The Promised Land hasn't forgotten it's roots and in this section we are going to relive some of the best, and certainly the worst, pieces that laid the foundations for the site we have today.
I love most of these pieces, but with many I really do look back and ask myself what was I thinking. These are the full raw, unedited versions of what exactly I wrote. Try not to laugh too much, I did my best.
Enjoy
Ross
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Blue And Red Don't Mix
"Back in September 2008, talk was rife about an Everton/Liverpool ground-sharing project, and in recent weeks talks have opened again. Before the Merseyside Derby on 27th of September 2008, I had this to say. And I still feel the same."
Before today's Merseyside derby, there was more talk of both Everton and Liverpool moving grounds.
As far as Liverpool are concerned, this is a ridiculous idea. Why on earth would they want to move away from Anfield? It's absolutely absurd.
Anfield is a true theatre of football. Like Old Trafford, it?'s been there since the beginning, it's seen the best days, and the worst.
Now, I hate Liverpool. However, I do have an enormous respect for them. Respect for their history, the stadium, the Kop, Bill Shankly's days, the first four European Cups, the Alan Hansen's, the Phil Neal's, the Emelyn Hughes'. I've been to Anfield twice. Both on non-match days. The furthest I got was the museum. Yet, when I first walked through the gates and saw 'The Kop' and the statue of Bill Shankly, the hairs literally stood up on the back of my neck. I just knew this was a special place. And one of my life's ambitions is to go back to Anfield and watch United beat them there. I can only imagine the feeling.
I would hate to lose Anfield. It's a major part of the club, it's a major part of the rivalry between United and the Scousers. Games at Highbury were fantastic. Really tough, intimidating games. The kind of games you look forward to each season, just like Liverpool away. It would be horrible for Liverpool to follow Arsenal into another state-of-the-art, heartless, soulless arena. Going to The Emirates (what a fucking diabolical name for a football ground) isn't exactly the most exciting prospect nowadays. It very well could be in 40 or 50 years when it's built up it's own history, but, in Liverpool's case, why throw away the last 100-odd years when it might take another 100 years to get back what they have. It doesn't make sense.
The only aspect that it would make sense, obviously, is financially. Liverpool have problems expanding Anfield because of where it's located, and an extra 25,00 seats a game would do no harm to the accounts. But, as Chelsea have been reminded and the council housers down the road at Manchester CITEH will find out soon enough, football is about so much more than money. It's about places like Anfield and Old Trafford, people like Shankly and Busby, it's about history, heart and soul.
No matter how much I despise Liverpool Football Club, I would break my heart to see that wonderful footballing theatre demolished.
And as for an Everton/Liverpool ground-sharing project? Forget about it.
R.C
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I'd Take Rooney Every Time
"I wrote this just before Manchester United's Champions League semi-final, first leg tie away to Barcelona in April 2008. Cristiano Ronaldo was on fire, having the season of his life and was drawing all the plaudits. I thought somebody else was due some credit, too...also, in the wake of the Rooney revelations over the past week, this piece gives me the opportunity to show how I once held him in such high esteem."
“Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player in the world“, according to Wayne Rooney.
It’s a fair statement, but one I’m not sure I agree with. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ronaldo. 38 goals so far this season, and he has been consistently one of the best over the past two years. One thing that holds him back, though, is his inability to influence the big, big games. The games at Anfield, the Bridge, the San Siro, the Nou Camp and so on. He will get his chance in Barcelona in the coming week, he must take it.
And, of course, Ronaldo will walk the PFA Players player of the year, Football Writers player, the United supporters player of the year, and everything bloody else! And deservedly so. He’s had an awesome season, he’s scored from everywhere and won us crucial games seemingly on his own sometimes.
However, all this talk of Ronaldo being the best in the world reminds me of that famous quote from John Lennon. Asked once, “Is Ringo Starr the best drummer in the world?”, Lennon replied “Best in the world? He’s not even the best drummer in the Beatles!”
I believe this could be said about Ronaldo and Manchester United. So, Wayne, if you’re looking to compliment the best, perhaps you should look a little closer to home; it’s you.
