Billy Harris: a thread of mediocrity
What's mainly wrong about it is that he's sneering at the idea of doing a Masters degree in economics at a top-ranked UK university. In the real world, that's called a bigger achievement than - for example - playing two more seasons at midfield for an A-League team whose fans mainly keep calling for you to be benched.
Ah, the scattergun approach from Billy today. Have to add that as a neutral I completely disagree - another Man Utd win is just tedious
The bad. There just weren't enough of them, with the attendance of 10,000 for the play-off against Sydney being particularly disappointing.
Does this statement annoy anyone else? The Yellow Fever are not the whole crowd, and the Yellow Fever are there week in week out. It's the rest of Wellington that are the problem.
Also, a very lazy article from Billy. It's effectively only bullet points, theres no structure whatsoever.patrick4782012-04-15 10:33:26
did we get the best out of these players? What could we have done better...
Wards Best <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Daniel's best.
The good: I didn't lose 10 minutes of my life reading it
The bad: the reuse of the same titles over and over, so you never really knew where it was going
The boring: the entire article
Possibly could have been a good article if it had a bit of structure, some points were quite valid, and asked good questions. But a lazy article really.
so played him all year then? was the best in preseason IIRC.
yeh- Ward/Sanchez/Daniel could have given us more this year I think.
Pav, apart from that one game where Daniel set him up for two goals, has been a poor striker and a wasted sub. Has legs, but needs head on shoulders.martinb2012-04-17 13:41:57
"Granted, Clapham, Howieson, George, Payne and Rojas are all new to the scene, having amassed, collectively, just nine matches"
Billy can't even get basic information right, it's McGeorge.
cannot wait to read Billy's assessment of the OFC Nations cup
Could be potential for word w#nk bingo:
- mediocre,
- sack Ricki,
- not professional,
- too conservative
Haters gonna hate
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/7199907/Football-the-beautiful-game-is-smelling-foul
Yawn. Pretty sure he copied that article from any number of others. Probably an American,then changed 'soccer' to 'football before sending it to his editor.
just came across this blogpost which I think does a great job of shooting down Billy's problem with Balotelli: http://filthyreactionaryscum.wordpress.com/2012/06/30/the-final-death-throes-of-the-euro-2012-the-semi-finals/#comment-29
I particularly like this:
"
Mario scores goals with the same frequency that BBC pundit Alan Shearer used to back in the day, but Mario is a temperamental and grumpy beast while Alan looks like a haemorrhoid yet speaks with the soft and gentle manner of a sleepy farmer. This allows Alan to ask questions such as “What has (Mario) actually achieved?” Because Mario’s wild style doesn’t fit the mould, old-timers like Shearer get to have a go at him before anyone points out that Balotelli has achieved more than Shearer did in his entire career despite being a) 21 years old and b) batshit mental.
Well I say balls to the mould, and not in a 1970′s-rock-star-groupie sense either. Nobody watches football for the clean-cut and technically proficient; we watch for the guys on the edge of genius and tragedy, the boys who create suspense and intrigue with their every move. When Mario’s good, he’s very very good, and when he’s bad he’s awful, but good or bad, you’d never accuse him of being boring. See, not exactly complicated…"
A fellow journalist described Harris's column of last weekend as 'pretty lame'. Why does the SST persist with him?
Why I did it I don't know but I read the Billy Harris piece in today's SST. It is rubbish! What is Harris' problem? Does he really have this little to say week after week after week??? http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/latest-edition/7280509/Young-Oly-Whites-players-must-lose-to-win
Who hurt you Billy?
My expectation was that the whole of football plan would work within a year too. So,like billy,I am also shocked at how technically inferior the 'Olympic football team' (I also refuse to call them the "oly-whites because I'm an obnoxious douche) were to the japanese.
Must admit, he makes some good points
Why I did it I don't know but I read the Billy Harris piece in today's SST. It is rubbish! What is Harris' problem? Does he really have this little to say week after week after week??? http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/latest-edition/7280509/Young-Oly-Whites-players-must-lose-to-win
What exactly do you disagree with in the article?
I thought it was a really good article to be honest. He summarises exactly why the Whole of Football philosophy is so important despite the 'anti PC' brigade (where PC is defined as 'something I don't like') vehemently opposing a lot of it.
Useless Forums!
To be fair, that was probably one of the best articles Billy has written over the past few years.
Agreed with him, except for the point saying that we have gone back to the old days, playing with not much possession and hoping to win via set piece goals, after our "quantum leap forward" at the World Cup. Seem to recall we didn't have 50% possession in any match, and our two goals were a bit scrappy/set-piecey
And that, still, is the problem. Despite the "Whole of Football" plan launched by NZ Football, judging from the instructions bellowed by coaches and parents at soccer grounds every Saturday morning there's still a huge proportion of the public who emphasise winning, rather than fun and skills.
"Don't mess around with it, get rid of it!" is the all too common panicky shout.
How many of you are around young football? The 'panicky shout' he wrote of doesn't exist any more. Are you hearing it? FWIW, I watch a lot of Saturday morning football and the scenario he describes , in my experience, has gone.
He lives, in Auckland, and perhaps it happens there but it certyainly isn't happening in Wellington. We've moved on.
Why I did it I don't know but I read the Billy Harris piece in today's SST. It is rubbish! What is Harris' problem? Does he really have this little to say week after week after week??? http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/latest-edition/7280509/Young-Oly-Whites-players-must-lose-to-win
What exactly do you disagree with in the article?
In all honesty my first response to your question was going to be "Billy Harris wrote it". He has a regular column in a paper with a high number of readers. Instead of reaching out with incisive material about the state of the game in NZ he hands over laboured cliche week after week. It was only two weeks ago that another NZ writer described his pieces as 'lame'.
How long has he had this column? A decade and a half? Has it ever reached any heights?
Even as a polemic it fails.
And that, still, is the problem. Despite the "Whole of Football" plan launched by NZ Football, judging from the instructions bellowed by coaches and parents at soccer grounds every Saturday morning there's still a huge proportion of the public who emphasise winning, rather than fun and skills.
"Don't mess around with it, get rid of it!" is the all too common panicky shout.
How many of you are around young football? The 'panicky shout' he wrote of doesn't exist any more. Are you hearing it? FWIW, I watch a lot of Saturday morning football and the scenario he describes , in my experience, has gone.
He lives, in Auckland, and perhaps it happens there but it certyainly isn't happening in Wellington. We've moved on.
I wasn't going to read the article as I don't these days, but your post piqued my interest.
I would have to agree with you turkiye. Haven't heard much of this in five years in Wgtn (BEFORE WoF). Although for us the main call is to think about passing...
He should come and see us - we certainly don't emphasise winning (although every now and then would be nice).