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The GrowlersWorld Interviews are an ongoing quest, bringing you closer to successful and creative people in all walks of life. Rawle Austin presents... A conversation with Christopher Whytock - The Future Voice of Football
I was seven years old and I particularly remember watching Toto Schillaci score goals for fun and of course, England’s painful defeat by the West Germans in the semi final. But that World Cup was definitely the beginning of my love for football. Naturally I was supporting England and the various things that happened to the English team in that World Cup showed me how entertaining football was as a sport to watch and play. There were the ups that were Lineker’s double against Cameroon and Platt’s marvellous volley against Belgium, and the lows that were Gazza’s tears, Parker’s own goal and of course, that penalty shoot-out. I was drawn to the game as it seemed better drama than the most brilliantly written film as it wrote itself as it went along. The twists and the turns of football will remain forever and that is what will keep it captivating. The script for a match is never ever finished until the final whistle and then in a few days another episode of pure sport theatre kicks off. RA: Who inspired you to play? CW: My friends from primary school were my main inspiration. The love of football was felt by all young lads and by the age of eight or nine I was playing football every break time and every lunch time. We only ever played one competitive match at primary school and I played on the left and tormenting a right back for most of the match, We won 6-1 and absolutely killed them.
A legendary moment occurred in that match when I tried to put the ball out of play for a corner after our keeper had parried a piledriver from one of the opposition. However, I sliced the ball and whacked it against our own post and it rebounded back into our keepers arms. Today, I still claim it was the defensive move of the century but in reality it was almost a mistake of monumental proportions. Ironically I was playing in the number 13 shirt that day and got a bit of luck in that incident. Just shows 13 isn’t always bad luck!! At university I didn’t play every day like I had done. The delights of drinking myself stupid, doing the occasional bit of work and lazing in bed most of the day with beautiful women in my arms proved a distraction to say the least. Once in a blue moon I shook the dust off my left foot and took some people to school. My football playing career was properly brought back from the dead though late in 2005 when myself and many friends formed our own five a side team, Hasselhoff’s Hasslers Reserves. A name to show our appreciation of the legend that is David Hasselhoff. I now play for them every Sunday and I play to win…
He is such a fantastic player. I have never seen anyone run at defenders and scare them as much as Ryan Giggs. He twists and turns like a snake and has tremendous pace even whilst dribbling. The best dribbler of the ball I have seen. He has also scored many a fantastic goal over the years, in particular that one against Arsenal in the FA cup semi-final. He dribbled past their entire team!!! I dreamed of living the life of Ryan Giggs when I was younger. I even bought the same boots as him once when I was little just because my hero played in them. They were black Reeboks with a red stripe and a white Reebok symbol. Giggs is a United legend and i’ll forever be an admirer of his skills and talent. RA: You're a Manchester United fan, how did that get started? CW: Hmmmmm. My Dad always wanted me to support West Ham I think but my Godfather has always been a huge Man United Fan though and a lot of my friends at primary school were. So in a way I succumbed to peer pressure and have supported Manchester United ever since. It is true when I started supporting them that they won a lot so I received many “glory hunter” chants. However, in recent years they have become less of a force in football and I am still there supporting them. I
have never changed teams and never will. I have stuck firmly with my choice
of team since I made it. CW: Because anyone can play it. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or where you are.
Some of the diving I see in the Premiership is disgusting. Players like Didier Drogba, Arjen Robben and Cristiano Ronaldo (yes I know I am supposed to defend him as a Man U fan!!!) should stop this excessive cheating. It leads to players getting sent off and suspended and it spoils the game. I mean you are all men aren’t you so start taking your lumps and stop crying and having tantrums on the floor about it. I also think it is time to bring in video technology to help referees. It is time to make sure decisions are right so the right team wins, loses or draws. Many traditionalists are against it but the game must evolve with time. You see the technology tennis uses with the lasers on the tram lines and how American Football uses video challenges (a team may challenge most decisions and if they lose an appeal they lose a valuable time out). Other sports use it with no problems so why shouldn’t football????? I think another issue with the game at the moment, particularly at this World Cup, is the ridiculous amount of cards being shown by referees. Part of the nature of football is it is a physical game and with all these cards it seems like FIFA is trying to make the sport into an almost non-contact one. This is not netball FIFA!!!!!! This is a man’s game. Let them play and get a bit physical.
