I’ll get onto the Norwich City stuff in a bit (it’s not as if it’s been an uneventful week) but it wouldn’t be right to start anywhere else but Copenhagen.
The scenes witnessed last night were among the most harrowing I can ever recall watching as a football fan. They were among the most harrowing I’ve watched full stop. Those minutes between Christian Eriksen collapsing and then those official Getty images emerging of him on the stretcher being led awake but, mercifully, with his eyes open were excruciating.
In the midst of all though – in those excruciating minutes – the best of humanity came to the fore.
- The brilliant medical staff who brought Eriksen back from beyond the brink.
- Denmark’s captain, Simon Kjaer, who gave first aid to his friend before the medical team arrived, and ensured he didn’t swallow his tongue.
- Kasper Schmeichel being the hero that we already know he is.
- Eriksen’s team-mates forming a protective shield around their friend as he fought for his life.
- The Denmark and Finland fans chanting “Christian… Eriksen…”
There were other examples. Loads of them.
The BBC has quite rightly taken lots of flak for the gratuitous use of close-ups as events unfolded but their feed was from the host broadcaster and so they had no directorial control over the coverage.
Either way, the close-up of Kjaer and Schmeichel comforting Eriksen’s partner at a time of such peril was at the far extremity of poor taste.
The BBC’s mistake was to not pull the plug sooner, although fair play to Gary Lineker, Cesc Fàbregas, Alex Scott and Micah Richards for when they did. That was a baton no one wanted and, in the circumstances, all four of them did the best job possible. Respect to them for that.
And then the moment. Those first images appearing on Twitter showing Eriksen, on the stretcher, to be conscious and breathing.
A last-minute winner for England in the final on 11 July will not come even close to generating that feeling of exhilaration. At that moment, football, the sport, felt so insignificant.
It’s an emotional game; one that has proven many times that, for all its frailties and weaknesses, it does retain the ability to bring people together. But it is just a game.
It goes without saying that our best wishes go to Christian Eriksen and his loved ones.
***
It seems a little trifling to talk about Norwich City losing their best player in the circumstances, but we have. Last Saturday was the day when the news unofficially broke that City had done a deal with Aston Villa to sell them Emi Buendia – one of the greatest players ever to wear the yellow and green.
It hurts, just as it always does when you lose the services of a player you would prefer to retain. But it happens. That, as they say, is football, especially when you’re a “self-funded” club, which has the profitable sale of players as part of its raison d’etre.
We get it, just as we get that every player has a price and virtually every club on the planet has the ability to lose their best players to those with deeper pockets and more ambition.
But what I don’t get is the need for said deal, and its ensuing pain, to be seemingly dragged out for a whole bloody week. We know he’s going; let’s get the farewells over as quickly as we can and move on, but no…
This one is now dragging into its second week, and we’re still awaiting the obligatory picture of a beaming Emi doing keepy-uppies while wearing the Villa shirt followed by the equally obligatory bloody shirt holding alongside Dean Smith.
Instead we get drip fed daily instalments, each one twisting the knife a few more millimetres:
- Monday – more unofficial details emerge of Emi Buendia signing for Aston Villa.
- Tuesday – Villa officially announce the signing of Emi Buendia.
- Wednesday – Villa formally announce the signing of Emi Buendia – just in case there was any doubt
- Thursday – Norwich City formally announce the departure of Emi Buendia.
- Friday – Emi Buendia announces that Emi Buendia is signing for Villa and thanks Norwich for being a lovely stepping stone.
I fully expect to be sitting here next Sunday citing another week of step-by-step movements in the transfer of Emi Buendia as he edges his way along the A14, to eventually be greeted by cheering crowds clad in claret and blue at Spaghetti Junction, before being granted the freedom of Birmingham.
Oh the joy.
We loved you Emi, but you’re not ours anymore. Just go, mate. It’s business.
***
And then, of course, there was the small matter of BK8 – the faceless and tasteless betting giants from the Far East whose buck was initially irresistible to Norwich City Football Club until it was pointed out to them quite how faceless and tasteless they really were. And then it was resistible.
