Stick with me here. I know this is only slightly QPR-related, but since most of the people on this board are American, I figured it would have at least some resonance here - more than it would have in any other place, including the Metro or US soccer boards. I've had this admittedly-tenuous comparison in my mind for a few days now, especially as the Where Does Clint Mathis Go? question hangs all over the boards. Is he good enough for the Premiership? For Scotland? For the 1st Division? I've seen a lot of him over the past 2 years, and when I think of Clint Mathis, I can't help but think of Kevin Gallen (at least, the Gallen I watched from '96 to '99). First off, they've both been my favorite players on their respective teams (certainly helped by the fact that they play in a style that I, in my park/rec league exploits, play in too). Both seem to be prototypical 'tweeners, not really a forward and not really a midfielder, but playing behind the strikers - neither one was terribly fast or big on his best day. I don't want to belabor the point of playing styles, because I feel these are awfully subjective things to compare in any situation, and not really worth much in the end. But both, in their own way, became a sort of iconic player to their team's supporters. Yet I keep thinking about what Gallen could have been and what (it seems, at least for the moment) Mathis could've been. Remember, Gallen was a highly-touted England U21 international, broke schoolboy scoring records and was on a Fowler-like trajectory upwards (not sure that's such a good thing now, but that's another story) until....his ACL injury. The same ACL injury Clint suffered a couple years ago. (and to be fair, Clint has suffered two of them, and made a complete recovery from the first). What strikes me is that the very same things being said about Mathis by some, now - he's put on weight, he's slow, he's uninspired, he's stale, he's old before his time - these are the exact same things I heard people saying about Kevin Gallen from about '98 until he crept out of QPR on a free and went to Huddersfield. The exact same things. So he left...and came back, and now he seems to be playing pretty well. That said, he's ended up being a pretty good Second Division player. He could play if we go up to the First. Is he ever going to be a Premiership player? Is he ever going to play for England, like he was tipped to? Of course not. And there's a lot of reasons for that, definitely not all traceable to the injury, but I just keep seeing a lot of parallels between his career and Clint's (outside of the fact that Clint scored in the WC, but once again, I didn't say the comparisons were exact). I guess what I'm trying to say is that, at this point, it seems to me that Clint Mathis is pretty comparable to a good-but-not-great 2nd division/1st division player. Either one of em could surprise us - who knows, they're just hitting their late 20s - but I'm not really betting on it. Thoughts?
Hey, yeah. Well, two things: Mathis to me is an out and out striker, or should be. Gallen as well. Though I agree they both have skill to play the withdrawn role. Also, from the sounds of it Kevin Gallen has a much higher work rate, and leads a much more professional lifestyle.
To a point, the comparison seems apt. While both seemingly perform best as strikers, they're both capable of doing the job in midfield if the club requires is... and their trips back to consistent good form probably took (or is taking, in the case of Mathis) longer than they and their clubs thought. It'll be interesting to see if Mathis ends up returning to the fine form (and, especially, fitness) Gallen has at the moment.