Usually when Gordon Strachan starts talking I tend to sit up and take notice, not for his tactical insight, but for the comedy value. Strachan is always good for a comedy quote, I'd almost go as far as to say he is the Sid Waddell of football; but as a pundit he is a little lacking. However, whilst doing some half-time musing on ITV during the break of the Barcelona v Internacional he said something that made an awful lot of sense...
As usual, everyone was gushing over how "great" Barca had been playing, the same old stuff that gets regurgitated every time they play (don't get me wrong they are obviously a great team, but they are by no means as perfect as everyone seems to think). The conversation turned to how teams (including Internacional) try to replicate the Barca style of play but always seem to fail and return to type...it was at this point yer man made his move. Strachan coolly reclined in his seat and made a simple statement that the reason Barca play the way they do is because it is in the culture of the city; and he's right they play the way that comes naturally to them from their surroundings, they play the way all kids in the streets of the city play, they simply play football. The thing with it is, it is genuinely a simple concept, yet it seems to me that it is so simple that it hasn't filtered through to the rest of the football world. There is no point trying to play them at their own game, because there is no other city in the world that is the same, what managers need to focus on is how to get their players to play how it comes naturally to them.
If you look at the Barca team, how many of those players have been in the squad from a young age and have come through the system whilst living the life in Barcelona and how many big money signings have come in at a later stage in their career and failed to fit into the team? Just as Ibrahimovic or Henry. There are other teams around the world who have great success by buying in big name players, but there does seem to lack some cohesion, a bit like square pegs in round holes. Even Barca themselves have fallen into the trap a few times over the years, and it was not that long ago that they went for over 5 seasons without winning the league, and it is only really the foresight of Pep Guardiola that has made them the force they are today.
Perhaps in recent years the focus has become far too much about marquee signings and not enough about bringing on youth through the ranks. Sure, we all do want to see the best players playing for our clubs, but are teams like Man City and Chelsea sustainable, neither one has been hugely successful over a long period of time (yet) but will they ever. The question is though...how do other teams find their identity? I'm by no means qualified to answer that, but maybe with teams showing a little more confidence in their youth team products with a sprinkling of experience in the spine to guide them through then they too could find themselves in the way they play. Fans will always be more patient with youngsters who have come through the club than big money signings, so maybe someone needs to take a chance, begin to think further ahead than the current season and put the building blocks in place for the future...if you ever needed vindication of the theory I direct you to one Jack Wilshere.
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Monday, 25 July 2011
After the dark...
Its so close I can literally taste it, the drought which started after the champions league final is edging towards its end, and soon we will all be dancing in a wonderful football deluge!
Don't get me wrong, there has been the odd game on every now and then to keep me going through the bleak summer months, the UEFA U21 European Championships and the U17 World Cup (unfortunately I can't afford to invest in ESPN), but it has started to get a bit desperate recently...in fact to give you an idea of just how bad, I am writing this whilst watching the football behemoths Dunfermeline play St.Mirren in the SPL, its not what you'd call a classic, but its better than the other option (Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model...dodged a bullet there I'm sure you'll agree).
Now that the pre-season friendly fixtures are in full flow however, I can now begin to think about that most wonderful of days when the season officially kicks off. I've spent many an hour studying the fixture list, researching potential away trips, checking any clashes with international fixtures and all those other little displacement activities that take my mind off the lack of football, but now I'm starting to get restless, my Saturday afternoons aren't dominated by Jeff and the boys or by surreptitious looks on the phone to get the latest scores, my Sunday evenings aren't just counting down to the softest of landings into a new working week that MOTD 2 provides. I need my fix. Pre-season fixtures never really satisfy me either, and to be honest Mario Balotelli's antics in the USA kind of sum up how I feel about them.
The worst part of it is that I genuinely see my friends less when there isn't any football on. Without Super Sunday meetings and the weekly Champions League fixtures to be used as excuses to head to the pub...I mean, what are we supposed to talk about, there is no point talking about transfers since the media coverage of the transfer window takes all the fun out of it...there's no games to discuss...no controversial incidents...what if I start talking to them and find out I don't actually like them!?
