Retro Vs. Modern Football, A Conversation With Rob Smyth

So modern football, eh? As much as the Premier League captivates our imaginations and dominates our pub and water cooler conversations, not every fitba fan, young or old, buys into the product that many millions across the world invest so much time, energy and (most importantly) money into.

Smyth: The big turn off is the characters involved in the game, at every level. Players, managers, directors, the showers-that-be. There are so many snide, avaricious types who behave in a way that shames whatever is left of masculinity. There is a desperate lack of honesty and nobility. What, as Tony Soprano says, ever happened to Gary Cooper?

I know United have been incredibly successful, but that alone is not enough. There is, or at least there should be, a United way of doing things – with style, class, dignity and most of all glory. It’s extremely hard to argue that the values established by Sir Matt Busby have been adhered to in recent times. There’s the Glazers, United’s cautious football in the majority of big games (never more so than the 9-0-1 formation employed in Barcelona in 2008), and the nature of many of the star players.

Things that are good about the game? The way Barcelona pass the ball (though there is so much to dislike in other areas of their game). Paul Scholes. The fact some of the prehistoric elements, such as racism, have been removed. Andres Iniesta. As a United fan, the humble enthusiasm of the Da Silva twins and Javier Hernandez. Thomas Mueller. It’s not the case that all football was good before and all football is evil now; it would be absurd to say that. But there has been a serious decline at pretty much every level. Apart from the tight shorts. Nobody misses the tight shorts.

Smyth: It’s easier to list the players and managers who *don’t* make me feel that way. Money and victory are prioritised to an inappropriate degree, and to hell with fair play, dignity, honour and the rest. Football was our childhood sweetheart, but now we wake up every day next to a money-grabbing whore.

Smyth: I think YouTube does quench the thirst: the range of stuff on there is incredible. The best thing about YouTube is that it doesn’t just reinforce your memories of old football, it also introduces you to wonderful stories you didn’t know (have a look, for example, at the two legs of the 1986 European Cup semi-final between Gothenburg and Barcelona). I have a file, up to about 400 links now, of stuff that I want to watch (compilations of, say, Dragan Stojkovic’s passing) and just haven’t had time. I could spend a whole day on there. I don’t know enough about Uefa, but I suspect they wouldn’t be forthcoming, no. There are some terrific resources on the internet, though, especially http://soccervideotapes.homestead.com/

Smyth: It’s hard to see anything but a steady deterioration: in playing standards (see that hideous first leg between Real Madrid and Barcelona, one of the most depressing matches imaginable), in terms of driving out the real fans as the game becomes ever more commercialised. I just don’t see how football can recover; the new values are too deep-rooted. I see the same teams challenging for competitions, with the only ones able to break the glass ceiling being clubs like Manchester City with obscene amounts of money.

Smyth: The Denmark team (and, crucially, fans) of the 80s evoke everything that football should be: fun on and off the field, fearless attacking football, humility, decency, fairness, adventure, and so on. They didn’t win a trophy, but they got something much more important: glory, and in industrial quantities. I co-wrote a piece on them for the Guardian site which, unusually for something I’ve written, I’d recommend. Their story is so interesting. Probably the person who encapsulates what football should be is Dave Mackay. The Gary Cooper of football.

Smyth: I’m writing a book about how football sold its soul, which includes many rambles about retro football, only 94 per cent of which are about that Denmark team. I’m also very excited about the upcoming Retro MBM site: all those involved editorially are class acts, and good people too. If I find £1m in a hedge I will immediately quit the day job and edit a site devoted to retro football features. Until that day comes, I’ll be lying in a dark room watching old football videos, getting off on all the Proustian rushes.