Myths and legends are concepts that rely on the power of
suggestion, the human will to believe in the most audacious things and word of
mouth continuing to perpetuate the growing exaggeration of a once-truth. This
applies from everything, from history to popular culture and, yes, football.
Great stories, whether inspirational or loathsome, have a habit of missing out
salient pieces of fact as they spread. Embellishment quickly becomes laziness
on the part of the storyteller.
And there is nothing more annoying that a piece of trivia or
a perhaps vital piece of evidence being presented in an argument that, while
widely believed, is also wildly inaccurate. In an attempt to address this
ignorance aspiring to mythos, here are five such famed legends that exist in
the zeitgeist of football fans that badly need correction.
1 The Arsenal Player
who Survived the Munich
Plane Crash
This particular story is a strange one, its origins obscure
and dating back to the earlier nineties. So the account goes, technically one
of the survivors of the infamous Munich air
disaster which killed twenty three passengers, including eight of the legendary
Busby Babes, would become a Leeds and Arsenal
player. So it went, a pregnant woman was on board, survived the crash and gave
birth to her son, John. John Lukic, that is, the goalkeeper who would go on to
enjoy a 23 year career, during which the only teams he played for were
Manchester United’s rivals.
If this sounds too incredible to be true, then it is. Lukic
was born on 11th December 1960, two years and ten months after the
crash, meaning either that the story was poorly conceived shaggy dog
storytelling or that Lukic’s mother endured the longest pregnancy in human
history. So why would anyone suggest that this was true?
It’s because there was a pregnant passenger on board, and
her name was Vera Lukic. Upon discovering this piece of information, a rather
overeager and quick mouthed amateur detective apparently deduced a connection
and shared it with the world. Said fact finder apparently was a little too
keen, however, and failed to notice other signs they were mistaken other than
the impossibility of the idea presented by the dates.
For starters, while John Lukic is indeed of Slavic descent,
hence the surname, Vera Lukic was a Yugoslavian citizen, not British (Munich airport was a
stop-off in a Belgrade-Manchester flight). Secondly, while she would indeed
give birth to a son, she named him Zoran.
Pubquiz factotum based on quickdraw logic means an urban
myth that is utterly laughable when scrutinized.
2 Wayne Rooney’s Wondergoal Debut
It’s still considered one of the Premier League’s most iconic moments. Goodison
Park, 19th
October 2002; a match between Everton and league champions Arsenal. The score
is locked at a tense 1-1 and the game is headed into stoppage time. A young
substitute has replaced Tomasz Radzinski, and with time ticking away, receives
a lobbed ball forward from Thomas Gravesen. Controlling it immaculately, he
navigates away from the Gunners defense and lines up a shot. One swing of his
right foot later, the ball has crashed in off the underside of the crossbar and
beaten David Seaman all ends up.
In the process, he wins the game for Everton, ending
Arsenal’s run of 30 games unbeaten, becomes the Premier League’s youngest
goalscorer at 16 years and 360 days old, and is instantly the name on the mouth
of every football fan in the country. The teenager’s name was Wayne Rooney.
Whether you love or loathe him, Rooney made one hell of a
splash and was the centre of hype in the English media only matched by David
Beckham. Even today, people cite his meteoric rise to stardom as a kid, and
marvel at the unknown who crashed home the most amazing of debut goals to
become a nationwide star. It’s pure legend…hence, inaccurate in its retelling.
It’s not as convenient to recount, but despite what some
claim the Arsenal game was not Rooney’s debut, nor was his winning strike even
his first goal. In fact, Rooney was not a complete nobody before that defining
moment; he had already broken Everton’s record for youngest player by
surprisingly starting for the Toffees on the opening day of that season against
Tottenham. His appearance against the Gunners was his ninth in the league and
tenth overall. Furthermore, he had netted twice in the League Cup against Wrexham two weeks previously, and had even come off the bench at Old Trafford
before the Arsenal game.
