Last weekend in lieux of the Premiership, I sat down to watch the 3rd round of the FA Cup. I must confess the FA Cup has not really been a part of consciousness for the last few years, due mainly to living abroad a lot over the past few years. To be honest i could not name you the last 5 FA Cup winners with any confidence. But nonetheless i was expecting to still see the FA Cup of my youth, where there was a genuine mystique and a humble class bout the trophy, the FA Challenge Cup, the only tournament in the world where part timers could play against the best teams in the country. Please dont get me wrong, this is not another one of those "things were better when i was a lad" type blogs, that just happens to be the way i see things with regards to the FA Cup, indeed i also think it was better before i was born too.
However what i saw both on the television coverage and with certain choices made by managers, made me begin to believe that the FA Cup, the most grand tradition in Engish sport, is dead. Firstly, when you get a side of the stature of Cardiff, who despite being top of the championship, are a small team outside of the Premiership, resting players you start to feel that nobody takes this competition seriously within the game, and while a cup run would be nice, but the league is the be all and end all. This is in stark contrast to the late 1980's and early 1990's when winning the FA Cup meant more than winning the league almost, and when the FA Cup final was the biggest game of the season, a tradition that has now become undermined by the fact clubs like Stoke and Norwich don't deem the trophy as worth their time and effort.
However in my opinion the worst thing about the whole weekend was the television coverage. I lost count of how many times this weekend i heard cliche after cliche trotted out about the "magic" of the cup and how many cepia montages were put together to show how this great institution continues to provide both entertainment and drama. This overegging of "giant killings" and famous moments as well as the endless endless commentary cliches and pleas for a new giant killing, to me deprived the cup and the round of both a dignity and humility which used to be synonomous with it. This sort of hyperbole I cannot stomach especially these days, I mean is it a shock to see Brighton beat Newcastles reserves at home????
However that is a mild annoyance in comparison to my biggest gripe with the whole weekend, sponsership. The whole weekend i felt like i was watching a giant advert. First of all there is no way that the FA Cup should be allowed to be called the FA Cup sponsered by Budweiser, ever ever ever ever. Then to be flashed both budweiser adverts and constant advert breaks at every available occasion was even worse, the BBC takes a lot of stick for its coverage, but one thing i love and will always love is that there are no adverts and there never will be and therefore it treated the tournament with the dignity it deserved. My wrath was also further stirred up whilst watching the Mnsfield v Liverpool game when a giant FA Cup mascot appeared on the screen, "thats quite good", I said, before the commentator revealed the mascots name was Buddy. Hmmm, "Buddy", why Buddy? oh yes, Buddy as in Budweiser, of course *barfs*. I consider acts such as this tantamount to prostitution of the cup and thats fine, if we want to go that way we can, but ITV and ESPN cannot then also play up the virtues of the grand old tournament where the humble part timers can play internationals on a dignified and level playing field at the same time, that reeks of hypocracy.
If the odlady is dead then who killed her? There are a myriad of culprits i believe, comercial tv, Manchester United going to play int he world club championship in 1999 but i think the inconvienient truth is, the Premier League killed her. The astronomical amouts of both money and prestiege you get in the premier league now means obviously that teams would rather finish 17th in the £40 million per seasn league than win the FA Cup, in short the Premier League has become the bee all and end all. It is not just the money earnt from the Premiership which has hurt but it is also the saturation of the sports channels with football, whereas pre 1992 there were very few games on tv except for the FA Cup now there are games on near enough every day, meaning 3rd round weekend is just another weekend now rather than being special.
In my opinion the ways to save the grand old tradition of British sport are no easy to come across but hre are some ways i think would help. First of all you have to make the tournament worth something, but i will need some help here. If Uefa goes ahead with its plan to join the Europa league and the Champions league then we can make winning the FA Cup more desirable to a lot of teams, as the FA can award a Champions league place to the winner, now im not talking an early stage place, im talking about a place in with the Champions league teams later in the tournament and 4th place in the Premiership would still be in the tournament, but they would have to qualify with the Europa teams for the final stages.
