Does that football scoreline appeal to you? Believe it or not that is a real scoreline albeit from 1956. It is a strange scoreline and the players' wages were even stranger, being more akin to those of supporters that went to the game to support England. The players had some colour about them: Reg Matthews was a brilliant and brave goalkeeper and Johnny Haynes was a master of the accurate and perceptive pass. Duncan Edwards was a youngster of towering proportions and played like a young giant; he was a member of that brilliant Manchester United team of 1957 and I had the privilage of seeing him, Roger Byrne and Tommy Taylor as part of a United team that enjoyed a 2-1 win at Newcastle United just prior to their deaths in the Munich disaster.
When England's matches were on the television, usually on a Wednesday, I used to dash home from the school in Temperance Terrace to watch them and I was seldom disappointed with the result. The players played with pride and understood the fans in a way that is not always possible these days.
The players of that generation were not separated from the public by an enormous disparity in wages and as far as I know never appeared in magazines such as Hello. Neither did they live in mansions. To be honest I welcome a huge rise in the wages of professional players; what I do not like are the rates that amount to a pigs' trough and make a mockery of the relationship between fans and clubs. I have said it before: I would not pay thirty pounds to see Derby County play Man U or Newcastle play Sunderland even if the game was only five minutes away from my door. I will go further and say that if Slovenia beat England I will not care a great deal. The English game is sick and is propped up by wonderfully skilful foreign players at a cost to up and coming English players. So that being the state of affairs do not expect me to get excited about a 1-0 win against Slovenia but do expect me to be a tad cheery in the event of defeat.
I do try to think globally, and welcome free trade, but football needs to sort out its identity; is it 100 per cent business or perhaps 70-30 business and sport? The English game needs sorting out and perhaps an early exit will do its team good in the long run even if it leaves the leisure business crying to the bank.
Come on Slovenia.
WB
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I totally agree with what you say Wilf. According to the English media Rooney was going to win the World Cup on his own. Except for four or five teams with a lot of money and debt the Premier League is mediocre. I was a season ticket holder at St. James Park but after watching Kieron Dyer "playing" football I did not renew my season ticket. There is too much money in the Premier League and too many foreigners. Too few players have loyalty to their clubs and are only there for the most cash they can get. I have watched my grandsons playing football over the last eleven years and I get more enjoyment watching 22 young lads playing to their best than the prima doonas in professional football. How often do you see in professional football the cheating, shirt pulling and the feigned injuries where they writhe in agony one minute and when they have got the penalty or free kick they wanted then they run about with no signs of agonising results from the injury. English football is sick.
ReplyDeleteBrian Mc.