The Diary

01 December 2003: Does The Golden Fleece Beckon For Jason?

You know what? You really can?t beat a smidgen of Pink Floyd, live, on a Sunday evening. Live? Yep. Mind you, I tell a little white lie here: the band called itself ?Think Floyd?, rather than what?s above, and it?s one of the ?tribute? species currently mushrooming all over the country. A few weeks ago, having received the flyer from the Alex, and as we have a considerable collection of the real Floyd stuff at GD Towers, we decided to give ?em a whirl. Bloody good it was, too. The first half consisted of most of the stuff from ?The Wall?, their million-selling album from the days when ?Albion were good?, and the second consisted of a selection of tracks from ?Wish You Were Here?, ?Dark Side Of The Moon?, ?Echoes?, plus more obscure items. Great fun, especially The Wall ? incidentally, they used local kids for the famous ?Another Brick In The Wall? track ? and nostalgia unlimited, as I?ve lost count of the number of times I?ve banged that same album on my stereo after a particularly trying home defeat. It must be all those sonorous eardrum rattling, minor-key guitar chords and depressing lyrics, or something!

On to matters Albion, then, and to no-one?s surprise in particular, all the Sunday papers seem to be full to the brim with paeans of praise for Jason And His Amazing Technicolor Goals ? and rightly so, I say. The lad really is something special, an anachronism from our halcyon years, almost. Bobby Hope must watch him and recognise much. Certainly, his performance at the City Ground yesterday had to be one of his best ever for the club. Class, pure class, which means, I suppose, that Premiership clubs aplenty will be knocking on the door of the East Stand come the January Sales. On the face of it, it would seem we?d have great difficulty hanging on to our man by that time, but, as the song says, ?It Ain?t Necessarily So?. Think back to the struggle we had to get him to sign on the dotted line in the first place: after a lengthy courtship, we thought we had him at the tail end of our promotion season, but were spurned horribly on deadline day, the ostensible reason for the jilting being his missus?s reluctance to move to the Midlands.

I suspected then, and still do (but that?s all water under the Mersey, of course) that the shadow of the Toffeemen wasn?t too far behind, and for some reason or another, Everton then had second thoughts. Negotiations with Tranny recommenced at the start of our Prem season, and this time, we got our man. The point is, the reason we went through all that angst in the first place was basically because his wife didn?t want the upheaval, and presumably settled in her new place by now, she won?t want to do it all over again. Because of that, realistically, I can only see JK seriously considering a move to either of the two Merseyside clubs. Everton? The way things are going right now, we could conceivably be swopping places with them come the end of term. They?re also in quite a lot of debt - ?12 million, is it? - and of one thing I?m certain: should Albion get an approach from them during the ?window?, Jason wouldn?t go for a bargain-basement price. Jeremy Peace may be a good many things, but a sucker, he ain?t. As we?re currently one of the better-financed clubs in our division, there?s absolutely no need whatsoever to sell him to keep the books straight, and in any case, the club have said he?s definitely not for sale. Not only that, he still has another two years on his contract to run, and is currently talking turkey with the club about an extension. Liverpool? Hmmm, that one might be more of a realistic proposition, but financial considerations apart, the same criteria still apply. In any case, I would guess neither club could offer Jase guaranteed first-team football; here, he?s a big fish in a comparatively little pond, and in a few months time, he?ll almost certainly be back in the big league anyway, so why rock the boat now?

Jason has received most of the plaudits for yesterday?s win, and rightly so, but there were other outstanding performers on the park yesterday, and one of them was Thomas Gaardsoe. He really is amazing: half the time, you don?t notice his presence ? truly the Invisible Man of football ? then, when the chips are down, it?s the little things he does that catch the eye. The unhurried clearance, the vital tackle, the calm shielding of the ball to deny the opposition a corner. It?s only when you take the trouble to watch him for long periods of the game you realise what a class act he is. Truly, that first Danish cap recently was well-deserved. And, praise where praise is due, to Deech. Last Saturday, I remarked upon the improvement in his game since his return from Derby, and yesterday, those who travelled to Nottingham were treated to more of the same. In fact, all our ?Gee Degrees? ? well, that?s what The Noise calls Gaardsoe, Greegs and Gilly ? were absolutely superb, and, once we?d broken the deadlock, mopped up pretty well everything Forest chucked at us. I hadn?t noticed, but according to ?Im Indoors, Houlty only had one ?proper? save to make during the whole of the second half. The trouble is, where is Big Dave going to fit into the scheme of things once he?s fully back into the reckoning? Someone ? Greegs, possibly? ? is going to have their nose put out of joint, more likely than not.

