George Best

[Renton 17765]

Nice footage from Fratton Park there of fans singing "There's only one Georgie Best" during the minute's silence/applause (I'm not sure which it was meant to be tbh )

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Agree. And I agree with Lawro for once as well in that I think the minute's applause is the way to go in future to honour someone who's passed. Renders all the booing by the cock-ends totally pointless and drowns the fuckers out. A small proportion of the Liverpool fans did the same apparently.

 

As for Best deserving no sympathy because he did it to himself, I don't agree. Alcoholism IS a disease, it's not something that a person can control. He knew it was killing him but there was nothing he could do about it. What's more, he grew up at a time when football clubs (and management) did little to support people with an alcohol problem. (Tony Adams and Paul Merson have a lot to be thankful for for modern management). I lost my uncle to it 15 years ago. He knew it was killing him and he tried to give up, fact was he ended up making himself more ill by starving himself of the stuff. This nonsense about he was given a chance 3 years ago with a transplant is exactly that, the damage was done long before that and George's body got to a point where it depended on alcohol.

 

He's suffered a long painful death, surely that's punishment enough? And besides, the adulations and celebrations have been about Best the footballer, NOT Best the alcoholic. If Shearer turns to the grog after he hangs up his boots and drinks himself to death, it doesn't change the fact that he's one of the most talented footballers to ever grace the black and white shirt does it?

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I'm sorry about your uncle, but that bit in bold is not true to be fair. It's also not true to suggest that there is nothing an alcoholic can do about his addiction, and that free will doesn't come into it. Best would still be alive and well today if he had stopped drinking after his transplant, he didn't need alcohol to live.

 

One thing that confuses me is how he continued drinking if he was taking antabuse. From what I understand, you only have to take this tablet once a day and then it becomes almost impossible to drink. So he must have avoided taking the tablets, which requires a lot of premeditation.

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You can argue the bit about Best, but the bit about my Uncle is totally true actually Renton, I was there to fucking witness him going through the attempts of cold turkey and he deteriated rapidly when he did so.

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Fair enough, I can't comment on your uncle's case as I don't know anything about him, but I've always understood the best thing an alcoholic can do is stop drinking. Anyway, it sounds awful.

[The Fish 8989]

that's a bit simplistic Renton, it's not just a case of "I'm an alcoholic... I'd better stop drinking"

 

I'm lucky that none of the family I know were stricken with this malady. My dad tells me that his father was an alcoholic and it didn't just ruin his life, but that of his wife and his whole family, to the point that My dad is really quite bitter about the whole thing.

 

It's my view that is not a "habit" like nose picking, or self flaggelation. It's an addiction that corrupts and twists every cognitive thought. Alcoholics now have support systems all around them that can catch it at it's inception, but Best was unfortunate to be born into a culture without those safe guards and was the first footballer to really become idolised outside of the football world aswell. he was the first Superstar of football imo. He tred the first steps down the path that others have walked, Gazza, Maradona et al. His debauchery was shrugged at, where now it would be a massive issue.

 

I don't think he is blameless, but I certainly won't apportion all the blame to a man who, in my eyes, is clearly mentally ill.

 

I respect the footballer, but pity the man.