They weren’t giants either. I’m not sure they even qualified as minnows. I’m not even sure they qualified as an entity. But someone somewhere did have a lot of money.
Unless actually they didn’t and they were the Far East’s version of Galway Roast. We’ll never know.
It’s since emerged that Dafabet were no angels either although whether this has been an unknown or whether a blind eye was turned, I’m not sure. Or maybe it’s because Dafabet was a brand we’d heard of and who sponsor other teams in the UK? Again, who knows.
Either way, both Dafabet and BK8 have both gone the same way as those other giants of the gambling world, LeoVegas, who ironically now appear positively wholesome by comparison.
And to think we took the pee out of Ipswich for having shirts bearing the name of Ed Sheeran’s latest venture.
I mean, fair play to the club for listening to the protestations of some fans and fan groups but I did struggle a bit, if I’m honest, with the celebratory aftermath given it was a gargantuan cock-up of the club’s own making in the first place.
Maybe that was just me.
But there is, of course, a financial hole that needs filling.
Is Cathy Dennis planning a comeback?
***
And, finally, as England start their own Euro 2020 campaign later, the usual debate around Gareth Southgate’s starting XI has been overtaken by talk of whether of not a minority of England fans will continue to boo when the players take a pre-match knee.
How crazy is that? Especially when Southgate and the players have explicitly gone out of their way to explain that the gesture has absolutely nothing to do with politics.
To quote from the FA’s statement: “They are doing this as a mechanism of peacefully protesting against discrimination, injustice, and inequality”.
Note: no mention of Black Lives Matter or Marxist revolutionaries with Southgate leading from the front as our own Che Guevara. Just a statement intended to remind us all that prejudices have no place in football and in society in general.
What a great start to England’s tournament it would be if, for those eight seconds, there’d not be a single boo.
I’m a dreamer.
Gary spot on with the Copenhagen comments.
Hi Gary
An excellent read this morning with so much that’s happened this week I wondered how your Sunday piece would appear and as usual it is great.
The BBC getting panned now that’s not unusual and I suppose just maybe all the backroom staff were like everyone else caught off guard by the scenes in Copenhagen and slow to react but it was breaking news on a sports news programme so possibly delayed longer than necessary to break the link.
The only thing to be grateful 🙏for is that Ericksen is on the mend but an early retirement seems on the cards, EUFA are getting flack for the amount of international games players are asked to play but they will turn it around saying it the league games taking its toll on the players health so nothing will change.
Emi gone but not forgotten just wished it was somewhere else like Athletic Madrid and like all bad news they like to drag every ounce out of it yet the Brummies would gave been clamnering for more.
Let’s see what SW has up his sleeve 👀 so far 3 wingers from South America 2 Argentinan and 1 Columbian and a list as long as the A1 with players in and around Europe most wouldn’t qualify for 15 points needed for a Workpermit and others it seems Dirty Leeds wants or are interested in.
Kast year it was rumoured that a certain Premiership club was getting information on other teams targets notably Loserpool and ManC complaining their recruitment dept had been hacked surely cities hasn’t to stop any possibly gems being unearthed now that would be Fantasy Island.
Well Cricket 🏏 will short but not so sweet today so must look forward to England this afternoon and then the Old Enemy on Friday which is a no miss game and hopefully Hanley gets to play sadly on the wrong side of a beating.
Onwards and upwards
OTBC
Stay Healthy and Stay safe 🙏
Get well soon Christian Ericksen all the best from this City and Spurs supporter
I am a Norwich City fan. I want to see Norwich City have the best possible team. I really do not give a fig about England. The players are not likeable. Are we really supposed to cheer as Grealish ‘buys’ another free kick, Harry Kane’s inability to stay on his feet in the penalty area and the rest of them. I switched off the Eriksen incident when it happened. I really don’t think there was anything that panel could add to our knowledge. I hope I never see anything like that again..