Research has shown that the depression rate in me aged 18-40 in the UK goes up substantially during the months of June and July in years when there is no major football tournament taking place. The fact that it is normal during the even numbered years when the World Cup or Euros surely shows football (or lack of it) to be the key factor.
Soon though, I have to keep reminding myself, soon I'll be watching Gary, Alan and Alan guide me through all of the key moments of the premier league, soon I'll be fast forwarding through the ridiculous ramblings of Steve Claridge to get to the actual football, soon I'll be cheering on Ruud Gullit as he tears yet another strip off Souness as Butch Wilkins reminds me to stay on my feet and soon I'll be able to hear Redknapp junior and senior tell be about top top players again.
So lets all rally round each other as we struggle through the last weeks of the drought and prepare for the monsoon thats coming in August.
Don't get me wrong, there has been the odd game on every now and then to keep me going through the bleak summer months, the UEFA U21 European Championships and the U17 World Cup (unfortunately I can't afford to invest in ESPN), but it has started to get a bit desperate recently...in fact to give you an idea of just how bad, I am writing this whilst watching the football behemoths Dunfermeline play St.Mirren in the SPL, its not what you'd call a classic, but its better than the other option (Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model...dodged a bullet there I'm sure you'll agree).
Now that the pre-season friendly fixtures are in full flow however, I can now begin to think about that most wonderful of days when the season officially kicks off. I've spent many an hour studying the fixture list, researching potential away trips, checking any clashes with international fixtures and all those other little displacement activities that take my mind off the lack of football, but now I'm starting to get restless, my Saturday afternoons aren't dominated by Jeff and the boys or by surreptitious looks on the phone to get the latest scores, my Sunday evenings aren't just counting down to the softest of landings into a new working week that MOTD 2 provides. I need my fix. Pre-season fixtures never really satisfy me either, and to be honest Mario Balotelli's antics in the USA kind of sum up how I feel about them.
The worst part of it is that I genuinely see my friends less when there isn't any football on. Without Super Sunday meetings and the weekly Champions League fixtures to be used as excuses to head to the pub...I mean, what are we supposed to talk about, there is no point talking about transfers since the media coverage of the transfer window takes all the fun out of it...there's no games to discuss...no controversial incidents...what if I start talking to them and find out I don't actually like them!?
Research has shown that the depression rate in me aged 18-40 in the UK goes up substantially during the months of June and July in years when there is no major football tournament taking place. The fact that it is normal during the even numbered years when the World Cup or Euros surely shows football (or lack of it) to be the key factor.
Soon though, I have to keep reminding myself, soon I'll be watching Gary, Alan and Alan guide me through all of the key moments of the premier league, soon I'll be fast forwarding through the ridiculous ramblings of Steve Claridge to get to the actual football, soon I'll be cheering on Ruud Gullit as he tears yet another strip off Souness as Butch Wilkins reminds me to stay on my feet and soon I'll be able to hear Redknapp junior and senior tell be about top top players again.
So lets all rally round each other as we struggle through the last weeks of the drought and prepare for the monsoon thats coming in August.
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Lets try again...this time with a bit more feeling
Now if you've just read that last post, I'm sorry. Having read it back, the sentiment and the message are there, but in all honesty...it just wasn't very good. So lets try again, but this time I've got my cheerleaders in place and I'll play Kasabian's Underdog on a constant loop to keep me in the zone.
My epic failure on the last post made me think...what is it that makes certain players cult heroes and why are some just inherently more popular than others. There are the obvious ones, Messi, Kaka, Xavi, Ronaldinho, Brazilian Ronaldo, Zidane etc. etc. who are popular because they are/were frankly just better than everyone else. We all love to see a player who can put the opponent on his arse with a little bit of magic. But what about the others? Those of us who spend Saturday afternoons in the stands around the lower leagues can only dream of watching a Kaka or a Zidane on a regular basis, I can't really see big Jon Parkin going on a jinking run past three men before pinging one into the top corner, but we have our heroes too.
