No fourth game ban for Cahill, Collymore talks spite and transfer talk. Already?
Afternoon all. Due to us being a small northern club and not being in Europe, again, in weeks like this you have to make your own news while the rest of the journalistic trade are salivating themselves over the Champions League.
One day, my friends. One day.
So, now we know that we will be without our first choice central defender for the next three games. I suppose this is the best that we could have hoped for, no matter St Owen, SuperKev, Iceman and Mr Vinegar saying that it wasn’t. As we all know, Caz will miss the Villa and United games in the league and North Dingleshire in the cup, a game that he probably would have missed anway, unless St Owen is the sentimental type who lets players play against their former clubs. Oh??
There is still some small residue left over from the game on Saturday but this is more to do with the Stefan challenge on Diaby. Diaby himself has said
‘Bolton is a very physical team and to be honest the tackle was a strong one, but it is Premier League football, people are committed, so it is fine for me.’
I notice that Diaby hasn`t had a go at Robinson over the challenge, but then if he did he wouldn`t have a leg to stand on. Thank you.
Mr Vinegar took a different view.
‘The tackle was bad. The tackle was very bad.’
For once Mr Vinegar won’t get an argument here. There is little else to say about the game, otherwise we`d just be going over and over it until time stopped. So, to firm up what we said, the red card was justified, Robinson should have been sent off, Arsenal won. End. Of.
Oh look, The Girlfriend Beating Dogging Slug of the West Midlands has been talking (and talking and talking and talking?.) about Saturday`s game. Speaking of SuperKev he says:
“I think Kevin gets a bad deal – he is sometimes portrayed as a thug but I think he is a strong physically demanding centre forward.”
Glossing over the fact that if anyone would be able to recognise a thug it is definitely Stanley Victor, for someone who last season called Bolton “rotten to the core” (apology notwithstanding) it`s going to take a lot more than bigging up our captain for Bolton fans to forget his words. Who were the bigger club again?
Collymore is nothing more than a bully, both in his personal and professional life who, if he doesn’t get the answer he wants uses whatever means to get it.
After watching a virtually full strength Stretford team try, and fail, to get through a highly organised Rangers defence last night, I accidentally turned on TalkSpite and found Stanley Victor going on about how Rangers should have tried to take the game to United. You know, so they could lose. Well, I say “going on”. He was shouting so much the callers could feel the spittle on their face. So I turned over to Five Live and I could STILL hear him going on in the background. There is only one thing worse than Stan Collymore and that would be the seriously retarded people who phone in to lose an argument with him on the radio.
As my best man Dave The Red once joked “How do you make seven pounds of flesh attractive? Stick a nipple on it.” TalkSpite have taken this idea and reversed it.
Our Yank has also been glad handing the press, telling them that he thinks we can cope without Gary “Gaz” Cahill.
‘Gaz has been a big player for us and is obviously an important part of the defence but whoever comes in has got a lot of experience and has played a lot of games in the top flight.’
AOB came off the bench on Saturday and did little to impress after Cahill was sent off. The option that most people seem to be shooting for, and which I would agree with, would be Sam Ricketts. He proved last year that he could play alongside Zat Knight and our first clean sheet of the season came when the two of them played together. This is not a long term solution, as the Cahill/Knight partnership offers more than just defence. Both can do something in the opposition box as well which Ricketts is missing from his armoury. But he is an able stand in, definitely quicker than AOB and more in tune with the other centre half.
As for the opposition, Houllier has been released from his FFA contract but will not be taking control of the team until after Saturday. Villa`s performances since O`Neill left haven`t been the best. Newcastle did them for six, Everton did everything but score when they played and Stoke battered them into submission on Monday. There is currently a soft centre at the heart of Villa and we should take advantage of that on Saturday.
In transfer talk, Bolton “target” Adam Hammill had a good game last night as Barnsley beat Leeds 5-2 at Elland Road. Hammill had a hand in all five goals, netting the fifth himself. Naturally, one game doesn`t make a season, but Barnsley are picking up some good points and Hammill seems to be highly rated. Sky reckon we`re in a race with the Baggies and Barking to secure his signature come January. We should be able to afford him, what with Cahill going to Inter and everything.
But that`s for January. We`re in the here and now. And we`ll be here and now tomorrow. Enjoy your Wednesday, you`re half way there.