The next step for me would be to restore the dignity of the trophy. Make the games free to air so that the BBC can rightfully cover them and also get rid of the advertising, i mean the advertising of the trophy itself. In the day and age where the Premiership is the most watched league in the world and is wortth over a billion pounds per season surely it can afford to subsidise the FA Cup so that it doesnt have to prostitute itself to Budwieser and Aoen? However i fear that these mesaures will not be bought in because in truth, the Premiership is worth so much money now that the powers that be no longer care about the FA Cup, or the tradition, the old lady is dead, and with her, so are a lot of memories.
Wednesday, 9 January 2013
Tuesday, 21 February 2012
McCarthyism
McCarthyism
To understand properly the job Mick McCarthy did at Wolves you have to understand the team, club and town that he took over. The days of Glenn Hoddle were the most depressing I have ever witnessed in my life, the problem under Hoddle wasn’t even that we were a bad team (we were a comfortable mid table side with little chance of being relegated), the problem was more that we were irrelevant. We became a last stop off for players who still wanted to earn one last pay cheque such as Darren Anderton, and as a result we had to sit through meaningless games with Hoddle trying to impart his “champagne football” onto players who clearly weren’t good enough. I vividly remember being one of the 21,000 unfortunate souls who saw us play Crewe at home in 2006, a team who had already by this stage let in 72 goals in 32 games and we barely made a chance in a drab 1-1 draw, the highlights of which were Frankowski (he was such a waste of money I’m not even looking up how to spell his name) missing a tap in from about half a yard, and Carl Cort doing a step over on the wing which to me resembled a giraffe trying to hurdle a hedge. This was the last game i went to that season, Hoddle had done the impossible he had made me apathetic (although maybe i should thank Hoddle for providing less distractions while i studied for my a-levels??).
Not only did Hoddle ensure apathy descended over Molineux, he then also decided to leave us a month before the season leaving us only 9 fit first team players and less than £1 millions to spend on new players. By this stage I cared again, but I also feared the worst, honestly I could see no way in which we wouldn’t be relegated to league one and in the process become a premiership footnote for the foreseeable future.
That is the side that Mick McCarthy bravely took over, a side made up of experienced cast offs and youth team players in a league where some teams could boast an 11 made up of 7 or more internationals. It would be interesting to now speak to those booing and shouting abuse at McCarthy himself after Sunday’s defeat and seeing how many of them remember the likes of Kevin O’Conner, Mark Little, Darren Potter, Craig Davis, Jemal Johnson and Lewis Gobern, the types of talent that McCarthy started out with.
However despite the fear and apprehension around the club pre season 2006/07 blossomed easily into my favourite ever season. McCarthy instilled his own gritty work ethic into the players and they responded by giving every drop of energy that they had that season. The atmosphere around the club was also the best I have ever seen it, the fans never once got on the player’s backs when they made mistakes because they were OUR team again not mercenaries, we bought into them, they bought into us (even the experienced heads such as Gary Breen and Jackie Mcnamara) and we all bought into McCarthy.
My favourite game that season was on March 31st at Molineux. Sitting in the south bank I watched us take on fellow playoff contenders Southampton. This may have been the most incredible match I had ever seen for two reasons, firstly, despite losing 6-0 we could have easily drawn or won that match. Te second reason that the game was incredible was that despite being 6-0 down at home it was like a party with Mexican waves and chants of “Super, Super Mick” reverberating around the ground at a deafening volume, and at full time the team were cheered off the pitch, it is something i am sure i will never see again.
Another game that season that stuck out for me was a pretty standard 2-0 defeat away to Hull, after which McCarthy uttered the words “That’s the last time you’ll see one of my teams out battled” and to my recollection he was right, we have lost games, made mistakes and been outclassed but I can’t think of a game I have waled away from and thought “They worked harder than us today”.
That season ended in playoff heartbreak again but it really didn’t matter to me, I was proud of my team and proud of my town again.
