THE GAME AS I FOUND IT AND AS I LEAVE IT.
— Joe McCall | 10/10/1925 —

Practically twenty years did I spend in first-class football, and the whole of that time in the service of one club. Sooner or later the end comes to the activities of all of us, and henceforward I must play the watcher's part on a Saturday afternoon. And on winter evenings I shall sit beside the fire and think over many happy days spent among good fellows of the football field; let my memory dwell on the scores of thrilling matches in which I have taken part. I am not going to attempt to recall them in this short article, but just for a few minutes I shall yield to the temptation to summarise my experiences during these twenty years and draw some conclusions showing the difference between the game as I found it and the game as I left it.

WHERE ARE THE SUPER-MEN?

I am not included among the people who are ever ready to hold up the past at the expense of the present because I remember there is always a tendency to look at days which are gone through to look at days which are gone through rose-coloured spectacles. I would say that in some respects the game to-day is better than the game as it was when I first came into it. There are, by way of example, a greater number of fairly good players than there used to be, and the teams generally speaking are on a finer level equally.

But I don't think any man will look back over twenty years and fail to be struck with the idea that the game to-day is lacking in what ought to be called the oustanding personalities. We seem to have developed the habit of cultivating ordinary players and to have lost the art of creating the supermen.

GIANTS OF OTHER DAYS.

As I think back over the years I recall such men as Steve Bloomer, Bob Crompton, Vivian Woodward, Willie Wedlock, Ernest Needham, Billy Meredith, and George Hilsdon. The list of oustanding personalities is not exhausted by the foregoing, but they will serve to illustrate my point when I say that the game to-day seems to me to be lacking their worthy successors.

I should say that during my career I saw a gradual improvement in defensive tactics. We did not produce better defenders perhaps than the giants of old, but there was a tightening up so far as tactics were concerned, which made the business of scoring goals more difficult. And it seemed to me, too, that there was an appreciable advance in the pace defence during my time.

A LUCKY CHANGE.

Indeed, I would go further and say that the big difference between the game as it was when I came into it, and the game as it is now, concerns this matter of increased pace all round. Personally, I may be duly thanksful that I lived my football career when I did, because if I had been coming into the game now, with the qualifications I had as youngster, I am afraid I should never have got a real show.

There might not have been room for me because I was so slow. Thank goodness, however, that in the old days they did not judge a players' merit by the speed at which he could get over the hundred yards. Rather did they see the possibilities of a player in the real arts of football, and thought I came into the game as a raw and crude youngster I was persevered with because, as one of my old coaches said: "I should be all right when I had had the corners chipped off."

MODERN METHODS IN ATTACK.

In the attacking department especially, I should say that the game has gone back, and in my view the craving for speed has led to the sacrifice of some of the finer arts of forward play. Too many of the present-day attackers seem to treat the ball very much like a hot cake — they are afraid of holding it.

Instead they indulge in hard first-time kicking, and trust to a colleague, dashing bang it hard once more into goal so that opportunities for scoring shots many be found. I am very much afraid that the change in the offside rule is going to accentuate this feature of the game.

GREATEST NEED.

During the last few years of my football career, the great cry has been for centre-forwards. Look at the number of men who have played as leaders of England's attack since the war. I believe they run into the teens. The mere mention of these constant centre-forward changes proves that in the opinion of the selectors, at any rate, the men chosen have not filled the position satisfactorily.

That, however, is not the fault of the players. It is the fault of the new tactics: the new idea that the centre-forward should not be the leader of the attack but a mere hard-running, hard-kicking, goalscoring machine — if I may put it that way. The importance of position play has been overlooked so far as the attack is concerned.

WHY STEVE BLOOMER SCORED.

What was the secret of Steve Bloomer's success, just to refer to one player by way of example? As I saw it — and I had some opportunities of trying to stop Steve — the secret of the Derby County man's success lay in the perfect nature of his position play. He had that extremely valuable trait — the wit to "beat" his opponents before the ball came to him. My readers will probably know well enough what I mean by that seemingly strange phrase.

It means the art of getting out of the way of your opponents and so positioning yourself for the pas that when the ball comes you have a reasonable chance to make progress — time in which to get the ball under control. I do not think the attacking side of the game will swing back to the old level until the importance of position play is drummed into the heads of our players. In the old days we had forwards in plenty who would hold the ball. To-day, the number of such forwards who are masters of the art of drawing the defence is limited.

ONE IMPROVEMENT.

Lest it should be considered that I am all for the past and having nothing good to say about the present, let me add that in one respect i think the game has improved. I can't explain why it is so, but I believe we habe more good goalkeepers in football to-day than ever we had in the past. Times and again during my later years in the game was I struck with the high standard of goalkeeping, and even at the present moment there are half a dozen men at least who could be put into an England side without the slightest fear that the team would be let down. Of how many other positions on the field the same can be said? I will leave my readers to decide for themselves.

Perhaps I may just say one word about the game as I came into it and the game as I left it so far as the spectators are concerned. There were partisans in the old days just as there are partisans now, but I have a feeling that there was more whole-hearted appreciation of good play by visiting teams in pre-war days than has been noticiable since the war.