Speaking of idiots, here is another of our ex-lfc Scouse fiends, bestowing footballing wisdom from high above:
[United’s] success domestically and in Europe has had nothing to do with Sir Alex adapting his tactics depending on the opposition. It has everything to do with the people he can bring in – with United it is seamless (italics added for emphasis).
Hansen is the latest in a long, long, ever so long line of British football watchers who watch football and see players. This is “The Cult of the Player”, the blinkered mentality that claims the way to win is to field the best eleven players. Hansen shares this limitation with the bulk of the English press, which explains the noise that emanates from the papers in the run-up to major international football tournaments.
I’m not sure whether football in the 70s was ever that simplistic, but it certainly wasn’t in the 50s and 60s, nor is it now in the 21st century. Formations, tactics, style, fitness, mentality: these (and much more) go into the making of a successful football club and team
Oh, and do you notice the subtext in Hansen’s commentary? Let’s unpick it and spell it out, clearly and forcefully; this is what Hansen wants to convey:
Football is about money. United’s success has all to do with the fact that they have more money than Liverpool. It’s all unfair. Whine, whine, whine, fucking whine, whine.
I’ve always wondered why ex-liverpool players tend to eschew work – in football management, for example – and instead end up getting hand-outs from the BBC and other media organisations. The list is long and disgraceful: Hansen, Lawrenson, Redknapp, McAllister, McMahon, Beglin, Robinson, Jason fucking MacAteer, Phil Thomson … vermin, one and all.
Maybe there is some truth to what Keane said on this.
I was asked by ITV to do the Celtic-United game but never again unless I fall on hard times. I think I’ve done it once for Sky but I’d rather go to the dentist.
Keane calls it the way he sees it. It’s a “profession” of last resort. Like prostitution.
This is Keane’s last word on the matter:
I wouldn’t listen to these people in the pub, and yet they’re on television constantly, ex-players, ex-referees getting interviewed giving out their opinions. I wouldn’t trust these people to walk my dog. I tell people any time they watch a game to switch the commentators off, don’t listen to experts, gather your own opinion
We get the media we deserve. The choice is your’s and mine.