Obviously the season we wont he championship was a magical one (no pun intended for Merlin there) and despite the euphoria after Derby away, QPR at home and Barnsley away but my favourite game of that season was way back at the start of the season during the middle of a seven game winning streak at home against Nottingham Forrest. Firstly it was the best football I think I had ever seen Wolves play and Chris Iwelumo’s goal just before half time may be my favourite Wolves goal ever just for the fact it was a beautiful and pacy move which left the Forrest defenders shell shocked. But this wasn’t why this was my favourite game, it was my favourite game because afterwards it was apparent that everyone in attendance that day thought “We can do this”. To see the significance of this you have to understand that growing up a Wolves fan in the 1990’s and 2000’2 was one crushing disappointment after another and after a while you became pessimistic beyond compare so to believe again was something special.
That was indeed a special season and to be crowned champions was in reality an amazing achievement and a marker of how far Mick had bought us. Obivously since then we have dwelled in the Premier League which realy is the league to be in and sometimes i find myself pinching myself that we are there. However I still maintain that survival and even getting us to the premier league was not Mick’s biggest achievement, his biggest accomplishment was putting pride back into our team and our town and simply making us relevant again.
McCarthyism
To understand properly the job Mick McCarthy did at Wolves you have to understand the team, club and town that he took over. The days of Glenn Hoddle were the most depressing I have ever witnessed in my life, the problem under Hoddle wasn’t even that we were a bad team (we were a comfortable mid table side with little chance of being relegated), the problem was more that we were irrelevant. We became a last stop off for players who still wanted to earn one last pay cheque such as Darren Anderton, and as a result we had to sit through meaningless games with Hoddle trying to impart his “champagne football” onto players who clearly weren’t good enough. I vividly remember being one of the 21,000 unfortunate souls who saw us play Crewe at home in 2006, a team who had already by this stage let in 72 goals in 32 games and we barely made a chance in a drab 1-1 draw, the highlights of which were Frankowski (he was such a waste of money I’m not even looking up how to spell his name) missing a tap in from about half a yard, and Carl Cort doing a step over on the wing which to me resembled a giraffe trying to hurdle a hedge. This was the last game i went to that season, Hoddle had done the impossible he had made me apathetic (although maybe i should thank Hoddle for providing less distractions while i studied for my a-levels??).
Not only did Hoddle ensure apathy descended over Molineux, he then also decided to leave us a month before the season leaving us only 9 fit first team players and less than £1 millions to spend on new players. By this stage I cared again, but I also feared the worst, honestly I could see no way in which we wouldn’t be relegated to league one and in the process become a premiership footnote for the foreseeable future.
That is the side that Mick McCarthy bravely took over, a side made up of experienced cast offs and youth team players in a league where some teams could boast an 11 made up of 7 or more internationals. It would be interesting to now speak to those booing and shouting abuse at McCarthy himself after Sunday’s defeat and seeing how many of them remember the likes of Kevin O’Conner, Mark Little, Darren Potter, Craig Davis, Jemal Johnson and Lewis Gobern, the types of talent that McCarthy started out with.
However despite the fear and apprehension around the club pre season 2006/07 blossomed easily into my favourite ever season. McCarthy instilled his own gritty work ethic into the players and they responded by giving every drop of energy that they had that season. The atmosphere around the club was also the best I have ever seen it, the fans never once got on the player’s backs when they made mistakes because they were OUR team again not mercenaries, we bought into them, they bought into us (even the experienced heads such as Gary Breen and Jackie Mcnamara) and we all bought into McCarthy.
My favourite game that season was on March 31st at Molineux. Sitting in the south bank I watched us take on fellow playoff contenders Southampton. This may have been the most incredible match I had ever seen for two reasons, firstly, despite losing 6-0 we could have easily drawn or won that match. Te second reason that the game was incredible was that despite being 6-0 down at home it was like a party with Mexican waves and chants of “Super, Super Mick” reverberating around the ground at a deafening volume, and at full time the team were cheered off the pitch, it is something i am sure i will never see again.
