FourFourTwo's Inside Track

It Was a Bad Season For…

Simon Carter — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:07:00 GMT

It Was a Bad Season For…

High Expectations Dashed
Football wouldn’t be football without broken hearts and shattered dreams. That’s the problem with high expectations: there’s only one way they can go. If that seems like a slightly downhearted way to start a season review, ask Roberto Mancini for his take on inflated expectations.

For some, the inevitable pain arrived mercifully quick. Queens Park Rangers ended last season hanging onto survival by their fingernails, but after a summer of spending under the respected manager Mark Hughes, 2012/13 was expected to be start a lot brighter than the previous term's opening 4-0 home defeat to Bolton. Instead, QPR started with a 5-0 home defeat to Swansea. And then got worse.

But Rangers' relegation wasn’t a total surprise – not in the way that, say, Wolves’ demotion to League One was. Widely tipped for promotion at the start of the season, the Midlands club endured a miserable campaign that will have had fans almost wishing for the return of Terry Connor. Almost.

Elsewhere, the likes of Middlesbrough in the Championship and Tranmere Rovers in League One teased their supporters with lightning starts to the season before dropping like Gareth Bale as the season wore on. Both sides ended the campaign marooned in mid-table and will spend the summer trying to convince those fans to reinvest in season tickets for more of the same next time.

But it’s not just clubs who can let you down: players and managers can, too. We all expected more from Wayne Rooney this year than sulky performances and transfer requests and there can’t be many football fans that weren’t disappointed to see James McClean, Grant Holt and Adam Lallana mostly fail to deliver.

Though Robertos Mancini and Di Matteo can count themselves the unlucky victims of high expectations, Harry Redknapp raised expectations himself at QPR before suffering a reality check, while Paul Dickov struggled to match cup success with league form, and Michael Appleton's moves enhanced then ruined his reputation.

Low Expectations Realised
Expectations. Who’d have them? Is it worse to hope for better, only to have your dreams trampled on by 11 sets of studs? Or is it preferable to expect the worst, so that the blow is softened when it eventually does happen?

You could start by asking Barnet supporters how it feels to return to the Conference after three years of dodging the drop (or Wigan fans, come to think of it). You could also ask Portsmouth fans, expecting a rough ride after financial woes, what it’s like to be relegated for a second consecutive season or the Liverpool faithful who feared they’d end the season behind Everton and that Luis Suarez wouldn’t be able to behave himself.

Premier League watchers have learned to expect little in the way of entertainment from Stoke City side and suffice it to say that 33 goals in 38 games (with 14 draws along the way) tells its own story – as does Pulis's subsequent exit.

Throughout the leagues, low expectations were met as the likes of Peterborough, Hartlepool, Bury, Bristol City, Barnsley, and Dagenham & Redbridge all struggled throughout the entire campaign. For most of that group, the season ended with relegation which should do nothing if not raise expectations for next year.

The Player
As far as alternative awards go, the FourFourTwo Bad Weekend awards aren't quite up there with the Razzies, but there was still a fiercely fought contest in each category.

From the hundreds of players across the four divisions, a case can be made any number of people – from Leicester City’s Anthony Knockaert, whose season's work will be remembered for just one penalty, to Jamie Cureton, whose fabulous season ended in disappointment when Exeter's failure to reach the play-offs cost him perhaps his last chance of playing in the third tier.

But narrowing down the nominees to just three meant harsh cuts, and it's in the Premier League where the spotlight burns brightest and bad seasons are laid bare.

In third place is Danny Graham. He started the season shivering in the shadow of Michu, who burst into Swansea's team with an opening-day brace and never looked back. Nor did Graham, who disappeared off to Sunderland in January for £5m. As a Geordie on Wearside, Graham was always going to struggle to ingratiate himself to fans but could have done so with goals, goals, goals. Twelve games in, he’s still to score.

Second place goes to Luis Suarez, who undid months of reputation-building with one chomp of Branislav Ivanovic’s arm. The Uruguayan scored 30 goals in all competitions for Liverpool before his on-pitch snack ended his season and worse was to come as his side proved that they don’t necessarily need him, racing to a 6-0 win over Newcastle in their next game before Daniel Sturridge netted a hat-trick at Fulham last week.

But the award has to go to Scott Sinclair, whose first season at Manchester City has gone from bad to progressively worse. Labelled a mercenary for leaving regular football Swansea for the champions’ bench, Sinclair has been limited to just three starts for the Citizens and become very much the forgotten man of the Premier League. Early this month, Sinclair had surgery on his shoulder, ruling him out of the FA Cup Final and the rest of the season. Nobody noticed.

The Manager
There has to be a place on this list for Stale Solbakken, who arrived in Wolverhampton with an impressive CV, having won five league titles with FC Copenhagen (oh, and overseeing the majority of Cologne’s recent relegation campaign). Solbakken’s record at Wolves wasn’t terrible – compared to Dean Saunders’ – but FA Cup elimination to non-league Luton proved to be the final straw after just five months in charge.

That was a relatively good campaign when compared with that of Michael Appleton. Appleton started the season at Portsmouth, wrestling semi-decent results out of a dispirited and depleted squad of players. With reputation burgeoning, Appleton moved in November to Blackpool where, after winning just two of 12 games in 65 days, he attracted much criticism for switching to Blackburn Rovers. After 67 days in charge at Ewood, Appleton was shown the door.

But the joint winners of this award are Mark Hughes and Harry Redknapp, both of QPR. It was Hughes who oversaw the disastrous start to the season which saw Rangers sink to the bottom of the Premier League. Calls for Hughes’ head, while never reaching the decibels of the jeers directed at Steve Kean or Rafa Benitez this season, reached such volume that eventually Tony Fernandes has no option to fire him. Or did he? Fernandes admitted later that Hughes had only been fired because Redknapp was making noises about taking over Ukraine, forcing the QPR head into action.

