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Don't believe the hype

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Jack Ross | 10:14 UK time, Monday, 5 July 2010

Every football fan always remembers a World Cup in a different way. When the 2010 tournament is over, we might recall the sound of the , the debate over , or the early exits of countries like France and Italy.

Personally, I think the competition could well be remembered as the time when all in the game were reminded, in the words of Public Enemy, "Don't believe the hype".

The excessive publicity that surrounded some of football's superstars going into the World Cup has, of course, been proven to be unjustified as several of those expected to light up the tournament have not performed as expected.

There are a wide range of opinions on why some of these top players did not play well, some of which are justified, such as .

dorman_ross_595sns.jpgAndy Dorman (centre) celebrates a goal with Jack Ross and Scott Cuthbert. Photo: SNS.

However, in some cases is it just simply that the aforementioned expectations were unrealistic in comparison to how much individual players can influence a team.

The "one-man team" argument is one which I discussed in an earlier blog, but the issue of "hype" surrounding a player is one that is prevalent throughout the game, not just at the sport's biggest tournament.

For example, most teams in the country will bring new players to their squad throughout pre-season and some will arrive in a blaze of publicity and immediately be burdened with a huge weight of expectation.

Some players will live up to their billing and make a significant impact at their new club, while others may fall short of what some expected.

In the case of the latter, this may not mean they played poorly - indeed, they may have played well but perhaps not as impressively as the hype was suggesting.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate this is to look at , a player who arrived at the tournament without a worldwide expectation to be a World Cup top performer.

As the games have gone by, he has impressed and people have taken notice of him. Man-of-the-match displays are expected in each game. I realised this as I watched him in and much commentary was aimed at him not being in the game much.

In reality, he still played his part in a fantastic team performance and was involved in a couple of goals. A step back from the newly-created "Ozil hype" allows us to see his role in his team's victory, a role that meant a solid, good performance and one just as important as those who played without a similar expectation, such as a or a .

In my own experience, I have witnessed the over-hyping of players within my own side. A couple of seasons ago, was in terrific goalscoring form and went into a Scottish Cup semi-final being labelled as a Β£1m player.

When he was then part of a side that massively underperformed and , he received excessive criticism in the sense that everyone lined up to ridicule such a valuation.

In Andy's case, he did not ask for the excessive publicity, but rather his performances at that time ensured that it came his way. Of course, the challenge then is to continually meet expectations. But, in truth, this is never going to happen, especially when the hype becomes unrealistic.

I have also seen it happen with young players who break into the first team. In my time at Falkirk, made a huge impression as a teenager playing in the Scottish Premier League and everyone rightly raved about his performances.

However, as he moved into his second and third seasons in the first team, some criticism came his way because some expected him to keep repeating that initial impact.

In reality, his performances were probably very similar, just the hype created by his first season led some to feel let down.

It is interesting to see both Andy and Scotty heading for England, where I am sure that both will perform really well as they are both very good midfielders. Who knows? They might even live up to the hype.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    Good blog as always.

    I'm always well chuffed to see an un-fancied team do the job over a so-called stronger outfit, especially in the World Cup, cos in a sense it keeps that little bit of something special in football. If it was always going to be the case that on paper, Team X would always beat Team Y, what would be the point of showing up (or even watching).

    One of the curses of the Pro Evolution generation of football following these days, that the usual suspects should always be there or there abouts. There will always be hype in football though. It might be arbitrary, or maybe the pundits and media are fickle to players' purple patch, but I think for the next World Cup, we'll have our usual batch of superstars expected to dazzle their teams to success only to have pie in their faces thrown by the same bunch that talked them up in the first place.

    My moment of the World Cup will be North Korea's goal against Brazil.

    And to wrap up, anybody that thought Ivory Coast would be a major player in the World Cup because Drogba was leading the line needs to strt watching football with their eyes for change.

  • Comment number 2.

    Good Blog as always, Jack

    Sad to hear that you won't be back in the Black and White again next season. Hamilton Accies have signed a quality right back and I just hope you don't come back to haunt us next season. Maybe, one day, you'll return to St Mirren park as our manager. Good luck, Jack.

  • Comment number 3.

    Media hype - why do we (Scots) hate England? Truth is, we don't. What we do hate is the over-hype and 1966 being rammed down our throats.

    Newspapers are sold on the headlines and hyping up of players and teams. That's what sells newspapers. Then the demolition of players and teams is what sells the next newspaper. That's why I do not read newspapers, that and the fact that 'exclusives' are not necessarily exclusive or even true.

    It's about time the media got real.

    Good points Jack.

  • Comment number 4.

    Good blog as always Jack.

    Just want to wish you all the best for next season and I'm glad you're staying in the SPL, although like Ryan, I hope you don't come back to haunt us. Hamilton have taken on a great player who will be an asset to the squad.

    thanks for the memories Jack

  • Comment number 5.

    Great blog once again. I enjoy reading your thoughts.
    Gutted you will not be playing in black and white next season, but all the best.

Μύ

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