While by no means a sensation, he was well known at Goodison Park as the hottest new prospect on the
block, while neutrals were aware that Everton were regularly fielding a rookie
youngster of unknown potential. The winner against Arsenal merely proved that
his manager David Moyes had been justified in placing faith with the Croxteth born
striker.
Part of the reason why there is some confusion on this issue
comes from the fact that within the media the phrase ‘debut goal’ has changed
definition. Confusingly and bizarrely, it is now used to mean a player’s first
goal for the club, while before it exclusively referred to a player scoring on
their debut. When people redefine terms for no reason, it’s no wonder there is
confusion left over.
3 Savio Nsreko, West
Ham’s £9 Million Man
At some point in the mid-noughties, it became a trend for
football clubs to withhold transfer fees from public knowledge, starting the
spread of the ‘undisclosed fee’ phenomenon. This tool of secrecy, hardly
immoral in of itself, wasn’t knew but had previously been reserved for special
occasions, namely nominal and tribunal decided fees involving out of contract
youth players. A staple of the Bosman ruling is that if a player is under the
age of 23 and has been at a club for at least five years, any attempts to agree
a contract with another club will cost a compensation package. However, now
‘undisclosed fee’ is more common than an actual solid fee.
Usually it is utilized in relation to complicated transfers
that include bonuses, appearance fees and various strange clauses. The flipside
is that the media are always in need of a set number to print, since half of
the interest in transfers is the amount of money put on the table. Sometimes,
this results in speculative guesses, garbled attempts to summarise layered
agreements, and flat out exaggeration.
One of the best examples of this is the transfer of the
enigmatically named Savio Nsereko, a Ugandan born former German international
youth player, from Brescia
to West Ham in January 2009. Only 19 at the time and rated as one of the
brightest prospects in European football, he was bought with the future in mind
and hence the deal that took to Upton Park was stuffed full of add-on fees and
appearance marks. If all of these clauses were to be fulfilled, the amount of
money changing hands would end up at around £9 million. Considering the fact
that this could take years to come about, it is actually a very shrewd deal,
especially considering Savio’s inability to adapt to the Premier League or the
gloomy English lifestyle. He was offloaded to Fiorentina at the start of the
next season.
Despite the fact that West Ham only ended up spending about
£2 million on him, and got Manuel Da Costa for free as part of the deal to sell
him, the media and therefore the public generalized the nature of his
complicated transfer and thus announced he had cost £9 million, making him a
hugely expensive flop. The fact is that this simply never happened, and in fact
the Hammers only lost out on about a quarter of that fee. Despite being a
superbly executed deal that spared great financial loss in the event that
apparent future superstar Savio wouldn’t perform, his name is still considered
synonymous with West Ham misspending and their habit of importing expensive
flops. Bizarrely and ironically, it is sometimes used as a criticism of then
manager Gianfranco Zola. At least chairmen looking to hire or not so stupid,
you’d hope.
4 The Identity of
Harry Redknapp’s Inaccurate Reserve Striker
The Youtube video of Harry Redknapp being struck in the backby a wayward striker’s effort on goal during an interview is now almost as
famous as the QPR boss himself. In brilliantly unscripted fashion, Redknapp is
talking to a reporter about team affairs when he is hit and, in wonderfully
honest fashion, turns and in crude terms berates the offender, concluding with
the immortal critique “no wonder he’s in the fucking reserves”.
The obvious question would be ‘Who’s in the fucking
reserves?’ Who’s the stooge who tried to break the net but cracked his boss at
the corner flag? Since it’s not clear from the video, and hasn’t been
officially confirmed since, the subject has resulted in some hilariously
spurious online discussions, most of which fall well short of the mark. In
fact, a recent consensus shows that most people believe the offender was Darren
Bent, during a spell when he couldn’t get a game under Redknapp at Tottenham. Under
suggestions include David Bentley and Robbie Keane.
