It's never a good idea to point out someone else's fuck ups. You don't have to really believe in karma to accept the simple fact that once you start taking the uppity moral high-ground, you've painted a bright, shiny target on your back. Point out others mistakes and prepare for a spotlight to be shone on your own.
So it's with that in mind that we fully pass the buck along to plenty of other people and ashamedly hide behind their criticism of the Guardian's back page tribute to Johan Cruyff today.
Here's the tribute in question. A typically glowing take on the great man's legacy, a complimentary cyan hue and a picture of Cruyff in his beautifully languid pomp.The only problem is that that's not actually him. It's Rob Rensenbrink.
To be fair, they're certainly very similar.
Even at that, it's a bit of a surprise that it made it through to print but perhaps no one would notice.
People noticed.
@suttonnick @Alfred_Meester The player on that picture is Rob Rensenbrink (nr 15)
— Asser Courant.nl (@assercourant) March 24, 2016
Long day ahead for the photo editor who's used a picture of Rob Rensenbrink to pay tribute to #JohanCruyff pic.twitter.com/4ccfwDdhzj
— Damien O'Meara (@damien_omeara) March 25, 2016
As many will have pointed out, perhaps the best way to tell them apart is the fact that 1974 brought about one of the most famous single World Cup shirts of all time. Rensenbrink, like the rest of the Dutch squad, wore the standard Adidas shirt with three stripes on the sleeves.
Cruyff however, wore a specially designed shirt with two stripes due to a boot deal with Puma which ensured that he couldn't be seen in a competitors clothing. Given that they couldn't exactly risk pissing off their best player, the Dutch managed to agree a deal with Adidas which allowed Cruyff to take away one of the famous stripes.
Those two stripes belong to me, especially when they are combined with the No. 14. They are part of my identity and they do not belong to Adidas, but only to me.
While we're at it, it's certainly worth heading over to the Guardian and reading David Winner's tribute to Cruyff.
