Žiga

May 27, 2010

Zigic to brum – Ending the cult of the oatcake

Yesterday’s news that birmingham city had signed serbian striker nikola zigic from valencia on a four year deal signalled the end of a near two year dream for plenty of posters on the top stoke city internet forum the oatcake. So word has it, tony scholes the chief exec had gone over to spain in pre season 08/09 to try and secure the signature of zigic and bring him to the potteries, the breaking of this news led to a mammoth subject thread which eventually spanned 129 pages and over 162,000 views, mass hysteria broke out with some classic posts and the cult of zigic broke out on the oatcake. To look back on the early pages on the thread brings a smile to the face, posters like serpico and fuller magic banging out press articles from all over the world which had dodgy translations, you tube clips of the giant zigic hitting the back of the net, parkinsbelly adding fervour to the already growing anticipation.Of course the transfer didn’t and probably never will happen (although you can never rule anything out!) but the obsession continued and even involved a fair few stokies including myself sending zigic christmas cards. If you’ve got a couple of years you can read the whole thread here. With the big man out of favour at his club and being loaned out to racing santander (and also constantly being linked with moves to the premiership) it looked like there was fair possibily zigic would be up for transfer in the summer especially with the debt mounting at valencia. Birmingham have nicked in and fair play to Mcleish because rip roaring potters thinks zigic will be a class act in the premiership and it’s now down to the potters board and management to pull a few rabbits out the hat, get rid of the primadonnas, the dead wood and push the boat out for some quality. It’s convincing the class that they will have a part to play in a rigid potters system that is the conundrum for pulis and stoke. You also have the ‘dna’ issue which seems to be a big thing at the potters, fitting in with the group and believing in the way we play, the long throws etc. Come the summer our squad list will be drastically different, have patience and faith but let’s pray that the dissent amongst the ranks dissapears next season and we have a squad of players giving 100% for the shirt.