Love The Game

Could this be the start of the end for the identity of English football?. With news filtering out today that the Premier league clubs have agreed to looking into the possibility regarding playing an extra game a season in varied venues around the world it seems a distressing time for English fans. We have always been a passionate nation about our beloved game, we invented the sport. But this must truly be the first step in many that will see our own beloved football clubs lost forever to us. Yes, it is only a preliminary meeting regarding this venture but it is a major set back for fans that hold their clubs so dear to them. This is no doubt based around revenue as it always does, but we also need to think about the consequences of such radical steps. Firstly the burn out of international players, an extra game a season in the hectic period of January will put players like Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney up to around 70 games a season. In the long term this could be more than just one game extra to be played with that they will have shorter break periods during off season due to this, which is surely detrimental to the standard of football that the fans pay so much to see already. Only last week Carlos Tevez who has not had a proper off season for over two years now has admitted to being exhausted and the wear and tear of Premiership football was taking effect on his body. Is this what we want to see for our own national players?, there is no question now that the Premiership is the biggest league in the world, in revenue and viewing figures. This is mainly due to the standard of play that we now have, it is fast and furious but with a very high standard of technical ability. This I think will change if players are to travel further a field for league games, for example if Manchester United are to play Chelsea in Melbourne in the first week of January, then four days later they are to play Spurs in London. That is an astronomical amount of miles that need to be made to play two games of football.

What has been put forward by the Premiership is that an extra game in the January period is to be played. The Premiership will auction off the games to the highest bidder, the areas that the premiership is looking into is the far east, middle east, Australia and the U.S. The packages that will be offered out will be two fixtures that are to be played in one stadium, that in total makes five packages that will be put up for auction. The Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudamore said today ‘The ‘International round’ is an exciting and innovative proposal that needs careful consideration before being introduced. However, this concept recognises the truly global appeal of the Barclays Premier League whilst understanding that the traditions of the English game have always underpinned our success. We believe that an ‘International round’ of matches will enhance the strength of the Barclays Premier League as a competition; create extra interest in all 20 Premiership clubs at home and abroad; and allow increased investment in talent development and acquisition, facilities as well as our football development and community programmes.’ This I say is a very diplomatic response into something the league have seriously been pondering for a long time now.

Maybe the clubs will argue their case and state that they are trying to bring games to fans that are all over the world, or even say that the revenue made will help them lower tickets for fans in England. But that will be just sugar coated propaganda, the simple fact now is that every club in the Premiership is run as a business and if the figures add up then they will do it and say damn to the consequences. If this notion is passed it will be the start of a very well devised plan by the big wigs, after a certain period of time has passed to see if this idea works, then a the concept of a world league will be brought into fruition. This has been a plan devised and spoken about by the members of G-14, the super powers of European football. The warning signs are already there for people to look at, players like Ronaldinho and Adriano who were two of the best players on the planet only a year ago but are now being offered left, right and centre to clubs who are willing to pay the big money for them. They have suffered from severe burnout and personal issues, due to flying from country to country for sponsors, national games and charities. With this matter you could see the next Wayne Rooney retiring aged 27 due to injury, where his body was unable to cope with the amount of games played every year and not being able to let their body recuperate from the previous game. The examples are already there to be looked at, so I ask myself, are the fans just going to sit there and watch it happen? Or will spokespeople from every club stand up and give an opinion from the perspective of a purely football view that isn’t not money driven.

There is also another opinion that the gap between the big clubs in the premiership and the smaller clubs in the lower league will just get bigger. There is already a big gap in revenue between the leagues, for example West Ham in the Premier League and Bristol City in the division below in the Championship; they are miles apart in comparison. West Hams highest paid player is Freddy Ljungberg and Craig Bellamy who are on £60,000 a week that compared with Bristol City’s top paid player that is over 12 times the amount. This gap will only get bigger if this plan does go through for the 2010/2011 season. There are others factors that must be taken into account like security, are places like Bangkok and Beijing ready for all seater stadiums that will have to apply to law within in this country about health and safety relating back to the late 1980’s, you could get crowd violence if there is no segregation in the stadiums also There are so many issues that have not been answered.