We British invariable like a grafter...someone who would die for the shirt, and lucky for me, the lower leagues are full of these. You get used to seeing 5yard passes go astray the further down the league structure you go, but what will always cheer you up is to see that same player who just gave the ball away got charging in at full pelt to make a challenge and regain the ball. Sometimes with younger players this can bubble over, but this only adds to their standing in the eyes of the fans...take Fabian Delph as an example, when he was at Leeds (dirty Leeds) the fans loved him, he (as he's proved at Villa) is an above average player, but is nothing special, what the fans loved though is the rash and occasionally malicious tackling technique. Tommy Taiwo and Liam Noble are two more examples of this, both players have been given their marching orders for going in a "bit" heavy in a tackle only to be given a standing ovation from their fans.
These players do exist further up...Lee Catermole, Scott Parker, Wilson Palacios, Jack Wilshire...and to be honest I'd happily take any combination of those four for a central midfield combo. Maybe its just me, but I do like a player who doesn't mind going in where it hurts (for either them or the opponent), I have been known to defend fairly obvious sending offs on the basis that "the went in hard, there was nothing malicious in it"...not one for trying to defend Paul Scholes getting his sending offs though, those are just comedy...he's not that type of player (apparently). Those guys could definitely hold their own down the league if they weren't as talented as they are, and thats what we love to see more than anything else, the player who despite having obvious talent isn't just a luxury player...you can keep your sulking strikers, and you temperamental wingers...give me Richard Keogh lumping someone up in the air one minute and then going on a trademark barnstorming run any day of the week.
My epic failure on the last post made me think...what is it that makes certain players cult heroes and why are some just inherently more popular than others. There are the obvious ones, Messi, Kaka, Xavi, Ronaldinho, Brazilian Ronaldo, Zidane etc. etc. who are popular because they are/were frankly just better than everyone else. We all love to see a player who can put the opponent on his arse with a little bit of magic. But what about the others? Those of us who spend Saturday afternoons in the stands around the lower leagues can only dream of watching a Kaka or a Zidane on a regular basis, I can't really see big Jon Parkin going on a jinking run past three men before pinging one into the top corner, but we have our heroes too.
We British invariable like a grafter...someone who would die for the shirt, and lucky for me, the lower leagues are full of these. You get used to seeing 5yard passes go astray the further down the league structure you go, but what will always cheer you up is to see that same player who just gave the ball away got charging in at full pelt to make a challenge and regain the ball. Sometimes with younger players this can bubble over, but this only adds to their standing in the eyes of the fans...take Fabian Delph as an example, when he was at Leeds (dirty Leeds) the fans loved him, he (as he's proved at Villa) is an above average player, but is nothing special, what the fans loved though is the rash and occasionally malicious tackling technique. Tommy Taiwo and Liam Noble are two more examples of this, both players have been given their marching orders for going in a "bit" heavy in a tackle only to be given a standing ovation from their fans.
These players do exist further up...Lee Catermole, Scott Parker, Wilson Palacios, Jack Wilshire...and to be honest I'd happily take any combination of those four for a central midfield combo. Maybe its just me, but I do like a player who doesn't mind going in where it hurts (for either them or the opponent), I have been known to defend fairly obvious sending offs on the basis that "the went in hard, there was nothing malicious in it"...not one for trying to defend Paul Scholes getting his sending offs though, those are just comedy...he's not that type of player (apparently). Those guys could definitely hold their own down the league if they weren't as talented as they are, and thats what we love to see more than anything else, the player who despite having obvious talent isn't just a luxury player...you can keep your sulking strikers, and you temperamental wingers...give me Richard Keogh lumping someone up in the air one minute and then going on a trademark barnstorming run any day of the week.
Football Writers
Obviously football is big business, and with that obviously there are thousands of people who try to make their fortune off the back of it...and to be honest good luck to most of them, the vast majority don't harm anyone with what they're doing. What I can't stand is that feeling I get whenever I go to the sports section of any bookshop and see shelves packed full of lazy books about football. The sad fact of it is, that there are only a handful of football writers who are worth their salt...I'm not talking about bloggers/websites, lets be honest I'm not exactly touching the masses with lyrical flow, but at the end of the day I'm not paying anyone to read this...yet.
My main gripe is how I almost feel ashamed when I'm browsing the football section of the local branch of a major bookshop, almost as if I'm being tarred with the same brush of those idiots who buy autobiographies of some muppet of a hooligan (I blame Danny 'f**king' Dyer for the rise in the fashion of hooligans). Seriously, what can that book be about...Chapter 1, smashed some guy's face in . Chapter 2, smashed some guy's face in. Chapter 3, got my face smashed in, but then smashed some guy's face in. Chapter 4, got asked if I wanted a ticket to the game, said no, don't care about football, just need to smash some guy's face in.
