Grandad, Golf, Barcelona, Signing, Liverpool. In that order.
It’s the weekend. And apologies for the delay in writing anything for you at the back end of the week. Work, y’know.
At least from next week I’ll be getting help in the form of Big Al, who is taking some of the weight off my shoulders. This will be handy for the next fortnight as I’m off on my hols to the old fatherland. That’s Ireland, where my father came from, not Germany, where my father went to war. Hopefully, some of the hotels will have free Wi-Fi, enabling me to catch up on what is what, and what is not.
Right, some things Bolton related have been happening since Wednesday, so let’s plunge right in. Chronologically.
ROBBIE BLAKE SIGNS FOR DONCASTER
Grandad Blake, zimmer frame in hand, has gone over the Pennines and found himself a club, making him the first of the more low profile players who did not frequent Nandos to get a nice new shirt. Doncaster, even with people like El Hadji Diouf in their squad, were relegated last season and someone like Blake is just the person they need. I never had anything against the man himself. It was as a player who should never have been signed in the first place, never mind given a contract offer. League One is about his level and I’m sure we all wish him well as he tries to get his creaking bones to do a couple more seasons before he takes up a permanent residence at Sunnyview Retirement Home in Margate.
SKD HAS A GOLF DAY, LOOKS FORWARD
The captain appears to have become the mouthpiece that he should be over recent weeks. Compared to last season when we heard more from Zat Knight and Darren Pratley, this is to be applauded. What is also to be applauded is the amount of money that he raised for this charity at his recent golf day. I don’t lose any sleep that both SKD and Mrs SKD have blocked me on Twitter (OK, there was that one time, but it was only sweat, honest) but I’m not going to be petty enough to suggest that what they do for their adopted town with their charity shouldn’t be congratulated.
Looking at the forthcoming season, he seems especially happy to be meeting Burnley first off, a view that we all can share. Looking at the photos of his attire after the golf day, I would say that when he eventually retires, if he doesn’t want to go into coaching, he could make a pretty good crooner at a Las Vegas show. Or, at the very least, Blackpool.
BARCELONA AT THE REEBOK
If the crop of pre season friendlies didn’t grab your fancy (Tranmere, Portsmouth, Barrow (again)), then the very name Barcelona should have set your mouth watering. OK, it is their B team, but even their reserves should be able to bring the brand of football that Barcelona are famous for and which the manager wishes to see his team play. It would be nice to think that we could attract a team of the first team’s stature, but we haven’t really seen a team of their quality since Inter Milan came in Big Sam’s time. At least we may be able to see a team play football at the Reebok this year. It will make up for all the Leeds and Wolves that we have to put up with.
ANDREWS SIGNS
The worst kept non secret at the club was revealed on Friday as Keith Andrews finally put pen to paper on a three year deal. A combative midfielder is what we need with the departure of Nigel Reo-Coker and whilst the Irish enforcer is not in NRC’s league (some might say) he has the battling qualities that we need that may be lacking in people like Mark Davies.
Speaking of whom…
LIVERPOOL INTERESTED IN MAVIES
When relegation eventually came, there were many who thought that the smaller Davies would be a player that might go back into the Premier League with another club. But I don’t think anyone in their wildest comedy moment thought that Liverpool would be the club that made an approach. Say what you like about their history, Liverpool have made some mediocre buys in recent years (indeed, in the past year) and whilst Mavies is the kind of player that Brendan Rodgers had at Swansea, he has the tendency to go missing. A lot. Sometime within the same phase of play.
Various figures have been batted around, ranging between £5-£8million. Even the bottom scale of this would be considered to be a great deal for the club, especially as he only cost £1million from Wolves. Add onto this the possibility of Liverpool loaning us one of their younger players, Raheem Sterling’s name continually comes up and he may want to get out of Liverpool for a while before he fathers another child by a third different woman, and it would be a great deal. Considering OC’s fondness for 4-4-2, with Holden and Andrews possibly being the preferred pairing in central midfield, this would leave Mavies and his undoubted, but circumpsect, talent on the bench. Five million of your pounds sterling would be very welcome.
We say: Sell.
Right, have yourselves a good rest of the weekend and we will be back on Monday. And I don’t think you can say fairer than that.