Position: Left back
From: Youth team
Career stats: Soccerbase
He is: No longer under guarantee
Profile:
Paul Robinson reminds me of my boiler.
When it was first installed about five years ago, it was all shiny and new
and a massive improvement on the previous incumbent with its instant
delivery of hot water and easy-to-work timer mechanism. It was obvious
that this was a boiler for the future.
And when it first let me down I forgave it. After all, it was a young
inexperienced boiler trying its best, and it was bound to have a few
teething problems facing, as it was, some testing heating situations for
the first time. The second and third hiccups were acceptable too, though as
the silly mistakes mounted up, there was a growing feeling that my boiler
was letting the rest of the flat down...and, let's face it, the flat did tend
to struggle when the boiler was serving one of its all too regular
suspensions. Its replacements, the kettle and the electric heater, simply
weren't up to the job of heating and providing hot water on demand for what
was by now a Premier League flat.
But I reined back my frustration and assured myself that, with all the
attention the boiler was getting from skilled professionals, these little
problems would be ironed out soon enough and it would go on to be a top
quality boiler that other flats would envy. After all, when it was
working, it worked very well. I certainly wasn't about to spend my money
on replacing it when there were so many other areas of the flat in such
obvious need of investment.
Well, it's 2001 now, and the bloody thing is still having problems. And
while I could forgive a young boiler, modern manufacturing standards being
what they are, I simply cannot accept that after five years of practice and
having had every single aspect of it tinkered with, tweaked and in many
cases replaced, the sodding thing is still putting me through the
humiliating experience of stepping into an ice cold shower first thing in
the morning. It's old enough to know better now.
I can forgive other appliances. It's obvious, for example, that my fridge
will never be a world beater, but you get what you pay for in this world.
I had high hopes for my boiler though - it represented its country at under
twenty-one level, and yet now, even though there is no obvious candidate to fill
the boiler position at full international level, it is not even in
contention for the senior national side. With all the time and money I
have invested into it over the years, frankly, I expect more.
I suspect that GT feels the same about Paul Robinson.
Mike Abbott
Last updated: January 2001