Its the same with those generic books trying to cash in on being filled with the same old trivia that most football fans will already know...football has been played in hundreds of countries for over a hundred years, so how is it so difficult to come up with an original idea? Luckily for us there are a few people out there who want to tell a different story and give people something new, and these are the ones who are producing gold on a regular basis.
My personal favourite at the moment is the author Simon Kuper, author of Football Against the Enemy, Why England Lose...(one of the most interesting football stats book you'll ever read), and many more including his new book The Football Men. Jonathan Wilson, author of Inverting the Pyramid and Behind the Curtain, is another author who creates something a little bit different to the run of the mill football book. Its guys like these that keep my flicking through the new titles on the shelf to find something different, something like Feet of the Chameleon and How Football Explains the World.
So lets all go and buy a good book shall we...and leave the generic stuff for the rest.
My main gripe is how I almost feel ashamed when I'm browsing the football section of the local branch of a major bookshop, almost as if I'm being tarred with the same brush of those idiots who buy autobiographies of some muppet of a hooligan (I blame Danny 'f**king' Dyer for the rise in the fashion of hooligans). Seriously, what can that book be about...Chapter 1, smashed some guy's face in . Chapter 2, smashed some guy's face in. Chapter 3, got my face smashed in, but then smashed some guy's face in. Chapter 4, got asked if I wanted a ticket to the game, said no, don't care about football, just need to smash some guy's face in.
Its the same with those generic books trying to cash in on being filled with the same old trivia that most football fans will already know...football has been played in hundreds of countries for over a hundred years, so how is it so difficult to come up with an original idea? Luckily for us there are a few people out there who want to tell a different story and give people something new, and these are the ones who are producing gold on a regular basis.
My personal favourite at the moment is the author Simon Kuper, author of Football Against the Enemy, Why England Lose...(one of the most interesting football stats book you'll ever read), and many more including his new book The Football Men. Jonathan Wilson, author of Inverting the Pyramid and Behind the Curtain, is another author who creates something a little bit different to the run of the mill football book. Its guys like these that keep my flicking through the new titles on the shelf to find something different, something like Feet of the Chameleon and How Football Explains the World.
So lets all go and buy a good book shall we...and leave the generic stuff for the rest.
Sunday, 17 July 2011
Fantasy Football
With but a few weeks remaining until the end of a dark football-less summer (for those of us who can't stretch a budget to an ESPN subscription to watch the Copa America, and who's internet isn't quite quick enough to be able to stream the games) its the time where fans up and down the country should be starting to take notice of the transfer movers and shakers, do their research on the the promoted teams and assessing the season just past...for now is the time to think about selecting your valiant steeds who are going to guide you to success on the Premier League's Fantasy Football.
For people who don't indulge, it is yet another aspect of the beautiful game which baffles, I mean just how interesting is it selecting a squad of players from around the premiership to try and gain more points on an artificial scale than the rest of the country...for those people I feel sorry.
Until you have fully immersed yourself into the game you can't hope to know the roller coaster of emotions that a budding manager will go through over a season. From the euphoric highs of seeing your weekly transfer scoring a hat-trick to rocket you to the top of the league to the depths of despair seeing a fellow player in your mini-league open up a seemingly unassailable league through an unprecedented good week, or when Jeff Stelling informs you that your captain has just been sent off having already missed a penalty and scored an own goal.
Usually a typical season for me follows this pattern...firstly I spend hours agonising over my team, what formation shall i adopt, who is going to be the surprise package this year, who will be my Charlie Adam, my Jamie O'Hara, who is going to be the defender who pops up with a goal or two, who will captain my team and most importantly who will partner Emile Heskey up front? Having answered these questions and chosen my boys who, in my eyes, will fight for their manager and spill blood for the shirt, its a waiting game for that opening weekend of the season. The first few weeks will consist of tweaking the team based on the quick starters, probably the deployment of my wild-card. The weekly tweaking will continue (hopefully with me residing around the upper echelons of the mini league, and in the top few thousand of the overall) for a few weeks until the inevitable downturn...it is at this point I usually give up. Once I'm more than 100 points off the lead I don't care anymore, basically I'm a really bad loser, so by stopping playing I haven't lost, I've chosen not to play anymore, lets face it, I'd definitely have won if I'd carried on...