There is no other country in the world that understands more about the heartache from loosing in a penalty shootout than England. Since the 1990 world cup in Italy there have been eight major international tournaments England have been involved in, they have been knocked out five times by penalty shootouts in those tournaments. It has been a long unanswered question by many, is there no other way to finish a game?. FIFA brought in the golden goal in Euro 96 then the silver goal in Euro 2000 also to try and reduce the amount of Penalty shootouts in major tournaments, both of those ideas have been scrapped since. But another idea has been formulated and a FIFA meeting this week will decide if it is viable to introduce into major tournaments. This idea was created by a man called Henry Bertles, the idea devised is still related to penalties but is to a format that encourages attacking football during extra-time. The system that Mr Bertles has put forward consists of 3 penalties per team that is to be taken after 90 minutes if the match is drawn in the knockout stages. Then after the winners of penalties has been decided, the normal format of extra-time is to be played, the difference is the winner of the penalties has the advantage, so the team that lost the shoot out knows that they must score to stay in the competition. This does encourage attacking play by at least one team if not both, when you compare this format to the current one it does theoretically work. The 2006 World Cup that was deemed to be one of the most drab that was won by a defensive orientated Italian team, the tournament did have penalties and teams including Italy, England and Portugal were involved in, during the extra time that these teams were involved in was particularly boring with neither team wanting to go forward because of the fear from loosing a goal. They played for penalties which neutralised the extra time, this does spin the idea around. It has a firm backer with Sepp Blatter putting his political weight behind the idea, if this is passed then it could be introduced in the confederations cup in 2009 with the idea of plying it in South Africa 2010. This could be the answer to English fans dreams with this introduction but is this the answer to the long asked question. That will be answered if FIFA pass the vote.

It was the 6th of February 1958 when the greatest loss in British sporting history occurred, the scene was at a snow covered Munich airport runway. Lying on the runway broken into three fragments was an propeller-driven Airspeed Elizabethan Aircraft, call-sign Zulu Uniform, in the wreckage lay 21 bodies 7 of those bodies being of the famous Manchester United squad favourably known as the ‘Busby Babes’. Fifth teen days later they lost another soul due to his injuries, to this day it is still thought that this squad of highly talented individuals would have dominated world football for the coming decade. The men lost to the crash were Roger Byrne, David Pegg, Eddie Colman, Tommy Taylor, Billy Whelan, Mark Jones, Geoff Bent and Duncan Edwards who died later of his injuries and was possibly Sir Matt Busby’s greatest loss. He was England’s new golden boy of the time, he was only 21 years old but had already been capped eighteen times for his country scoring five goals, he could play in any position, this was mainly down to the fact that he was six foot one inch and thirteen stone. Renowned for his physical prowess he also had many other attributes, recently Sir Bobby Charlton who is known for stating that Edwards was the only man he felt ‘Inferior’ to on the pitch in all his career was asked to compare Edwards and Rooney, he said ‘It is not even worth mentioning, we can talk about Wayne Rooney when he is retired. Edwards was just a massive, massive talent. That is the only way I can describe him. There’s a picture on the wall of the old youth team, and he looks twice the size of anybody else. In stature he was enormous. He was strong, he was tough and to add to that talent he could use his right foot, his left foot. He was a great long passer, he was a great short passer, he had great stamina and he could play in any position. He loved playing the game; all he wanted to do was to play football’. Edwards survived for fifth teen days after the crash with two shattered legs and both his kidneys crushed, the doctors were amazed with his will to live and thought he was going to survive but until a blood clot took him just after he had spoken to his manager Sir Matt Busby, his final words were ‘Is the game still on for Wolves boss?’

Sir Matt Busby himself was very nearly one of the victims of the crash, he was read his last rights twice while in the German Hospital. With tremendous grit and determination he survived the ordeal and went back to manage the team as soon as he was fit. His squad had been left decimated and he had to rely upon loans from other clubs around the country to fill his team for the rest of the season and some of next. What had happened on that day stayed with the Scotsman for the rest of his life, which he never really forgave himself for. Manchester United entered the European Cup that season against the wishes of the Football Association, the FA had clearly stated that they felt that this tournament was detrimental to the league and made it as difficult as possible for the participants, Busby had agreed with the FA to have the squad back at least 24 hours before their next league fixture, which was against Wolverhampton Wanderers, the eventual champions. This was one of the major reasons why the flight had to be made due to the match against Wolves. Manchester United had played against Partizan Belgrade on Wednesday in Belgrade and had left Zemun Airport at mid-morning on Thursday, landing in Munich at 1.15pm to refuel, conditions were appalling with heavy snow in Munich, they had to make a decision to try and fly that day or arrive back in Manchester the following day by 3pm or incur FA sanctions. The decision was made to make the flight, after two tried and failed attempts of take off the crew and management decided to try for a third time, Sir Bobby Charlton recollects the attempts ‘Everyone was so happy, there was much laughter because we had qualified, there was a first attempt at take off, but they said they had a technical problem and would have to go back. We did that for a second time and again the message came through ‘we cant take off‘. And then, the third time, the plane just went straight along the runway. When you fly, you have a general idea how long it takes to take off and I was sitting there thinking ‘There’s something not quite right here’. Then we went through a perimeter fence and I don’t remember anything after that. The accident simply happened because they didn’t realise the speed of the aircraft, how much slush was on the runway and how much snow was coming down. These days they wouldn’t have taken off. I think about it quite often.’

