On the MNS Show last Monday Con Murphy puzzled on what I believe to be the most central theme pertinent to the world of professional football.
Con queried the importance and place of entertainment in the harsh climate that now prevails in the world’s favourite game and it was almost a defining moment in the history of the show.
And yet, I am afraid to say, it was an enquiry that was allowed to slip away into the cold night air, naked and undressed.
For too many people, professional football is merely about success.
In the cloudy minds of the many, success absolves one from culpability and accountability; it prohibits criticism and dilutes responsibility because few can confront a winning manager with words of complaint when the trophy is held aloft and the fans are celebrating raucously.
However to my mind, success in pro sport when it is not based on players extending their talents to their highest echelon is akin to the music that soothes the savage beast. The music masks the fear that resides within the monster. Once the music stops, the beast starts roaring again, only with more ferocity.
Success purely for the sake of success is the easy option. It is a type of cowardice where a manager and his players are very willing to operate from within a confined mentality that prefers caution to be the laboured vehicle to success rather than encouraging the genuine potential of each performer to blossom and surge majestically over the line.
It is a trade-off where weakness is disguised as strength; mutton dressed up as lamb and members of the media cover their backsides with perfunctory plaudits that only indemnify the charade.
It was Rene Descartes, that world-class French midfield mastermind of the 17th century, who played one of the greatest ever passes into the penalty area of world philosophy with his suggestion: ‘cogito, ergo sum’ – I think, therefore I am. This statement supported his theory that the mind and the brain are two independent entities and further separate from the body.
Such intrinsic independence is an integral aspect of who we are as individuals as well as a species and is a principle that I personally adhere to with serious conviction.
Consequently it has always amazed and disappointed me that we have created a society that is consistently willing to corral people into controlled environments and encourage them to be ovine in their modus operandi.
That professional football reflects the life around it is entwined in the lack of individuality found in the game today.
In its desire to make the world game the exact same the world over FIFA and UEFA have excessively banished the non-conformists.
Those who were in previous days romantically referred to as ‘characters’ no longer have a place in this modern game.
‘Common sense’ is now a phrase from the distant past of refereeing and the question is whether this globalisation gathers us up in a spirit of harmony and understanding or herds us together in confinement and conformity.
Here in Ireland we laud the achievements of people like Jack Charlton and Giovanni Trapattoni, great leaders and talented men, who, like so many in the modern game, re-route the minds of their players through their own thereby ensuring the product is predictable and consistent to their image and likeness.
In the rush for consistency, the scourge of modern life in many respects, independent minds and autonomous actions are not encouraged.
I was in Milan working on the Inter game with CSKA Moscow last week. It was a poor game between what are officially two of the best eight teams in Europe and it reflected perhaps the fact that the present Champions League campaign has been somewhat disappointing.
Apart from Barcelona, there is a distinct lack of imagination in the other teams still left in the competition.
I have a genuine fear that the competition is in danger of becoming stale and sterile and unless imaginations are enlivened the product will decrease in its attractiveness.
CSKA have much to learn at this level and their distinct lack of fortitude was exposed by the greater reliance and perseverance of what I still insist is a relatively predictable Inter team.
It may be a throwback to the bad old days of the Champions League when a team based on solid reliability and only a couple of excellent players are in with a serious chance of emerging as the best team on the continent.
Inter’s win at Stamford Bridge in the last round was to a great extent due to Chelsea’s inefficiency and naivety on the night.
CSKA, for example, played two defensive midfielders at the San Siro and until they lost the plot in the second half they had little trouble keeping Sneijder, Milito and the home crowd quiet.
Barcelona will be a different proposition and most neutrals would prefer the Spanish giants to emerge victorious. I would not be surprised if Lyon made it to the final in Madrid. French football is fast, exciting and very positive in its demeanour, which is in complete contrast to its Italian counterpart.
As the major competition in world club football, the Champions League should ideally demonstrate to the world around it that its talented performers are allowed, and encouraged, to display their individual artistry as the primary function of their collective responsibilities.
At any level of professional football, success alone cannot be the essential criterion that dictates what we want from the game of football no more than material possessions should be utilised to dictate our happiness in life.
The world needs independent thinkers now more than ever. It is ridiculous to ignore the innate nobility that exists in each one of us. It is demonstratively damaging and counterproductive at the very least to tone down the talents of an individual to ensure it complies with the lesser imagination of another.
In sport especially we should seeking to create fields of excellence rather than building platforms of mediocrity.
