I've only just caught up with (I imagine) a lot of football supporters by reading this book ("Kicking and Screaming") - sub-titled "An Oral History of Football in England".
If you haven't read it ... get it if you like to read about the evolution of the game. It (a 1995 hardback by Rogan Taylor and Andrew Ward) just cost me a fiver, including delivery, by Amazon. This book gives a good insight of events in the last 100 years through the eyes of many significant people in English and world football. Including Eric Houghton.
One section is devoted to the events surrounding the 1953 England vs Hungary match that Hungary won 6-3. It turns out that the Hungarians refused to be paid for their achievement!
But the snippet in the book that prompted me to write a post was on the matter of the obligation in football to entertain. At least, I think there is such an obligation, and this snippet sums it up for me. The words were spoken by George Hardwick, talking about the England team of the late 1940s. I feel that Alex McLeish might draw some wisdom from this!
"I don't think there could ever have been a team in the history of football that entertained so much because that's what we set out to do: 'Now, all these people have paid all this money, let's show them, let's give 'em a show, let's do it.' If we scored one I'm screaming at them, 'Now two, two,two,come on, let's go, let's go.' When we got two I was screaming for three, and I was screaming for four and I was screaming for five, and the only time I got a bit upset with myself was when we were beating Holland 8-0 and we got a penalty, and hadn't the guts to score with it. I just knocked it at the keeper. I thought, 'Oh, no, no, no, we've got eight,' and I hadn't the heart to go for nine."
This reality of what football should be about - purely an enjoyable entertainment - gains special significance with the sad matter of Fabrice Muamba. May God be with him and his family.
.
If you haven't read it ... get it if you like to read about the evolution of the game. It (a 1995 hardback by Rogan Taylor and Andrew Ward) just cost me a fiver, including delivery, by Amazon. This book gives a good insight of events in the last 100 years through the eyes of many significant people in English and world football. Including Eric Houghton.
One section is devoted to the events surrounding the 1953 England vs Hungary match that Hungary won 6-3. It turns out that the Hungarians refused to be paid for their achievement!
But the snippet in the book that prompted me to write a post was on the matter of the obligation in football to entertain. At least, I think there is such an obligation, and this snippet sums it up for me. The words were spoken by George Hardwick, talking about the England team of the late 1940s. I feel that Alex McLeish might draw some wisdom from this!
"I don't think there could ever have been a team in the history of football that entertained so much because that's what we set out to do: 'Now, all these people have paid all this money, let's show them, let's give 'em a show, let's do it.' If we scored one I'm screaming at them, 'Now two, two,two,come on, let's go, let's go.' When we got two I was screaming for three, and I was screaming for four and I was screaming for five, and the only time I got a bit upset with myself was when we were beating Holland 8-0 and we got a penalty, and hadn't the guts to score with it. I just knocked it at the keeper. I thought, 'Oh, no, no, no, we've got eight,' and I hadn't the heart to go for nine."
This reality of what football should be about - purely an enjoyable entertainment - gains special significance with the sad matter of Fabrice Muamba. May God be with him and his family.
.
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