And while the mighty Baggies machine marches on, what about life in the Danish League for our many exiles? As it so happens, Albion have a Scandinavian follower ? consider yourself name-checked, Stian Boe! ? who regularly plies us with all the latest gossip via the Boing mailing-list, and tonight he had some quite interesting stuff to impart. According to our man on the spot, former Albion director Clive Stapleton was involved in what he describes as a ?boardroom brawl? recently. He can?t literally mean fisticuffs, surely? If that?s genuinely the case, I never realised Clive had it in him! Anyway, according to Stian, what precipitated the whole undignified affair was the decision of Herfolge?s club president to co-opt additional people on to their board without consulting Uncle Clive first. Not only that, the guy also promised to help out another Danish club ? Koge ? financially, and didn?t tell our man about that either.

Although the rift appears quite serious on the face of it, it would appear Clive is staying put for the moment. Another piece of news from Herfolge is that Matty Turner?s contract has been ended by mutual consent, and he is to return to England and try to find a club over here. He could well do someone a good job of work, as while with the Danish side, he amassed 29 appearances, and scored 8 goals along the way. Certainly, with that experience under his belt, he could suit someone in the Conference, or a division higher, maybe. As his former footballing guru Richard O?Kelly is now guiding Hereford United to greater things these days, I wonder whether he?ll fetch up with the cider-slurpers, eventually? It does have its attractions; what with the publicity that club are getting right now, there would be an excellent shop window for his talents at Edgar Street, and as The Bulls are currently going great guns in the Conference anyway, given a little luck and a following wind, they could well be back within the embracing arms of the League once more come May. There?s also news of two more Albion ?old boys?, Josh Gowling and Mark Briggs. Josh is getting closer to a first-team appearance, it seems, while Briggsy isn?t even in contention, as yet. Oh, and more scuttlebutt about former Albion triallist Tommy Olsen: number of appearances for FC Nordsjaelland, 6, number of goals scored, 5!

That?s my lot for tonight, folks. Tomorrow, some heavy-duty proof-reading is called for; the next GD is due to go to Paul The Mad Welsh Printer very soon, so I?ll be up to my neck in apostrophes and semi-colons for quite a chunk of the day. Because I?ll be completely bog-eyed come the end of that lot, and as there?s not a first-team game until Wednesday (and wow, what a game!) I shall temporarily refrain from giving my keyboard a thrapin? or a lompin? (lovely old Black Country words, those!) tomorrow night. Normal service will be resumed on Tuesday evening.

And finally??One. This came via email from one of my Stateside correspondents, John Wills, and it really isn?t something to be proud of, mate! Remember my offering of Friday night, and my account of famous people from Nottingham? Well, among the various celebs mentioned was ?Paper Lace?, and their best-selling seventies ditty, ?Billy, Don?t Be A Hero?, which is where my correspondent came in ? and what a confession it was! No, he doesn?t possess a copy of that particular title, but what he does have on vinyl is the teeth-gritting follow up to that abomination, their truly indescribable number one American single, "The Night Chicago Died"! John, that sort of thing ought to be worthy of at least 90 years in Sing Sing, but in lieu of that penalty being available in US law (listening to it is probably worse than having a lethal injection, actually), consider yourself well and truly ?outed? in this column instead!

Two. What?s the difference between Fabian De Freitas and our automatic washing machine? None really; in both, the timing?s crap, and as a result, permanently on ?fill?. Our automatic, that is, not Fabian.

 - Glynis Wright

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