Johnny Giles a world away from today’s mé féiners
SETS THE CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS
THE best football to come out of last Wednesday night was related to one of the super players of all time, a modest but tough opponent who scored goals and led his team-mates with physical courage and always fought to the bitter end. Step forward John Giles, formerly of Manchester United and Leeds United.
In a superb documentary on Wednesday night, Cormac Hargaden chronicled the life and times of our greatest footballer. Giles, inset, played in an era when there was no money. He went to Manchester United when he was 15 and he memorably said that when he was 30 he was ‘still only 15’.
In this searingly honest documentary, Giles explained how he had to become one of the hardmen of the famous Leeds team that included other hardmen such as Norman Hunter and Billy Bremner. ‘But I could play a bit too,’ said Giles.
There was no big handout at the end of his career, but captaining Ireland in their 3-0 victory over the USSR in 1974 was pay-off enough in his memory bank, which will never have to go into liquidation.
Looking back on the World Cup, the brilliant players have shown us their skills in Russia all right, but is there a case that the top players Messi and Ronaldo suffered from a surfeit of ego among the other players on their teams?
If you have a top player in your team and the tide is turning against you, wouldn’t you think they would funnel the ball to that star player and give them every chance to work their magic? It’s all about ego gone mad and it suffers from the taint of creeping commercialism. These players are paid so much that they operate on the level of a selfishness which has its roots in greed.
Depending on how they perform in the tournament, they have every
chance of being picked up by the top clubs in the world, such as Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
This could mean almost doubling their wages, which are already obscene, and add into that bonuses for the top goalscorers and you can see how they all become mé féiners who operate on the basis of: ‘I’m as good as he is, why should I give him the ball?’
This often produces a result which gives you 11 individual players rather than a team and the benefits of personal image rights must be horribly attractive to these individuals as they strive for personal glory.
It’s probably the last time we will see Messi in a World Cup and until the tournament finishes tomorrow he will be subject to intense scrutiny for his contribution to Argentina’s failure. The opprobrium was so intense in the Argentinian media that his mother, for gawd’s sake, had to intervene on his behalf!
If Portugal play badly it is almost automatically implied that Ronaldo didn’t perform. But should he worry? Juventus have just signed him for €90milion. It is sad that World Cup failure should taint the reputations of these great players who will now probably have to endure niggling criticisms in the immediate aftermath. But in time the memory of their failure will recede and they will be readmitted to the pantheon of the greats.
HARRY Kane was unlucky in not being on a winning World Cup team. But it could have been worse, he could have opted for Ireland and would now be sitting on his a*** in Letterfrack waiting for tomorrow when France take on Croaita.
And when you are looking for someone to shout for tomorrow, don’t forget what Thierry Henry and the French did to us in 2009 when he used his hand to set up the winning goal which cheated us out of qualification for the World Cup.
Come on Croatia...