Football: Barmby a reminder of past riches

FOR several months the 18-year-old Nick Barmby has been playing well enough at Tottenham to encourage thoughts that the club may have discovered an embryo Paul Gascoigne, but one civilised enough not to belch in public or keep everyone up half the night with his practical jokes. So if an embryo Gascoigne, why not another Jimmy Greaves, Denis Law, Bobby Charlton, and so on?

Exaggeration comes cheaply, but so does scepticism. Barmby may never become a name to list alongside the greats, yet already from one side he is hearing that he could be the next Gazza and the other tells him that what he does bears no comparison with ex-players who mean more to him as middle-aged critics than as men he should mould his style upon at a time when the game itself cannot be compared.

Barmby has given us a nice lob here, a delicate back-heel there, a few goals and a lot of keen running. He is obviously talented but, as yet, not exceptional in the great historic scheme of things. Nor should he be at his age, yet already some people are prepared to compare him unfavourably with mature players of past generations. All we can say with any confidence is that at the same age many of those players were no better and, in any case, we should take a closer look at the ever-increasing number of videos of past masters and give some credit to kids like Barmby who have been born into a different game even to that of Tottenham's last golden age of Hoddle and Ardiles.

Whatever its faults, football in Britain today is mercurial, which makes it remarkable that such veterans as Ray Wilkins and Gordon Strachan can still appear to make time when in possession, and so can some youths who have grown up against a background of howling coaches whose priorities have little to do with the promotion of individuality. It is tempting to believe that Barmby has arrived in spite of attending the Football Association's School of Excellence.

This season has also seen the developing, refreshing talent of Keith Gillespie at Manchester United. Jamie Redknapp, still only 19, is progressing well in spite of Liverpool's season and Queen's Park Rangers' Bradley Allen, 21, has an inherited instinct for scoring goals. Ryan Giggs has become almost a veteran at 19 and Chris Bart-Williams, of Sheffield Wednesday, is one of the most exciting young players to emerge over the last few years. Nevertheless, for a teenager to become established in a Premier League team is still all too rare by comparison with not many years ago. Finding youngsters who are simply well-developed physically, can run all day and tackle venomously, is no great problem, but discovering a Barmby, who uses space well and has a real feel for ball control, is rare. The system mitigates against the genuinely skilful.

John Cartwright, the former director of the School of Excellence, resigned in protest at the way fellow coaches and clubs were 'catering for mediocrity'. He is right, but when in spite of the wide spread of mediocrity several young stars blossom at the same time, the question is whether they represent the first signs of a new trend. It would be a pity if we missed it because we were all too busy watching videos of the past.

We are led to believe that in the days of Real Madrid's domination of Europe such niceties as the back-heeled pass occurred in every move. Not so. The bulk of their football was straightforward, simple, accurate passing. The tricks usually happened when a game was more or less won. Let's be honest, up until the Sixties the reason you became a full-back was because you were not quick enough to be a half-back and the reason you became a half-back was because you were not talented enough to become an inside-forward, big and strong enough to be a centre-forward or quick enough to be a winger. That was how it was at school and it was reflected in the professional ranks.

These days plenty of players with considerable skill as well as speed become defenders, and, of course, on the Continent it is often said that only the best player in a club can be a successful sweeper. Tony Dorigo is one such example of a skilled defender. People say he advances at the expense of reliability in defence. He does, but what if Di Stefano or Puskas had regularly come up against men who could turn and move with a dexterity that was equal to their own?

For a youngster of Barmby's ability to have some success at an early age is not something to be scorned just because everyone knows that there is a dearth of talent. Direct comparisons with the past are pointless in the light of a changing game - changing for the worse undoubtedly but not without hope in the form of young players who are prepared to risk becoming victims of ruthless tackling, flailing elbows and the accusation that wanting to be creative through possession is selfish. There was an elderly reporter at Old Trafford who in George Best's first season in the senior side continually complained that the 'kid' didn't know when to release the ball. Giggs knows the feeling.

Only a few days ago Joe Kinnear spotted Best standing at the back of a post-match press conference at Selhurst Park and remarked: 'George, this is the nearest I ever got to you.' It was a nice, self-effacing comment. Kinnear would not claim to have been one of the finest full-backs in the land but he was by no means mediocre, so even if there was some undue modesty in the comment, his off-the-cuff confession said almost as much about the defenders of his day as it did about the skills of Best himself.