Note: This originated from tweet by soccerlens and a conversation sprung up following that. There isn’t any substantiated talk of this and nothing official has been reported on it from either camp.
Last week on twitter, I got into a discussion about Landon Donovan going to Middlesbrough with a couple of people. I decided to let the thought sit so I could think about it more before writing full on about it.
I still think it’s a good idea. The biggest thing for me in regards to Donovan’s future next season is that, in a World Cup year, he needs maximum playing time. While the prospect of him going to Bayern Munich last season was certainly intriguing, it wasn’t going to happen simply because they already had more than enough people that could play his position. He would have needed to play the best football of his life to find a place in the squad.
While Middlesbrough certainly isn’t as flashy as Gooch’s AC Milan, I still think it’d serve it’s purpose for Donovan. He’d be able to get himself regular playing time and be the feature Midfielder for the team thanks to Stuart Downing going to Aston Villa.
Now the big opposition to this is that the Championship isn’t much better, if at all, than the MLS. While I would disagree with that statement, even if the Championship is only slightly better than MLS I still think it’s a good move for a couple of reasons.
Donovan would be a primary player on the team and would get regular playing time all season at Boro. If he made a move to somewhere like Everton (or really any club at about the same level in Europe), there is no guarantee that he’d be able to crack the starting XI with a quality team like that. That part of the equation scares me about any potential Donovan move, and especially scares me about Oguchi Onyewu’s move to Milan.
Not getting out there and playing games at full speed isn’t going to help your level of play rise if you’re relegated to bit performances and occasional starts. If your starters for the national team can’t get playing time with their clubs, regardless of what club they’re playing for, their quality of play is going to suffer, this is the biggest thing to me, in a World Cup year, you want your best players playing as much as they can. I’d totally support a move after this season to somewhere bigger where he’d have to work hard to break into the squad.
Another factor I like is that Boro is one of the, or at least should be, one of the better teams in the Championship, I’m guessing they’ll probably join the likes of West Brom and Birmingham in jumping back and forth between the EPL and Championship every few years. But why wouldn’t a move to Birmingham or a lower rung team currently in a top league (like Livorno) make more sense?
Because if you’ve ever been one of the best players on a team that sucks, you know how frustrating that can be. Life sucks when you’re losing, even when you’re losing to top talent. It’s not fun and when you’re running around trying to clean up the mistakes other people have made it’s even more frustrating.
If he was at Boro he’d be able to take on his proper role and not have to worry about providing cover or cleaning up others mistakes as much. Being one of the best players on a decent team in a lower league takes a lot of the mental load off of Donovan while still providing him with decent quality play. He might be a little too good for the Championship, but that’s always going to be better than not being good enough for a top European squad.
If he would succeed at Boro, he’d be able to parlay that into a move to a bigger and better club, obviously if he went to a big club from the start and had success it’d be much better, but if he fails at a bigger club he might just give up on the European dream and come back to the MLS with his head down, never attempting to go back to Europe and play to his highest potential.
Next summer is one of the most important World Cup’s for the USMNT for a number of reasons, and the team’s captain needs to be on top of his game for it. I’d hate to see him not get playing time in Europe and thus have his quality of play not be up to par for the World Cup.
But what do you think? Surely you’ve got an opinion on where he should go.
Good article. Despite the USA’s recent defeat at the hands of Mexico, they really have show an ability to compete with the best teams in the world. So, ensuring that their players are in top form for South Africa could be the difference between an early exit and a long campaign.
The idea of Donovan moving to Middlesborough is a good one. The Championship is arguably more competitive than the Premier League, and the Playoffs would be an excellent environment to prepare for the World Cup.
As somebody who has kept a close eye on Boro in the past couple of seasons, I think that they would benefit from his contributions and would be happy to take him on a temporary basis, especially if they were in the hunt for promotion/the Playoffs.
My only concern would be with the problems that his arrival could cause within the squad, especially with the departure of several of Boro’s more senior players. A young team could be put off by the arrival of a player who is using their campaign to prepare himself for the World Cup. This is a minimal worry and I don’t doubt that Donovan’s attitude would probably prevent this from happening.
As a paid-up Boro fan I would love to see us linked with players of Donovan’s calibre. The guy’s a class act, no doubt there, though we would certasinly be more interested in his talents as a striker than winger as in Adam Johnson we have a fine up and coming talent in the latter role – Johnson should get an extended run in the side now that Stewart Downing has left.
I can’t believe Donovan’s just 27, given his achievements. The move would make all kinds of sense for us and add a player of authority and experience to the forward line.
Great article – will be checking back for more.