Death of the Superhero

Tonight, I was looking through my Franco Zola tribute match pictures.
Looking at the smiles on the crowds faces, the banners that they were holding up - "The Zola System", "Zola Power", "We love you Gianfranco" to name a few.

This is what has stirred this worry. Will we ever truly have these 'superheroes' that everyone loves again? When I say everyone - I don't just mean the face in the Chelsea Crowd to Neil Barnett - I mean countrywide.

As a supporter of football in general for a few years I've seen a fair few faces take a bow and move on ... and out of the football spectrum. Gazza, Ginola, Ian Wright, Peter Schmichael, Luca Vialli, Roberto Di Matteo ... I could go on. But my fear is will there be these 'Superheroes' to pull 'us', the supporters through? Or have football clubs become too expendible with their players due to income and supply and demand.

I must say that my favourite run of seasons were between 1996-2000. There was true spirit - not as much anti press ... although some players in the league (not mentioning names) were not helping themselves in the press sector - this is still continuing! This for me was the icon era - minimal squad rotation allowed players to play week in week out and build on their 'status' in the eyes of the supporter.

I'll bring my point back to Gianfranco Zola. This is a man who won the footballer of the year in his first season. Those of you who know of Chelsea's sucesses will know that the club had a very good spell in the trophy cabinet. But like all players, he had some bad times at the club - unfortunately - at what was the end of his time there.

Maybe they just don't make them like they used to ... maybe as a supporter we have to join the bandwagon and assume that post-modernity has dug its claws in ... that we are 'aware' of statuses ... there is no distinction between high art and low art anymore ...

I'm just afraid that the 'Superhero' figure has faded away and that due to an afluent league we are now left with a production line of wonderful talent but expendible names ... much like the high street retail market.