Headers and volleys in the park. That's my level. I played for the odd team along the way, but just your local pub sides etc and these days all that is a bit of a distant memory.
The only recollection I have of my days creating havoc as a speedy left winger are in my head.......but then, being a speedy left winger creating havoc was pretty much all in my head as well. The seizing pain in my knees, that stops me from vaulting out of bed each morning like Dick Fosbury, also acts a reminder that what never was, never will be. Tragic. Best have another of those glucosamine tablets. Sniff.
Plenty of blokes my age (that's mid....ok, becoming late thirties) will still turn out to play 5-a-side, or maybe 11-a-side, where they can. In their heads, it's still there, they've still got it....perhaps if Capello gets really desperate.....perhaps, but no.
But just one shot, just one chance to make it, right to the top. To turn out for Rochdale must be one thing, to play a couple of times for Manchester United must be another. And for your country? Wow. And at a World Cup? Unbelievable. What an honour, what a privilege, tell me where to go, I'll crawl over broken glass and hot coals for that......what's the catch? I have to take instructions from Raymond Domenech? Forget it.....
I find it completely bewildering that anyone could contemplate effectively throwing away a chance of a lifetime just because they don't agree with their boss. Surely you do things to spite him, after all, the only reason you are here is because he picked you.....and you cheated your way past the Irish.
The dye for the French World Cup meltdown was cast long before 2010 though. Domenech was never a popular choice when originally selected in 2004, and qualification for the World Cup Finals in Germany in 2006 was only secured once Zidane, Thuram and Makalele had returned to the national side following retirement. Even then, Domenech was no stranger to controversy, Robert Pires, Vikash Dhorasoo and Gregory Coupet all finding an axe to grind with their national coach.
As it turned out, France only just missed out on a second world cup win and it's perhaps due to this to more than anything that the French FA decided to stick with Domenech following his team's dreadful showing in Euro 2008, where they finished last in Group C.
"you can't land the chopper here, T.C."
A stuttering qualification campaign for World Cup 2010 was sealed after that game against Ireland, when Thierry Henry's handball gifted the French a route to South Africa. Facing a backlash from pretty much everywhere, including their country, it didn't take long for things to unravel for France at South Africa.
I can only pick up from what's been reported over the last few weeks, the full inquest may never be made public, but Nicolas Anelka's tirade at Domenech following France's 0-0 draw with Uruguay seemed to be the lighting of le bleu touch paper; the French players looking particularly uneasy from the start in that game.
Subsequent player strikes, resignations, arguments and then Domenech's dreadful final act, failing to shake Carlos Alberto Parreira's hand following France's defeat to South Africa, are how France will be remembered for many years following this World Cup. Far more damning than Zinedine Zidane's headbutt on Marco Materazzi in 2006.
Too much player power, or too much stubbornness on the part of the French FA for persisting with, or perhaps even selecting in the first place, the hapless Domenech.
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