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gerryguk

Listed below are comments made by gerryguk between Friday, 6th February 2009 and Tuesday, 1st December 2009.

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Can history be made in South Africa? 3:13pm on 01 Dec 2009 Fair enough re: the winter point, my mistake!

However, it's interesting that Brazil seem capable of coping better in hot climates than most major nations (like in Japan/Korea and against England in Doha recently) given that the majority of their players play the majority of their football in mild conditions (by comparison)in Europe. It must have something to do with their physical preparation for games/tournaments, a point I seem to remember last week's blog alluding to!

I'm with everyone else here who wants to see Spain, or maybe Holland, or anybody else imitating that style, to win the thing. Argentina winning with Diego at the helm would be something else too! Predictions just now are too far away for me, let's see the draw first!
Can history be made in South Africa? 1:40pm on 01 Dec 2009 I don't think the winter factor will be as obvious as you make out. I seem to remember Messi, just as an example, playing well enough in Glasgow and Donetsk in the last few years in the Champions League! Similarly if altitude is going to be such a big factor why don't the European teams use the near 6 weeks preparation time, which has been built in for them after the 2002 shambles, to acclimatise to the altitude? The winner always has a plan, the loser always has an excuse etc.

For those who don't like the eulogising over the current Barcelona team, you are perfectly entitled to go and watch Stoke City if you wish.
Left shaking by Brown revelation 10:23am on 14 Oct 2009 Tony Mowbray,

Drop and them promptly sell Scott Brown. We don't need midfielders who can't pass, shoot or cross and who singularly fail to make any timely runs into the box duiring games to assist our wingers. People who complain about Mcgeady giving the ball away, look for the amount of times Brown provides an option in an attacking position when the ball is in the wide areas, Celtic's strongest area of the team. Very very few.

Drop and then promptly sell Stephen McManus. Honest big chap who I admire for his determination and drive, but for God's sake, captain of Celtic?
South America's wayward footballing stereotypes 3:36pm on 03 Aug 2009 Unfortunately, as Tim points out, stereotypes do seem to continue to inform fans' perceptions of teams, coaches and footballing traditions.

I'm not sure that it is all the supporter's fault though. The standard of coverage on football in this country is woeful when compared with other sports. Watching the Ashes this year there is the very informative "3rd man" feature, which tries, successfully, to explain subtleties in the match which the casual viewer may have missed. Similarly in the Tennis there was a fantsatic segment on Roger Federer's foot movement from his semi-final win, explaining something that certainly I had missed when watching the match live; that he arrives prepared for the ball quicker than his opponent, and seems to anticipate it better also.

Too often coverage of football falls short of these standards. I rather like to think I can figure out for myself that Man Utd are playing Wayne Rooney wide on the left rather than up front, for instance, or that Celtic are playing with two wingers who cut in from the flanks onto their stronger feet, but this seems to be the extent of the expert analysis provided by footballing commentators when the match is live. This, of course, plus the "Take a bow", "What a hit" hyperbole that we're routinely patronised with. David Pleat and Alan Hansen are the only notable exceptions I can think of.

I remember being infuriated by Graeme Souness at the CL Semi final 2nd leg. He said, almost in passing, that Barcelona had just given the most impressive display of a team without the ball that he had ever seen. For goodness sakes half of the game is played without the ball, and yet instead of a proper analysis of why Barca were so historically impressive in this respect, Sky's coverage reverted to type; howling, jingoistic indignation at the referee's performance plus a painfully symplistic roll-call of Chelsea's missed chances.

It might not bu such a surprise in this context that footballing perceptions continue to be informed predominantly by stereotype!
Spanning the South American age spectrum 12:52pm on 31 Jul 2009 That's quite a thing to say Tim! Quite an accusation!

It does seem an anomaly that Brazil's top clubs, operating as they do in one of the top ten largest eceonomies in the world, with a huge population, unparalelled footballing tradition, massive public interest and potentially enormously lucrative television rights, aren't able to produce a product capable of at least rivalling the best European leagues.

It is also a great shame; my dad speaks about the great Brazillian teams who came over for world cups in the 70s and 80s carrying some sort of mystique about them. Most of the players were still unknown to European audiences, and the competition between different footballing cultures made for one of the most fascinating aspects of inter-continental competition. Unfortunately with the hegemony of the Champions League clubs we are seeing less and less of this. Hopefully Brazil moves out of the dark ages and produces the sort of domestic championship it is capable of!

Just a suggestion Tim, but I rather wish you wouldn't respond to quite so many of the Argentina/Brazil bias allegations. I know it's hard to resist when it's you being shot at, but it is a bit tiresome, certainly for this reader, to see it on the responses every week!

