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Yesterday’s Hero

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Imagine Billy Liddell
Sickened by the studs down his legs
Weary with the fouls on him ignored by refs
Bloodied by the back heel sleight of boots
That lunged into his pulsating runs
Week in week out
Tired of the diving cheating
Imaginary card waving that
Trawled the pitch,
The same pitch built for his greatness
The same pitch lit up by the glory
Of his beautiful football
Imagine if this dignified God-fearing
Community minded man
Turned with a snarl
Grabbed his tormentors by the throat
And let fly with a volley
Of four lettered abuse that littered
The pitch with a torrent of obscenities
And imagine all the Liverpool kids
Lads like me Dad
Going home after the match
And instead of copying the sublime skills
Of a footballer they worshipped from the Kop
They put the ball away
And lifting their fists mirrored so-called heroes
With no sense of social responsibility (who cares?)
And blistered the streets
With expletives and rage…
Footballers?
Imagine Billy Liddell
He was one alright.

Notes

written in response to Stuart’s words about footballers and social responsibility.

Stuart’s words: “I know football clubs already get into community involvement in lots of laudable ways, but an atmosphere of top-down patronage and largesse can surround some of the schemes at the moment”. Sadly this is all too true.

As usual nobody in the football world wants to take responsibility; we hear and read all the time about how footballers need to be “protected” , I wonder who protected men like Bill Shankly and Jock Stein when they went down the mines as lads?

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/yesterdays-hero/