After reading the interview with John Byrne, it made me think back to the halcyon days of my youth, week in and week out cheering on the likes of him and Gary Bannister. Why did I and many like me have (and to be honest, still do have) this hero worship and adulation of these stars ? Speaking to my lads (17 and 18), of course they still adore the players wearing the hoops, get the names of the likes of Tarrabt on their shirts, and shout their name with vigour BUT it just doesn't seem to me the same sort of adulation that i use to have for our teams players, all those years ago. Is it just a case of those years being a more innocent time, when you collected your Panini stickers and knew exactly what swaps you needed, a time when our walls were adorned with pictures of our heroes and every Sunday morning YOU could be Byrne or Bannister making that silky run past the defender (albeit a dustbin doesn't make that good a tackle)......... Or is it that the youth of today are more cynical and realise that the modern day player really does have no loyalty to the badge (despite the fake kissing of it you see from some) and is mainly just in it for the big fat pay check at the end of the month. Opinions please......
I don't think the media saturation of celebrity has helped. It's not in just the world of football, but also in the film and music industries too, where a bombardment of celebrity magazines, internet sites, general gossip and TV coverage has made just about everything a 'star' does newsworthy... and all the more bland for it. Many of the stars of yesteryear didn't have to contend with this saturation and so we could turn a street corner without seeing their ugly mug on every newsstand, billboard of TV screen in Rumbelows. But strangely, the old stars were more accessible to the average man in the street. There were stories of the likes of Bobby Moore travelling to matches on the bus with the supporters, whereas these days its Taarabt travelling on the bus away from the supporters at half-time. I think this connection the old stars had with Average Joe is rarely matched these days, when, for most young kids, the closest you get to a modern footballer is seeing his Ferrari sweep past, or him climbing out the coach with massive headphones on, or yet another one of the endless, banal TV interviews when "yeah, hopefully, the gaffer, well, he'll pick me and, yeah, hopefully, I'll start repaying the faith he's shown, y'know, yeah, hopefully.... blah, blah, ****ing, blah!" To me, most of these modern footballers appear as thick as ****.
I remember watching les Ferdinand, he was the first star for me I couldn’t wait to go to see rangers home and away with him in our side genuine pace and such a powerful shot not bad at free kicks either. Paul parker was also a player I really liked solid and quick in defence. The worst moment for me was sitting on a sun lounger in Greece with my girlfriend and opening up the sun newspaper and seeing sir les in a Newcastle shirt gone for 6 million, literally ruined my holiday!
I think when we were younger there was less football saturation, it was Saturday or midweek if you went to see us play or MoTD / The Big Match at best if you couldn't. To see your club, to see your heroes you had to make more effort to watch them. That's why I have great memories of away games, walking down to LR after parking my Uncle's Capri on the Goldhawk Road and being at the cup semi-final at Highbury Players would also stay at a club for longer periods, now its like a merry go round, hard to build any affinity for a player who moves every season. Success must now be instant whereas - possibly because its through rose tinted glasses - there was less pressure to finish 8th - say's it all really! Nowadays its all Monday Night Football and blanket coverage
also back then we liked to believe players played for the love of the shirt not the amount of zeros on their paycheque.
Looking at some of the names that are often described as heroes I think there are two main factors that contribute to proper hero status along with a player's character. 1. Longevity at the club 2. Relative success of team. Stan Bowles was a QPR hero. Played for the Rs for 7 years and in that golden team that nearly took the 1st Division Championship. Les Ferdinand was a QPR hero. Played for the R's for about 5 years (not including time on loan in Turkey early on). The slide downwards began after he was sold to Newcastle. Ian Holloway was (to some) a QPR hero. Played for the Rs for 5 years, and has also managed the club. Clive Allen was a QPR hero. Played for the Rs for only 3 years, but in that time the Rs got to the FA Cup final and gained promotion to the top flight. etc, etc. As success has drifted away, so have the true heroes. In the eyes of many their heroes are those that were playing when they first starting supporting the club or going to matches. Four years as a kid seems like half a lifetime and you have not experienced many other players. In the modern game players don't hang around long enough to become heroes, unless the team is being successful. Clint Hill is the only current regular player who has played for over 3 years (even with a break on loan at Forest). Faurlin is the longest serving player with 4 years! Hogan Ephraim has been with the club for 6 years - much of it out on loan. Who are two of the most popular players in the QPR squad (judging by remarks on this board) ... Clint Hill and Ale Faurlin - both in the promotion winning team. Neither has reached real hero status in the way Bowles, Ferdinand, etc, did.