Another game that season that stuck out for me was a pretty standard 2-0 defeat away to Hull, after which McCarthy uttered the words “That’s the last time you’ll see one of my teams out battled” and to my recollection he was right, we have lost games, made mistakes and been outclassed but I can’t think of a game I have waled away from and thought “They worked harder than us today”.
That season ended in playoff heartbreak again but it really didn’t matter to me, I was proud of my team and proud of my town again.
Obviously the season we wont he championship was a magical one (no pun intended for Merlin there) and despite the euphoria after Derby away, QPR at home and Barnsley away but my favourite game of that season was way back at the start of the season during the middle of a seven game winning streak at home against Nottingham Forrest. Firstly it was the best football I think I had ever seen Wolves play and Chris Iwelumo’s goal just before half time may be my favourite Wolves goal ever just for the fact it was a beautiful and pacy move which left the Forrest defenders shell shocked. But this wasn’t why this was my favourite game, it was my favourite game because afterwards it was apparent that everyone in attendance that day thought “We can do this”. To see the significance of this you have to understand that growing up a Wolves fan in the 1990’s and 2000’2 was one crushing disappointment after another and after a while you became pessimistic beyond compare so to believe again was something special.
That was indeed a special season and to be crowned champions was in reality an amazing achievement and a marker of how far Mick had bought us. Obivously since then we have dwelled in the Premier League which realy is the league to be in and sometimes i find myself pinching myself that we are there. However I still maintain that survival and even getting us to the premier league was not Mick’s biggest achievement, his biggest accomplishment was putting pride back into our team and our town and simply making us relevant again.
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Playing For Your Soul
Today i read an intresting article on the notion of playing for your soul, which has raised a number of interesting thoughts within my mind. Here's the game, you're trapped listening to some girl talking about her cat's personality for hours, when the devil pops up and tells you he can get you out of this nightmare and take you to whereever you want to be, all you have to do is pick one sportsman, from any era to play for your soul and free you from the crazy cat lady. There are some rules however, all you are allowed to do is pick the sportsman in their prime and the sport. The devil then gets one pick of athlete to go against yours and he gets to pick the venue and set up to try and stop your sportsman winning.
So for example, one popular choice would be to pick Roger Federer in his prime at Tennis, however the devil could counteract this by making him play Nadal in his prime at Roland Garos on clay, and could anyone say for definate that Federer would win this match? Personally i would rate his chances as low as 20% in this situation.
Another popular pick would be someone like Muhamed Ali and boxing, undoubtably the greatest heavyweight boxer ever, however how would he fair in a 45 round fight, outdoors in Reno, Nevada against Jack Johnson???
From these two examples you can see how hard it actually is to pick sportsmen to play for your soul in this situation. So here is my crude list of near misses and my top 5 i would want to play for my soul, (due to the examples above i have decided to exclude boxers, golfers and tennis players from my list).
Near Misses (in no particular order)
1) Secratariat. Possibly the greatest horse ever, winner of the U.S. Triple Crown in 1973, setting records in the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes which still stand today. However, he would be an unviable choice as the devil could simply pit him against Red Rum circa 1974 over the gruelling Grand National course at Aintree and Secratariat would easily be beaten.
2) Michael Jordan. Jordan was a great great great basketballer as we all know. He was a 6 time NBA champion, a 5 tim MVP, a 14 time All Star, a 6 time NBA Finals MVP, the list goes on forever. He finds himself on this list though because i believe he would not be an absolute certainty to win the game for you soul despite possibly being the greatest player of all time. For instance, imagining the other 4 players on each team we of equal ability, could you really say for sure that Jordan would beat a team lead by Larry Bird in the old Boston Gardens with its lack of airconditioning? Sure Jordan may beat Bird, but i couldn't be sure he would, and when you're playing for my soul, I have to be sure.
