SOMETHING'S got to give: players who want to be starting for the first team and who know they have something to contribute to the team and managers who need to stick by a team that is performing well and find a shape and selection that gets what they believe is their best team on the pitch.
Frustrated flanker Adam Johnson told me after the Yeovil match how hard it was being left kicking his heels when he is anxious to play. He was very frank about his situation and I must admit I have a lot of sympathy for the lad. He is not an habitual cage-rattler in a huff because he is not getting a game. He is not a super-ego serial ship-jumper putting his own needs ahead of the team. He has been remarkably patient but there comes a point when even the most tolerant individual loses heart.
He is desperate to be part of what he sees as exciting times at Boro, a club that he has a deep emotional investment in having been at the Academy since he was a nipper, and wants to contribute but fears he will not get a chance, especially as he is behind the number 19 from Pallister Park, Stewie Downing.
Likewise Boro want to keep him. Gareth Southgate has repeatedly gone on record knocking back putative interest from a host of clubs and insisting that Jinky is a special talent and one that he wants to harness at the Riverside. But can he drop Downing? And is Johnson as effective, as consistent, as productive on the right as frontman turned flanker Jeremie Aliadiere? And what about Marvin Emnes who the club have splashed out £3.2m on and who can also play on both flanks?
Johnson's situation has actually got more frustrating since last year's impressive loan spell at Watford that should have steeled him ready for a first team place. Since then Downing has signed a new deal and shown sizzling form to cement his on the left while competition on the right - long considered a problem position - has increased dramatically since the days when we wondered how Johnno wasn't ahead of George Boateng.
With just a few days to go to the transfer deadline day who could blame the highly rated England U-21 for wondering about how the season may unfold for him and whether his future may be brighter elsewhere. It is all very well us advising him to stay and stick it out but he is a highly training athlete frustrated by having his talent shackled and his ambitions thwarted. He is an artist having his muse gagged. He has probably never been happier than the three month spell at Watford last season when he was winning games and winning plaudits and basking in the spotlight and the knowledge that next week he would still be in the team. And he is at an age where he knows he should be doing that every week if he wants to fulfill that potential.
And the young lads he came through the ranks with, who arguably do not have the raw talent and awesome potential that he possesses - James Morrison, Andrew Davies, Lee Cattermole - are all merrily spending their signing on fees from big money moves AND playing regular first team Premiership football after biting the bullet and moving on.
It may be that another long term loan in the Championship may be the solution, offering Johnson the action he craves to hone his skills and build up his experience levels elsewhere but also holding out the carrot of a return to the Riverside should the situation change. It can't be ruled out that Downing may pick up a knock and we will need Johnno full match fit at short notice. It can't be ruled out that next summer the annual Stewie saga may end with his departure to a far bigger stage. A loan will tick a lot of boxes and head off the possibility of him becoming so cheesed off that he sees a clean break as his only option.
I don't envy either his own position or that of the gaffer. He doesn't want to leave but if he waits around too long on the off chance that Stewie may be injured and he gets a shot as a stop-gap to be harshly judged against the regular in that role or that Downing moves onward and upward. By then his moment may be gone. The club may buy again. Or Emnes may blossom and stake a claim. Or Tuncay may slot in there.
The gaffer too must find it hard. He rates Johnson and has turned down bids to keep him - but how can he keep him happy? Downing if fit must play on the left while his choices on the right have so far done the business. Meanwhile, the new economic climate that saw the club cash in on Cattermole and Luke Young with offers 'too good to turn down', may make any approach for a frustrated fringe player equally compelling.
It will be hard to square that particular circle. Ideally we would keep Jinky as a vital and active part of a first team squad that is well balanced but at from some angles looks painfully thin, certainly enough for you to worry that it may be logging on to pro-anorexia websites when you are not looking. Ideally he would get enough first team football to keep him fit, focussed, fired up and happy to stay.
As he says, he can't wait for ever.
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