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Writing this now, I have no real care for wanting to know 'Who do you think will go where' or 'Why Emile Heskey's move to Birmingham was a good'un'... Please! Let us talk about all that somewhere else. You see, the one-thing that's already managed to catch my eye in this year's events envolves an increasing number of players and their talk of a "heroic" return to a former idolising club sitting on the horizon. Just like Jesus, when he arose from the dead, or something.... (I'm sure Forest Fan would be able to give you every-last detail, if you wanted! :P)
To start with, one of my most-admired English players, Alan Smith, is on the verge of a big-money move away from his beloved and sunken Leeds United, and it seems as though his "dream move" across the Pennines to Manchester United could be on the cards (if only a fee can be agreed) - and, after that, when the Yorkshire side make their inevitable return to England's top-flight, the Euro 2004 Reserve has said he'd like to return to Elland Road; despite this growing amount of 'hate' the Leeds faithful seem to have for their 'Hero'...
I know it's still likely to be a good year-or-two before Leeds United even come close to making a glamorous return to the Premiership (if, even, they can survive long-enough, financialy...), and therefore, it's hard to tell what, exactly, will happen. Undoubtabley, though, things will have changed at Elland Road. And, in the way these tinkerings are meant to - unless it's Claudio Ranieri - it'll all have worked out for the better. One thing you can guarrentee - with the huge 'exodus' planned in order to raise the funds they need alone - he'd be returning to a different Leeds United.
That move's still several years away anyway. It has nothing of any real concern for us right now. Dion Dublin, however, is a man on the way back to a club that loved him so-much, right now. The ever-ageing Aston Villa goal-poacher is set for a return to Highfield Road with Coventry City, in the wake of Gary McAllister's departure as manager [another 'good thing' with an unhappy ending!]. With all the fans have been through in recent years, I'm sure they're all delighted to hear their "Knight in Shining Armour" is coming home. But, in the years he's been away from Highfield Road, many things have changed. Gordon Strachan's gone, Darren Huckerby has found "form" elsewhere, Magnus Hedman is also onto bigger and better things... It's a totally different team to the one he's used to.
The point I'm trying to get at is that football is nothing like that of which we see on Sky One every Sunday night at 8 - in real-life, things change a lot. Very few can actually do a `Karl Fletcher´, season-after-season and again! When a player he's sold, he's sold for a reason. Whether it be for financial benfit or whatever, they won't all neccesarily want you running-back to them, 6-months down the line. No matter how good you were then, things will have changed already. For a start, the gaffer will have a new system in place to work-around the loss of one-man.
Let's take a look at Scott Murray, of my local team Bristol City (who, as you should have noticed, were on-show last night to reach the Second Division Play-Off Final in dramatic circumstances ;D ). For myself and many others, for the previous season alone, Scotland B-international Murray was something of what Thierry Henry is to Arsenal today. He was everything. He did everything. We were nothing without him. And, althought we missed out on Promotion (yet again) thanks to Cardiff City, over 30 goals in a season for a wide-player ain't half bad, is it. How on Earth were we going to cope when Reading snapped him up, out-of-the-blue (for peanuts!!) at the start of the season?
Somehow, we did. Danny Wilson saw the problem, found a solution and, from what has happened so-far, it seems to be going all-right. But then, much to everyone's surprise, he's back at Ashton Gate because he can no longer get in the Reading team! Surely, things could only get better now the King has returned, right??
I don't see it that way. I mean, in the game's he's played since January, what has he really done for us? When was the last-time Mr.35-goals-a-season hit the back of the net?! Marc Goodfellow was, in my opinion, the best signing Danny Wilson made this season - and that has nothing to do with the goal last night!
The fact is that, as you may have realised for what I said earlier, things have changed since Scott Murray was last in a Bristol City shirt. We've signed new players, more youngsters have forced their way in, and we found a way to counter the loss of a player who (once) had the right to wear the same squad number as David Beckham does for England. Different team, different time, same old place - he just doesn't fit in anymore.
If you want something on the Premiership level, then how about Teddy Sheringham and his second-spell at White Hart Lane with Spurs? Sure, he actually got his fair-share of goals for Glenn Hoddle's side in that time - but it's also fair to say he'd spent two seasons even better at Old Trafford with Manchester United, previously.
