Friday 29 June 2018
Staying hard
Staying hard
(Written by Arthur Antunes Coimbra)Modern society has given birth to the metro-sexual, the Smart Car and the low fat Frappuccino. The hard edges of the 70s, 80s and early 90s have now been smoothed away to provide a more gentle feel for the moisturized hands of today�s society.
However there was a time when the amount of weight a man could bench-press was more important than which footballer is the best dressed.
In two articles attached, the past and present aspects of football�s tougher side are analyzed.
John Nicholson recalls some of the best hard-men to have played the game, including Ron "Chopper" Harris, Graeme Souness, and Roy Keane.
Nicholas reminisces that "the best hard men were not simply psychotic nutters who went around stamping on people, although they were that as well, no, the most effective hard men were physically strong, excellent ball winners, and good passers. Their job was to break up play, and protect the flair players from being kicked to death by the opposing centre-half".
In the second article Danny Baker focuses on the hard-men currently in management, and questions "now that Premiership managers are starting to square up to one another, who is the hardest? Who, in a Marquess of Queensberry face-off, is the daddy?."
