Untypical Boro is a lively topical blog by the Evening Gazette's award winning football columnist Anthony Vickers that aims to get behind the headlines to flesh out the stories that Boro fans are talking about.
Incisive, provocative and well informed it seeks to engage with articulate supporters and give them a platform to help set the agenda on the issues that matter.
Posted by on May 14, 2007 10:08 AM | Permalink
Sorry if anyone tried to read or post over the weekend but the blog has been knacked. Normal service appears to have been resumed after a weekend of technical difficulties beyond my comprehension. I think the servers did a Michael Owen and were stretcher off after being KO'd.
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So we won the last 2 games which i predicted on here. so I'm not negaitive afterall.
Ok, so onto more important things. Viduka played on of his best games in a boro shirt but looks likely to be his last. This situation was always going to happen where no decision would be made until the summer and the player keeps us hanging on.
Reminds me of cambell doing it at spurs,owen and mcmahon doing the same thing at liverpool and sidwell. once a player comes into his last year of contract he should either be sold or sign a new contract. you cant let a player run their contract down. god forbid if he ends up at newcastle. from hero to villain within montsh.
i think he will have the pick of newcastle, boro, sunderland, villa, everton and possibly liverpool and manutd. then if he is happy to move house there wil be southern teams.
We will struggle to replace him as we have been led up teh garden path since january..its just liek the zenden situation .the club wont be prepared for him leaving
Posted by: alf | May 14, 2007 10:29 AM
Alf
My sentiments exactly - but I'm still hoping he'll stay.
Vic - I'm still getting the probs with the Blog today. Don't know if it's just me.
**AV writes: It is starting to creak into action now. There are a few bits of the innards still not working but I'm told all the shopfront features should be working now.
Posted by: John Powls | May 14, 2007 10:53 AM
I've got to say yesterday was a great all round performance. Wheater showed great character from bouncing back from a blunder to scoring the goal that put us back ahead.
May be getting a little carried away here but i think using wheater up front would be a good short term option. He's good in the air and he's good on the ball. I think he would convert a fair few more of downings crosses then the other strikers we have at the moment.
On the Viduka issue i hope that he stays like any other boro fan but after watching match of the day there was something in his voice that sounded like it was his farewell to the boro.
If the worst case scenario happens and we lose viduka. I would like to see us try to get somebody like leroy lita. He has scored around 20 goals this season, he is still young and he wasn't a regular starter at reading.
Posted by: Kingy | May 14, 2007 11:52 AM
It was certainly a very good performance on Saturday, Fulham were there for the taking but you can only play what is front of you.
Dong Goal Less couldnt have tried harder and you couldnt have wished for more support for him, everyone was willing him on.
Viduka gave the best display I have seen from him, Zat had a Knightmare and will be hiding under the covers for weeks.
But will Veruka stay? It was us that stalled on offering him a contract, well done Lambie, so we can hardly blame him for looking at what is available and not just money wise. The contact between us is ending and both parties are free to act.
Hopefully the Pompey rumour will prove just that as they have no european football to offer. My guess is that if he moves it will be to get european football and he has hinted he will stay in the premiership. It will probably be along the M62/M1 roads as he lives north of Leeds. That leaves ManU, Liverpool, Everton as the choices.
I could be totally wrong and he moves to any of the clubs Alf mentions. The only person who knows what is in his mind is the man himself. He has had a patchy history with ourselves so that may affect his decision.
If he goes and it is amicable we cannot have an issue and must say thank you and good luck.
Posted by: Ian Gill | May 14, 2007 11:59 AM
Heard viduka will go to newcastle once big sam is in control and we will go for bent at charlton. if that doesnt work out then southgate will stick with lee and yakubu
Posted by: dave | May 14, 2007 12:04 PM
"But will Veruka stay? It was us that stalled on offering him a contract, well done Lambie, so we can hardly blame him for looking at what is available and not just money wise. The contact between us is ending and both parties are free to act. "
How do you know what went on unless you are steve gibson,lamb,southgate,viduka or his agent?
How do we know that viduka isnt after massive wages like say 80k a week? his agent could be trying to increase his wages because we are saving on the trasnfer fee.
you have to remember that when we signed him from leeds, the move got held up while viduka negotiated a settlement from leeds even though they were in financial problems whereas alan smith gave all his signing on fee at manutd to leeds.
We have to back gibson on this rather than viduka because for all we know viduka could be asking for big wages beyond our salary structure
**AV writes: Our understanding is that Boro have made a generous offer that constitutes a significant pay-rise but have said they will not get involved in a bidding war over wages. Viduka did not want to rush a decision and wanted the season out of the way which explains the dealy. Now he will wait and see what other offers come in, as his right.
On the plus side, there are very few teams who will be able to match Boro's offer (and those that can will be just as wary of the age/injury factors as we are) while Viduka has made it clear he is happy to stay living in Yorkshire so that limits the potential rivals for his signature.
Of course, against that you have to measure the unquantifiable: what if a "big club" does come in? Or a team in the Champions League?
It will be a tense few weeks of waiting now but persoanlly I am hopeful.
