I wish I was 12 years old again. Back when Blackburn were giants by virtue of Jack Walker’s (RIP) greens and had the most feared strike force in Shearer and Sutton (SAS they called it). I liked them. I think I still can name most of the team. Let’s see… Tim Flowers, (the unpassable) Colin Hendry, Ian Pearce, Jeff Kenna (never rated him), Tim Sherwood (El Capitan!), the wingers Jason Wilcox and Stuart Ripley, and of course Shearer and Sutton.
Liverpool were great too. By great I mean stylishly dressed on cup final day. On the field, they were unpredictable. I remember sitting through some games where Liverpool would have all the possession and yet not get anywhere near the goal. Their defence was also suspect to say the least with the likes of the Babbie doll and Scales. Jason Mac was usually too busy attacking to bother tracking back. After all, wingback does have ‘wing’ in it.
Liverpool’s midfield and attack were the best in the league (IMO) at that time. The ageing John Barnes, Redders (my fave player), and Macca used to play the ball out of defence. Like Arsenal do now. Fowler of course could do no wrong at that time. Every miss by him would incite (mock?) disbelief from the commentators. I loved it when he turned Staunton and rifled it past the Villa keeper (Bosnich?) from just outside the box.
It was precisely at that time that I feel I had the happiest day of my life. I just received CM2 and God, that was an awesome awesome game! Wasn’t it? I used to play it all day! Studying was done during loading time. Stan Collymore was godlike, David Unsworth was godlike, even Jan Molby (pace 1, stamina 1) was godlike! There was one player, Dave Richards I think his name was, had full 1s for his stats. Haha. Sigh.
The latest incarnation of the game, FM, doesn’t elicit the same feelings in me despite being far more advanced. I almost get bored sometimes even. I don’t know. Maybe it’s me, not the game. (It’s not you, it’s me.) Age is catching up with me. Excitement hasn’t embraced me since 17. I don’t think it ever will. Numb is the word. Yep. Numb is how I feel.
