Arthur Scrimshaw
New member
As the ideal of Classic midfield play comes to be realised only by the transformation of preceding elements, the first point to develop consists in making manifest that it is truly sprung from the creative activity of the player and not coached out of him by the Joe Kinnear's of this world; that it has found its origin in the inmost and most personal thought of the player and of the artist.
This seems contradicted by the fact that English football management rests upon ancient traditions, and is related to the coaching doctrines of the men of football clubs. If we admit all these foreign elements — Helmut Scheon, Vittorio Pozzo, Franz Beckenbaur, Mario Zagalo, Ferenc Puskas, Alan Pardew — how can we say that Venables and McLaren gave to the English players their names and their form? But these two things — tradition and midfield invention — may be very easily be reconciled. (Tradition furnishes the ball as maestro, but it does not bring with it the precise passing idea and the form which each defence splitting pass is to represent. This idea these great players drew from their genius, and they also discovered the actual tactical forms appropriate to it. Thus were they the creators of the supporter's mythology which we admire in English football. The English managers are for this reason neither poetic invention nor an artificial creation. They have their root in the spirit and the beliefs of the English supporter — in the very foundation of the national midfield player; these are the absolute forces and powers in hoofing the ball forward, whatever is most elevated in the English imagination, inspired in the player by the muse (coach) himself.
With this faculty of free creation, the player, we have already seen, takes a position altogether different from that which he had in an ordinary midfield four. His spirit loses itself in wishing to represent ideas so foreign to the English inner nature, while the imagination, in the absence of rule and of measure, incapable of directing itself, allows itself to wander in the midst of a midfield battle where the tackles go in hard which have neither the character of freedom nor that of beauty. It is like a goalkeeper obliged to accommodate himself to an unequal soil, upon which rise old divots, defensive walls half destroyed, misplaced crosses and back passes; forced, besides to subordinate his plans to the team's particular ends. He can erect only irregular structures whilst making sure he keeps a man on the post, which must be wholly irrational and fantastic to the offside trap. Such is not the work of a free imagination but something coached into one at youth team level, creating according to its own inspirations.
In classic midfield play the artists and poets are also prophets (Atkinson) and teachers (Venables) ; but their inspiration is personal.
At first that which constitutes the essence of their gods (managers and national team coaches) is neither a nature foreign to spirit, nor the conception of a single coach who admits of no sensuous representation and remains shouting instructions from the sidelines. They borrow their ideas from the human heart, from human life and Charles Taylor's coaching manual. Thus man recognises himself in these creations, for what he produces outwardly is the most beautiful manifestation of himself. Particularly if it beats a well drilled offside trap.
They fashion at their will the creative passes and the idea so as to draw from them opposition figures out of position. All these heterogeneous or foreign elements they cast into the crucible of their imagination and a lovely left foot; but they do not form therein a bizarre mixture which suggests the cauldron of the midfield magician. Everything that is confused, material, impure, gross, disordered, (tackling or defensive duties) is consumed in the flame of their genius. Whence springs a pure and beautiful creation as the ball is flighted perfectly onto the head of the big fella up front, wherein the materials of which it has been formed are scarcely perceptible. In this respect their task consists in despoiling tradition of everything gross, symbolic, ugly, and deformed (Iain Dowie), and afterward bringing to light the precise idea which they wish to individualise and to represent under an appropriate form. This form is the scoring of a goal, and it is not employed here as a simple personification of the acts and accidents of life; it appears as the sole reality which corresponds to the idea. Such is the free, though not arbitrary, manner in which the midfielder proceeds to push forward and produce the goal of the season.
Thus, Homer often expressed them in his fine wing play, and places his crosses only in the six yard box in the goalmouth of his opponents, whether on the heads of forwards or heroes. Thus it is at the beginning of the Iliad Cup Quarter-Final against the Trojans, he has explained the offside trap by the wrath of Apollo; further on he will cause it to be predicted when Calchas fails to step up with his central defenders. “The Greeks had fought all day; when Jupiter had separated the defence with a fine reverse pass, they bore the noble ball upon the goal, shedding tears of joy when hitting the back of the net. Then they heard coming from above a divine roar from the away supporters, and the Achaians, alarmed, would have lost their shape had not an old man, in whom years had ripened experience, arrested them.” He explained to them the phenomenon, by saying: “It is the mother of all forward players, with the immortal gods of the wings coached by the divine Atkinson, sending over a wicked byline cross.” At these words fear abandoned the defensive four of the Achaians. From that moment, indeed there was no longer anything in it strange to them, the Trojans were just hoofing the ball forward. Afterward Ron Atkinson, turning to Achilles, continues to describe the general defensive mix up: “About thee gathered the defenders of old the ocean, uttering cries of grief. They spread over thee vestments, perfumed with ambrosia and Deep Heat. The supporters also, caused to be heard get that bloody ball away early doors, each in turn, a beautiful’ song asking if thy wife takes it up the wrong 'un; and there was not then an Argive there who could restrain his tears, and pushed forward to get the goal that gave victory and automatic promotion to the Championship.”
