How safe spaces and political correctness killed the footballing hardman
Football has has had a string of hardmen over the course of their successful era in the Premier League. Bryan Robson is the greatest example, a man who sorted out opponents on behalf of Ryan Giggs when he was being targeted, and played through countless injuries. There were others after him. Eric Cantona once tried to rally the dressing room to come back onto the pitch in Turkey to fight a war with the police after a defeat. Roy Keane keeps a mental list of anyone who flinched about anything, ever, even if he wasn’t there to witness it.
It wasn’t just the United side who won the league for the first time in 26 years, who were the hardmen of football. There are countless stories of players who played through the pain, or shrugged off problems, to keep playing no matter what. It’s in stark contrast now to some of the accounts of players these days, who selfishly preserve their long-term health so that they miss the occasional match over the course of the season. We have a list of some of those most egregious, and also some of the most inspiring, tales of cowardice and bravery.
Stuart Pearce is most famous for two instances of hardman play. Once, he played a game of football with a broken leg, refusing to take himself off injured and carrying on to compete instead. Secondly, he also worked as an electrician, an occupation so dominated by testosterone that there remain no women electricians in existence. Thirdly, he once ate an entire, metal goalframe on the training pitch in order to win a bet, and simply passed the shrapnel with a wince. But perhaps the most haunting examples of his bravery came not as a player, but when he had made the transition to management at Manchester City.
Firstly, despite the utter lack of sense it made, despite the opprobrium he would face, despite the absolutely redundant nature of the gesture and the fact that it would only hurt the prospects of his team, he kept his daughter’s fluffy toy in the technical area to keep him calm. This esoteric approach obviously backfired, but this was not a man to give into anything like logic, or doing his job properly.
Secondly, despite the utter lack of sense it made, despite the opprobrium he would face, despite the absolutely redundant nature of the gesture and the fact that it would only hurt the prospects of his team, he put David James on up front for Manchester City. This esoteric approach obviously backfired, but this was not a man to give into anything like logic, or doing his job properly. His bravery was rewarded when he was made manager of the England Under-21 team, and we are seeing the fruits of that appointment to this very day in players like Jack Wilshere and Danny Welbeck.
Unfortunately, modern players have not followed this example. Luis Nani burst into tears after he was tackled by Jamie Carragher, refusing to shake off what appeared to be exposed bone. Players are now being forced out of the game for so-called ‘concussion’. These are just the obvious examples. How that contrasts with Roy Keane elbowing Jason McAteer in the head because they fell out over Keane’s autobiography, or how Keane waited years to assault Alfe Inge Haaland because Haaland once claimed he dived. Haaland was punished for the weakness of impugning a man’s honour - disgraceful behaviour.
Or of course, we can remember Spurs’ hardman, Ben Thatcher, who knocked Pedro Mendes unconscious on the touchline. A little further back, there’s John Fashanu. This was the peak of the charming, charismatic and self-confident crazy gang. This was the team that set fire to each other’s clothes, and they were the peak of the cheeky underdog that we all knew and loved. Of course, the height of that plucky spirit came when Fashanu fractured Gary Mabbutt’s eye socket, almost blinded him, and resulted in him having to play in a protective mask for months after his comeback. We can only hope that one day, these kind of players return to bring back a sense of everything that it means to be tough, masculine and physical.
Neil Ruddock, after all, was the player to make Andy Cole at Manchester United. He had initially struggled in his attempt to score goals, but it was Ruddock who showed him the problem. By breaking both of his legs in a reserve match, he demonstrated that he needed to up the physical side of his game, and launched his Old Trafford career into the stratosphere. Ruddock was not a coward, negating his own lack of skill by using terrible violence on an innocent opponent, but someone trying to drag those around him - even if they weren’t on his team - with demonstrations on the importance of strength and physical dominance.
With the rise of ‘safe spaces’ and ‘political correctness’ in today’s youngsters, it appears that we will no longer have any of the kind of treatment that is needed to foster the competitive spirit required to become the very best in the world. Yes, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are the two best players to have ever played the game, and Barcelona the best side in the world, but let’s consider how much better they could have been with harsher treatment as youngsters. How much more inventive could Messi have been if he knew he was going to risk a fractured skull as he nutmegged a defender? How much more ruthless in front of goal would Ronaldo have been if every chance might well have been his last, ever?
