I watched two games over the weekend and was intrigued by similarities, and extremes of difference, between two young players, operating at opposite ends of the football pyramid.
On Saturday I watched Wycombe and Chesterfield battling for their lives in the relegation battle between the two sides that are bottom of the Second Division, and on Sunday I sat down to watch the televised FA Cup clash between Northampton and Manchester United.
In the Division Two encounter Nathan Tyson caught the eye as he opened the scoring for Wycombe, moments after blazing a chance high over the bar when the phrase, 'rush of blood to the head' came into mind. It was Nathan's first goal for Wycombe, he is on loan from Reading, and he went on to have a very good game and showed enough promise to suggest that there is a bright future ahead for him.
Late in the game Nathan might have doubled his goal tally when he gained possession on the left wing, with acres of space behind the last Chesterfield defender ahead of him, Unfortunately for Nathan that defender happened to be Gus Uhlenbeek, who is built like the proverbial brick outhouse and he can shift a bit, too. Which is why, when Nathan tried to 'push and run' beyond the defender, Uhlenbeek matched him for pace and shrugged him off with an excess of physical strength.
Fast forward then, if you will, to the Sixfields Stadium on Sunday afternoon and step forward Cristiano Ronaldo. Similarities with Nathan Tyson are, at best, tenuous, but at least there was one link between the two and it is the strength and experience that both players lack.
Against Northampton, Ronaldo gained a penalty when he was felled by Chris Carruthers, fortuitous in the extreme, but it wasn't so much that but a later incident when he was competing, on the run, with an opponent, that made me think of comparisons with Tyson. Ronaldo was losing the physical contest but superior ability allowed him to extricate himself from the situation, and therein lies THE BIG difference between the two players. Both will grow, in experience and physically, but Ronaldo's future looks incandescent when the evidence of his first season at Old Trafford is weighed up.
Ronaldo has encountered criticism for falling over a lot. He has also been castigated for 'showboating'. Perhaps the former will disappear as he grows into the game and is advised by his teammates. As for the showboating, well I applaud what he does with the ball because I do not see it as showing-off, in the accepted sense.
As Ronaldo delved into his repertoire of ball skills, especially stroking the ball whilst moving with it AND under pressure, I could not help thinking back to the time of another Manchester United 'show-boater', who everyone was recalling in the build up to Sunday's cup game, George Best.
Comparisons are inevitable and I won't indulge. George was a one-off, THE best. But in Cristiano Ronaldo, United have a gem that will sparkle, hopefully, for the next 15 years, whether all of them will be in a red shirt I am not so sure, but he makes me smile because of the joy he obviously gets from playing with a football. And for that very reason I don't believe it is showboating.
I believe it is a young footballer enjoying what he does better than nearly anyone else, an apprentice who is mastering his trade, so why should he not enjoy expressing that mastery in the best way possible. Heaven help the opposition, and teams competing in Euro 2004, and beyond, when the apprentice becomes a master.
If Nathan Tyson can emulate Ronaldo, in any way, he too will surely become a knock-out.
