Colin Sheridan: Could O’Connor pull a Griezmann on the 40?
PLUS CA CHANGE: France's Antoine Griezmann during the FIFA World Cup final at Lusail Stadium. Picture: Martin Rickett/PA Wire.
One of the enduring onfield stories of last month's World Cup was the evolution and reinvention of French ingenue Antoine Griezmann. For those of us who like our superstars quiet and humble, Griezmann in his mid-20s pomp was an easy figure to hate. Cocky as an Eastend geezer, handsome as a movie star, he scored goals for fun, first for Atletico, then for France and celebrated each by sticking out his thumb and little finger on both hands and shaking them like vibrating telephones, apparently in homage to Canadian rapper Drake and his song Hotline Bling.
To compound matters, he chose the medium of “lavish documentary” to end speculation and tell Atleti fans he would not be leaving Madrid for Barca, before skipping to the Nou Camp the following summer for a fee a little over £100m.
For the many who found his way of life too much duck and not enough dinner, his subsequent struggles at Barcelona seemed to justify our suspicions that he was never as good as he presumed himself to be. Griezmann returned to the Metropolitano after just two seasons in Barcelona, perhaps a little chastened by his experience in Catalonia.
With France favourites to win in Qatar and Kylian Mbappe and Balon d’Or winner Karim Benzema guaranteed starters for Les Bleus, this World Cup could easily have been the forgettable last chapter of a career that promised much, delivered a good deal, but ultimately faded away.
Instead, we entered the final game with Griezmann remarkably one of the players of the tournament, not as a goalscorer, or even an attacking wide-man, but as a virtuoso, box-to-box midfielder, a little in the guise of his manager Didier Deschamps, but with a good deal more flair. He disrupted just as much as he created.
As third-act pivots go, Griezmann's selfless redirection was a lesson in reinvention, applicable to any team sport. What made his adaptability so impressive, however, was there was little suggestion it was in his locker. Change, especially when you’re exceptionally good at something already, requires beaucoup humility, above all else.
It reminded me of Meath’s Brendan Reilly, who switched from cornerback in the 1991 All-Ireland final loss against Down, to corner forward for Meath in 1996, a move that saw him kick the winning score for the Royals that season against Mayo.
Whatever it was about Sean Boylan, he had an eye for reinvention, as he repeated the trick with Graham Geraghty and Trevor Giles. Whether Deschamps and Greizmann were inspired by Boylan is unclear, but with a new season upon us, it got me thinking as to how reinvention could well define the careers of some footballers in need of a change just as badly as they need a rest.
Mayo’s Cillian O’Connor, for example, is a man who’s never shied away from change. Much of it has been enforced upon him by the ravages of injury, but maybe, with a new manager and fresh ideas, his game acumen could be redeployed to a place on the field better suited to his intellect than his physicality.
O’Connor's willingness to lead by example in the press has sometimes backfired for Mayo, eroding his energies for the more delicate elements of the game - scoring and creating. Mayo’s gameplan heretofore demanded that of O’Connor, but with the emergence of Ryan O’Donoghue and a returning Tommy Conroy, perhaps the Ballintubber man would benefit from pulling a Griezmann?
Life on the ‘40, playing quarterback and pulling strings rather than being chief score-getter and first line of a frantic defence may well see O’Connor have the third act his footballing life in green and red so richly deserves.
Who knew that Antoine Griezmann, the Hotline Bling guy, would be the poster-boy for change, but there you have it.
Last week, the ran a short obituary of an Evelyn Lewis, whom it described as “co-founder of the Willingboro Track Club and mother of track and field legends Carl and Carol”. The obit was short, but the legacy left by Mrs Lewis is long and rich. Born in Alabama in 1929, she was a track star herself, at one time holding the national 80-metre hurdle record. As a sprinter and longjumper she qualified for the 1952 Olympics, only to cruelly miss it through injury. Despite growing up in a time of deep racial division, she excelled as an educator and athletics coach, not-to-mention as a mother. Her son Carl is a nine-time Olympic champion. Daughter Carol is a four-time U.S. long jump champion and Olympian. Sometimes the shortest obits have the most in them.
Some guys seem to have all the luck. In 2007, Roberto Martinez was playing for Chester City. Nothing wrong with that, but, after a journeyman career, there was little to suggest the riches that would visit him. That same year, he retired from football to take charge at Swansea City, with whom - to his credit - he won promotion to League One as champions. He left Swansea for Wigan, who he stayed with for four seasons. There, he avoided relegation for the first three - again, an admirable achievement - before the Latics succumbed. That same season they won the FA Cup, the club's finest hour.
At this point, Martinez was a young promising coach who had had an unremarkable playing career as a defensive midfielder. When Everton chose him to replace David Moyes, eyebrows were raised. Things started well at Everton - his first full season saw the Toffees finish fifth in the Premier League. The next season they finished 11th. The next, the same. In May of 2016, Everton sacked Martinez before the last game of the season. By August, he was appointed manager of Belgium.
To put it into context; had Martinez been offered the Republic of Ireland job, there likely would have been pushback. Regardless, Martinez got handed the keys to the most promising squad in world football - peak Eden Hazard, emerging Kevin de Bruyne, angry Romelu Lukaku. It took him two World Cup cycles, but last month in Qatar, Martinez repeated the Everton trick as they limped out of the World Cup a fractured, bitter group.
Martinez was once again sacked, some would argue three years too late. Surely he had exhausted whatever goodwill had permeated the football world for leading Wigan Athletic to the FA Cup 13 years ago? But on Saturday, it was reported Martinez had reached a verbal agreement to become the new head coach of Portugal. Either the man has the greatest agent in the world, or his LinkedIn profile reads better than a Dan Brown novel. They say football is a ruthless game, for Roberto it seems a charmed existence.
Karma, so the saying goes, is a bit of a bint. On New Year's Eve, UFC boss Dana White was videoed in a heated exchange with his long-time partner in an Mexican nightclub which resulted in White appearing to strike her twice across the face. The reaction of US media - ESPN in particular - has been curious. On its flagship show , Stephen A. Smith and host Molly Qerim declined to “judge someone by their worst moment”, a stance which drew justifiable anger from many fans, who pointed out the same broadcasters were much quicker to pass judgement on athletes whose misdemeanours were less.
As White is at the money end of his sport, it's much more likely he will survive an incident that would see another man in jail. A sad indictment of the food chain.