This would be reasonable, except for the fact that Redknapp
is clearly not yet Tottenham boss in the video. The fact that the most viewed
version of the clip was uploaded on to Youtube on 2nd October 2008,
twenty four days BEFORE Redknapp took over at White Hart Lane, is sufficient to prove
this. Secondly, one can glean some useful information from actually listening
to what Redknapp’s saying.
Before being hit, he talks about injuries to ‘Festa’ and
‘Harry De Zeeuw’. These would be former defenders Gianluca Festa and Arjan De
Zeeuw. Also mentioned is a crucial game against Wolverhampton Wanderers at
Molineux. So when was Harry ever in possession of Italian Festa and Dutchman De
Zeeuw? As Portsmouth
manager as it happens, and since Festa’s spell lasted a single season it means the video was
recorded during the 2002/03 season, Redknapp’s first at Pompey. That match at
Molineux was on 6th November 2002, and finished 1-1. Crucial because
both were title challengers (both would be promoted from the First Division at
the end of that season).
So who in Portsmouth’s
squad was responsible? Redknapp’s attitude would suggest that the wayward
shooting was ridiculous, which in turn points the finger at a striker. There
are a few to choose from, but one stands out; a forward who was first choice
despite a poor goal return until Redknapp’s arrival ended his first team
prospects and ruined his reputation as a star striker for the future. Step
forward Mark Burchill.
The only thing that resulted in anyone suggesting the Bents
and Bentleys of this world is lazy speculation.
5 Roy Keane ended Alfie Haaland’s Career
Many things have been and will be said about Roy Keane, with
a half and half ratio between positive and negative. He would be the first to
admit that he did some incredibly nasty things during his career, but defining
a passionate warrior of a player by them seeing red while wearing it on his
sleeve is misguided. Despite an infuriating retrospective criticism of his
abilities (the claim that he was actually just a thug and a crap player is
contradicted by OPTA stats, which identified him as being the Premier League’s
best midfielder in the late nineties and early noughties), there is still a
modest level of respect for the Mad Irishman, however. There is also a degree
of ignorant assumption.
While his most famous moment should really be his
inspirational performance against Juventus in the Champions League Semi Final
second leg of 1999, it is probably his brutal assault on Norwegian ex-pro Alf
Inge Haaland in a Manchester
derby two years later. During the match at Old Trafford, Keane launched himself into a knee high lunge on Haaland and was promptly sent off. This incident had
back story, something Keane admitted to in his controversial autobiography (an
‘anecdote’ that earned him a hefty fine), and was actually an attempt at
revenge.
In 1997, while Haaland was at Leeds,
Keane had damaged his cruciate ligaments while trying to foul the midfielder.
Haaland unwisely taunted Keane while he was on the ground, under the impression
that he was faking. Four years later, the tackle that is a YouTube staple. So
the story goes, it ended Haaland’s career and is the cynical, psychotic and ugly
legacy of Keane’s medal strewn career.
The thing is, in terms of long term implication there is
nothing to differentiate the Haaland tackle from his other nasty lunges on the
likes of Neil Pointon, or his stamps on Gareth Southgate and Vitor Baia, or even
his brawls with Patrick Vieira and Alan Shearer. That’s because, although
Haaland’s footballing career did end prematurely through injury, it was
unrelated to Roy Keane.
Haaland retired because of a recurring injury in his left knee. A quick double check of the Keane tackle will reveal that his roaring rampage of retribution was directed at Haaland’s standing right knee. Show me a
doctor who will tell you that trauma to one leg cripples the other and I’ll
show you a malpractice case waiting to happen. Furthermore, Haaland played the rest of the game
after Keane was sent off, then two internationals for Norway, and then Man City’s
next league fixture against West Ham. It wasn’t until 2001 pre-season that he
began to suffer setbacks in his OTHER knee.
Yes, Keane did some terrible things in his career. But, as this video testifies, ending careers wasn’t one of them. A pity that newspapers
as well as fans were taken in by this myth.
