Good article from Footbal 365

[LondonLiverpoolFan]

http://msn.football365.com/john_nicholson/...3612316,00.html

 

John Nicholson - A very Northern mind

 

What Terry`s Tears Said About Us

 

Posted 26/05/08 10:20

 

There can be few blokes who really are 'a man's man' who would not have felt a degree of nausea, if not outright contempt, at the waterfall of John Terry's tears last Wednesday.

 

But his display served a very good purpose. It illustrated exactly what is wrong at the core of English football. As England's national side comes into focus again this week, there is much Fabio Capello can learn from Terry's emotional breakdown.

 

Let's get this right, if you are weeping so uncontrollably for so long just because you have lost a football match, you are emotionally immature; you are a boy in a man's body.

 

I cried like that when England drew with Poland in 1973 and thus failed to qualify for the 1974 World Cup. I was 12.

 

Few of us go through life without an occasional watery eye - more usually born of joy rather than disappointment - but we reserve the proper out-and-out crying for life and death matters, not for football.

 

If you are crying that much about football, what on earth are you going to do if, God forbid, a real tragedy strikes you? Where is left to go emotionally?

 

It's bitterly ironic that the press are still so intent on painting Terry as a specifically English icon and hard man when the traditional English way is the exact opposite of his behaviour.

 

The traditional English way is the stiff upper lip; emotion is expressed only in private and if shared then only with loved ones. Publicly-expressed emotion is for the weak and the self indulgent. It is certainly not the sort of thing leaders of men indulge in. It is undignified and shows lack of character. And yet we are told he is still 'England's lion'. The same things were said about Tony Adams even when his life was in a mess and he was a raging alcoholic. Why are these type of people so many English fans' heroes? Is dysfunction attractive? Is it now the norm?

 

Let's not kid ourselves, we have a real problem here.

 

Other sports just don't do sobbing losers. There seems to be something about English football culture that suspends the participants' adulthood, trapping some in Peter Pan teenage world.

 

Too many players today behave like petulant children. When you see Rooney, his face looking all pink and bee-stung with rage at some perceived injustice hunting down the ball angrily, you see a teenage boy who has lost control.

 

Ashley Cole's 'I-turn-my-back-on-you' behaviour looked like a parody of a 12-year-old that won't go to his bedroom. This type of behaviour is emotionally dysfunctional and certainly not the sort of thing a man in his mid-twenties should be doing on a football pitch. Where is their self-control?

 

While footballers have always lost their temper, and occasionally have had a whack at each other, the sort of over-wrought emotion expressed by some of today's prima-donnas is not the kind of Francis Lee punching Norman Hunter anger. It's mere childish, self-centred emotionalism.

 

Having everything done for you and earning inconceivably huge amounts of money must all contribute to this fantasy cartoon world at the centre of which is their own glorious self and their own fabulous ego.

 

When something happens to shatter this illusion, is it any wonder they go off the edge?

 

England players are widely regarded as having a psychological problem playing for the national side now, and it isn't too fanciful to tie the character of these mannish-boys into their on-pitch failures. Too many of England's players are not sufficiently emotionally developed to cope with high pressure situations such as the Croatia game and especially penalty shoot-outs.

 

Add to that the selfish need to try and maintain their over-inflated personal legend status and you end up with players charging around trying to be the super hero or simply going missing altogether. Teamwork goes out of the window and individualism takes over.

 

It is significant that during the Portugal game at the last World Cup, Owen Hargreaves was many people's man of the match and of the tournament. He kept his head when everyone else was losing it, kept disciplined in his role and was the only one to score a penalty.

 

He was far more disciplined and in control than those around him. Hargreaves is not a product of English football culture. He is a product of German football. That can't be a total co-incidence. (Interestingly, after a season in the Premier League, he is starting to show signs of indiscipline and petulance - perhaps learning it as the 'right' way to react from the likes of Rooney)

 

In Germany, which is the most successful European nation, there has always been more maturity from most players. They have always seemed less hysterical, more firm minded and have had more good old-fashioned bottle.

