Dean Windass is unexpectedly back at Hull City and has already done the business for the reserves this week, scoring a lovely free kick in a 2-0 canter against their stiff counterparts of Bolton Wanderers.
Sadly, for him at least, the terms of his loan at Oldham Athletic render him ineligible to play for the Tigers in a first team match again this season. It still therefore begs the question as to whether we will ever see this grand old man of our city and club turn out for City again.
Windass is 40 next Wednesday. He is out of contract a couple of months later. Just as his goal at Wembley seemed to simultaneously ruin his City future, the undoing of all that good work this season may be his salvation, as the only way Phil Brown will deploy Windass again is if it is away from the Premier League.
This means Windass is in the strangest possible position - relegation from the division he, like all City devotees, has waited all his life to see his club compete in, is all he can hope for.
Nobody hopes for this, of course. City have had enough good times in the first half of this season to be hungry for more. And wishing this least of all would be Windass himself. But it essentially gives him a choice - does he want to keep playing for Hull City, or does he want them to remain in the Premier League? He's not allowed both.
Windass will leave the club in the summer - as a player at least - if Premier League survival is achieved. He may just get the one year deal he craves, however, if the recent slump is matches by upsurges in form from a number of other teams and City drop into the bottom three.
If City do stay up, which still seems more likely, then Windass may well be asked to join the coaching staff. He has diligently taken the appropriate badges and would undoubtedly jump at the chance to represent the club he adores on a longer-term basis, even if it won't be on the field. Part of the reason it was claimed his loan at Oldham was cut short was due to an offer of coaching work. And if a bunch of 18 year old forwards in the making can't learn the goalscoring art from Windass, then they don't deserve to be playing football.
City fans with rose-coloured spectacles do, however, need to get something of a grip on reality. Too many unintelligent knee-jerkers ring the local radio station after defeats and claim that the team lacks heart and the recall of Windass is the plain and simple answer. Aside from the rules barring Windass from being allowed to play for City again, which these cretinous people don't bother to check, the return of a near-40 year old who evidently struggled with the pace and defensive aptitude of the Premier League and failed to maintain his counsel over it was the last thing City needed, and even an eligible Windass wouldn't get near the first team right now. Perhaps survival, a testimonial for the great man and a quiet retirement into City's back room is best for absolutely everybody.
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