Football today lacks the personalities of twenty or thirty years ago. This, I think, is true of all games, and the reason for it is a fine psychological study. The life which we live is so different: the pace, the excitement, and the sensationalism which we crave are new factors which have had a disturbing influence. They have upset the old balance mentally as well as physically, and they have made football different to play as well as to watch. And they have set up new values. The change has, in fact, been so violent that I do not think the past, the players and the game, can fairly be compared with the present.
Not Mourinho or Wenger, but the fabled Arsenal manager, Herbert Chapman (1878-1934), in part of a series of quotes exhumed by sports psychologist and blogger James Hamilton (who also has a clip of what's said to be the oldest football footage in existence.) One point Hamilton is trying to make is that, whatever era you live in, the golden age is always about thirty years in the past. Unless you happen to be a Bath City fan, in which case you tend to think in terms of millennia.
Millenia? It might feel that way, but...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_City_F.C.#History
Posted by: James Hamilton | Monday, March 19, 2007 at 01:03 PM
Amaziing. I take back that comment about my home team. I had no idea...
"Their finest days were during the Second World War when they were by chance accepted to join the temporary Division Two Northern Division competing with the likes of Liverpool,Manchester United and Everton, finishing the eventual champions, thereby becoming the only semi-professional side ever to win a Football League trophy." (Wikipedia)
Posted by: Clive | Monday, March 19, 2007 at 03:42 PM