If I had to choose, I’d take Rooney over Ronaldo every time. He’s just superb. He probably doesn’t score as much as he should (just 17 goals this season) but his all round play is bettered by nobody. He is without a doubt the focal point of this team. Every performance is given one hundred percent. He epitomizes Manchester United’s ‘never-say-die’ attitude. Indeed, his attitude in general is fantastic, his loyalty to his team-mates and his work ethic, which unfortunately Ronaldo doesn’t share. United could be 3-0 up in stoppage time at Reading and you’ll still see Rooney back at his own corner flag trying to make a tackle. And then you’ll see him busting a gut to get forward to score a fourth when United counter attack. That’s Rooney. That’s what he’s all about.
If Ronaldo is to be the new George Best, Rooney is most certainly Bobby Charlton. I know their positions differ slightly, but their attitude, their devotion to Manchester United and, certainly, their intelligence on the football pitch is exactly the same.
I worry about Ronaldo sometimes. I feel that perhaps we’ll only have him until he’s 27 or 28 and he’ll move on, probably to somewhere sunnier. And I suppose he has every right. But I don’t see that happening with Rooney. I can see him retiring at Old Trafford. I can see him emulating Charlton or Giggs by spending 13 or 14 years at the club. I can see him becoming a coach or an ambassador. I can see him spending his life at United. I hope I’m wrong about Ronaldo, but I don’t see the same, for the want of a better word, affection. However, under no circumstances am I questioning his current dedication, love or ability in this piece. He’s an amazing footballer and I would just hate to see him in any other jersey.
But, for instance, after the whole ‘winking’ incident during the 2006 World Cup, I heard an interview with Ronaldo in which he said that ‘he’d be considering his options (about staying at or leaving Manchester United) after the World Cup‘, and I just thought, well if you don’t want to play for us, then fuck off. Of course, it was at a time when the whole of England wanted him dead, and he hadn’t signed a new deal, but I just think any other player would’ve come out and said that he was going nowhere and he was happy at United. I was looking for a bit more conviction, a bit more dedication.
Obviously, he came through (after much coaxing by Sir Alex, apparently), and, of course, I’m delighted. He showed, after the World Cup, a lot of character and commitment by coming back and silencing every critic. It was brilliant. And while things are rosy in the garden, it’ll always be brilliant. But if things were to ever turn sour again, I’d have my doubts. I don’t have that with Rooney.
Anyway, two outstanding footballers, in my opinion, the top two in the world at the moment. But give me a choice and I’ll take Rooney every time.
You see, football is an art, and Ronaldo is one of the great artists. However, there is another side to the beautiful game, one which is ugly, physical, dogged and brutal. Rooney’s blend of silk and steel, his passion and attitude combined, make him, in my opinion, the world’s most complete footballer.
R.C
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Roy Keane- The Tragic Hero
"This is certainly one of my favourite pieces ever. Written on the 5th of December 2008, the day after Roy Keane walked out on Sunderland, it gave me the perfect opportunity to put in words exactly what I thought of the man."
If, in his hey-day, Shakespeare, somewhere between Hamlet and MacBeth, had penned ‘Keane‘, it would’ve been a masterpiece. Roy Keane would’ve been Shakespeare’s greatest tragic hero.
A tragic hero is one who is the architect of their own downfall, one who reaches a catastrophe as a result of their own flaws. It is one who is neither fully good, nor fully evil.
Roy Keane is a mixture of Shakespeare’s greatest tragic heroes. Just like Lear, he abdicated his Sunderland throne when there was no need to. Just like Shylock, he makes it so agonizingly difficult for us to sympathize with him, yet we still do. Just like MacBeth, all through his life he has displayed a hunger and a burning desire to reach the top that is absolutely second to none. Just like Hamlet, he plotted his revenge on those who wronged him, and the studs in Alf Inge Haaland’s knee proves that he got it, but, like Hamlet, that too came at a price. And, like all of them, his soliloquies at each press conference were more epic, revealing and thought-provoking than the last.
Although unlike Romeo, I doubt he ever contemplated poisoning himself in a suicide love-in with Niall Quinn. Poisoning Quinn, though? Now that may just have crossed his mind alright.
When Roy Keane abdicated his throne in Sunderland last week, it confirmed what we kind of already knew. Keane has, along with his burning desire for success, an overwhelming need for crisis and drama. He is as complex and fascinating a character you will ever hope to know of.
His rise, albeit short-lived, to stardom in the managerial world at Sunderland has ended as messy as his departures from Manchester United and the World Cup. Keane may be my idol, but that’s not to say I’ve agreed with everything he’s done. He’s made many wrong decisions. He is wrong to leave Sunderland. He was wrong to cause the disruption leading to his Old Trafford exit, but, alas, he was not wrong in Saipan.
