IS RORY MCILROY PRESSING THE SELF-DESTRUCT BUTTON - LIKE LEWIS HAMILTON DID?
FRANK WORRALL reporting at the very heart of British team events - FRANKIE has his say, exclusively for your WEEKLY SPORT.
IT HAS been my privilege to write the first biogs on Lewis Hamilton and Rory McIlroy. My book on Lewis came out just days after the end of the 2007-08 season – the campaign that saw him win the world drivers’ title after a thrilling season-long, ding-dong battle with Spanish driver Fernando Alonson. I remember writing that this was the start of something big for F1 and Lewis: that his brilliant debut season triumph heralded the opening up of the game to many more people and that he would now go on to win titles galore over the next few years.
Well, as we count off the days towards the end of 2011 I have to admit I was wrong in my Mystic Meg prediction about Lewis. Since that victory, he has lost out in the three subsequent title battles – one to now McLaren team-mate Jenson Button twice to the new Michael Schumacher, Sebastien Vettel, or as his native Germans prefer to call him ‘Mini Schumi’.
And his loss of form coincided with a loss of focus on the circuits. One example jumps out of the page at me – shortly before the start of the 2010 season, Lewis got rid of his father Anthony as his manager. He then proceeded to swan around on holiday with his then girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger…instead of practising on the track and ensuring he was both physically and mentally on top for the season opener. Knowing his father, he would never, while serving as Lewis’s manager, had allowed him to stay away for the circuit so long. And he would have discouraged his boy from becoming known on the party circuit, rather than the F1 circuit.
Now I know that Rory McIlroy is only just truly finding his legs on the golf circuit (yes, despite that wonderful US Open win) and that he is a young man. But, like Lewis, he has grown up in something of a cocooned bubble. As Lewis was mentored by McLaren and his father (the latter until the fateful split) so Rory looked to his dad and the agent Chubby Chandler as his vital support network.
The proof is always in the pudding and in Rory’s case (like Lewis when he won the title) it definitely worked. He became the big-name player of the year with that US Open win that followed on the back of the meltdown at the Masters.
But then, it just as quickly started to go downhill. Just as Lewis took three weeks away from F1 in 2010, so Rory, took the same amount of time off before the Open in Kent in July. He was spotted anywhere but a golf course as he attended Wimbledon and watched David Haye in his world title fight. Then he finished with his childhood sweetheart, Holly Sweeney, taking up instead with the world No 1 women’s tennis star, Caroline Wozniacki – and split from Chubby as his agent.
Since the US Open he has won only the Shanghai Masters, which is more renowned for its financial rewards than ‘win credibility’. OK, the £1.25million winner’s cheque provided some consolation but Rory would surely have preferred to scoop the Open title. Instead, he left Kent after the Open blaming the weather.
He has now announced he plans to spend more time playing in America – where he likes the milder weather.
I just hope that he isn’t becoming distracted by the fact he has become a major worldwide star – ‘and playing the big star’, as some fans believe, at the expense of his game. Just as Lewis Hamilton should have gone on to tie up consecutive world crowns for years after that 2008 triumph, so Rory should now be on his way to winning another major tournament, rather than have us scratching our heads over his relative lack of form. You don’t have to turn into a Lewis Hamilton, Rory…but it’s all down to you now…
ANDRE VILLAS-BOAS –
OR HIDDINK AND LAMPARD?
THE young Portuguese manager Andre Villas-Boas is really under the cosh at Chelsea. He has overseen a series of poor results and he is struggling to get the team to play the way he wants. He is determined that the Blues will compete via a higher defensive line and wants to inject more pace into their game.
All that is very admirable – and it works, as proven by his Porto team’s success last year.
Can it work at Chelsea? Of course, but it will need time, money and patience. Can Villas-Boas survive? Of course, but only if he realises that resorting to the brave new world means he needs time, money and patience. To put it more simply…he most buy himself time and patience by moving more slowly to that new, speedier system.
Right now, he is too impatient himself, trying to get men like Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and John Terry to adapt to a system alien to them in mere days.
The truth of it is they may never adapt to it. If Villas-Boas stays that means he will have to implement the new system more slowly, replacing the older stars with newer ones in a couple of years. With that softly-softly approach you keep some of the old system and bring in some of the new.
If he continues to try to change everything overnight I fear for him: the powerful dressing room cabal of Cole, Terry, Lampard and Drogba are not going to stand back and see everything they have worked for over the years be destroyed as Chelsea go out of one competition after another.
My sources suggest Roman Abramovich has a straight decision to make within the next couple of weeks: to persevere with Villas-Boas, or to bring in Guus Hiddink as manager with Frank Lampard as his assistant.
The latter is an attractive option as it brings gradual change and sets up Frank for the top job in a couple of years – and, trust me, he is intelligent and savvy enough to become a great manager.
But Roman’s decision is dependent upon Villas-Boas. If the Portuguese slows down his rush to change things, bringing it in more sensibly at a pace the current bunch of players can cope with, he can beat Valencia in the Champions League and survive.
If he continues without thinking, he may push himself out of the door…and open it for Guus and Frank…
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