3) Pele/ Maradonna. Two of the gretest players ever, both of whom won pretty much everything there was to win. I would not choose either of them though to play for my soul, much for the same reason i would not choose Jordan. The Devil could put them on an absolute 70's mudbath of a pitch in England, in an era where there were virtually no fouls and where the weather was cold, against a particularily dirty Leeds United side and in that situation i dont think either of them would be the same player meaning they would be far from guarenteed to win for you.
4) Any Baseball pitcher or hitter- This near miss is really a question of eras. If you were to take a player from any era there would always be an era and a team the devil could counteract you with. So if you took Babe Ruth and baseball he could take Barry Bonds during the steriod era, if you took Sandy Koufax he could make him pitch in the steroid era off a lower mound against hitters with much greater power, you simply cant win with a baseball player.
5) Ed Moses. Moses was a fantastic 400 metre hurdler, a double Olympic gold medalist (he would have almost certainly been a triple olympic gold medalist were it not for the American boycott of the 1980 Olympics), and a man who went 122 consecutive races unbeaten. All of this makes Moses look an absolute shoe in as a pick to compete for me, but for one thing, the fact he only holds the second fastest time in history. That of course means that the devil could pick his opponent to be Kevin Young in Barcelona on the 6th of August 1993, the day he ran a 46.78 400 metre hurdles, a time Moses in his prime never ran, meaning he would be unlikely to win this race for me.
As you can see the majority of the near misses suffer from the fact that they played team sports, and there are just too many variables as there have been so many great teams and differing conditions it is impossible to have full faith that they will win for you. Here now are my top 5 who i would pick to play for my soul and to help me escape the story of Mr Snuggles the cat's personality.
1) Donald Bradman (Cricket). Bradman is without doubt the greatest batsman who has ever lived. His average of 99.94 will remain forever as one of sports truely unattainable records which will never be caught. Bradman is so dominant that the nearest person to his test average is Graeme Pollock with an average of 60.97, nearly a full 40 runs below Bradmans average.
Despite Bradmans obvious greatness i realise that this may still be somewhat of a contencious choice. Many will point to the bodyline series of 1932-33, to show that Bradman could not handle short pitched bowling very well, and thus say the devil could choose to have Bradman play against the West Indies side of the mid 1980s on a bouncy track at Sabina Park. I would counter this assertion though by mentioning that in the bodyline series Bradman still averged 56.57 which expanded over a whole career would still be good enough for the 11th best test average ever. Also against the West Indies team of the mid 1980's Bradman would be playing with a better bat, better protection and early helmets as well as playing on a covered pitch with a much much smaller outfield and perhaps most importantly under different rules, so the West Indies couldn't have 5 fielders behind square on the leg side as England did in 1932-33. All of this to me indicates the greatest batsman ever would still have a very rel chance of winning for me.
2)Jahangir Khan (Squash). I was not too familiar with Khan until i began to write this entry, so i looked him up and was simply amazed. Khan was a 6 time World Open champion and a 10 time British Open winner. He also holds couple of simply mindblowing records, the first of which is tht he went 555 games unbeaten between 1981 and 1986, remember this record isnt against anyone, this is against the worlds best players!! The second mindblowing record Khan holds is that he won the International Squash Players Association Championship in 1982 without losing a single point!!!! I don't know about you, but a man who wins 555 consecutive matches, is defininatly someone i want playing in a must win scenario.
3) Phil "The Power" Taylor (Darts). Taylor is a 15 time world champion and winner of 150 proffessional tournaments. The man is simply the best there will ever be. Not only is Taylor clearly the best player ever by miles, he has played in venues from the Dog and Duck pub to the O2 Arena, giving that deadly combination that there isn't anyone, in any venue that could in all likelihood beat him, except himself.
4) Shaun White (Freestyle Snowboarding) White has been absolutely unstoppable as a snowoarder. He is only 25 yet he already has 2 Winter Olympic gold medals and 12 Winter X Games gold medals and he is constantly taking the sport to new places and to new levels as shown by his unveiling of "the Tomahawk" at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010 and his perfect 100 score in his victory lap in the 2012 Winter X games, unless this guy falls over a lot, hes pretty much unbeatable.
