Actions speak volumes as Morgan is temporarily silenced
Suppress for a moment that yearning to have a quiet weep but Piers Morgan (5 billion twitter followers and rising) is having something of a bad time of it at the moment. Piers, as you may know, is number one fan and best mate of Kevin Pietersen (3 billion twitter followers). He also holds one or two trenchant views about the latter’s treatment at the hands of the English cricketing establishment and along the way he’s uttered one or two unkind things about Alistair Cook – if one can summarise – spineless and lacking in moral fibre. They are possibly the same thing but you get the gist.
Anyway for all those introverts in the world – of which Cook is one – it was with a sense of quiet schadenfreude that they watched the England captain lead a batting fight back in the first test at Lords a week ago before marshalling his troops in the field to claim a famous victory over New Zealand currently third (ahead of England) in the test rankings. To add to Morgan’s discomfort yesterday Cook became England’s highest test run scorer of all time when reaching 75 in England’s first innings at Headingly. Acknowledging the achievement with typical modesty is central to his character allied to an inner core of steel. “Alistair’s real talent is concentration and not enough is said about that or his stubbornness” commented Michael Vaughan. “More than any player I have played with he had that inner strength of character”.
So for the time being at least Morgan’s 5 billion twitter followers have been spared further pronouncements on the state of English cricket. Given that Australia arrive shortly the silence is likely to be temporary. But we have a promising young side who may cause a surprise or two and whilst the quiet lasts, the least we can do is take great pleasure in it.
Morgan’s other great talent – for he is nothing if not multi skilled - is as an ardent follower of The Gunners, a team from North London who have achieved very little since their last Premier League title in 2004. For the last couple of year Piers has used twitter as a platform from which to rabble rouse about their inept manager arguing that Mr Wenger is long past his sell by date and should be put out to grass. And then just when you thought that a number of his “tweets” might actually be read, along comes Arsenal’s emphatic FA Cup win, against Aston Villa, to put a veritable spanner in the works.
Morgan’s “embarrassment” aside, the final exposed how deep are the problems affecting the English game. Tim Sherwood may be a great motivator – in Paul Lambert’s wake Eyore could do a better job - but no matter how much you run around if you lack innate skill it is likely that against a side of superior talent (such as Arsenal) you will lose more times than you win. 77% of the side that started the game for Aston Villa were from the British Isles (including goalkeeper Shay Given). A number are potential England players. For Arsenal it was a mere 22%.
I harbour no animosity towards Aston Villa but listening to last night’s BBC WM ‘phone in was an object lesson in delusion and why English football remains an also ran. One after another a succession of distraught Villan’s came on to claim “we dae show up”. Their comments implied that they began the game on an equal footing and if only they had displayed a tad more effort they would have made a game of it. I am sorry to say this chaps but the gap in talent was a chasm.
We may bemoan the prevalence of the Foreign footballers in the Premier League and how they deny British players an opportunity, but there is nothing to stop those self same players plying their trade abroad. At the moment the list is three; Gareth Bale (Real Madrid), Ashley Cole (Roma) and Micah Richards (Fiorentina). It takes a lot of resilience to play in a Foreign country where cultural differences and a language deficit can leave an individual feeling isolated. But overcoming those hurdles instils strength and if you can adapt to a different style of play, how much better a footballer do you become. Sanchez, Cazorla, Coquelin, Ozil and Mertesacker all know this and whilst extravagant pay packets help it is a major motivation for them being here. Thus do they end up as better players, both at club and national level.
As for Piers I sense your days of carping about Arsene are numbered. He will depart at a time of his own choosing.
©Mark Brennand