MAYBE IT WORKED FOR HAALAND, BUT RAPPO MIGHT DISPUTE THIS THEORY!

For all his staggering goalscoring feats in recent years and his astronomical transfer fee and wages, Erling Haaland has been misfiring a little too often for Manchester City of late.

 

I notice he was back on the scoresheet yesterday when he returned after another injury absence.

 

While he was out of action, I got to thinking that it would not surprise me at all, in this day and age, if we had learnt that his employers had brought in a life coach to help him rediscover his magic touch.

 

And having been down that positive-thinking road myself to some extent, I recalled one of the “rules” of the game, namely that by Visualising Your Desired Outcome you actually make it that much more likely to come about.

 

I buy that to a certain extent, and it’s a fact that plenty of people of similar devotion swear by it.

 

But there’s one guy I know well who I suspect would have big doubts on that score. Mark “Rappo” Rapsey clearly visualised his outcome – didn’t he just! – when he had a great scoring opportunity in a vital match for his favourite club, Falmouth Town.

 

You’ll see what I mean with this extract from his autobiography, IT’S A RAP, recalling Town’s 1-0 win over St Blazey in the South Western League Cup Final at Truro in 1991:--

 

Then, three minutes into injury time, I had the chance to put the game to bed and bury all those nerves – and I fluffed it!  Tommy headed out of defence and I was suddenly clear, outpacing Dave Jones and closing in on goal, with Nutey coming out to meet me.  

 

It was a favourite finishing scenario of mine.  The ball was still bouncing nicely for me and, with Nute well off his line, the ball begged to be lobbed over him and into the net.  In my head, I was actually already celebrating – I could see the headlines (no kidding).  

 

Only snag, my lob hit the top of the bar and bounced safely behind the goal. I couldn’t believe it.  I was absolutely gutted.  If they get the equalizer now, I thought, I will never live it down; I will blame myself forever.  I felt certain that if it went to extra time, St Blazey would have won it.  

 

But it didn’t, and when the ref blew for time – a few minutes after my dreadful miss – it was the best final whistle I had ever heard. I fell to my knees with relief.  I even broke my teetotal rule by joining in the celebrations with a shandy afterwards!