FOOTBALL can so easily bring despair – as the faces of Wigan fans at the Millennium Stadium proved.
It’s not just Wiganers who were mightily cheesed off by the result. Some 95 per cent of football fans across this country hate Manchester United. In Merseyside, I reckon the proportion is more like 99 per cent. And hate is not too strong a word.
In the New Brighton pub where I watched the League Cup final, everyone wanted Wigan to win, but it was clear early on in the second half that no such fairy tale result was going to happen.
It was the worst of all results – 4 nil to Hate United: a bitter disappointment for the Latics, their fans and their Scouse hero of a manager, Paul Jewell.
Wigan fell apart pretty quickly in the second half and were denied even the consolation of pulling a cup final goal back in their first season in football’s top flight. Hope the fans don’t go on a comfort pie-eating binge as a result.
Man U players – apart from Ruud van Nistelrooy, who was sulking like a girl after being left on the bench for the entire game – went wild in celebration.
You’d think they’d won the Champions League – not a cup they’ve shown little interest in for years, and against some plucky little minnows at that.
If press reports are to be believed, the result means Ferguson will gets to keep his job. Well, whoop-de-do …
Unless you, dear reader, happen to possess the shrivelled soul that marks you out as an authentic Man U fan, there was nothing good to come out of this cup final at all. Or was there …?
Well, actually, consider this paradox: we all, always, learn much more from losing than we ever do from winning. This applies in sport as well as in our lives in general.
How so? Well, the thrill of a win is soon over and the swaggering arrogance that comes from winning again and again can cause people to hate you. Look at Man U. Exactly!
But the complex reaction to losing, after the initial short-lived despair, causes us to regroup and rethink our tactics, to seek solace from our mates and to steel ourselves with renewed determination for the fixtures and hurdles ahead. Those are all positive things.
What’s more, losing (in sport or in life) always makes us more reflective and soulful and gives us a much-needed realistic perspective on life.
For the fact is – in sport as in any other human activity – there are always more losers than winners.
And often, to be a winner in modern sport means being so focused on athletic prowess and technical skills, that you can neglect to develop the other things that make a human being more rounded and lovable, such as the intellect and a sense of humour.
Which is why so many Premiership footballers, while possessing brilliant intuitive skills on the park, come across as staggeringly thick and boring when interviewed on the telly.
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