Have you heard the one about the Hungarian at the Cobblers?

By: Martyn | August 20th, 2008

No me neither as such a joke doesn’t exist, but it acts as an apt headline to the news that we’ve signed a Hungarian centre-back from Northampton Town. I’m really trying my utmost to avoid using a pun involving our club being peckish and… yeah, you get the drift. So this, presumably, is the deal that fills the Netherlands-sized hole left in our defence by Celtic’s Loovens signing. If football was as simple as judging ability and filling gaps by the size of the country’s land mass, then we’d have twice the player of Loovens in Gyepes as Hungary is a fair bit larger than the orange third of Benelux. Sadly, football operates in a fairly more credible and harsh reality so it really will have to be a case of wait and see. Maybe we could save time spending money on new gambles and pay a scientist to clone all of our most talented players! A simulacrum may distort passport and birthland matters, but at least a few of them would keep our team together! Anyhow, you really can view this new signing in two ways:

Let’s View it Negatively

- Gyepes’s story is more football than Harrington jackets, Balti pies and the words Sondico and Mitre. Talented pro finds his way to the top halted by a concrete cloud (flanked and guarded by a burly uncompromising doorman yet to master the English language - in spite of living in the country for thirty-something years - but possessor of a full-blown doctorate in being unreasonable and breaking bones). Injury after injury later, the ascent begins once again (57th time lucky?). Yup, whichever way you look at it we’ve gambled on a crock.

- So here’s a real joke - What do you call a Hungarian who gets paid handsomely to sit on the sofa with his feet up all day? Cardiff City’s newest purchase!

- It stinks more than the air in Swansea of going about our business on the cheap. £2.5m received for an established centre-half who would walk into every team in this league, and £200k spent on a replacement yet to fully acclimatise or get his feet in the door at this level. Our club is starting to resemble Swansea town folk in more ways than one: Why work hard for a living and buy a wheel-free property when you can lounge round in a spaghetti and Oranjeboom stained wife-beater, grow a rat-tail down the back of your neck and stub out Lambert’s on the cat in the caravan all day? The latter is the cheaper and easier option, and once again, the naff lager, alphabet letter orange pasta goo and fags are on Pete n’ Dave!

Let’s View it Positively

- For all Dave Jones’s flops in the forward line department, the list of centre backs he has brought to the club has by and large been impressive. Even Darren Purse was somewhat of a coup as Harry Redknapp’s Southampton were sniffing around at the time of his capture.

- If Gyepes turns out to be a success, we’ll have bought a replacement and made a £2.3m profit in the process! Bottoms up!

- Undoubtedly, this boy has ability. An Hungarian international with the pedigree and willpower of the most determined professional, Gyepes has battled back from a career threatening injury to rework his way towards the top. Not everyone gets a second chance but Gyepes has pissed all over the setbacks to earn himself one. Clearly the boy is a fighter and a winner and such characteristics will be great assets on the pitch and in the dressing room (oft-used imagery and fighting talk that conjures notions of Hollywood-esque chest beating, fist-clenching, hi-5’s, someone - normally the protagonist, so Parry - not joining in with the macho bravado and sitting there staring into space either pumping himself into action or worried by the consequences of losing, dramatic music, swirling motivational colours, slow-motion footage of gnarled and focused faces, and all manners of other ridiculously over-the-top stuff - the dressing room of course, is where the magic really happens!).

- He’s 27 years young. The supposed window of peaking ages is open without the catch on!

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All the best anyway, Gabor Gyepes. Welcome to the club, and here’s hoping you enjoy an injury-free Cardiff City career filled with honours, plaudits, dedicated chants and fan-and-pundit-wowing defensive skillz!

As he’s been with Northampton Town, Gyepes has the benefit of joining after a full pre-season programme and a start to the Football League season. Will he dislodge Darren Purse in the starting line-up for Saturday’s game against Norwich City? I’ll say no. I think Jones will keep faith with Purse until he drops a fresh cow-pat of a clanger. So fear not then our new Hungarian friend - the opportunity is probably just around the corner!