Vladimir Kinder & Szilard Nemeth: An Appreciation

Si's Insights looks back on the Boro careers of two seemingly forgotten men

Either dismissed as inferiors, or forgotten about because their Middlesbrough careers seemed so distinctly average, Vladimir Kinder and Szilard Nemeth had more in common apart from nationality and one Slovak Footballer Of The Year Award each. The only two Boro players from the less-well-known half of the former Czechoslovakia to sign for Boro from the mid-nineties onwards, they were actually crucial building blocks in successive Riverside Revolutions - if only intermittently so.

Along with Gianluca Festa, Vladimir Kinder was signed in early 1997 as a solution to the problem - a leaky defence, not those three points - that had left us rooted to the foot of the table by the turn of the year. But if Festa slipped welcomely into the defensive position vacated by the not-quite-up-to-it Derek Whyte and the inept Phil Whelan, neither Bryan Robson nor Kinder quite seemed sure where the Slovak was going to play. How was he to displace Boro's first £1 million signing, the gifted-but-erratic Neil Cox, and the dependable Curtis Fleming?

As the season continued, it was clear that our defensive fallacies stemmed more from the absence of both Nigel Pearson and a suitable partner for our then absent leader, rather than at full back. When Kinder wasn't getting sent off in an FA Cup semi-final or stepping in to fill any gap left by an injured player, there were moments where he appeared to float around, like a luxury, during the remainder of that season. Paul Merson's claims about Boro's disorganisation throughout that period seem more viable as time goes by.

And yet. And yet. In his brief number of appearances (just six starts and two substitute appearances for Boro in 1996-97), the guy had already shown us what he could do. Leaving aside his questionable temperament, his adaptability as a utility man and his long-range shooting skill (his only goal that season, against Derby, was more crucial than you think) were not in doubt, suggesting he could be even more useful in our bid to rejoin the Premiership the following season.

Sure enough, he was.

Cox's refusal of a new offer allowed Fleming to step into the now vacant right-back slot and for Kinder to play in his most natural position, left-back. While that does raise another "what if" question today - what price Robbo winning back the fans if Cox had been persuaded to stay? - Kinder flourished throughout 1997-98 as a key member of a newly solidified backline.

He became a continental Fleming, consistent rather than brilliant, reliable rather than invincible, a full-back who passed well, linked up effectively with attack and wasn't averse to scoring the odd good goal or two. Sometimes, he even kept Fleming out of the side, at least until popular youngster Craig Harrison (whose own career was later cut short at twenty-six by a broken leg) had a good run in the team near the end of the season.

In many ways, Kinder offered almost everything the more troublesome Christian Ziege did.

Unfortunately for Kinder, injuries and the arrival of Dean Gordon reduced him to a handful of appearances as a squad player in 1998-99. Despite two more good goals, no one seemed to care when his work permit was not renewed near the end of the season. It was a sad and underwhelming end to his rather brief Boro spell.

When looking back on his own time with the club, Szilard Nemeth would probably sympathise with his fellow countryman, in that despite their bids to be the "real thing" in their position, they never were. They were always the understudies or the accomplices to the "real things": Gianluca Festa, Dean Gordon, Alen Boksic, Massimo Maccarone (who later became an accomplice himself), Mark Viduka and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, among others. Neither Kinder nor Nemeth would have been out of place in any above average Premiership XI, but therein lay the problem with both players; Boro were always aiming higher than "above average" in the Robson-McClaren era.

Nemeth was obviously gifted. He'd arrived in April 2001 as Robbo's final signing, a player who had top scored in the Slovak Superliga for two seasons running. By the time he departed, more than four years later, he had arguably made a pretty good impression on the Boro faithful, even if his attitude towards the town itself rubbed us the wrong way.

The Man Who Would Be Otherwise Known As The Lizard King, or The Slovakian Express, managed to earn minor cult status mainly through his goal celebrations and knack of scoring off the bench. He netted twenty-nine times in around one hundred and fifty appearances. Yet he could never command a regular starting place. He was perpetually second best amidst a plethora of striking options during the Steve McClaren years.

Why was this so? Injuries? Attitude? Bad luck?

The real problem, perhaps unsurprisingly, was the player himself. Like Maccarone, arguably his best strike partner at Boro, Nemeth was sort of put on a pedestal before he'd even arrived at the club. Neither striker lived up to their pre-Boro reputation, but while Massimo will always have Basle and Steaua, Szilard won't. One has to look a little harder to remember The Lizard King's gifts, but when you rewatch even a handful of his goals, they are there: his strength in the box, his agility, his at times menacing presence, his response, and, on his best days, the quality of his finishing. He even scored a terrific goal against Manchester United.

But Nemeth always promised more. He promised to form a fine attacking triumvirate with Alen Boksic and Carlos Marinelli after they linked up together to net four of the goals in a 5-1 trouncing of Derby in 2001. Nemeth was a constant threat that day, with only a superb save denying him his first Boro league goal in the opening minute of the match; yet after that game, both Nemeth and Boksic managed a mere five league goals between them throughout the remainder of the season! Unlike Kinder, Nemeth's technique and tenacity were never consistent. He was more like Steve McClaren's Mikkel Beck - you wanted to like him, you wanted him to perform well, but his overall contribution was fleeting and somewhat underwhelming.

Louise Taylor, now of The Guardian, once declared that Nemeth deserved better than the Boro bench, but there's little to suggest that he warranted much more than the status of "supersub" and the occasional start. His was a tale of potential, potential, potential - but that was it. Enough to make a name for himself at Boro, but not enough to merit hero worship.