Clint is becoming a hero to me...but Eamon is right, if his devotion to the cause, and desire was linked to a successful team...he would be a hero. Start looking towards our team now, and I see Ned becoming to me what Bob Hazell was when I was younger
They got an icepick.....which made their ears burn. Our heroes have turned from the showmen, entertainers and mavericks to the steadfast, committed and predictable. You can be a genius today, but if you don't track back, go into every tackle happy to have your leg broken, come off the pitch gasping for breath at the end, you are distrusted. In the age of instant information overkill everyone is an expert and the lowest common denominator is king. The decline continues.
These are tough times for heroes, there's hardly a genre that hasn't had the heavy gang sent in among them and what they've uncovered isn't pretty. Be it entertainers, politicians, clergy or business people it's not easy to name more than a handful who haven't a whiff of suspicion settle on them at some time or another. Special loathing seems to be reserved for the working class heroes however, those who had a great enough talent to be pulled from the high rise ghetto which may have been their lot otherwise. Who knows? What is clear is that many football supporters feel educationally and socially superior to the vast majority of players and deeply resent the fame and riches bestowed on them. Aussie put up some interesting pictures from the old days of various famous footballers, heroes one and all. Someone remarked that what was pleasing about the picture of Stan Matthews was the fact that the car he had was appropriately modest, not a Bentley or a Jag. If he was playing in today's premiership, which car would he choose? Which one would we choose, and are we really that different from the current players? I think not.
Ok...yes....He is small and cute, his legs look as though they were broken at birth, he tries so hard with so little final outcome.. His goal against Chelski, was only because, he was so surprised that Adel had passed it to him, he didn't have time to think what to do.. The match against Swindon....only one player was trying....SWP! Yes I can see it as a short, cuddly loveable antihero. There is something about SWP that I love
Sorry but being an old f**t the ones I thought were heroes were about when i was at school. Arthur Longbottom, Brian Bedford, tony Ingham and the like. As you got older the 'heroes' were replaced by players you admired, the ones that came through our youth set up and formed the basis of the 67 side with additions such as Rodney. i knew John Collins having played with him at youth level but he was not my hero just a player i admired. The word hero is not something i would apply to a footballer. PS. sorry I should have said my real hero was my Uncle shot down over France just before the end of the war
Gary Bannister, Gary Waddock, Warren Neill, Wayne Fereday, Trevor Sinclair, Rufus Brevett, Andy Impey, Simon Stainrod, Stevie Wicks, Alan MacDonald, Dave Thomas, Ian Gillard, Gerry Francis, Terry Venables, Kevin Gallen etc, etc. All heroes in their particular time for me and all for differing reasons.
Now you're talking + for me add Sir Les, John Byrne, Bob Hazell all players used to love watching in an RRR's shirt.
I think this reinforces Stainy's OP Sheff. None of the players you've mentioned have been a Rangers Hero within the last ten years.
I'm sorry to break this to you all but you've just got old. Do the kids still wait for autographs? Do they still have players names on the back of their shirts? The next hero is just a pass, goal, last ditch tackle or save away. The comment about successful teams just highlights the grown up need to put everything into context. The players may be more detached but they're still hero worthy if they're good enough. Society has changed and the status of a modern footballer, rightly or wrongly, just fits into this current age. Of course, society isn't as good as it once was and rose tinted goggles aren't what they used to be.
