Hateley on Boyd

[Gazza_8 233]

I was in two minds whether to post this in Rangers Chat or Football Chat. Seeing as they're both ex Rangers men, I opted for Rangers Chat. Admin, feel free to move it if you have any issues.

 

Anyway, this article is from The Daily Record. I meant to post it the other day after the Scotland game in midweek but clean forgot.

 

 

You'll know by now that I have issues with Kris Boyd but as his harshest critic I have to admit I am starting to feel a bit sorry for the man.

 

In fact, I would go so far as to say he is only a matter of weeks away from what will effectively be the end of his top-level football career. And the worst thing is he clearly doesn't even know it.

 

I watched him put in his usual half-hearted shift for Scotland the other night and was not surprised to read in Record Sport yesterday that Craig Levein has become the latest manager to lose patience with him.

 

Boyd looked totally uninterested, a stone overweight and bone idle. Hardly three of the qualities you're looking for in an international centre-forward.

 

Now, before we go on, I'm not using this column to batter him over the head again. I gave up trying to get through to Boyd a long, long time ago.

 

He is not capable of taking any kind of constructive advice on board and that is why I fear the end is nigh. Sure, he'll keep on counting his money at Middlesbrough for a year or two but I'm afraid, as a serial scorer at club level and a prolific Scotland striker, his time is almost up.

 

I am now convinced Boyd will never change his ways. He's 27 years old and has started a new life down south - but the penny still hasn't dropped.

 

I hoped his move to the Riverside might motivate him to work on the parts of his game he has neglected for so long.

 

Evidently not. He remains the same old waster he always was. If he's not scoring goals, he's not interested in helping his team or doing a shift.

 

His problem, though, is that he will not get away with it down there and soon Gordon Strachan will come to the same conclusion that Levein has reached already - the guy is a liability. He has scored just once this season for Boro and although his boss will be crossing his fingers that his signing comes good, he can't afford to wait forever. Not when Boyd is giving nothing else to the team.

 

It is only a matter of time before Strachan has to cut his losses and stick him on the bench. When that happens he will disappear off the radar for good.

 

I take no pleasure from any of this. Boyd might not believe it but I wanted him to make a player of himself.

 

I only criticised him because he frustrated me. I could see the potential was there for him to become a top striker if he was prepared to put in the work and improve his game. But he wasn't interested. Out came the petted lip and it's been that way ever since.

 

He plays the game as if he has a permanent chip on his shoulder to match the scowl on his face. Even when Stephen McManus scored the winner to spare the country from the most humiliating result of all time - a result he was partly responsible for - Boyd couldn't even muster a smile. He shook Levein's hand while looking the other way and sloped off down the tunnel in a huff. Pathetic.

 

The most embarrassing aspect is that Boyd broke almost every scoring record going up here. He is supposed to be the best our game has got.

 

And yet Championship fans up and down England will be looking at him and ridiculing him. It's the kind of thing that makes Scottish football a laughing stock down south. Not that Boyd will care about that, of course. He doesn't have it in him.

 

But it's such a waste of talent that it breaks my heart to see someone with so much who cares so little.

 

Levein has learned the hard way where this player is concerned and I doubt very much he'll make the same mistake again. He perhaps thought he'd get away with it against Liechtenstein but now he knows for sure his side cannot carry passengers against anyone.

 

In fact, when you play a minnow the one thing you must have is workrate - because that's all your opponents have in the locker. If you match them for that, your extra quality will win you the game.

 

Levein took a punt on Boyd and James McFadden and he would have to admit he was wrong to do it. But, if I were him, I wouldn't give up on the Birmingham City man just yet. He is a special player with match-winning qualities.

 

The trouble is when things are not going his way he can be quick to spit the dummy. He gave up on the hard work the other night and that is inexcusable.

 

If he is not prepared to knuckle down and help his team-mates, he won't have a future under Levein. But it's up to the manager to get it out of him for the good of the whole country.

 

As for Boyd? I'm afraid that one is already a lost cause.

[wabashcannonball 0]

That's the great thing about KB, no one misses him or his goals, but they can't seem to live without him .....irony at its very best...

[gisabeer 409]

given the service and and the very poor performance of the midfield i thought the article was very harsh.

[Danny 0]

given the service and and the very poor performance of the midfield i thought the article was very harsh.

 

I liked it.

[Gribz 743]

Couldnt agree more with Hateley.

[gisabeer 409]

Darren Fletcher can turn up game after game for scotland and do absolutely shit all and gets a pat on the back because hes a Man Utd player. Why is that? how can certain individuals continually underperform for Scotland and get away scot free whilst others are made to carry the can?

 

I had to laugh though at the comments in the media claiming that "we missed Barry Ferguson" in the midfield given the fact that they were the ones who hounded him out in the first place!

 

we need all our players at our disposal when it comes to Scotland not hound them out the door at every oppertunity. If boozegate taught us anything it was that.

[maineflyer 0]

Darren Fletcher can turn up game after game for scotland and do absolutely shit all and gets a pat on the back because hes a Man Utd player. Why is that? how can certain individuals continually underperform for Scotland and get away scot free whilst others are made to carry the can?

 

I had to laugh though at the comments in the media claiming that "we missed Barry Ferguson" in the midfield given the fact that they were the ones who hounded him out in the first place!

 

we need all our players at our disposal when it comes to Scotland not hound them out the door at every oppertunity. If boozegate taught us anything it was that.

 

The prime example of making a hero out of a villain has to be Kenny Dalglish, who was absolutely shite in the vast majority of his 100+ caps but is now lauded by our media as a flawless genius. The national team is no different than the rest of Scottish society, infested from top to bottom by the papist mafia who turn any and every issue to reflect their bitter envy.

 

Any player who turned in a couple of good performances and has the right social pedigree, or whose affiliations are seen to be in their book of unquestionable acceptability, is likely to be endlessly forgiven ... McFadden, Tom Boyd, Pat Nevin, etc, etc. Take the sainted infallibility of Jock Stein, Jimmy Johnstone, Billy McNeil and the rest of those whose memory has become inseparable from the mythology underpinning the sellick story. The whole thing is as sickening as it is transparent.

[Tannochsidebear 2,306]

Typical from Hateley, who seems to have forgotten that he had more than the odd bad game himself, including a very dismal first 6 months where, according to his own type of analysis as shown above, he looked lazy, unfit, and didnt want to be there.

 

Yes, he went on to become a good Rangers player, with some magnificent performances, but to slaughter Boyd, not for the first time, is way OTT. Does he not remember his own performance againt the Czech's when he got his chance to play for England when his Rangers form finally got him noticed at International level. He flopped miserably and was never picked again. Perhaps Boyd should remind him of this.

[andy steel 0]

I'm unsure how the not very religious but nominally Protestant Dalglish can be said to be part of a Papist conspiracy.

 

That said, I'm glad someone else thinks he was usually pish for Scotland.

[maineflyer 0]

I'm unsure how the not very religious but nominally Protestant Dalglish can be said to be part of a Papist conspiracy.

 

That said, I'm glad someone else thinks he was usually pish for Scotland.

 

Don't believe I ever said Dalglish was part of any conspiracy - maybe you could read it again.