Post by therock67 on Jun 9, 2006 13:17:30 GMT
Decent article in the Guardian on him today - does anyone here rate the lad?
Owen Hargreaves may be the only watercarrier in the village, but try telling that to little Britain. Ever since England's World Cup squad was announced with 412 midfielders and only four strikers, Hargreaves has been constantly ridiculed on the basis of... well, on the basis of what, exactly?
Small minds, it would seem. Hargreaves is quite simply England's best defensive midfielder, not exactly an unimportant position in modern football, and the only man in the squad capable of playing the role in its broadest sense. Of course he has limits, but so did Gilberto Silva in 2002, Didier Deschamps in 1998, Carlos Dunga in 1994, and so on. Not everyone can run the ball down blind alleys as thrillingly as Theo Walcott or Joe Cole.
Besides, Hargreaves' qualities become especially vital in view of Sven-Goran Eriksson's modus operandi: score first and squeeze the bejeesus out of a game.
The problem, of course, is that Hargreaves plays abroad and so becomes an easy target. And while it's heartwarming to envisage the English footballing cognoscenti taking time out from chewing wasps at their Hackett conventions to fly to Germany every weekend and keep tabs on Hargreaves' form, it's not likely. They've never seen him play for Bayern. And if we're going on country form alone, that Steven Gerrard's not up to much, is he? So Hargreaves is crap because, err, he just is, alright? He's Owen effing Hargreaves. If he can play for England, so can you and I.
Hargreaves is the latest victim of English football's most insidious phenomenon: the consensus that spreads throughout the country in no time, and enables people to pass off as gospel comments about a player they have barely seen. When it comes to misinformation, Chinese whispers have nothing
on the English discourse.
So Tony Adams was a donkey; ditto Gary Neville; Andy Cole needed seven chances to score; Teddy Sheringham was far too old to be part of England's 1998 team - he was 32! Look how slow he was! He'd be in a wheelchair by 40!
Then there's David Beckham who, in an unfortunate coincidence for Real Madrid, literally went from the world's greatest player ever to completely crap the day he joined them. In fact, let's get Aaron Lennon in for Beckham. He looked good against Bolton, he'll murder Roberto Carlos.
Let's be clear on this: Hargreaves has not come from the Greek league. He plays regularly for one of the world's biggest clubs, Bayern Munich, and has won more titles than anybody in the England squad bar Neville and Beckham. He played 120 minutes of a Champions League final with remarkable sang-froid at the age of 20. If he is not one of the best 23 players in England, then Jermaine Jenas is.
It is Jenas, football's first ever jack of no trades and master of none, who is the real duffer in Eriksson's squad. Studies show that, of the 124,561,892,756 paths any given football match can take, not one will prompt a manager to think: "I need Jermaine Jenas here." Yet nobody criticises him.
Then again, he plays in England.
Owen Hargreaves may be the only watercarrier in the village, but try telling that to little Britain. Ever since England's World Cup squad was announced with 412 midfielders and only four strikers, Hargreaves has been constantly ridiculed on the basis of... well, on the basis of what, exactly?
Small minds, it would seem. Hargreaves is quite simply England's best defensive midfielder, not exactly an unimportant position in modern football, and the only man in the squad capable of playing the role in its broadest sense. Of course he has limits, but so did Gilberto Silva in 2002, Didier Deschamps in 1998, Carlos Dunga in 1994, and so on. Not everyone can run the ball down blind alleys as thrillingly as Theo Walcott or Joe Cole.
Besides, Hargreaves' qualities become especially vital in view of Sven-Goran Eriksson's modus operandi: score first and squeeze the bejeesus out of a game.
The problem, of course, is that Hargreaves plays abroad and so becomes an easy target. And while it's heartwarming to envisage the English footballing cognoscenti taking time out from chewing wasps at their Hackett conventions to fly to Germany every weekend and keep tabs on Hargreaves' form, it's not likely. They've never seen him play for Bayern. And if we're going on country form alone, that Steven Gerrard's not up to much, is he? So Hargreaves is crap because, err, he just is, alright? He's Owen effing Hargreaves. If he can play for England, so can you and I.
Hargreaves is the latest victim of English football's most insidious phenomenon: the consensus that spreads throughout the country in no time, and enables people to pass off as gospel comments about a player they have barely seen. When it comes to misinformation, Chinese whispers have nothing
on the English discourse.
So Tony Adams was a donkey; ditto Gary Neville; Andy Cole needed seven chances to score; Teddy Sheringham was far too old to be part of England's 1998 team - he was 32! Look how slow he was! He'd be in a wheelchair by 40!
Then there's David Beckham who, in an unfortunate coincidence for Real Madrid, literally went from the world's greatest player ever to completely crap the day he joined them. In fact, let's get Aaron Lennon in for Beckham. He looked good against Bolton, he'll murder Roberto Carlos.
Let's be clear on this: Hargreaves has not come from the Greek league. He plays regularly for one of the world's biggest clubs, Bayern Munich, and has won more titles than anybody in the England squad bar Neville and Beckham. He played 120 minutes of a Champions League final with remarkable sang-froid at the age of 20. If he is not one of the best 23 players in England, then Jermaine Jenas is.
It is Jenas, football's first ever jack of no trades and master of none, who is the real duffer in Eriksson's squad. Studies show that, of the 124,561,892,756 paths any given football match can take, not one will prompt a manager to think: "I need Jermaine Jenas here." Yet nobody criticises him.
Then again, he plays in England.
