- Thierry Henry & Paul Scholes
When I was young, back in the days when Scotland still played competitive games against the likes of Brazil, I had but one dream: to lead my hometown team, Dundee United, out onto the field as the Matchday Mascot. I was in awe of the idea. Meeting my heroes, sharing their pre-match tension in the tunnel before receiving the warm embrace of thousands as we entered the pitch, led by (little) me. One day, this dream came true. For my brother. It was his name which was ‘drawn out of the hat’ and thus bestowed on him was the task of guiding our heroes out the tunnel into the cauldron to face the mighty Hibernian FC that day in 1995. I was to look on, forever dreaming.
Today, however, I finally feel at one with that memory. For, at the age of twenty, I hold in my hands a issue of FC Utrecht’s Matchday Magazine more special than usual. For, in issue number 9 of season 2011/12, FC Utrecht has decided to print a short interview with (a bit bigger than back then) me. At long last, I am part of the match-day experience; the dream is realised.
I should perhaps clarify the whole FC Utrecht thing. FC Utrecht is a top-division Dutch side ‘enjoying’ mediocre success in the Netherlands where I, as a third-year MML student, am currently spending my Year Abroad. I, perhaps rather wantonly, decided I wouldn’t be able to live a year without football in my life and thus spent a considerable amount of my student loan on a season ticket for FC Utrecht. Thanks, student loan! The club unsurprisingly found my journey to them to be a little less orthodox than usual and ran a little interview with me. Win.
I feel the importance of the above anecdotes in starting this blog is to show you all quite how obsessed I am by sport: it means a lot to me and that’s why I am delighted to be offering you a weekly sports blog as a Cambridge student, far away in the Netherlands. It’s a big year for British sport and there are a number of issues to tackle. Of course, it will be impossible to tackle all of them with conviction, but I do endeavour to offer you, week in week out, my view on important, unusual and downright controversial matters from the world of sport. As well as the odd quirkier anecdote, now and again.
Tomorrow, Arsenal will take on Manchester United in the Premier League and, with it, Thierry Henry will once again lock horns with Paul Scholes. It’s the middle of January, a month which, usually, is saturated with overblown, overpriced and, quite simply, reckless transfers made by clubs admittedly holding higher hopes for the business end of the ongoing season. This year the most documented ‘transfers’ have arguably been the re-signings of Messrs. Henry and Scholes. This marks quite a change in the January transfer window market trend. Instead of forking out millions on a talented, yet grossly inexperienced player in a desperate attempt to salvage some European football or a decent domestic cup run, it would seem the ‘big’ clubs are looking backwards to older players who have already been there and done that. Is this a step backward for the Premier League, ‘buying’ old players on the brink of, or already well into retirement?
Absolutely not. Quite apart from their obvious influence on the pitch (both Henry and Scholes have netted since their respective heralded homecomings), the lack of millions spent on these two legendary players of the game can only have a positive effect on the general transfer market.
Hopefully, the re-signings of more mature players will eventually become a sensible solution for clubs and will not have to receive the level of hype as Henry and Scholes have received. Such a solution for weakness in squads will prevent clubs in the future from reacting with too much haste and recklessness in their transfer policies so that, one day, younger players such as Andy Carroll are not burdened by the weight of expectancy that the millions spent on them brings. Young players need time to grow and develop, need older players to look up to and emulate. They do not need to be bought/sold for a good part of £100 million based on a couple of years of work. The returns of Scholes and Henry are a masterstroke by their respective clubs, and hopefully not the last we will see of the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal looking back to proven players of the past for improving their squads. In any case, I sincerely hope Henry and Scholes start against each other tomorrow. The first appearances since returning has shown that they both, despite their age, can still cut it in the big time.
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