Lots of food for thought in the papers this morning. “I’ll do anything to ge her back!” Wazza says in The Guardian vis-à-vis getting Coleen back after all his slag shagging exploits.
“Players can’t afford to booze any more,” says ‘Arry Redknapp ve Spurs spiv. “Everybody and their mother’s got a camera phone now.”
Too true. To be a footballer now is to live in a goldfish bowl, but that’s nobody’s idea of news. All I know is that Wayne Rooney likes to smoke and booze it up, like players of yore. The consequence of that being his career probably won’t last as long as those of us who love the way he plays hope it will.
Which brings me to Edwin Van Der Sar. I love this guy. I met him during United’s American tour a few weeks back. Mobbed, he stayed behind after all the other players had left to talk at length to every kid he gave an autograph to, including my own. A real classy gentleman. When a fellow journo friend of mine asked him about longevity, EVDS said. “I don’t drink booze, just wine with dinner and early to bed. That’s it. It’s not complicated.”
The latest news is that he’s ready, depending on the source, to sign on the dotted line for Manchester United for one or two more seasons. The only obstacle he might face, beyond time diminishing his reflexes, is the ill health of his wife, who suffered a severe debilitating stroke last year. To these naked eyes, our 6’ 5 1/2 ” ace stopper has suffered no case of diminished capacity whatsoever. At any rate, his positioning and athletic ability has been awesome so far.
Is this a risky move for the Gaffer? No way. In a very unscientific way, I am certain that he really does still own the right stuff by virtue of having taken excellent care of himself. If you look up the stats and histories of the four highest rated goalies of the last century, you’ll see four names. Lev Yashin, Gordon Banks, Dino Zoff and Peter Shilton. All played into their forties. All worked very hard at keeping in shape and living a healthy lifestyle. So there really is no reason to doubt that EVDS has more miles available on the odometer; or, because top class goalkeepers are vain creatures, that he wouldn’t keep collecting a paycheck if he felt he couldn’t cut it anymore. Anyone who doubts his quality surely didn’t see the spectacular series of saves he made two weeks ago against his old club Fulham when we were lucky to leave South London with a point after a lucky 2-2 escape. Thanks Edwin!
Edwin Van Der Sar has character in spades. I have an anecdote of my own to verify it. Having won the European Cup with Ajax, he was sold for big money to Juventus in 1999. Spectacular with Ajax, he seemed a lot less so with Juve. Perhaps awed by the Italian experience or the cruel, crude crowd, he made a lot of schoolboy-type mistakes. I caught a match against Inter in Turin in May of 2000 when the home fans booed him every time he handled the ball. A botched cross allowed an Inter goal and the fans really let him have it in no uncertain terms. Still, clearly Juventus’ defence as a whole was having problems and Van Der Sar, being the first non-Italian to wear their number one jersey, was never going to have it easy. “Biondi è rifiuti¡” (’Blondie is rubbish!!”)the crowd kept chanting. An already mature twenty-nine at the time, he looked devastated throughout the match and surely must have suffered a lot of personal doubt at the time. Consequently, I wasn’t surprised when the Old Lady went out and spent a world record fee of thirty-six million pounds for Gianluigi Buffone, nor that Van Der Sar was discontent to be sitting on the bench, requested a transfer and got one to Fulham.
Hard times make the Man, or so they say. EVDS is not the most spectacular keeper, but his size and brilliant sense of positioning have made him easily our finest keeper since Peter Schmeichel. And having watched Fabian Barthez, Roy Carroll, Tim Howard and Ben Foster crack under the week-in/week-out pressure of the position, I believe that he is awesome to behold and that, in the long run, once he retires, Ferguson will choose his best bet for a new goalie to be another mature warhorse like Jussi Jääskeläinen or Sebastian Frey.
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BrentonwaltersI'm a little unclear how your anecdote demonstrates character. He was stellar at Ajax, struggled at Juventus, and requested a transfer. Sounds pretty standard. Where's the character there? Not that I'm doubting his character, because he's always seemed like a classy gent.blog comments powered by Disqus
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