Wednesday 17 June 2009, 09:00
With the Premier League fixtures for 2009/10 announced on Wednesday morning, we look back at some of the most memorable moments from the Premier League opening days of yore... 10) Chelsea v Sunderland (August 7, 1999) With relatively big money being spent...
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Sunday 14 June 2009, 12:00
And so we bring to a close our look back at the 25 transfers that shook the world. Not literally, you understand; figuratively. Starting with one which changed the way transfers are conducted... Jean-Marc Bosman, RFC Liege to Dunkirk August 1990, Fee...
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Saturday 13 June 2009, 12:00
As Real Madrid noisily go about assembling a fantasy football team, we look back through the FourFourTwo archives to remind ourselves that shocking transfers are nothing new. Here's some more examples. Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano, Corinthians...
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Friday 12 June 2009, 14:00
Kaka? Pah. Ronaldo? No. Continuing our look back at 25 transfers that shook football to its boots... Steve Daley, Wolves to Manchester City £1.4375 million, September 1979 Before the Premier League’s standards of Ade Akinbiyi-awfulness and Bosco Balaban...
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Thursday 11 June 2009, 14:00
With the world record for a transfer fee set to be shattered in the next few days, Real Madrid seem to be on a personal crusade to hijack this blog. The £56 million spent on Monday to sign Kaka will be blown out of the water by the imminent £80 million...
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Wednesday 10 June 2009, 12:00
So Kaka’s move to Real Madrid has sort of broken the world record for a transfer fee – if you use pounds as the measurement; thanks to decreased value of sterling to the Euro during the recent recession and subsequent money-printing. Anyway, little Ricky...
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Thursday 21 May 2009, 15:00
Welcome! The bank holiday weekend nears, but not before we've enjoyed the previous week's finest fruit (and a couple of pips). And so, in alphabetical order, here's the best half-dozen. Let's 'ave it... 1. Arango ( Mallorca vs Barcelona...
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Thursday 14 May 2009, 15:00
Another week, another collection of crackers and handful of howlers. Let's get it on. 1) Alanzinho (Kocaelispor v Trabzonspor ) The superbly-named Brazilian sends a bender round the unsighted keeper from 20... WATCH IT HERE 2) Mario Balotelli (Chievo...
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Monday 11 May 2009, 12:30
Huw Davies peruses the PowerTable stats ahead of Monday night's do-or-die relegation dogfight... St. James' Park hosts the biggest six-pointer of the season as Newcastle take on Middlesbrough. It looks unlikely that both teams can survive, so...
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Friday 08 May 2009, 15:00
Huw Davies peruses the PowerTable stats ahead of this weekend's crucial Premier League clash... Liverpool travel to Upton Park on Saturday looking to usurp Manchester United at the top of the table for at least one night ahead of the Manchester derby...
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Friday 08 May 2009, 14:00
Top-flight managers, eh? They come in, make loud noises about the need for organisation and discipline, and start telling players what to do. But what did they ever achieve wearing boots? We wondered that after a poster on the FourFourTwo.com forums asked...
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Thursday 07 May 2009, 15:30
Right, we're all busy people. Let's get down to it - here are the top six Goals Of The Week... 1. Michael Essien (Chelsea) vs Barcelona It all went pear-shaped in the end for Chelsea, but what a way to go in front. Volleying a falling ball from...
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Thursday 30 April 2009, 12:00
Swoosh! Pow! Blam! Zok! No, we haven’t resurrected the camp 1960s version of Batman. Instead, that is the sound of the best goals from all over the world flying into nets past despairing goalkeepers’ outstretched fingers. Welcome to Video Stars. We’ve...
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Tuesday 28 April 2009, 07:30
Football and music: two of this country's greatest passions. No wonder rock's lyricists, searching for the common touch, have often referenced footballers in their ditties. Presenting 10 of the finest, and hopefully less obvious, namechecks in...
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Thursday 23 April 2009, 15:00
In a noticeably lyrical press conference, Roy Keane has outlined the reasons for joining Ipswich Town, describing his alienation while unemployed since leaving Sunderland – and hinting that he may now be a very different man. "Try to understand that...
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Thursday 23 April 2009, 12:00
Goals? Check. Brilliant goals? Check. Own goals? Check. Other assorted foul-ups? Check. It can only be Video Stars. We’ve rounded up the top six super strikes of the week below. But before we get into those corkers, have a look at these nearly-men who...
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Thursday 16 April 2009, 13:00
Welcome back sports fans to our weekly round-up of the best and worst football action from around the globe. Our international network of spies have been scouring their respective leagues for the top strikes and funny-foul ups for your delectation. We'll...
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Wednesday 15 April 2009, 11:00
Anthony Teasdale was 17 when he made the trip from Liverpool to Sheffield for the FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest... The thing I remember most is the look on people’s faces as we arrived back in the city that hazy Saturday evening. One group...
