The Game of the People Journal
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The Game of the People Journal Edition 1-0 Contents This publication represents some of the most popular pieces from Game of the People. Thank you for your interest. Neil Fredrik Jensen, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, UK. November 2015. www.gameofthepeople.com twitter: @gameofthepeople Non-League Football 3: The decline of hinterland football 7: If the question is 3G or not 3G, the answer is yes 9: At what point does non-league lose substance? 34: Pegasus, the new Elizabethans Europe 11: Now I’m a Union man, amazed at what I am 13: PSV Eindhoven – still part of the family 16: ‘Cause Rotterdam is anywhere 21: The malaise in Milan 24: Bohemian rhapsody – Josef Masopust & Dukla Prague 27: Goulash communism and comrade Janos Latin America 29: Santos, the team that started the legend 32: Estudiantes de la Plata – the one time bogey men Players 37: Dear Mr Sexton, sign Nijinsky 40: The king is dead, but not forgotten 43: Cruyff and me, a 40-year love affair History 45: 61 fouls, the story of triumph over an ideology 51: 1915 – When football seemed unimportant 56: The peaceful invasion London feared – England v Germany 1935 Current Affairs 60: The managerial merry-go-round is running out of horses 62: One the back of Bale 2 The decline of hinterland football I’m used to Essex, the county of my birth, being dialect – estuarine English. There, that’s all the denigrated as a tasteless place full of aggressive stereotyping out of the way. people, indeed I have witnessed those qualities As for football, Thurrock has non-league clubs in myself, but I cannot help feeling a little saddened abundance: Aveley, East Thurrock United (a by the decline of Thurrock football. Johnny- come-lately club), Grays, Purfleet Thurrock was an area that rose under Margaret (another arriviste) and Tilbury. Outside of Thatcher as a bastion of working class aspiration. Thurrock, you have Canvey Island (the old land of The people were mostly at the lower end of those the Kings), Billericay Town and Hornchurch lists created by socio-economists, but they refused (another past tale of excess). It wasn’t quite the to be subdued by it. It was the land of the North East hotbed, but Essex, in the late 1980s sovereign ring, the digital watch, the fast car, the and 1990s, represented the new breed of football fake tan and the lager top. When I started working man – brash, loaded and not afraid of testing the in the City of London, people from Thurrock – accepted ideals of the Corinthian. The myself included – were derided as “Essex cheap establishment non-league clubs didn’t take too labour.” kindly to Essex man making good on the football Social commentators, along the lines of the field. pseudish Jonathan Meades, would tell you that It should come as no surprise that Thurrock is when Thurrock man made money, he flaunted it – tailor-made for football. It’s on the fringes of characterised by the strategic planting of stone Greater London – despite some people tagging lions on his driveway, feverish acquisition of Thurrock as the “east end”, Greater London ends personal number plates and an over-reliance of at Havering. That’s not to say that Thurrock isn’t branded personal effects such as Burberry full of folk that have come out of “the old East raincoats and LV luggage. Essex man had cash End” or at least had grandparents from places like wadded-up in his back pocket and he had his own Bromley-by-Bow, Poplar, the old docklands and Stepney. South Ockendon, for example, had a 3 huge estate built in 1969 that housed the London The problem was that you really couldn’t walk to refugees, and it was popularly called “the GLC Purfleet’s ground, unless you wanted to risk your estate”. neck under the wheels of a suped-up Escort. There’s a large contingent of West Ham, Ten years after formation, Purfleet were an Tottenham and Arsenal fans along the Thames. It established Isthmian Premier club, and by 2005- was always a stronghold of Hammers’ support – 06, they were in the Conference South. They also Geoff Pike, who played almost 400 games for featured on TV in the FA Cup and generally, were West Ham, was a pupil at our school. The seen as a club punching above their weight. .It Upminster to Barking train was always full of could never be sustained, given the small crowds people going to home games at Upton Park. and, dare I say, over-reliance on too few people to Doubtless it still is today. keep the club going. The public allegiance to London clubs (and, by Purfleet became Thurrock as non-league