Post by Golden_Boy™ on Jan 23, 2007 18:36:03 GMT -1
From the telegraph.
We were worried about his legs. I'd seen hedge sparrows with more meat on them. When Ashley Young posed in Watford's new strip at the start of the season, they shoved a pair of shin pads inside each sock and still had room for back issues of the local rag. As it turned out, our fears were unfounded. If there's one thing you can't easily do to Ashley, it's shake him off the ball. Beefy defenders from Viking outposts such as Middlesbrough and *Blackburn found out pretty damn quick that, if you knock him down, he pings back up. This is nine stone of pure gristle.
Now he's off to seek his fortune in Birmingham. Good choice, Ash. If Martin O'Neill can't dangle some silverware around your neck while shepherding you into the England team, the Pope is a Zoroastrian. You'll like the Second City. Twenty years ago, Birmingham had the charm of a Polish Coke depot, now it has more canal-side eateries than Venice and more fizz than its twin town, Frankfurt. Admittedly, things are a bit bleak on the sporting front, but 35,000 still turn up at Villa Park so they must think something's in the wind.
I warned a few months ago that Ashley Young would be sacrificed in January because talented young Englishmen don't hang around with losers forever. What has mystified Watford supporters is how we are managing to come out of the transfer window weaker than we went in.
Desperate though we are for loan signings to help prolong our stay in the Premiership, Adie Boothroyd is offloading two of last season's leading scorers – Young and Matthew Spring – and hasn't replaced them. He has nine days to compensate. We'll be £10 million better off when the Young deal is completed, but our accountants should pause before doing cartwheels. If Watford had made more of an effort to stay in this league, they'd have collected three times that for finishing bottom next season.
Young leaves with our best wishes. Although his body language was always upbeat, he must have wondered when he'd ever get a co-striker worthy of the name. Carrying an attack which averages 0.54 goals per game with little coming through midfield unless he provided it himself must have been more soul-destroying than sweeping the M1 with a dustpan and brush.
Enough negatives. Ashley's story would make terrific bedtime reading for any youngster hoping to make a success of life. It's about refusing to take "no" for an answer. Having initially been offered a scholarship by Watford, the club decided he was too slightly built. Undeterred and encouraged by parents who believed in him, Ashley completed his A-levels at Stevenage College and hung around the training ground between classes in case his fortunes changed.
Boothroyd's predecessor, Ray Lewington, says: "Ashley was painfully thin. We knew he had great ability but was he strong enough?"
When Watford's reserve-team coach, Nigel Gibbs, gave Young the school report from heaven and Gibbs' team, starring a 17-year-old from Stevenage, became the first non-Premiership outfit to win the Premier Reserve League South, Lewington had his answer.
Ashley turned up with his mum and dad to sign professional forms. Says Lewington: "They told me they knew nothing about contracts but asked if I would please look after the lad. It was refreshing not to have an agent trying to dictate what a player should or shouldn't earn."
One of Watford's backroom staff whispered to Ray: "Make sure the chairman doesn't stitch him up." There was no danger of that. Young eventually scored on his first-team debut against Millwall and, current campaign excepted, hasn't stopped since.
Back in Humble Street, the post-Young era begins with tonight's visit of a revitalised Blackburn Rovers. Some of us are still in denial. We argue that, by the law of averages, every team have to win at least one game a season with a lucky ricochet. Robbie Savage and co would fit nicely into Watford's limp quiver of conquest. It could ignite a winning sequence which would lift us out of the bottom two for the first time since Boothroyd decided to drop his favourite catchphrases, such as: "There's nothing to fear but fear itself," and substitute them with the more straightforward: "Help!"
For his part, Adie looks like a man who finally accepts that he doesn't have the power to turn pig iron into a Bentley. The miracle of last season probably made too many people believe in miracles.
Still, at least one of the Glory Boys has a good chance of staying up. As we get our heads around Ashley Young in claret and blue, let me leave you with this tribute from Ray Lewington: "It's usually the terriers with a chip on their shoulders who make it in football. At last, one of the nice guys has come through."