But this year will be different, this year I'm going to take it seriously, I'm going to do my research, I'm going to make my own luck, and I shall bring home the big prize.
To help me do this, I'll be blogging weekly updates on the team, the mighty Balfour Warriors...so watch out, the Warriors are coming.
Balfour Warriors team photo 2006/2007 season.
For people who don't indulge, it is yet another aspect of the beautiful game which baffles, I mean just how interesting is it selecting a squad of players from around the premiership to try and gain more points on an artificial scale than the rest of the country...for those people I feel sorry.
Until you have fully immersed yourself into the game you can't hope to know the roller coaster of emotions that a budding manager will go through over a season. From the euphoric highs of seeing your weekly transfer scoring a hat-trick to rocket you to the top of the league to the depths of despair seeing a fellow player in your mini-league open up a seemingly unassailable league through an unprecedented good week, or when Jeff Stelling informs you that your captain has just been sent off having already missed a penalty and scored an own goal.
Usually a typical season for me follows this pattern...firstly I spend hours agonising over my team, what formation shall i adopt, who is going to be the surprise package this year, who will be my Charlie Adam, my Jamie O'Hara, who is going to be the defender who pops up with a goal or two, who will captain my team and most importantly who will partner Emile Heskey up front? Having answered these questions and chosen my boys who, in my eyes, will fight for their manager and spill blood for the shirt, its a waiting game for that opening weekend of the season. The first few weeks will consist of tweaking the team based on the quick starters, probably the deployment of my wild-card. The weekly tweaking will continue (hopefully with me residing around the upper echelons of the mini league, and in the top few thousand of the overall) for a few weeks until the inevitable downturn...it is at this point I usually give up. Once I'm more than 100 points off the lead I don't care anymore, basically I'm a really bad loser, so by stopping playing I haven't lost, I've chosen not to play anymore, lets face it, I'd definitely have won if I'd carried on...
But this year will be different, this year I'm going to take it seriously, I'm going to do my research, I'm going to make my own luck, and I shall bring home the big prize.
To help me do this, I'll be blogging weekly updates on the team, the mighty Balfour Warriors...so watch out, the Warriors are coming.
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
A few key terms
Football is one of those sports that opens itself up to local dialect more than almost any other (rugby league being another...northerners call it a sport, southerners call it fat men hugging), and in fact there is no greater joy than hearing a teammate come out with some on field advice/banter that you haven't heard before, the more creative the better. However, there are a number of key terms which all football enthusiasts, players, spectators and armchair pundits should have in their armoury...over the course of this blog I shall try to educate/force these terms on you whenever the mood takes me.
Today's lesson is in the different terms used for the basis of the sport...striking the ball. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin;
Today's lesson is in the different terms used for the basis of the sport...striking the ball. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin;
- Bosh - lets start with a classic. A bosh simply relates to the kind of thumping shot where the ball sounds and moves like its been kicked by a mule. There is no finesse to a bosh, it is a man kicking the piss out of a ball. Think any pass by Steven Gerrard...especially the 2yrd passes.
- Caress - one of the more delicate strikes of a ball. Think Fernando Torres calmly slotting the ball home from 6 yards with a gentle side foot. There is no power behind this shot, just a gentle, loving stroke the likes of which wouldn't even leave a bruise on a peach.
- Dink - otherwise known as a chip. The Italians refer to this as cucchiaio, and Totti is the lord of the cucchiaio. The dink is a beautiful piece of skill when properly executed, lobbing the ball majestically into the air over the opposition, you do look a bit of a numpty if you get it wrong though. The most prevalent purveyor of the dink in England is without doubt Carlos Vela...for the one game a season he scores a cheeky dink over the keeper. Just have a look at this scored today against the Malaysia XI, and who could forget the effort against Sheffield United.
- Hammer - the term almost solely invented fro Der Hammer himself Thomas Hitzlsperger. Pick that out!
