Apparently Sat on His Backside All Season
For those of you unimpressed with the debut of Jermaine Jones for the Stars and Stripes this fall, your assessments have received some slight vindication. The lad will likely have difficulty being named to Tracksuit Bob’s squad for the December friendly against Chile, but it has nothing to do with injury.
No, Zombie Jones might have a tough time suiting up for the Stars and Stripes anytime soon as he has recently been sent to Schalke 04′s reserve team.
Manager Felix Magath, noting his dislike of Jones’ attitude on the pitch, dropped the Great German Hope along with two others not just to the Miners’ bench but to its reserve side that plays in the fourth division of German football.
What is interesting is that Jermaine Jones seems to have been benched earlier this season by Magath for lack of effort—although most reports were that Jones sat due to a lingering shin injury. Given his injury history, this was a perfectly acceptable reason to not see Jermaine in the Schalke midfield, but now it seems he has been on Felix’s naughty list for a while.
Now, Jones can still contribute to a Bundesliga side, and Wolfsburg are said to be interested in helping the US international escape his Royal Blue Purgatory with a January transfer. Given that Schalke 04 look to still be under a bit of debt despite protestations, club management might look to get something in return for a player like Jones rather than let him rot in the reserves.
Still, if Magath and Schalke—who are in the Champions League knock-out phase but desperately close to relegation in Bundesliga—deem your work ethic too poor to be an asset during a tough season, would this be the type of player Deathstare Bob needs to call up to the US roster?
Here’s hoping no. And anyway, there’s always Rico Clark, right?
Oh wait, the last time he played any length of time was before he was yanked off the pitch in South Africa. It appears his current role at Eintracht Frankfurt is to comb the remaining strands of Theofanis Gekas’ hair based on his minutes.
Will Jogi Loew let the USSF borrow a few more Germans–like, the good ones?
Gooch hasn’t seen a minute on the pitch at Milan in ages, yet Huh Bob still calls him up for every match. If Jones is one of his pet projects, you can bet Tracksuit will call him up, in form or not.
@ BG: Probably right–he should be moved in January, so he’ll have a chance to get some minutes that would justify Tracksuit Bob calling him back. But if he’s getting dropped to the reserves b/c of workrate and attitude when he’s been an integral part of the side in the past, that might not be the kind of lad Huh Bob needs to be including.