We were worried about his legs. I'd seen hedge sparrows with more meat on them. When Ashley Young posed in Watford's new strip at the start of the season, they shoved a pair of shin pads inside each sock and still had room for back issues of the local rag. As it turned out, our fears were unfounded. If there's one thing you can't easily do to Ashley, it's shake him off the ball. Beefy defenders from Viking outposts such as Middlesbrough and *Blackburn found out pretty damn quick that, if you knock him down, he pings back up. This is nine stone of pure gristle.
Now he's off to seek his fortune in Birmingham. Good choice, Ash. If Martin O'Neill can't dangle some silverware around your neck while shepherding you into the England team, the Pope is a Zoroastrian. You'll like the Second City. Twenty years ago, Birmingham had the charm of a Polish Coke depot, now it has more canal-side eateries than Venice and more fizz than its twin town, Frankfurt. Admittedly, things are a bit bleak on the sporting front, but 35,000 still turn up at Villa Park so they must think something's in the wind.
I warned a few months ago that Ashley Young would be sacrificed in January because talented young Englishmen don't hang around with losers forever. What has mystified Watford supporters is how we are managing to come out of the transfer window weaker than we went in.
Desperate though we are for loan signings to help prolong our stay in the Premiership, Adie Boothroyd is offloading two of last season's leading scorers – Young and Matthew Spring – and hasn't replaced them. He has nine days to compensate. We'll be £10 million better off when the Young deal is completed, but our accountants should pause before doing cartwheels. If Watford had made more of an effort to stay in this league, they'd have collected three times that for finishing bottom next season.
Young leaves with our best wishes. Although his body language was always upbeat, he must have wondered when he'd ever get a co-striker worthy of the name. Carrying an attack which averages 0.54 goals per game with little coming through midfield unless he provided it himself must have been more soul-destroying than sweeping the M1 with a dustpan and brush.
Enough negatives. Ashley's story would make terrific bedtime reading for any youngster hoping to make a success of life. It's about refusing to take "no" for an answer. Having initially been offered a scholarship by Watford, the club decided he was too slightly built. Undeterred and encouraged by parents who believed in him, Ashley completed his A-levels at Stevenage College and hung around the training ground between classes in case his fortunes changed.
Boothroyd's predecessor, Ray Lewington, says: "Ashley was painfully thin. We knew he had great ability but was he strong enough?"
When Watford's reserve-team coach, Nigel Gibbs, gave Young the school report from heaven and Gibbs' team, starring a 17-year-old from Stevenage, became the first non-Premiership outfit to win the Premier Reserve League South, Lewington had his answer.
Ashley turned up with his mum and dad to sign professional forms. Says Lewington: "They told me they knew nothing about contracts but asked if I would please look after the lad. It was refreshing not to have an agent trying to dictate what a player should or shouldn't earn."
One of Watford's backroom staff whispered to Ray: "Make sure the chairman doesn't stitch him up." There was no danger of that. Young eventually scored on his first-team debut against Millwall and, current campaign excepted, hasn't stopped since.
Back in Humble Street, the post-Young era begins with tonight's visit of a revitalised Blackburn Rovers. Some of us are still in denial. We argue that, by the law of averages, every team have to win at least one game a season with a lucky ricochet. Robbie Savage and co would fit nicely into Watford's limp quiver of conquest. It could ignite a winning sequence which would lift us out of the bottom two for the first time since Boothroyd decided to drop his favourite catchphrases, such as: "There's nothing to fear but fear itself," and substitute them with the more straightforward: "Help!"
For his part, Adie looks like a man who finally accepts that he doesn't have the power to turn pig iron into a Bentley. The miracle of last season probably made too many people believe in miracles.
Still, at least one of the Glory Boys has a good chance of staying up. As we get our heads around Ashley Young in claret and blue, let me leave you with this tribute from Ray Lewington: "It's usually the terriers with a chip on their shoulders who make it in football. At last, one of the nice guys has come through."
