Frankly, Mr Peace

David Peace, you're killing me. If Shankly scrubs the inside of that oven one more time I'll put my head in our fucking oven.

Mixing Footie and Politics (7) Shankly, Socialism and Glasgow Celtic

Just spotted this.

Ian Bone raises that most important of political questions: 'Is there a socialist way of playing football?'

Ian shows his age (and his dress sense) by mentioning the great Hungarian side of the early fifties.

Arguably the greatest International team never to have won the World Cup, they lost the '54 final against West Germany in disputed circumstances, and one of the great ifs of football pub talk is, but for the Soviet tanks rolling into Budapest in '56, how they would have measured up against the Brazil of Pele and Garrincha in Sweden in '58.

Anyway, back to the matter in hand. I show my good taste and access to YouTube clips by pointing you in the direction of the definitive answer to Ian's question.

Bill Shankly describes the great Celtic side of the Jock Stein era:

That wee nugget should be on a T shirt, not this silly bollocks which is currently doing the rounds on the left blogosphere.

"Socialism without the politics." I like that.

Whatever did happen to World in Common?

For my next trick, I'll be solving cryptic crosswords . . .

Bill Shankly Socialism T Shirt update

I was (half) right. Quick blogsearch reveals that it was Sheridan who was wearing the T shirt in the CBB house:

"Tommy has already been using the show to promote his left-wing beliefs.

Yesterday he wore a sweatshirt with legendary Liverpool boss Bill Shankly's famous socialism quote.

His jumper read: "The socialism I believe in is everybody working for the same goal and everybody having a share in the rewards.

"That's how I see football, that's how I see life." (Via The Sunday Mail)

Philosophy Football will be minted after that wee plug from TS.

Hunting four Shankly

Has Bill Shankly died or something?

The sitemeter keeps throwing up hits from people who've found the blog via typing in 'bill shankly t shirt socialism' into the google search engine. Poor bastards are looking for this, but instead they're stumbling across this past doggerel from the vaults of the blog.

Yes, I did have the t shirt - the long sleeved version - and rather than it making the intended everyman political statement, it looked more like I was going to a fancy dress party dressed as a post box.

A Thought

What's the odds that either Tommy Sheridan or Terry Christian have been talking about or wearing the Shankly socialist T shirt in the Celebrity Big Brother Household? I'm guessing the former as Sheridan's a hun by all accounts and TC is a Man Utd supporter.

Mixing Footie and Politics (6)

Jose Mourinho as revolutionary leftie?

I always pegged Mourinho as being from the same political managerial school as Scolari and Capello but, after watching this Adidas commercial for the thousandth time during the Euro Championship coverage on ESPN, now I'm not sure.

Have a quick read of the transcript of Mourinho's words from the commercial (that I lovingly transcribed below) and try and tell me that the bloke is a not so secret Marxist-Shanklyite:

"Football is a special sport because it is co-operation between eleven for one target . . . and of course we learn solidarity, friendship, co-operation, support.

Don't try to be the new Kaka or the new Messi because you cannot be, cannot be the new. You must be yourself.

Kids in love with the game dream to be a top player,but I think it is much more important to be a top man."

Throw in the 'Impossible is Nothing' slogan at the end of the commercial, and it now transpires that the real reason that Mourinho has gone to Milan has less to do with managing Internazionale and more to do with the opportunity it affords him to attend Partito Comunista Internazionale fraction meetings.

'Two copies of this month's Socialist Standard, Darren. I want to pass on the extra copy to Carlo Ancelotti. I think he'd be interested in the Football: a capital idea article.'