I mean, winning 'The Treble' and hitting over 30 goals in one single campaign... How does that sound up against mid-table mediocrity and that same old scoreline.
You can leave anything, and bet it won't be the same even only one-day after you last saw it. Food goes stale, work-loads begin to mount up; time stands still for no man.
Why should should a Footballer be any different, just because he is on more money by the week that want many others could even dream of earning in a year!?
David Beckham is gone - and no matter what people can say, I would never want him back at Old Trafford, for these reasons alone. Things at Old Trafford stand within enough of a mess as it is!
Steven Gerrard; Thierry Henry... They can do it all for your team now, but, give them a few years away from their game, and, trust me, I doubt you'd be able to say you're glad they're back when you see how all has changed.
The whole point of getting rid of something is to make space for benneficial change. What you don't want is a boomerang that'll simply come back and hit you on the head.
everyone knows alan smith saying he wants to go back is just talk. But its what the leeds fans want to hear, and he doesn't mind saying it as he knows in 3 or 4 years time he can go: "i can't move back i've just got married and had a kid and i don't want to uproot them from the area" or some excuse of that nature, and won't go back once he has been at england's third team for a while.
Everyone's sold for a reason, and everyones bought for a reason. Chelsea bought chris sutton because they thought he might become a 30 goal a season prem striker. They sold him because he was shhit.
I was going to type a little more on the Gary McAllister thing, and how that one was different. I mean, as good a turn-around as he was beginning to create at the club, it just had to go wrong somewhere, didn't it. He had to leave his job too early, due to personal reasons.
"Nothing good ever lasts for ever."
Heh, I'd like to see what'd happen if Gerard Houllier returned to Liverpool, 7 years from now, as manager, once his current time at Anfield has at-very-long-last come to an inevitable end...
Relegation would beckon, I believe! ;)
Not planning to.
"OH MY GOD! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!11"
-----
Sssshhh... Be quiet and maybe he won't say anymore!
:D
> Just like Jesus, when he arose from the dead, or
> something.... (I'm sure Forest Fan would be able to give you
> every-last detail, if you wanted! :P)
More or less there.
> They always say that you should never return to your old club and I
> beleive in that. Villa were a top six side until last season.
Yeah - Paul Fairclough did a similar thing at Stevenage.
In the early-mid nineties he achieved 4 promotions in 6 seasons which got us to the pinnacle of non-league football. After *that* FA Cup run where we beat Swindon and almost Newcastle, in 1997 he was sacked when were were 3rd (YES - 3RD) for not being good enough!
Funnily enough he haven't got anywhere near that sort of standard since.
He came back 99-01 and we were ten times worse with him than the man he replaced (Richard Hill)
Funny game football.
> Just like Jesus, when he arose from the dead, or
> something.... (I'm sure Forest Fan would be able to give you
> every-last detail, if you wanted! :P)
OH MY GOD! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!11
We all thought he'd do the same again, but instead did the opposite. He nearly got us relegated and we probably would be in Division 1 right now if he was manager this season.
Man United were the best team in the Premiership, until Beckham left. They said United would do better with out him and didn't. If he were to come back to United, I don't think he would be the same.
Writing this now, I have no real care for wanting to know 'Who do you think will go where' or 'Why Emile Heskey's move to Birmingham was a good'un'... Please! Let us talk about all that somewhere else. You see, the one-thing that's already managed to catch my eye in this year's events envolves an increasing number of players and their talk of a "heroic" return to a former idolising club sitting on the horizon. Just like Jesus, when he arose from the dead, or something.... (I'm sure Forest Fan would be able to give you every-last detail, if you wanted! :P)
To start with, one of my most-admired English players, Alan Smith, is on the verge of a big-money move away from his beloved and sunken Leeds United, and it seems as though his "dream move" across the Pennines to Manchester United could be on the cards (if only a fee can be agreed) - and, after that, when the Yorkshire side make their inevitable return to England's top-flight, the Euro 2004 Reserve has said he'd like to return to Elland Road; despite this growing amount of 'hate' the Leeds faithful seem to have for their 'Hero'...
