So, let me get this right:
-You quote Best who criticises Beckham for, amongst other things, pace and dribbling. Stuff which Best was good at, Beckham was not.
-I point out that it's not fair to judge a player on attributes which are not their primary skill, I try and help you out understanding this by showing examples of players who are world class who don't share those attributes. For example, Buffon who is a goalkeeper for the Italian national football team, has never shown that he can dribble a ball well, but it widely accepted as being world class.
-I go on to suggest that ONE ATTRIBUTE which you CAN compare all players with, all players, any player, is their mental strength. I think this is quite important in the game, I think I gave a reasonable account on how Beckham has coped well with challenges. (I'd be most interested by the way to hear what evidence you might be able to offer that George Best had any kind of willpower because from where I'm standing, he tinkled it all up the wall before he was 25). I'm not the one trying to judge players on attributes which are irrelevant, yet I'm the one getting called stupid? Nice one.
Look, I've had the whole George Best argument before, I swim against the tide as far as he's concerned and I know that the majority of people think he was the greatest player in the UK ever etc etc etc and to be honest, I know I probably ought to walk away from this one because I'll always be vastly outnumbered on this. My big gripe with him is mainly because I think he simply did not have the strength of character to put his ability to anywhere near its potential, in the same way that Bostock and Tarabat could well be the most talented players for Spurs over the last twenty years but ultimately we will probably never know because they dont have the mentality to make it work. The top level in Best's day was International football and he was anonymous there. Yes, he played for a mediocre team but if he was that good he would have made an impact. A career is 16,17 years in football, 4 or even 5 World Cups and if he was good enough he would have got Northern Ireland to at least one finals.
If I were to go down the route of compare Best as a complete player, well, maybe I'd start with Maradona. For those who say Best is up there with him and Pele, look how Maradona battled his demons, lost, fought back, lost, fought back. Still a passionate football man trying to impact the game with Boca, Argentina. He led an average team to World Cup victory, he dominated that tournament. He won league titles in very foreign countries, for teams who had been starved of success. How does Bestie compare to that?
Part of being a bloody good player is coping with being a bloody good player and Best couldn't, so he isn't. For me, Best will be found wanting compared to any other man who managed to cope with a 20 year career in football, showbiz, or anything else to be honest. We all have our stresses, we deal with it. Here we go, bring on the flames but to be honest, finding out that that ridculous quote came from probably the biggest failure in the British game makes my blood boil.
