THROUGH THE YODA SMOG
PREMIER LEAGUE HERE WE COME...NOT
Phil M King, 7 Feb 2010
'Bloody draws', I thought to myself. Four matches undefeated. That's positively promotion form compared to what we've had so far this year.
Don't worry - I haven't totally flipped. Three draws and a win against Doncaster Rovers doesn't exactly mean that Sir Alex Ferguson is going to start having sleepless nights over the return of the Red Army to the home of the Red Devils.
What it does mean, is that at least we may not go down. But unless the WGS1 can turn those draws into wins, we certainly ain't going up. And lets face it - in our current situation, we really don't want to, do we?
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If we do, without a substantial change in personnel in various areas (and don't start having a go again Celtic fans but I don't mean the rest of the Hoops) we will come straight back down.
We do appear to have done what we used to do - sell our better players and bring in, how to put it tactfully... different players. The latest to depart was academy product Adam 'I know I'm better than Stewart Downing 'cos everybody tells me' Johnson. I've had bitter words to more than a few who have left the Riverside for so-called pastures better and new. However, no such au revoir for AJ.
He didn't actually play that many times for us, mainly due to being behind SD in the pecking order. Yet his initial forays into first team action marked him out as Downing's natural successor in potentially more potent form. And so it has been proven with a number of vital goals (and a couple of spectacular ones) although he has notched up his last goal for Boro - at least for this spell - never say never.
If I were in his shoes, I would have signed for Manchester City.
Boro do not look like a team who are going back up and MCFC have £M's to spend and are starting to look like potential challengers to the top four - just ignore the Hull result.
They are building a team capable of winning silverware in some way, shape or form and being in the spotlight, scoring goals, having talent and being English in a World Cup year is no bad place to be.
Whether AJ can actually force his way into Fabio Capello's squad is up for considerable debate, but there have always been surprises in squad announcements and if he starts to do for City what he has done in the first half of the season for us it would be a brave man to out a substantial amount of money against him at least having a chance.
Good luck to him.
The next month will decide our season. Go on a run against the up-and-coming opposition and we give ourselves a chance to make the play-off's. Stagger along in the same manner as we have done and mid-table obscurity may be the norm for some time yet.
