When we choose Boot Wars candidates, we do so with an intense selection process that uses the most intellectual brains in the game of football, endless quantities of assorted statistics, Carol Vorderman, and even a bit of Pythagoras… well, it had to come in handy one day, didn’t it?
We assemble all of these footy factuals together in order to assess where the weekend’s crunch sporting spivs will do battle, ensuring that our clash of the cleats could go either way, and that each Boot War is a true coming together of two Premier League heavyweights.
But occasionally we get it wrong.
Every once in a while we’ll inadvertently pick a contest so skewed, so lop-sided, so… err, not-a-contest, that it makes a mockery of our very being. It throws two fingers up at the stolid work that Ransacker undertakes to hunt out the best boots, the toughest technology, the most ingenious ideas (not to mention the most veracious value in footy clogs) and implies that our weekly whip of a top-level fixture has been nothing more than a finger-in-the-air-job.
Your Honor, I put forward Exhibit 1, Liverpool v Aston Villa, AKA last weekend’s Boot Wars.
A game that should have seen two of the best footballing teams this side of the moon going head-to-head with an incredible amount at stake. Instead, we got a title challenger against a side gunning for what seemed to be little more than an InterToto spot.
As for the actual dualling of Steven Gerrard’s Adidas Predator Powerswerve boots, and James Milner’s Nike Air Legend IIs, well, by I was updating the Boot Wars table with a firm tick in the column of our Scouse buddy even by the 20th minute. Maybe we should have spotted the ease with which his Predators tore through the opposition midfield. Tough tackling, resilient moulding, durability, and the sweetest shot you could hope for, as his hat-trick in the 5-0 success proved. A boot that has had a tough time of it this season, but one that comes through when it matters. As for the Legend, it’s officially the worst boot in the table. Woops.
If Liverpool can play this well at a canter, it makes you question what the hell they were doing earlier on in the campaign?
Here at the latest updated standings:
Joint 3rd – Joma Imperial (won 1, lost 0)
Joint 3rd - Nike Mercurial Talaria IV (won 1, lost 0)
14th – Nike Total 90 Laser II (won 0, lost 3)
Other Recommended Reading
- Boot Wars Review: Dashed By Dimitar
- Boot Wars Review: Nice one Neville
- Boot Wars Review: Lescott, No Less
- Boot Wars Review: Sumptuous Van Der Sar
- Boot Wars Review: Cracking Croatian..
About the author
James is an experienced football journalist who edits two leading Premier League club mags. He has worked for Sky Sports and is endlessly complaining about shin splints. And Mark Lawrenson. His favourite boot is the Adidas Predator Powerswerve. Although it's rumored that he once owned a pair of Nicks boots!
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