RIP Johan Cruyff

[araby]

Despite having chronic asthma, being built like Tiny Tim, no speed, no dribbling ability, no heading ability, no stamina or pretty much anything else, managed to end up taking corners off both sides and playing in midfield for my class team(yes probably the worst class in the school). My cousin was 10 years older and had the exact same limitations, got me to practice 2 things, kicking against a wall with both feet and break down Cryuff Turn off both sides until it was perfect. The difference was insane, it seems no one likes to be made look like a dick by a weedy nerd, one trick pony, but what a trick! God bless Johann, even though I'm Irish preferred watching Cryuff to Georgie Best.

 

[Guido 🇺🇦]

Yet another and probably the best. Beautiful.

 

[maida vale 75]

That would be awesome. He went over there on a lecture tour just before the war and was going to coach there, but came home instead (because of the war). Bit of a tragedy, as he was getting on really well with Puskas and Sebes, who he'd been talking with during the lecture series. His nervous breakdown was perhaps our biggest blow, since he did so much to get the ball rolling for everything that followed. If he'd been able to hand off to Nicholson, and then back him as part of the board, Spurs could have been a very different animal.

That would be awesome. He went over there on a lecture tour just before the war and was going to coach there, but came home instead (because of the war). Bit of a tragedy, as he was getting on really well with Puskas and Sebes, who he'd been talking with during the lecture series. His nervous breakdown was perhaps our biggest blow, since he did so much to get the ball rolling for everything that followed. If he'd been able to hand off to Nicholson, and then back him as part of the board, Spurs could have been a very different animal.

The letter was to the FT in 2006..
Sir,In his piece "Magyars mourn their lost magic"Jonathan Wilson states:"Half a century ago Hungary were not merely the best in the world but possibly the best team there has ever been"
I disagree with his assessment of the Hungarian soccer team.The great Hungarian team of 1953 played the same fast,short-passing game that humiliated England and was played by Tottenham Hotspur from 1949 to 1953.During that reign they won the then Second Division championship followed by the First Division title and followed that by being runners up to Manchester United and FA cup semi-finalists.
In 1952 they toured North America playing an attractive style of football called "push and run",a fluid,fast-moving style that entertained capacity crowds wherever they played.That Spurs team was managed by my father Arthur Rowe,who had won championships while in charge of Chelmsford city,a southern league club,from 1946 to 1949.
After a stellar career as a Tottenham player in the 1930s,my father took a coaching position in Budapest,Hungary, before returning to England in 1939 to join the army.
In Budapest were sown the seeds of the 'push and run'approach,which for the next 13 years,incubated and ultimately manifested itself in that great Hungarian team.But it was a style that was first played by the glorious Spurs team of 1949-53.
In an FT article of July 1 1998,Peter Aspden wrote of 'the beautiful version of the game,invented by the Hungarian side of the 1950s'.The Hungarians did not'invent' the beautiful version of the game.If anyone 'invented'it,it was my father.
On my wall at home there is a photograph of my father with Ferenc Puskas,the peerless member of the Hungarian team of the1950s,and my thoughts turn to what kind of a game might have been played between those two great teams.
G A Rowe
Los Angeles.

 

[El flaco]

Cruyff was critical of Van Gaal’s plans for the youth education system. ‘You judge football players intuitively and with your heart,’ he said. ‘On the basis of the criteria which are now in use at Ajax I would have failed the test.

‘When I was 15, I could barely kick the ball 15 metres with my left and with the right maybe 20 metres. I would not have been able to take a corner. I was physically weak and relatively slow. My two qualities were great technique and insight, which happen to be two things you can’t measure with a computer.’

 

[Juicy Sushi]

The letter was to the FT in 2006..
Sir,In his piece "Magyars mourn their lost magic"Jonathan Wilson states:"Half a century ago Hungary were not merely the best in the world but possibly the best team there has ever been"
I disagree with his assessment of the Hungarian soccer team.The great Hungarian team of 1953 played the same fast,short-passing game that humiliated England and was played by Tottenham Hotspur from 1949 to 1953.During that reign they won the then Second Division championship followed by the First Division title and followed that by being runners up to Manchester United and FA cup semi-finalists.
In 1952 they toured North America playing an attractive style of football called "push and run",a fluid,fast-moving style that entertained capacity crowds wherever they played.That Spurs team was managed by my father Arthur Rowe,who had won championships while in charge of Chelmsford city,a southern league club,from 1946 to 1949.
After a stellar career as a Tottenham player in the 1930s,my father took a coaching position in Budapest,Hungary, before returning to England in 1939 to join the army.
In Budapest were sown the seeds of the 'push and run'approach,which for the next 13 years,incubated and ultimately manifested itself in that great Hungarian team.But it was a style that was first played by the glorious Spurs team of 1949-53.
In an FT article of July 1 1998,Peter Aspden wrote of 'the beautiful version of the game,invented by the Hungarian side of the 1950s'.The Hungarians did not'invent' the beautiful version of the game.If anyone 'invented'it,it was my father.
On my wall at home there is a photograph of my father with Ferenc Puskas,the peerless member of the Hungarian team of the1950s,and my thoughts turn to what kind of a game might have been played between those two great teams.
G A Rowe
Los Angeles.

Thanks for finding that!

 

[Pathfinder]

 

[Luxy208]

The letter was to the FT in 2006..
Sir,In his piece "Magyars mourn their lost magic"Jonathan Wilson states:"Half a century ago Hungary were not merely the best in the world but possibly the best team there has ever been"
I disagree with his assessment of the Hungarian soccer team.The great Hungarian team of 1953 played the same fast,short-passing game that humiliated England and was played by Tottenham Hotspur from 1949 to 1953.During that reign they won the then Second Division championship followed by the First Division title and followed that by being runners up to Manchester United and FA cup semi-finalists.
In 1952 they toured North America playing an attractive style of football called "push and run",a fluid,fast-moving style that entertained capacity crowds wherever they played.That Spurs team was managed by my father Arthur Rowe,who had won championships while in charge of Chelmsford city,a southern league club,from 1946 to 1949.
After a stellar career as a Tottenham player in the 1930s,my father took a coaching position in Budapest,Hungary, before returning to England in 1939 to join the army.
In Budapest were sown the seeds of the 'push and run'approach,which for the next 13 years,incubated and ultimately manifested itself in that great Hungarian team.But it was a style that was first played by the glorious Spurs team of 1949-53.
In an FT article of July 1 1998,Peter Aspden wrote of 'the beautiful version of the game,invented by the Hungarian side of the 1950s'.The Hungarians did not'invent' the beautiful version of the game.If anyone 'invented'it,it was my father.
On my wall at home there is a photograph of my father with Ferenc Puskas,the peerless member of the Hungarian team of the1950s,and my thoughts turn to what kind of a game might have been played between those two great teams.
G A Rowe
Los Angeles.

Great read. Thank you.

 

[paddy spur]

Nice podcast about Cryuff

Pat Nevin on Johan Cruyff - Great Lives

Pat Nevin picks Johan Cruyff, the Dutch footballer who changed how the game was played.

pca.st

 

[PapeMasterclass]

Brilliant footballer, great coach who influenced so many. Also a bit of a mad man as he genuinely considered to play without a real goalkeeper at Barcelona at some point (or maybe that's his brilliance).