It is not every year that a player is suspended for drugs or four top Italian teams are threatened with relegation to Italy’s lowest division for match-fixing is it???? RA: What's your opinion on current Premiership players wages? Good or bad for the game? CW: In a word… scandalous. I think they are bad for the game. It means the gap in class between richer and poorer clubs gradually expands more and more over time as only a select few clubs can afford to pay the top players. I know this sounds hypocritical coming from Manchester United fan as for many years we spent much more money than any other clubs. Nowadays Chelsea have that honour. But I believe that due to players demanding so much the playing field is never going to be level. Which takes some of the entertainment out of the game as it is pretty safe to bet only the superpower teams will be in the hunt for the league title. In the cups it is different as any team can beat another on the right day. So wages are ridiculous and have a negative impact on football. In American sports such as the NBA there is a salary cap and in basketball there are many more contenders for the NBA title than there is for the Premiership. The playing field is more balanced which leads to an open title race.
This year, they signed Michael Ballack, even though they do not need him with a midfield already packed with stars. It is preventative buying to stop other big clubs getting better and this hurts the English league and the Champions League as much as the scandalous OTT wages hurt football. So….definitely bad for the game. Also it is sickening from a social point of view. Why do footballers make more money than doctors or firemen?? These people save lives and get paid pittance compared with footballers. It is ridiculous. It should be the lifesavers in this world that get paid millions for their work and not the people that provide entertainment by kicking a round object about for ninety minutes a time. Don’t get me wrong, I love the game but in the big scheme of things, it is pretty insignificant. RA: Foreign imports or home grown? What's your opinion on the great debate? CW: I think a balance of the two would be the perfect scenario. The Premiership does have a lot of foreigners these days. It is good for the game as they bring exciting new dimensions to the game. They have different techniques and styles. If we think back to the likes of Eric Cantona, Gianfranco Zola and Dennis Bergkamp, and the way they have kept audiences entertained whilst playing in the Premiership, then we see how exciting foreigners make the English game.
Mourinho has remained true to his word by signing players such as Shaun Wright-Phillips and playing Joe Cole, Frank Lampard and John Terry regularly. Spurs also frequently buy English. They have the likes of Carrick, Dawson, Robinson, King and Defoe. Other teams have not been so good at this, in particular Arsenal. Arsene Wenger has fielded an entirely foreign team numerous times this season with injuries to Ashley Cole and Sol Campbell. It is this sort of thing that needs addressing, all teams should not be limited on how foreigners they field in an XI but there should be a MIMIMUM number of Englishmen in a starting XI, possibly three. That would ensure clubs would have to develop and give places to English players but in turn be able to use foreign players. RA: Who, in your opinion, is the best current player at the moment and why? CW: Ronaldinho. He has amazing skill. Some of the tricks he pulls off in matches against top class defenders amaze me. I think he intends most of them as well and he has the technique to pull them off time and again in any situation. Some players do tricks when they can. He seems to pull off all the outrageous football tricks whenever he wants because he has that much control and ability.
I have never seen that happen before. Ronaldinho then clipped the ball to Giuly and he smashed it in from close range. He can glide past defenders like a ghost. He has the most tremendous control when on the ball and when passing. And he can shoot and scores crucial goals. I will never ever forgive him for that goal in the 2002 World Cup against England. It was a fluke Ron, just admit it!!!!! He is a complete attacking player. He is the best player in the game at the moment. He is priceless to Barcelona. An honourable mention though must go to Steven Gerrard. A player who I think is reaching the peak of his powers. He is the drive of his Liverpool team and constantly scores goals at crucial times for them. Such as the brace he bagged in the FA cup final. He also started the comeback against AC Milan in the Champions League final of 2005 when he scored that header. He leads the team and tackles doggedly and is a very versatile player.
I don’t feel I can answer it as I have not seen every player play on the football pitch. When people are asked this question many respond with Maradona, Pele or Eusebio. I have not seen these players a great deal as they were before my time. I could adapt the question to “Who is the best player of all time I have seen?” but even then I think the question is too broad. I cannot possibly pick one out of the thousands of players I have seen play the beautiful game. So if there are no objections I think I will pick five, in no order. 1.
Eric Cantona RA: Which position do you prefer playing on the pitch and why? CW: Goalkeeper for definite. I have scored many a goal in my time and there is nothing quite like spanking a ball into the back of the net. However, I feel more valuable to my team when I prevent a goal with whatever part of my body I get in the way of a shot, be it my face, chest, hands or legs. I also love the way I can get under an opponents skin when I prevent them repeatedly in goal. You can see them getting angrier and more frustrated and this plays into our teams hands as they start to rush things or try difficult unorthodox moves to try and grab a goal and that benefits us in the end as they will hardly ever score doing things that way. As a goalkeeper you must have a presence that psyches the opposition and I like to be that presence that gets into strikers heads and makes them doubt every move they make.