Good blog again!
Anderson provides midfield balance 09:22am on 26 May 2009 Hi Tim,

Interesting blog as usual. I'm just wondering, the Celtic manager's post is now available, would it interest any coaches in South America, and would (should) any of them interest a club like Celtic?
Low-key start to Brazilian championship 4:00pm on 12 May 2009 I agree with your reasoning regarding the State Championships. It makes sense for the big clubs to play each other more often rather than wasting their time gobbling up plankton from the lower leagues. There is a certain kitsch value to watching Chelsea, for example, travel to Kidderminster for a cup tie, but to arrange a footballing season, every football season, around this and similar fixtures would simply be absurd.

My only concern is that the taking of this rationale to its extreme has produced the Cahmpions League behemoth. The teams who regularly compete in this tournament have created a self-perpetuating virtuous circle. The group stage format provides precisely the remedy you speak of Tim, it allows big teams to play each other more reguarly, to the extent that it is meaningful for Manchester United, for example, to assume they will have 6, 8, 10, 12 or 13 games against a reducible number of big clubs. This means more exposure, more money, better players, more qualifications for the Champions League and so it starts again.

Hopefully Brazillian football can avoid this pitfall, releasing its clubs from the State Championships while retaining the residual unpredictability that is part of its appeal.
Building for the future of football 10:23am on 05 Mar 2009 An excellent blog Chick, from one of your biggest critics in the past. You seem to have focused on a recent significant event, the opening of this new centre, and successfully conveyed your interpretation of its place in the context of diminishing public recreational space. Perhaps you have been reading No Logo? You should, it's great.

Anyway, here's hoping the new centre is as accessible to the public as the Athletics complex at Scotstoun always has been (and hopefully remains after its refurbishment). Chick is correct in identifying the need for more pitches, principally adjacent to schools, and free to use by schools, to try and defuse the ticking obesity time-bomb in the country.
Di Stefano the greatest 3:34pm on 09 Feb 2009 I hope you appreciate how good a job you have Tim!

Looking forward to your thoughts on the early stages of the Libertadores, it will be interesting as usual to see how the smaller nations compare to the Argentinians and Brazilians. Does anyone know if there is a channel in the UK that covers the Libertadores? Even a highlights show?

As for the greatest ever, in my lifetime it's Zidane. He was magnificent. Ronaldo get sme on the dge of my seat, Ronaldinho made me smile, Messi makes me laugh, but Zidane at times took my breath away. The semi final against Portugal in 2000 and the quarter final against Brazil in 2006 were performances of such beauty that they evoked a very emotional response from me, and probably anyone else who longs for the days of "futbol arte".

Not surprised with the proliferation of responses on this one Tim, great blog!
Uruguay, a Nacional question 1:59pm on 06 Feb 2009 Jonathan,

I apologise if I appear immodest, but I hadn't actually read your post! I picked on Morton because I couldn't think of any other teams on the road to Celtic Park from Dumbarton. I would have chosen Clydebank but as they don't exist any more, I picked Morton from across the water!

My post was more directed at the general thread in other people's posts about where to accurately locate the "soul" of the game; there appeared to be a sugegstion that a club's success dilutes its "soul" somewhat, with an impact on the perceived "purity" of the club's support. I think from reading your previous post that you don't consider this to be the case, and I also appreciate that you agree that football clubs can represent as much an extension of a political or ethnic community as a geographical one.

The Hibs point is a good one. I think Celtic's larger following is explained by a number of factors. The desire to be associated with an aspirational and influential collective identity is certainly a factor, and probably explains why Celtic have locked themselves into the virtous circle (success=support=success).

However that alone doesn't explain why Celtic has had a larger support than Hibs since before the 6 in a row team of the 1910s. Glasgow's greater population and greater concentration of working class males, with graudally more income as the 20th century progressed, would be a factor. The greater concentration of Irish immigrants and their descendants in the Glasgow and Lanarkshire areas compared to the East coast and Edinburgh is a factor too, as I suppose is Celtic's more pronounced and determined Irishness through the 30s and 40s (See the Tricolour controvery of 1934-I think- when Celtic were almost thrown out of the league).

To my mind, however, the greatest contributing factor to the growth of celtic as compared with Hibs was the club's openness as an institution. While Hibs at first was an exclusively Catholic club, Celtic has always been a club open to people of all religions and nationalities. I'm not naive enough to be blinded by this "idea" of Celtic into thinking every Celtic supporter, player or Director is or has been as tolerant as the club holds itself out to be. Nor do I think for a second that the "idea" isn't bastardised by a large, vocal element of the fanbase, but I do like to think that the "idea" provides the majority of the explanation for our enormous global support, and by extension our historical position as one of the foremost clubs in Scottish and at one time anyway British and European football.

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