The Anonymous Widower

Is Josh Carson the New George Best?

I just typed Josh Carson George Best into Google and found a lot of results, like this one.

Here’s an extract.

Paul Jewell has dubbed Josh Carson as “the new George Best.”

That might sound a bit far-fetched, considering that only a month ago 17-year-old Carson had not even played a League match.

But Jewell was referring to Carson’s colourful personality, as much as any potential footballing prowess, especially as Town’s new find actually forgot to go to training on Sunday.

The Northern Ireland Under-21 international, perhaps still basking in the glory of his two goals in Town’s 2-1 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday, was sitting at home when the phone rang – it was Jewell telling him to drop everything and get down to training.

In the end, Carson was only a few minutes late, but Jewell kept ducking the apologies from his new teenage sensation for the rest of the day.

And remember that was before he scored the only goal at Bristol City.

In my mind George Best was only a good footballer and not a great one. In the years I have been watching football, I have seen two great Northern Irish footballers; Danny Blanchflower and Pat Jennings. Both had long and illustrious careers.  George Best’s could have been great, but he decided to blow it all!

So in some ways, I hope for his sake, that Josh Carson isn’t the new George Best! Carson has been playing much in the manner of that classic Northern Irish winger of the 1950s and 1960s; Billy Bingham.

April 19, 2011 - Posted by AnonW | Sport | Football, Ipswich Town, Josh Carson, Northern Ireland