Thierry Henry: the new God?

Ever been up against someone or something and felt that it wasn’t a fair battle because the other party was bigger, richer, more powerful or had more influence where it mattered? It can be extremely frustrating. I have just been in that situation after I accidentally rode the bus in Antwerp without a valid ticket. It was a mistake, a administrative mix-up on my part. I explained as much and went to get a new three month season ticket the same evening. I have been a loyal, paying customer for ages now, in spite of severe lack of service now and again. Still in the end I had to pay €76.60 in charges, which equals a three months season ticket. Anything I said in my defence was swept under the mat. Sometimes you can try as hard as you want but you can’t win because the opposing forces are too powerful. “It is not fair,” a little black duck once famously said, “they are big and I is small.” That little duck was, of course, Calimero. And most of Ireland will feel exactly like him this morning.

I feel very, very sorry for Irish football fans. After their country’s national side played a fantastic qualifying group, then a great play-off game against France, to go out to such a controversial goal must be incredibly hard to take. Maybe the ref failed to see it, but his assistant should and must have. I don’t want to say the ref intentionally ignored the facts, but he may well have bottled a big dicision. In cases like this, you can easily forgive football fans to think there is a bigger picture. Belgium fans have felt this way only too often. But this time it all actually started a number of months before the game actually took place. FIFA’s sudden decision that the play-offs for the last four World Cup tickets would be subject to seeding, was a very strange one, to say the least. But then a look at the tables at that point was revealing. Apart from France, Portugal and Russia, two other big countries could have ended up in the play-offs. Both Italy and Germany still had everything to play for at that time. Suppose they had drawn each other and France would have played Portugal. That would have meant the loss of two massive names for the World Cup, and all the publicity, which equals money, connected to them. You can easily forgive the Irish fans for thinking that this was the only reason for the seeding. I even think they are spot on. I am not a fan of seeding in football in any case. It spoils the game and it is utterly unfair. But I will not get into that now.

Thierry Henry, meanwhile, has admitted to having handled the ball. In a way you can’t blame him. Who is to say that an Irish player in the same position would not have done so? I have always admired Henry, he is an incredibly skillful player and overall a very fair one. I came very close, even, to buying an Arsenal shirt with his name and squad number when Arsenal had that fabulous burgundy and gold shirt. (There are only two other players who almost made me buy non-Forest shirts. Both Juventus. Pavel Nedved - although I may have gone for that marvelous red Czech away shirt - and Alessandro Del Piero.) Thierry Henry is God. We now have conclusive proof of that. But joking aside, I hope he will not now be branded a cheat for the rest of his life. The other “hand of God” deserved no better. He had shown himself as a dirty player and a cheat before that goal and did so again on many following occasions. In fact he used his other hand in the following World Cup, palming away a flick-on from which the USSR would almost certainly have scored. God is ambidextrous. Henry is not that sort of player. The actual handball will possibly go into history as one of the worst moments in football. An act of blatant cheating that secured a ticket for what should be the greatest celebration of the sport. But hopefully the incident can be seen separately from the player in this instance. Henry does not deserve to carry the reputation of a cheat for the rest of his career.

To the Irish: chin up. And well done for giving both Italy and France a good run for their money.

Be good.

Red Devil

Discipline!

Mrs Devil and I were in France last weekend, visiting the Great War battlefields. Both of us have ancestors buried in various military cemeteries along the Flanders front, a fact that has resulted in a shared keen interest in the history of this horrific time. We saw Loos, Vimy, Thiepval, Hamel. It was rather quiet, which added to the experience. Impressive, poignant. And something has changed compared to ten, fifteen years ago. We saw German number plates at Vimy and an English bus at the German cemetery in Neuville-St-Vaast. Finally. The whole region is dotted with military cemeteries, often holding over a thousand casualties. Generals on both sides sent many young men from all over the world to their deaths in France and Belgium. Some of the offensives were utter madness, and they seemed to have a knack of forgetting factors from which they should have been drawing conclusions and learning lessons. But why did the soldiers and officers obey to these sometimes insane orders, knowing they would again be mowed down by artillery and machine guns?

Discipline.

It is something I can only admit to having a complete lack of, sadly. I loved to learn, but hated studying. I love performing music live, but hate the constraints of studio work. I loved to play football when I had two good knees, but hated training. Likewise, I love the fact that webmaster Steve offered me a chance to vent my thoughts about Forest and football in general, but I seem to lack the discipline, once again, to write regularly. For this, I apologise most humbly.

It is not even that nothing has happened in the past six or seven months. Forest managed to stay up after a not so good start to last season. And there was much rejoicing. Belgium sacked their manager and replaced him with the esteemed Dick Advocaat. His first game in charge saw a 2-0 win over Turkey. And there was much rejoicing. England qualified easily for the World Championship, a league above the competition in their group, including Croatia and Ukraine. And there was much rejoicing. BBC started a Football League Show, meaning I can finally see Forest highlights in Belgium. And there…

In this new season, our manager Billy Davies seems to have found his footing. He has turned Nottingham Forest into a feared side. Another slippery start, agreed, but now we have not lost in what seems like ages. We were even on the Beeb the other day, live. And we look good. There is some great passing going on all over the pitch, good running up front. We look lively, we look fluent, we look dangerous. The game against Cardiff was so good I kept thinking that I had seen many reports on Match of the Day that showed far less accomplished football and less excitement from Premier League clubs. We really, truly look good out there.

And of course it is too soon to think about automatic promotion spots, the Premier League, Europe, Munich, Madrid. But things look a lot better than they did two or three years ago. We have Colin Calderwood to thank for part of that. We have Nigel Doughty to thank for another part. Billy Davis for another. The players, who seem to finally realize that they have to put some effort in it. And the fans, who may be called fickle but seem relentless in their support. An average attendance of 20000+ in the old third division is proof of that.

Like Forest, I will try to change. I will try to be more consistent, to score more points. To think less about football, but write more. I have written this before, I admit with my head hung in shame. I’m serious this time. In part a result of a weekend in France that has made a big impression. Discipline.

Be good.
Red Devil