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Thursday 09 April 2009, 13:00
Welcome back, one and all, to Video Stars. Are you primed and ready for some more stupendous strikes and stupid stuff-ups from the week’s football action? We hope so... But before we dive right into our top six goals of the week, take a look at these...
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Tuesday 07 April 2009, 12:30
With an MEP lobbying to change the historical records, FFT.com's Rob Burnett looks at that and nine other what-might-have-beens Fans of every football club cling on to some questionable occurences that happened long ago but still rankle to this day...
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Monday 06 April 2009, 14:00
James Maw of FFT.com's sister site Talentspotter marks this weekend's Premier League performances out of 10. Rate the players by following the links – or argue your point below... MANCHESTER UNITED 9.0 (won 3-2 against Aston Villa) This, put simply...
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Friday 03 April 2009, 14:00
It’s PowerTable time again folks, as FourFourTwo turns to Catalyst’s analytical tool to predict how Premier League fixtures will unfold. Manchester United vs Aston Villa and Fulham vs Liverpool dominate this weekend's horizon. Will Liverpool - playing...
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Tuesday 31 March 2009, 15:00
FFT.com's Rob Burnett casts his eye over 10 football forfeits... Judging by Rio Ferdinand’s attempt to become the new Jeremy Beadle by ‘merking’ his England teammates in his World Cup Wind Ups programme in 2006, footballers like nothing better than...
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Tuesday 31 March 2009, 14:00
Fabio Capello has reacted calmly to England’s injury crisis by recalling George Camsell from the international wilderness – despite the forward’s death 43 years ago. With Darren Bent having joined Emile Heskey, Peter Crouch and Carlton Cole in the limping...
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Monday 30 March 2009, 10:00
Any awards ceremony carries a high risk of repetitive strain injury. With spirits high in an atmosphere of celebration, applause is in such plentiful supply that the forearms ache long before the final winners stride onto the podium. No such trouble at...
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Saturday 28 March 2009, 17:15
Sometimes, a new approach pays dividends. It's perhaps too early to tell, but the new-model England seems to employ an attractive simplicity which belies several clever subtleties upon closer inspection. No, we don't mean the team's new attitude...
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Thursday 26 March 2009, 14:00
Roll up, roll up and welcome to Video Stars. Within a few short paragraphs we’ll bring you the best six goals of the week but before that, have a look at the ones which, like Gazza for France 98, didn’t quite make the final cut. Just don’t start trashing...
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Wednesday 25 March 2009, 15:00
Award-winning author, Jonathan Wilson , on how to write a best-seller... These pieces are horrible to write. It’s not just that I’m not getting paid for it – to be fair, it is mainly because I’m not getting paid for it – it’s that it’s virtually impossible...
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Wednesday 25 March 2009, 10:00
It was inevitable, wasn’t it? Sunday evening’s announcement that Ledley King would be in the squad for England’s games against Slovakia and Ukraine was met with understandable surprise from fans and the press. Everyone in English football knows that,...
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Tuesday 24 March 2009, 15:00
FFT.com's Rob Burnett finds the 10 best goal celebrations on YouTube Once upon a time, goal celebrations weren’t all that watchable. Ask Frenchman Lucien Laurent, the first man ever to score a World Cup goal, at Uruguay 1930. “Everyone was pleased...
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Monday 23 March 2009, 15:00
James Maw of FFT.com's sister site Talentspotter marks this weekend's Premier League performances out of 10. Rate the players by following the links – or argue your point below LIVERPOOL 9.5 (won 5-0 v Aston Villa) So it’s back on again, then...
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Thursday 19 March 2009, 12:00
Welcome to the weekly Video Star blog, rounding up the best goals and worst gaffes of the last seven days. In a moment we’ll bring you our six choices for Goal Of The Week – but first, the funnies… OGGY OGGY OGGY! It’s been a bad week for Gabby Heinze...
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Wednesday 18 March 2009, 15:00
Admit it: you miss Jose Mourinho. Last week's fleeting return with Inter was like a favourite uncle dropping in on Boxing Day: full of wit, stories and presents, then dashing off before tea, leaving you looking around at the same boring faces as before...
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Monday 16 March 2009, 13:30
What must Alan Pardew be thinking this morning? We've all done it – woken up and regretted at leisure something we said in haste the previous night. But most of us didn't make our verbal slip in front of a watching nation. Making a rare appearance...
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Friday 13 March 2009, 14:30
Consider two quotes from Fernando Torres, taken from an interview with FourFourTwo magazine, published in early February. 1. “Everyone at the club is completely focused on winning the league; it’s more important than the Champions League, more important...
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Friday 13 March 2009, 12:00
FFT.com’s Rob Burnett sifts through the best and worst of the week’s action.. Welcome again to Video Stars where, as usual, we round up the good, the bad, and the downright Iain Dowie-like ugly of the week’s footie. Hold on tight… OGGY OGGY OGGY! Anderson...