His decision to leave Sunderland was a poor one, not because he owes them anything, but because he has the ability to continue his success with the club. And all Roy Keane had at Sunderland was success. He was most certainly not a failure as some pundits would have you believe. To bring a club from the bottom of the Championship and establish them in the Premier League in the space of 100 games is a fantastic achievement. Keane’s biggest mistake at Sunderland was not to give Pascal Chimbonda a contract at a professional football club, nor to assume that any of those players had a tenth of the talent or drive that he had in his pomp. No, his biggest mistake was to be too successful too soon.
He was also wrong to slate his Manchester United team-mates publicly in 2005. That infamous MUTV interview of course led to his demise at United, although it’s not WHAT he said, it was HOW he said it. Those players at the time needed a bollocking. But they needed it in the dressing room or on the training ground, not on television.
Now my aim here is not to open the Saipan debate again but, depending on your own opinion, whether Roy Keane‘s crime was to walk away, or to do the Tom Humphries interview, or to question Mick McCarthy or just stand up for his principles and beliefs, whatever the ‘crime‘, he was not wrong in Saipan.
It’s often suggested that Roy Keane only wants what’s best for Roy Keane. That, at the first hint of trouble, he’ll throw his toys out of his pram. That he can’t handle the pressure. This the most disrespectful comment you can make about Keane as a player, and as a man. To those who say Keane is not a team player, who call him selfish and a bottler, I say: Remember Turin?
Turin is just one example, but it is undoubtedly the best, to show that Keane is none of those things. On April the 24th 1999, Juventus hosted Manchester United in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final. United were held 1-1 at home. After eleven minutes, Juve were 2-0 up. It was a disaster. The European Cup would have to wait for another year. Heads in red shirts were dropping everywhere. English teams found it difficult enough alone to win on Italian soil, but from 2-0 down? You must be joking.
However, United didn’t exactly need a miracle, although that was the general consensus. What they needed was a leader. They needed somebody to grab them by the scruff of the neck and instil some pride and aggression back in the team. Somebody to drive them forward. Somebody to sacrifice themselves for the greater good should the situation demand it. Keane did just that. He refused to lament and after 24 minutes he latched on to Beckham’s corner and headed United back into the game. His celebration summed him up that night. One glance to ensure the net was rippling, then head down and back to the centre circle. No frills, no thrills, no fuss. Just a high five from Denis Irwin as he raced to get the game underway again, determination etched into his face.
His performance as a footballer, a leader and a man that night was sensational. And he did it with two rather full pockets. Edgar Davids was in one, Zidane in the other. With Keane at the helm, United won 3-2. A truly amazing victory. But the thing about Keane that night was that he was booked in the first half. It meant he would miss the next game, regardless of the outcome. The Champions League final. Heartbreaking to say the least. However, he kept his chin up and even with the realisation that he would miss the biggest game in United’s history, he ensured his team-mates would be there. He sacrificed himself for the greater good. A quite unselfish thing to do, I must say.
That night, Roy Keane was a hero. A hero to all United fans and to anyone with an appreciation for football. A tragic hero.
Roy Keane isn’t my idol because he was the most talented footballer, or because he was the best role model for a ten year old child to look up to. He’s my idol because he’s a man, a proper man’s man. He’s principled and stands up for what he believes in, and, in fact, that’s probably the best role model you could want. He’s also as inspirational as they come. Nobody in the footballing world, and very few in Irish history, compare with Keane’s ability to inspire and to stir the emotions. Love him or hate him, he is remarkable in that respect.
Despite his many flaws, is there any man out there that has never, at some stage in their lives, dreamed of being Roy Keane?
He is the ultimate alpha-male. He says whatever he wants. He does whatever he wants. You may not agree with his attitude, but you must respect it. In an age when ‘celebrities’ are waiting for Joe Soap to tell them whether or not they can stay in a jungle, a man who stands up and tells the world exactly what he thinks and who waits for absolutely nobody to tell him when he can come, stay or leave must be admired.
He is as aggressive as he is inspirational. He is as influential as he is unpredictable. He is as fair as he is tough. He is a character; a leader; a legend.
This is not a tribute to Roy Keane, tribute’s are for when something or someone has come to an end. This is merely a suggestion that, the Shakespearean protagonist that he is, he will rise again.
Roy Keane; the tragic hero.
R.C
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