Not just the way we played on Saturday, but also a player that we have been linked with.
Afternoon all. The games come quickly at this time of the year and, as soon as we have waved Burnley goodbye for another year, and hopefully longer, our thoughts turn to the first home game of the season against Derby tomorrow.
Thinking back to Saturday, I don’t know where some of the vitriol aimed towards OC (and OC Jnr. by all accounts) came from. Sure, we played badly. But would we have been regarding ourselves as champions elect if we had blown them away instead? Would we be having a go at him if, by some miracle, we had won whilst playing so badly. That’s how champions play isn’t it. Play badly but win?
Alright, we didn’t. But the margins of argument at this time of the season are wafer thin. What will Burnley fans be saying if they travel to Middlesbrough and Huddersfield this week and come away with nothing? What if we beat both Derby and Forest? Suddenly, Saturday becomes a minor inconvenience.
And was some of the scorn poured because it was Burnley. In the great scheme of things, they aren’t that important. They may be from Lancashire, but they aren’t near rivals. That falls to Bury and Wigan. They don’t like our manager. Fine. I don’t like cabbage. So, it’s a kind of quid pro pro.
One of the major things that became apparent on Saturday was that there was no battler in midfield. Mavies is the style, although he didn’t show it, and Andrews is a stopper. But there is no battler, something that we haven’t got with Holden missing. Reo-Coker was something of a battler, and there was an NRC shaped hole in the midfield at the weekend. So, it is little wonder that OC has been linked with Liverpool’s Jay Spearing.
Amazingly, despite looking like a particularly ugly child from a sink estate, Spearing is nearly twenty four years old and his apparent availability has been noticed due to him not being in the squad for Liverpool’s game at the weekend. Whether this now changes due to their defeat remains to be seen, but Spearing certainly has the hustling qualities that will bring a bit more steel to the midfield. The club, despite the manager saying last Tuesday that the deal was dead in the water, made further contact and were due to meet him on Friday but, once again, there were issues and he was back on the plane out of the country.
OC must really fancy Sanchez to keep on flogging this particularly dead horse, but surely enough is enough. The one thing that Sanchez has going for him is his free agent status, meaning that we can talk to him past August. However, the manager also said that his agent had asked for more money than any Bolton player had ever been on, so how any deal could now be made is a headscratcher. As I’ve said previously, if a deal is causing you too much trouble, then just leave it alone. Somewhere down the line, trouble will call again and it is just not worth it.
As for Spearing, I think it would be a good deal. He looks the part, having a face that should put him on the banned breeds list, and would get regular football at T’Reebok. Being the ‘heart and soul’ of the club, as Brendan Rodgers calls him, does not guarantee him a spot and, even though Charlie Adam appears to have been told he can leave, there is a surfeit of central midfielders at Liverpool. He can tackle, always a good start, and can run and chase, something which we need. Although any signature only looks likely once the loan window opens, and our supposed interest may well make others aware that Spearing may be available, I like the sound of it.
Elswhere, it is pretty much the manager and captain kicking themselves and saying that we must do better. All very yawnsome. It certainly seems to be a repeat of everything that you have heard before, and I don’t want to bore you.
So, with news that Adam Bogdan won the first man of the match, we will return tomorrow. Keep your heads down.