The Le Tissier effect resulted in, from an early age, the belief that football should be played in the 'Joga Bonito' way. Tricks, flicks, skill; these are the things that to me (when used effectively) are the peak of artistic beauty in the game. I love passing football and find it extremely hard to warm to a team that is overly physical or one dimensional in their play.
This approach has found itself into my own game also - admittedly my physique has never led itself to any other style of play, but I always look for the beautiful way to play the game. Beating an opponent with a piece of skill gives me such a rush that I end up trying to do it way too often and would be a much better player if I focussed more on the simple things.
Although I can accept that there is a quality to be admired in the more robust and often more cynical approach, I just hate watching it.
Whether the useless, fat, clumsy and stupid defenders that sometimes spend Sunday mornings trying to break my legs, as if I'm the reason their life has not worked out how they had hoped; or the spiteful cynical playacting demonstrated by numerous players week in week out during the Premier League or last years World Cup, I just hate it.
Yeah you might win the ball, or you might get a freekick, or get an opponent sent off, hell, you might even win matches or tournaments. But seriously, is that really how football should be played? Dishonest, snidey, vicious and brutal? Grow up. That's my view anyway and as I say it is clearly one point of view borne out of my early influences and own limitations.
It is just as well I didn't watch football in the sixties though.
I'm currently reading Jonathan Wilson's 'Inverting the Pyramid: The history of football tactics' and, following the shift from all out attack to the realisation that a solid defence could win matches, today covered Estudiantes of Argentina in the 60s.
Jiminy Jilickers Radioactive Man - these blokes sound like absolute nutters.
I thought Wimbledon were bad, and struggled to enjoy watching any team under Sam Allardyce - but Estudiantes took it to an ever lower and more disgraceful level. Apparently they once goaded an opponent who had killed his best friend in a hunting accident - chanting 'murderer' at him all game. Another time they managed to get hold of medical records, and got an opposition goalkeeper sent off for retaliation. How? They took the mickey out of his wife who had recently had an operation to have a cyst removed. Damn.
In one particular match, the Intercontinental Cup final against AC Milan 1969, three Estudiantes players put on such a spectacle of thuggery that the watching nation was repulsed. One Milan player had his cheek broken by an elbow, and Rivera was punched to the ground then kicked while he was down. The three spent a month in jail. IN JAIL.
Reading this I was struck by the fact that maybe I've been too quick to condemn, clearly things have been a lot worse. The stuff that I hate in football actually isn't that bad after all, yes there are some nasty players who seem intent on hurting their opponent (Hi Ben Thatcher) and yes there are countless players who seek to do anything to gain an unfair advantage (Hi Chelsea) but maybe I should stop being such a bohemian about it. The world isn't all flicks tricks loyalty honesty and total football. Maybe I should learn to love the dark side - it is blatantly the cooler side of Star Wars after all.
Vinnie Jones, Ronald Koeman, John Fashanu, Sam Allardyce, Nigel De Jong...I'm sorry.
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