Watching that Torres compilation and feeling pretty wistful about football when I was younger. Huge part of it would’ve been being a teenager and juvenile partisanship… But I miss a lot of those players, at least feeling strongly about them. Seemed like a lot from childhood were still knocking about, too.
Some great players in the league at the moment - as discussed above, the likes of Silva, Hazard, Kante will stack up with former greats - but really not many that I can muster much enthusiasm for, for better or worse. The elation at seeing Torres skin Vidic/Ferdinand, or the disappointment of that Rooney overhead kick … I dunno if that’d be possible with any combination of players these days, tbh.
Same as everything innit, music, films, books, the lot. Nothing ever gets close to giving you the same feeling as the first time you fell in love with a thing.
It’s why I’ll always prefer Zidane to Messi despite Messi clearly being better. It’s why Cantona’s winner vs Liverpool gave me more joy than Van Der Sar saving Anelka’s pen.
I do worry about the lack of signings generally though.
I’ve gotten quite used to Newcastle signing six unknown regens on the first day of close season for undisclosed four million pound fees and then nothing else - I feel like we’re having our pants slowly pulled down the closer we get to the first day of actual football.
We still need a striker and a central defender and I have said the same thing every year without anyone decent* being signed.
Probably this goal, because me and my dad recreated the celebration in my grandparents’ garden after I ‘scored’ against him in a kick about, and we then posed for a photo doing the same thing, which is both the lamest and greatest thing ever. (i’ll post the photo if I can ever find it)
I was basically bred to dislike the English national team, so unfortunately I never had that experience (except of course in later life when Spain destroyed the world for a decade).
I don’t think I’ve ever been as ecstatic over a goal as this one. the game was incredible, I was 9. <3
We had a long thin garden at the side of our house that was perfect for playing football and I spent hours and hours and hours langering the ball towards goal, Clayton Blackmore style for the phantom keeper to chuck in.
There are loads of others (yeboah etc) but 13 seconds into this… David Batty’s first goal for Leeds. Crowd went mental, I (as a child) was thrown in the air and ended up 4 rows in front. Dad’s mate had broken his chair from jumping up and down on it.