Norfolk Mustard 106 Posted June 7, 2012 Just started reading a book called ‘In ma Head Son’ co-written in ''97 by ex-Chelsea footballer Pat Nevin & my colleague Dr George Sik. The psychological make-up of a typical centre forward makes interesting reading – could partly explain Grant Holt’s recent actions at Norwich City? http://www.collectsoccer.com/acatalog/InMaHeadSon-FootballersMindRevealed1997-Book-L.jpg Excerpt from Pat Nevin: ‘There are obviously individuals who are far more concerned with themselves and their own position than that of the team. I guess that is the popular image of certain players – usually the centre-forwards! They can get labelled selfish or greedy or whatever. But it’s like the old Paul Gascoigne theory; if you get rid of the madness, you risk getting rid of the genius. Similarly, with centre-forwards, if you lose the greed, you might lose the instinct to kill and they’ll stop scoring as many goals for you’. If we intend to retain GH''s goal scoring services (70 goals in 3 seasons) maybe we should first begin by understanding the psychological importance of him remaining greedy? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lake district canary 0 Posted June 7, 2012 If you replace the word ''greedy'' with the word ''desire'' I think you get closer to the truth. There is something in the way that Holt scores goals that defies the normal run of the mill striker. Alot of strikers ''do their best'' to score. Holt, Shearer, and others of their type simply put the ball in the net. Its not as if they are trying to score - they simply score. Its a priceless gift and brilliant to watch. His desire is at the heart of what he does. If you take that away, he would be nothing. Greed is not at the heart of what he does in his general play either. His crossing ability, his work for the team - everything about the way he approaches football says the opposite. That for me is what marks him out from the run of the mill strikers for who greed is the motivation. At the moment he has been distracted, I believe by politics and an incompetent agent. I don''t think greed is at the heart of this either. He doesn''t strike me as the greedy sort. We don''t know all the facts, but greed, I suspect is not the issue. Holt is a whole hearted player - and down to earth. I think it is too easy to put labels on people. Holt is a one off who deserves some understanding after what he has done for the club. The recent events are unhelpful to him but we don''t know the facts. Greed though, imo, is not the issue. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aggy 944 Posted June 7, 2012 I''m with LDC on this one. Holt quite clearly cares about the team on matchdays, he runs his socks off week in week out, and is quite happy to set someone else up as well as finish his own chances. I think if that was written in 97, it is probably starting to show it''s date, as quite a lot of forwards nowadays are expected to help out. An out and out striker is rarely a major man at a club. There are some, Chicarito at Man Utd for instance, but they are often impact players rather than regulars (Chicarito rarely gets in before Rooney who is another forward that works his socks off for the team). "Lazy" strikers who only care about their own performance often get slated by the fans. Look at Morison. He sometimes comes across as only bothering to put effort in when there''s a chance he can put the ball in the net, he doesn''t chase down long balls regularly or anything like that. He gets slated by sections of the crowd. I dont'' think many players can get away with being greedy and all about themselves nowadays.Also, I don''t think greedy on the pitch necessarily translates as greedy in financial terms off it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Norfolk Mustard 106 Posted June 7, 2012 Depends on our individual interpretation of the word ‘Greed’ I suppose? Here’s dictionary.com’s definition:GREED: (Noun) Intense and selfish desire for something, esp.wealth, power, or food.‘Goals’ could easily be added to that list?Actually, in the book Pat Nevin goes on to say ‘I wouldn’t necessarily agree with the premise that competitiveness must always have a correlation with acute selfishness. It isn’t that simple. If you look around, Alan Shearer who is the best in the business, is the perfect example of who doesn’t fit that stereotype. He is competitive, selfish in front of goal, but still the perfect team player. There are others – Stan Collymore is often mentioned – who it is suggested aren’t such team players.(Like Aggy says, remember this was written back in ’97). In terms of overall team play Holt is much more like Shearer than Collymore, so in his case I tend to agree with you about ‘desire’ as opposed to ‘greed’ LDC.In no way am I suggesting GH is purely greedy though; simply highlighting that a striker needs to have the hunger, passion, desire and deep belief that he will score. In Holt’s case, his focus needs to be on the task we all know he is able to carry out with such fantastic ease.Thinking back to the Celtic game, Holt was struggling to get his first touch right that evening – hardly surprising really, given all the distractions he had around him!I really hope we can resolve things with our Captain; it seems his relationship with McNally is the stumbling block as much as anything else?Personally I’d give him the contract he wants. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
