"The pastoral care effecting the corporate spirit of the group
is a manifestation of the will to integrate totally the physical enormity of the vast
power released from the combination of integrated and sown seedlings."
Quite so. I doubt if Hanoi has rung to such fighting talk since the
Tet Offensive. But Murph wasn't the only football boss who was 'sorted for Es and whizz'.
'Farmer' Danny Williams, ex manager of Swindon, once announced in a
Robins' programme, "When their second goal went in, I knew our pig was dead."
Bucolic stuff. Befits a bumpkin club, too. And so much better than "a momentary lapse
of concentration meant that we travelled home pointless."
Mark Lawrenson proved that he was either to the 'Manor' born or on
an impressive bender, when he told a throng of gagging journalists that the "world
was their lobster."
'Harry' Bassett has had his moments, too. For example,
"Obviously for Scunthorpe, it would be a nice scalp to put Wimbledon on our
bottoms." Obviously.
For some, messianic sentiments swamp all. Even the singularly
uncharismatic but rotund ex Coventry boss Gordon Milne, was once moved to declare,
"Teams will pinch your dinner from your plate. If you don't heed the warnings you get
nailed to the cross." Perhaps this kind of religious babble has helped turn our
Chris's head. If so, I blame the 'Guardian'. I recently came across a mid-eighties
clipping which indicated that "Christ Waddle was returning to the Spurs'
line-up."
But Christ only spent forty days and nights in the wilderness,
Chris. And don't think about making yourself unavailable for what promises to be some
vital Easter fixtures. Remember, Woody Allen's dismissed God as an 'underachiever'. The
boy Jesus has still got it all to prove. Just you listen to the testimony of a former
struggler.
"The hardest time I have ever known was when I started as a
manager in the Fourth Division. We did not win any of my first nine games in charge. I had
a mortgage, two children under seven, and if I had been sacked, I don't think I would have
got another job in the game."
That was the testimony of someone who 'rose without trace', for whom
'there was no beginning to his talents': Graham 'Do I not like that' Taylor. But if his is
the way forward, give me a Murph any day.