The Busby Babes will never be forgotten in England and will have a place in history at Manchester United for all time. People can only speculate on how good that young team of talented individuals could of become but one thing will always remain, they were the first truly great United team and that can never be taken away from them. This can mainly be put down to the two people that laid these foundations for the club those men were Sir Matt Busby the manager and Jimmy Murphy the assistant manager who was not on the flight due to being on international duty as manager of Wales, they gave the opportunity to these young men, some as young as 17 years old. This article has been written in memory of these people that survived and died in the Munich air disaster. No other words could some up this memorable anniversary more than the words of Sir Matt Busby and his ideals on how football can make so many people forget the bad parts of life and concentrate on the wonders of the game.

‘Winning matches at all costs is not the test of true achievement; there is no dishonour in defeat as long as you play to the limit of your strength and skill. What matters above all things is that the game should be played in the right spirit, with fair play and no favour, with every man playing as a member of his team and the result accepted without bitterness or conceit. Played at its best between two first-class teams, football is a wonderful spectacle. I love its drama, its smooth playing skills, its carelessly laid rhythms, and the added flavour of contrasting styles. Its great occasions are, for me at any rate, unequalled in the world of sport. I feel a sense of romance, wonder and mystery, a sense of beauty and a sense of poetry. On such occasions, the game has the timeless, magical qualities of legend.'

Sir Matt Busby

Born in a mining village in East Ayrshire called Glenbuck on the 2nd of September 1913, William ‘Bill’ Shankly, OBE, would become one of Britain’s most successful managers to date. He was the youngest of a family of ten and one of five brothers that went on to become professional footballers. Bill had a tough upbringing, which later contributed to his humanitarian socialism views and management skills, life in the small mining town of Glenbuck was harsh. The community used football as a form of escape from the daily toils and hardships that regularly occurred, the small village football team, Glenbuck Cherrypickers, itself would go on to produce a remarkable 49 professional footballers in the later parts of the 19th and early parts of the 20th century. Even though Bill would move on before he managed to break into the first team he would pick up some valuable experience from the twice weekly training that he would go to, the training would be five-a-side, which he would deploy in his training methods when turning to management. Bill came obviously from an experienced footballing background, his brothers would also be successful in football. His brother Bob managed Dundee to victory in the Scottish Championship in 1962, his uncle Bob Blyth played for Preston North End and Portsmouth later becoming their manager. He also had brother Alec who played for Ayr United and Clyde, brother John for Luton Town and Blackpool and finally his brother Jimmy who played for a host of clubs including Sheffield United and Southend. Life was difficult for the people of Glenbuck, Shankly joked in his later years that he didn’t have a bath until 15, but it invoked a passion for life desire to succeed which the Shankly family certainly did within football.

Playing Career:

Bill Shankly played as a wing half, his playing career was not as successful as his managerial years but that was mostly because his career was cut short due to World War II. He was signed by Carlisle United in July 1932 at the age of 19, he made his debut for the club on new years eve against Rochdale. In that season he accumulated 16 appearances and was spotted by Preston North End who duly bought him for £500.00 in the summer of 1933. Shankly went on to become an important member of the first team and Preston North End were promoted to the old First Division in 1934, he had his best years at the club and went to Wembley twice with the club, both being FA Cups, becoming runners-up to Sunderland in 1937 and winners against Huddersfield Town in 1938. He made his Scotland debut in a victorious 1-0 win in1938 against England, making a further four appearances during that year, unfortunately for him war broke out in 1939 which cut short a promising career. During war time Shankly would carry on playing for teams like Northampton Town, Liverpool, Arsenal, Cardiff City, Bolton Wanderers, Luton Town, Partick Thistle and King’s Park respectively. When peace was declared and the professional football league started again in the 1946-1947 season, Shankly returned to Preston to carry on with his career, he was 33 years old. He carried on playing for the club until March 1949 where he decided to retire from playing and look into management, he played 296 games for Preston North End scoring 13 goals.

