We look back on Jay Spearing’s time at the Macron. In rhyme.
‘BLUE CHIP JAY`!
Imagine a time when our grandkids may say,
“Gramps, will you tell us the story of ‘Blue Chip Jay`?”
And all misty-eyed, we`ll sit them on down on our knee,
Whilst recounting the events, as truthfully as we could see.
Beginning at a sunny ‘Turf Moor`, with a vociferous crowd,
All the way from Bolton and shouting out loud.
So Freedman could hear, they chanted “Sign up Jay Spearing!’
Even Gartside took note and he was acutely hard of hearing!
So the boy duly signed for a couple of million or so,
And though small of stature, always stood firmly toe-to-toe.
He was just what we needed, this Liverpool lad,
‘Cos our mid-field at the time was proving quite bad.
But unfortunately that year, his game didn`t really lift-off,
And with it, our team-play descended into a bit of a trough.
Then predictably disaster struck, when Dougie got the sack.
Thus ensuring young Jay not being offered much slack!
And ever since Dougie`s demise, guess what happened to Jay,
Ask Lennie!…Ignored and demoted then loaned out during his stay!
Dropped from the team for essentially being too small,
Along with wayward passing, when in possession of the ball.
Failing as captain for often being misunderstood,
He should have known at the Macron, his Scouse accent`s no good!
And when you lose 7-1 in your very last game,
It`s not a good idea having your picture put in a frame.
Drinking yourself silly in Cyprus`s Ayia Napa town,
That`s oft been the graveyard of many a footballing clown!
But he paid for his ‘crime` and came out the other side,
A wiser and better player. On the pitch never someone to hide.
A vital piece of the jig-saw, now his vision had improved,
Matching shooting and passing…..Yet the board was unmoved.
Though he could have been our passport to Championship safety,
On this, the Liverpool owners were rather less than matey.
The fall-guy it appeared, for one of the many ills of our sport.
Namely money-grabbing clubs out for all they can extort.
In the case of the Wanderers, a paltry a hundred thousand pounds,
Just be careful my friends, because it sometimes rebounds!
But of course, the extent of the problem didn`t entirely end there,
If we`d coughed up the dough, there wasn`t a lot left to spare.
And we`d still have to find, his seventeen thousand a week,
Funding contracts like that, would have us up in front of ‘the Beak`!
By now totally spellbound and wide-eyed in surprise,
The grandkids said “Paying such wages was akin to rolling a dice!’
‘Like playing a monstrous game of Monopoly and such,
How could soccer clubs ever be such an easy touch?”
“Nail on the head!” I couldn`t resist an affectionate squeeze.
‘It just spreads like wildfire. Let`s call it the football disease!”
Thus I continued……the popular feeling was that Jay had to go,
And be lost forever, adding to our considerable woe.
It was good while it lasted. He gave his all for the cause,
Only to be thwarted in the end, by a bleedin` £100,000 clause!