OT: Not Football Related Or Is It?

[Camuldonum 0]

After a day of monitoring the Russian web sites re the Caucasian Cup Final Georgia v Russia my favourite quote goes to Gyorgy of Odensk:

"Of course there are criticisms of when Josef Stalin was in charge  Some people criticise his decisions but he took us to a world status we had not known before and made us an international force.  Lenin only lead the way but was weak and lacked the power of Stalin.  Also I think Lenin chose his wrong lieutenants, they were no way committed enough.

"Stalin picked a team that he could rely on to give of their very best when called upon. Lenin was not so certain and often made mistakes and so I am happier with Stalin than Lenin.

"With Putin and Mevedev in charge I feel we will not be defeated by anyone."

 

[YankeeCanary 0]

[quote user="Camuldonum"]

After a day of monitoring the Russian web sites re the Caucasian Cup Final Georgia v Russia my favourite quote goes to Gyorgy of Odensk:

"Of course there are criticisms of when Josef Stalin was in charge  Some people criticise his decisions but he took us to a world status we had not known before and made us an international force.  Lenin only lead the way but was weak and lacked the power of Stalin.  Also I think Lenin chose his wrong lieutenants, they were no way committed enough.

"Stalin picked a team that he could rely on to give of their very best when called upon. Lenin was not so certain and often made mistakes and so I am happier with Stalin than Lenin.

"With Putin and Mevedev in charge I feel we will not be defeated by anyone."

[/quote]

Stalin''s legacy was the same as Hitler''s and Saddam Hussein. They put their faces about everywhere when they were alive and had power, and executed those that did not agree with them. Any positive memory of them disappeared at the same time as they did for the vast majority of their fellow citizens.

This is also probably true of football managers who are extremely heavy handed with very little else to offer other than punishment. It''s the carrot and stick approach that most often works in life. 

[Camuldonum 0]

[quote user="YankeeCanary"][quote user="Camuldonum"]

After a day of monitoring the Russian web sites re the Caucasian Cup Final Georgia v Russia my favourite quote goes to Gyorgy of Odensk:

"Of course there are criticisms of when Josef Stalin was in charge  Some people criticise his decisions but he took us to a world status we had not known before and made us an international force.  Lenin only lead the way but was weak and lacked the power of Stalin.  Also I think Lenin chose his wrong lieutenants, they were no way committed enough.

"Stalin picked a team that he could rely on to give of their very best when called upon. Lenin was not so certain and often made mistakes and so I am happier with Stalin than Lenin.

"With Putin and Mevedev in charge I feel we will not be defeated by anyone."

[/quote]

Stalin''s legacy was the same as Hitler''s and Saddam Hussein. They put their faces about everywhere when they were alive and had power, and executed those that did not agree with them. Any positive memory of them disappeared at the same time as they did for the vast majority of their fellow citizens.

This is also probably true of football managers who are extremely heavy handed with very little else to offer other than punishment. It''s the carrot and stick approach that most often works in life. 

[/quote]

No this is August 2008 and Gyorgy from Odensk knows which of their Managers he rates the best.

Interesting headline from a Russian news site today:

Putin to take care of Ossetian refugees.

If this news group is to be believed Croft is about to be executed as well.

[PurpleCanary 6,386]

So if I’ve got Gyorgy’s analogy right, and without worrying too much about synchonising Anglo-Soviet chronologies, then in English terms Lenin equals Sir Walter Winterbottom, the ineffective visionary who plots the way forward and takes the first steps, Stalin equates to Sir Alf Ramsay, the hard b*st*rd who gets the job done (with Bukharin fulfilling the Jimmy Greaves role as necessary victim), Trotsky plainly is Brian Clough, the great manager who never was, Khrushchev would be played by cheeky chappie man of the people El Tel, forgotten man Chernenko is the short-lived Joe Mercer, Brezhnev has his equivalent in Bobby Robson, the great survivor, Andropov and Glenn Hoddle are a match made in heaven as enigmas, Gorbachev has to be Ron Greenwood, the man who knew things had to change, and in some way I can’t or perhaps shouldn’t articulate then that leaves Yeltsin as a hairier version of Sven Goran Eriksson.

And, probably luckily for the Soviet Union as was, I can’t think of leaders bad enough to compare to Don Revie, Graham Taylor or Kevin Keegan, but Cam may well know better.