Hands up if you wrote Dean Windass’ blog?

In an interview with BBC Radio Manchester last week, veteran striker Dean Windass, on loan from Hull, moved to silence speculation that his loan move would be coming to a rather sudden end in an interview with BBC Radio Manchester, summarised on the BBC sport website:

"I never said I was walking out on Oldham, I never said I was never going to come back.

"It was a storm in a tea cup. If I play then I play, if I don't obviously I'm not going to be happy about it."

He added: "I've come here to play football. I could have stayed at Hull and sat on the bench in the Premier League."

Windass, who is due to stay at Boundary Park for the rest of the season, says he is now looking forward to helping the Latics fight for promotion from League One.

"It was in the papers this morning that I've got to retire now, what a load of rubbish that is. I've come to Oldham to try and get in the play-offs," he concluded.

In the interview clip which can be heard on the webpage, Windass makes a few more points:

“People write what they want to write in the papers...at the end of the day I can’t dictate what people say.”

“Let’s get one thing straight – I don’t walk away from anything. I’m not walking away from Oldham, I’m not walking away from ‘owt...I don’t want the Oldham fans thinking I’m a spoilt kid or ‘owt like that.”

At Sport Without Spin, we appreciate more than most that “people write what they want to write in the papers.” This is all well and good, but since he can definitely dictate what he says, it does beg the question, if Windass never said he was walking out on Oldham, who wrote his blog on the ITV website on March 3^rd, specifically this sentence:

“After playing just three minutes of Oldham's last two games I've told the chairman I'm not returning to the club. I feel let down and angry.”

This definitely suggests walking away from Oldham, having admitted to telling the chairman you’re not returning.

Furthermore, Windass suggests in an earlier blog entitled ‘Give me a ring Phil’ on February 26^th that he would quite happily walk away from Oldham given half a chance to return to Hull:

“I’ve seen some reports in the last few days linking me with a return to Hull and although I’ve not been told anything officially I’d love the chance to make a return.

No disrespect to Oldham where I’m currently on loan and who have given me a chance to play first-team football again, but everyone knows I’m a Hull City fan and it would be amazing if I could go back there and try to help them stay in the Premier League.

As I’ve said I’ve not had any official word yet but if it came I’d jump on my bike and cycle back over there. And if the chain broke I’d run! I’d be that keen on a return”.

So, if Windass didn’t say he was walking out on Oldham, and therefore can’t have written his own blog, it is strange that it uses almost exactly the same phrase as Windass does in his interview with BBC Radio to make another point.

His blog, stating he would not be returning to Oldham, points out the following:

“I turned down three Championship clubs to play for Oldham and I did it as a favour to a mate but now I've been let down. What's the point of sitting on the bench for a League One club? I could be sitting on the bench at Hull City? In fact, if I had stayed I'd probably be playing by now.”

And in the BBC Radio interview:

“ I said to shez when I first came here, I turned down 3 Championship clubs to come to this club and I’ve come to play...At the end of the day, I could have stayed at Hull and sat on the bench at Hull, in the Premier League."

Furthermore, the Windass blog ends with conviction, stating that he has said his piece to the chairman, is awaiting a response, and will be sticking to his guns “no matter what happens next”:

“As it stands now, I've said my piece to the chairman and I am waiting for his response. The chairman's been different class and understands my point and other people have told me to stick to my guns no matter what happens next.”

Could it be that the reports in the Mirror that Windass - with Phil Brown having openly ruled out a return to Hull, telling a fans forum on February 26^th that “the past lies with the likes of Dean Windass. The future lies with the likes of Frazier Campbell and Manucho” would have to retire should he walk out on Oldham, were not that far off? Perhaps this is what the chairman’s response pointed out, backed up by his contractual obligation to the club.

In the BBC interview he certainly shows greater awareness of this: the sentence extracted on the BBC’s web story beginning "I never said I was walking out on Oldham, I never said I was never going to come back”  is directly followed by the line “because I’m contracted to this football club” in the audio clip.

Funny that Windass should completely deny something he so clearly put his name to only days earlier. He would do well to take a leaf out of the Oldham’s chief executive Alan Hardy’s book, admitting a slight fault on his behalf but mostly just focusing on the positives.

After a team bonding night descended into violence, with two brawls including former convict Lee Hughes squaring up to the manager before “slamming him into a headlock,” Hardy insisted they would take “the strongest possible action” before striking a more upbeat note:

“The CCTV does show one or two confrontations, but apart from these incidents it was a very successful night.”

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