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THE THOMAS McAVOY COLUMN
THE HYPOCRISY AND THE HOPE OF BORO'S NEW STRIKER
Thomas McAvoy, 20 Nov 2009
Ages seem to have passed since we last played, which seems rather odd when we can go for weeks on end playing on Saturdays and in mid-week.
It's not as if we have dozens of players being whisked around the world leading the jet-set lifestyle any more, is it?
Two weeks is far too long to dwell on mediocrity and 1-0 defeats to some of the worst sides in the division.
Column Continues Below...
Still, on the upside, the manager has had two further weeks to spend with the team, two further weeks for new ideas and changes to be put into place.
So, I wouldn't be surprised if by 4:30pm on Saturday afternoon we're sat with our heads in our hands as the prospect of another 1-0 defeat sinks in.
There's nothing quite like positive thinking!
At least the message that we need assets in attack seems to be getting through.
Crap joke alert here (you might want to skip this next bit).
As experienced as Marcus Bent might be, I couldn't help but overhearing that he was once, ahem, romantically linked to Gemma Atkinson. Perhaps we should have signed her instead. At least that way we would have had two big assets up top. Sorry about that.
Still, the Dave Kitson signing came as quite a shock to me, even in a game as transient as football is.
This is, after all, a man who criticised us after a Chris Riggott tackle had broken his foot on the opening day of the 2006-07 season.
Furthermore, he conveniently forgot that a matter of minutes before this incident, Julio Arca had had his foot broken too.
Maybe I'm pursuing a vendetta here, but I also remember him saying that he "couldn't care less" about the FA Cup. This is a remarkable attitude for a young sportsman to have - to go into games without a care in the world about winning or losing, don't you think?
True, the FA Cup might be an unwanted distraction to some people, but I would like to point to our defeat in the League Cup by Nottingham Forest earlier this season.
In the weeks running up to that game, we looked invincible. Attacks were yielding goals and up until then, we had more clean sheets than a dry cleaners.
The aura of invincibility which went that day hasn't been restored.
We're not really good enough to pick and choose the games we want to perform in. If Kitson does stay beyond January, let's hope he doesn't transmit that attitude to the rest of the team.
He also seems to be one of those footballers who broadsheet journalists seem to admire because he's reasonably articulate and strongly opinionated.
Remind you of anyone? A hint; he was sacked as Middlesbrough manager last month to the consternation of the bubbled journalist world, a confusion which could have been avoided had they realised just how far we'd regressed in three and a half years.
Crikey, I sound a bit negative here.
In actual fact, when you strip away the possible awkwardness of his first meeting with Chris Riggott (this time it will be Riggott lying on the treatment table), and my irrational dislike of his hypocrisy, he's the first signing we've made in years that I've felt positive about.
One thing we've lacked in the final third is cohesion; an understanding of where our players are going to be, the movements they are going to make and the linking up of strikers. Never more clearly has this been demonstrated than by Lita's shocking miss against Crystal Palace.
Kitson's arrival has the potential to pay the same dividends as when he linked up with Lita during Reading's promotion season of 2005-06.
Both strikers were very prolific in an astoundingly successful season for a team that was built on meagre resources.
More than signing a striker, let's hope that Dave Kitson can finally reignite the hitherto disappointing Lita, a striker who could be a poor man's Pippo Inzaghi.
The only way to compare him with Inzaghi at the moment is their mutual understanding of the offside trap.
Whatever I've said about Dave Kitson, he does seem to be a vocal and motivated player. We do not represent an opportunity for him to get a few matches under his belt as his career continues to regress (let's not forget that he's only scored twice for Stoke since signing last summer). Instead, we present an opportunity for his revival.
I'm hoping that the revival can be mutual.
A few goals to kickstart Kitson's career - maybe some assists for Leroy, God knows he needs them - could see us within striking distance of the play-off places by January.
Even as the team revolutionises under its new manager, I still feel that this season provides us with our best hope of promotion.
We're not quite staring into the abyss of mediocrity yet, but we do seem to be giving it more than a few furtive glances.
Kitson's signing provides a start in turning this around. We've been regressing for too long. It's time for the Boro to be upwardly mobile again.
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