Gordon Banks
There's
an old saying, what I know about football wouldn't get my hair
cut. And that about sums me up as I haven't been watching it for
very long – well about ten to twenty years; forty – let's face it
sixty and I still only know it from the survival end. I have no
knowledge about tactics, plans, diamond shaped formations or
pressing. I just know what I know. The people in the crowd at football matches know everything about it - or think they do.
What
I know about football – we are talking about asSOCiation football,
and you can see that little word in caps there which is why America
calls it soccer – is that I have followed, for all that time, a team
called Aston Villa. I am in good company as Tom Hanks likes the Villa
and so does King Billy – the next king after Charles (if, indeed he
calls himself Charles; his granddad, Albert, called himself George –
bit like the pope, you see).
I
have followed other teams too – Liverpool and Manchester United –
but only as a passing interest.
The
one thing I have noticed about football, in all that time, is that it
has changed and not always for the better. When I first started
watching, a ball would be passed from either of the wings and as the
ball reached inside the six yard box, the goalie and the centre
forward would jump up for it and if the goalie caught it the centre
forward would shoulder charge the goalie over the goal line and it
would be a goal.
When
Aston Villa last won the cup, they played, maybe, the best football
team ever; the Busby
Babes.
The team of 1957. The
final was marred by a collision after only six minutes between Villa
forward Peter McParland and United goalkeeper Ray Wood, which left
Wood unconscious with a broken cheekbone. Wood left the pitch and
Jackie Blanchflower took over in goal for United. Wood eventually
rejoined the game in an outfield position as a virtual passenger
before returning to goal for the last seven minutes of the game.
Not
long after that game, on February 6th
1958, most of the United team were killed in a plane crash in Munich.
In
doze daze (those days) there was no such thing as a substitute as,
before you ask, no, Wood wasn't subbed. In another cup final someone
went off after a short time and the team carried on with ten men. So they introduced substitutes after a lot of nagging with old sweats saying the game will never be the same; an
injury was the only reason for substitution which has evolved in to
making the use of substitutes into tactical decisions which football
has never been able to use correctly like other sports such as
Basketball; even Rugby have a more sensible approach to new ideas –
but not football. You may think they need to come into the twenty
first century but I would say they need to come in to the twentieth
first.
It
is such a reactionary sport, very conservative when you can count on
one hand the number of gay footballers who have ever come
out;
there are quite a few, believe me, but the powers that be in
football are only just about managing racism.
I
missed most of the Premiere
League
when we lived in America, only watching the World
Cup,
which was strange when we would hear the American commentators
referring to PKs (penalties) and one of them used to call the goal
the onion
bag. So
when I came back and started to watch the Premiere League I was
startled at the quality of the football, the skill of the players and
the excitement of the whole thing. Of course most of the live
football is on Sky
TV
which costs an arm and a leg so I am quite satisfied with Match
of the Day
which is on BBC TV.
The
one thing I did notice was that the goalie, these days, doesn't seem
to run out to punch the ball away, or even catch it, as often as they
used to, preferring to stay on the goal line and taking a chance.
Talking
of goalies, I was talking about football to a pal, when I lived in
LA, and I mentioned the goalkeeper; 'the what?' my pal said 'the
goalkeeper!' I said – 'never heard them called that before' he
said.
Gordon
Banks died recently; possibly England's greatest goalkeeper, maybe
even the shortest. He made a famous save in the 1970 world cup from,
maybe the greatest ever footballer, Pelė,
which people say was the best save ever. The people who say that
didn't see all his saves, of course, and, even though I have used it
once or twice, there is no such thing as the greatest anything –
even a country (sorry America) – but Banks would be up there if there was such as thing.
At
his prime Banks got into a car crash and lost the sight in his right eye – he was a great ambassador for football after that, but had to sell his
world cup medal later on because of financial difficulties;
footballers were always on low money and these days most of them are
not great earners but Banks was dedicated as most footballers are.
Banks
would dive for every shot – even the ones he knew were going wide –
and when asked about this he would say it would warm him up, get him
ready and make him feel part of the game.
