The Diary

20 September 2007: With Games Like Last Night's, Who Needs The Premier League?

Although those closely involved in it probably wouldn?t agree, to my mind, the game of football has clear claim to be just as thought-provoking as anything the world of contemporary literature can produce, but in a slightly different way. If you like your reading turgid, wordy, yet intellectually stimulating, and still regard endless secondary school Eng. Lit A-Level classes spent stripping, say, The Immortal Bard?s works to their bare bones, as halcyon days, then when you next visit W.H. Smiths, or Waterstones, head straight for the ?classics? shelves, and get yourself as well stuck in as you can, available time and finances permitting, of course.

In urgent need of something with equal claim of worthy penmanship, but pieced together by someone who?s had extensive experience of the subject-matter, loves it to bits, yet doesn?t want to come over as either excessively arty-farty, or, looking at the equally bad obverse side of a living made from the crafting of words and sentences, possessing all the cultural finesse of a Dingle? Then you make a bee-line towards, say, the popular science stuff, or the vast number of ?factual history? tomes gracing the shelves, right now. The sort of well-crafted, rompin? stompin? stuff that grabs its subject-matter by the neck, then by employing no small degree of wordcrafting skill to do so, thrusting it, protesting, right into the curious reader?s face, and unlike the former, the obligatory wearing of jacket and tie whilst doing so deemed completely unnecessary.

And that, my friends, is what we had last night. Stuff the Premier League, and its eternal turgidity, the excess of stultification of evolutionary process born of fear, pure and simple: fear of losing, and by extension of thought, fear of an associated knock-on effect, that of seeing potentially lucrative corporate sponsorship ? and, as a consequence, your better players - drifting away for good, primarily because the side you support is no longer considered sexy by the moneyed leeches infesting the executive boxes. Instead, welcome to the Pleasure Dome those elusive twin gods, Excitement and Entertainment: let us worship at your feet until our lower limbs grow weary through chronic pain.

As I said to ?Im Indoors earlier this evening, what we saw last night had much of the Cup tie spirit about it: the gut feeling that what mattered to both sides on that pitch was the here and now, not what manner of mean-spirited thoughts some self-important Sky pundit (or bankrolling chairman) would dredge up about the game, several months into the future. Kings Tedium, Ennui, Dreariness, Monotony - all dead, the lot of ?em: Long Live Kings Exhilaration, Wonderment, Stimulation and Pleasure - and may their shadows now live long in the land!

You could, I suppose, do a vox-pop on those that attended our game last night, additional to those who watched any given Premiership encounter last Saturday/Sunday/whatever day or time Sky deemed advantageous to screen their ?product?. Of the two lots of supporters, I?m winning to bet a handsome amount of ackers on who came out of the ground the more satisfied with what they?d just been watching, and the perceived extent of its ?value for money? factor. Sod the Prem: for sheer thrills and spills right now, it?s got to be Mogga, The Baggies, and the Championship for me. Place that little lot as you will, as far as your own personal order of importance is concerned.

So what else was good about last night?s game, then? When you?ve got such a marvellously-pulsating spectacle unfolding before you, and the atmosphere in the ground ? a low roof doesn?t half help, as far as singing?s concerned! - increasingly electric as a consequence, one major contributory factor has to be the sheer acrobatic skill displayed by both goalkeepers, Deano for we Baggies, and the lad Basso (with an ?r? after the ?B?, would he be someone prone to make a clean breast of his mistakes?) for City; certainly, had I got one in the first place, I?d take my hat off to the City gent. Time after time, during the course of the entire game, he prevented ?Bristle? from conceding, and for that sort of talent, their supporters should be suitably grateful. Deano? Well, we already know he has class in bundles, but how nice of him to demonstrate that fact so well last night!

Some sides, having what I can only term ?undiagnosed control freaks? as gaffers, seemingly calculate responses to differing tactical aspects of League games to several decimal places. Everyone, strikers included, operates on the business end of an invisible managerial leash, with the consequent effect of having any signs of spontaneity and initiative drummed out of players from a very young age indeed. We all know sides like that, and we all know of past Albion managers who have tried to change things in that ghastly manner themselves: indeed, talk to any ex-players who were at the club during the Don Howe era, and you?ll quickly see what I?m on about. Example? When he told The King he scored goals by heading the ball too much, and making natural goalscorers like Bomber Brown operate more defensively. And coming up with stunts like tying, say, midfielders together, in order to develop mutual understanding of what was required of them during games.