I know it's still likely to be a good year-or-two before Leeds United even come close to making a glamorous return to the Premiership (if, even, they can survive long-enough, financialy...), and therefore, it's hard to tell what, exactly, will happen. Undoubtabley, though, things will have changed at Elland Road. And, in the way these tinkerings are meant to - unless it's Claudio Ranieri - it'll all have worked out for the better. One thing you can guarrentee - with the huge 'exodus' planned in order to raise the funds they need alone - he'd be returning to a different Leeds United.
That move's still several years away anyway. It has nothing of any real concern for us right now. Dion Dublin, however, is a man on the way back to a club that loved him so-much, right now. The ever-ageing Aston Villa goal-poacher is set for a return to Highfield Road with Coventry City, in the wake of Gary McAllister's departure as manager [another 'good thing' with an unhappy ending!]. With all the fans have been through in recent years, I'm sure they're all delighted to hear their "Knight in Shining Armour" is coming home. But, in the years he's been away from Highfield Road, many things have changed. Gordon Strachan's gone, Darren Huckerby has found "form" elsewhere, Magnus Hedman is also onto bigger and better things... It's a totally different team to the one he's used to.
The point I'm trying to get at is that football is nothing like that of which we see on Sky One every Sunday night at 8 - in real-life, things change a lot. Very few can actually do a `Karl Fletcher´, season-after-season and again! When a player he's sold, he's sold for a reason. Whether it be for financial benfit or whatever, they won't all neccesarily want you running-back to them, 6-months down the line. No matter how good you were then, things will have changed already. For a start, the gaffer will have a new system in place to work-around the loss of one-man.
Let's take a look at Scott Murray, of my local team Bristol City (who, as you should have noticed, were on-show last night to reach the Second Division Play-Off Final in dramatic circumstances ;D ). For myself and many others, for the previous season alone, Scotland B-international Murray was something of what Thierry Henry is to Arsenal today. He was everything. He did everything. We were nothing without him. And, althought we missed out on Promotion (yet again) thanks to Cardiff City, over 30 goals in a season for a wide-player ain't half bad, is it. How on Earth were we going to cope when Reading snapped him up, out-of-the-blue (for peanuts!!) at the start of the season?
Somehow, we did. Danny Wilson saw the problem, found a solution and, from what has happened so-far, it seems to be going all-right. But then, much to everyone's surprise, he's back at Ashton Gate because he can no longer get in the Reading team! Surely, things could only get better now the King has returned, right??
I don't see it that way. I mean, in the game's he's played since January, what has he really done for us? When was the last-time Mr.35-goals-a-season hit the back of the net?! Marc Goodfellow was, in my opinion, the best signing Danny Wilson made this season - and that has nothing to do with the goal last night!
The fact is that, as you may have realised for what I said earlier, things have changed since Scott Murray was last in a Bristol City shirt. We've signed new players, more youngsters have forced their way in, and we found a way to counter the loss of a player who (once) had the right to wear the same squad number as David Beckham does for England. Different team, different time, same old place - he just doesn't fit in anymore.
If you want something on the Premiership level, then how about Teddy Sheringham and his second-spell at White Hart Lane with Spurs? Sure, he actually got his fair-share of goals for Glenn Hoddle's side in that time - but it's also fair to say he'd spent two seasons even better at Old Trafford with Manchester United, previously.
I mean, winning 'The Treble' and hitting over 30 goals in one single campaign... How does that sound up against mid-table mediocrity and that same old scoreline.
You can leave anything, and bet it won't be the same even only one-day after you last saw it. Food goes stale, work-loads begin to mount up; time stands still for no man.
Why should should a Footballer be any different, just because he is on more money by the week that want many others could even dream of earning in a year!?
David Beckham is gone - and no matter what people can say, I would never want him back at Old Trafford, for these reasons alone. Things at Old Trafford stand within enough of a mess as it is!
Steven Gerrard; Thierry Henry... They can do it all for your team now, but, give them a few years away from their game, and, trust me, I doubt you'd be able to say you're glad they're back when you see how all has changed.
The whole point of getting rid of something is to make space for benneficial change. What you don't want is a boomerang that'll simply come back and hit you on the head.