We've had the the Troubles in Ireland, the Falklands War, the Gulf War, the War in Yugoslavia, the Second Gulf War and the War on Terrorism, not to mention the Cold War. The Berlin Wall has come tumbling down and so have the Twin Towers.
We've had Wilson, Heath, Callaghan, Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown and Camerclegg.
We've had the Sinclair C5, the Betamax and VCR videos, Subprime Mortages and New Coke.
The microwave has been invented, and the mobile phone, and the laptop, and the DVD player, and CDs and flat screen TVs.
There's been the Double Miras Bubble, The Dot Com Bubble and the Banking Bubble. And just like our dreams...
The First Division became the Premiership, The Second Division became the Championship, the Third Dvision became the First Division and the Fourth Division became the Second Division.
The Top Division has hosted Norwich, Luton, Carlisle, Bristol City, Crystal Palace, Brighton, Notts County (Yep really, twice!), Swansea, Watford, Oxford United (Remember Maxwell?), Wimbledon, Charlton, Barnsley, Bradford City, Reading, Hull City and Wigan.
Tottenham, Manchester United and Chelsea have all been Yo-Yo clubs after relegation from the top division! Derby, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa and Blackburn have all won the title!
We've had Greenwood, Lyall, Macari, Bonds, Redknapp, Roeder, Pardew, Curbishley, Zola and now Grant.
Moore, Ramsey, Shankley, Paisley, Clough, Greenwood, Lyall, Stein and Bobby Robson have found their peace.
We've won two F.A. Cups and finished third in the top division!
And through it all, there has been one constant, one consistent, top performer - Tony Carr, invisibly building the future despite his roots in a better, more wholesome past.
MBE? He deserves a bloody Knighthood!
The guy has been lucky that he has had some amazing talent handed to him. He is overrated and no better than most other youth coaches. This club hangs on to any small crumb of success like Bobby Moore winning the WC 44 years ago. Let it go we are a selling club.
ReplyDeleteWhat a stupidly blinkered thing to say. Two questions:
ReplyDelete1) What do we sell? The players Carr has developed.
2) Why do they join us? Because of our reputation fror developing young talent.
I would assume all football academy's have a large number of players with raw talent but it takes something special to develop that raw talent into a professional footballer. Tony Carr has done our club and his country a great service.
ReplyDeleteAnon 10:19.
Lampard
Ferdinand
Cole
Defoe
not successful then?
When we are fearing about the future of our academy without him, then you know that h's done/doing a fantastic job. Well done Tony!
ReplyDeleteI am happy for Carr and I think he does deserve the credit. However, I am not really interested in creating talent to feed other clubs (and make money for the owners). I am more interested in creating talent and keeping them playing football in a West Ham shirt. We are light years away from that. The culture and ambition needs to change first for that to happen.
ReplyDeleteIt's very easy to overlook the work of people like him which is why he is hardly recognised outside of West Ham. But such unsung heroes are exactly who these honours should be given to.
ReplyDeleteThe Moore documentary was on again yesterday HF. How sad when they accused him of stealing? See how civil and modest the players were in their world cup celebrations? Can you imagine the current lot being likewise! Terry will probably celebrate by pulling his todger out and waving it around.
With good reason Stani. That todger played a real captain's innings. Without it, we might have played Bridge at left back! MBE for John Terry's todger if we win the World Cup!
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of HEROES who deserve a knighthood. Teaching kids to play football isn't one of them, no matter how much you think of the bloke.
ReplyDeleteNo HF, Bridge would never have played. And if you're saying he would have, then you're saying Cole will get injured therefore Warnock will play having not been tried there in which case Terry's todger has done more harm than good. I win.
ReplyDeletePlus, there'll be nowhere to hang the MBE and it will have to be the first time the Queen would be honouring a pr**k....although, wasn't Rushdie honoured? Second time then.
13.55, you clearly have no appreciation of why Knighthoods are awarded. Sir Alan Sugar? A hero? Sir Cliff Richard? A hero? Dame Margaret Thatcher? A hero? Victoria Crosses are for heroes, Knighthoods are awarded for outstanding service or achievement. Perhaps if we win the World Cup with SEVEN of his "graduates" in the team, he will feel the kiss of the sword on each shoulder.
ReplyDeleteWe sell theem as we are a selling club hammersfan. We play them as we usually dont have enough players so the youth gets a chance. BTW did you know that the football club SENRAB that loads of players came through inc Terry and King was called SENRAB as that is BARNES backwards and they were based in Barnes Street East London.
ReplyDelete