Blood, sweat and beers for the little donkey
September 1st 2009 19:13
I was a little young to attend City’s late night cup ties of the 1990 promotion season but I got a taste of knockout football at The Park a few years later with the visit of Aston Villa.
Big Ron fielded the strongest side available to him. Andy Townsend, Steve Staunton and the same Ray Houghton who would shock the Italians at that year’s World Cup were all under the cosh for most of the game.
Inside The Cowshed you could feel there was an upset in the making as Bally directed his troops from across the field.
Super Mario put ball after ball in front of Stuart Storer’s tasche and the pacey forward caused genuine problems for the Villa defence that afternoon.
City’s plucky display was eventually undone on the hour mark when Dean Saunders fell in the box before dusting himself down to ram home the spotkick.
Carlisle anyone?
As well as being introduced to the magic of cup football that day I also got a whiff of something else. The big story pre-game was Villa’s Irish defender Paul McGrath going AWOL.
A remember a few jokes being bandied about the pub before the game as well as some juicy terrace banter on the matter.
More than ten years later I thumbed through Paul McGrath’s autobiography and learned about the kind of personal hell he was going through at the time. It made the cup tie seem a very long time ago.
There is no doubt that if Paul were playing today his problems would be dealt with a lot differently. Players are now commodities and clubs bend over backwards to maintain not only their physical condition but also their mental health.
This season in Argentina has seen the return of Ariel Ortega in a River Plate shirt. The mercurial playmaker may just be one of long line of Argentines to be dubbed the ‘new Maradona’ but Burrito Ortega seems to have taken inspiration from El Diego both on and off the pitch.
On the international stage Ortega is best remembered for headbutting Edwin van der Sar in the quarter-finals of France 98 but he appeared in two other World Cups and had successful spells in Italy and Spain.
The 35-year-old also has six domestic league titles to his name as well as a Copa Libertadores winner’s medal.
It has been Ortega’s battle with alcoholism that has had him in the headlines more recently. A drunken outburst got him fired from Fenerbahçe and banned from football for over a year.
He was handed a lifeline by Newell’s Old Boys when his ban was up and duly delivered them a league title. After securing a dream move back to River Plate he stopped his treatment in the battle against the sauce.
Another big session on the loud mouth soup saw his place in the team under threat. Ortega was farmed out on loan and ordered to attend a clinic twice a week.
Now he is back in River Plate’s plans and his old mate Diego has reopened the door to the national team.
“I’m going to name Ortega in a squad. Ariel is getting treatment and is continuing to train.” Maradona said. “If he does this then I’m sure he can get out of this situation.”
Up The City
Tim
Really Long Link
Big Ron fielded the strongest side available to him. Andy Townsend, Steve Staunton and the same Ray Houghton who would shock the Italians at that year’s World Cup were all under the cosh for most of the game.
Inside The Cowshed you could feel there was an upset in the making as Bally directed his troops from across the field.
Super Mario put ball after ball in front of Stuart Storer’s tasche and the pacey forward caused genuine problems for the Villa defence that afternoon.
City’s plucky display was eventually undone on the hour mark when Dean Saunders fell in the box before dusting himself down to ram home the spotkick.
Carlisle anyone?
As well as being introduced to the magic of cup football that day I also got a whiff of something else. The big story pre-game was Villa’s Irish defender Paul McGrath going AWOL.
A remember a few jokes being bandied about the pub before the game as well as some juicy terrace banter on the matter.
More than ten years later I thumbed through Paul McGrath’s autobiography and learned about the kind of personal hell he was going through at the time. It made the cup tie seem a very long time ago.
There is no doubt that if Paul were playing today his problems would be dealt with a lot differently. Players are now commodities and clubs bend over backwards to maintain not only their physical condition but also their mental health.
This season in Argentina has seen the return of Ariel Ortega in a River Plate shirt. The mercurial playmaker may just be one of long line of Argentines to be dubbed the ‘new Maradona’ but Burrito Ortega seems to have taken inspiration from El Diego both on and off the pitch.
On the international stage Ortega is best remembered for headbutting Edwin van der Sar in the quarter-finals of France 98 but he appeared in two other World Cups and had successful spells in Italy and Spain.
The 35-year-old also has six domestic league titles to his name as well as a Copa Libertadores winner’s medal.
It has been Ortega’s battle with alcoholism that has had him in the headlines more recently. A drunken outburst got him fired from Fenerbahçe and banned from football for over a year.
He was handed a lifeline by Newell’s Old Boys when his ban was up and duly delivered them a league title. After securing a dream move back to River Plate he stopped his treatment in the battle against the sauce.
Another big session on the loud mouth soup saw his place in the team under threat. Ortega was farmed out on loan and ordered to attend a clinic twice a week.
Now he is back in River Plate’s plans and his old mate Diego has reopened the door to the national team.
“I’m going to name Ortega in a squad. Ariel is getting treatment and is continuing to train.” Maradona said. “If he does this then I’m sure he can get out of this situation.”
Up The City
Tim
Really Long Link
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