Source: Daily_Mail
Patrick Collins: Salute the power and glory of this golden sporting era
Amid all the fire and the fury, the spite and the spats of thatlittle local difficulty in Manchester the other evening, one aspect waslargely overlooked: it was a truly magnificent football match.[LNB]It offered extravagant pace, urgent commitment, dramatic goals andthe spectacle of major talents like Rooney, Scholes, Giggs and Bellamyperforming small miracles under extreme pressure. The fact the eventwas not smothered in superlatives is easily explained: such stirringepics have become almost routine.[LNB]Any contest which involves the Manchester United, City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool or Villa is likely to yield an occasion of similar style andintensity. Because these are the best of times, this is the golden age.[LNB]For more than 100 years, the game has produced its thrilling quotaof fine teams and dazzling individuals and we store them in a corner ofour collective memory. Some of us tell fond tales of the great ones wesaw as children; of Matthews and Finney, of Blanchflower and thetragically unfulfilled Duncan Edwards.[LNB]Magnificent spectacle: Rooney fires the winner for United [LNB]Wonderful players all, yet they played a quite different game inwhich a man could place his foot on the ball, consider his actions,pick a pass and admire the results at his leisure. The exceptionalperformers were the ones who picked the right passes, struck themprecisely and avoided thuggish reprisal from their inferiors.Expectations of strength and stamina were relatively modest, while theprevailing pace was blissfully undemanding. [LNB]This is not to disparage those who played the old game, since theymay be judged only by comparison with their contemporaries. But theywould not recognise the modern sport, which demands sure touch atimprobable speed, allied to monstrous levels of strength and staminaand intelligent obedience to sophisticated strategies. These qualitiesmay not always yield enthralling spectacles but they have moved thegame on to unprecedented levels of performance.[LNB] More from Patrick Collins... PATRICK COLLINS: Carlos Tevez and Gary Neville must be wary of playing up to football's lunatic fringe 23/01/10 PATRICK COLLINS: Cricket's moral maze lets cheats like Graeme Smith prosper16/01/10 PATRICK COLLINS: Is it time for Ferguson to ride into the sunset?09/01/10 PATRICK COLLINS: Shame on the men who have made a basket case out of poor old Pompey02/01/10 PATRICK COLLINS: Why sixth is no good to the man from Nike19/12/09 PATRICK COLLINS: At least Jessica won't lose out to an Angel12/12/09 Patrick Collins: Can football really afford to wave goodbye to £70m?05/12/09 PATRICK COLLINS: Portsmouth remains a famous old club but it needs football men to halt the sad decline28/11/09 VIEW FULL ARCHIVE As with football, so with most of the other major sports. I recentlyflicked through the sports channels, in search of a nerdish fix, and Ihappened across ESPN's Great Rugby Matches, the 1977 Test between NewZealand and the Lions in Wellington. [LNB]There were some distinguished names; Andy Irvine, Ian McGeechan, JJWilliams, Phil Bennett. But the comparison with modernity was even morestark than in the round-ball game.[LNB]The pace was ponderous, the players notably smaller. And after adecade or more of ferocious professionalism, we had quite forgottenthose days when a missed tackle was greeted with a sympathetic shrug.At one stage Sid Going, the renowned All Black scrum-half, began alinking run,changed his mind and trotted through the heart of a crowdeddefence to score by the posts without a hostile hand being laid uponhim. [LNB]Such a try would be inconceivable in today's game. Like football,rugby may have lost some of its charm but its players are working tofar higher standards of efficiency.[LNB] Halcyon days: Gordon Brown runs out for the British Lions during the tour to New Zealand[LNB]Listen to some of the old cricketers especially the Yorkshiremen and you might conclude the game has been going to hell in a handcartsince Dr Grace retired. The old England off-spinner Pat Pocock tells ofa rain-interrupted Old Trafford Test match of 1984, when the BBC filledin time with a replay of the 1963 series between England and the WestIndies.[LNB]The '63 game featured Fred Trueman, tossing back his head, trundling to the wicket and bowling to Sobers and Co. It was a revelation.[LNB]A buzz swept around the England dressing room. Those men of '84 had been fending off Holding, Garner and Marshall and they were unimpressed by FS Trueman: 'No wonder they didn't need helmets... he's only lively medium.'[LNB]Later that day, Pocock bumped into Trueman. Fred had watched the same film and seemed a touch embarrassed. 'Isn't it strange,' he said, 'how those old black and white films slow down the action?'[LNB] Pipe dreams: Trueman poses with Sid James[LNB]Yet cricket, too, has taken giant strides since the summer of '84. [LNB]Batting is more inventive and fielding has improved beyond recognition. Modern teams would not dream of trying to 'hide' two, even three, fielders on grounds of age or infirmity. Things move on, standards improve. [LNB]The process is inevitable. Pointless to compare Andy Murray with Fred Perry. Look at the Thirties newsreels and you will see that dear old, revered old Fred could not have returned a serve from the Williams sisters.[LNB]Boxing is a slightly different case. With a few notable exceptions Lennox Lewis, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao standards in that ailing, failing sport have been slip-sliding away these past 20 years. But they are the exception which proves the rule.[LNB]We may not approve of certain modern attitudes or practices but the reality is that, in terms of performance, sport gets better and better. We see it all around us and we saw it vividly and compellingly in Manchester the other evening. When the Reds met the Blues in tribal conflict and a magnificent football match broke out.[LNB] [LNB]Rafa's belief may be misguidedJust when we thought that football managers could no longer surprise us, Rafael Benitez comes over all coquettish.[LNB]'There has been a lot of talk (about Juventus) and, yes, I know about their interest,' he coyly concedes.[LNB]'You have to be proud when a top club in Europe has an interest in you.' [LNB]You can almost see him fluttering his eyelashes while flexing a shapely ankle.[LNB]Clearly, Rafa believes that Liverpool will move heaven and earth to hold on to him. He may be mistaken.[LNB] [LNB]Can poor Pompey resolve this sob Storrie?Peter Storrie, the chief executive of Portsmouth, has been 'considering his position'. It seems he was exceedingly cross at the club for attempting to sell players behind his back. [LNB]'One feels aggrieved,' he said, sounding vaguely regal. And he added: 'It makes you wonder what one's doing here at the moment.'[LNB]Soldiering on: Storrie[LNB]Our Pete is no quitter and he has decided to soldier on. Yet the hurt remains. As he says: 'If there is a need to sell players to keep the club afloat, then I think I'm the best person to get the best fees... In my time at the club, I have negotiated some expensive deals, and I think I'm good at it.'[LNB]Indeed he is. Why, for the financial year 2008-2009, he negotiated himself a pay package of £1,232,000, an increase of some 30 per cent on his previous pittance of £900,000.[LNB]Portsmouth's current debts stand at £60million. On February 10, they face a winding-up order in the High Court for unpaid taxes. [LNB]They have failed to pay their players on time on three occasions this season and they may not meet their next salary deadline.[LNB]But Storrie is staying and Pompey must be thankful.[LNB]Because without the reassuring hand of their brilliant chief executive, one might easily fear for their financial future.[LNB] [LNB]Last week at Newcastle, Crystal Palace did not select Victor Moses. [LNB]The administrator of the club decided he was too valuable to be risked. It was the saddest and most significant development in a frantic week of football. [LNB]I never thought I'd feel sorry for Palace's perma-tanned owner Simon Jordan, still less for Neil Warnock, the rent-a-quote manager. [LNB]But I do.[LNB] [LNB]
