Gray and Barnes

By: timmyg | April 17th, 2009

Last week was just the first match all season where Fulham won after conceding the first goal. Before that, we were tied for worst in the category with just two points salvaged in 11 occurrences. The current worst team? Man City. Oh the irony…

Now onto Barnes and Gray. Per usual, I’ll be blunt: Why are they currently on the team?

Gray joined the club in August on loan, signing permanently in January, and has made the bench seventeen times but to no avail feature-wise. He got his first and only start in the FA Cup against Wednesday in January. Now, he may have featured in the Carling Cup had he not been cup tied with Coventry, but that is still not a good statistic. Even Andranik and Kamara have had more appearances than that, and they were injured for half the season.

Barnes arrived in January on loan, for 2-million quid, reportedly injured. No worries we thought, being told he would recover shortly thereafter. Despite a handful of reserve appearances, and goals to boot, there appears to be no sign of his inclusion on the match day roster.

As an American, I find footy to be fascinating. Not just because of the crowds, the beauty, the history and lack of commercials, but because players can disappear at the drop of the hat. In footy, its seemingly random.

I have no data to base that on, other than my own impressions. In baseball, pitchers that pitch awfully or hitters that dont hit, dont play. Same with shooters that cant shoot or centers that cant block in basketball. Or quarterbacks that throw INT’s in American football. Footy? I still haven’t figured out.

And perhaps Barnes and Gray falls into that category. I’d name it the Alexei Smertin category, but we havent seen enough of either.

Or maybe I’m just rambling.