Really enjoying
The Big Match Revisited. General feeling watching now is the high level of skill the players show playing on atrocious surfaces. Even when there's grass, which isn't often, the surface is rutted and cuts up badly. Saw a game played at Derby's old Baseball ground, which was described as the worst playing surface in British football by the commentator. He wasn't kidding!!
Honestly, it resembled a mud-covered ploughed field yet the players managed to produce an enjoyable game of quality with no diving or histrionics. Speaking of which, whilst I enjoy the skill and flair of foreign players, they introduced a culture of diving and cheating that ruins the game today as everyone adopted it rather than lose out to those who were always at it. Me? I've decided that I would rather ditch all foreign players and get back to the old standards. Not saying that British players are/were blameless in this regard but there was so much less of it in the past and the game was FAR more honest.
Certain things make me chuckle. Some grounds had the equivalent of concrete dog kennels as a dug-out and it's hilarious to see three people being squeezed into a space intended for two - the manager, the trainer and the one sub!! It really looks funny especially compared with today's plush affairs with padded seats and room for an army.
As for players, in retrospect I've amended my opinion about many. For instance, Terry Yorath, complete with blond moustache, was a hell of a player when he was at Spurs. A real leader his movement and passing was superb, his positioning invariably excellent and his tackling ferocious. I'd say a £30/40 million player in today's market. Then there was Welsh international Peter Nicholas at Palace
(then a top 6 team!) who was a non-stop, box-to-box midfielder, tackled anything and had a really wicked shot. Former Swan Ian Walsh was in the same team, managed by Terry Venables, and he was a mobile and useful #9 as we saw when he played for us.
Then there was Peter Shilton, who considering his massive reputation, could be quite dodgy at times and used to get a lot of stick from his own fans. A great shot stopper, I've noticed that he could be often quite flaky in the air and, thinking about it, his losing out to Maradonna in that infamous 'Hand of God' incident, wasn't that much of a surprise.
My final thought is that football was a better game in those days and this isn't a case of an oldie preaching about how things were so much better years ago. Apart from horrendous pitches, I far prefer the game as it was. It was more honest somehow with far fewer prima-donnas infesting its ranks. Games were closer affairs with more end to end stuff to thrill the spectator. Of course, the richer teams who could afford better quality players, usually came out on top but not in such a one-sided way that you see today. Most games were tight affairs and not the foregone conclusion that so many are today. I mean, what are the chances of Manchester United, Chelsea, Spurs and Manchester City being relegated today? Fcuk all is the answer to that!! Yet during the 70s/80s ALL of them were relegated at some point; and I believe Citeh even dropped to the third tier. Yup, it's yesteryear for me all day and every day.
