Yeah, I agree with that. It's something you are born with. Not to label them all with the same brush but many South American players a perceived as 'snide', but that's a lot to do with their upbringing and where they played their football. You just learn to scrap for balls, to win dirty, to be a sly c*nt. Looking back we've had a few local lads like Stevie and Carra who could be horrible fuckers. I think a lot depends on where you play your football growing up.
This is going to sound stupid perhaps but is the fact that many kids are now playing most of their football in pristine academies up and down the country filtering out the street player in many of them? Many young kids now (in this country at least) play most or all of their football at a club and in some cases they get an education with it, so there is no real room to learn some traits you would on the street or anywhere like that. I don't know, maybe I'm chatting jibberish.
I want our players to be sly, the odd elbow, the odd stud down the calf, the whole team rushing in to defend a player on a bad tackle like the one of Mane the other day. I want us to time waste at the appropriate time, I want us to be fucking c*nts. Because, as has been shown time and time again, being a c*nt in this game can take you a long way.
This is a good point. If you recall the story of Shankly's Glenbuck Cherrypickers, a football club from the tiny mining village in Ayrshire produced many professional footballers- a staggering proportion for such a small community. Shankly himself put it down to the fact that the football pitch in Glenbuck was peppered with stones and a rock hard surface with a thin layer of grass. Such a tough and brutal surface would be nigh on impossible to play on with kids these days - the bruises and grazes the Glenbuck players experienced made them battle hardened as they became professionals in their own right, while the poor playing surface sharpened up their skills to the point that playing on the typical pristine and lush football pitches in England and Scotland's top clubs was like water off a ducks back.
The best analogy you could make is '
free range' vs '
organic'. The '
free range' kids like your battle hardened professionals like Suarez, Gerrard and Fowler developed their skills in a tougher, more rough and tumble environment. I can't remember where I read it but one of these players played with older kids who were bigger and stronger, which helped them shape them into the battle hardened resolute characters they became. Their developed 'street wise' attitudes on the field were clear for all to see - utterly fearless and rampaging who could often win games on their own.
On the other hand, you have the '
organic' kids raised on a set of standards and requirements by the clubs themselves at a very early age. Perhaps this develops more 'intelligent' footballers of a less selfish nature with better ball control and superior team work ethic. However, because of this highly professional and restrictive environment, it doesn't necessarily shape them into the resolute battlers that teams often cry out for in matches.
The sad thing is, I think the 'streetwise' footballer is becoming a thing of the past. I fear the likes of a Gerrard, Suarez or Fowler playing for us again will become ever-increasingly rare. While it is incredibly important that clubs develop players within their own ideals, it is also important that a great team has that 'rogue' individual - the one player that will take a game by the scruff of its neck when it is slipping away from the rest of his team-mates. These characters are essential for a trophy winning team, and at the moment, I don't think Jurgen has anyone like this to rely on.