William Darby 0 Posted June 7, 2012 [quote user="Aggy"]I''m with LDC on this one. Holt quite clearly cares about the team on matchdays, he runs his socks off week in week out, and is quite happy to set someone else up as well as finish his own chances. I think if that was written in 97, it is probably starting to show it''s date, as quite a lot of forwards nowadays are expected to help out. An out and out striker is rarely a major man at a club. There are some, Chicarito at Man Utd for instance, but they are often impact players rather than regulars (Chicarito rarely gets in before Rooney who is another forward that works his socks off for the team). "Lazy" strikers who only care about their own performance often get slated by the fans. Look at Morison. He sometimes comes across as only bothering to put effort in when there''s a chance he can put the ball in the net, he doesn''t chase down long balls regularly or anything like that. He gets slated by sections of the crowd. I dont'' think many players can get away with being greedy and all about themselves nowadays.Also, I don''t think greedy on the pitch necessarily translates as greedy in financial terms off it.[/quote]That''s probably a fair point. 97 was only a year or three after Lineker retired. He was the ultimate ''goal hanger''. Imagine if our Gary was around these days. He''d be labelled everything under the sun. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aggy 944 Posted June 7, 2012 [quote user="Norfolk Mustard"]Depends on our individual interpretation of the word ‘Greed’ I suppose? Here’s dictionary.com’s definition:GREED: (Noun) Intense and selfish desire for something, esp.wealth, power, or food.‘Goals’ could easily be added to that list?Actually, in the book Pat Nevin goes on to say ‘I wouldn’t necessarily agree with the premise that competitiveness must always have a correlation with acute selfishness. It isn’t that simple. If you look around, Alan Shearer who is the best in the business, is the perfect example of who doesn’t fit that stereotype. He is competitive, selfish in front of goal, but still the perfect team player. There are others – Stan Collymore is often mentioned – who it is suggested aren’t such team players.(Like Aggy says, remember this was written back in ’97). In terms of overall team play Holt is much more like Shearer than Collymore, so in his case I tend to agree with you about ‘desire’ as opposed to ‘greed’ LDC.In no way am I suggesting GH is purely greedy though; simply highlighting that a striker needs to have the hunger, passion, desire and deep belief that he will score. In Holt’s case, his focus needs to be on the task we all know he is able to carry out with such fantastic ease.Thinking back to the Celtic game, Holt was struggling to get his first touch right that evening – hardly surprising really, given all the distractions he had around him!I really hope we can resolve things with our Captain; it seems his relationship with McNally is the stumbling block as much as anything else?Personally I’d give him the contract he wants.[/quote]I''d agree with most of that, but it does then seem to undermine the attempt to transfer that hunger for goals into wage demands. If it is just a desire to put the ball in the net as well as helping the team out, it doesn''t seem a simple correlation to jump from that to putting your wage demands above the good of the team just because you''re a striker or whatever.I also hope we will sort things out, and the longer this goes on fairly quietly I sort of think we might (although obviously it''s probably gone quiet because we''ve been dealing with the manager situation). I''m sure the situation is one between McNally and Holt rather than any manager, but hopefully the new boss can come in and try to sort something out between them. And Lineker was the one I was thinking about - a bit before my time, but from what i''ve heard and seen of him he was the type of striker who probably could have been scoring 20 goals a season but in todays game would still probably be getting slated by some because of his lack of work rate. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Syteanric 1 Posted June 7, 2012 [quote user="Norfolk Mustard"]Just started reading a book called ‘In ma Head Son’ co-written in ''97 by ex-Chelsea footballer Pat Nevin &[/quote]so they have got a midfielder/winger to write a book about what its like being a striker...Next week, Peter Schmeichel tells us what its like at right back. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Norfolk Mustard 106 Posted June 7, 2012 [quote user="jas the barclay king"][quote user="Norfolk Mustard"] Just started reading a book called ‘In ma Head Son’ co-written in ''97 by ex-Chelsea footballer Pat Nevin &[/quote]so they have got a midfielder/winger to write a book about what its like being a striker...Next week, Peter Schmeichel tells us what its like at right back.[/quote]The book is not restricted to centre forwards Jas; - it''s about the psychology of playing football – something I’m particularly interested in. The book contains observations from an ex-player and a leading psychologist… Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Syteanric 1 Posted June 7, 2012 [quote user="Norfolk Mustard"][quote user="jas the barclay king"][quote user="Norfolk Mustard"] Just started reading a book called ‘In ma Head Son’ co-written in ''97 by ex-Chelsea footballer Pat Nevin &[/quote]so they have got a midfielder/winger to write a book about what its like being a striker...Next week, Peter Schmeichel tells us what its like at right back.[/quote]The book is not restricted to centre forwards Jas; - it''s about the psychology of playing football – something I’m particularly interested in. The book contains observations from an ex-player and a leading psychologist… [/quote]in seriousness it sounds interesting.. i might pick up a copy.. i have a book at home called "he always puts it to the left" which is about the history of the penalty kick.. from teams refusing to take them to how much they can cost if you miss one!its a good read...the title comes from when the author was playing football and came up against his brothers team in a local cup game.. they won a penalty so the author confidently strolled over to take it, his brother ran over to the keeper and whispered "He always puts it to the left"only to realise to his horror he meant the penalty takes left and not the keepers... he watched as his brother scored and won the cup.... the keeper was furious! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
