By Toby Higgins
September 6 2005

Don’t you just hate it when four games into the season, the Premiership programme which has just been returned to us is stopped again for these friendly international matches. What? Wales v England wasn’t a friendly? You could have fooled me. I’m too young to remember the good-old ‘home internationals’, but surely they were electrifying, exciting and passionate affairs, with yellow and red cards a-plenty. In Cardiff on Saturday, it took just shy of twenty minutes for the first foul to be given for a bad tackle.

The game should never have been in doubt as far as the result was concerned, but you would have expected a little more fire-in-the-belly from both sides. When England scored, that was it - game over. Sven got ten outfield players, including an Ogre called Wayne and his goalkeeper, a flying pig called Paul, behind the ball and simply ran down the clock.

Job done. which is fair enough but the entertainment value was very poor.

Scotland v Italy- now that was entertaining. And no, I’m not joking! Scotland came out with a plan to take the game to their greasy-haired counterparts and it worked a treat. There were chances at either end throughout and the game was much more enjoyable than the England game.

This is a big season for every player who has aspirations of representing their country in the World Cup next summer. However, next summer is a very long time away.

I find it unbelievable that players can already be talking about wanting a place in the World Cup squad. There are fifty-plus games left to play this season. Specifically, I’m talking about new signing Abel Xavier.

He hasn’t even played a game for us yet, and he is already talking about wanting a place in the Portugal Squad for next summer! That’s why he came here, not to achieve success with his new club, but to fly to Germany next summer. Even if he goes, he probably won’t even play.

Stewart Downing was another who was told this week that he had a chance of making the World Cup Squad, despite injury. He wasn’t in the squad for these games anyway, and on current form, there was no chance of him going.

I hope he does go, but I think the odds of him getting a seat on the plane to Germany have now increased beyond reach with news of this new injury.

Emanuel Pogatezt has been speaking on Sky Sports this week about Middlesbrough town centre. "Thank God it's only on match days we have to go into Middlesbrough,” he was quoted as saying.

Whether Pogatezt did or did not say this, his future at the club looks as bleak as the smog clouds rising from the chimney crammed Teesside. Alright, so we might all think it sometimes, hell, we might even say it from time to time, but that because it’s our right to. Pogatezt has only just arrived. Who does he think he is?

He had the almost impossible job of replacing Franck Queudrue at left back anyway. He has now got the added difficulty of trying to win over the fans. If he didn’t say it, then why hasn’t he denied it? If he did say it, God help him.

Fabio Rochemback finally became a Boro player this week. I have seen him play a few times but didn’t pay any attention to his performance as I was more bothered about how we were playing than the opposition.

If he is as good as everyone says, then he could be a very important signing. Still only young at 23, he could be in that midfield for years. Five years in fact, if he sees out his lengthy contract.

In other news, it was good to see Mark Viduka made Australian captain and score two in the process as they beat the Solomon Islands 7-0. The fact that Mark Schwarzer didn’t have to touch the ball until the 28th minute when he collected a back pass, tells a story in itself.

Joseph Job left on deadline day to play in Saudi Arabia this season. Is it just me, or do you think Job might be regretting declaring he was too good to play in the Championship with Crystal Palace? Oh well, I suppose now there’s only one Job in Saudi...

Michael Reiziger also departed the club this week for PSV Eindhoven. Clearly they haven’t seen him play in the last eighteen months.

In my very first column I talked about McClaren and his role with England. My feelings have only become more intensified since the Charlton shambles last week.

After a performance like that, McClaren should have been able to take the players to one side and take some time to look at what went wrong. Or if he’s short on time, go through what went right.

He should be able to plan with the players for the game against Arsenal, who must have 75% of their squad on international duty, thus leaving them short on time to prepare fully for our game.

I think it’s at times like this McClaren should think about what he really wants and choose either way. It’s not good for the club, players or fans to know the manager is coaching another set of players overseas just three days before a very big game.

My prediction for the Arsenal game isn’t going to surprise anyone. Defeat, although not heavy. A spirited one or two-nil loss, not too dissimilar to last season. We surely won’t be battered two home games in a row... will we?

Same time next week... UP THE BORO!