THE WORKING MAN’S BALLET
Don’t insult our soldiers
I wrote the Working Man’s Ballet way back in 1996 a book which was what my former manager, mentor and great friend Mr Tony Waddington named the Beautiful Game of football, a beautiful game in the 60s and 70s that Tony would now find, as Gareth Bale keeps saying “ugly”, such a bad name for bad performances. Shut up Gareth and put in a decent performance, after all you cost more than all the Iceland players put together, and when you hear super-pundit Glenn Hoddle banging on about players being “brave” and “wanting the ball” it is simply pathetic, because those soldiers in Afghanistan, and other war torn countries around the world, who put their lives on the line day in day out should be insulted by the word given to multi-million pound footballers being “brave” on a football field.
When are those Executives and Producers on TV going to clamp down on such talk from experienced people who are also earning “money for old rope” (small fortunes), much like the players and managers they are criticising!
“Bravery” is something my father used to call players who held onto the ball whilst players like Ron Harris, Andy Malcom, Tommy Smith and Norman Hunter were trying to as Norman was called “Bite Yer Legs” where Ron Harris my old Chelsea team mate was trying to snap them – meaning break.
I began with the Ballet because I am in the process of bringing it back out in paperback, with an update since my near fatal car accident of 1997, when I watched the following years World Cup from my hospital bed, when I should have been working in a different capacity, seeing I could not get a job as a pundit.
What really winds me up about these pundits is that they have sat there and told the millions of viewers “All we need to do is improve our finishing and we’ll be fine and get an early” well, that’s okay for Shearer because there were none better then him, but even when he was the best in the world at what he did on the field, we still never won anything. So, its more than just scoring goals, trust me.
Iceland gave us a goal start the other night, and those pundits were saying beforehand “All we need to do is score early and we’ll be fine”
Are you sure?
We held on to the lead for somewhere like 60 seconds, and that is because you can’t hold onto a lead if you can’t hold onto the ball, can you?
I like to go back into history and experiences of the past and to show you that these pundits speak nonsense, many Stoke City supporters will recall (and they talk to me even now about it) that in the greatest 90 minutes of high tension and drama in my life, including the Chariot Race in Ben Hur, we were trailing the team who loved to be hated, Leeds United by two goals in a match that had they came out unscathed would have broken the record of matches unbeaten, I think it was 29 League matches.
Well, those pundits would have said “that’s game over” but John Mahoney my sidekick in midfield and I got a hold of Bremner and Giles and hauled us back into the game and by half-time we left the field with the air BLUE which in the Potteries was rare, for they are red and white through and through.
If ever I have been in a dressing room pumped up this was it and for the first time I stood in the bathroom looking into this huge mirror, looking deep into myself whilst listening to the sound of aluminium studs pacing that old tiled floor, something which was like waiting for Ali to enter the arena for that ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ and after fifteen minutes the buzzer went off and I knew that Leeds were going back up north empty handed.
In a pulsating last 45 minutes we pounded their goal until finally Geoff Hurst headed across a Jimmy Robertson corner into the path of Denis Smith, who finished them off with a flying header.
I’d like to say that I felt sorry for Don Revie and his players, but it was quite the opposite because an hour earlier they were swanning about with a two goal lead trying to tell us that we were Stoke City a small town back-street outfit, when we were actually a team of fantastic heart, character and extreme talent when it came to playing the game the Waddington Way, the Ballet was in motion and the music rang round The Old Vic like I have never experienced before or after.
To beat Leeds United is great but o a day like this, forget it, like Gerry sang “You’ll never walk Alone”, and we didn’t we walked with 40odd thousand Potters going absolutely nuts and years later I was told that they cleaned out every bookmaker from Stoke Town Centre to Tunstall.
Wow!
The gist of the story is those pundits know nothing, because anyone who knows anything about football will tell you that it is not when you score it is how you play the game after you’ve sored.
England were handed the lead by a Joe Hart like mistake from the Iceland GK handing England that early lead those in the studio said would “settle them down and give then renewed confidence”, but I’m sorry Iceland had other ideas just like we did against Leeds United when stopping them from breaking that record and I can tell you that the party went right through to the following evening, much like this latest England party, only difference was that we had something to celebrate!.
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