Mark Viduka (!) on Sky Sports this morning

atomicloonybin aka ALB

atomicloonybin aka ALB

Well-known member
Hour long interview with Paul Robinson talking about his career. Well worth catching if its available.

For me, one of the greatest and simultaneously frustrating players who ever pulled on a Boro shirt. He's lived in Croatia for five years, Australia and London before that. An interesting hour - he loved being at the Boro (which slightly surprised me), said we had a good team that made coming in every day a pleasure, good kids and a bunch of players who'd been around; but said we disrespected him by only offering him a contract at the end of the season when his contract ended. Still didn't need to join N*wc*stl*, Mark.

He picked his five best goals, and picked two Boro - the 30 yarder against Charlton in the cup, and the absolute beaut against Birmingham. https://youtu.be/CGNVGpLWx44?t=31


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LowMoorBoro said:
One of our biggest mistakes not just offering him what he wanted, could have been the difference between staying up and going down.
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He said in the interview that we'd ummed and ahhed all year about offering him a new contract. He scored two against Fulham in the last game of the season, and only then did we make him an offer. I got the impression it wasn't particularly about the money, it was more the way he'd been treated by the club.
 
I remember at the time towards the end of his last season there were chants of 'sign him on' at every home game. He didn't do much at Newcastle to be fair and they went down the same season as us, but his experience could've been massive for us and Southgate's young team.
 
Oozed class. Loved watching him. So lethargic in his style but unplayable at times. Defenders couldn’t get near him when he was fit and on song.

That goal at Brum! Wow!

Him and Jimmy! What a pair to have up front.
 
Norman_Conquest said:
And when he returned with Newcastle he just stuck his backside out, turned in the box and smacked it in the back of the net.

You just knew he would score.

One of our best forwards.
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A massive **** is very important for a striker. In viduka Jimmy and yak we had three of the biggest arses ever to fill a pair of Boro shorts and the best forward line we've had.
I'm assuming when we signed braithwaite the scouting team got confused between having a massive ****, and being a massive ****.
 
atomicloonybin aka ALB said:
Hour long interview with Paul Robinson talking about his career. Well worth catching if its available.

For me, one of the greatest and simultaneously frustrating players who ever pulled on a Boro shirt. He's lived in Croatia for five years, Australia and London before that. An interesting hour - he loved being at the Boro (which slightly surprised me), said we had a good team that made coming in every day a pleasure, good kids and a bunch of players who'd been around; but said we disrespected him by only offering him a contract at the end of the season when his contract ended. Still didn't need to join N*wc*stl*, Mark.

He picked his five best goals, and picked two Boro - the 30 yarder against Charlton in the cup, and the absolute beaut against Birmingham. https://youtu.be/CGNVGpLWx44?t=31


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I don't think he was particularly frustrating really. A brilliant player, and given that we had JFH and Yakubu around we always had options if one of them had a slight dip in form.

I know he has been working serving coffee in his wife's coffee shop in Crotia, don't know if he's still doing it. A nice chilled out way to keep ticking over though.
 
Alzi said:
Not sure, he didn't do much at all for Newcastle due to injuries. It was the keeper and CM situation that ultimately doomed us.
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I think in summary our biggest mistake was not just not keeping him, but also not bringing in an adequate replacement (or for Schwarzer).

We paid Spurs double what they paid for Mido, and he'd had a very average season the year before we signed him.

TBH I think an injured Viduka might have provided better value, but there are no guarantees he'd have been injured here anyway. When he left the whole dynamic of the squad changed because we suddenly seemed to realise that we couldn't attract truly 'top', proven PL players anymore and instead we overpaid for players like Mido and Aliadiere who really hadn't done a lot in their careers despite being at 'big' clubs (Spurs weren't actually very good at the time).
 
atomicloonybin aka ALB said:
He said in the interview that we'd ummed and ahhed all year about offering him a new contract. He scored two against Fulham in the last game of the season, and only then did we make him an offer. I got the impression it wasn't particularly about the money, it was more the way he'd been treated by the club.
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That slightly contradicts what his agent said at the time though, which was that 'Mark is for hire and available to the highest bidder' (almost verbatim).
 
Linny said:
Oozed class. Loved watching him. So lethargic in his style but unplayable at times. Defenders couldn’t get near him when he was fit and on song.

That goal at Brum! Wow!

Him and Jimmy! What a pair to have up front.
Click to expand...
If he was leaner and not so lethargic he would have played for Real Madrid.

I watched a podcast on him before and Alex Ferguson tried to sign on few occasions.

swashbuckling on his day. Him and Jimmy Floyd were the best partnership we have ever had.
 
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