Quote Originally Posted by legs77 View Post
Exactly Lee Hughes wasnt shy in being abit of a wind up and snide.

In an ideal world the game is clean but that isnt reality we need to be more physical and street wise as you say.

You can still play good football too im certainly not asking for John Beck long ball stuff !
Arsenal in the early days under Arsene Wenger were the perfect combination of style and substance. They played good attacking football but also had a real nasty edge with players like Viera, Petit, Adams, Bould etc. They began to decline after a few years when the enforcers left and Wenger got too obsessed with signing pretty players and walking the ball into the net.

Likewise Liverpool in the 1980s and Manchester United in the 1990/2000s, for all their style, had players like Souness and Keane who were happy to kick the living excrement out of the opposition on those days when results needed digging out.

The formula for success in football really hasn't changed that much over the years, despite what some of the modernisers might want people to believe. Look what happened to Manchester City without Rodri!