The Sports Buff ⚽️ ⚾️ 🏈

Victims of your own success is a saying that’s often described when you’re too good for your own sake, almost, but here I want to introduce the phrase and concept of being a victim of someone else’s success.

The world of a goalkeeper can be a lonely tunnel sometimes. With other positions on the football pitch, one person occupies the goalkeeper spot. Think of the time when Manchester United had David De Gea as number one, with Sergio Romero as his deputy.

At that stage, they had two elite goalkeepers: Romero, who arguably would have been number one at any other side, but with the greatest respect, was never going to topple a prime De Gea.

This happens elsewhere on the pitch, but the main examples I can think of are up front. This has happened at Bayern Munich, when Robert Lewandowski was superb for The Bavarians; not many strikers will put the Pole on the bench.

Eric Chupo Moting was superb as a backup, but with the greatest respect, he was never going to be the main man. Another example was Tottenham, where they never found a backup for England captain Harry Kane.

Fernando Llorente was one man deployed as a backup in the late 2010s, but like other players on the list, he wasn’t quite good enough to make it as a first-choice starter with The Lillywhites.

In the case of the Spaniard, he did respectably at other clubs. Julian Alvarez and Omar Marmoush are examples of players who have excelled elsewhere, but are just too good to be a second choice.

Egyptian Marmoush is now a Tottenham player, and Alvarez is an Atletico player.