Even more normality (plus something less so)

This is what the top of the EPL looks like as of this moment:

1 Chelsea
2 Manchester United
3 Arsenal
4 Liverpool

I reckon soccer is like an economics system. There is a long run equilibrium which will ultimately be established. You get a few shocks and temporary equilibria, but in time, everything adjusts back to the long term state.

I just drew parallels between soccer and economics. Kill me now.

On a slightly more blasphemous note, let's talk Best. You know what, I was saddened by his death when I heard about it on the news last week. But now, a week later, I am starting to wonder if the extended mourning in the UK (especially in England) isn't going overboard.

In their own way, the British can be a rather sentimental lot. Witness the mourning over Princess Diana a few years back. George Best is not getting quite the same degree of posthumous adulation, but he is getting a lot more coverage and attention than seems warranted.

See, I understand the mourning by Man Utd fans, the one minute silence at Old Trafford, the respectful words pouring out of the Man Utd team. The man is after all a Man Utd legend.

But nation-wide press and media coverage for several days? One minute silences at all grounds? Am I missing something here? The man did not play for England, and yet the whole of England is supposed to be bereaved.

Maybe his talent transcends such piddling matters as club allegiance and national identity. People are mourning not the death of a Man Utd legend or a Nothern Ireland legend. They are just mourning the passing of a footballing genius. Fair enough, I suppose.

For me, though, it seems over-the-top that talent on the soccer field can inspire such depth of feeling in non-supporters. Especially when you consider the mess that his life was. I know it's fashionable in some circles to romanticise George Best's life as some sort of broken genius trapped in a glamourous decadence. Well, he was trapped, but it was not romantic and not glamourous and the sad thing is that he trapped himself. Addiction is a cruel disease, but it can be kicked. Paul Merson did it, Tony Adams did it. George Best got a liver transplant after he burnt his own liver through years of alcohol abuse. And then he continued drinking. For me, this kind of thing transcends his talent and his genius. The footballer was scintillating, the man was indisciplined and self-destructive. I could celebrate the footballer when he was alive, but I cannot mourn the man much in his death, when he brought it upon himself.

Perhaps there would be less hype if he had led a more exemplary life. Here's the crux: I don't think he is being mourned as much as the media coverage seems to suggest. It's all in the hype and George Best, in life and in death, was perfect hype-fodder.