In defence of Hoolahan (latest blog)

[Daniel Brigham 0]

Celebrating a goal is one of football''s great joys but let''s get off Hoolahan''s back. By Daniel Brigham

Do you remember when you first scored a goal? 

Whether it was in the park, at school, in the back garden or whacking a tennis ball against the base of a sofa, do you remember it?

It felt great, didn’t it. You wouldn’t have thought about why it felt good. It just did. You’d seen it happening on the telly, and now you were doing it yourself. You may not have had a dodgy perm or a moustache – perhaps you had a mullet – but what you’d done, well, it was just the same as those exotic men who were lucky enough to play football for a living. 

What did you do after scoring your first goal? Maybe you repeated what you saw the TV footballers doing. Maybe you celebrated. Maybe you yelped, maybe you roared, maybe you tucked your shirt over your head. Maybe you ran around in circles, got a bit dizzy and had to lie down. It felt great, didn''t it. The celebration felt integral to scoring, as much a part of it as kicking, heading, kneeing or shinning the ball into the net. 

It’s why scoring will always be the best feeling in football. You can produce a flying save, play a defence-splitting pass, make a sliding last-ditch tackle and it will feel brilliant. But none of your team-mates are going to come marauding towards you to celebrate. The most you might get is a pat on the bum and, really, no one enjoys a pat on the bum.

You just have to look at the array of celebrations to see how much it means to people, to see what a vital part of the game it is. Marco Tardelli’s wild celebration after scoring for Italy in the 1982 World Cup final is perhaps the most memorable of all time. Running away, pumping both fists, shaking his open-mouthed face from side to side, he looked as if he had achieved the greatest possible thing in human history: with one left-foot strike he had discovered fire, invented the wheel, created penicillin, married Marilyn Monroe and got off his macaroons at a Stone Roses gig. 

Then there are Jurgen Klinsmann’s diving celebrations at Tottenham, Eric Cantona’s stand-still-and-love-me, Roger Milla’s cornerflag shimmy, Alan Shearer’s arm in the air. There are also the stupid ones: Robbie Keane''s roly-poly, Peter Crouch''s robot. The naff ones: Gareth Bale’s heart, Francesco Totti’s thumb-sucking.  To the controversial ones: Nicolas Anelka''s quenelle, Robbie Fowler''s pretend cocaine-snorting off the byline (which Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier tried to pass off as a ''Cameroonian grass-eating celebration''), Paolo Di Canio''s fascist salute.

Whether good, bad or horribly offensive, each celebration has something in common: they mean something to the player. Despite often being played out in front of thousands, the act of celebrating a goal can be intensely personal. Which brings us on to Wes Hoolahan. 

He plays the game as it should be played: inventively, creatively, beautifully. So to see this embodiment of all that is visually graceful about football not celebrating a goal was jarring, like going to a gig and putting mufflers on. It turned something gratifying into something functional – eating for fuel rather than pleasure. 

The criticism was understandable. To some it felt like he was pissing inside his own tent, disrespecting the fans, his team-mates. Is scoring for Norwich City not worth getting excited about anymore, not deserving of celebrating?

That, however, is a strictly black and white view, where not celebrating automatically equals disrespect, automatically equals Hoolahan being a corrupting, corrosive influence in the dressing room. There is no shade to that thought process; it just assumes we know everything that has gone on and leaves no room for accepting that a single action is never the whole story.  

Like Tardelli, like Keane, like Fowler, it was personal to Hoolahan. Only he knows why he didn’t celebrate with gusto, and that’s how it should be. My view is that he was sheepish rather than disrespectful. After all, to have wildly celebrated a goal just a month after desperately wanting to leave the club, well, that would have been hypocritical wouldn’t it? It would have felt false. 

Instead, he let his performance show the fans he remains bound to the Norwich cause. He was committed, intelligent and full of running. For 25 minutes he was the best player on the pitch and, although he became leggy in the second half, he remained Norwich’s shining performer. As many of his team-mates panicked and lost their heads, Hoolahan was forever asking for the ball and trying to make something happen – and that, more than any other guts-and-thunder tackle, is true bravery on the pitch. So what more do some fans want? 

If he scores again for Norwich and his celebration is muted then let it be. He will have his own reasons, it will be personal to him – and that’s good enough for me. We can just do the celebrating for him instead. 
Daniel Brigham is features editor of The Cricketer magazine.You can follow him on Twitter: @cricketer_dan

[lincoln canary (& Golden Coppel) 0]

[quote user="Daniel Brigham"]Celebrating a goal is one of football''s great joys but let''s get off Hoolahan''s back. By Daniel Brigham

Do you remember when you first scored a goal? 

Whether it was in the park, at school, in the back garden or whacking a tennis ball against the base of a sofa, do you remember it?

It felt great, didn’t it. You wouldn’t have thought about why it felt good. It just did. You’d seen it happening on the telly, and now you were doing it yourself. You may not have had a dodgy perm or a moustache – perhaps you had a mullet – but what you’d done, well, it was just the same as those exotic men who were lucky enough to play football for a living. 

What did you do after scoring your first goal? Maybe you repeated what you saw the TV footballers doing. Maybe you celebrated. Maybe you yelped, maybe you roared, maybe you tucked your shirt over your head. Maybe you ran around in circles, got a bit dizzy and had to lie down. It felt great, didn''t it. The celebration felt integral to scoring, as much a part of it as kicking, heading, kneeing or shinning the ball into the net. 