the way, Southend United is in the opposite restructured itself. This was a strange move and direction) has always weighed heavy on non- was bound to upset the club’s neighbours. In leaguers in Thurrock. But in the 1980s, when hindsight, it would be interesting to hear if anyone Britain started to open-up its economy and council now regrets that decision. The renaming would house ownership changed the property landscape have been more appropriate if Thurrock had forever, a cocky swagger and self-confidence created critical mass through a merger. For seemed to sweep across the Thames hinterland. example, with Aveley Football Club just one and As Thurrock started to benefit from the huge a half miles away, was there not a chance of a shopping village known as Lakeside, the area merger of the two clubs to create a Thurrock acquired a very different persona from the “super club”? traditional dourness of Thameside Essex. Working Aveley are right at the end of their village, almost class businessmen with a “few bob in their in the Kennington estate of roads named after pocket” started to get interested in football. rivers – Usk, Severn, Tamar and Teviot – and a hefty swing of the golf club away from Belhus The A13, Thurrock’s is the borough’s Route 66 In Aveley village, you turn into Ship Lane and Park. Around 18 months ago, Aveley got the go- drive for a few minutes to a site that used to be ahead for a new ground at the park, with the aim known as Bushy Bit, and latterly Thurrock of starting 2015-16 away from Mill Road. It all Technical College. There’s now a hotel with a seems to have gone quiet on the subject, but there football ground attached to it. The club was has been some resistance to development in originally known as Purfleet, although that Thurrock. Earlier this year, another plan to build village-cum-town, once renowned for being a more than 500 homes in Aveley was rejected with beauty spot on the Thames, is some distance the message that people in Thurrock are “sick and away. tired of over-development adding increasing strain Purfleet’s driving force was – and still is – to our infrastructure.” Tommy South, a well known local figure. Tommy Strangely, that development in Aveley was going and Harry South acquired the derelict college and to benefit Grays Athletic and not their current created the Thurrock Hotel, which is just a goal- landlords Aveley. This would have provided the kick away from the traffic hurtling down the A13, funding of a new ground at Treetops School for a Thurrock’s signature road. It is the borough’s club that is a classic boom and bust story. When I route 66. was young, nobody really watched the Blues and The club was formed in 1985 and played in the their Recreation Ground home was what was best Essex Senior League. With the indefatigable described as “characterful”. But I recall the huge South – 24 hours spent at the ground – at the floodlights that towered over the tight terraced helm, Purfleet performed miracles to work their houses and chimney pots. way through the lower levels of the non-league pyramid, often playing before miniscule crowds. 4 rescue. Unfortunately, the size of the ground meant that Grays had to drop down to Isthmian League Division One North. It was a humbling experience – crowds quickly went below pre- Woodward era levels to around 200. Since then, Grays have played at Rush Green, near Romford, and now Aveley. On paper, they are still Thurrock’s top club, but without a home of their own, Grays cannot build solid roots. That may change soon, for a few months ago, Grays announced that they had the money to build a new ground. This came after something of a public The club came alive in the 1980s when the Saxton appeal for funds to ensure the club could move twins, Jeff and Fred, led a team from the Athenian back to its home town. Interestingly, the Aveley League right up to the Isthmian Premier. Grays development that was kicked-out by Thurrock were long-ball exponents and heavily criticised Council was proposed by Mickey Woodward’s for it, but the Saxton’s made optimal use of the company. resources at their disposal and in Micky Welch, they had an outstanding striker. Grays acquired a New grounds all round? second wind and won promotion to the national As well as Aveley and Grays, East Thurrock Conference in 2005. United have been talking of acquiring a new The club was then under the leadership of Mickey ground. They only moved to Corringham in the Woodward, former chairman of Barkingside and late 1980s – I recall their first games at Rookery the archetype “self made man”. To quote Grays Hill.