Please be open-minded. (it is partly by being open to other ideas that will become stronger)
It's important. If you want to improve at something (and we are ultimately discussing the improvement of english association football) you have to be open to new ideas or new ways of doing the things you do. New thoughts and innovative ideas is what pushes us forward!
In the course of the last eight to ten years I have listened prolifically to footballing radio and podcasts. And being a football fan I have also watched a great deal of the Premier League, as well as other national leagues. I have listened to pundits and football managers, to officials from the english FA and to players themselves. From some of these observations I have come to the conclusion that we are doing the same things, saying the same things and repeating the same mistakes. When I say this I mean throughout the whole branch, all the stakeholder mentioned above and the media too. I can not think of anything which has fundamentally changed over this period.
My mate Einstein defined insanity (though I reckon that political correctness prevented him from saying what he really meant - ie stupidity) as...
This is where english football finds itself at present - in an ever regressing cycle:
1. World Cup coming (all are excited - new hope?)
2. England qualify easily though not spectacularly.
3. The media get carried away - "England - World Champions?"
4. England qualify through group stages, but are otherwise uninspiring.
5. England are knocked out (on penalties), but never impressed during normal play anyway
6. The Media are in outcry and demand a "root and branch" investigation
7. Nothing happens, people forget..
8. Return to 1.
(am now editing after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil - the above cycle has been repeated AGAIN, with the exception of step 4 - we did not qualify past the group stage)
I cannot bare a repeat of this frustrating cycle (Ha! Ha!). It's time to change. Time to think differently - EVERYONE. that is, who loves english football.
So, a little test. So little in fact that it may seem irrelevant. It's the principle here though that matters. A test to assess your potential for open-mindedness, if you like. If, the following declaration leaves you feeling uncomfortable, or perhaps it is something you could never even consider considering, you way wish to discontinue reading - thank you for your patience in reaching this far, and good luck to you with the rest of your life. If not however, if the following statement, does not offend you. If it makes you think "why not" or "so what" or even "what does it matter" then you, my dear reader are wonderful and I love you! Here it is then:
Throughout the whole of the rest of this blog I will be referring to Association Football, as SOCCER.
Can you live with this? It was Danny Baker on his 5-live show on Saturday mornings who first pointed out to me that SOCCER was actually the correct name for the sport we love so much, stemming from AsSOCiation Football. As a traditionalist and devout anti-americanist (soccer I thought was an american term - I am less prejudiced now, lots of friends from the US, you see) I was appalled. But after a little further rumination I thought 'why not, 'give it a chance', why not? How important is it really anyway?
The answer to this is that it's not important, not important at all. It's just a word. In fact it is a unique word, a word that makes the game standout, a word that trips off the tongue, more smoothly than football, and more swooshingly than a Brazilian wonder goal crisply striking the back of a taught goal net.
If you, dear reader can live with this one small thing, which I truly believe is more unpalatable than many of the radical ideas I am proposing later on, then maybe you can be welcoming of new ways to play football and maybe even spread the word and begin to discuss with friends, family and colleagues. If we leave the english FA and football leaders at the Premier League to continue as they are, if we do not express our dissatisfaction in constructive and imaginative ways then we are destined for more disappointments and greater ones too, as english football slips down the world rankings to, at best the levels of mediocrity, or worse the depths of wearying obscurity!!
Thank you for reaching this far. Please sit, relax and keep thinking..........
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