Which Premier League manager will get fired first

Friday 21 May 2010

Know Wot I Mean ‘Arry

This week sees the 44th anniversary of Sir Henry Cooper’s heroic defeat to Cassius Clay (who later became Mohammed Ali). This fight more than any other has come to personify the concept of the heroic loser especially given that he had knocked Clay down in their previous round and Clay had been saved from a knock-out due to a dubious delay and Clay’s manager illegally using smelling salts to bring him round .

Here we take a look at some other plucky English Losers: -

Frank Bruno - Perhaps one of the most famous lucky losers considering he took beatings by Mike Tyson, Tim Witherspoon and Lennox Lewis. Although he finally won the world title from Oliver McCall he lost it when Tyson once again came calling. Most famous for HP adverts, panto performances and his friendship with Henry Cooper whose interviews led to the phrase “know what I mean Harry” he became a well loved popular icon.

Tim Henman - Like Andy Murray the most gifted British Tennis Player of his generation Tim had the misfortune to play at a time when Pete Sampras and Lleyton Hewitt were ruling the grand-slam circuit. Reaching 6 grand-slam semi-finals and winning 15 ATP tour titles he was hardly a failure but there was such a high-level of expectation about him he was often judged (unfairly in my opinion) by his failure to win Wimbledon suffering at the hands of Sampras, Hewitt and Goran Ivanišević much the way Murray has suffered at the hand of Federer in Grand-Slam finals.

Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards - The best ski jumper in the United Kingdom, setting a British record of 73.5m Eddie the Eagle endeared himself to millions around the globe and in the process upsetting the ski-jump establishment who felt he was mocking them to the extent that they had the IOC change the rules to stop him competing by insisting that athletes compete in international events and place in the top 30 percent or the top 50 competitors. Eddie had the final say though carrying the Olympic torch for the 2010 Vancouver games.

England Football Team - The England football team have become notorious for narrow defeats in the latter stages of tournaments. In Mexico 86 they were robbed by Maradona’s “Hand of God”, Ronaldinho’s free kick in Japan 02 and on penalties in Italia 90, France 98, Euro96, Euro 2004 and Germany 2006 with 2 of those penalty defeats also producing red cards for David Beckham and Wayne Rooney.

Paula Radcliffe - While a successful athlete in most competitions something about the Olympics didn’t agree with her. Whilst she achieved 4th & 5th in the 96 and 2000 Olympics she failed to finish either of her events in 2004 and placed 23rd in 2008. On the flipside she broke the world record for the London Olympics in 2005 but was forced to apologise for an unfortuante incident towards the end of the race.

So there we have it at major events England seem to be best at coming 2nd, 3rd or indeed anywhere but first but it is worth remembering that we have won the Rugby World Cup, Ashes, Ryder Cup, World Championship & Olympic golds and 20/20 World Cup in recent memory. We now need that to transfer to Football and Tennis this summer and we may well be happy chappies on our sunbeds.

(assuming the Germans haven’t been out with their towels again)

6 comments:

  1. I nearly became a member of the "Not Terribly Good Club of Britain", but I wasn't good enough!

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  2. I voted for RB, only because Seb is a cfc supporter from Sheffield, and he didnt like when the millers shfted them 6-0 and 4-1 away
    Ovett was/is a wanker
    Cram is a mackem

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  3. "unfortuante incident"

    She was having piss in public, broad daylight, should have been arrested

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  4. Jenson Button was a unlucky loser as well, only winning on the circuit last season.

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  5. Bit harsh on Henman I think.Number 4 in the world,won 15 ATP titles.A world class tennis player.British media thinks tennis starts and ends with Wimbledon.
    I like Eddie Edwards,painter and decorator from Cheltenham.The man has real guts to ski jump.Would you fancy it?

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  6. better than most of the cack on the bbc websites adam. nice one.

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