"He plays on the left... He plays on the righhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhht,
ooooooo that boy Conway, makes Messi look shiteeeeee"
As betterthancola reaches relative middle age for a blog how better to celebrate the 10,000 view mark than by congratulating my beloved Cardiff City, on finally achieving promotion, and, as the cherry on the cake we go up as champions. So before I get into the meat of the post I just want to make sure that all you guys who asked for your money back at the start of the season when we changed kits and vowed never to support again, I just want to make sure you are still enjoying not being a Cardiff fan. Pricks.
As our thoughts turn now to how and who is going to make the current squad strong enough to survive the rigours of the strongest league in the world. Malky has been promised twenty five million, and, has already said he will be ruthless in culling an rebuilding the current team to keep us up. I for one cant wait to see, and, Id love a Kalou 8 shirt next season. So far the names Ive heard thrown around by 'serious' sources are: Hal Robson Kanu, Park Ji Sung, Bobby Zamora, Darren Bent, Yannick Sagbo, James Collins, Ryan Shotton, Adam le Fondre... the season isnt even over yet, for me Malky will steer clear of these bargain buys, who have already proven to be not good enough to keep teams up, he's a canny manager and I think we will be shopping abroad and relying on one or two loanees.
What a good segway into the topic for todays discussion... For me, there is no such thing as a one player team. Teams like Spurs and Swansea are getting a bad reputation this season for being just this. But one player, a Bale or a Michu or a van Persie or even a Messi cant make a team. People say spurs wouldn't be where they are without Bale, fine, where would you be without your top scorer?? Its not as if without these players any of these sides would be scrapping for relegation, and, at the same time adding Gareth Bale or Van Persie into the Reading side would not put them in a European contention place. It speaks volumes about the character of football fans (its not good) that instead of constructing a valid argument to bad mouth our fierce rivals (there are billions btw) we just rely on saying "yeah, well without soandso, you'd be shit"
How to best demonstrate that one player doesn't make a team...
This is Mr Loic Remy. He has eighteen international caps for his native France, unfortunately he has had to compete Karim Benzema and Thierry Henry for the majority of his career. He has played for and won trophies for Lyon, Lens, Nice and Marseille He is 26 years old, he has played two hundred and one professional games and has scored seventy four goals. In January he signed for QPR, since then he has played nine games, he has scored nine goals. Even though QPR were already doomed when he joined, even a full season with this man wouldn't keep them up, even a goal per game from this man wouldn't have kept them up. For me he is the best player that has ever been relegated from the premier league.
This is Mr Scott Parker. In 2011 he was relegated with West Ham Utd. he was 'hammer' of the year. He found the net 7 times (not bad for someone that doesn't actually know the goals are located at either end) and he credited as the sole reason the Hammers came out for a second half at WBA and clawed back a draw from three nil down. The next season he was snapped up by spurs and has enjoyed international call ups and adulation galore. Also relegated with West Ham that season was one Mr Demba Ba.
That's Mr Fabrizio Ravenelli. In 1996 Bryan Robson paid seven millions of pounds for him (in 1996 this was an extra ordinary amount of money for a footballer). He scored a hat-trick on his début against LOLverpool. The side also contained this gentleman:
That is Senior Juninho Paulista, he won a world cup!! He is widely considered to be Middlesbroughs best ever player.
These two players were among the best in the league that season, together they guided their ward to both domestic cup finals!! Despite this by Christmas relegation was a real threat, some might remember the squad was then hit with severe flu, and, manager Robson claimed he didn't have enough players to field a team, for this he was fined a meagre three points, but, it was enough to send the northerners down.
Oh they also had, Mikkel Beck!!
Four players that are amongst the best ever to grace match of the day... proof absolute that one player does not make a team, if one player could make a team, Juninho would have won a cup easily, Scott Parker would be England captain and people like Chris Kamara, Danny Mills, Attilo Lombardo, Stuart Pearce, Damien Duff and John Barnes would never have experienced the displeasure of having their teams relegated.
Wim Jonk.
Feast your eyes on this happy:
Feast your earholes on this beastly piece:
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