More About Benito Carbone
Michael Boulding has an impressive goal tally for sure and he has been tagged as a target for City for a long time this summer but in terms of alarm bells there is very few that the 32 year old has not clanged.
Boulding joins City after the sort of on off chase which never has brought us much joy in the past. His father insists that the decision to join City has nothing to do with cash but one cannot help but be reminded of the transfers of Ashley Ward, of Lee Power, of Benito Carbone when thinking of this deal.
City’s best signings grasped at the chance to come to Valley Parade with both hands.
Then there is the injury picked up in training with minutes to go of a training session before a game which saw him able to go home rather than to Farsley. In itself not a problem - an injured player should rest - but hardly that desire to settle in to City.
Nevertheless Rory Boulding played that night. What are we to make of Rory and the deal that brings him in his brother’s pocket? How much elevation does the younger get to please the elder? How does McCall deal with Michael if if offers the opinion that Rory deserves a starting run out?
We are to hope that Michael is just pushing for his kid brother not pushing him into places he should not be. These are alarm bells but in a world where Christiano Ronaldo is a slave perhaps this is just Michael using player power and making his own decisions.
The biggest alarm though sounds when one recalls Mansfield’s brilliant, spirited display at Valley Parade last season after which I commented that the team would not be relegated should they play like that more often.
Boulding scored in that game. His 25 goals in a relegated side that can play so well but often did not makes one wonder how the striker fits into that or any of the many teams he has played for? Is the one of those players who while impressive gets more out of a team than he puts in?
Chris Waddle’s time at City was brilliant to watch but Shaun Murray got us out of the bottom two. Wayne Rooney’s second season at Everton was much worse then the year after he left and Tim Cahill took his place. These were good players who for whatever reason did not fit.
Let us this is not the case with Boulding. Let us hope that there worries are unfounded and that the alarm bells are pre-season tension playing on the mind. After all all indications are that this reason is very much make or break.
We welcome both Boulding brothers with the same - if not more considering Michael’s three clubs in the last month - enthusiasm they join us with.
In 12 months time though this double signing and how the relationship between the two is handled could very much decide Stuart McCall’s future.
Bradford City 4 Shrewsbury Town 2 - League Two 2007/2008
He is a stocky character - this Barry Conlon - and his has broad shoulders.
Those broad shoulders carried a lot of weight after his signing from Mansfield at the start of this City’s supposed promotion season and when his “fight in an empty room” style of bustling forward play lacked it’s foil in the then injured Peter Thorne he needed those shoulders to carry the criticism he was loaded with.
He worked hard - this Barry Conlon - after missing a penalty on his debut and his reward is ours. His name is sung loud after he - this Barry Conlon - shoulders the responsibility of a penalty that made sure a game that should have been sure five minutes from time.
This Barry Conlon chips low his penalty given after Darren Kempson had stopped David Wetherall scoring and the win is as sealed as it is deserved. This Barry Conlon hears his name sung loud.
That Conlon’s spot kick had to make the game sure was a criminal offence of a decision by the latest in a long line of appalling officials with a linesman allowing a goal for Marc Pugh after his headed was rather randomly powered into the hands of City’s latest on loan goalkeeper Scott Loach but Paul Heckingbottom. The ball was nothing less than a foot on the right side of the line and moving forward.
That the appalling and newest “worst decision ever” was made pulled the blinkers over an excellent save from Loach who has joined from Watford to replace QPR bound Donovan Ricketts. Loach performed well in goal for sure but his mouth open fearless style that saw the 19 year old shouting the sort of instructions that mad Gary Walsh a better keeper than Matt Clarke was more noticeable. He signed as many autographs as he could after the game too. Good kid.
Ricketts is no doubt getting his feet under the table in West London - good luck and thanks for the memories to him - although had he been at Valley Parade he might have wondered how the Referee could see troublesome striker Guy Madjo “make a gesture” to the home supporters and not be called to book on it. Ricketts might have wondered why he was sent off for such an offence at Southend and Madjo was not. He might wonder if Madjo had the same provocation. He might wonder many things and he will probably hope that at his new club the rules are applied more even handily.
