Football Madness

[dwad]

Feb 11, 2009 13:47:09 GMT flatandy said:

Count you rugby types lucky. Have a look at the cricket team!

Didn't know we had one any more?

[flatandy]

OK. Our collection of cricket players.

[dwad]

Feb 11, 2009 13:50:05 GMT flatandy said:

OK. Our collection of cricket players.

players?

[VikingHumpingWitch]

I demand the immediate cessation of this threadjack.

[omnipleasant]

Just to threadjack VHWs threadjack...

Who reckons all this money in cricket is causing a bit of a football style prima-donna isation of the England team?

[dwad]

Feb 11, 2009 15:35:29 GMT @omnipleasant said:

Just to threadjack VHWs threadjack...

Who reckons all this money in cricket is causing a bit of a football style prima-donna isation of the England team?

Not yet. Indeed cacky as he is KP is actually quite shy of the limelight - he is married to a popstar and all but all his outlandish quotes etc. stick to the cricket. I think what you are beginning to see in sports like rugby and cricket are players who have come through academies and know nothing else and lack any kind or perspective on themselves and their sport.

[flatandy]

There's an irony, by the way, that it was thanks to the Stanford Nonsense the West Indies rebuilt their team and found players like Suleiman Benn.

[dwad]

Feb 11, 2009 15:39:46 GMT flatandy said:

There's an irony, by the way, that it was thanks to the Stanford Nonsense the West Indies rebuilt their team and found players like Suleiman Benn.

Yeah, I was actually pleased England lost that. Strengthening WI cricket is good for the game and they desperately need cash.

I don't think cash in itself in necessarily bad for sport, it's cash combined with certain mentalities.

[omnipleasant]

I reckon cash causes, in large part, the big time charlie mentality of the kind that has made the England footy team so pointless.

[flatandy]

You say that, but the Italian and Spanish and Brazilian players all earn insane money, too, and they win things.

[dwad]

Feb 11, 2009 15:46:14 GMT @omnipleasant said:

I reckon cash causes, in large part, the big time charlie mentality of the kind that has made the England footy team so pointless.

I think you have to combine the money with a totally warped sense of the world - the kind generally brought about by joining a football club at 12 and being told how great you are. Not getting a decent education or any sense of the how the rest of the world lives.

[mars33]

Spanish clubs are in big trouble though. Seems that in the second division some players haven't been paid for months and the prediction is that some of the Primera Division clubs will get into big trouble as well

[omnipleasant]

Well, I think it's the celeb culcha in the UK, combined with the cash.

Not so much swanning round with rock stars and stuff. But that mentality that is so obvious when England footy play - as if their mind isn't in the game, it's on tomorrow's back pages. I do see it creeping into cricket. KP and his switch hitting and what have you.

[dwad]

Feb 11, 2009 15:51:56 GMT @omnipleasant said:

Well, I think it's the celeb culcha in the UK, combined with the cash.

Not so much swanning round with rock stars and stuff. But that mentality that is so obvious when England footy play - as if their mind isn't in the game, it's on tomorrow's back pages. I do see it creeping into cricket. KP and his switch hitting and what have you.

Hmmm, but at the moment all KP's stuff is around his cricket. He doesn't court non-cricket press.

[flatandy]

But KP's cricket is all about how to get KP on to the backpages as the sole saviour and glorious hero blah blah blah. Look! I've got 14 in an over to get to 97. I'm going to try and slog it out of the ground for my 100 show I get showered in glory.

It's the same ego-tripping "Get Me On The Back Pages" mentality that has the Gerrard/Beckham/Lampard 70 yard hollywood passes, run around like a blue-arsed fly always out of position, trying to rush back to get the ball as early as possible, then rush forward to goal hang so you can score the glory goal Me Me Me who cares about the team the important thing is that when the team wins I'm on the back page as the HERO!

[omnipleasant]

Yeah but like I said it's not so much the press courting etc. It's the big time charlie mentality.

Doesn't KP save up all his exclusive revelations for his column in that revered cricketing journal the News of The World, by the way? Sure, it's always about cricket - but it's hardly the best source of sporting comment and analysis, is it?

I'm not having a go at him or anything, really. They are still miles better than footy players. But it's creeping in.

[omnipleasant]

Spot on Andy. You can actually see it in the way the footy team play.

Rio Ferdinand - "I'm a cultured footballing centre back. Must get good write up in the Sun about my cultured footballing style. Must get plaudits.....wooops I've passed straight to their stiker"

Stevie G - "I'm the energentic heartbeat of the team. Must take the game by the scuff of the neck and get the headlines. Must run and SHOOT....oh that one hit the advertising hoardings again".

[dwad]

Feb 11, 2009 16:02:12 GMT flatandy said:

But KP's cricket is all about how to get KP on to the backpages as the sole saviour and glorious hero blah blah blah. Look! I've got 14 in an over to get to 97. I'm going to try and slog it out of the ground for my 100 show I get showered in glory.

Yeah, but largely it comes good. He is a genuinely brilliant batsman. When he starts playing like the England football team then we can slate him.

[bella]

big game over here across the pond, u.s. men vs. mexico this evening

[minge tightly]

Portsmouth are looking to employ Sven Goran Eriksson as their new manager.

I might puke with laughter