Terry shares his thoughts on the football scene.
Terry's All Gold
The rest of the season is going to be very interesting, seeing how the Black/Butcher regime copes. All I hope is that the young players are given every chance of a first team slot.
One thing that should be a priority is how to reduce the horrendous crime count against Motherwell's name. All you regular watchers of the 'Well will know if it is a fair indictment against our team, and a lot of you may point the finger at poor refereeing. All I can say on that one is that referees have never had such a hard time, laws forever changing, a shocking lack of sportsmanship and discipline among both players and managers.
The football scene just gets worse, the humour on the terraces was always prevalent, but down here amongst the so-called big-time it is like crawling into a cess-pit. When teams are announced, boos ring out if it's a black player at certain grounds. The histrionics are wearily par for the course in the Premiership - ugly brawls amongst players, play-acting, time-wasting, the scoring of goals celebrated with choreographedroutines far more intricate than the moves that made them, not to mention the lifting of shirts showing a vest emblazoned with an infantile message.
Such scenes are routinely repeated the length and breadth of the land. Players whose only real concern is the size of their pay packet feign undying loyalty to their clubs by kissing their team badges, only to move soon after, motivated not by loyalty and pride but by greed.
How the game has sunk is now headlined everywhere for all to see as they read the Leeds United saga. Not only the players but the club itself are guilty. Manager O'Leary came out of it very poorly, even getting rich pickings out of a book. A manager with real discipline would have booted these loutish players out of the club right at the beginning. As for England still considering them proves the depths football has sunk - years ago England would never have touched them.
Leeds are not the only club defending such louts, there are plenty more, but to me the worst aspect of all is a whole host of so-called supporters are still idolising these dregs of humanity, even threatening their own players who told the truth at the trial. If I supported any of these clubs I would have to walk away.
Referring to a hobby-horse of mine - TESTIMONIALS. Motherwell always guaranteed benefits to their players. Going back to the 1920/30's, 'Well's captain Bob Ferrier's first benefit was the 'takings' of the biggest game of the season v. Celtic, a league match, can you imagine that happening today? A lucrative game v. Celtic or Rangers given over to such as Dougie Arnott - such generosity is not in todays world, and yet there has never been so much money sloshing around the game.
Bob Ferrier played in the Claret and Amber for over twenty years and had a number of benefits with the club. One of Scotland's greatest goal scorers and all from the left wing. He was a splendid example of sportsmanship to a generation of youngsters. He could not play in full internationals as he was born in Sheffield, so no Scottish caps, changed days now though. Will we ever see his like again? I think we all know the answer to that. Bob was somebody who would have loved to have played for Scotland but now we have players who now refuse that honour.
I thought the exercise of a game of football was to score goals in an attempt to win matches. The 'Well v. Celtic game on January 2nd killed that notion stone dead. When we see one of our better players who can score goals, Stuart Elliott, on the subs bench and most of the game consisted of target practice for the bigots, I classed Motherwell's game as frightened football - afraid to lose a goal. Giving your opponents chance after chance of scoring, the inevitable is bound to happen over ninety minutes, a goal will be scored in your own net. I am afraid supporters are being conned, paying to watch such awful negativeness, whatever happened to the delightful play that was a watchword that 'Well were noted for. Am I living in cloud cuckoo-land to think like this?
I see the media's darling, who name him the greatest young manager in the game, has jumped clubs again. Ever since Mr McLeish moved to Easter Road, the expert(?) media boys have had him on his way to a bigger club - those words give me a nausea attack. It is amazing how the newspapers drool over him. The only successful few months he had at Motherwell was with Tommy McLean's team, and the Hibs team look none to clever. I am afraid managers and players who spout loyalty to clubs, a never-ending theme running through the game, are hypocrites. Remember McLeish's words while at Hibs. Now we found out he has always been a life-long bigot fan. We are paying at the turnstile to pay their wages. They call the game a sport.
Going back to the Celtic game, I saw an article in the newspaper about 'Well's David Kelly. I thought, great, let's have a read about the happenings at Fir Park. How wrong could I be, as it was all about how big a Celtic fan he is, going to watch them as often as he can etc, etc. How committed are they to the colours they wear, these never-ending players we read about. No wonder it seems impossible to get such player to string two decent games together.
I see the Northern Ireland secretary jumping on the football bigot bandwagon, advocating the gruesome twosome should abandon Scottish football for the English gold. They should not be expected to play " largely unknown Scottish teams" every week. Then he goes on about their background, Protestants and Catholics. For a prominent politician to speak out like this, you can understand why the Scottish game is riddled with bigotry. For an M.P. to speak out with his constituents in Lanarkshire, what message does that give to the unknown teams like Hamilton, Motherwell etc.? John Boyle, what chance have you got with people on your doorstep with such influence??
WILL 2002 BE ANY DIFFERENT?
HAPPY WATCHING ALL YOU 'WELL FANS
TERRY WILLOUGHBY
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