Sunday, June 01, 2008

News Round-up: Gulls get Green

Ah, the duplicity of professional football. Despite Matt Green claiming that a verbal deal had been done and that all his family and friends has been telling him to move to Oxford, he’s gone to where all old Oxford players seem to end up these days; Torquay.

It’s difficult not to appear bitter about it. Rationally he should go for the best deal he can get. Equally, there are plenty of strikers in the world and so signing one with a dodgy knee hardly guarantees promotion. So, we should see this as a set back not a disaster.

It would be naive to think that the autistic loyalty that forces you and I to renew our season tickets should extend to the players. However, if he was undecided, then he should keep his mouth shut. Sadly the arrogance of footballers, footballers who are strikers, footballers who are strikers that are in demand, prevent them from aggrandising themselves at every opportunity.

Is this a symptom of the lack of ambition and/or competence at the club? The fans seem to think so. It’s early days, we shouldn’t expect much before July if the last couple of years is anything to go by, but we do seem to be in a worse situation than we were at the end of last season.

Striking has been a problem for the last couple of years. Last season Jim Smith inexplicably thought we were well served despite having a roster made up of Gary Twigg and a bunch of misfiring duds. This year, we have Yemi alone. Prospects for next season aren’t doomed just yet, but there’s a lot of work to do before August.

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