It’s a bit embarrassing, but I was well chuffed when Boro’s game with Swansea fell victim to the ice (or ‘the big freeze’ as the media insist on calling it).
The last thing my football team needed right now was to play a game of football. Especially against Paulo Sousa’s improving Swans.
This weekend's football programme was decimated by the weather
With Strachan’s scheme to change our home kit to green-and-white hoops taking longer than he hoped – not to mention Adam Johnson’s fresh injury lay-off – you can forgive Boro fans for feeling a tad relieved at the weekend off.
The rest of the chilly weather’s been a nightmare though, hasn’t it? I’ve been housebound all week because I’m scared of doing a Todd Carty down the garden path.
So, I thought, what better time to enjoy a week in front the telly? Unfortunately, there’s more of the white stuff on the box than there is outside my house. You can’t get away from it.
It’s all very well for kids, who seem the only section society enjoying the snap, sledging as they do along any section of road with a hint of an incline.
But for football fans across the country, it’s becoming tiresome. Match of the Day eked 60 minutes of highlights out of the Premier League’s two surviving games yesterday. I found myself flicking between that and the erotica on one of Channel 5's sister stations (pun very much intended). A remarkably sorry state of affairs.
Back to the Boro, and it really is important we make the most of the postponed fixture by strengthening the squad before a tough trip to Sheffield Utd next weekend.
It’s heartening to read that the boss is looking to bring in his Celtic comrades Gary Caldwell and Barry Robson. Both are tough lads who can add strength to our sometimes lightweight side.
I reserve full judgement on Willo Flood and Chris Killen, but from the bits and pieces I’ve seen of them they’re unlikely to transform the team overnight. Kris Boyd sounds like wishful thinking, while any move for Kevin Phillips will apparently have to wait until McLeish blows a bit of his £40m January kitty.
Still, it sounds like Strach is looking to make things happen and certainly has more room to manoeuvre now the unfancied midfield duo of Digard and Shawky are off the wage bill.
A fitting tribute: Shawky gets nowhere near the ball
Keith Lamb might have driven the latter to Teesside Airport (does anyone call it Durham Tees Valley?) himself after a woeful couple of years at the Riverside.
But, even after his free transfer to Turkey, Shawky’s still managing to disappoint. I got a touch over-excited when I saw this article on the MFC homepage. Having clicked frantically to read which Brazilian international we were linked with, I felt a mite daft when I realised the picture was used because it had the duff-tackling Egytpian lurking behind the yellow shirt.
No. The days of samba stars like Juninho, Emerson, and, erm... Ricardinho, are over. Nowadays we can’t even lure Englebert of Humperdink to Teesside.
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