Best individual seasons: McGrath, Van Dijk, Terry… defenders deserve love too

The Mailbox lauds the defenders upon which title campaigns were built. Also: Istanbul was typical of UEFA events; Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham at Real; and more.

Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com…

Defenders deserve love too
I read with interest your article on the best individual seasons. It is an interesting and comprehensive list of spectacular personal performances, but with one problem – it only includes strikers.

It’s not a big deal, almost all the glory goes to the people that get the last touch, but I think a bit more celebration is in order for the other 8 (or so) guys on the pitch.

Take for example God himself, Paul McGrath. Written off at Man Utd as a bit of a waster, yet propelled Villa to the verge of the first Premier League title, winning player of the year along the way, despite being a defender. Similarly, John Terry and Virgil Van Dijk had huge impacts in 04/05 and 18/19.

Outside of the big clubs, N’Golo Kante’s drive propelled Leicester to an unlikely league title.

I’m sure the Mailbox can come up with other examples, but my point is it’s not all about the strikers.

Regards
Will Monk

Mbappe and Jude
Real Madrid need Mbappe to replace the departed Benzema far more than they need Bellingham this summer.

Bellingham and Dortmund better both hope the contracts have all been signed in triplicate, because Real will absolutely use that money for Mbappe if that’s an option.

Mbappe or Bellingham would be the absolute pinnacle of achievable statement signings that also work for the team for a newly soulless and fatally hypocritical United too.
Tim Sutton (City = meh)

Glory days
City fan Mark took umbrage at my joke the other day, but he needs to relax as I gave City their dues. Best team in Europe and the CL win was only a matter of time. Arguably one of the best managers ever, with a set-up behind him that allows him the freedom to work with some of the most technically gifted players of a generation. Fair play, they make it look easy. It’s not all about money.

The time Utd did the treble was a time in my life that was so vivid in relation to football memories but yet so blurry in terms of life in general. Not to go full John Nicholson, love your stuff John BTW, I could tell you who scored against Derby County in a 1-1 draw in October 1998 (was Johan Cruyff’s son) but I couldn’t tell you how I spent that Saturday night. There’s every chance I was using a fake ID to gain entry to a club that sold WKD for a pound a bottle, but they were golden times.

That build up to the treble was full of jeopardy, full of a strong Arsenal team, full of Giggsy swinging tops, full of Keano seeing games out with his magic hat, full of Andy Cole’s tortured soul stepping over for Dwight Yorkes and back for Andy’s goal, full of Schmeichel flapping like an eagle, full of Yip Jaap Stam the big dutch man, and full of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has won it from another of Beck’s posh spicy corners.

If these days stay with Mark and the other City fans, who have slogged through years of the football rollercoaster, then milk as much as you can out of it. I’m happy that they might look back on these days as fondly as I look back on those days.

Football does not get any better.
Garey Vance, MUFC

Who did it best?
Surely the answer to this is based on expectation. Man u got past Arsenal who were the deposed champions on the last day of the season, beat an average Newcastle side in the cup after an epic semi and squeezed past if I recall rightly a treble chasing Bayern side who battered them for 80 minutes before a remarkable turnaround. None of their trophies were a shoe in.

City tied up the league again with games in hand against unlikely challengers Arsenal, comfortably won the cup final and won a UCL final without style or drama.

Annoyingly they are likely to do it again next year. There lies the difference in achievements.
Ted Bythesea

Everyone’s at it
Good mail from Matthew about how we all follow our club pretty blindly and accept whatever is put in front of us. We all try to make justifications to make us feel better about the teams that we support.

The current City debate is so tiresome because SHOCK! City fans defend their club and their spending and SHOCK! United fan’s think their treble is better. But we all do it.

If Liverpool had become Abu Dhabi FC, we’d all be jumping for joy at the multiple trophies we’d won. If Man City had been dominant in the 90s and won the Treble, all their fans would be arguing that their treble meant more. If United fans had won Liverpool’s treble in the 80’s, they would all be saying that treble counts too.