It’s why scoring will always be the best feeling in football. You can produce a flying save, play a defence-splitting pass, make a sliding last-ditch tackle and it will feel brilliant. But none of your team-mates are going to come marauding towards you to celebrate. The most you might get is a pat on the bum and, really, no one enjoys a pat on the bum.

You just have to look at the array of celebrations to see how much it means to people, to see what a vital part of the game it is. Marco Tardelli’s wild celebration after scoring for Italy in the 1982 World Cup final is perhaps the most memorable of all time. Running away, pumping both fists, shaking his open-mouthed face from side to side, he looked as if he had achieved the greatest possible thing in human history: with one left-foot strike he had discovered fire, invented the wheel, created penicillin, married Marilyn Monroe and got off his macaroons at a Stone Roses gig. 

Then there are Jurgen Klinsmann’s diving celebrations at Tottenham, Eric Cantona’s stand-still-and-love-me, Roger Milla’s cornerflag shimmy, Alan Shearer’s arm in the air. There are also the stupid ones: Robbie Keane''s roly-poly, Peter Crouch''s robot. The naff ones: Gareth Bale’s heart, Francesco Totti’s thumb-sucking.  To the controversial ones: Nicolas Anelka''s quenelle, Robbie Fowler''s pretend cocaine-snorting off the byline (which Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier tried to pass off as a ''Cameroonian grass-eating celebration''), Paolo Di Canio''s fascist salute.

Whether good, bad or horribly offensive, each celebration has something in common: they mean something to the player. Despite often being played out in front of thousands, the act of celebrating a goal can be intensely personal. Which brings us on to Wes Hoolahan. 

He plays the game as it should be played: inventively, creatively, beautifully. So to see this embodiment of all that is visually graceful about football not celebrating a goal was jarring, like going to a gig and putting mufflers on. It turned something gratifying into something functional – eating for fuel rather than pleasure. 

The criticism was understandable. To some it felt like he was pissing inside his own tent, disrespecting the fans, his team-mates. Is scoring for Norwich City not worth getting excited about anymore, not deserving of celebrating?

That, however, is a strictly black and white view, where not celebrating automatically equals disrespect, automatically equals Hoolahan being a corrupting, corrosive influence in the dressing room. There is no shade to that thought process; it just assumes we know everything that has gone on and leaves no room for accepting that a single action is never the whole story.  

Like Tardelli, like Keane, like Fowler, it was personal to Hoolahan. Only he knows why he didn’t celebrate with gusto, and that’s how it should be. My view is that he was sheepish rather than disrespectful. After all, to have wildly celebrated a goal just a month after desperately wanting to leave the club, well, that would have been hypocritical wouldn’t it? It would have felt false. 

Instead, he let his performance show the fans he remains bound to the Norwich cause. He was committed, intelligent and full of running. For 25 minutes he was the best player on the pitch and, although he became leggy in the second half, he remained Norwich’s shining performer. As many of his team-mates panicked and lost their heads, Hoolahan was forever asking for the ball and trying to make something happen – and that, more than any other guts-and-thunder tackle, is true bravery on the pitch. So what more do some fans want? 

If he scores again for Norwich and his celebration is muted then let it be. He will have his own reasons, it will be personal to him – and that’s good enough for me. We can just do the celebrating for him instead. 
Daniel Brigham is features editor of The Cricketer magazine.You can follow him on Twitter: @cricketer_dan
[/quote]

Absolutely spot on. But many are too dogmatic to accept this might be the case.

[morty 0]

Well.Nobody saw that coming...

[Mr Jenkins 0]

I think some were delighted cos it gave them an excuse to have a go at Wes.

"Wes is a bad man so Hughton must have been spot on not to be picking him" sort of thing!

[Fuzzar 1,702]

Jeez Lincoln. Did you really need to quote the whole thing? My scroll wheel finger needs a lie down.

Good post by the way, Mr Brigham.

[lincoln canary (& Golden Coppel) 0]

[quote user="Fuzzar"]Jeez Lincoln. Did you really need to quote the whole thing? My scroll wheel finger needs a lie down.

Good post by the way, Mr Brigham.[/quote]

Sorry.

[GenerationA47 746]

If you don''t want a public gesture that you choose to do to be ''misinterpreted'', then either do it in a different way, or explain it, or don''t do it at all...

[Daniel Brigham 0]

Morty. I probably won''t have many more chances to write about Wes so I''m just making the most of it while I can :)

[morty 0]

[quote user="Daniel Brigham"]Morty. I probably won''t have many more chances to write about Wes so I''m just making the most of it while I can :)[/quote]Nooo, you misunderstand, its a lovely piece.I was mocking Lincoln Canary, who has been defending Wes''s honour in every thread, like a white knight on his trusty charger.

[the pigman 0]

better than the celebrations worked out at the training ground where theatre coaches are brought in to train the players in dance,mime,strip,act out 4 minute mini plays and generally act as t*ats.Then there is badge kissing from players who are not even sure which club they are at.Just a simple show of happiness and joy will.Perhaps Wes should have gone over to Hoots and said"there you go".

[Daniel Brigham 0]

Ahhh, I see Morty! I do write a lot about Wes though ...

[Yobocop 1,094]

It would have been a great piece had it not been defending such a blatant act of disrespect to Norwich City Football Club

[Indy_Bones 441]

[quote user="Yobocop"]It would have been a great piece had it not been defending such a blatant act of disrespect to Norwich City Football Club[/quote]Yawn...