Burke to do the wing work!

By: Martyn | January 15th, 2009

Apologies for a lengthy absence. Deadlines, birthdays and lethargy have all done their best to pin me down and prevent me ranting. Blogging abstinence means I have missed recounting an awful lot, so the best course of action will be brief written titbts and links to get myself bang up-to-date. Heck, if a week is a long time in politics, then 3 weeks in football is millennial!

The biggest news relating to our club in recent weeks was of course the 4th Round FA Cup draw. A glitzy home tie against Arsenal was the reward for overcoming Reading reserves two-nothing. Our record against the pseudo-EPL Royals side this season has been impressive. P3 W1 D2 L0 F5 A3. So please please please, let me… get what I want, Reeeading in the play-off finals!

The Gunners tie is potentially (and likely) to be the last FA Cup tie played at Ninian Park, the irony being that the last ever FA Cup tie staged at Highbury was against our very selves! Two Robert Pires goals rendered a Cameron Jerome consolation irrelevant. How times have changed for both sides. Gone are the days when the Gunners were fearsome title challengers, and in have come daydreams from sides like the Bluebirds about the chance of a scalp in the competition Arsenal are most likely to find success in. Gone are the Toni Koskela’s, and in have come injury and illness prone Rangers wingers. Chris Burke will probably offer us more than Kaka will for Man City anyway, at a fraction of a fraction of the fraction of the cost…

While Jews and Arabs slug it out over what is a miniscule bit of coloured-in green wonky shape according to my pint-sized globe, the slug-off between Cardiff and Derby was postponed owing to frost on our beloved and normally immaculate turf. That meant we dropped down to 5th place (on goal difference), albeit with a game in hand over the majority of teams that sandwich us. This weekend we challenge automatic promotion candidates Brum to a duel at their hunting ground. Having lost this fixture at home already, a draw really would suffice!

On the transfer front, Chris Burke is the only coming and going. If you believe the Daily Mirror mind, Darren Purse has been told to sling his hook:

Elsewhere,

- Ridsdale likes haggis
- Let’s talk about Cesc, baby
- Whinger Wenger wants win
- Another youngster makes the step up
- Chairman Ridsdale makes the promise he makes every time one of our assets is about to set sail
- And last but not least, Giggs to be our gigolo?

With regards to the latter story on the marquee buy, I find the whole sorry/sappy saga a tad absurd. Sure, Giggs didn’t rule it out, but the idea that we can pick him up when his career is finally over doesn’t seem to show much ambition from the board or the fans. I know the players are hardly similar in terms of ability, but I remember that it was always going to be that John Hartson, Swansea’s prodigal son, was destined to represent his hometown club during the twilight of his career. It never came to pass: the Jacks were simply too big for him by the time he was finished at the top level. Who’s not to say therefore that in 2 years time, we’ll be too big for Ryan Giggs? Reversibly, we could be in League One and too small for him! Paying more attention to the realistic former option, romantic ideas such as these never work in practise, and any fan blinded by Ryan Giggs‘ birth certificate needs to slap themselves out of the fantasy and clamber out of their Man United “second team” glory supporting closet. Or, look even closer to home and recall the superstar contribution made by one Robert Fowler. Ugh.