ST MARY’S — There’s an old black and white Guinness ad from the late ‘90s which depicts a surfer with eyes like black holes and his friends on a desolate beach trying to catch the biggest wave of their lives.
“He waits, that’s what he does,” the deep, seductive-voiced narrator says, as a drum beat grows louder. “And I tell you what. Tick full of tock full of tick full of tock full of tick…”
The surfers catch their wave and as Neptune’s Horses gallop all around them in the wave’s folds, one-by-one the friends fall away, the drum beat rising further still to a crescendo, until the surfer is the last man standing, the only one to ride the wave to its conclusion.
“Here’s to waiting,” the narrator concludes.
It planted the saying “Good things come to those who wait” into popular culture and transformed Guinness from a drink of the elderly to one popular amongst a younger crowd. But while it was eventually voted the best advert of all time, little did the creators know that two decades later it would perfectly capture Che Adams’ first ever Southampton goal.
What a wait it has been for the 23-year-old since his £15million move from Birmingham: one year and four days, 25 Premier League games, 30 appearances in all. My was it worth it. Forty yards from goal, the ball rolling to him, Adams spotting that Ederson was some way off his line and sumptuously looping the ball over the Manchester City goalkeeper and into the empty net.
These are the kind of moments that football fans have waited for since football closed down at the beginning of March.
In the space of 16 minutes it showed the pros and cons of Ederson.
Pro: his glorious pass after 55 seconds, sending the ball all of 50 yards along the ground, dissecting at least three Southampton players, straight to Bernardo Silva, the sort of pass that Kevin De Bruyne plays and is salivated over for days.
Con: playing almost permanently on the edge of his penalty area so that when Oleksandr Zinchenko is tackled on halfway by Stuart Armstrong there is a wide-open target for Adams to think: what have I got to lose? He waits, that’s what he does. Adams’ wait is over.
Then it was the turn of Manchester City to do the waiting, in the hope that good things would come to them. Tick full of tock full of tick full of tock full of tick, and always Southampton goalkeeper Alex McCarthy, or the goal frame, or a Southampton limb or body was in the way.
Fernandinho striking the left post. David Silva’s close-range header, saved. David Silva slipped through and low shot, saved. Gabriel Jesus effort, saved. Jesus scissor kick, blocked. Jesus header, saved. Bernardo Silva, blocked, inches wide. Save full of block full of save full of block full of save.
Who does Pep Guardiola send for when City cannot break down a deep, painfully patient back line and the time for waiting is running out? Phil Foden and De Bruyne. It seems almost criminal that David Silva, Foden and De Bruyne can be allowed to play for the same team at the same time. Who needs patience when you have passing ability like that?
Pass full of cross full of pass full of cross full of pass. Wave after wave after wave after wave of Manchester City attack: waves the size of tower blocks that could kill less experienced surfers, repelled by Oriol Romeu or Jack Stephens or Jan Bednarek or Ryan Bertrand or Kyle Walker-Peters.
Five players behind the ball, six, eight, 11. Headers out, diving blocks, hacks clear.
Still City pressed: 65 per cent possession, 70 per cent, 72 per cent, 74 per cent. They surpassed 20 shots on goal, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25. How had City not scored? But City simply had not waited as long as Southampton’s goalscorer. This was 90 minutes of patient attacking, of patient passing, of patient pressing. Not one year and four days wondering if it will ever happen.
Tick full of tock full of tick full of tock full of tick. Here’s to waiting. Here’s to Che Adams.
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