At least with Mogga in the driving seat, things seem to operate in a radically different manner. Strikers seem to operate in similar fashion to the swashbucklers of old: no apparent restraints upon young Ishmael Miller when he took to the field. Or, if there were, they weren?t all that noticeable to me: every single time that lad surged into their half, he was creating utter chaos.

A shame we didn?t get him out there much earlier, in some ways. His undoubted talent for barnstorming, allied with the intelligence of Koren, say, the involvement of Greening ? being made captain seems to have been good for him - and the gutsiness of Chappy (see below) would have been absolute dynamite, as far as City?s prospects of grabbing anything from that game were concerned.

By the time we conceded the corner that led to the equaliser, we could and should have been at least two goals to the good. After getting so much right, a shame, then, that Mogga got the tactics of that aspect of our game so badly wrong. By changing our defence at such a crucial moment in the game, we completely ruined the concentration of those trying to defend. Why on earth we didn?t leave the swap until the danger was cleared ? or just not bother to make the change at all - I do not know. Just like the peace of God, it passeth all understanding!

A far more pleasing aspect of last night?s game was Richard Chaplow: at long last, he now seems to be getting out of his system that annoying ?talent? of his for winning the ball in typically gutsy fashion, then promptly passing it to an opposing player. Not only that, he was unlucky not to get onto the score sheet himself. Only the feline brilliance of Basso stopped that from happening, as I recall.

After going through a bit of an indifferent spell in recent times, it was good to see Zoltan Gera back to his old self once more, supplying ammunition aplenty for those tasked with firing the bullets, and not at all averse towards having the occasional pop himself. Is it my imagination, but could this improvement in form be down to the lad actually enjoying what he does for a living, at long last?

And that last remark about Our Zoltan can also be applied to the side as a whole. For most of last season, we came across as a side of individuals hurled together into a team, then told to just get on with it. Certain egos, especially those grounded in selfishness, abounded, while those of a far more reticent nature seemed distanced from what was going on. That?s what cost us at Wembley, in my opinion: players overly concerned with the enormous pay-day to come, not to mention their media image, irrespective of what happened on the pitch that day.

The game being what it is, one largely dominated by talented individuals of mercurial and capricious temperament, those wanting to give the Premier League another go with different, wealthier, clubs have long since gone. Those first few games of the current season apart, where the recent massive influx of players seemed to have given rise to a serious communication problem, everyone out there on the pitch now seems willing to pull in the direction of the team as a whole, and not merely to showcase, say, one selfish individual?s ability to score goals.

Is there really Albion life after the passing of Curtis Davis, Kamara and Koumas? I don?t know about you lot out there, but looking at the current side from the lofty vantage-point of six games gone, another forty to go, I?d say that we?ve since gone and landed up, by far and away, with the best of the bargain. At long last, Mogga has seemingly inculcated something rather precious, in these overly mercenary times ? a genuinely altruistic spirit in our side, and that can?t be bad. Scunthorpe? I?ve a feeling in my water it might just turn out to be what Wallace And Grommit would collectively term ?A Grand Day Out?! But more of that on Friday, tomorrow, I?m having a night off.

And Finally?.. One. A strange definition of the word ?segregation? those nice Bristol Police chappies have, these days, don?t they? As we made our way out of the ground at the end of the game, both sets of supporters were able to mingle freely, without any further let or hindrance whatsoever. Even a nearby pub was allowing its City-supporting clientele to drink outside, as hordes of understandably-disappointed Albion supporters trudged by.

Luckily, although the banter flew thick and fast, as our people headed towards their various modes of transport, parked up in the nearby industrial estate ? loved the bit of ?creative driving? that ?Im Indoors employed to get us out of the factory yard employed as an away supporters? car park, by the way - the predominant atmosphere lacked any overt sense of aggression whatsoever. Now I wonder whether they?ll be as pleasant to those nice folks from Wolverhampton, come the time both sides meet there?

Two?. And, talking about our ?bosom friends?, anyone else noticed that following tonight?s games, they?ve dropped down by default to 17th in the table? True, so have we, to fifth, but before you start worrying, take a closer look at our defensive record, currently the best in the entire division. Looks as though my recent observations about that aspect of our game becoming much less porous is absolutely spot-on.

 - Glynis Wright

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