Posted by: alf | May 14, 2007 12:15 PM
You have it spot on AV, if he leaves a lot of fans will blindly blame the club for not giving him what he wants. Then also if he ends up at sunderland or newcastle will he become a hate figure/judas type??
Too many fans are passing judgement on it without knowing fully what is going on.
Am i right in saying that he got a pay off from leeds so mfc didnt have to pay him as much but now we have to pay the full wack on his wages.
**AV writes: I believe there was a complicating factor inherited from his Leeds deal leaving a big gap that needed to be bridged but I am not at liberty to say what.
Posted by: alf | May 14, 2007 12:37 PM
Alf
Because if you read Gate's article it says they delayed offering him a contract.
In the window Lamb also said they were delaying until we knew we were safe.
That is how we 'know' what has happened because the club told us. Is that clear enough for you because it is for me. A caveat is that not everything you read is true.
We have subsequently made him a generous offer and as I posted you cannot blame him for waiting to see what happens.
Posted by: Ian Gill | May 14, 2007 1:16 PM
Alf/JP
I'm glad you don't conduct negotiations for the Boro!
What difference would it have made if Viduka was offered a new contract last August, January or any other month of the year? He knew it was the last year of his contract and was probably always going to delay a decision until May/June.
He has been offered a lot of money by Boro but the club has its limits (quite rightly) if we can't afford him well, thats life.
Personally I think he will stay, Boro are as good a club to be at as any other than one outside the top four. Viduka clearly enjoys playing for GS he is a family man now and has lived in Harrogate for a long time and is clearly settled there.
There is every chance he will stay, if he doesn't I for one will be grateful for the entertainment he gave us. I've been a big fan since he joined the club although some fans posting on this blog seem to forget they were slagging him off in previous seasons for being injured etc. Lets hope Viduka has forgotten that too.
Just remeber Boateng last season we all got in a flap for exactly the same reasons and in the end he signed a new contract.
Posted by: Nigel | May 14, 2007 1:41 PM
Vic
Re: Viduka, I have written about almost nothing else on my own blog for weeks. On the surface, it's difficult to understand why he wouldn't want to stay at a club where he's so blatantly appreciated - heck, there's even a song about him!
But I'm sure he remembers that it hasn't always been like this. Don't forget that we hammered Chelsea without him; only the week before we'd been booing him off the pitch.
Yet since then, in almost every game he's featured in following that Chelsea game, he's proceeded to play at his best in a 'Boro shirt. (Both last season and this.)
So if we tell him how important he is to our line-up today (for the 100th time), he'll probably be thinking "Maybe you should have thought about that before you booed me off the pitch last year".
Or perhaps, as I suspect, his agent has a lot to do with this? Remember how long Zahavi kept United waiting over Rio two years ago? (Lest we forget, Zahavi and Abramovich are buddies.)
I've other fears though. One, we're not ruthless enough. That is why we tend to lose our best players regularly, not to mention get points deducted.
Back in '97, rather than state our case and fight for those points at all costs (as Magnusson and Alan Sugar clearly did, and as Ferguson, Abramovich or Wenger would have done) we crawled to the FA begging for help. They're not the kind to offer sympathy so cheaply.
Also, do you think the likes of Harry Redknapp or Roy Keane would let their players go so easily? However much I like Gibson and Southgate and what they've done for the club, their benevolence has left us too easy to take advantage of.
The other fear? If Viduka does go, he'll probably join the Merson-Ziege-Geremi-Zenden club, referred to in your blog "Easy Targets In The Theatre Of Hate", and I'm not entirely sure he deserves that.
Which reminds me, your criticism of Juninho in that blog did leave something to be desired - did you even see his tears at Elland Road whilst Emerson just strolled around indifferently?
*AV writes: I just like consistency. For all his qualities on the pitch Juninho couldn't get to the airport quickly enough.
Posted by: Si | May 14, 2007 1:49 PM
Nigel, i am glad our club is in safe hands with gibson. People should stop blaming lamb as its gibson who calls the shots. he will have the say on when we offer viduka a contrct and for how much. keith lamb is more of the messenger.
We should have sorted it out 12 montha go because then it give us time to replace him or sell him and reinvest that money elsewhere. now we are left with nothing and viduka is calling all the shots.
boro fans seem to have forgotten that playing for boro is jsut a job in his career for viduka. he has no links to the area and wil be jsut as loyal to us as he was to celtic/leeds/zagreb or melbourne. He is australian and not a local lad. fact is he will probably go for where he can get the best money. most of us do the same in our own jobs. someone offers you a 40% pay rise then you will go.
In the end we have to back any decision what the club says as gibson as our club at heart and not believe what his agent will come out with. boro will be hee long after viduka has departed. If he was in his mid 20s then i would do more to keep him. give him 2 years max and give him a take it or leave it ultimatum. by end of this week
Posted by: alf | May 14, 2007 2:19 PM
i see pearce has been sacked,jewell resigned,roeder went last week..pressure wil be on southgate next season to finish top half otherwise he could be sacked next summer!