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Wednesday 11 March 2009, 12:00
After Liverpool's systematic dismantling of Real Madrid, many are understandably tipping the Merseysiders for Champions League glory this year. It's written in the stars, they say. Liverpool won their first European Cup in Rome in 1977, and triumphed...
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Friday 06 March 2009, 13:00
FFT.com’s Rob Burnett summarises the best and worst of the week’s action.. It's amazing how footballers manage to oscillate between brilliance and ineptitude, sometimes in the same match. It's time to applaud, or laugh at, what the little scamps...
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Friday 27 February 2009, 15:00
FFT.com’s Rob Burnett has sifted through the best and worst of the week’s action.. Well folks, those cheeky footballers have been at it again. All over the globe they’ve been covering themselves in glory with wonder strikes, or covering themselves in...
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Friday 20 February 2009, 15:00
Last weekend's Celtic-Rangers "clash" was a tepid affair. FFT.com's man in Glasgow, Chris Cope , wonders if that's the shape of things to come... Glasgow staged its third Old Firm game of the season last Sunday. You’d expect these...
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Friday 20 February 2009, 12:00
Rob Burnett rounds up the week's best goals and gaffes from around the world... In this week’s Video Stars we have a veritable cornucopia of horrendous howlers and superlative strikes so let’s dive right in before they get away! OGGY OGGY OGGY! Own...
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Tuesday 17 February 2009, 15:00
By now, several of you will have realised that your season isn't going to go quite to plan. Some will fear that it could turn out terribly; some will already kn ow it has. But take heart: there's always someone who's done worse. Like this...
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Friday 13 February 2009, 11:45
FFT.com's Rob Burnett rounds up the week's best – and worst – videos Welcome, dear readers, to this week’s collection of humdingers and howlers as we chart the eternal quest of the world’s footballers to contrive to entertain in the most brilliant...
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Thursday 12 February 2009, 12:00
Tony Adams isn’t the only man to get the boot in strange and/or unfortunate circumstances, as Rob Burnett discovers… Poor old Tony Adams. Getting the sack is never nice, but apparently Pompey chief executive Peter Storrie broke the news to Big Tone while...
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Monday 09 February 2009, 16:00
Theory 1: Scolari was the New Clough Roughly seven weeks from now, The Damned United will open in cinemas up and down the country. Adapted from David Peace’s darkly brilliant novel imagining Brian Clough’s torrid 44-day reign at Leeds United, it’s entertaining...
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Friday 30 January 2009, 12:00
FFT.com rounds up the brilliance and buffoonery from the world of football. Enjoy… OOPS! Right, who wants to see a free-kick bounce off the post and smack into a helpless goalkeeper's face? If you don't, you're in the wrong blog. If you do...
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Friday 23 January 2009, 14:00
There is perhaps only one thing better than watching people who are paid to play football produce a sublime bit of skill or score a spectacular goal. And that is seeing them make a total hash of it! We've gathered the very best and worst of the week's...
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Friday 16 January 2009, 15:00
New year, same old story. Every week around the globe, footballers oscillate between brilliance and idiocy. And every Friday, the Video Stars blog is there to filter the best and worst of it, just for you. As is traditional, we'll start with the howlers...
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Wednesday 14 January 2009, 11:30
You don’t need FourFourTwo to tell you that £15m a year is an awful lot of money. Even with spending money for Mrs Kaka ( Carolina ), it’s fair to say that, should he join Manchester City , Kaka will be a new entry in FourFourTwo ’s Football Rich List...
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Friday 09 January 2009, 11:00
There’s an old saying that the only way to make a small fortune in football is to start off with a big one and then buy a club. Investing in the beautiful game is usually one of the surest ways to watch your cash-pile dwindle faster than lending your...
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Thursday 08 January 2009, 15:00
The Rich List has caused its usual flurry of excitement – we’ve barely had time for a cup of tea, and that’s very bad news. But what’s worse is that some people seem to be as confused as City bankers, or for that matter – judging by the result against...
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Thursday 08 January 2009, 13:00
Recession is coming to get football, says Professor Tom Cannon . And he’s right. Abramovich, Mittal and Usmanov have already seen their fortunes seriously reduced and the next 12 months will test the mettle of the moneyed men in boardrooms up and down...
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Thursday 08 January 2009, 12:30
If QPR investor Lakshmi Mittal wants something, money is no object. When he wanted Bernie Ecclestone’s home in Kensington Palace Gardens in 2004, he bought it for £57 million. When his daughter got married that same year, he sent out silver-encased, 20...
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Tuesday 06 January 2009, 23:30
Football finance expert Professor Tom Cannon gives FourFourTwo the lowdown on what to expect over the next 12 months… The Gap Gets Wider "The first thing that happens to football during a recession is a ‘flight to quality’, so the big clubs are likely...