In the end that is all I, dear reader, want from officials. Evenhandedness.
Peter Thorne played for QPR - they paid £2,990,000 for for him than they have Ricketts - and it is not hard to see why people thought highly of the striker who from the tail end of his career looks like he should have made more of himself. Sharp, he was, as he finished off a deflection following a pacey run up the field from Omar Daley as City pushed out from a corner which came too soon after a former Bantam Dave Hibbert’s header that put the visitors back into the game after half time.
Hibbert took his header well looping it past Loach but Matthew Clarke will hope to make his aerial clearances more decisive in future. City’s upturn in performances - all but undefeated since Christmas - coincides with Clarke displacing Mark Bower in the side. In the last month City have grown in confidence and now the side can assimilate changes and maintain direction. Tom Penford arrived in the place of Paul Evans in McCall’s holding role and performed well all evening.
City’s upturn also has much to do with Stuart McCall getting the best out of Omar Daley who has moved from central figure to a more suitability less involved player in the Bantams side. McCall has given Daley a remit of using pace and sticking to the flank and then the solo Reggae boy cut past the left back and across the box firing a shot that took a huge deflection to go in from it struck one that Omar is play finisher and not playmaker.
Playmaker.
Let the word float in the air. Think about what it means. Savour it like wine around the mouth. The playmaker.
Seven minutes in and it is the strength of the man, the turn that left three - four maybe - blue shirted defenders chasing shadows. Willy Topp skipped to the box and found Kyle Nix to allow the Aussie to finish superbly and while Nix deserves every plaudit thrown his way it was Topp’s show.
This Willy Topp - who played 55 minutes before being replaced by Barry Conlon as the Chilean builds match fitness - has a clutch of attributes that picked him out at this level. His touch is superb giving him time and space which he uses well so far and his strength is impressive. This Willy Topp knows how to use his body to keep the ball and when he has it he knows what to do with the ball.
And he wants to make play and he has he scope to be the most exciting player at Valley Parade since Benito Carbone and he can go far - further probably than Bradford City and he can hear his name sung loud as long as he follows the example of the balding Irishman with the broad shoulders.
Stuart McCall tells us not to get too excited at the prospect of Willy Topp coming to Bradford City - like his insistence that the Chilean be called Billy not Willy one can expect his words to fall on deaf ears.
Topp is expected to feature on the bench for the League Two game with Rotherham United - the very typification of a dour would be derby game - and for the time he cools his heels to the second he strikes in anger in claret and amber the thoughts of all will be on this latests great white hope.
Topp follows a path along the decline of this club that started with Benito Carbone who promised the abilities that club needed - in the case of Topp and Staurt McCall’s Bradford City those abilities are obviously needed - but for a multitude of reasons were not delivered upon. Topp would do well to follow Carbone’s example - the little Italian gave his all for City every game - rather than the path of Juanjo.
For Topp and Juanjo - Jim Jefferies perfect playmaker - are aligned. Both come into teams that lack inspiration and both are looked on to turn around the fortunes of the club. Such big aspirations on small shoulders Topp - like Juanjo - cannot make a team no matter how well he plays.
And it is oft forgot that for every wretched performance the Spaniard put in his offered moments of impressiveness - his debut winning goal springs to mind - that showed that when he wanted to, he could.
Had he wanted to for Nicky Law then Juanjo could have changed the path of Bradford City. Law’s meat and spuds variety of football was always going to isolate the tricky former Hearts man but more dedication could have seen him win over supporters and managers and - assuming his flashes could be turned into performances - provide the excitement that was lacking from that City team.
Topp comes into the same situation. City are trundling along and one can imagine that the 12,000 on the trundle are waiting for something to make noise about, something to get excited about. Topp - regardless of McCall’s insistence - carries that weight.
One hopes he carries it well, or at least better than others have.