Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira were the last of football’s hard men as we’re left to reminisce on a bygone era of talent paired with sheer tenacity
The sad death of West Ham legend Billy Bonds has revoked memories of when hard men like him used to rule football. And revived the debate about where all the tough nuts have gone, when it comes to the modern game.
The speed of matches, quality of playing surfaces and, most notably, increase in cameras and scrutiny of each micro-second of action, have made violence and skullduggery a thing of the past.
While others prefer to blame Arsene Wenger’s arrival in English football for the sport turning somewhat soft.
The Frenchman took over an Arsenal side which loved boozing and brawling, and turned it into one of culture and class.
Wenger’s refined methods spread though the top flight like wildfire, leading to other manages attempting to emulate his approach. Thus also leading to the gradual extinction of the enforcer.
The list of footballing ‘bouncers’ is a long one, and came to define previous eras. Back in the 1970s, Leeds were the best team in the land. And also the hardest.
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Norman ‘Bites Yer Legs’ Hunter became infamous for his no-nonsense approach. I once shook his hand in a hotel next door to Wembley, and he nearly broke mine.
Alongside him was Jonny Giles and Joe Jordan, who was nicknamed “Jaws” after refusing to wear dentures during games, having lost some of his teeth after being kicked in the mouth.
Chelsea had Ron ‘Chopper” Harris, Liverpool had Jimmy Case and Tommy “The Anfield Iron” Smith, who Bill Shankly once said had not been born, but ‘quarried’.
And let’s not forget Billy Whitehurst, who once left a certain Vinnie Jones trembling with fear after smashing into the side of his BMW on purpose in the Bramall Lane car park.
And spare a thought for the poor defenders who had to line up against Wimbledon strikers Harford and Fashanu?
Harford once smashed Martin Keown, no shrinking violet himself, so hard in the mouth, he had to have a nerve removed from his tooth. While Fashanu wasn’t known as ‘Fast the Bash’ for nothing.
Perhaps the last of the true hard men include David Batty, Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane. No-one bemoans how the game has changed now, more than Keane.
And he has a point.
Because even modern football remains a physical game, but no longer allows characters like the ones mentioned above, to use intimidation and an aura of invincibility.
They’re all gone. Relics of the past, condemned to football’s graveyard – along with tight shorts, puddings of pitches and bovril on the terraces. Creating a game more beautiful than brutal.
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