- Ping - The force of a bosh, but with the finesse of a dink...the ping is the ultimate finish. Think Van Basten against the USSR, any goal by the Maradona of the Carpathians Gheorghe Hagi (genuinely one of my favourite videos on YouTube). Think of any goal thats got you out of your seat, and goal that you've got up at 7am on a Sunday, just to watch it again on MOTD...team goals have their place, but for me the best goals will always be a ping.
- Spray - David Beckhams got it in his locker, Andrea Pirlo perfected the art, Charlie Adam can do it and Paul Scholes definately had a cheeky spray in his locker. A spray can only be used to describe a pass, and not just any old pass, we're talking cross field pass, first time volley, on a sixpence stuff.
- Shank - a classic, always closely followed by an ironic cheer or donkey noises...the perpetrator will inevitable wish the ground would open up and swallow them...one of my mates is guilty of the worst shank I've ever seen, free kick, 25yrds from goal, fairly central, just inside the post...he put it out for a throw...you know who you are.
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Malaga CF - The New Man City?
When Sheik Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan completed his purchase of Man City the first thing to happen was an attempt to steal Dimi Berbatov from underneath Man United's nose, and when that failed they signed Robinho as a back up for a transfer record fee of £32.5million. It was a clear indication of how the club were intending to conduct business, and since then, nothing much has changed as superstar after superstar have joined the club for inflated fees.
Two years later in June 2010 the Spanish club Malaga, fresh from being promoted back to the Primera Division where taken over by Sheik Abdullah Al Thani, a Qatari billionaire who sits on the board of the Doha Bank.
The changes weren't as instant as they were over in Manchester, the team was largely unchanged for the start of the season, leaving the club in the relegation zone by the January transfer window. In the window, manager Manuel Pellegrini brought in the duo of bullish Brazilian Julio Baptista and Argentine hard-man Martin Demechelis, the teams fortunes turned in the second half of the season and eventually finished 11th in the league.
Now, so far this doesn't have any parallel with the big spending Man City, however, I think this could be about to change. Stories have been circulating for a few weeks about Man United tracking Inter's midfield genius Wesley Sneijder, but today Malaga have revealed their interest in the £35million rated man. Add this to the secured signing of Ruud Van Nistelrooy, who presumably won't be playing for peanuts, their alleged chase of Liverpool centre back Daniel Agger, potential move for World Cup winner Fabio Grosso and with a loan offer for Emmanuel Adebayor on the table maybe Malaga's new owner is beginning to flex a little financial muscle...how long until we see Man City vs Malaga in the Champions League final? And will Leonardo's PSG be hot on their tails.
I've always believed that money can't buy a club success, but that's getting harder to believe...thank God for teams like Blackpool and Swansea who can show the world you can be entertaining and successful (I'm sticking to that too, I remember not too long ago when Swansea and Carlisle were battling it out to avoid relegation from the old Division 3).
Two years later in June 2010 the Spanish club Malaga, fresh from being promoted back to the Primera Division where taken over by Sheik Abdullah Al Thani, a Qatari billionaire who sits on the board of the Doha Bank.
The changes weren't as instant as they were over in Manchester, the team was largely unchanged for the start of the season, leaving the club in the relegation zone by the January transfer window. In the window, manager Manuel Pellegrini brought in the duo of bullish Brazilian Julio Baptista and Argentine hard-man Martin Demechelis, the teams fortunes turned in the second half of the season and eventually finished 11th in the league.
Now, so far this doesn't have any parallel with the big spending Man City, however, I think this could be about to change. Stories have been circulating for a few weeks about Man United tracking Inter's midfield genius Wesley Sneijder, but today Malaga have revealed their interest in the £35million rated man. Add this to the secured signing of Ruud Van Nistelrooy, who presumably won't be playing for peanuts, their alleged chase of Liverpool centre back Daniel Agger, potential move for World Cup winner Fabio Grosso and with a loan offer for Emmanuel Adebayor on the table maybe Malaga's new owner is beginning to flex a little financial muscle...how long until we see Man City vs Malaga in the Champions League final? And will Leonardo's PSG be hot on their tails.
