The Silly Season

Well, here we are again. It is the season for fantasists to speculate on whether England will win the World Cup or whether Andy Murray will win Wimbledon. In a way, I suppose people almost have to ask these questions - even though they already know the answers.

In both cases, the answer is no. Albeit, Andy Murray has a pig's chance on the basis of his talent and desire. Unfortunately, we are now in the professional era and this means that success for British representatives in the most lucrative events is nigh on impossible. If tennis was still predominantly an amateur sport, then we may have a chance of producing a champion. As it is, in the professional era it comes down to sheer committment. A good analagy is a concert pianist. To be at the top, he or she is estimated to have to put in somewhere in excess of 10,000 hours practice on the way after which time they may be rewarded reasonably well. Reasonably well. Not disproportionately well. They actually love playing the piano and would probably do so for the sheer enjoyment and challenge.

It is this loss of the Corinthian spirit heralded by the demands of Jimmy Hill for the abolition of the minimum wage in the 1960s which signalled the death knell for the success of sport in this country.

Let's take football as a case in point. In the 1960s, the notion of a foreign player coming here to play would have been treated with derision. It is now de rigeur with the result that British players are now distinctly in the minority. Those that do play are paid so much, most couldn't give tuppence about playing for their country. Some, such as Jamie Carragher, even have the temerity to openly admit it - and then come back to play for the sheer hell of it. What absolute nonsense! He should never have been called back to the ranks after the comments he made. However, the point is made and others now know that for a pampered Premier league player on a weekly wage in excess of the average national salary, there is always an open door...

Put simply, the manager is foreign, at least one player would rather be playing for his club and the rest are paid so much domestically, South Africa and the World Cup is meaningless to them. Aside from this, there has not been an English player at the top flight with the experience of World triumph for over thirty five years now - unlike Brazil, France, Italy, Germany...

For me, the endless speculative copy churned out by the dear old fourth estate just provides some welcome amusement - I really can't believe anybody is naive or foolish enough to still buy into it.