestations about contractual talks with Middlesbrough stalling were simply the acting of a duplicitous, two- faced, self-centred, money chasing greedy bastard. We are well rid of his ilk, of his selfish don't give a small rodents poo-hole attitude. I personally believe that his best days are gone and the Deluded will be lucky to get a full season from his flabby thighs.
In the high work rate, long ball donkey game that Fat Sam employs at his disco, Viduka's dummy will hit that dressing room wall like an exocet with it's arse on fire. He will be "injured" and sulking on the sidelines more often than not, but evidence of his history suggests he won't care as he has duly pocketed his thirty pieces of silver many times over.
We are well rid and Fateroo will not be missed by this correspondent.
No folks, the Australian I am more than a little pissed off at is the bleating, whining, whinging Mr Schwarzer, who appears to want to hold his contract negotiations purely in the glare of the media. With the machinations surrounding an extension to the goalkeeper's present contract, which still has a year to run, no doubt influenced by his agent (cough-arsehole) and the afore mentioned fat wombat getting in his ear while the Socceroos were at the Asian Cup.
While accepting he has given this club good service, I can't accept his present attitude and his present method of dealing with Boro, i.e. conducting his affairs thousands of miles from Middlesbrough on the sports pages of various Fairfax Australian rags and on the screens of Murdoch's Foxsports.
Whatever happened to dignity and privacy in contractual dealings?
Why should I be surprised in the way these blokes deal with the clubs who are paying their over-inflated salaries in the vacuum of the, 'look at me I really think I am somebody' world of the PrimmaDonnaship?
Mark, you are a bloody plonker Mate, especially as it's your testimonial year because whatever happens you have lost the support of the people who matter, the fans of this football club. Plus, by compounding the crime by crapping in public on our beloved Boro with your whining bleating to the kangaroo press pack fawning over your every bile filled breath.
Loyalty is a double-edged sword pal, so don't quote the word to your press cronies as you badmouth Middlesbrough Football Club and a man who personifies loyalty in the process, Steve Gibson.
What next in this pathetically public saga Schwarzer?
An exclusive lushly photographed special in OK magazine with him espousing his poverty and needing a few mill for a fur-lined retirement, how Middlesbrough have treated him so horridly and yada, yada, yada!
In the past I have been a staunch supporter of Skippy and have backed that up in my articles but now I personally would let him rot on the bench of the reserves until his legally binding contract runs out.
Selfish? Just witness his recent self-centred bleating about wanting to be settled in a club for the 2010 World Cup, so he's in form for the team that really matters, the Socceroos. Who, by-the-way, have of course to qualify and the evidence from the mediocre debacle in Asia suggests to me that may be a little more difficult than the Aussie media think.
No doubt in the next week or so he'll stroll into the Riverside and blame his snakeskin covered cretinous agent BUT who instructs the man, pays his retainer and employs his dubious services?
Stating the red neon bleeding obvious Schwarzer, who pays your vastly inflated wages and who panders to your every need and whim?
Middlesbrough Football Club, that's who!
EnoughSaid,
ErimusRed
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