Carrie Fisher who feels that she got roughed up by her insensitive mother, Debbie Reynolds, during those confusing days of puberty wrote her cathartic Postcards from the Edge, that shows Reynolds in an unflattering light. However, it is not just parents or siblings nowadays who are fair game, it is coaches. Ashley Cole has written a book on how Arsenal and Arsene Wenger ill treated him in his stay at the club, which sent him weeping to find solace in the arms of Jose Mourinho, to find out that those feelings scould be assuaged by some more quid.
Vikash Dhorasoo has gone one better. He is bringing out a documentary called Substitute, that gives us the scabrous details on coach Raymond Domenech, another coach that got his fair share of lumps before the World Cup began. The PSG midfielder spent most of his time on the bench except for the last couple of minutes against Switzerland in the World Cup. He has since retired but wants to keep the spotlight on Domenech. Unlike Cole on whom we rely on in his own word, Dhorasoo, who is nowhere to be seen without his handycam has actual footage of Domenech saying and doing things, that well he probably should’nt be doing. But then Dhorasoo is also violating the sanctity of locker room talk. It has got Domenech and captain Patrick Vieira in arms.
And now it is Steven Gerrard’s turn to spill the beans on Svennie in his book in which he describes himself as “gutted” when he was asked to take the No9 shirt for the pre-World Cup game against Hungary, and says of Eriksson: “Get real – I’m an attacking midfield player, not an emergency striker.”
Looking at the confessionals that are coming out of the woodwork, only Gerrard’s book is worthy of consideration. He has criticized Sven for his coaching choices and not personally smeared him. This is a book written by a professional footballer unhappy with the decisions that his coach made. There is also the fact that Sven is no longer the England coach, so one can discuss his legacy.The rest of the books and now the documentary are little more than vilifications. Personally, there should be a gag order on players writing about their coaches, and not just in a tournament, but when they are still active in the game, like Wenger and Domenech. It just does not bode well for the game, if player and coach both tippytoe around each other carrying mikes strapped on their bodies. Of course, one does not want to encourage players choking their coaches either.