| jayno Posted on 10/1 19:04 | |
| who is calum law | |
good article apart from the start. West Ham bids £500,000 for Mark Viduka – but it might as well be a fiver. For the purpose of the bid is not to elicit a serious response from Middlesbrough – the Hammers board know full well the offer is a derisory one – but to flag up a decisive shift in the terms of ownership. The bid is an act with a purely symbolic intent: like repainting the front door of your former council house. Boro can no longer be said to 'own' that hefty Antipodean posterior in any meaningful sense; they own Viduka in the same way a crack whore can be said to own her body or an illegal immigrant their dignity – it's merely a kind of formal conceit. And the case of Viduka illustrates how the conventions that allegedly govern the conduct of transfers are viewed with an all-pervasive contempt. The Middlesbrough management have remained tight-lipped, merely stating that they have no desire to listen to offers and hope to negotiate a new contract with the forward. And yet if reports in reputable broadsheets are to be believed, Southgate and co are in a state of collective denial, since Viduka has already told them he will not sign a new deal. It would be interesting to know exactly how long - after Viduka's heart-to-heart with Boro's representatives (which Boro of course have yet to confirm took place) - it took West Ham to table their insulting offer. And you don't need to be Hercule Poirot to work out from whence the revelations emerged. For just as Estate Agents depend upon a sense of restlessness among homeowners, so too football agents vis-a-vis their clients; and if the selling club is refusing to face facts then their supine bargaining position shall be illuminated in a public and humiliating way. Few arenas are as nakedly and unabashedly Darwinian as football during the Transfer Window. It's reminiscent of what playtime used to be like as, out of earshot and eyeline of authority, pecking orders were efficiently and mercilessly re-calibrated. Thus West Ham, who a couple of years ago were forced to sell half the future England team, have suddenly shot up six inches and gained a new older stepbrother and a set of chest-expanders. Gareth meanwhile, is eating his packed lunch and trying to be invisible. Don't look now Gareth, Eggert Magnusson's about to offer you a biscuit you can't refuse. As for Viduka, it's difficult to castigate him with any conviction. Though 31, he's seldom looked sharper, and unfortunately, he may well see the Boro fans' new-found hero-worship as being too little, too late. His market value is around £2.5 million and the 'rule of thumb' is that he can anticipate trousering most of that as a 'golden hello' should he leave on a free. We can only hope that, assuming Gareth manages to find a secluded corner of the playground to withdraw to for the rest of break, the V-Bomber doesn't er... lose a bit of momentum in his final four months playing for the 'Gate. We need the House Points. | |
| bandito Posted on 10/1 19:05 | |
| re: who is calum law | |
that is brilliantly written | |
| swines Posted on 10/1 19:08 | |
| re: who is calum law | |
i like it, where is it from? | |
| jayno Posted on 10/1 19:11 | |
| re: who is calum law | |
come on boro. | |
| Link: link | |