The early years of Management:

After his retirement from his playing career, Shankly was eager to jump into management and was appointed Carlisle United manager within the same month, the man had come back to his first professional club some 17 years later. He gained valuable experience at the club, having to work with no real funding and developing his training methods and man management skills. He had two mediocre season at the club and walked out in 1951 citing reasons being the board of directors were not willing to commit enough money for the club to progress, this unfortunately was not the only incident in Shankly’s illustrious managerial career that he walked out of a club. Throughout his whole career Shankly had afflictions with directors, mostly due to the fact that he felt they did not have the same commitment to team affairs as he did. After walking out on Carlisle and a failed interview at Liverpool due to his lack of experience, Shankly went on to manage various clubs, Grimsby Town 1951-1954, Workington 1954-1955 and finally Huddersfield in 1956 where he was to spend three seasons. During his time at the club he signed a 15-year old boy by the name of Dennis Law, the young Scotsman broke into the first team at the age of 16. Shankly saw great potential in the player and went to the board to recommended on business grounds that Law should be given a new and improved contract. Then later on in the season of 1956, the Huddersfield board wanted to accept a bid of £45,000 from Everton for the talented striker, upon hearing this its is understood that Shankly went livid at the board stating ‘Get out your diary and write this down. One day, Dennis Law will be transferred for £100,000.’ After four years the club Law was sold to Manchester City for £55,000, setting a British transfer record.

Liverpool:

In December 1959 Bill Shankly was appointed manager of Liverpool by chairman T.V Williams, who was impressed by his first interview also the enthusiasm and commitment Shankly had for the game. When the football club of Liverpool is mentioned now it is put along with same lines as Barcelona, Real Madrid, AC Milan and Manchester United respectively. But in 1959 the club was in a completely different position, this was the man that transformed this great club into a European super power. The club were at the bottom of the old second Division with a crumbling stadium and poor training facilities, the squad were of a poor standard and large in numbers. The only positive out of all of that was the backroom staff, they consisted of Joe Fagan, Reuben Bennett and the recently retired and much Shankly admired Bob Paisley. The first major act of change that Shankly brought to the club was the training ground, it had diabolical facilities, one mains tap, no showers, no canteen. Shankly declared that every player was to arrive at Anfield and be bussed to the Melwood training facility. He introduced a diet assessment with the players being told what was good to eat and what certainly wasn’t, also he introduced core skills training, using an old disused wall that was painted as a goal and split into eight different sections where Shankly demanded the players hit every section each time during training. His obvious core training was five-a-side, where he taught his players his football ethos, pass and move, keep it simple and fight for each other no matter what. After training the team would be taken back to Anfield where they would shower and have a meal with each other, this showed great judgment by Shankly where this was to create a great form of bonding the team and also ensured that every player was warmed down correctly and free from injury. This was shown in the 1965-66 championship winning season where only 14 players were used all season, two of them only making a handful of appearances.

Liverpool was slowly turned around by Shankly and his staff and in 1961-62 he gained the club promotion to the old first division, with crowds grossing 40,000, the atmosphere in the city and club was euphoric. Shankly was starting to build his first great team at Liverpool, with names like Ian St John, Ron Yeats, Gordon Milne and Peter Thompson now in the squad. His next goal was for the club to try and wrestle the supremacy from the hands of their city rivals Everton. That happened in the 1963-64 season when Liverpool were crowned champions for the 6th time, from former champions Everton. Then the following season Liverpool won the F.A Cup and were narrowly beaten by Inter Milan in the semi-finals, eventual winners, in the European Champions Cup. His team were starting to grow a reputation in England and on Continent for their passing style and attacking play, in the 1965-66 season Liverpool were once again crowned league champions and were beaten finalists in the European Cup winners Cup. Some of Shankly’s first team members were starting to see the end of their playing days, this was shown with no finals or trophies for the next five seasons, other than becoming league champions runners up in the 1968-69 season.