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Tuesday 06 January 2009, 23:00
“Trillion dollar man” screamed the headlines as Abu Dhabi moneybags Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan took control of Manchester City, blasting the Blues' bank balance into the stratosphere, and the fans moods even higher. Overnight, City went from...
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Tuesday 06 January 2009, 22:15
No turnstiles, no tickets, no huge wage demands. Late 19th-century football was a serene place… until money came along and turned it into the monster we love and loathe today. The first recorded outbreak of ‘professionalism’ occurred in Lancashire when...
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Tuesday 06 January 2009, 22:00
Minted and bored? Don’t despair, you can always buy your own football club/playboy’s plaything. But before you hand over that suitcase of cash, consult takeover whiz Keith Harris. A trained economist and former chairman of the Football League, Harris...
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Tuesday 06 January 2009, 14:00
Just when you thought you could get through January without hearing about finances, out comes FourFourTwo’s Football Rich List. The vagaries of economics have become a necessarily popular conversational subject, but the list has become an annual talking...
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Friday 19 December 2008, 14:15
Tis the season to be jolly, and nothing provokes mirth like an own goal , particularly from the league leaders. (It's only human nature, don't fight it.) So let's start with Liverpool's Jamie Carragher tucking home confidently on behalf...
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Friday 19 December 2008, 12:00
We’re going to have to make an apology straight off the bat this week. Due to the spectacular changes afoot on Talentspotter we’ve been a forced to work like dogs getting things on our sister site up to speed. We say ‘working like dogs’, obviously dogs...
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Friday 19 December 2008, 10:00
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Judging by the paucity of decent reads available in the national press, most hacks are already down the Cucumber & Hearing Aid chasing the secretaries around the bar and pining for the days they sat...
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Friday 12 December 2008, 15:30
VIDEO STARS! The best goals, gaffes and gormless actions of the last week, all collected together for you... There was a pleasing variety of own goals across Europe this weekend, with players getting into the gift-giving spirit. Note the determination...
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Friday 12 December 2008, 15:00
"And now, the end is near..." We've reached the end of FFT.com's best 50 football books ever, dear reader, and hope we've helped you sort the wheat from the chaff of the oodles of footy-based books out there at your disposal. If...
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Friday 12 December 2008, 13:00
As the nights draw in, the weather becomes ever more bitterly cold and the neon-yellow ball comes out, we console ourselves with the knowledge that a season of much joy is almost upon us A season when some splurge semi-recklessly, while others scrimp...
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Friday 12 December 2008, 10:00
HANDY READ! FFT.com's round-up of the best pieces in this morning's press Times are tough for last season's European champions. Naughty Wayne's stamping his feet again, they've all got to schlepp over to Japan for FIFA's World...
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Thursday 11 December 2008, 15:00
Come one, come all to the penultimate part of FFT.com's best 50 football books ever. If you missed numbers 50 to 41, they're here , while 40-31 can be found here and 30-21 here . Scroll down for your next helping of literary delights... 20 Dynamo...
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Wednesday 10 December 2008, 16:00
Hello and welcome to the third installment of FFT.com's best 50 football books ever. If you missed numbers 50 to 41, they're here , while 40-31 can be found here . Read on for the next batch... 30 Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life Alex Bellos...
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Tuesday 09 December 2008, 15:00
Welcome to Chapter Two of our rundown of the best 50 football books ever. If you missed numbers 50 to 41, they're here . Or read on for more... 40 Walking On Water Brian Clough 2002 There are some familiar tunes in Walking on Water . Cloughie rants...
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Monday 08 December 2008, 15:30
Stuck for a book this Christmas? Don't buy a cash-in autobiography just because you know the player. FourFourTwo assembled a panel of experts – including several writers – to vote on the best 50 football books of all time, and over the course of this...
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Monday 08 December 2008, 15:00
Let's be honest: bar the cracker at Goodison, this was hardly an enthralling weekend of Premier League action. Here's how we rated the 18 teams that played on Saturday and Sunday in terms of performance, result and entertainment: Chelsea – 8.0...
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Friday 05 December 2008, 15:30
VIDEO STARS OF THE WEEK: FFT.com brings you the finest and funniest action from the past seven days. Starting, of course, with own goals... OGGY OGGY OGGY When Brian Clough said it only takes a second to score a goal, he could have added that the same...
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Friday 05 December 2008, 13:00
Imagine the frustration if you can. You start to craft the Premier League preview blog for this weekend’s fixtures, and at the forefront of your mind is the return of one Royston Q. Keane to his spiritual home where, if last weekend’s performance at home...
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Friday 05 December 2008, 08:00
You might not have noticed, but Roy Keane has left Sunderland. Predictably, plenty of paper acres have been devoted to discussion of it this morning. Unusually, much of the result is readable. First, the hard news. The Telegraph 's Rob Stewart says...