I've always believed that money can't buy a club success, but that's getting harder to believe...thank God for teams like Blackpool and Swansea who can show the world you can be entertaining and successful (I'm sticking to that too, I remember not too long ago when Swansea and Carlisle were battling it out to avoid relegation from the old Division 3).
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
Sometimes I wish Football Manager was real
The Championship Manager and Football Manager brands have both brought equal measures of joy and heartache into the lives of those who play. There are many people, football fans, WAGS and others who can't see the point of the game and constantly inform people that its just boring...however, for the chosen ones who play, it is living the dream...
I for one have racked up an obscene amount of hours across various versions of the game and with various club, my record for one game is an embarrassingly large number which better measured in days as opposed to hours. Since first playing CM2 back in the 97/98 season, my CV has become jam packed full of success stories with more than the odd failure along the way. The early years were dominated by the epic battles between me and my brother with the behemoths of Carlisle United and Watford on joint games, with the occasional dalliance into Serie A or La Liga for Lazio and Barcelona respectively. I must admit, I do remember those early years being more defeat than victory, but with Rory Delap and Matt Jansen in my side I was always confident of turning the season around.
Then came my moment, my career highlight, my moment of glory...after years of hard slog, finally I got my beloved CUFC into the Premier League. With a front pair of Andy (he was still Andy at this point, not Andrew) Cole and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with Juan Roman Riquelme in the hole and an unknown Argentine called Castillo. Unfortunately, my foray did not get much further than mid-table mediocrity, but I didn't care...we'd made it to the big time.
That early game was in fact so much of a classic, that when I went off to uni in 2004 I resurrected it and took it with me, leading to a very successful stint as Rangers manager. There were so many classic players, and with the value of hindsight (since as far as the game was concerned I was from the future) I could buy them all.
Even now, the pub is a regular place for achievements to be aired and the classic stories re-told. One old housemate of mine hijacked my CM2, accessed the Editor (why did they ever take that feature out!?) and gave Leyton Orient a transfer budget of £100m along with Luis Figo, Ronaldo, Buffon and Zidane...needless to say, he had a successful season.
There is also the brilliant urban myth of the guy who took his team to the FA Cup final, so decided to put his suit on for the occasion, whether he won or not is irrelevant, he's still a hero.
Since then I've gone through a number of different versions, from the Football Manager franchise and back to Championship Manager (when I bought it for a penny!), but if I could find my copy of CM2...I'd still be tempted.
I for one have racked up an obscene amount of hours across various versions of the game and with various club, my record for one game is an embarrassingly large number which better measured in days as opposed to hours. Since first playing CM2 back in the 97/98 season, my CV has become jam packed full of success stories with more than the odd failure along the way. The early years were dominated by the epic battles between me and my brother with the behemoths of Carlisle United and Watford on joint games, with the occasional dalliance into Serie A or La Liga for Lazio and Barcelona respectively. I must admit, I do remember those early years being more defeat than victory, but with Rory Delap and Matt Jansen in my side I was always confident of turning the season around.
Then came my moment, my career highlight, my moment of glory...after years of hard slog, finally I got my beloved CUFC into the Premier League. With a front pair of Andy (he was still Andy at this point, not Andrew) Cole and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with Juan Roman Riquelme in the hole and an unknown Argentine called Castillo. Unfortunately, my foray did not get much further than mid-table mediocrity, but I didn't care...we'd made it to the big time.
That early game was in fact so much of a classic, that when I went off to uni in 2004 I resurrected it and took it with me, leading to a very successful stint as Rangers manager. There were so many classic players, and with the value of hindsight (since as far as the game was concerned I was from the future) I could buy them all.
Even now, the pub is a regular place for achievements to be aired and the classic stories re-told. One old housemate of mine hijacked my CM2, accessed the Editor (why did they ever take that feature out!?) and gave Leyton Orient a transfer budget of £100m along with Luis Figo, Ronaldo, Buffon and Zidane...needless to say, he had a successful season.
There is also the brilliant urban myth of the guy who took his team to the FA Cup final, so decided to put his suit on for the occasion, whether he won or not is irrelevant, he's still a hero.
Since then I've gone through a number of different versions, from the Football Manager franchise and back to Championship Manager (when I bought it for a penny!), but if I could find my copy of CM2...I'd still be tempted.
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