Lucky escape
There was an article the other day about Harry's opinions on young footballers which wasn't too dissimilar to one published several months back (probably was a repeat). The jist of it being how easy young footballers have it, and how egotistic some of them become in terms of making assumptions they've 'arrived'.
Was Harry talking about John Bostock? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Might have just been a generalisation but it's interesting that he cited agents calling up Levy demanding to know why their clients were not playing first team football.
You know the drill. If you're half decent, you can bag yourself a contract for 3k - 10k per week as a mere teen or twenty-year old and five years of that might possibly turn you into self-absorbed git who can't be arsed to train properly or show determination to succeed and basically think easy street equates to automatic selection. Not that I'm suggesting Bostock is the person Harry referred to in the interview.
And this article is nothing to do with John - who I'm really hoping comes good for us.
This article is about a certain Adel Taarabt. You remember him right? He's the one with fancy tricks and step-overs and dribbles that had the giddy part of your soul fooled. Yes, there are plenty of us that made the embarrassing error of thinking this kid had the right qualities to make it. Until slowly slowly we worked out he might have had the mad skillz but not the temperament or patience or the humility to be respectful.
"He's raw, he needs to play more, he's got the talent, yadda yadda yadda"
Sadly he's turned out to be nothing more than superfluous. As someone (Enter the Pitbull)
over at Glory Glory put it, Adel is the African Lee Trundle. His level, it seems, the Championship.
He's in the news for quitting International football (Morocco - he didn't consider himself good enough or want to prove himself good enough for France) because they disrespected him. Now I know that quotes can be lost in translation and taken out of context but it's highly laughable regardless. He now gets to concentrate on QPR, because he spent 22 hours on planes travelling and wasn't selected to play. Because you know, he's got to continue to raise that profile for his move to Madrid in the summer.
What an absolute melter.
Quality.
I'd watch a sitcom with Adel in it. He'd turn up at Zidanes home and give him his marching orders declaring squatters rights.