JACOBSON, VOKES, LEDLEY, JOHNSON: THE BITTERSWEET WALES GENERATIONAL CHANGE HIGHLIGHTED ON FA CUP WEEKEND
Photo by Andrew Dowling [andrewdowlingphoto.com]
Megan Feringa
Joe Jacobson had not saved the day for Wycombe Wanderers in over 500 minutes of football, which meant that, by Saturday, the Cardiff-born left-back was well overdue for something half decent.
Jacobson had already produced a medley of honourable mentions against promotion rivals Sunderland, not least a goal-line clearance in the second half that saw the 35-year-old momentarily transform into a prescient acrobatic rubber band. But in the fourth minute of extra time, Sunderland loomed 3-2 up. ‘We’re top of the league’, presumptuously crooned from the away end.
Then, there was Jacobson at the back post in the 98th minute.
For those who have kept tabs on Buckinghamshire’s so-dubbed Welsh Wizard, last-gasp antics are no longer filed under ‘shocking’ when Jacobson is involved. This is the man who scored the winner from the penalty spot 11 minutes to time to elevate a team tipped for relegation into the second tier for the first time in the club’s 133-year history, all during a pandemic.
Last-gasp antics comprise Jacobson’s raison d’etre.
And yet, to watch Jacobson scrape Adams Park onto his shin pads (again) late on as his teammates piled atop was to also gather the cruel feeling that one of the best last-gasp antics Jacobson could pull off -- to play for his country -- lies well beyond his limits.
The feeling was not dissimilar to that which came while watching Wales’ Sam Vokes powerfully head in Wycombe’s second goal and roar into the crowd. Or Joe Ledley dapperly sporting a smart brown trench and black hoodie on the Cardiff City touchline on Sunday afternoon whilst the Bluebirds’ fallow midfield implored him to lace up and offer them a push. All of which sat against the backdrop of Gareth Bale’s pending retirement.
The weekend’s moments served as bittersweet signposts that a very important chapter of Welsh footballing history is really reaching its final acts.
Welsh football has, for some time, existed in this bardo, cresting closer into its ostensible end. In November, Ledley’s retirement was made official at halftime of a Wales match that did not include, nor genuinely miss, Bale in the 23-man squad. Ben Davies, Joe Allen and Aaron Ramsey were the only survivors of 2016 amongst the starters.
Yet, over the weekend, one only need watch 20-year-old Brennan Johnson tormenting Arsenal’s defence, forcing Mikel Arteta into an artillery change on the half hour and reaping praise from David Beckham by the night’s end, to find solace. Or Harry Wilson saving Fulham (again). Or Sorba Thomas dishing the lethal doses to Burnley. Or Isaak Davies, Rubin Colwill and Mark Harris keeping Cardiff City’s faith beating for another day.
The reality is Wales stand two winnable football matches away from a first World Cup qualification since 1958 and the likes of Jacobson, Ledley and Vokes won’t be anywhere near them, nor should they.
Still, the thought of the three clinging beer cans on a leather settee as Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau rings around the stadium provokes an off-colour sting in the gut. In this imaginary house party, there might also sit Hal Robson-Kanu and Ashley Williams, a BBC camera capturing the moments for a ‘Where are they now?’ episode.
Farewells are inherently weird, and while theirs were not ignominious, they were surely not what Euro 2016’s heroes would have envisaged for themselves.
Vokes’ final act in a Wales shirt came in last 15 minutes of a friendly against Belarus in September 2019. Ashley Williams came in the form of a 0-1 loss to Hungary as captain. Both watched from the bench as unused substitutes as Wales secured Euro 2020 qualification.
Ledley’s end arrived earlier, marked by 45 friendly minutes against Mexico in 2018. Robson-Kanu’s final involvement ended with his sending home due to a curfew contravention last March, his final minutes, a 45-minute cameo in a friendly also against Mexico, helping ring in Chris Gunter’s 100th cap in front of a cavernous vacuum.
Meanwhile, Jacobson’s senior cap for Wales remains somewhere suspended, untouched, between the 83rd and 90th minute of a 1-0 friendly win over Iceland in 2008 and looks destined to stay there.
“The problem is I never thought I wouldn’t get another opportunity after that,” Jacobson said this time last year as he reflected on a career that, remarkably, was converging with Bale’s in a FA Cup fourth round draw at Adams Park.
To gaze upon the opposite ends of Adam Park that evening was to catch a glimpse of football’s alternative lives. On one side stood a four-time Champions League winner and Wales’ left-footed mythos. On the other stood Jacobson, Bale’s former Wales under-21s captain, a legend in his own right, but one whose range ends in the Adams Park car park.
One wouldn’t be wrong in wondering if maybe Jacobson might still be holding out for a last-gasp finish to his career. Jacobson shows no signs of rot despite his years creeping well passed what football politely calls twilight. Last month, he was named again in the EFL’s ongoing Team of the Season. He boasts three goals and four assists. He can whip in a set-piece with the same rageful precision he ends opposition attacks (see above: clearance).
Jacobson’s efforts have dovetailed nicely with Vokes’, who has relished a renaissance of his own iteration at Wycombe, which has not gone unnoticed at Wycombe. On Monday, photos of Jacobson and Vokes from their weekend’s triumphs were posted on Twitter, along with the words “cc @FAWales”. The post was barefaced and cheeky, invoking a sense of pride, yes, but also an irreversible nostalgia.
During the World Cup qualification campaign and pre-Euro 2020, the crux of the future stewed in doubts of readiness. The next generation’s talent was undeniable. Dan James could outrun a cheetah. Neco Williams could turn any defender into a chagrined pretzel. But the older generation were, without err, asked if these players were ready, if they could possibly understand the stakes at play when some weren’t old enough to properly drool when Wales lost to Leyton Orient in 1996 (Johnson was negative five years old).
As proven in November, the youngsters do, and they are continuing to impress. But the passing of the pipe will always bare its comparisons, its what ifs and cruel closures. Last year, conversations around squad announcements veered toward old names. This year, that feels unlikely. As bittersweet as that can feel, how thrilling too.