5) Jonathon Edwards (Triple Jump) There were a number of similar candidtes for this last spot, most notable Mike Powell and Bob Beaman, but in the end i went with Edwars because of his amazing consistancy. For instance when he broke the triple jump world record in Gothenburg in 1995 he jumped a distance of 18.29 metres. To put that jump into context no one before had ever jumped over 17.97 metres and since only Kenny Harrison has jumped anywhere close to Edwards with a jump of 18.09 metres at the 1996 Olympics. During this time Edwards has managed to clear 18 metres FIVE times and he has also a wind assisted jump of 18.43 metres to his name. The fact he seemed to be so far ahead of anyone ever, means he would clearly have suceeded in any era and any conditions making him my final choice.
Although this started out as a game there is quite a serious point behind it, namely that it is harder to quantify unbeatable greatness with regards to team sports and also it begs the question are some unquestionable greats such as Federer and Woods just great because of their era? As it happens i think the answer to this question is no, but if this is the case, why dont i trust them enough to gamble my soul on it?
So for example, one popular choice would be to pick Roger Federer in his prime at Tennis, however the devil could counteract this by making him play Nadal in his prime at Roland Garos on clay, and could anyone say for definate that Federer would win this match? Personally i would rate his chances as low as 20% in this situation.
Another popular pick would be someone like Muhamed Ali and boxing, undoubtably the greatest heavyweight boxer ever, however how would he fair in a 45 round fight, outdoors in Reno, Nevada against Jack Johnson???
From these two examples you can see how hard it actually is to pick sportsmen to play for your soul in this situation. So here is my crude list of near misses and my top 5 i would want to play for my soul, (due to the examples above i have decided to exclude boxers, golfers and tennis players from my list).
Near Misses (in no particular order)
1) Secratariat. Possibly the greatest horse ever, winner of the U.S. Triple Crown in 1973, setting records in the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes which still stand today. However, he would be an unviable choice as the devil could simply pit him against Red Rum circa 1974 over the gruelling Grand National course at Aintree and Secratariat would easily be beaten.
2) Michael Jordan. Jordan was a great great great basketballer as we all know. He was a 6 time NBA champion, a 5 tim MVP, a 14 time All Star, a 6 time NBA Finals MVP, the list goes on forever. He finds himself on this list though because i believe he would not be an absolute certainty to win the game for you soul despite possibly being the greatest player of all time. For instance, imagining the other 4 players on each team we of equal ability, could you really say for sure that Jordan would beat a team lead by Larry Bird in the old Boston Gardens with its lack of airconditioning? Sure Jordan may beat Bird, but i couldn't be sure he would, and when you're playing for my soul, I have to be sure.
3) Pele/ Maradonna. Two of the gretest players ever, both of whom won pretty much everything there was to win. I would not choose either of them though to play for my soul, much for the same reason i would not choose Jordan. The Devil could put them on an absolute 70's mudbath of a pitch in England, in an era where there were virtually no fouls and where the weather was cold, against a particularily dirty Leeds United side and in that situation i dont think either of them would be the same player meaning they would be far from guarenteed to win for you.
4) Any Baseball pitcher or hitter- This near miss is really a question of eras. If you were to take a player from any era there would always be an era and a team the devil could counteract you with. So if you took Babe Ruth and baseball he could take Barry Bonds during the steriod era, if you took Sandy Koufax he could make him pitch in the steroid era off a lower mound against hitters with much greater power, you simply cant win with a baseball player.
5) Ed Moses. Moses was a fantastic 400 metre hurdler, a double Olympic gold medalist (he would have almost certainly been a triple olympic gold medalist were it not for the American boycott of the 1980 Olympics), and a man who went 122 consecutive races unbeaten. All of this makes Moses look an absolute shoe in as a pick to compete for me, but for one thing, the fact he only holds the second fastest time in history. That of course means that the devil could pick his opponent to be Kevin Young in Barcelona on the 6th of August 1993, the day he ran a 46.78 400 metre hurdles, a time Moses in his prime never ran, meaning he would be unlikely to win this race for me.
