Adam Dennehey WAFU manager
The start of a season always brings a special feeling for football fans, players and staff. In many ways the new season feels like going back to school after the summer holidays, everyone’s had their moment in the sun, now it’s time for business as they say to pick up again.
Sadly that isn’t always the case and sometimes (at every club at any level of football) there are always players who suffer a disappointing and somewhat humiliating start to the season. These players are not ones who have missed out on being selected for the first game nor are they players who sadly have suffered an injury early on in the season.
As bad as injuries are to players, they can at least feel some comfort in the fact that they’re out of the team due to incidents beyond their control which of course can happen at any stage of the season. The players in mind that often get forgotten at the start of the season are ones that sadly are left on the sidelines for another reason and that’s because for whatever reason involved they cannot find a new club.
Right now at Manchester United two players spring to mind, who at this stage of the season appear unlikely to make a first team appearance all season, yet alone in the first couple of months of the season. It’s not that they’re not good enough; it’s just that their time in the squad has come to a close and that at least at this moment in time they have not been able to find pastures new.
If you haven’t already guessed it, the two players that spring to mind at United at the moment who are in this tough situation as a player are Darron Gibson and Tomasz Kuszczak. Both players are good professionals who would not let down any side in the division if called upon and both at the moment are in action for our reserves.
Obviously that’s not where they want to be. Gibson has the talent to become a good Premier League midfielder and it’s a shame how after a bright start at United that he has faded. Kuszczak is a good reliable hand in goal who whilst serving as back-up for Edwin Van der Sar over the last five seasons, has the talent to do well as a first choice keeper across the continent.
Gibson would certainly attract more attention from sides in the Premier League and there’s no doubt if given encouragement and games, he could become a good box-to-box midfielder which he has always been talked about of developing into. It’s a shame for him that his proposed move to Sunderland broke down after the Black Cats tried to renege on proposed wage demands that had already been agreed.
A move to Blackburn on loan could be in the cards though, as Steve Kean has spoken about wanting to bring players in on loan from United and Gibson would clearly boost their midfield, which didn’t look too great at the weekend in their home defeat to Wolves.
As for Tomasz well there’s been very little reported interest in him that we know about, which is a shame as most fans would have after the end of the season by now expected him to have moved on. I hope for his sake that he can find a club where he’s going to play regularly as if he doesn’t then he can kiss goodbye to even the slightest chance that he had of breaking into Poland’s squad for the European Championships next year.
Let’s hope for both players that they can find moves before the deadline, because quite frankly you don’t want to see players who are hungry to play first-team football rot in the reserves, when they have the ability and skills to get their careers back on track elsewhere.
By Adam Dennehey @ADennehey87
