Ossie's Dream

The Tenth of June Two Thousand and Eleven. Friday.

The Flat's quite tidy at the mo. It's quite pleasant, really. So this is why people keep their homes clean. Nice, but I don't think it'll catch on.

Oh it was the last episode of series 3 of The Mentalist tonight (or as it is known in the MH family El Mentalista) and it was a good one. Yes, faithful viewer, this is my Seventh Telly Recommendation.

Now the creator of El Mentalista is a chap by the name of Bruno Heller. He's British, the brother of novelist Zoe Heller and I have a feeling he's a Spurs fan. Why?

In tonight's episode there were 5 possible suspects for the bad guy. One of whom was named Osvaldo Ardiles. A perfectly ordinary sounding name among the Hispanic population of California, but to those of us who remember our 80s footballers more famously the Tottenham and Argentina midfielder.

Of course, 30 years ago Ossie helped Spurs to win the FA Cup. Oh, that hurt for a long time. In fact it's only this year that the pain has subsided. Oh, Tommy Hutch scoring at both ends - that's still one of the fate's great injustices. I don't know if there is such a thing as Karma but surely some was reclaimed by the way that this season Peter Crouch, the man whose goal effectively prevented Man City from making the Champions' League last year, scored the own goal that helped us on our way to Europe this year. Is that a bit of a stretch? I don't think so.

(Last minute edit: and I've just realised that one of the scorers from the 1981 replay was Garth Crooks, born in the Potteries and a successful Stoke City player before joining Tottenham. Is this why Stoke were the sacrificial lambs to Man City's victory this year? Well, is it? Think about it...)

I had some vague notion that Ossie wore the No1 shirt in the Argentina squad that won the World Cup as hosts in 1978 - unusual for a player other than a goalkeeper to wear that number. I was 9 during that World Cup - of all the things to stick in my mind. A bit of Googling reveals that's not quite right. Ardiles was No2, but No1 was worn by an outfield player: midfielder Norberto Alonso. I can't ever recall seeing that anywhere else.

Right. Always end on a song. Here's Ardiles and the rest of the accursed 81 FA Cup squad along with Chas and Dave. May their shells be blighted.

More soonliest