FOOTBALL
Shall We Lose?
I DON'T know, but it's jolly likely. 'We shall win the World Cup,' Alf Ramsey said what seemed ages ago. Let us not be too harsh: he
said it in an unguarded moment, and he has meanwhile eaten his words.
But let us not be too mild either. lie can't make his players better than they are, but he can certainly make them worse. Nor should he be immune from armchair criticism. In my own job, I sometimes find the amateur's criticism fresher, more constructive, than the prejudiced professional's. Our professionalism ought to be strong enough not to need self-assertion.
'Professionalism' does indeed tend to be the football manager,'s occupational disease, and by professionalism he means hard work. It has its plaCe, of course; but he will readily exaggerate its importance. Not that he has no time for 'genius; but that time is limited.
Twice in the course of his World Cup preparations, Ramsey dropped Jimmy Greaves, depressing him in the process. On the other hand, after Ramsey's side failed against Wales, he retained it, minus the injured Peacock, against Austria. It failed again. I take my hat off to his calm confidence, but it came a bit late and not altogether in the right place. When Greaves is off form, he's dropped. When mediocrities flop, they are retained. George Eastham, who can play the fifteen minutes of world-class foot- ball that can win a game, is in the wilderness; and Johnny Haynes, a distributor with whom Greaves would dearly love to play, has not even been considered. Stiles, whose tenacity is un- savoury rather than skilful, is preferred to Milne; Paine, who looks the Second Division
player he is, seems for that very reason to invite the chronic trust we reserve for the underdog. I am not saying that 'we shall win the World.
Cup' if we use all the real talent at our disposal; but we shall certainly lose it if we continue to depend on our hard-working nonentities. Yes, even at this late stage, we ought to start again. What have we to lose? Team spirit? Co-ordina- tion? How much is there of that, anyhow?
There would have been, had we brought our- selves to field a Great Britain side. On the Saturday before the match against Austria, two Great Britain sides faced each other—Tottenham and Manchester United. In comparison with that match, England v. Austria looked like a Second Division struggle. Never mind, for the Great •Britain side it is too late. We won't renounce the race riots between England and Scotland. So let us look again at what little talent we have, with Charlton in the middle or back on the wing, and place our confidence in a side that might win if everY" body happens to. be able to do his best. Then continue to play the team whether it does well or not.
'It's elusive, this knack or whatever it is. Sometimes the harder you try, the less it seems to be coming,' Greaves said to Brian James after his great goal against Manchester United. If we don't harness all available knacks, toning down our faith in sheer hard labour, we have no hoPe: I do not expect Ramsey to listen to me, n°_,` even if I remind him that the way he happened to get Ipswich on top is no model because 11! couldn't have done anything else with Ipswie't anyway. But please don't blame me if we don win the World Cup.
HANS NIA
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