bradley headstone
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Posted: November 14th 2008
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Our Footballing Knight has called for a Christmas break, well ok, a winter break, but it amounts to the same thing. For all the good points about resting players I can’t help think that for Scotsman who enjoys the reputation of being a bon viveur, forty years without a decent Hogmanay is beginning to rankle.
In English football in particular the winter fixtures are a key part of our heritage, the sight of John Motson with a drift building on the peak of his cap is as dear to us as Nobby Stiles skipping at Wembley. For as much as the sight of an orange ball on a rock hard white pitch gladdens the heart, it may be that Sir Alex is on to something.
The one thing I have in common with Professional footballers is Christmas being key in my trade. Personally I love Christmas, especially now that I’ve got a whole day of watching my son steadfastly ignore the expensive presents that Santa has brought in favour of anything from the floor. But professionally I hate it, driven into the ground by it and come New Year I’m a wreck.
Christmas fixtures are by common consent, a lottery. Global warming may have put paid to white out winters and the global economy has ended the possibility of 8-2 score lines, but the concept of 5 games in 10 days at the end of December still has the potential to derail any carefully considered season.
Ever since England and Germany’s footballing rivalry started in surprisingly cordial circumstances one Christmas in 1915, fans have warily scanned the late December collision of fixtures for two very good reasons, Will this run of games make or break the season? Will I have a 500 mile round trip on Boxing Day?
For all we whine about winter disruptions there have only been a couple of seriously weather battered seasons, 1946-47 and 1962-3. Infamous winters that brought not only a few games of football, but also the whole country to a halt.
In 1946 the country was still coming to terms with the aftermath of a world war, so a few months of Football postponements were considered a mere trifle. By 1963 the country had regained sufficient sense of inner confidence to treat the weather, like any true patriot, as central to our way of life. So ‘the big freeze’ was of considerable significance.
From December the 22nd, 1962 to March the 16th, 1963 it wasn’t possible to play a complete league programme. Of 32 FA cup ties scheduled for January the 5th only three were played, some were postponed on ten or more occasions, the Blackburn v Middlesborough tie was finally completed on the 11th of March. Bolton Wanderers didn’t play a game from December the 8th until the 16th of February and then they lost 5-2 at Arsenal!
Sir Alex is probably right, the players need a rest and despite the lucrative trips to Dubai and China, they’d probably get one. If I had chance to notice them I’d probably miss the turn of the year fixtures, but right now I’m struggling to find a decent reason to keep them.
Another pillar of the game gone?