As you can see the majority of the near misses suffer from the fact that they played team sports, and there are just too many variables as there have been so many great teams and differing conditions it is impossible to have full faith that they will win for you. Here now are my top 5 who i would pick to play for my soul and to help me escape the story of Mr Snuggles the cat's personality.
1) Donald Bradman (Cricket). Bradman is without doubt the greatest batsman who has ever lived. His average of 99.94 will remain forever as one of sports truely unattainable records which will never be caught. Bradman is so dominant that the nearest person to his test average is Graeme Pollock with an average of 60.97, nearly a full 40 runs below Bradmans average.
Despite Bradmans obvious greatness i realise that this may still be somewhat of a contencious choice. Many will point to the bodyline series of 1932-33, to show that Bradman could not handle short pitched bowling very well, and thus say the devil could choose to have Bradman play against the West Indies side of the mid 1980s on a bouncy track at Sabina Park. I would counter this assertion though by mentioning that in the bodyline series Bradman still averged 56.57 which expanded over a whole career would still be good enough for the 11th best test average ever. Also against the West Indies team of the mid 1980's Bradman would be playing with a better bat, better protection and early helmets as well as playing on a covered pitch with a much much smaller outfield and perhaps most importantly under different rules, so the West Indies couldn't have 5 fielders behind square on the leg side as England did in 1932-33. All of this to me indicates the greatest batsman ever would still have a very rel chance of winning for me.
2)Jahangir Khan (Squash). I was not too familiar with Khan until i began to write this entry, so i looked him up and was simply amazed. Khan was a 6 time World Open champion and a 10 time British Open winner. He also holds couple of simply mindblowing records, the first of which is tht he went 555 games unbeaten between 1981 and 1986, remember this record isnt against anyone, this is against the worlds best players!! The second mindblowing record Khan holds is that he won the International Squash Players Association Championship in 1982 without losing a single point!!!! I don't know about you, but a man who wins 555 consecutive matches, is defininatly someone i want playing in a must win scenario.
3) Phil "The Power" Taylor (Darts). Taylor is a 15 time world champion and winner of 150 proffessional tournaments. The man is simply the best there will ever be. Not only is Taylor clearly the best player ever by miles, he has played in venues from the Dog and Duck pub to the O2 Arena, giving that deadly combination that there isn't anyone, in any venue that could in all likelihood beat him, except himself.
4) Shaun White (Freestyle Snowboarding) White has been absolutely unstoppable as a snowoarder. He is only 25 yet he already has 2 Winter Olympic gold medals and 12 Winter X Games gold medals and he is constantly taking the sport to new places and to new levels as shown by his unveiling of "the Tomahawk" at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010 and his perfect 100 score in his victory lap in the 2012 Winter X games, unless this guy falls over a lot, hes pretty much unbeatable.
5) Jonathon Edwards (Triple Jump) There were a number of similar candidtes for this last spot, most notable Mike Powell and Bob Beaman, but in the end i went with Edwars because of his amazing consistancy. For instance when he broke the triple jump world record in Gothenburg in 1995 he jumped a distance of 18.29 metres. To put that jump into context no one before had ever jumped over 17.97 metres and since only Kenny Harrison has jumped anywhere close to Edwards with a jump of 18.09 metres at the 1996 Olympics. During this time Edwards has managed to clear 18 metres FIVE times and he has also a wind assisted jump of 18.43 metres to his name. The fact he seemed to be so far ahead of anyone ever, means he would clearly have suceeded in any era and any conditions making him my final choice.
Although this started out as a game there is quite a serious point behind it, namely that it is harder to quantify unbeatable greatness with regards to team sports and also it begs the question are some unquestionable greats such as Federer and Woods just great because of their era? As it happens i think the answer to this question is no, but if this is the case, why dont i trust them enough to gamble my soul on it?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)