THE THOMAS McAVOY COLUMN
GRADUALLY TURNING IT AROUND
Thomas McAvoy, 4 Feb 2010
It's been a while since I last heard anything about Rangers and Celtic pining to join the English Premier or Football League. For those of you not bored when the issue inevitably arises, usually when you least expect it, watching Middlesbrough under Gordon Strachan might just be the next best thing.
Scott McDonald's arrival on transfer deadline day - the Sky Sports News presenters weren't even able to get excited about that one, as it must have seemed so inevitable to them - took Strachan's ex-Celtic disciples at the Riverside to five.
This is no bad thing. Just as it was inevitable, McDonald's signing was also a great one - potentially the best thing Strachan's done yet. Of course, his record alone is not substantial enough to engineer any excitement - Afonso Alves lingers too fresh in the memory for that.
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It is more the type of goal he scores, indicative of the effort he puts in and the intelligent runs he makes. Hopefully, he will be an antidote to the running down blind alleys, before falling and fluttering their eyelashes at the referee, which we have grown so accustomed to seeing from Aliadiere and Lita.
Let's face it, any man who scores the last minute goal to deny Celtic the title only to subsequently join them that very same summer - and win over the initially sceptical support whilst he was at it - deserves respect.
So too does the fact that he has played regularly in a team which reached the knock-out stages of the Champions League. His goal against Manchester United at Parkhead last season was excellent opportunism, again all too rare amongst the impotent bunch we've had masquerading as strikers since the days of yore.
But let's not get sentimental about rotating Hasselbaink, Viduka and Yakubu.
Our league position now depresses me enough as it is.
Signing who you know is not necessarily a bad thing. They will easily integrate into Strachan's team and plan.
Sure, we won't attempt (attempt being the operative word here) to play the rapid, expansive football which so irregularly came to fruition earlier on this season. Maybe our football hasn't been as pure on the eye, or even as successful as it was in the opening weeks of the season, but the last few weeks have been far more coherent than at any point since perhaps Sheffield Wednesday away.
Going down to ten men against Bristol City galvanised us. Our best chances were created in the final half an hour - chances which you'd expect a player like Scott McDonald to take. In any case, it made a nice change from conceding an obligatory late winner which has been habitual problem throughout the season.
Yet on Saturday, I still got the feeling that we were pedestrian, that little bit predictable and lacking in subtlety in midfield. Good as he has been so far this season, Gary O'Neil is an enforcer. His purpose, stamina and work between the two penalty boxes would be perfectly complimented by that bit of silk. Something unpredictable, someone able to pick out the less obvious pass remains missing. This was only going to be exacerbated by Adam Johnson inevitably leaving.
Although £7 million is clearly great money, not spending it on a direct replacement or even trying to loan him back for the rest of the season is disappointing. I guess it was only to be expected; after all exactly the same thing happened with Huth and Tuncay's departures.
But I digress. The football we play might be that little bit more direct and bypass the midfield more than we have been used to, but it's a style whose ugliness will be more than compensated for, if and when results turn.
There's no such thing as good football in the Championship, only successful and unsuccessful football.
For far too long our football has been unsuccessful. Maybe it was at the detriment of results in the short term, but it was this brittleness which accompanied the beauty which was costing us beforehand. Sooner or later, and the additions brought in January will smoothen the process, the new style will reap its rewards.
Cast your minds back a year and Birmingham were slaughtered for their style, the drudgery of their 1-0 victories, the seemingly fortunate Kevin Phillips winners which happened one time too many to really be lucky.
A year later and their football is winning them plaudits and points in the Premier League. Clearly our rewards won't be as immediate as theirs - not even in my wildest dreams do I imagine us in the Premier League next season - but their model of pragmatism which Gordon Strachan is beginning to follow gives me hope.
Give him time, and slowly, gradually, the points will begin to accumulate. It might not be until next season, and I appreciate that some of us might not be patient enough to wait that long, but the signings prove the slump has been arrested.
Maybe Celtic would have done okay south of the border after all.
Paul Arran, February 4, 2010 at 7:07 pm thank you Thomas, let\'s hope the team will be as intelligent, well reasoned and effective as your pen sir, not to mention my fellow Boro fans.
Optimism has been somewhat of a poisoned chalice for us, but something tells me that there are grins a plenty in the post.