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Thursday 04 December 2008, 15:00
Another year passes, giving us time to look back on the highs and the lows, the good and the bad, and all the terrifically exciting things you’ve missed out on over the past 12 months which you just can’t remedy. Whether it’s the Led Zeppelin reunion...
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Monday 01 December 2008, 10:00
HANDY READ! FFT.com's round-up of the best football columns to while away the minutes "What is truly important is being happy now. I know I haven’t given 100 per cent physically or mentally to this game. At best, I gave 50 per cent. Maybe a tiny...
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Friday 28 November 2008, 13:00
VIDEO ROUND-UP! FFT.com's digest of the week's best – and funniest – action... We know what you like. You're human, so you like to see other people's misfortune. And if Mel Brooks was right when he said "Tragedy is when I cut my finger;...
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Friday 28 November 2008, 12:00
If the year 2008 is remembered for anything, it won’t be for that US Election caper, Gordon Brown knocking over the economy and then fixing it with gaffer tape or even Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand insulting that little Spanish waiter chap. It will...
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Friday 28 November 2008, 09:00
Handy Read! FFT digests the best of the morning's newspaper articles for your pleasure... Who'd be a Chelsea fan? It must be terrible being top of the league, managed by a World Cup winner and owned by someone richer than God. However, after a...
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Tuesday 25 November 2008, 08:00
FourFourTwo's Deputy Editor Matthew Weiner on the new chief Gunner... So Cesc is captain. It’s everything that Arsenal fans dreamed of, isn’t it? The Gunners’ one genuine world-class player, talisman and altogether good egg is now the club’s statesman...
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Monday 24 November 2008, 11:00
Handy Read! FFT.com presents the best of the weekend's football writing. Your opinions are welcome... So Tottenham are out of the bottom three, and jubilation reigns across half of North London as Harry Redknapp helps Spurs fans out of the gutter...
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Friday 21 November 2008, 16:30
Because the draw for the 2009 Confederations Cup is held tomorrow in South Africa, we've been sent this photograph. Because it's Friday afternoon and to us that counts as the weekend, we wondered if you fancied writing a caption for this. There's...
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Friday 21 November 2008, 13:30
FourFourTwo.com would like to begin this week’s blog by apologising on behalf of our newspaper, radio and television cousins, following an almighty storm of hysteria that, frankly, saw them get a bit over-excited about John Terry . Ironically, in a week...
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Wednesday 19 November 2008, 19:00
We know the folks over at the BBC work incredibly hard across a startling array of media outlets. We love the majority of what they do for football. And we're painfully aware of how mistakes can happen when you're trying to bring news 24 hours...
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Friday 14 November 2008, 12:30
If life is like a box of chocolates, then football is like an aircraft hanger full of chocolate-coated random number generators - frankly, nobody has a sodding clue what’s going to happen next. No sooner had Didier Drogba doled out parking-meter change...
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Thursday 13 November 2008, 10:00
Anyone who's watched young siblings fight will know that when there's a squabble, nobody wins. There's anger, there's often violence, then there are tears and recriminations, then a stilted truce and a fractured peace which never quite...
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Tuesday 11 November 2008, 10:00
FourFourTwo 's trip to South Africa with the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK is imminent and we're afraid there's good news and bad. The bad news is that FourFourTwo 's hopes of sharing a tent with Leoline-haired former Newcastle...
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Friday 07 November 2008, 17:00
FFT.com's Ben Welch reflects on some absentees from the Best Players In The World list ... Between them they have collected 196 international caps and scored 57 goals, but neither of them could make FourFourTwo ’s list of the 100 Best Players In The...
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Friday 07 November 2008, 16:00
Desperate times, as they say, call for desperate measures. Unless, of course, you’re Arsene Wenger, in which case desperate times call for a whole bucket-load of whinging. This week Professor Yaffle has claimed that opposition players were intentionally...
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Friday 07 November 2008, 09:00
This week we’re having a look at the progress being made by the Premier League’s great and good, using information provided to us by our friends at Catalyst, using their PowerTable . On Monday we looked at the ‘Tier 4’ sides and on Tuesday we assessed...
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Thursday 06 November 2008, 14:17
There's been but one issue discussed around water coolers, on radio phone-ins and on internet messageboards worldwide this week - the 2008 incarnation of FourFourTwo ’s Top 100 Players in the World . As we’re sure many of you will be aware, our December...
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Wednesday 05 November 2008, 16:00
Using Catalyst’s PowerTable , we're analysing how each Premier League side has started the season, comparing their performance in the first 11 matches to the first 11 of last season and trying to gauge where they'll be come May. Following on from...
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Wednesday 05 November 2008, 00:00
Ronaldo, Messi, Torres, Casillas, Kaka, Villa, Ibrahimovic, Aguero, Ferdinand, Gerrard. No, it's not Man City's January shopping list: it's our Top 10, the FourFourTwo verdict on the best players in the world in 2008. Anyone agree? No one...
