found ithttp://www.theguardian.com/football/2007/jul/31/newsstory.sport1I remember it because I stumbled onto it after reading alot of those "on second thoughts" articles.There was a really good one on that famous rapper John Barnes.
Quote from: danno on October 08, 2013, 07:24:48 PMfound ithttp://www.theguardian.com/football/2007/jul/31/newsstory.sport1I remember it because I stumbled onto it after reading alot of those "on second thoughts" articles.There was a really good one on that famous rapper John Barnes.That is a travesty of a paragraph. Firstly, he treats Sid's name as if it's a punchline, which is not just disrespectful, it's contrary to the facts of reality. Secondly, he mentions that he was 32 years old, but don't mention how brilliant Sid had been in those few seasons and that 32 isn't that old now, and it wasn't that old then, especially considering the professionalism of Sid, and the shape he was in. Thirdly, he says that Sid hadn't played for England for half a decade, but neglected to mention that this was a disgrace, and the equivalent of how Scholes was eased out a decade later - we English, often, just don't get that kind of player.Finally, in the next paragraph, he mentions how it was a gutsy and possibly even correct decision, but says it precipitated other bizarre decisions, which he then lists - well, why not mention one of them, then? That little paragraph is microcosm of the English media's attitude to Villa, to deep lying playmakers and to facts - namely, dismissive.
What's always impressed me is Taylor's restraint. If it were me, I wouldn't have been able to form actual words, let alone swear so little. The trouble is that by making him little better than a cartoon, most fans have the view that Taylor was a massive fool. Personally, I do think England had enough talent to do better but I don't think that's remotely Taylor's doing entirely. Many have raised good points in the discussion above, but one factor that seems to have got lost in the story is that England ran Holland, between a European Championship semi and World Cup quarter final, close enough in the group to make it interesting until the final night. Add to this probably the best team Norway will ever have and there was little room for failure.It's actually fairly rare these days for England to have such a tricky qualification group. By and large, we've been pretty fortunate to only have to worry about Poland, Turkey, Montenegro et al, with the odd Germany and Italy thrown in every decade or so.
What probably amused me more from looking at that campaign was how on earth England actually fell behind after 7 seconds or something to San Marino?! When you watch England play the minnows now they barely even cross the halfway line so that just amuses me a fair bit,dunno how much footage of that game is on there.
Interesting that the other five examples in that piece were all 'fatal' mistakes for the team whereas we got a point from a tricky away game and qualified for the Euros. The national press never did like Sid because he wasn't Glenn Hoddle. He was a sort of Glenn Hoddle. Except Sid could head a ball, tackle and had League Championship and European Cup winners medals.
And here's a fact which illustrates that old Edison line about 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration: Sid was better, more consistently over the course of his entire career than Gazza. And won bigger prizes.
The majority of the stick Dunga got was because he somehow managed to convert the most flamboyant team on the planet into Scotland.