 

If we had 11 Hargreaves that day, we would almost certainly have prevailed. But we didn't and once again we saw Terry in full self-pitying, weeping mode. Hargreaves didn't cry but he had given more than anyone. This is instructive.

 

The German team ethic has dominated over the personal desire for glory and that's how it should be. It works, as three Euros and three World Cup wins show. It is only through teamwork that the individuals can shine. That's how Greece won in 2004. It doesn't guarantee victory - Germany lost to an equally tough-minded, resolute Italian side in the 2006 semi-final - but it gives you a much better chance.

 

England's failure in the now distant past has been caused by lack of tactical awareness, by lack of fitness, by lack of basic good skill and by poor management. England's failure in this century has included all of these elements but with this new crippling emotional self-centredness thrown in as well.

 

On top of that there's a whole strand of English popular culture which absolutely worships them for their fame and money. I imagine them to be the sort of people who watch 'Katie & Peter' and who go on reality shows because they 'really, really want this' whatever the 'this' is. They copy David and Victoria's hair cuts and buy Heat and Hello.

 

And on top of that there's the press and TV media which takes good English players and over-indulges their talent and exaggerates their capabilities because it sells well to a section of the public that is far too eager for heroes to worship.

 

If Capello wants England to succeed this all needs to be tackled head on.

He has already talked about players' mentality not being right; that they lack self belief despite being at the peak of the domestic game.

 

And yet continental players are also subjected to the same culture when playing in England but often deal with it better.

 

This is just a subjective opinion and it's a bit of a generalisation that I can't back up with hard fact but it's always seemed to me that the overseas players who play in the Premier League are by and large far more intelligent people, far more rounded than many of their English counterparts. Put crudely, we produce Steve McClarens while Italy produces Fabio Capellos.

 

When you hear men like ex-Chelsea defender, Marcel Desailly, or current stars like Fabregas, Torres and Toure they come over as people who are to some degree sophisticated; for a start they're often bi-lingual. Clearly there are examples to contradict this but it does seem to be a generalisation which has substance.

 

Perhaps this is why these men don't end up in the Priory and don't generally behave like Motley Crue let loose at the Playboy Mansion, as desirable as that might be.

 

The game is producing largely uncultured boys without the intelligence, education or incentive to grow up. There's far too much emphasis on that favourite of the phone-in - passion - and not enough on perspective.

 

Capello has to select a team on the basis of strength of character and attitude as well as on ability. We need players who are calmer, more rational and less prone to believing their own hype; players who are not so wrapped up in themselves; players who don't cry when things go wrong.

 

In an era of shallow emotion, celebrity culture and rampant self-indulgence, this seems unlikely but we should all fervently hope that it does because if it doesn't I shall scream and scream until I'm sick.

[goodrobotusses]

That's a bloody brilliant article.

[Florist Cinema Pond Goal]

Tears in my eyes reading that.

[Herbie von Smalls]

& in equal measure

[Oli]

Amusing and some very good points made.

[Archangel]

FFS what an absolute pile of nauseous crap. The Champions League final is the pinnacle of a footballers professional career. Something these dedicated guys strive and sacrifice to acheive throughout their working lives. On the night they push themselves to the limit and go through every emotion imaginable and then to have it cut away in an instant maybe never to get close again. Actually I'd take JT's uncontrollable sobbing to Nic Anelka's professional indifference any f***ing day

and then to use that incident to construct a whole anal retentive article on why it shows the failure of British sportsmen is amateur psychology at its most pig ignorant

 

Not the first time for that particular ''journalist'' either

 

Yeah John dont give up your day time job

Edited May 27, 2008 by Archangel

[fyds]

Somehow, I didn't think you'd get it.

[mercury]

"Put crudely, we produce Steve McClarens while Italy produces Fabio Capellos."

