speaking as one who's banged on about it ad nauseum...

...I think we need to be a bit fair to Worthy here. Seems that he too knew all along that we were (at least) one central midfielder short - but he'd been planning to get Etuhu in in the summer, and presumably it fell through at the last minute.

I guess the problem is that he was pinning an awful lot on that deal, without apparently having any other options to fall back on.

And then the question is why we didn't try to get someone else in - perhaps on loan - as soon as the deal fell thru. To which the answer might be that Worthy always knew he might still get Etuhu in Jan - but thought he could get through until then.

But things have gone SO badly, and our midfield is SO lacking, that he's had to act now. Of course the problem now is the familiar one with loan signings - if Etuhu does well for us, then we may find a more attractive option than us comes in for him in Jan - we're not going to be challenging for promotion, so we may well struggle to persuade him to stay.

Anyway, at least this suggests that Worthy does see some point in central midfielders who can attack. I was doubting that before today, personally.

Posted By: Tricky Hawes, Nov 11, 13:27:03