Me, Myself & Martin Laursen

[Stu]

For any Danish Villans on here, this film is on DANISH TV2 tonight at 22:40: clicky

[Villa in Denmark]

Thanks Stu - will try and catch it or record it.

[spk]

Fedt nok Mand!

[Villa in Denmark]

Missed the first couple of minutes doh!

The  background was why did Laursen make it to the very top, when his friend who was always regarded as a technically better player, ended up jobbing around in the Danish second division.

Lots of short interviews with players like Pirlo, Maldini, Zlatan and Mellberg and coaches Ancelloti, Michael Laudrup, and Morten Olsen (Danish national team).

He comes across as a very decent and intelligent person, especially at the point where he's essentially having to defend not being particular happy being seperated from his familly whilst living in Stratford, despite being surrounded by all the materialistic trappings of success. (He bought an Aston Martin because he thought it would be fun to have playing for us and being called Martin)

For the most part his friend comes across as jealous and trying to get people to say that he's got where he has despite poor technique. The final quote is the most telling in that he could now see that Laursen was prepared to sacrifice whatever was needed to get as far as he could and his friend wasn't.

It delved a bit into his time at Milan, where it sounds like he was bullied relentlessly, primarily because he was too polite to give it back.  "That's not who I am and you can't be someone you're not, no matter how much the situation calls for it."

It affected him to the point where he admitts to being relieved when Milan make their third substitution in the champions league final and he knows he won't have to go on, because he felt like he wasn't good enough and didn't belong.

Worth a watch if it ever comes out with subtitles  as it's 95% in Danish, the rest being in Swedish and Italian. (His friend is apparently fluent in Italian as is Andrei Shevchenko I've discovered tonight.)

[eamonn]

Does Sarah Lund pop-up at any stage?

Martin was a leader and a gent. We've missed him a lot since his retirement.

[Stu]

I discovered that I can actually get Danish TV2 where I am, but no subs for this English only speaker sadly.

I think you can 'rent' an online version with English subs from the website though.