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WARNOCK WEEKLY - LOYALTIES OR ROYALTIES - 4-2-08
Tom Warnock
With relegation worries eased ever so slightly, and moving to within one win of Newcastle, we can begin to look up the table for the first time in months.
However, much of the recent talk around the Boro has been focused on issues off the pitch, mainly transfers. The Woodgate exit has sparked much debate and I'm about to add my two pennys worth.
Something doesn't seem all right about the whole deal. Why would a club choose to offload a player with a considerable amount of time remaining on his contract, who they'd had to battle to sign less than a year previously?
Gareth had reportedly been told by Steve Gibson that he had no need to sell any of the club's top players because transfer funds were available. This rules out the need for finance as a catalyst for Woody's exit.
In all truth, Boro fans know Woodgate hasn't been putting in the effort this season. Whether this has been due to fitness or not, he just hasn't been at his best. No team with a "world class" centre back has the second worst goals against in the league.
The fact is that Woodgate's career has been a disaster from day one. He's played less than 200 league games and won zero trophies. What exactly defines him as being world class, other than him having the ego of such a player?
The Boro aren't close to Woodgate's heart/ He was born in the town but Jonathan Woodgate cannot claim to be a "Boro lad." He began his career with Leeds, signed for Newcastle and the Boro was simply a stepping stone after his Real Madrid nightmare.
He was said to be disappointed at the league position of the club. Does that mean the rest of the squad are happy with it? If not, then surely they should all up and leave in the same way he has. Besides, if you get us in to the mess, you get us out of it. You don't just walk out of your hometown club.
The club expects loyalty from the fans. Let's have some from the players before we consider it.
The word on the grape vine is the club allowed Woodgate to leave because they had identified impending injury worries, specifically a back problem which would see Woody struggling to ever reach 100% fitness. It's something which, if true, would make sense because we've had far too many crocks on massive salaries. One Alen Boksic springs to to mind.
This season has left me more disillusioned with the state of football than ever before. The passion is fading and the club needs to address this.
The way the crowds have dwindled spells bad times ahead. We can't compete with other sides with Gibson's money alone and the gate receipts are eclipsed by other sides - an extra 10,000 fans every week would've made eighty percent of the money from the Woodgate transfer. Potentially there is around £7-8million of lost revenue just because we can't attract the fans.
The heart of the game has been ripped out by foreign investors, metropolitan line-ups, graveyard atmospheres and admittedly, television. It appears that the phrase "money is the root of all evil" is ever more apt in the world of football.
No more can a team live on guts, determination and passion, and supporting a club is no longer about representing an area because in reality, football clubs don't reflect the areas they claim to be playing for.
The comments of Stewart Downing's Geordie agent have sparked angry reactions from Boro fans and even Gibson himself has spoken out. To put it simply, it's bang out of order. Ian Elliott is turning the issue into a money one, and not an issue of loyalty.
Most Boro lads would play for their team for nothing. Most Boro lads would give an ear to be able to do what Stewart Downing has done even up to now. Agents are the scum of the game and they are a part of what alienates real fans from the greed of the game. I applaud Steve Gibson for putting the record straight.
If Stewart Downing wants to leave; let him say it and let it be known. That way, if he does want to leave, he can't use the "my comments were misinterpreted" move. If he wants to stay then it would shut his agent up and it would prove any doubters wrong. One way or another we need to know, we deserve to know what the hell is going on.
It's more than an issue of one player staying or going. If Stewart Downing left, expect to see many fans leave with him because it would just cement the ever impending reality - football, as we knew it, is dead.
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