It’s all been about Kedwell of late, especially here on the blog. Even my wife noticed the other day, whilst leaning over my shoulder as I was writing. ‘Sometimes I think you love Danny Kedwell more than you love me’, she pondered, but I don’t think ‘No, not any more I don’t’ was the answer she was looking for…
With Keds returning from his holiday I think we all half expected a bit of news to emerge today, and news was forthcoming in the form of a club statement… but this time relating to a Bournemouth bid for Steven Gregory. This was in response to an initial, shocking report on the Sky Sports website simply advising a bid has been made. Rumour has it the bid was £50,000, which won’t even buy you a Danny Kedwell, regardless a midfielder in his earlier twenties the team was effectively built around.
As the Anonymous Don prepared to go to press news filtered through Bournemouth had improved their initial bid, yet I’m not quite sure what difference this will have made unless it was significantly higher, a six-figure sum beginning with a ‘2’ might seem slightly more appealing…
Yet we await the clubs reaction to the second bid, the money will allow us to rebuild but will mean we head into the season with the spine of the team (Brown, Johnson, Gregory, Kedwell) torn in half. Then again, its easy to forget even the Kedwells and Gregorys of this world are easier to replace than first seems.. these being no Messis or Ronaldos or Ursells.
I’m sure this won’t be the last we’ve heard of the Gregory situation, even if it is just the club telling us he’s going nowhere, in the mean time the club still haven;t received an acceptable bid for Kedwell, despite actively seeking replacements. We now know a hotlist of seven strikers exists (I’m no tactical genius, but wouldn’t all those strikers unbalance our 4-3-3?…), and some of the evidence as to who these guys might be seems to be a little more solid than a twitter account of dubious authenticity…
Firstly, the BBC themselves suggested Nathan Elder might be on his way back to Kingsmeadow. Now I’m not sure how many of you would feel about that, I’m having mixed feelings myself. He had a great start, before being sucked into the tedious mundanity that was the end of that season, at a time no-one in the squad was really covering themselves with glory. Coupled with THAT miss (remember, the Anonymous Don rarely uses capitals…), its fair to say his signing might receive something of a mixed reception.
Another man documented in the media is Alan Connell of Grimsby. Now I know he isn’t as physically imposing as Kedwell, but what we lose primarily from Keds departure is someone who holds the ball up well and scores goals. Does Connell hold the ball up well? Yes. Does he score goals? Yes. Boxes ticked were it not for the fact whatever offer the Dons might have made was considered ‘derisory’ (ignoring for a second this is probably media guesswork – if the Dons know not how much they will receive for Kedwell, how can they yet put in a decent offer for a replacement?). Either way, Connell will probably end up costing too much in what is already a hot contest for his signature.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the pitch, we finally learnt today the replacement for the right-sided centre half with Football League experience who was released three weeks ago for fitness reasons and has since joined Newport, and welcome Mat Mitchel-King, another right-sided centre half with Football League experience, the exception here being Mat was, hang on, released from his last club over doubts over his fitness… On the face of it it seems like changing a ten pound note for, uhm, another ten pound note, we can only presume the difference here being he is just better. Either that or he’s cheaper. Same difference. Trust in Terry, guys, trust in Terry…
The Anonymous Don 