Monday 6 June 2011

Who's the greatest?

Messi - a poor man's Gardner Speirs?
Following their demolition of Man Utd in the Champions League Final last week Barcelona have been touted as the greatest team ever. Obviously Barcelona aren't the greatest team ever, the St Mirren side of the mid to late 1980s were. End of discussion. Next topic please.

Xavi Hernandez may well have a World Cup, European Championship, Champions Leagues and a liberal sprinkling of La Liga medals but is he not just a pale imitation of Tony Fitzpatrick? I mean Xavi couldn't carry off a 'tache like Fitz could. Leo Messi's dribbling and trickery may well make him the finest exponent of the game today but I'll bet he's not got as many Renfrewshire Cup medals as Frank McGarvey. And as for Sergio Busquets, let's put him up against Billy Abercromby and give Busquets a good reason to roll about holding his face. Or knee. Or nurse some massive internal injuries.

Let's just say for arguments sake that you disagree about St Mirren's place in the football pantheon and we reopen the "who's the greatest" discussion. It's a facile and pointless discussion but it kills a couple of hours at the pub. I never saw the Real Madrid of the late 50s and early 60s play (I have a DVD of the 63 European Cup final but haven't got round to watching it so don't tell me the result) ditto for the Bayern and Ajax sides of the 70s. I did see the Liverpool side of the 80s play and while I confess to being very young all I seem to remember is Hansen, Whelan, Lawrenson etc passing back to Bruce Grobbelaar but I'm sure there was more to them than that. I also saw the Milan side of the late 80s and early 90s, van Gaal's mid 90s Ajax and now this Barca side. They were all great sides and all boasted fine players. I'd have to say that of the sides I've seen that the current Barca side is the best but is that just because I saw them most recently? Or because they play pretty football? Or because I have a soft spot for Barcelona? Who knows? For what it's worth I'd say that Barca play the game with a level of technical purity no other side has got close to (honourable mention to van Gaal's Ajax) even allowing for the likes of Dani Alves and Sergio Busquets' cynicism and theatrics. The other point about this Barca team is that it's also the core of the obscenely successful Spanish side which has swept all before them in recent years. Other club sides have strongly influenced national sides previously, Bayern and Ajax back in the 70s for instance but has a club side ever had such a big influence on such a successful national team as this Barcelona team has on the Spanish? Holland never actually won anything with Cruyff etc in the team and Bayern didn't have as many players in the West German side (I think) but Spain seem to steamroller team largely in a Barcelona style with largely Barcelona players.

I'm sure older and wiser heads than I would scoff and say that this side isn't fit to lace the boots of the Honved and Real Madrid sides of the 50s or the tragic Torino side of the 40s and they may be right but this only proves what a pointless discussion it is. Apart from the hugely subjective nature of such a judgement the  game has evolved so quickly and completely that it's almost a different sport compared to 20 years ago, never mind 60 or 70 years ago. The athleticism and speed of the game is higher now than it ever was and tactical innovations along with rule changes have made it harder than ever to score a goal. I'm sure that Puskas would be as fearsome player now as he was 60 years ago but just in a different way just as Zidane or Messi would be world class playing back in the 50s but they wouldn't be the same players. Puskas, Pele, Beckenbauer, Maradona, Campbell Money, Gullit, Zidane and Messi are and were all products of their footballing time and place and as such can only really be compared to their contemporaries for a value judgement. Comparing them against each other is as pointless as the "who's the greatest guitarist" debate, another staple of the pub bore. 

All that taken into account I'd have to stand by my belief that the current Barca side is as good as I've seen but I still have one nagging doubt about those players. Not one of them can be considered truly great until they've knocked in a scrappy toe poke against Greenock Morton on a dark February afternoon. Then, and only then, can their names be mentioned in the same breath as the all time greats like Peter Godfrey, Tommy Wilson...




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