on gaetano scirea

[applegnat]

I think it's fair to say that the constitution of the spine of the football team has changed in the last two decades. The libero, the regista, the enganche, even the traditional goal-hanging centre-forward - these are no longer tactical positions as profitable to teams today as they once were. Of the last three there are still fine examples

Comments

[finnygan]

This post is quite possibly the most wonderful post that I have read in a very long time. Thank you. ♥

[My gods, I am stupid for not making my dad buy me the Jonathan Wilson book while I could.]

[applegnat]

&hearts! You're so nice to say so, thank you. I think Neko's pictures really say it all.

[But then hardback is always an unconscionable thing to buy. Maybe you can steal one, and somehow send a cheque to Wilson when you have money?]

[rose_of_rouen]

I'd have loved him you know, I always like players who read the game and use their intelligence rather than their athleticism, and in particular attacking defenders. It's a shame that there aren't more of his games available to see. There is, of course, one lonely player who plays in the sweeper position left in football now, Edwin van der Sar, who will come out and play across his own goal on a regular basis.

This is a really good tribute to the man, Nol, his team mates must have missed him badly in 2006.

[applegnat]

Yes, yes, so true -- I think in Paolo's old age it becomes difficult to remember that compared to some of his illustrious forebears his young self must have seemed almost inhumanly blessed with height and strength and speed - so many defenders of genius were not. While I was compiling this I remembered that he used to support Juve as a boy, and I thought he must have been a Scirea fan as well. It all seems so long ago -- Gila was just about being born when the '82 squad were winning their Cup.

I'm really glad you liked it, Rose, thank you.

[applegnat]

Thank you for checking it out, Conny dear -- and I'll be sure Neko sees and gets credit for this, too. :)

[arenieceida]

Wonderful, Nol. Just wonderful..

[applegnat]

His story just tells itself, doesn't it? Thanks, Anis!

[stickmarionette]

What a brilliant post. I went into it knowing nothing about Scirea, but was still completely absorbed by it. He had an amazing career, didn't he?

Thank you for this. ♥

[applegnat]

Oh, I'm so glad! I didn't know anything about him myself, until I started digging a little deeper into the careers of old Milan hands and found him looming large over the Azzurri pantheon of legendary defenders. It's a shame there isn't more material about him on the Internet. He really deserves to be better-known. [But perhaps there's also a kind of dignity to knowing that his tragic death hasn't been manipulated the way it could have been.]

Thank you, Lee, thank you.

[stickmarionette]

[I can imagine, God.] I'm sure the hardcore Juve faithful love him, though. It's funny how even with these big clubs with their massive stars, the ones who are truly loved and remembered by the fans are sometimes the more inconspicuous ones. [Alright, I'm totally thinking of the results of that massive poll of Barca fans conducted a couple of years ago to find the club's best ever 11. Pep was the midfielder with the most votes by an insane margin, which was pretty telling, I thought, given the other potential candidates. From what I've seen, it's the same at other clubs too, although I can't quite cite the same kind of evidence for it. *g*]

[applegnat]

[Oooh. It'd be interesting to see what sort of results the rest of the poll threw up as well. I've definitely found what you say to be true, though -- and perhaps it's even easier in big, 'family' clubs in Spain and Italy, where so many of them retire into positions upstairs and stay associated with their clubs in some way. ]