Monday 23 May 2011

A Sporting Hero ?

Last year, I had a little grumble about the current crop of English professional football players. So, as a rest from all the scandals of Rooney and Cole and Terry and Lampard and whoever CTB may be, and so on, maybe I should give some praise to a model pro instead.

Strictly, I think he is Welsh rather than English, but Ryan Giggs has had an illustrious career in the English Premier League. He has loyally stuck with Manchester United throughout his career, too. I suppose that is easier when the only way out is down, but there are plenty of other players who have churned through United and other clubs of similar standing in pursuit of the fastest buck. He has looked after himself physically in a way that all professional sportsmen ought to but too few actually do, and remains an international grade outfield player at an age that only goalkeepers usually go on to.

What must be especially admired though, is that you never read of any scandal about him in the papers, only praise for his performances and the mighty haul of trophies those performances have brought. When our vigilantly investigative tabloids can not find any sordid tales they can print to enliven our Sundays, despite almost two decades in one of the most sleaze-ridden trades around, our hero Ryan must really be something special.

Unless, of course, he is just as bad of the rest of them, and all that is special is that he is canny enough to hire scarier lawyers than the others, so the tabloids have found sordid tales they can't print. Just a hypothetical possibility, naturally: A hero like him wouldn't really be like that, now would he?

9 comments:

voiceforchildren said...

UIH.

I share your admiration of Ryan Giggs as do, I'm quite sure, John Hemming, Channel 103 on air and on their website.

BBC Jersey, in contrast to Channel 103 don't even think he's worth a mention!

Ugh, It's Him! said...

I knew this piece didn't have much of a shelf-life, but it seems to have been overtaken even while I was writing it!

Anonymous said...

Ryan Giggs is a legend. Unlike friend of 'Big Ears' Hemming. Eeveryone makes mistakes, don't they?

Anonymous said...

Why did you remove the piece on Jersey Progressives by Tom Gruchy ?

Ugh, It's Him! said...

Anonymous #2:

I haven't removed it. Links from one blog to another usually have the blog title and the article title as separate links. If you click on the blog title then you get all articles in reverse order of posting, ie latest first. If you click on the article title you only get that one and its comments. I think you must have clicked on this article instead of the blog.

Tom Gruchy said...

Not particularly interested in the heroes of soccer but I do wonder at the lack of Jersey political heroes throughout history.
Of course, I mean those people who tend to challenge the inequalities in society - not those who have cashed in on the exploitation, one way or another.

In this context I am amazed at just how feeble is the response to Senator Ozouf's blog. Where are our so called "progressive" States Members ? Hardly a comment in sight!

At least Richard Murphy has reacted to Ozouf's views on the Zero-Ten fiasco but where oh where are our elected reps - not to mention the numerous followers who leave comments elsewhere?

It hardly requires an act of bravery to leave a political comment on a blogsite - so I do wonder what wimps are actually using this modern facility and why.

If anybody is the hero in this narrow context it is Senator Ozouf, for exposing himself and his politics to comment - but the response is dismal.

I draw the obvious conclusion that tittle-tattle is the limit of most blog readers interest and understanding.

Anonymous said...

If Ryan Giggs gets the winner againbst Barcalona as far as I am concerned he can have a fling with Messi for all I care.

Ugh, It's Him! said...

Tom:

I haven't been reading Phil Ozouf's blog, because it is out of the network of links I work through when I have half an hour or so catching up on the local blog scene. Now you have prompted me, though, the next thing I shall do after posting this comment is find it and link it to my blog, so I can start monitoring it, and so can my readers.

Ugh, It's Him! said...

I have just been taking a look at Phil Ozouf's website, following on from Tom's comment above. It is good, with neat expositions of what he is doing as a minister, for better or worse, and a similar comment policy to my own, which is attracting some serious answers. Engage with him, especially if you are not one of his own supporters.