This seems contradicted by the fact that English football management rests upon ancient traditions, and is related to the coaching doctrines of the men of football clubs. If we admit all these foreign elements — Helmut Scheon, Vittorio Pozzo, Franz Beckenbaur, Mario Zagalo, Ferenc Puskas, Alan Pardew — how can we say that Venables and McLaren gave to the English players their names and their form? But these two things — tradition and midfield invention — may be very easily be reconciled. (Tradition furnishes the ball as maestro, but it does not bring with it the precise passing idea and the form which each defence splitting pass is to represent. This idea these great players drew from their genius, and they also discovered the actual tactical forms appropriate to it. Thus were they the creators of the supporter's mythology which we admire in English football. The English managers are for this reason neither poetic invention nor an artificial creation. They have their root in the spirit and the beliefs of the English supporter — in the very foundation of the national midfield player; these are the absolute forces and powers in hoofing the ball forward, whatever is most elevated in the English imagination, inspired in the player by the muse (coach) himself.
With this faculty of free creation, the player, we have already seen, takes a position altogether different from that which he had in an ordinary midfield four. His spirit loses itself in wishing to represent ideas so foreign to the English inner nature, while the imagination, in the absence of rule and of measure, incapable of directing itself, allows itself to wander in the midst of a midfield battle where the tackles go in hard which have neither the character of freedom nor that of beauty. It is like a goalkeeper obliged to accommodate himself to an unequal soil, upon which rise old divots, defensive walls half destroyed, misplaced crosses and back passes; forced, besides to subordinate his plans to the team's particular ends. He can erect only irregular structures whilst making sure he keeps a man on the post, which must be wholly irrational and fantastic to the offside trap. Such is not the work of a free imagination but something coached into one at youth team level, creating according to its own inspirations.
In classic midfield play the artists and poets are also prophets (Atkinson) and teachers (Venables) ; but their inspiration is personal.
At first that which constitutes the essence of their gods (managers and national team coaches) is neither a nature foreign to spirit, nor the conception of a single coach who admits of no sensuous representation and remains shouting instructions from the sidelines. They borrow their ideas from the human heart, from human life and Charles Taylor's coaching manual. Thus man recognises himself in these creations, for what he produces outwardly is the most beautiful manifestation of himself. Particularly if it beats a well drilled offside trap.
They fashion at their will the creative passes and the idea so as to draw from them opposition figures out of position. All these heterogeneous or foreign elements they cast into the crucible of their imagination and a lovely left foot; but they do not form therein a bizarre mixture which suggests the cauldron of the midfield magician. Everything that is confused, material, impure, gross, disordered, (tackling or defensive duties) is consumed in the flame of their genius. Whence springs a pure and beautiful creation as the ball is flighted perfectly onto the head of the big fella up front, wherein the materials of which it has been formed are scarcely perceptible. In this respect their task consists in despoiling tradition of everything gross, symbolic, ugly, and deformed (Iain Dowie), and afterward bringing to light the precise idea which they wish to individualise and to represent under an appropriate form. This form is the scoring of a goal, and it is not employed here as a simple personification of the acts and accidents of life; it appears as the sole reality which corresponds to the idea. Such is the free, though not arbitrary, manner in which the midfielder proceeds to push forward and produce the goal of the season.
Thus, Homer often expressed them in his fine wing play, and places his crosses only in the six yard box in the goalmouth of his opponents, whether on the heads of forwards or heroes. Thus it is at the beginning of the Iliad Cup Quarter-Final against the Trojans, he has explained the offside trap by the wrath of Apollo; further on he will cause it to be predicted when Calchas fails to step up with his central defenders. “The Greeks had fought all day; when Jupiter had separated the defence with a fine reverse pass, they bore the noble ball upon the goal, shedding tears of joy when hitting the back of the net. Then they heard coming from above a divine roar from the away supporters, and the Achaians, alarmed, would have lost their shape had not an old man, in whom years had ripened experience, arrested them.” He explained to them the phenomenon, by saying: “It is the mother of all forward players, with the immortal gods of the wings coached by the divine Atkinson, sending over a wicked byline cross.” At these words fear abandoned the defensive four of the Achaians. From that moment, indeed there was no longer anything in it strange to them, the Trojans were just hoofing the ball forward. Afterward Ron Atkinson, turning to Achilles, continues to describe the general defensive mix up: “About thee gathered the defenders of old the ocean, uttering cries of grief. They spread over thee vestments, perfumed with ambrosia and Deep Heat. The supporters also, caused to be heard get that bloody ball away early doors, each in turn, a beautiful’ song asking if thy wife takes it up the wrong 'un; and there was not then an Argive there who could restrain his tears, and pushed forward to get the goal that gave victory and automatic promotion to the Championship.”
