Please excuse this foray into fanciful thinking. I seem to have too much time on my hands. There is a point in here... but feel free to tl;dr me. Football operates on several levels. At the primary level, it is a rapidly unfolding narrative played out over 90 (or sometimes 120) minutes on a patch of grass in front of an audience of the world's most critical yet loyal fans. It is a story that always begins afresh, always equal, always presenting a fresh equilibrium which awaits the excitement of disruption. There are heroes and villains, highs and lows, goals and red cards. For those 90 minutes, we are absorbed in the present. We may be aware of the longer narrative of the season, the table or the cup, but it is the moment which consumes us. Everything else stops. Weddings are surreptitiously ignored; work little more than a desktop façade, hiding pop-up streams from any illicit source we can find. Southampton's football this season plays into the hearts of its audience. It is not the slow, laboured-but-artful Brechtian masterwork of a Pochettino, moving glacially towards another predictable but satisfying close. No, it is the Hollywood blockbuster, all action and excitement. It is big guns and fast cars. It is Live and Let Die, Fast and Furious, Speed and a little Ghostbusters (I ain't afraid of no post-Pochetinos). It's football for its true audience, played the way it should be played, directed by a man of the people: Ronald Koeman. Which brings me to the next level of football's metanarrative. The story of personality. Beyond the game, existing in the ether, just out of sight of the football field, is the story of the players, managers and hangers-on who both make and destroy dreams. Occasionally these characters interrupt the cosy moment of the match, their names peeling out in songs of compliment or derision from an audience which feels the gentle tug of the "bigger picture". We now have an expanding cast, swelling with new villains and new heroes. Koeman, the alchemist, turning lead into gold. Pelle, the clown, laughed at, mocked, and then transformed through hard work into a mighty knight. Tadic the replacement son. Villains are only ever villains for a while. Soon they lose their potency. Even now, is Lallana becoming a tragic hero? His fatal flaw, ambition, was shared by Lovren, Pochettino and, of course, Macbeth. Well, remember Lady Macbeth: "What's done cannot be undone." The matchday story is finite, contained, but the uber-narrative is a complex web so twisted even George R. R. Martin might think it a little overdone. All this is just fancy, really, as I feel the deep warmth of football's story as it has played out in this uber-narrative. It is a comedy of Shakespearean ilk: a weird happy ending constructed out of mistaken identities and presumptions. A marriage of a fanbase, manager and players who need - at this moment - to be together. But there is another narrative, the great metanarrative that rides roughshod over all the rest. The story of football. The history of football. The big clubs and the small. The worthy and the unworthy. It is strange, to me, that in this nation where we value the underdog's story above all, that the narrative we value so strongly is the narrative of conformity. We are the noble Othello of football. The outsider, the little man made big through bold deeds and honour. We have played the game well and satisfied our Venetian council. Yet Iago lurks always at the door. Iago, the tabloid voice of society, who whispers in Othello's ear, muttering "honest" truths. Southampton is not in its place. Southampton is "an old black ram, tupping your white ewe." There is villainy in those break the status quo. A brief search of newsnow will reveal Iago's voice everywhere, as the press seek to level out the playing field, keeping the strong strong and the weak just about in business. Schneiderlin is in the wrong movie. Jay is more Old Vic than Nuffield. Even Koeman should be directing a bigger tragedy, up north in Newcastle. The press hates change, though it thrives on conflict. It is conservative and insular. Most of all, it is unimaginative and uninspired. It has lost its grip on the joy and excitement of that inner sanctum of football's sacred match-day narrative and revels, instead, on the over-mastering metanarrative of the big clubs. To them, we are nothing but bit parts in a Scorcese epic. We are supposed to bend over and get laid by the fat leading man, even while he lets his ego overtake his talent. But Pacino isn't what he used to be. De Niro is little more than a caricature of himself. It's time for the next bright young thing. It's time for Southampton. If they'll let us take a turn upon the stage, that is.
Well I read the whole thing and I loved it. I'm a bit confused as to when the über-narrative stops and the metanarrative starts but I particularly like the characterisation of the media as Iago. Great stuff, Spaced. More of it, please.
I quite liked your theatrical analogy. Traditionally, this is a country that appreciates the underdog, the hidden or forgotten hero. Occasionally, the country comes alive again when the underdog comes back and teaches the overdog that things aren't quite played out yet - the underdog isn't quite dead. As you say, the modern media doesn't seem to appreciate this. They've forgotten that in Great Britain every neutral cheers for the weaker guy. The plucky David over the Goliath. Only the neutral fan without a trace of romance wants the stronger guy to win. Somewhere along the line, the media lost this natural feeling. They play up to the stronger guy these days, and the weaker one is just a loser. Well the majority of fans haven't forgotten, and the greatest evenings are really when the weak overcome the strong. Except when the strong are Southampton FC.
It's all metanarrative, really. It's just how to differentiate the parts. There are basically three levels of metanarrative in play: 1. The matchday narrative - separate from but influenced by... 2. The uber-narrative - the story of the personalities and people who make football - glanced at and larger ignored by... 3. The over-mastering narrative of the press, history and football as social construct. It needs some work, but I could probably write some kind of thesis on it.
The thing is, on the one hand the media need the occasional giantkilling upset, just to satisfy the need we all feel to see David topple Goliath. That's all fine as far as the metanarrative goes. What mustn't happen though, is for a team like Southampton actually to break into the upper echelons of the Premier League and stay there; for David to actually become Goliath. That just won't do at all, because the media would have to completely rewrite all their old prejudices and preconceptions.
Do we want David to become Goliath? What happened to David after he killed Goliath? He stole his friend's wife and deliberately got said friend killed in war. In other words, he turned into a typical Goliath. What would be awesome would be to be successful without becoming like the other clubs at the top. Oh my God, I seem to have unshackled my teacher side tonight.
I think we are already doing the awesome in terms of being a sustainable, family-run club who have taken the vultures to the cleaners and emerged with a stronger squad. To some extent we have shown other clubs the way to overturn the metanarrative. Anyway, Uriah the Hittite, Bathsheba's husband, wasn't David's best friend, they didn't know each other. David did get him killed so he could have Bathsheba but I think you may be confusing Uriah with Jonathan, David's best friend who was the son of King Saul.
Reminds me of Simon Barnes from The Times. In terms of narrative Saints have been the best around for some time now, privileged to have a part in it all.
I think our place in the narrative is that, despite the best efforts of the press, we typify the club approach that most british fans wants to see. we are the model most fans would like their club to adopt. The premier league narrative is hollow, empty and lacking in soul. We are a story with heart. We have a billionaire owner, yes, but we arent Chelsea or Man City. We havent bought our success we've succeeded in spite of those big four. Last season we were every englishmans favorite club because of our english-ness. Pre-WC that was seen as a big positive. This season we've kept a good english presence and we continue to bring young players through. Deep down, despite the success they've enjoyed, the majority of fans of the traditional top 4 dont like the way their clubs are run, they know as well as us that they are a dead end street for young talent and the club will buy in a bigger talent every season rather than bring through their own youngsters. We are football done right.