With the changing of the decade came the changing of the old guard too, the club had stagnated a little with no trophies in those five seasons and Shankly had to be ruthless, he was. Out went the likes of Roger Hunt, club record top goal scorer, Ian St John, Ron Yeats and goalkeeper Tommy Lawrence in came Kevin Keegan, Steve Heighway, Larry Lloyd and future England number one Ray Clemence. These players were to create a team that was to better Shankly’s first great team of the 60’s, these players were young and raw but needed time to develop their skills under the tutelage of Shankly. After a decent run in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup where they were knocked out eventually in the semi-finals and runners up in the FA Cup in the 1970-71 season. The team were starting to perform and gain the vital experience Shankly always said they needed if they were to fulfil their potential. The young team delivered in the season of 1972-73 by being crowned League Champions for the 8th time in the clubs history, that season also brought the club its first trophy in Europe, the team won the UEFA Cup. This was Shankly’s greatest year, he had rebuilt the team again and the future looked very promising for a young and very talented Liverpool team. Then came the shock, after another successful season in 1973-74, with the club being runners up in the league and winning the FA Cup with the 3-0 demolition of Newcastle, Shankly announced after the game that he was to retire from football at the age of 60. After a glittering managerial career with 4 league titles, 2 FA Cups and a UEFA Cup to his name Shankly had a legendary status in the city. In the 753 games in charge of Liverpool he won 393 of them and only loosing 175 with a win ratio of 52.19%, that puts him in the same echelon as Sir Alex Ferguson and Bob Paisley.

After his shock resignation from the club, the Liverpool board were forced into making a decision who was going to take the reigns from the great man. Shankly himself had put forward the name of his assistant Bob Paisley as his successor, there are conflicting sources stating that Shankly wanted Jackie Charlton to replace him. The board took Shankly’s advice and decided to stick with the tried and tested with appointing Paisley that summer. Paisley would go on in his nine seasons as manager to be the most successful manager in English football at the time. Shankly had left Liverpool with the foundations to go on to become the greatest team in the world, which they duly did. He would go on to live in the city and watch the team until his death on the 29th of September 1981. The following game after his death the Kop carried a banner stating ‘SHANKLY LIVES FOREVER’. Also in his honour Liverpool erected a statue outside Anfield and named a walk way after the great man.

The Man:

Much can be said and has been said about Bill Shankly, he was an icon during his time at Liverpool not just because of his skills as a manager but as a person to. His philosophy about football was also based on his ideologies about life, from a poor working class background where a community would help one another when times were hard, he would instil that in his teams and the clubs fans. Shankly always had a great understanding with the supporters and would regularly spend days after training personally replying to every letter that was sent to him by fans, he would even have telephone conversations with fans about the previous game. There are many great stories about the man and his affiliation with the public, in April 1973 when Liverpool were showing the fans the Championship trophy they had won that season, when a fan threw a Liverpool scarf at Shankly during a lap of honour when a policeman picked it up and threw it to one side, Shankly pounced upon the scarf and reprimanded the officer saying ‘Don’t do that, This might be someone’s life’, this was all caught on television. Another time when Liverpool were in the 1976 UFEA Cup final in Brugge a fan came over to Shankly and said he didn’t have a ticket so Shankly went and bought him one.

There are endless tales about the man and this is tribute to the fact that he offered so much to the people. He said after his retirement ‘I was only in the game for the love of football - and I wanted to bring back happiness to the people of Liverpool’, He put himself under huge amounts of pressure and always felt like he let the fans down personally if the club had lost a game. The game of football to him was a way of offering hope and joy in a life that could be bleak and miserable from time to time. He had a certain demeanour that made him like a head teacher, which carried only respect from his players and got the best out of them because of this. He was renowned for his famous quotes, when asked about the other team on the other side of Stanley park Shankly said ‘There are only two teams in Liverpool; Liverpool and Liverpool Reserves’. Asked once about the offside law he said ‘If a player is not interfering with play or seeking to gain advantage , then he should be’. He was a very tough man and always expected the same from his players, once when Liverpool player Tommy Smith went to him to say that he was unable to play due to a knee injury Shankly responded ‘Take that poof bandage off, and what do you mean your knee, its Liverpool’s knee’.

He was awarded an OBE for his service to football in November 1974, this was recognition for his hard work and never say die attitude. He was also an inaugural inductee of the English Hall of Fame in 2002, in recognition on the English game as a manager. He lived, breathed and slept football, once asked about if he took his wife to watch a game as a wedding anniversary present he said ‘Of course I didn’t take my wife to see Rochdale as an anniversary present, it was her birthday. Would I have got married in the football season? Anyway it was Rochdale reserves’. The commitment and passion was always there and credit must be given to his family. He was charismatic, driven, passionate, methodical and wise in his own way, the man is gone but the legend will live on for a very long time.