Woodgate's Coming Home
SOME things need no comment. Here's some brilliant and passionate quotes from Jonathan Woodgate on playing for Boro....
"I've always wanted to play for my hometown team, always been an ambition," Woodgate said. "My father's a fan, my family are fans, my friends are fans and I'm a fan. Ask Alan Shearer, ask Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard - he didn't go to Chelsea - ask them about playing for your hometown team. I'm no different.
"I went to every game at Ayresome Park until I joined Leeds as a schoolboy. I had to be ballboy and stuff at Leeds, so it stopped. But I then had a season ticket at the Riverside, went to the first match there - Liverpool, 3-3, Ravanelli hat-trick.
"I used to love it, went to every single home game. I'd go to Ayresome Park with my dad and my uncle, used to go all the time. I'll always remember the atmosphere, the Holgate. My granddad lived round the corner from Ayresome Park, on Brompton Street, my Dad was born on Brompton Street and grew up there. It's in the blood, I'm a Boro fan, I love Middlesbrough and the dream has always been to play for Middlesbrough. I first went when I was six, and I was at the game at Hartlepool, that game. Twenty years on, I'm here."
Let no-one doubt that this is a lad who knows whatit means to play for Boro.
You can read the rest of this articulate and very honest interview in today's Guardian.
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Anthony Vickers
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Yeah. He's just what we need. An instant legend. It's a shame he might go back to Madrid in May. Hopefully, Huth and Riggott can form a strong partnership if he does go. We may get to see this happening before then - if Woodgate gets injured once more!
Things aren't looking to bad, now. Portsmouth are doing really well putting our loss into perspective - to a point anyway! Reading was always going to be a banana skin and the other three results have been good. We now need to perform, especially at home, against the Sheffield Utds, Wafords and Charltons of this world.
And that's why we need our new local hero so badly....
All interesting stuff.
On other point though - and with any luck, a point that will cause us to reset some of our expectations.
Now we've seen Woodie in action it is plain to everyone what high quality central defending looks like. When we apply the same critical faculties to our other players and re-calibrate our judgement using the Woodie-before-your-eyes benchmark of quality, how many of our other team and squad players match up and how many do we need to match up to be suceessful?
I hope that circumstances conspire to allow Woody to stay on after the end of the season - we will be exchanging one solid 'Gate for another.
I know it's early days to be overly lauding him with plaudits, but he has come to the club and settled in as if he had been part of of it forever. He commands the defence and you can see the settling effect he has had on the likes of Pogi and young Davies. It's also nice to have someone at the back with a bit of pace, remember the way Seville and Portsmouth highlighted that?
It will be good to see Huth in the line-up too and I think Riggott will benefit from having a 'boss' alongside him. I think the manager could play any two from three should injury or suspension (or tactics) demand it.
Finally I would like to see Woody be given the Captain's armband for at least the rest of the season, for three main reasons:-
1) I am of the old school who prefers the Captain to be a central defender - one who organises his defenders and can read the game from the back.
2) George Boateng performs better when he is allowed to just get on with what he does best - winning the midfield battle and laying the ball off. I know George is a proud man and would naturally be upset, but I believe his own game would be better served because I think his game is suffering while he tries to marshall the team.
3) It might just tip the balance at the end of the season when Woody's future is being decided. The fact that he dashed off to phone his Dad as soon as he was awarded the armband for one game is proof enough, I think, about where his heart lies. However, the chance to prove himself at a club like Real might just cause enough of a tug at his heartstrings to allow him to leave.
Although I know that one player does not make a team, our needs are greater than those of Real.
John
The point is valid and similar to the one I made about the true quality of our squad - if we couldnt get a good team out of what we had what were we paying them for.
A question to consider is how many of our top quality squad were away on international duty at the last set of matches and how many are are picking up fat salaries and will barely play again?
We have a great set of kids coming through but how many were on international duty at any level in the same period?
I am not criticising the kids or any individual but our squad is neither as good or bad as it is said to be.
We need to get the quality of the players in the squad into perspective. If we had 11 players of Woodies class in the team then we would be champions of England and Europe, in fact we would be called Real Teesside!