Posted by: dave | May 14, 2007 3:54 PM
I don't think the fans booing him will bear any influence on Vids' decision to stay. I think professionals know it's part and parcel of football - one week you're hot and the next week you're not.
I think Vids has been very cautious in his approach over contract negotiations as is his right. And I wouldn't be overly surprised if Man U made him an offer. At the end of the day, he's on a free and they've lacked a real frontman since Ruud Van Horse Head left.
We can't question Viduka's work rate recently, but it is strange it has conincided with his contract about to expire. If he does stay, and I really hope he does, I just hope he doesn't slip back into the form he was in when he first arrived.
And we did delay offering him a contract, I hope that doesn't bite us on the big one when he makes his decision.
Posted by: Shaun | May 14, 2007 3:54 PM
The reason why we delayed contract talks was because when the club (gibson and lamb) spoke to his agent to get feelers on his potential wages. the demands were far too high. Does anyone actually know how much viduka wants?
bet he goes elsewhere beacuse the money is so good. if you whinge about boro not paying ovet the odds then maybe its time we look for a foreign invester who will chuck money at the club.(and put up ticket prices)
Posted by: alf | May 14, 2007 4:52 PM
I agree with you, Shaun, that Viduka seems to have tried much harder this year, but surely this has nothing to do with his contract coming to an end?
Let's not forget that he was not always first choice when Jimmy-Floyd was here! And think just how good Maclaren was at motivating him (HA!) , compared with Gate.
Viduka really seems to enjoy playing for GS.Our Mark was hardly the complete professional in the past, but I'll settle for another season of the effort, drive and goals he's given us this year.
Now Rochemback trying harder just now, that might be a different story ......
Posted by: Clive Hurren | May 14, 2007 5:30 PM
Listen here you selfish boro fans.
I have pumped millions into this club and know what's best for it. I wil not be held to ransom by some players who is nearly 32 into giving him a long contract on 80,000 per week.
The boro fans need to realise we are just a small town in europe and my pockets are not always full. You can either pay £45 a ticket and have high waged players or have cheap ticket but lesser players. Remember when keith lamb said the club will get the team it deserves.
Or maybe i should sell up to a foreigner invester who will be happy to pump lots of money into the club.
Fans need to make their choice
**AV writes: Nice try - but everyone knows Gibbo posts on here under the name Alf.
Posted by: S Gibson | May 14, 2007 5:32 PM
according to sky sports news yakubu is apparantly wanting to leave, make that 3 strikers we need.]
i dont think he will go though.
Posted by: captain K | May 14, 2007 6:27 PM
Alf
You are right about Viduka, he is a professional footballer who earns money playing football. There are two sides to a contract and we shouldnt impose a definition for loyalty that we wouldnt impose on ourselves.
If a really big club came in for you as a player or someone offered you stupid money at the age of 31 you have a duty to your family and yourself to consider it.
Shaun
Oddly I got some odd comments when I mentioned ManU as a bit of a punt. He really would be suited to them because of his ability to hold up the ball to buy time in the champions league (and the premiership for that matter).
But he appears to be happy at the club and what is more he is enjoying playing so we have a chance.
Posted by: Ian Gill | May 14, 2007 7:41 PM
I hope Viduka stays,he seems to be happy at Boro.
SG will have made him a good offer and he lives at Harrogate.
If he moves on,it takes a season to settle in and Newcastle , Everton Man.City S.Land and West Ham are no better than the Boro.
My star of the season though,now fit again is Julia Arca he is a superb passer of the ball and could be our new "Juninho" next season.
Posted by: John Stone | May 14, 2007 10:20 PM
I think another factor that should be emphasised to any player wanting to leave is that the "Grass is not always greener on the other side".
How many players careers have we resurrected or relaunched only for them to move on to pastures new when somebody has waved a bit more cash at them?
How many of them have actually gone on to bigger and better things? Tthe only one I can think of recently is Zenden at Liverpool and that is only because of injuries and squad rotation - don't think he's first choice.
Hasselbanks recent departure from Charlton, Geremi, Ziege, Merson, etc all suggest that they would have been better off staying put.
In Vid's case I have a feeling that he will stay, he must have earned enough money by now to put quality of life, a regular place in the team and a manager who he seems to get on with above a few more quid in the bank.
Lets hope so anyway.
Posted by: Mac in Bak | May 15, 2007 8:19 AM
Viduka going to Man U isn't a bad call at all Ian, he'd be perfect foil for Rooney.
In all seriousness, he does seem to be enjoying his football with us though. He's scoring goals and if the bigger picture under GS is a bright one, I see no reason why he would leave. I think players get to a certain point in their careers where they're content just to be settled at a club and are they enjoy playing for and being in.
And remember, the Viduka/Yakubu partnership showed a lot of promise earlier in the season. It's somewhat ironic that the current England coach couldn't get them working together when he was in charge at the club.
Well done GS, if Yak and Vids are both on board next year and both have a good pre-season, we again have some exciting options up top.
Posted by: Shaun | May 15, 2007 10:11 AM