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Tuesday 04 November 2008, 23:30
FFT.com's Gregg Davies checks in with another helping of life on tour with Chelsea Full-time score in Rome: 10-8. Not Tuesday night’s Champions League showdown between Chelsea and Roma; it was, in fact, the final score between Chelsea and England...
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Tuesday 04 November 2008, 16:12
As anyone who's been listening to our ramblings will know, we're very big fans of Catalyst's PowerTable here at FourFourTwo.com Towers (for a full explanation of the madcap world of the PowerTable, click here ). Now, using the multi-functional...
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Tuesday 04 November 2008, 15:00
If a week is a long time in football or politics, a year can seem an eternity. Last autumn, FourFourTwo magazine’s inaugural list of the 100 Best Players in the World was topped by Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite. A load of Kaka ? Not 12 months ago ...
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Tuesday 04 November 2008, 10:45
FFT's Gregg Davies cadges a luxurious lift with the league leaders Ever wondered what it’s like to live the life of a professional footballer? So did we, and luckily we’ve had the chance to find out, thanks to an invite on board Chelsea’s private...
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Saturday 01 November 2008, 12:00
Played the New Football Pools yet? Then what are you waiting for? All you need to do is take a peek at our list of high-profile matches taking place each weekend. You then choose a home win, an away win or a draw for each match. The more you get right...
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Friday 31 October 2008, 18:34
On Monday we passed on our pearls of football wisdom and explained to anyone that would listen (and indeed read) why Chelsea losing at home to Liverpool may just help their title bid . We say ‘our pearls’ but actually we had a bit of assistance from those...
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Friday 31 October 2008, 13:00
The bastardised political cliché is true: a week really is a long time in football. Last Friday, when FourFourTwo.com put its writing hat on and skilfully sculpted its Premier League Preview blog, the idea Liverpool could forge a serious title bid was...
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Wednesday 29 October 2008, 12:00
Until Phil Gartside’s dastardly plans come into fruition and the division is reduced to 18 teams, there is always going to be the need for a couple of midweek matchdays in the Premier League calendar. Traditionally we’re treated to one early doors, with...
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Monday 27 October 2008, 13:00
It might seem strange, given that Sunday’s defeat left them three points behind Liverpool with a quarter of the season played, but we reckon that Chelsea finally relinquishing their unbeaten home record might be a good thing for Luiz Felipe Scolari’s...
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Friday 24 October 2008, 15:00
It seems every season for the last 15 has been the season Liverpool will finally make a real push for the title. The fact of the matter is that since the Premier League started (which as any keen viewer of Sky Sports will tell you is where all football...
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Friday 17 October 2008, 13:00
Amidst all the darkness, misery and sombre montages of Spurs players looking pained (as seen every 15 minutes on Sky Sports News for the last week), there is at least one man who’s found time to raise a smile at Spurs current plight - former QPR ‘keeper...
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Friday 10 October 2008, 15:00
Last month FourFourTwo.com used our sister site FootballTalentSpotter.com to help advice England boss Fabio Capello who to pick in his squad for the away matches with Andorra and Croatia. Among the names we passed on in good faith were Swindon trio Jerel...
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Friday 03 October 2008, 15:00
It’s been a hectic old week here at FourFourTwo.com towers. Still reeling from Arsenal messing up our Footy15 coupon, we were further antagonised to learn that the website of a national newspaper had half-inched a large portion of our exclusive interview...
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Friday 26 September 2008, 13:30
Phew, what a week! Arsenal ’s youngsters murder Sheffield United (in a footballing sense, no need for ASBOs here), Brighton , who had days earlier lost to nine-man Walsall, beat the billionaires of Manchester City on penalties and Newcastle United slumped...
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Friday 19 September 2008, 13:30
Curse these European midweeks! No sooner have we returned from an annoyingly scheduled international break than we have a Premier League Saturday with just three 3pm kickoffs, thanks in no small part to the league having five participants in the UEFA...
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Thursday 18 September 2008, 16:00
It's not every day you get an e-mail from the widow of arguably England's greatest ever footballer saying she's looking forward to doing some digging with you. The lady in question was Stephanie Moore, as in Mrs Bobby, and she got in touch...
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Wednesday 17 September 2008, 16:00
In 2008, a hapless Kent football club was sent to League Two for football crimes they actually did commit. These men then promptly travelled to deepest, darkest Shropshire on Saturday afternoon. Today, still smarting from a 7-0 walloping from Shrewsbury...
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Monday 15 September 2008, 16:00
When Robinho’s delicately weighted free-kick hit the back of Petr Cech’s net on Saturday, albeit via the side of Mikel John Obi’s head, Man City’s fans must really have felt their much heralded new era was well underway. Sadly they were subsequently brought...
