Problems In The City Camp
James Richardson
(Written 5th January 2002)
Now dear reader before you start to get engrossed in my current thoughts I shall warn you that this is what is known as a rant, not a big one by my standards but a rant all the same. So if any of you feel that they don’t want to read what some may term as ‘negative garb’ then go and browse around the other fine sections of this wonderful website.
If your'e still here then good, you obviously have good taste. Now my first target is the loveable, cuddly, Hull Daily Mail reporter, one John Fieldhouse esquire. Now the gutbucket has come in for a lot of stick since he took up the role of reporting on City about 3 years ago, most of it justified although some has been ever so slightly harsh on the guy. His limitations as a journalist have been highlighted on many occasions and I don’t see fit to list them as my hands get tired from the constant typing.
I tend to try and avoid the HDM at all costs since the “100 year old underpants found” story made the front page a while back. I do occasionally read the Sportsmail and glance over the City spread, the articles in which the Co-op or City Independent state the blindingly obvious and the short stories on the double spread in which good ol’ John gives us some of the more light hearted news that has happened at Boothferry recently. More often than not he uses it for personal jibes at players that have obviously offended him in some way, possibly by refusing an interview in fear of being horrifically misquoted in typical Fieldhouse style. Both Theo Whitmore and Ian Goodison have been regular targets for his usual waffle (along with those that he has for breakfast, boom boom!) be it them actually being Jamaican, their accents, their personality and many other unique traits that the “Reggae Boyz” have. The thing that annoys me the most is the fact that the gargantuan vat of wobbling blubber insists on referring back to the unfortunate accident that Theo was involved in last season. Not only did it leave deep mental scars that Tappa will probably never fully recover from but also it affected his form which is understandable I think you will agree. I mean if that occurred to anyone I think their performance at work would be affected although John hasn’t thought about this himself, although he performance at work couldn’t really decline to a lower level than the one it is at already. Thankfully Theo has recovered and has tried to put the incident behind him yet Fieldhouse keeps bringing it up and whenever an article with Whitmore is printed you can guarantee that the above incident it mentioned. You may view this as a minor matter I believe that it is rather insensitive to keep printing this and anyway it’s my column, so there.
Ah now I’ve got that out my system I can move onto my next victim, call Mr Nicolas Mohan to the stand. Now please note that I have no problem with Mohan personally, having heard him on the radio he sounds like quite a likeable chap although the fact that his presence on the field is costing us points and momentum this season is unforgivable and I fully believe he should don the Amber shirt again. Many fingers have been pointed in the direction of Blanc for Man Utd’s troubles this season, he is slow although he never was the quickest yet recently now he has settled in his coolness under pressure is bringing the best out of those around him and it unfortunately looks like they could swipe the title again. Anyway Mohan has been an average defender before although his pace has been his undoing this season. He has shitloads of experience yet he looks panicked himself when he gets the ball and with Justin Whittle never going to be Beckenbauer when it comes to bringing the ball out it has been crucial that City have Goodison/Whittle at the heart of the defence. Suspensions and injuries have robbed us of both of these on occasions this season yet their have been times this season when both have been fit and Mohan has come between the two playing together in the backline. Problems down the left side have led to Goodison/Holt and Price playing there at least one time this season and non have been impressive, Price hasn’t started but the little drunkard will have to buck up his ideas or it’ll be a long time until he makes the first XI of the referee’s team sheet that Martyn Hainstock receives at every home game. Holt is a bloated drunken shadow of his former self and Goodison has struggled to cope with the full back position. Matt Bloomer was the most likely candidate to fill that role although now we have signed Van Blerk it seems we won’t need to find another player. Mohan must go even though he will probably end up in a coaching role. Little likes a shouter and he currently occupies that role in the team although whereas Brabin, Francis, Brightwell and on a lesser extent Atkins produced good performances when in that role last season Mohan has been awful.
Enough about the donkey. I very rarely criticise Brian Little and when I do I think very carefully if it is worth saying. I personally think that we have been a tad two negative this season on occasions when we need results. 4-5-1 against Kidderminster most recent, in a game were we need a result playing 1 up front isn’t really the right tactic. As is bringing on a midfielder for a striker against Oldham at half time while the game is poised at 1-1. I’m no expert, my only managerial experience comes from playing a vast amount of computer games but as supporters we have a right to comment and that’s my two penneth.
So that’s it really, I am a nice guy really as my friends will testify and am very rarely aggressive, well that is until 3pm on a Saturday afternoon when I start cursing and being generally loud be it at the game or in my bedroom listing to the patronising comments of David Burns.
Until next time (when I will pick a nice jolly subject to write about) Come on you Hull |