 

Nail on! I used to wonder why England preferred in their playing days Brian Robson over Hoddle. Perhaps that is the psyche of English football!

[Stevie H]

good piece that. not sure how accurate the insecure tart argument is to england not winning things since england never won anything with hardman stalwarts like pearce, ince, robson, butcher et al in the side either.

[John am Rhein]

good piece that. not sure how accurate the insecure tart argument is to england not winning things since england never won anything with hardman stalwarts like pearce, ince, robson, butcher et al in the side either.

 

But surely England would naturally win everything except for the outrageous errors and character flaws that constatly trip them up?

[Rich Gobey]

But surely England would naturally win everything except for the outrageous errors and character flaws that constatly trip them up?

 

We've got a bit complacent since we helped ourselves to all of your castles.

[Ripley]

The Hargreaves example is very instructive.

 

The comparatively eloquent, bilingual, rounded individual does indeed seem to have lot of his positive qualities knocked out of him and be well on his way to becoming an objectionable moaning little prick

[Andy @ Allerton]

Great article and pretty much all the reason I don't want English players (Scousers aside) playing for Liverpool FC.

 

Foreign players look after themselves better, are more mature, more controlled and more professional

 

They also aren't overpriced, overrated and under achieving.

[_00_deathscar]

Yes, Nicolas Anelka certainly isn't any of those.

[D.Boon]

They also aren't overpriced, overrated and under achieving.

 

Apart from the ones that are you mean?

[Guest Ant]

Can't help but think had Carra cried that we would be calling him a 'legend'

 

And this article would be deemed s*** and the author would have countless emails telling him he has an Anti-Liverpool Agenda.

 

The bit about John Terry is bulls***.

[Hassony]

Can't help but think had Carra cried that we would be calling him a 'legend'

 

And this article would be deemed s*** and the author would have countless emails telling him he has an Anti-Liverpool Agenda.

 

The bit about John Terry is bulls***.

 

For once i agree with Ant

 

didn't Maradonna cry after the final in 1990, Berger did in euro 96, C Ronaldo does it all the time

[Andy @ Allerton]

For once i agree with Ant

 

didn't Maradonna cry after the final in 1990, Berger did in euro 96, C Ronaldo does it all the time

 

 

I'm convinced that Ronaldo is a lady with a strap-on.

[John am Rhein]

The worst instance of crying is the pathetic Gascoigne after his booking in the 1990 World Cup semi final.

 

The game was still going on, FFS.

[John am Rhein]

I'm convinced that Ronaldo is a lady with a strap-on.

 

If only they all went down so easily

[Ostrich Man]

I'm convinced that Ronaldo is a lady with a strap-on.

if it helps ease your w*** fantasy fears, go for it.

[johngibo YPC]

Can't help but think had Carra cried that we would be calling him a 'legend'

 

And this article would be deemed s*** and the author would have countless emails telling him he has an Anti-Liverpool Agenda.

 

The bit about John Terry is bulls***.

 

Carra didn't though did he

Which is sort of the point

[Guest Ant]

Carra didn't though did he

Which is sort of the point

 

Yeah but I know I would have cried had we lost to the Mancs in the EC Final.

 

And if Carragher did we would of said something like 'gutted for the lad', I felt sorry for Terry and he doesn't deserve the s*** he's getting, he's the lesser c*** in a team full of c***s.

[Guest Anders Honoré]

He has a point about how disproportinate it is and certainly about team leaders, but singling it out as an english phenomena is off the mark.

 

Fabregas cries everytime he scores a goal and he is as spanish and french as they come.

[Des]

Yeah but I know I would have cried had we lost to the Mancs in the EC Final.

 

And if Carragher did we would of said something like 'gutted for the lad', I felt sorry for Terry and he doesn't deserve the s*** he's getting, he's the lesser c*** in a team full of c***s.

 

Sticking up for Chelsea at every opportunity....are you sure Cobs isn't your da?