On a December evening in 2010, Andy Gray was in a studio, possibly somewhere in London, discussing Manchester City’s recent defeat against Everton at home. It was brought to Gray’s notice that Lionel Messi had, as was usual then, turned on the magic for Barcelona. His response is now part of football folklore.
“He would struggle on a cold night at The Britannia.”
It is a genius statement – irreverent, filled with equal amounts of comic intent and pure English hubris.
That thought had a background, though. Casting doubts over whether a player from a foreign league, and often of a foreign nationality, can endure the 100 miles-an-hour royal rumble of English football is more common than necessary or sensible. Sometimes it’s the muscularity, other times it’s the speed, most times both. Last season, there were similar murmurs over Erling Haaland’s ball-reception, which rose in pitch after the Community Shield, before crash-landing to silence once City were done with their game at West Ham United.
In 2010, when referees were a little more forgiving towards contact on the pitch, it wasn’t hard to imagine an ex-pro thinking about certain physical attributes as imperative to endure football in England. The match Gray was discussing before pausing to reflect on Messi is a perfect example of what his comment implied. City had 68.2% possession that evening, leading to 33 shots, but went down 0-2 before twenty minutes had passed. City had the aesthetics, Everton had the dog.