Entertainment For Lively Minds
They're not all Gary Neville
Posted by busker_du on 28 January 2010 - 1:23pm.
The recent rise to prominence of Chris Smalling is a useful reminder that not all young footballers are "academically challenged":
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/2319225/Man-City-prodigy-Nedum...
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/hodgson-predicts-b...
I know A levels are supposed to be getting easier, but I can't imagine that these guys have much in common with the likes of Rio Ferdinand and England's Brave Captain John Terry (other than playing the latest PS3 games, driving high-perfomance sports cars and being good at football).
BTW, I had to answer a maths question before I could post. It was easy enough though and Theo Walcott txt me the answer.
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I've got a theory
That nearly all overseas players playing in the Premiership display more intelligence than their English counterparts. This is because they have had to learn at least one language in the course of pursuing their profession and have had to show themselves keen to learn all kinds of other things. On the other hand the average home-grown player has never strayed far beyond our borders and consequently displays a studied indifference to anything the doesn't already know.
Yes, but...
...does that stand up if you reverse it - i.e. English players going to play abroad? I know it doesn't happen much these days because all the money is at home but for every Gary Lineker and Ray Wilkins who returned from Europe a more cultured being you had an Ian Rush or Gazza who remained firmly in the 'take a suitcase full of baked beans and Branston pickle with you' camp.
Carlos Tevez
being the exception of course. And Reyes at Arsenal.
Hmm...
All top clubs employ people whose job it is to look after foreign players' needs. It's not as difficult a transition as you may think.
There not the only ones
Check these people out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Heighway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Wetherall
There are others!
Indeed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Hall_%28footballer%29
Apparently...
There are just four players from the last four England World Cup squads whose fathers were in higher education. I'm sure you can Google it, but it's remarkably easy to guess... the couple of people I've tested this on have taken no time at all to figure it out.
Anyone?
John Barnes?
.
Don't think so
His dad's background was military rather than academic, AFAIK.
Is that the last 4 England
Is that the last 4 England squads to play in WC qualifiers or the squads from the last 4 World Cups?
I'm not sure it makes a difference
But let's assume it's the latter.
at a guess
Owen Hargreaves, Martin Keown, Darren Anderton, Graeme Le Saux
Graeme Le Saux
is one.
Guess at other 3...
Paul Robinson.
Joe Hart.
Danny Mills.
This is harder...
....than you're making out.
Gareth Southgate?
David James?
I'm interested in the above Martin Keown guess. What are we using to guide us here? Articulate footballers? Footballers with slightly middle class accents?
David James
Is another.
Not sure he's been in a WC squad but...
Matt Le Tissier?
Not
Le Tiss.
Clutching at straws now
Tony Dorigo?
You're going to have to...
...tell us before I leave work at 6pm or I won't be able to sleep tonight.
Final throw of the dice:
Theo Walcott
Sol Campbell
Michael Owen (because my wife tells me he's posh scouse)
and if we count the manager as part of the aquad, Glen Hoddle?
Theo Walcott
is another. The final player is credited with my favourite ever response to any question asked of a footballer.
Q: "What do you think you'd be if you weren't a footballer?"
A: "A virgin."
Best response from a footballer EVAH!
It's Mr. Peter Crouch
Indeed it is
We have all four.
I was this close...
...to saying Peter Crouch. He went to the secondary school at the bottom of my road in Hanwell. Their (only) other famous old boy? Rick Wakeman. Wakeman and Crouch. That's good enough for me to send my two boys there in a few years. I wonder which will turn out to be an international footballer and which an icon of the progressive rock movement?
As longs as your boys are tall though
clearly the school excels at preparing tall, blonde males for a successful life.
Crouch's dad...
....is a very senior advertising creative, which means he must have grown up in a relatively arty-bourgeois household.
Like Don Draper's?
Like Don Draper's?
Dates and periods
Trying to get people and dates is hard enough... How about:
David Platt (if he was still around)
Michael Owen
Tim Flowers
Theo Walcott
Hunting around Wiki
The "notable past players" section here raised a smile:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_national_football_team
Wayne Bridge? Joe Cole? Gary Lineker?
One of them maybe?
The answers...
Arrived in various posts above. As a set they're David James, Peter Crouch, Theo Walcott and Graeme Le Saux.
Joe Cole's family...
were (maybe still are) costermongers. Inverness Street market, Camden Town.
I have nothing relevant or
even vaguely important to add, other than that "costermonger" is one of the most beautiful words in the English language. It sounds like a particularly delicious fish.
This reminds me
At a pub quiz years ago, the following question was asked.
"In the second round match between England and Argentina at the 1998 World Cup, a player and one of his teachers were playing. Can you name them?"
Very good...
...I assume it's David Batty and Gabriel Batistuta
That's genius
and it took me a good while to understand the answer. I spent ages wondering if one of the more senior players had coached Michael Owen or something similar.
Ha
Ha. That's a joke, not a quiz question.
Quite.
It was a surprise the quizmaster wasn't hounded out into the street.
David Batty
I would just like to point out that he was a very good and very, very underrated player. I will go and hide now.
Underrated?
Batty was extremely highly regarded by fans and critics alike.
I never felt that he got the credit his ability deserved
Maybe it's the Leeds fan in me but apart from the game in Rome against Italy, I never really felt he got the level of respect he would have if he was at Man U or Liverpool. The Leeds fans rightly loved him, I agree.
Could be me and its nice to see someone thinking otherwise.
Underrated?
Batty was extremely highly regarded by fans and critics alike.
I just had to butt in here
I had the misfortune to attend a USA vs. England friendly in Boston back in the early 90's, against all expectations the US won! Anyway, thats neither here nor there. The reason I mention it is this. David Batty was playing, the stadium was at best at 20% capacity, not helped by a 2pm Wednesday gametime. You could hear a pin drop for most of the game. My abiding memory of the game is the afore mentioned Batty running around the pitch shouting fook & fooking at anything that moved, and, anything that didn't (England back four, i'm talking about you). Now, I'm all grown up and have heard men cuss before, but, the hundreds of soccer playing 10, 11, 12 year olds who had been pulled out of school to watch their boys play the big guns from Europe maybe hadn't. Just struck me as kinda classless, and, oblivious at best.
Swearing at the back four
from an England team that lost to the USA? And that's wrong?
I'm being a bit slow...
can someone explain this to me?!
Batty and Batistuta (Batty's
Batty and Batistuta (Batty's Tutor)
I feel very dim...
that's really good!
If we're going to get biblical ...
I did enjoy Owen Coyle's response this week to the Judas chants (although Burnley fans may disagree):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/bolton_wanderers/848220...
To my mind, it's an improvement on "I don't believe you. You're a liar."
* ducks *
I didn't feel the need to start a separate thread
to commemorate the retirement of "England's Greatest Right Back", but thought I would post my favourite Gary Neville moment:
Great!
And I had completely forgotten that Peter Schmeichel had played for both Manc clubs.