What I liked most about Johan Cruyff.

Not the fact that he was one of the greatest footballers the world has ever seen. Nor the way he became one of football’s most successful and influential coaches at Ajax and Barcelona. No, what endeared him to me most was his attitude to traffic lights. Cruyff believed that most of the traffic lights in Barcelona were completely unnecessary, so he had a perfect right to ignore them. Anyone who has to drive in London where, I’d estimate, around 75% of traffic lights are completely unnecessary, will have great sympathy with this view. It was also no different from Cruyff’s attitude to defenders – they were not going to stop him from getting where he wanted to go. The Dutch master died yesterday and will be greatly missed. Red lights may have spelled danger for some people, but not for Johan Cruyff.