When I popped over to Vienna last November, I dropped in to watch Stefan Maierhofer’s former club – Rapid Vienna on the training ground.
Whilst there I had a chat with a young player, Christian Thonhofer, who was good friends with Stefan and he asked me how I thought he was setting in at Wolves.
If I met Christian today, I would probably give him the same diplomatic answer as I gave him back then. I told him that we’d only seen glimpses of the Hoff, and I’m sure that he is probably frustrated at his lack of opportunities.
Christian told me that he had spoken to Stefan after we had lost at home to Birmingham and he said the Hoff was disappointed, buts lets just say he didn’t use the word disappointed, that he didn’t feature in a game where the ball was being endlessly lumped into the box.
So yesterday’s news that Maierhofer allegedly feels that Wolves are taking the mickey out of him, shouldn’t really surprise anybody.
Even if his comments have been slightly misinterpreted, of course he is going to be unhappy at not playing, who wouldn’t be.
And when he sees McCarthy favourite Andy Keogh train for a couple of days after coming back from long term injury and yet still starts ahead of him, I’m sure he found that hard to swallow.
He got subbed when we played a vastly weakened team at Old Trafford and he much feel baffled as to why he hasn’t had a sniff since.
From the little cameo appearances I’ve seen, I can’t say I’m overly bothered he hasn’t played. But surely if the club spends £2 million on what was really a panic buy at the end of the transfer window, he should be given a fair crack of the whip?
And now, frustrated and fed up, he finds himself at manager-less Bristol City and if there is an ounce of truth in the statement he made to the press, he has as good as written his own transfer request.
My dear mucka, Mick, doesn’t really take kindly to anybody challenging his methods. Just ask the likes of Roy Keane, Jay Bothroyd, Freddy Eastwood,
Michael McIndoe and Dénes Rósa what happens when you dare question the great Eagle’s ways.
But if what the Hoff said was reported accurately, wouldn’t it be refreshing for a player to actually come out with an opinion, rather than just media trained sound bites?
How many times do you see a Premiership footballer interviewed on the TV, and when asked a probing question they answer like a castrated robot?
I loved it when Craig Bellamy recently said that “everybody knows what JT is like”, when asked about John Terry’s off the pitch conduct after they had given Chelsea a proper thumping at Stamford Bridge.
Ok, I know that Bellamy’s no moral guardian, just ask his caddy, , but it’s a shame that most footballers feel the need to play it so safe in the press or risk a load of unwanted attention and flak.
David James flippantly remarked at the end of an interview that he used to play computer games up to 8 hours a day. And although he said it was 13 years ago and right at the start of his career, it was reported as if it was a gaming addiction he couldn’t shake off in the present day.
There is however a fine line between having an interesting opinion and saying something so utterly moronic the player just can’t expect the outcome to be a positive one.
What did Albert Riera expect would happen when he compared Liverpool’s season to a sinking ship?
So, you can understand why a player might be slightly guarded with the press, but sometimes you just want to stick your boot through the TV at the end of a game on SKY, ESPN or MOTD.
Its like most players have footballing tourettes and seem to have a ready made cliché for every occasion.
To quote the excellent sportswriter, John Nicholson, “Cliché hell will be complete one day when there is a player who is a bubbly character, who has good feet for a big man, has got pace to burn, can leap like a salmon and out-strength someone while plowing a lone furrow up front who, at the end of the day, believes there are no easy games in international football, and its the not the performance that matters its the three points.”
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