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Friday 12 September 2008, 12:00
Well, we didn’t see that one coming. No less than 12 days after we claimed that there was still an element of surprise left in the English game, the national team romp to a unexpected if not unwelcome victory in Zagreb. However all eyes have now quickly...
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Tuesday 09 September 2008, 17:00
Preston chairman Derek Shaw has confirmed the club are ready to enter negotiations to sell a share of the club to David Beckham. The statement was a reaction to comments made by Beckham in this month’s FourFourTwo (you just knew we had something to do...
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Monday 08 September 2008, 17:00
If European football’s elite are good for anything, it’s ensuring those at the pinnacle of the game get adequate recognition for their achievements. Bearing that in mind, it’s time to warmly welcome another inductee onto the ‘Goldenfoot Award Walk of...
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Friday 05 September 2008, 17:42
Bonkers old week in FFT world, what with the transfer deadline and Keegan leaving and Keegan coming back and Keegan leaving and Curbishley leaving and some blokes from Abu Dhabi arriving. We’ve barely had time to speak. But we have had time to listen...
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Friday 05 September 2008, 13:00
Earlier in the week FourFourTwo.com was able to exclusively reveal the deciding factor in Fabio Capello’s decision to include Jimmy Bullard in his squad for Saturday’s game with Andorra and Wednesday night’s crucial clash in Croatia. However, on further...
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Tuesday 02 September 2008, 20:00
Everton and Spurs have long been touted as the two teams most likely to eventually break up the quartopoly (if this isn’t a real word it should be) of Man United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, but have Man City overtaken them as the team most likely...
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Tuesday 02 September 2008, 16:00
If a week is a long time in politics, a day’s an eternity in football. On Monday morning Manchester City were a club without a rudder and Newcastle were signing exotic foreigners; by Tuesday lunchtime City were as rich as Midas and the Toon were once...
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Tuesday 02 September 2008, 10:00
What better way to spend a Monday than eagerly watching the likes of lovable Scottish ‘cheeky chappie’ Jim White and his fellow sports news presenters aimlessly stumble their way through a whole raft of tedious transfer rumours and tittle-tattle in? Cutting...
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Monday 01 September 2008, 13:00
Tucked away tightly between a high-scoring weekend of Premier League action and an almost certainly equally frantic transfer deadline day, Fabio Capello last night named his first competitive England squad. While the omission of Michael Owen has been...
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Monday 01 September 2008, 12:00
THE POWERTABLE It may sound like one of those Black & Decker DIY gizmos your dad used to get at Christmas, but the PowerTable is the result of extensive number crunching by Catalyst (a Hertfordshire management consultancy), an index of stats from...
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Friday 29 August 2008, 15:41
Ignore what the miserable old naysayers on other football websites tell you about the Premier League becoming predictable and ‘stale’; the element of surprise in English football is still alive and well, as was proven by last weekend’s results. This honestly...
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Wednesday 27 August 2008, 19:00
One of the many things we do for you, gentle reader, is to wade through magnificently dull press releases in search of nuggets, like truffle pigs of the truth. So when an email arrived with a small electronic 'ping' from Pricewaterhouse Coopers...
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Friday 22 August 2008, 15:00
Here we are then, the business end of the season. With Stoke all but relegated, Manchester United out of the title race and Spurs with no chance of making the top four, there doesn’t seem much left to play for. This is, of course, a load of chuffing bobbins...
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Wednesday 20 August 2008, 15:30
A thought struck the other night, while watching Ashley Young . What happens when he turns 30, and can’t be described – in football terms – as Young any more? It’s a real concern to team-mate Luke Young , who hits the big Three-Oh next summer. Although...
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Sunday 17 August 2008, 18:43
The 2008/09 season is well and truly underway. But which players are the form horses and who are the carthorses? Some players are off to fliers with their new clubs: Deco scored a belter for Chelsea , Samir Nasri bagged Arsenal 's winner and Johan...
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Friday 01 August 2008, 14:44
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Friday 18 July 2008, 15:09
There are very few of us blessed with the natural talent to fulfil our boyhood dreams and grace the pro ranks. Even fewer manage to graduate from the dog poo littered fields of park football to the professional game. But, in an act of lunacy, Swindon...
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Monday 30 June 2008, 11:51
By FourFourTwo's guest columnist, Tim Stannard of La Liga Loca When La Liga Loca was woken on Sunday by the sound of car horns and honking hooters (not those kind), it thought for one horrified moment that it had overslept by a good 12 hours. After...
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Friday 27 June 2008, 12:57
By FourFourTwo's guest columnist, Tim Stannard of La Liga Loca In an event that stunned string-theory scientists and had soothsayers gloomily picking through entrails with warnings of an imminent End of Days, Spain went through to the final of a major...