CW: Ok, my England team for the final (from the current squad of players and going on the assumption that I have no injuries or suspensions) would be :- Formation: 4-1-4-1 Goal
Keeper, GK: Paul Robinson Now I realise a lot of people would scoff at this formation for three reasons (unless you are a Spurs fan, then you would only scoff at it for two reasons, see below). One reason would be the almost insane deployment of David Beckham, our illustrious captain, at full back. The second reason would be playing the Roon as a lone strike which may mean England would have a lack of firepower. The final reason would be the picking of Messrs Carrick and Lennon, two relatively inexperienced players at international level. Now, the England side basically picks itself for the most part. Robinson is clearly the best English goalkeeper. He has been impressive for Tottenham and reliable for England although in the World Cup so far he has looked tentative with crosses and set pieces. We saw it not only against Sweden but in certain instances against Paraguay and then against the Trinidadians. Rio Ferdinand is the slickest English central defender and John Terry is the most courageous player in the team and is superb in the air. I believe he could be the best central defender in the world at this moment (it’s a toss up between him and Carles Puyol of Barcelona/Spain).
He is wasted on the right-wing as he cannot beat a man and get a clear pass off, and he never will be able to. He should drop back so Aaron Lennon can play on the right, beat a man, lay it back to Beckham on the overlap so Beckham can repeatedly ping precision balls in from the right maybe 10 yards back from the penalty area. The quality of Beck’s balls(!) would have defences scrambling to intercept them and then anything could happen in the area. So, we move on to Mr Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard. Apart, they are two of the most dynamic attacking midfielders in the game. They can shoot, pass and score spectacular goals at key times. However, they cannot co-exist in the England team without a holding midfielder. Without such a player in the team Gerrard is the man who tends to stay back and protect the back line and this means one of our main attacking threats nullifies itself. He is best going forward from midfield but with Lampard doing the same at the same time Gerrard becomes shackled. This explains my selection of Carrick in the team. He can hold the ball and distribute it and protect the back four even though he isn’t the most brilliant tackler. If I had a choice I would have stuck Ledley King there but unfortunately he has missed the World Cup due to injury. With the holding midfielder both Gerrard and Lamps can make their trademark surges forward and get near the penalty area and slam the goals in. We saw flashes of it working against Ecuador, Lampard should have buried a couple of his chances. Another benefit of them getting forward is Wayne Rooney will not be on his own up there. Frank and Steve can get forward to help him. The holding midfielder indirectly benefits Rooney as well as Gerrard and Lampard. On the wings the troublesome left side is now one of the easiest spaces on the pitch to fill. Joe Cole has solved the problem that plagued England for years. He is quick, has good passing and vision and is a scorer of quite spectacular goals. The one against Sweden was a gift from the Gods. Cole gives every full back he comes up against fits. The one slight on him is he is all right foot and needs to continually cut inside from the flank. He is probably the player in the English XI that possesses the most flair and he can unlock defences at any second. Everytime he gets the ball he looks dangerous and threatens opponents. As for the right I think I have made a surprising choice with Aaron Lennon. If Shaun Wright-Phillips had made the squad (and if it wasn’t for Chelsea forcing him to warm benches for a whole season he would have!) he would be my choice there. However, with the current squad I would pick Lennon. He is a player similar to Wright-Phillips. He terrorises defenders by running at them, getting to the bye-line and crossing the ball in. He always beats his man and can give great service to the striker. He also balances things as in my formation with Cole and Lennon England would have great width and could threaten down the wings or down the middle with Gerrard and Lampard. This would mean they could frequently stretch opposing defences to breaking point. Do I need to justify the selection of the phenom that is Rooney? He is strong so can hold the ball up, has silky ball skills to bamboozle defenders and can shoot from anywhere. He does it all….apart from maybe heading. The one thing is can he cope on his own? I think so. Gerrard and Lampard would support him and he can hold it and wait for their runs as he has the strength to. Or he can beat his man then play it to them or he can beat one or two men and go it alone. He needs support but as we saw against Ecuador in the second half, sooner or later, with support or not, he will bust his way through defences and create chances and soon enough he will begin converting them. Any questions??? RA: And finally, any last words on the beautiful game? CW: It will always be beautiful no matter what happens. Check out the English Football Premier League Read Chris's amazing interview with Rawle Austin!
Herman Prada - The Gatekeeper of Language Learning> <Jonathan FeBland - The Creative Explosion
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