Christian Eriksens health situation have been reported to become more stable, which is of course very good news. Eriksens wish was that game will continue and both teams respected that obviously. What is bothering that there is bitter idiots who cry their bets and/or fantasy teams that Finland won because of what happened to Eriksen. Actually Denmark pushed even harder when game started again, Finland won fairly and even UEFA started their nonsense once again by gifting Denmark a penalty. Hradecky saved that too, but its very bothering to know that when result starts to be against so called football nations or big clubs then referees are trying to change a game. Games must be fair to everyone, Finland lost qualification game against Italy 1-2 only because of referee gave gift penalty to italians. These are issues which have never been able to solved and im talking about overall in international football.
Denmark played tactically very well, their game plan basically forced Finland to kick often high balls to get away from pressure. Game proved once again that against Finland is very difficult to play. That is not only in football, Finland has been regular qualifier now more than 10 years also in basketball and volleyball and have also every time passed group stage and played in playoffs. Finland also qualified to futsal european championships and was very close before that qualify to world championships. Its results of our team sports culture.
Pukki was not good, it would be fair to put Forss to start against Russia. Still I believe that Teemu will start. Hradecky was brilliant, but it was no surprise because he just played in his level. Arajuuri can be compared to Hanley, his fighting spirit is backbone to our defense and he has always been good central defender. Sparv surprised positively, his knee problems were huge and once again he proved that he deserved to be captain and in starting lineup. Finland played 5-1-2-2 which once again was something new and both Kamara and Lod played very good games in new role. I told you that Pohjanpalo is great, his scoring per minute stats is unbelievable. He is that good, but like I have said he has been very unlucky with injuries. Pukki had to score most qualification goals, but reason behind that was Pohjanpalos injuries and also that Forss has just developed to different level as a player. Perfect result, but team knows it has not yet qualified to playoffs and we do know that Finland can win any team in world also in football no matter where is played.
I liked the look of Lod. Maybe City should be trying to get Pukki some Finnish company!
I have to say I was shocked to see a video of our fans thanking the club for disassociation themselves with demeaning videos.
In every other world the club puts out a video explaining how they’re sorry.
In Norwich land we thank the club.
Then we wonder why they make these decisions in the first place.
I have to say, I found the video excellent and in no way demeaning.
I’m talking about the demeaning marketing videos.
The ones so tasteless Gary won’t even allow the descriptions posted here 😉
Visiting friends in London back in 2012, but hubby an wife Spurs supporters, the cup game against Bolton was on, they talked me into another nights stay, Jenny less her gave me her ticket for the game. Anyone who remembers will guess what is coming. Bolton player Fabrice Muamba , collapsed like we witnessed last evening in Copenhagen. A horrible feeling, a numbing silence. Yet the unexplained need to see and know what is happening. Like Erikson, Muamba made a recovery but not allowed to play.
When that happens, football becomes a minor issue.,. Pleased to see Erikson sitting up and talking with team doctor, was a relief to the football world, cannot even get a sense of what his wife and family felt. Speedy recovery and no repeat is my wish for him.
The EMI transfer reminded me of Lambert going to Villa, the Birmingham media doing their best to claim the signing before hand.One thing did other me was in a more recent media offering, which claimed EMI reason was ambition. Nothing wrong with having that, but it spoke to me that the players at City know clearly that their ambition cannot be matched by their employers.
How many others whose ambitions will force them away, the message is very clear, The club has little ambition, which I am sure will play massive part in who we can sign or who wants to come to Norfolk
The thing I can’t quite get my head around is that, at some point, the producer would have said “let’s cut to a shot of his wife”. Unbelievably bad taste. He should be fired.
Emi – Quite right, he’s moved on so should we.
BK8 – Not much to add really, it’s all been said.
Yesterday took me back 27 years. That’s when Ayrton Senna died at Imola. I was in the Jubilee pub at the time and I turned to my friend and said “He’s dead”. I said the same thing yesterday to my wife but, fortunately, and thanks to the superb medical assistance I was wrong.
As for Emi. He’s gone. Your breakdown seems superfluous as was the actual event.
BK8. I can’t help but feel there’s a huge amount of hypocrisy surrounding the outrage. Scantily clad ladies are used to sell pretty much everything. Take umbrage at their product rather than their suggestive marketing.
Ironically the people who boo at players taking a knee are often the same ones who are offended by companies such as BK8.