The point is, that any mail written trying to justify a reason their club is the best is pretty much not worth reading. Mails that are worth reading are mails like Dave, Manchester, who was critical of a future possible United ownership structure. That comes with the caveat that I want to see him write in feeling empty, when United win the Quadruple funded by Qatari billions. All fine in theory, but will you stick to your guns when the trophies come rolling in?

If we had a mail from a City fan saying it all feels soulless now, that;s interesting. If we have a mail from a United fan saying Pep is better than Fergie, that’s interesting. Anyone repeating their clubs argument about why they are the best is pretty much a waste of time.

And anyone saying “Oh, that’s a bit rich coming from a Liverpool fan”, you’re missing the point. We all do it. Everyone is as bad as each other.
Mike, LFC, London

Crime and punishment
There are a lot of mails and comments along the lines of “it’s not Pep’s or the players or the fans fault, so congrats to them” and I half heartedly agree with these, this is a fantastic footballing team and should be given the credit for that.

However!, if only 1 of the 115 charges is upheld (and even if none are, we all know they happened) then all their achievements are devalued.

And who do we blame for this? I think it should be the rule makers to start with. Take the laws of the game, break one and there are three possible outcomes, indirect, direct free kick or penalty, in golf, break a rule, 1 shot, 2 shot penalty or disqualification. Break FFP rules – no idea, is it fines, points deduction, automatic relegation, points deducted for the following season, a disapproving look? Nobody knows and this encourages the cheating, “let’s break the rules and if caught, we’ll deal with it then”, seems to be City’s attitude, they may even not be alone in this but they are the ones currently in the spotlight.

If the punishment is known, then they may still cheat but are aware of the consequence of their actions. They could well be the OJ Simpson of FFP or simply do a Boris and say “sorry, now let’s forget about it” but their achievements will forever be tainted even if they are allowed to stand.
Howard (no winner of the Tour de France in records 1999-2005) Jones

Where’s the fun?
Did anybody actually enjoy any football this season?
Matthew, Belfast

Morning monday replies
Tom, Manchester: I’m not sure if this was your first final held in a neutral stadium-which-isn’t-Wembley, but what you are describing you experienced in Istanbul on Saturday is just par for the course, nothing described sounds like UEFA did anything particularly wrong. You should perhaps re-read the events that happened in Paris 2022 before making a comparison like that. (Your experience in Istanbul mirrors my experience in Basel in 2016 and Madrid in 2019 – it was very inconvenient and very unpleasant but I’m not sure I see any particularly unsafe behavior, other than perhaps your refusal to purchase water for yourself when thirsty).

Levenshulme Blue’s refusal to acknowledge that F365/other media outlets have concrete objective numbers which prove that it’s true that nobody really cares about Manchester City is very funny. I don’t have anything further to add. (I was also for City on Saturday – can I have some “Kudos” too, pretty please?)

Mark, Cape Town: you are right to point out the differences between nations in the arab world and that they are not all on the same ‘team’, so to speak. But I don’t think it is fair to describe Qatar as “Messi’s paymasters”, for many reasons:
1. If anything, Adidas are Messi’s paymasters, and indeed, Adidas is a principle sponsor of MLS.

2. Messi upset his Qatari PSG owners by his unsactioned visit to Saudi Arabia earlier this year.

3. If Qatar were really Messi’s “paymasters”, you would think Messi would have gone to the Qatar Stars League, like Xavi did. (If you want to see what having Qatar for paymasters looks like, he is an excellent point of reference).

4. Messi going to MLS ‘makes sense’ more than a move to any other non-elite league. Living in Miami where he can live life speaking Spanish with more-anonymity-than-he-would-have-elsewhere. The question is more “why did Ronaldo go to Saudi Arabia + will never play in MLS”, and the answer is “[redacted for legal reasons]”.
Oliver Dziggel, Geneva Switzerland

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