De Jong descends into self parody

I love Nigel de Jong. He's my favourite player, by a distance. I hope, with increasing desparation, that he is soon made club captain. He's a very good player and a genuine leader on the pitch. Next time I get paid I'm getting the home shirt with DE JONG 34 printed on the back. So I don't want anyone doubting my commitment to him.

But he does love his big chat before big games. He talks about pride, about passion, about the fans, about how much it all means to him. And his latest battle cry reads like a parody of 'things Nigel de Jong says before big games.' It's all there. First he tells us how up he is for the next match:

"They [Liverpool] are a huge club, one of the Premier League's 'big four', and as a player, these are the games you want to be involved in.

"We also have the added incentive of knowing a win will dent one of our main rivals for a Champions League spot. We have to prepare as we always do for our home games and aim to take all three points."

Then how much he loves the fans, and how much better our fans are than United fans:

"I love the City fans and the fighting spirit they have – it's something I can really relate to.

"I noticed from the moment I arrived in Manchester how many Blues there were compared to Reds. This is a working-class city. The people are used to hard work and want to see players play in a way I think they would if they had the opportunity."

And then there's how hard working a midfielder he is:

"I'm the type of player who wants to work and fight hard on the pitch too.

"I'm not the sort of player who will make a nice move during a game – in fact, I'd rather win a fair, crunching tackle than score a goal!"

Of course all this is preferable to Robinho's attitude. And de Jong is an exceptionally hard-working and dedicated player (as well as being technically better than he gets credit for.) But it's just a bit bewildering to read these exact words a few days before every big match. It reads like a satire of the sort of thing that John Terry would say. But we're not far away from it being a satire of stuff Nige de Jong would say. Before the Chelsea game next Saturday he'll tell us how when he was growing up in Amsterdam as a boy him and his brother used to argue about which one was Ian Brightwell and which one was David.