In the build-up to last week’s friendly between England and Sweden, all the attention was on Steven Gerrard winning his 100th cap for his country.
It was an absolutely brilliant goal. But there was one element missing from it: pressure- James Calvert
Reaching a century of international appearances is undoubtedly a fantastic achievement and one that is entirely deserving of a good dose of limelight.
Unfortunately for the England captain, that limelight was spectacularly stolen by a player from the opposing team: Zlatan Ibrahimovich.
The Swedish striker didn’t just score four goals and singlehandedly destroy England. He also managed to score one of the most spectacular and sublime goals of all time.
In the wake of the game, which finished 4-2 in case you missed it, Gerrard’s achievement was all but forgotten, with the football world drooling over Ibrahimovich’s overhead kick.
Was it, in fact, the greatest goal of all time? Some people certainly seem to think so and, after watching it dozens of times, I was extremely tempted to agree with them.
Ibrahimovich knew where he was on the pitch; he knew Joe Hart was miles off his line and he meant to do exactly what he did. So it was an absolutely brilliant goal and certainly no fluke.
But there was one element missing from it: pressure.
Sweden were 3-2 up, Ibrahimovich had already got himself a hat-trick, and the match was little more than a meaningless friendly. It was an absolutely no-pressure situation, and that gave him the freedom to try something he might not have been happy to do in, say, a crucial World Cup match.
I am not trying to take anything away from Ibrahimovich. The technique and skill required to pull off that shot were absolutely top drawer. Most England players trying the same thing would have ended up lying on the floor with torn ligaments while the ball sailed off to break a window in the press box.
However, I think if I had to pick the greatest goal of all time then it would, for me, need to have been scored in a competitive game. And here the list of possible contenders is endless.
I thought, for example, that Paul Gascoigne’s goal against Scotland in Euro 96 was absolutely staggering. And Michael Owen’s goal against Argentina in the 1988 World Cup was equally beautiful.
Leaving my pro-English bias aside, what about Diego Maradona’s second goal in the infamous ‘Hand of God’ match in the 1986 World Cup? Or Roberto Baggio’s goal against Czechoslovakia in the 1990 World Cup?
And could any assessment of the greatest goal of all time even think about not including Marco Van Basten’s goal against the USSR in the Euro ’88 final which till today blows my mind every time I watch it?
That’s the problem, you see. Although we may all agree on what constitutes a great goal, I don’t think there is any definitive way to decide whether or not a goal is the greatest ever.
However, the one criterion I think is essential to any sort of definitive answer is that it has to have been scored in a competitive match.
And, on that basis, I am afraid that Ibrahimovich’s effort, as delightful as it may be, can only ever be considered great and not the greatest.
Besides English players, the managers are suffering too
There was an interesting statistic bouncing around Twitter last week regarding the nationality of football managers.
According to the tweet, the number of home-grown managers in the top European leagues are: France 19 out of 20, Italy 18 out of 20, Germany 15 out of 18 and Spain 12 out of 20. The corresponding figure for England is four out of 20.
Just like English players are being overlooked in favour of lads from overseas, so are English managers being put on one side in favour of their supposedly better foreign colleagues.
Grossly unfair in my opinion, because there are some cracking English managers in the lower leagues who are fighting a constant battle for recognition.
Ian Holloway is the perfect example. A manager who got Blackpool punching above their weight, took them to the Premier League where they played some delightful football and was unlucky to be relegated.
You would have thought he would be top of anyone’s list when it came to a big club vacancy. But no, he obviously isn’t foreign enough. Or Scottish enough for that matter (what is it that makes the Scottish such managerial favourites anyway?)
Holloway has now moved to Crystal Palace where, all things being equal, he has a great chance of making it back to the Premier League for next season. And I sincerely hope he does. I think the top flight has missed his bubbly honesty and constant stream of entertaining sound bites.
All in all, the lack of English managers in the top flight is just as harmful for the long-term prospects of the English game as the lack of English players.
It is, after all, why we have ended up in the past with people like Fabio Capello in charge of the national team…
Where does the money go?
I know spending in football has reached silly levels but, even bearing this in mind, I still find it staggering that Bolton Wanderers have ended up £136 (€170) million in debt.
Yes they were relegated to the championship at the end of last season, which won’t have helped their finances. But before that they enjoyed more than a decade of Premier League football.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the top flight supposed to be the financial holy grail? The place every club wants to be because the streets are paved with gold? A league where you make money, not lose it.
And it’s not as if Bolton ever really splashed the cash, at least not in a ridiculous way. Yes they bought a few good players but I don’t recall them ever going on one of those stupid £100 million summer spending sprees.
At the very least you would expect a club to be debt free after feasting on the riches of the Premier League for 10 years plus.
Luckily for Bolton, most of that £136 million is owed to owner Eddie Davies who has converted it into a long-term loan to ease the burden on the club.
But this should still serve as a serious warning to all those clubs who are chasing the Premiership dream – getting there is obviously not the financial utopia some feel it is.
Your say
“I completely agree with your views on the set-up of the Premier League harming the state of the English national team. And while you rightly state that in players like Jack Wilshere, Raheem Sterling and Jack Rodwell there is the potential for great players emerging, I wonder if they will ever get a chance to shine.
“By its very nature, the greed and cash-driven Premier League starves potential young stars of first-team opportunities. Out of those three you could easily argue that none would be guaranteed a first team place every week if the rest of the squad they play in was fit, or in Sterling’s case, if Liverpool had anyone else available to play.
“Take the last crop of ‘future greats’ that immediately spring to mind – Theo Walcott (can’t get in the Arsenal team), Adam Johnson (forced to leave Manchester City after failing to get games), Joe Cole (playing in the Liverpool reserves), Jermaine Jenas (on loan to Nottingham Forest in the Championship), Andy Carroll (offloaded on loan – deemed not good enough for a very poor Liverpool team), Ashley Young (in and out of the Manchester United team).
“Can we really expect players in these positions to win a World Cup?
“Even England’s top out-and-out striker of the moment, Jermain Defoe, is not guaranteed a place in Tottenham Hotspur’s starting 11. All of the above I mention have been touted as potential world-class players at one time but you don’t get to be truly world class if you don’t get to play.
“If there continues to be teams with seemingly limitless budgets – such as Manchester City and Chelsea (and Manchester United to a lesser extent) – then they will continue to buy anyone and everyone who is emerging from any youth set-up in the English lower leagues before they hit 20.
“But they don’t buy them to play them! No, it’s to deny other teams getting hold of them. The kids go for the money and the dream, but end up in the reserves. On the odd occasion they might loan them back down the leagues but in that system they don’t have a chance. They never get to learn their trade properly.
“These misguided teenagers go into massive squads of far too many players with far too few of them home-produced. Manchester City has 42 senior players on their books.
“That’s more than two whole teams’ worth who, week to week, never get their boots dirty. There are 42 more in the Manchester United squad.
“It’s time to cap the number of players in a squad to 24 and to limit the number that come from overseas. What about 12? That way teams will only sign top-quality foreign stars, not journeyman also-rans who ‘do a job’ but no better than a homegrown player could be – just cheaper!
“Only that way, by giving English players a chance of being on the pitch on a Saturday afternoon on a regular basis, will we see any improvement in the state of the national team.” M. Brooks, e-mail.
sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade