He writes for a national newspaper but doesn’t read any, plays football at the
highest level but prefers cricket and rugby. Goalkeepers have always been a
breed apart, but Robert Green, of West Ham and England, is more singular
than most. This 28-year-old son of a retired hospital consultant gained 10
GCSEs, studied law and psychology and thought twice before giving up his
studies for the professional career that started at Norwich City a decade
ago.
Green is blessed [some managers would say cursed] with an inquiring mind, and
has a thirst for knowledge that extends well beyond the confines of his
18-yard box. The success of the articles he writes for The Independent
[without the aid of a “ghost”] has encouraged him to believe that he could
contribute more on a broader range of subjects, and Eamon Dunphy may soon
have a serious rival as football’s gift to journalism.
In the meantime, that inquisitive nature has been exercised by the way he was
jettisoned by England between the end of last season and the start of this
one, during which time nobody played a game, and by how Steve McClaren could
be daft enough to throw Scott Carson in at the deep end for England’s key
match in the failed Euro 2008 qualifying campaign.
Green, currently in the form of his life, hopes for a recall from Fabio
Capello for the friendly at home to Switzerland on February 6, but has
learnt the hard way not to take such things for granted. The man for whom
West Ham paid Norwich £2m in August 2006 is good value on any number of
subjects, from the goalkeeper’s strange lot to the vagaries of the English
education system and Sven-Göran Eriksson’s managerial merits.
As a starting point, however, we went for his forays into the broadsheet
press. “I was trying to find something to occupy my mind outside of
football,” he explained. “For a couple of nights before a game, I’d be sat
at home, not doing a lot, and I felt the need to fill that space. I tried a
few pieces online for The Sun last season, it seemed to go well, and my
agent spoke to different papers about it to test the water. The Independent
liked what I’d done and gave me a go.”
From his earliest days, at Norwich, football was never enough. “While I was up
there,” he says, “I went to night school to do a couple of A-levels and
studied psychology for a year and law for a year. A footballer’s job
stimulates you a lot physically, but not mentally. It’s very much tunnel
vision. There’s no real spectrum of life - not real life, anyway - and
it’s good to have something else to focus on.”
Green was not academically minded at school. “I went to the local
comprehensive in Guildford, nothing special,” he says. “It seems to me
you’re either in a very good school, where you’re encouraged to learn, or
you’re not. Mine didn’t really help me. A couple of my mates now teach in
places where it’s more a matter of crowd control than education, and I think
my experience came into that category. It has taken time for me to find
education my own way.”
He enjoyed other sports - cricket (as a batsman), rugby union (at fly-half)
and golf (his handicap a bandit’s 14).
“We had a good rugby team at school,” he says. “I was the smallest of the
backs [at 6ft 3in], we had a team of giants and I used to kick for the
corners and let the other lads beat up the opposition.” As a goalkeeper, he
was still largely reliant on others for protection, and the unique
responsibilities of the position weighed heavily.
“When I first started with Norwich, I found it very stressful, going out on
the pitch knowing that if I made a mistake it would cost us,” he says. “It
wasn’t uncommon for me to be sick before a game, I found the pressure
unbearable. Fortunately, with experience you learn how to deal with it
better. The way I do it is not to read the papers or watch TV coverage. I
leave it to my dad [Steve] to give me a detailed appraisal of anything I’ve
written.”
Alan Curbishley’s appraisal of Green’s work on the field is unequivocal. “Rob
came out of the England squad with an injury and has done nothing wrong
since,” the West Ham manager says. “He deserves to be picked again.” The
goalkeeper had been key to the Hammers’ great escape last season, when they
won seven of their last nine games to avoid relegation. The pick of those
results were 1-0 victories away to Arsenal and Manchester United, when Green
was man of the match on each occasion. Curbishley rated him “11 out of 10”
for his heroics at the Emirates, where Arsenal had 35 goal attempts on
target.
It was, and still is, Green says, the best performance of his career. After
clambering out of the grave they had dug for themselves, the “Bubbles” club
are progressing nicely this season, a top10 finish well within their
compass. “We’ve had a lot of injuries, 11 or 12 at one time, but we’ve coped
well,” says Green. “The important thing is that the make-up of the defence
has been consistent. Matthew Upson, George McCartney and Lucas Neill have
played nearly every game, with Anton Ferdinand or Danny Gabbidon making up
the back four. That unit has been the foundation of what we’ve accomplished.
