Over-rated no-mark

Speaking of people accused of kiddie-fiddling brings me naturally to George Best. I hope he's innocent of this, but in my book, he's guilty of one thing at least - being grossly over-rated.
Put it this way. His career is pretty similar to Kanu's - one European Cup, two league championships, some fantastic goals but basically an unfulfilled talent. No-one goes on and on about Kanu being an all-time great, so why is Best one?
Granted, he has a better goals-per-game ratio than Kanu. But Kanu has played against top-class defenders, whilst Best's opponents were fat drunks.
Best's advocates, of course, claim his career was ruined by alcoholism. Alcoholism didn't stop Tony Adams being the greatest player of all time*.
In dissing Best, I'm not displaying my anti-Manyoo prejudice. I'll freely grant that Gordon Strachan and Bryan Robson, to name but two, were great players. On a good day,  I'll even say the dog was a good keeper.
I suspect George Best's reputation rests on three types of illusion. First, there are cockney Mancs who try to deny that they are gloryhunters; "I was there in the 60s, watching Bestlawcharlton". Old Trafford must have held 150,000 back then.
Second, there's a halo effect. People inferred from Best's good looks that he was a better player than he really was - in the same way that people infer that good-looking people are more intelligent or kinder than ugly ones.
And then there's the standard 60s nostalgia - idiot people looking back fondly on an idiot decade. George Best may have been the "fifth Beatle." But the Beatles were rubbish too. Everyone knows the best band of the 60s were the Ronettes...
* This is the only 100 per cent true statement ever to appear on this blog. Don't even think of arguing the point unless you can show me another sportsman - from any sport, any era, any country -   to have captained a team to championships in three different decades whilst having a life-threatening illness.

Comments

[Angry Economist]

The most perplexing thing about George Best was that he was an incredibly talented footballer who didn't fully realise that talent. Its a fair argument that he might not ever have developed into one of the true giants of the game. However, situations and people like these form the endless 'what ifs' of popular culture... He is infamous more than famous both for on and off pitch exploits.

I sympathise with the ruination that alcholoism can bring though. I always feel like labelling Best a 'waster' but I know from experience that alcoholism is more like a form of mental illness than a 'life choice'.

Jimmy Greaves was also an alcoholic and arguably did better than George Best too. Frank McAvennie was another famous drink and drug addict that fell by the wayside - but I wanted to mention him cos of his imaginitively titled autobiography "Scoring: An Expert’s Guide"...!

And - what about Maradonna and his addictions??? arguably Maradonna would have pissed on George Best on the pitch head to head...

[Andrew]

This is the only 100 per cent true statement ever to appear on this blog. Don't even think of arguing the point unless you can show me another sportsman - from any sport, any era, any country - to have captained a team to championships in three different decades whilst having a life-threatening illness.

Steve Redgrave?

[chris]

All right Andrew. I could try hiding behind the claim that rowing is a minority sport, and one dominated by public schoolboys at that. The trouble is, when I tried rowing at university, I found it a darned sight technically harder than I imagined. I'll try instead to hide behind the distinction between being ready for one great performance every four years, and putting in consistent great performances week-in, week-out. Or I could just say that Steve Redgrave has no bearing on the relative merits of footballers. Or I could just pack it in....

[Andrew]

Four years? He won a fair bit more than those shiny Olympic medals you know.

But you're right about the rest.