GILES SMITH’S MIDWEEK VIEW

Giles Smith is in relaxed move in this week's column, anticipating watching plenty of quality football this season and next summer.


It's odd to think, but the World Cup in South Africa next year could very easily go ahead without the presence of two of the best players in the world. More than that - THE best two players in the world, according to some analysts.

Argentina, who just lost 3-1 at home to Brazil, are making a 24-carat hash of qualifying from the South America group, meaning that Lionel Messi, our friend from Barcelona, could well spend next summer watching the tournament on telly with the rest of us.

Well, not actually WITH the rest of us. He'll have his own telly, I'm fairly sure. But you know what I mean.

And Portugal, too, will be lucky to get anywhere near the competition on their present form in Group 1, so Cristiano Ronaldo, also, may be prevented from sharing with the globe his unique blend of talent and charm on what certain binding laws relating to the practice of journalism in the United Kingdom oblige me to describe as 'the biggest stage of all'.

Now, I don't know about you, but I occasionally detect, in the coverage of the pricey Real Madrid star's plight in this particular area, a certain tone. And I'm not sure it's a tone you would automatically describe as sympathetic. Indeed, when people contemplate the possibility of a Ronaldo-free South Africa, it's often hard to make out exactly what they're saying, on account of the Muttley-style sniggering and the pausing to pat mirthful tears from the corners of their eyes with a wadded hankie.

Here's my view, though. It's the World Cup that we're talking about. The whole point of the World Cup is, by definition, to bring together the best the world can offer at that point. Consequently, it stands to reason that any genuine football fan, with the game's best interests at heart and with a sincere desire to see football represented in the brightest possible light in the summer of 2010, would actively want as many of our time's finest footballers as possible to qualify for the tournament. Unless, of course, we're talking about Ronaldo, in which case, tough.

Still, if there's an overarching footballing lesson to be learned from the prospect of a Messi/Ronaldo vacuum at the heart of 2010, it is surely this: that football isn't about individuals, it's about teams. I've always clung to that belief. And since Fifa slapped Chelsea with a two-window transfer ban, I've clung to it harder than ever.

Frank Lampard, as ever, got it right this week when he spoke about how the ban could have the opposite effect from the one that is clearly intended - in other words, it could make the team stronger. Adversity, a general sense that backs are to the wall, a lingering feeling that something not quite right is afoot, and even the unprecedented security of players in their jobs (knowing that nobody is coming in for a while) - all of these things could work like cement on an already rock-solid squad morale.

In fact, I'm almost looking forward to it - especially when you factor in a break from being groundlessly linked with Franck Ribery in the tabloids, which I suspect all of us could do with.

As for fans of long-standing, well, a year-long stop to transfer activity (assuming it survives the club's appeal) is so much water off a broke duck's back, frankly. Some of us are veterans of the Eighties, when the club went (count 'em) FOUR ENTIRE YEARS without signing anybody of any description. Nothing to do with a heavy-handed and misguided Fifa disciplinary board on that occasion, and everything to do with the club having available funds of approximately 65 pence.

Imagine the impact of that, though, on the players: four years without having a single new boy wind up, tease about his trousers, make sing songs in front of everybody else, etc. No wonder dressing-room morale in those days was permanently lower than a dachshund's stomach.

What different times these are, though - and what a different sort of squad we have. And just to return to the 2010 World Cup for a moment, though: for me - and I say this without any undue prejudice or partisanship, and purely as an objective observer of the game with no axe to grind - the best two players in the world, as of the time of writing, are Frank Lampard and Michael Essien. Essien has already qualified, and Lampard is about to.

Meanwhile, the best left-back in the world is Ashley Cole, and he's in the same position, vis a vis South Africa, as Lampard. So is the best captain and centre back in the world, John Terry. True, the best goalkeeper in the world, Petr Cech, may have some trouble getting there. But I don't think South Africa has anything to worry about, best-players-in-the-world-wise. And neither do Chelsea.