Johan Cruyff Taught Me How To Drive On The Motorway

I was 30 when I began to learn to drive, for my 30^th birthday my mother and my girlfriend clubbed together and bought me driving lessons. Perhaps they had grown fed up of ferrying me around all the time. I rode a scooter at the time so I could hardly reciprocate their taxi service.

 

After months of lessons, I passed my driving test on the first attempt (Thanks, Steve at El Passo Driving School) so now I was ready for the open road. Or was I?

 

Those that know me well can vouch that confidence has never really been one of my strong suits. I was hesitant about driving, but after a while I felt comfortable enough behind the wheel.

Except when it came to Motorways.

 

Those gigantic, traffic heavy monsters snaking through the countryside filled me with a dread reserved for titular creatures from horror films. Thankfully for me, my work could be driven to via country lanes. Or if the worst came to the worst, one junction of the M6.

 

It was the sheer volume and proximity of other cars that scared me, having so many vehicles surrounding me made me feel as uneasy and inexperienced as a youth in a nightclub for the first time. I couldn’t even take refuge in the inside lane as that’s where all the articulated lorries lived. I began to think I’d never get over the anxiety of motorway driving.

 

I started to read probably the finest football book I’ve read. Brilliant Orange. The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football by David Winner.  The book starts out recanting the history of Amsterdam and how the lack of landmass led to the inhabitants becoming creative with the limited space they had. How this spatial awareness was ingrained within the people and how Rinus Michels used the concept of Total Football to craft his Ajax, Barcelona, and later, the Dutch National teams.

 

One of the ideas of Total Football was to make the pitch bigger than it was by being creative with limited space, much like the early Amsterdam inhabitants. This was achieved down to the fluidity of players. Unlike formations of the day, the teams of Rinus Michels swapped positions constantly. They were able to carve open opposition formations with ease by utilizing the limited space each player had by using runs and feints to open lanes, or to create space. The foundation of these teams was the legendary, and sadly recently departed, Johan Cruyff

 

It was learning about the spatial awareness and creating space that made me think instantly of motorways. Instead of a steel sardine hell, I began to look at a busy motorway as if it were a packed midfield; the only difference was the cars were all on the same team. In order to get forward, we had to aware of our own space and look at ways to create space for each other.

 

I began to try and think like Cruyff. If I was in the middle lane and saw a car inside me that was approaching a slow moving lorry, I’d know that they were going to pass so I had to make space for them. Can I make a run down the outside lane to free up my space for them? If not, could I break as if I was going to take it around an opposing player but feint? Would they have to wait for me to make a run before they could pass their lorry?

 

It made motorway driving relaxing, spatial awareness was the key. Nissans became Neeskins, Renaults became Rensenbrink, Haulage became Hulshoff. And I was the number 14, Cruyff.

 

Now, whenever I’m overtaking in the outside lane and I see a can behind me going faster than I am, it’s a winger or a right back making a run, I’m going to cut inside to create the space for them. Sometimes I’m the holding midfielder as people push forward on the counter attack. Sometimes I tuck in between two big defenders in the inside lane. Motorway driving is fun and safe. I no longer feel the anxiety that I first did. I try and think like Johan Cruyff.

 

There have been countless tributes paid to Cruyff, and rightly so. Well, this is mine. Johan Cruyff helped to teach me how to drive on the motorway.

 

Dank u, Mijnheer Cruijff

A List Of Good Things SISU Do For Coventry City Football Club

Closer Each Day, Home Is Away. The Plight Of Coventry City

One of the best experience in all my years as a supporter of Coventry City, and football in general, is that of the Away Day. From deciding on how to travel, what time to set off or who is driving, to enjoying a new ground or returning to one of fond, sour or mixed memories. Nothing beats an away day.

Another great thing is that “Holiday Rules” apply, who cares if it has just gone eight in the morning, it’s an away day. Crack open that can, unless you’re the driver of course. The atmosphere is always friendly on the way. You may see total strangers on the train wearing the same top as you. All of a sudden, they are friends. You may see familiar faces who make the same pilgrimage. Like you, they vowed never again after watching a dismal performance in the rain in some northern town that blended in with other towns over your travels. Yep, I love Away Days.

I moved to Manchester about four years ago, so every time I see the Sky Blues, it’s an away day. Meeting friends in Manchester before boarding a train to somewhere more northern, or making my way down south, it’s still the same buzz. Even trips to the Ricoh were great, an away day for a home game is quite the feeling.

However, that’s changed now.

Now it will be an away day for all Coventry fans. Northampton isn’t that far away but whether it be 30 miles or 300 miles, playing home games outside your home city or town is not on. Especially because you know the reason is that a London based hedge fund is doing a runner from its landlord over unpaid rent, leaving the Coventry taxpayer and a charity to foot the bill.

SISU don’t care about Coventry, they never have. They don’t care about football either. They care about profit. Should they get their profit by stitching up the fans who work those few hours extra to afford their escape for a few hours a week, or by using every loophole they can find to avoid paying what they owe, tough shit, welcome to Capitalism, baby!

How long will Coventry City Football Club not be based in The City of Coventry? A year or two? The smart money seems to be on that, with the Brandon Speedway track looking like a potential new ground. What if that doesn’t come to fruition? Solihull Sky Blues? This is Franchise Football and that suits SISU down to the (new) ground.

Not a penny more. That is the rallying cry I’ve heard. Not a penny more, no more cash being handed over by the fans to the owners. Will we support Coventry should they return from their years in exile? I honestly don’t know if I will. I’m hoping to see something along the lines of what has happened at Wrexham, or Barry Town (who have had it worse than us).

For the first time in my life, I don’t feel like I have a football team to support any more. It’s hard to explain how that feels. They’ve always been a constant in my life. Consistently shit, I hear you guffaw. Yeah, but they are MY team, that’s the point.

Not a penny more.