Re: Tim Sherwood - Head Coach
Good article and amusing.
The points he makes, however enveloped in tongue in cheek stereotyping are spot on IMO.
As to when it happened - dare i venture the theory that football now is just a reflection of our wider society:
1) The haves and have not - in football's case that those with CL football pocketing small fortunes year in year out, or those with super-rich benefactors bank-rolling their success and those clubs that like it or not simply target a stay at the top table, perenially battling to be the best of the worst. the gap between the 'haves' and 'have nots' of football is ever widening as the gap between the rich and poor in our wider society is also growing.
Football in the dim and distant past was a game that was supported primarily by the lower classes, and played by guys from the lower and middle classes, but football as we know it changed when the money began pouring in via Sky and the premier league initially.
With clubs with more money than sense, there arose the culture of the 'superstar' player with a lot of players getting rich in a short space of time, which significantly changed players attitude to the beautiful game. No longer was it all about the glory of individual clubs, but more and more about how most players could maximise their earnings. Suddenly football in this country was not just a game for the lower middle classes but bathed in the avalanche of media money it's appeal opened up to a larger proportion of the population. This influx of different varieties of fans has inevitably led to widening opinions on the football being played - and an inevitable consequence of this is the 'entertainment' at all costs culture where if a team is struggling for results its the manager that takes the fall, for some poor other sap to come in and try and fix things.
Like it or not, football in this country has tried to progress from the level of 'hit it and hope', 'blood and guts'. 'physical over technical' ability, through a combination of an influx of foreign managers into the premier league bringing with them a more continental / refined style of play, helped in no small part by the influx of foreign players into the premier league, raising the standard of the premier league.
this has inevitably led to a division of fans between those that loved the old ways the game was played in this country, by british players for british fans, falling back at times to extremes of xenophobia (we don't trust foreign managers over homegrown managers who have grown up in our game and in not trusting foreign players), to those fans at the other extreme welcome the progression forward of our beautiful game embracing the foreign styles of play and new and innovative foreign managers who are more intellectual and tactical and don't just rely on the 'run about a bit' footballing philosophy.
Whether we like it or not that is the state of football in this country, made worse by the fact that the grass roots - even those levels just below the EPL, are still very much entrenched in the old-style of English football, with most clubs not having the benefit of the torrent of cash that has flooded the EPL and therefore not being able to fund any kind of revolution, if not evolution in style.
So where does that take us in relation to Tim - well he is an intelligent man whether you a a fan believe that or not. He says the right things which he thinks the average fan (and by average i mean the 'common' mans view) can understand. For me, for the EPL, football is a simple game for the most part overcomplicated by some people. you just have to look at the quality of the player to understand that sometimes simple things are the best way to get the best out of players. that doesn't mean that a little tweak here or there cannot make a huge difference, but for the most part if you can get 'round pegs in round holes' you'll not go too far wrong. Tim is on a hiding to nothing at the moment, so it's not in his interest to 'rock the boat' too much right now but 'steady the ship' and get us back on an even keel and then see where we can go from there.
You look at the best managers in the EPL era - the fergusons, the Wengers, the mourinho - they all had one thing in common and that was a fantastic bunch of players, with a solid system of play. We have a good bunch of individuals at spurs we just need to get them playing as a team better and the results will follow. If Tim can do that for us great, because in the short-term we don't have many options.
