What Constitutes Success?

What is success? Is it medals? Initially you'd think yes, of course it is. But is it really? What about the longevity of someones career, being able to last at the highest level through a 10 year career? What about consistently turning in 20-goal a season performances season after season? What about staying with a club who has brought you through the ranks, and retiring with the same club? What about being the 'big fish' and being the stand out player in your side? It all boils down to personal opinion I'd say and reading through Rio Ferdinand's tweets the other day, he posted something which interested me. It read: 

@rioferdy5

"when I'm retired I will be judging my career on what my team won + how I done within that. Some people want to play for boyhood club, for money etc....I play to win...daily. If Real Madrid won what Barca won last year who would have won world + european player of the year? Messi or @Cristiano [Ronaldo] ? I say @Cristiano"

I don't think that anyone doubts every time a player takes to the field, he is there to win. What strikes me about the comment though is whether winning medals is what really constitutes a success. If you look at players and managers, I don't completely agree. If we take the first part of his comment, in his broken English, about judging his career by what he has won, and I'm the biggest believer in winning as much as possible (I've chucked a runners-up trophy into the sea once because I don't collect anything but winners medals) he seems to have forgotten the situation in which people find themselves. 

Dalglish and Moyes - have they been a success?

Take David Moyes (right) at Everton; revered by the Everton fans, and a squad which believe 110% in their manager. Everton have consistently stayed in the Premiership with little investment and a fan base which want their chairman to hand over the reigns. Has he won anything at Everton? No. But ask any Toffee around and they'll tell you how much they love Moyes. Has he been successful at Everton? Considering the factors above, and the opinion of the Everton fans, I'd say yes. How are they meant to compete with Man City and Man Utd spending £100m in the transfer windows and able to offer players upwards of £150,000 per week? It's all well and good judging people by medals when you are at a huge club, with huge reserves of cash to spend, but it seems Rio has forgotten that for some clubs, that's just not a realistic target. 


Cross to the other side of Stanley Park and ask Liverpool fans about Kenny Dalglish (above). They'll tell you that although they don't look like ripping up the table and taking home silverwear from all angles, they are an improved unit from last season, playing better football, without quite turning in the points just yet. The fans believe in him, something that was lacking towards the end of Benitez's reign, and throughout Roy Hodgson's short tenure. Has Dalglish been a success at Anfield thus far? I'd imagine LFC fans would say yes. Has he won anything? No.


Go and talk to the fans up on the Tyne. Ask them about what their previous manager, and current manager have done for the Magpies. Chris Houghton took them straight back into the Premiership after relegation, and was then let go having been told he could take the side no further. They won the Championship title, so does Rio class his as a success? I'd say so, but what about their manager now? Alan Pardew has taken Newcastle on an early season run which has seen them build a platform to collect enough points to maintain a top half position from now until May. Has he won anything? No. Will he win anything this year? Probably not. But has he been a success? Ask any Newcastle fan and I'm sure they'll agree with me that he's been a success at St James' Park. 

Traore winning the Champions League in 2005.

Players like Matt le Tissier, Gazza, and Alan Shearer are regarded as great players, some of the best English players to ever wear the Three Lions. Did they win much for club or country? Nope. Now let's have a look at some players who have Champions League winners medals to their name; Josemi, Djimi Traore, Milan Baros, Olegeur (Barca), Igor Biscan, Benni McCarthy (Porto) to name but a few. I think you can see my point. The players with a Champions League medal are nowhere near the players mentioned previously. But by Rio's theory, Biscan is better than Gazza, Baros is better than Shearer, and Traore is better than le Tiss. A medal yes, more successful I don't think so. 


The second half of the comment, about Barca, Real Madrid and the respective honours won by Messi and not Ronaldo is a strange comment. These individual honours are surely not based on what the team has done? World and European Player of the Year Messi, has everything in his locker, he might not have as many goals as Ronaldo, but it's generally regarded that Messi is the better player. Not that Ronaldo is half bad! Messi's consistency, touch, technique, assists, goals, passing, his ability to look like he has the ball on a string, and much more combine to create a better player than Ronaldo I think. It has nothing to do with what team they play in, Messi could do it in any team, as could Ronaldo, so it just comes down to who is the better player. What the respective teams have done has nothing to do with it. 

Messi collects his World Player of the Year award for 2011.