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Monday 23 June 2008, 11:46
By FourFourTwo's guest columnist, Tim Stannard of La Liga Loca If Cesc Fabregas wasn’t the Spaniard with the biggest pair of cojones you’ve ever seen on Sunday night, then it was the nut job your correspondent witnessed weaving his way through the...
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Monday 23 June 2008, 09:33
By FourFourTwo guest columnist Riccardo Rossi of Serie Aaaaargh! Not since Rudi Voeller and Frank Rijkaard had their little spat (or spit) at Italia 90 have we seen such a dodgy moustache in a major tournament. Not content with failing to score in four...
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Friday 20 June 2008, 13:49
By FourFourTwo's guest columnist, Tim Stannard of La Liga Loca Spain manager, Luis Aragonés has been accused of being almost everything imaginable during his four year spell in charge of La Furia Roja - incompetent, racist, out of touch, rude, bewildered...
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Wednesday 18 June 2008, 11:34
By FourFourTwo guest columnist Riccardo Rossi of Serie Aaaaargh! From utter despair and grumblings of a fix, to joy unabated: Italy in a nutshell. Wednesday dawned bright and warm right across the peninsula and the local cafes were handing out free croissants...
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Monday 16 June 2008, 16:00
By FourFourTwo's guest columnist, Tim Stannard of La Liga Loca Two years ago in the hot hot heat of Spain's doomed World Cup campaign, Marca ran a headline ahead of their second round clash with France warning Zinedine Zidane that Aragones'...
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Monday 16 June 2008, 00:03
NOW it’s a tournament. The true measure of quality of these biennial gatherings lies not in the major games or high-profile clashes, but in the surprisingly good offerings on the undercard. Presumably Turkey versus the Czech Republic wasn’t a source of...
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Thursday 12 June 2008, 11:55
By FourFourTwo guest columnist Riccardo Rossi of Serie Aaaaargh! The writing may not yet be on the wall, but it certainly has been in the text messages reportedly coming out of the Italy camp on the back of the defeat to Holland . According to La Gazzetta...
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Wednesday 11 June 2008, 12:53
By FourFourTwo's guest columnist, Tim Stannard of La Liga Loca When Valencia's sulky striker David Villa popped in his third effort in Spain's roasting of Russia, La Liga Loca got a cheeky SMS from a lucky punter at the game suggesting that...
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Wednesday 28 May 2008, 12:49
Emotionally drained. Physically battered. Frankly, finding it hard to care less after a tiring season giving everything for their clubs. And that's just the fans. The end of the domestic season has been marked with the usual commiserations, celebrations...
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Friday 02 May 2008, 12:01
"Who is best foreigner to have played in England other than myself? No, sorry, I can’t think of anyone better than me. Only joking. There are so many. I couldn’t pick one." Gianfranco Zola may not want to put his neck on the line, but here at...
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Tuesday 25 March 2008, 15:54
Part of a 'captaincy rotation' policy or not, Fabio Capello's decision to give Rio Ferdinand the armband against France in Paris is a key moment in the career of the player allegedly dubbed 'Merkington Bear' by his Manchester United...
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Monday 10 March 2008, 17:58
Football hostilities – on and off the pitch - in the Colombian city of Cali reached a new low on Saturday night as a mass riot during the heated derby match between America de Cali and Deportivo Cali forced the game’s abandonment. Around 60 people were...
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Wednesday 05 March 2008, 14:17
Over the last decade, Arsenal fans have grown fond of saying that Arsene Knows. Admittedly, the phrase loses currency when the Gunners get ‘tatered at White Hart Lane or Old Trafford, but when Arsenal get it right on the pitch it’s seen as evidence of...
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Monday 18 February 2008, 14:32
Donald Trump’s $2.9 billion fortune may have failed to fund a convincing hairpiece, but the American businessman isn’t short of wisdom that the average football supporter – and chairman – could learn from. “It’s been said that I believe in the power of...
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Tuesday 12 February 2008, 17:12
"Money, money, money, must be funny, in a rich man’s world". Working at FourFourTwo, we’re in no position to confirm Abba’s assertion that a large wedge leads to lifetime of hilarity. But if the once-mighty Swedish popsters are to be believed...
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Thursday 07 February 2008, 19:19
"All clubs are equal. But some clubs are more equal than others." That, sadly, could be the motto of the Premier League in recent years. The gradual erosion of competition via uneven division of gate receipts and increased television revenues...
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Thursday 07 February 2008, 12:10
“What do you mean David Beckham’s not playing?” It seems like dad had waited until the last possible minute – namely, the Tube ride to Wembley – to break the news to his (roughly) 10-year-old son that the reason they were here – to see Goldenballs reach...
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Thursday 07 February 2008, 10:22
Welcome one and all to the new FourFourTwo.com – at last (we hope) a website to complement FourFourTwo , the best football magazine in the whole wide world. Whether you’re a returning regular, one of our loyal magazine subscribers or a curious bod just...
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