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Happy birthday GUS


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5 minutes ago, Oh Louie louie said:

He rented a flat, in redcliffe.

Strange thing was his local pub was the collosseum!

Why is that strange?

This raises 2 questions,

1. Have you ever seen so many question marks against someones career record?

2. How bad do you have to be to be a cult figure from only 10 games?

 

Screenshot_20220305-082058_Chrome~2.jpg

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45 minutes ago, Port Said Red said:

Why is that strange?

This raises 2 questions,

1. Have you ever seen so many question marks against someones career record?

2. How bad do you have to be to be a cult figure from only 10 games?

 

Screenshot_20220305-082058_Chrome~2.jpg

Average defender only in any ones books. 

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Take the passage in Nick Hornby's 'Fever Pitch' on Arsenal’s beleaguered defender Gus Caesar, a figure of ridicule on the terraces, later voted the club’s worst-ever player by fanzine The Gooner. Yet Hornby frames Caesar as a prodigy doomed to be not quite as prodigal as his peers. “To get where he did, Gus Caesar clearly had more talent than nearly everyone of his generation (the rest of us can only dream about having his kind of skill) and it still wasn't quite enough.”

That sliding scale of talent is funny really, players we deride as totally incompetent, yet they are so much better than 99.9%  of pub/sunday league/ casual players and certainly your avera.

Am reminded of a friends story. he played in goal for a Bristol Sunday league team , one week the opponents had an overweight 40 something player in their side, ex Walsall, no better than that. He was warned that this bloke liked to shoot from distance.

He cockily remembers thinking no one will beat him from distance. So the game starts and this bloke does absolutely nothing, waddles around in midfield. then out of the blue, he gets the ball some 30-40 yards out, turns and lashes a shot towards my mate.

Before he had time to respond it had whistled past his head and into the top corner. He described how the ball changed shape as time stood still, this thing moving towards him like a missile and he was utterly helpless to respond.

Second half starts, and exactly the same story. The bloke does nothing, then once again, lashes a shot home from 20-30 yards out.

Afterwards Gary, my mate, approached him and thanked him for the experience!

Basically illustrates how someone who never got above playing a handfull of games for Walsall was so much better than the others on the pitch that day.

 

 

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4 hours ago, Lanterne Rouge said:

I`ll always remember him at Cambridge away (a 0-0 draw IIRC) where he was awesome. The best player on the pitch by a country mile - and I`m not joking, he was superb. 

The rest of his City career, not so much!

Had a really good game marking Jon Fashanu v Wimbledon, too.

There is a brilliant bit on him in Fever Pitch, his career did have some heights, but didn’t sustain decent performances often enough.

Remember one penalty he gave away playing for us when he lost his footing & basically pulled his opponent down around the waist like a rugby tackle, it was Bas Savage sniper bad.

Edited by GrahamC
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On 05/03/2022 at 11:17, Antman said:

 

Take the passage in Nick Hornby's 'Fever Pitch' on Arsenal’s beleaguered defender Gus Caesar, a figure of ridicule on the terraces, later voted the club’s worst-ever player by fanzine The Gooner. Yet Hornby frames Caesar as a prodigy doomed to be not quite as prodigal as his peers. “To get where he did, Gus Caesar clearly had more talent than nearly everyone of his generation (the rest of us can only dream about having his kind of skill) and it still wasn't quite enough.”

That sliding scale of talent is funny really, players we deride as totally incompetent, yet they are so much better than 99.9%  of pub/sunday league/ casual players and certainly your avera.

Am reminded of a friends story. he played in goal for a Bristol Sunday league team , one week the opponents had an overweight 40 something player in their side, ex Walsall, no better than that. He was warned that this bloke liked to shoot from distance.

He cockily remembers thinking no one will beat him from distance. So the game starts and this bloke does absolutely nothing, waddles around in midfield. then out of the blue, he gets the ball some 30-40 yards out, turns and lashes a shot towards my mate.

Before he had time to respond it had whistled past his head and into the top corner. He described how the ball changed shape as time stood still, this thing moving towards him like a missile and he was utterly helpless to respond.

Second half starts, and exactly the same story. The bloke does nothing, then once again, lashes a shot home from 20-30 yards out.

Afterwards Gary, my mate, approached him and thanked him for the experience!

Basically illustrates how someone who never got above playing a handfull of games for Walsall was so much better than the others on the pitch that day.

 

 

Here's a longer piece from Fever Pitch,

http://remotestorage.blogspot.com/2011/01/hornby-on-excellences-long-tail.html

It must be well over 25 years since I've read this book, having been lent it by the late great City supporter, Dave Cottle.

Not sure I've got it in me to comimit to re-reading, but I might look up the film for old times sake.

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On 05/03/2022 at 08:23, Super said:

Career went downhill when he left us....

His career went down hill AS he came to us, bloody awful defender.

On 05/03/2022 at 09:12, City oz said:

Average defender only in any ones books. 

If only he was that good.

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