We’ve not been gluttons as far as scoring goals is concerned, but we’ve
managed to keep it tight, especially away from home. Consistency in
availability and selection has been a massive factor, and the good results
we’ve had breed confidence.
“We’re not the crisis club this time, the ship has a steadier feel, and we’re
definitely moving in the right direction, although we had a massive
disappointment last Wednesday, when we went out of the FA Cup [at Manchester
City] after playing pretty well. It wasn’t the most entertaining of matches,
but we were the away side, playing against a team that haven’t lost at home
all season, and we were left asking, ‘How many chances do we need to win a
game?’ We had them, but unfortunately we didn’t take them. I hardly had to
make any saves compared to Joe Hart.
“Now we’re playing them again in the league [at Eastlands today], and we can
take confidence from the way the game went on Wednesday. We know we can
create chances against them, and that they can be beaten at home.”
Green had not been surprised by City’s resurgence under Eriksson. “Not at
all,” he says. “I couldn’t name a club where he’s failed. We spent £25m on
players here during the summer, but we recouped £20m of that from sales.
Sven has spent £45m. He’s spent it well, he knows good players, but the
point is he has had the backing. At Lazio he won Serie A, spending a lot of
money. If a club is lucky enough to have a lot of money and needs a manager
to build a team, he’s your man.”
Mention of Eriksson brought us on to Green’s experience with England, 45
minutes of playing time in four years in and around the squad. “Sven gave me
my cap, as a second-half substitute against Colombia in the United States
[in May 2005], then I was going to the World Cup in Germany until I played
for the B team at Reading [against Belarus] and ruptured my groin after
about three minutes [having come on at half-time].” Carson went to the World
Cup instead, and Green has been cast aside.
“I thought it was crazy to put Scott in against Croatia at Wembley,” he says.
“Paul Robinson hadn’t been playing well, but if there was a time and a place
to replace him, that certainly wasn’t it. The right thing to do was to give
him [Carson] experience in a friendly to feel his way in. You shouldn’t get
thrown in like that for England’s biggest match for two years. It was too
much to ask of anybody.
“I don’t want to make excuses, but part of our problem is that every time
England play, it's a must-win game in the eyes of the media and the public.
Because of that pressure, the manager is going to pick his first-choice
keeper every time, which is counter-productive in that the No 2 gets no
experience and therefore is never ready. I’ve been part of the England
set-up for 30 matches now and I’ve played for 45 minutes. You’d think a
keeper who has been around the squad for four years would have played more
than half a game.
“I was involved last June, for the Brazil and Estonia matches, but
didn’t take any part, then we had a friendly in August [at home to Germany]
and I was dropped for David James, without playing. How I got worse and
‘Jamo’ got better over the course of the summer is anybody’s guess. It did
seem odd, and I’ve not been involved since.
“If I play the next game for England, it will be my biggest achievement in
football, and I’d love to do it, but after everything that’s happened you
learn to take nothing for granted. What’s the point getting upset over it?
I’m doing everything I can. For the past year I’ve played better than ever
before.
“I had a sports psychologist at Norwich who had a saying: ‘You can’t control
the uncontrollable,’ and I can’t control the England thing. What I can
control is playing as well as I can for West Ham and staying in the team
here, keeping out Richard Wright and Jim Walker. If that gets me into the
squad, then great, but the be-all and end-all is that I don’t have the final
say there.
Don’t get me wrong, I do want it, I’d run to Wembley - do anything
- to be in the side, and maybe things will be different under a new
manager.”
The wordsmith keeper’s match report would be interesting.
Inside track
- City have the third best home record in the Premier League and are still
unbeaten in 11 matches
- In 15 meetings between the two sides, City have seven wins and West Ham six
- West Ham’s only win at City was 1-0 in their relegation season of 2002-3
- City, seventh, are seven points ahead of 10th-placed Hammers. City have the
better scoring record and West Ham have conceded fewer goals
- West Ham are one of five Premier League sides not to have had a player sent
off this season