With six months of the season remaining, Redknapp should have been able to save QPR but despite the odd decent result, the media darling has led the side to the Championship with the lowest win percentage of any manager in Rangers' Premier League history. Well done ‘arry.

The Team
Aldershot Town can lay claim to having the worst season of all 92 clubs, after turning a top-half 2011/12 League Two finish into a campaign that ended with them propping up the Football League – despite a pre-season visit to the EBB Stadium by the Dalai Lama. But the Shots were just the unlucky losers in an amazing League Two relegation battle that saw seven teams scrapping for safety on the last day.

Aston Villa, Wolves, QPR, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough have all appeared regularly in Bad Weekend this season, with Villa at one point being so at home here that they'd applied for planning permission to build a conservatory.

But all of those pale into comparison with the one and only Blackburn Rovers.

Rovers aren't so much a car crash waiting to happen as a car crash that just keeps on happening. Ever since being bought by the clearly bonkers Venky’s a few years ago, the former Premier League champions have been turned into a laughing stock. Whether it's the ridiculous turkey commercials, the 2010 sacking of Sam Allardyce or the hapless relegation under Steve Kean last season, Rovers went into this term as something of a joke club.

Which wasn’t helped when Venky’s eventually lost patience with manager Kean, just when things were going well. Third in the league with only one defeat to their name, Blackburn were riding high when Venky’s gave into fans’ demands and replaced him with Henning Berg.

But Berg was a disaster, leading Rovers to just one win in 10 games before being sacked and replaced with Michael Appleton. Appleton’s failure has been noted above so the season was played out with Gary Bowyer at the helm guiding the side to 17th in the table, four points above the relegation zone. Who knows what would have happened had Jordan Rhodes not been around.

The hope for Blackburn fans must be that the owners take their time to appoint the right man to guide a still talented squad into promotion contention next season. Unfortunately, in the two and a half years since Venky’s bought the club, they haven’t done a single thing to suggest that might be the case. Maybe they’ll bring Kean back.

But Bad Seasons aside, there’s no doubting one thing: we all loved it.

Video: A plastic pitch, a comedy own goal and an amazing comeback - the last top-flight 5-5

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:09:00 GMT

FourFourTwo.com editor Gary Pakinson recalls the last time two top-flight English teams evenly shared ten goals

Chris Waddle leaps over Peter Hucker after giving Newcastle a 2-0 lead

The unavoidably Orwellian year of 1984 was not a happy time in the UK. The Miners' Strike was bitterly dividing the country, WPc Yvonne Fletcher had been shot dead outside the Libyan Embassy, Euro 84 had passed without British involvement, controversially fast-tracked distance runner Zola Budd did nothing at the LA Olympics apart from leg up Mary Decker, the IRA were close to success with the Brighton bombing of the Conservative party conference and the 1984/85 football season would end in the far-reaching misery of Bradford and Heysel.

Not all of this was clear on 22 September 1984, when 14,234 gathered at Loftus Road to watch QPR host Newcastle in what would turn out to be the last 10-goal draw in England's top flight until the final game of Alex Ferguson, then a mere OBE and still manager at Aberdeen.

Six games into the 1984/85 season, QPR were down in 13th but only two points off top spot, despite having lost 5-0 the previous week at Tottenham. Jack Charlton's Newcastle, back in the top flight after six years, had also lost their previous away game 5-0, at the hands of Ron Atkinson's Manchester United; their next trip was to QPR's controversial Omniturf artificial surface.

But the pitch wasn't a problem for the Geordies as they went into an early lead through a far-post header from Neil McDonald, their former apprentice (and currently Sam Allardyce's assistant manager at West Ham).

Enter Chris Waddle. Another local lad made good, the lanky winger swept in a 25-minute hat-trick to put the visitors 4-0 up at half-time, when the ecstatic visiting fans serenaded the Loftus Road locals with songs about how much they loved the plastic pitch.

Meanwhile in the home dressing room, Alan Mullery had a problem. The former Palace boss had only arrived in June, during a summer of upheaval at Loftus Road. Under Terry Venables QPR had finished fifth the previous season, qualifying for the UEFA Cup, but Venables had then switched to Barcelona. Rangers had replaced the newly-christened 'El Tel' with Gordon Jago, but had sacked him a week later after a player rebellion led by captain Terry Fenwick, who had threatened to leave the club.

Mullery was appointed instead and Fenwick stayed, but leading striker and new England cap Clive Allen had walked away. Having refused to sign a contract extension under Venables, saying that he wanted to broaden his horizons by playing abroad, Allen had joined Spurs for £750,000.

And now, less than a month into the season, Mullery's men had conceded nine goals in a game and a half. Under pressure, Mullery played his only card in the days of single substitutions, bringing on Ian Stewart for Mike Fillery.

Stewart may not be recalled among the ranks of famous supersubs but the switch – and Mullery's half-time team-talk – worked wonders. Gary Bannister, who had been signed from Sheffield Wednesday to replace Allen (but only after QPR had failed to land West Brom's Cyrille Regis and Birmingham's Mick Harford), started the comeback in the 49th minute.

Then came one of the finest own goals you're likely to witness. As Newcastle defenders scrambled to clear the ball, Peter Haddock succeeded only in hoofing the ball off team-mate Kenny Wharton's face and into the far corner for 4-2. Comedy gold, and more hope for the Hoops.

With just over 15 minutes left to play, experienced midfielder (and future manager of QPR, among assorted other clubs around the globe) John Gregory raced cleared of the defence and skilfully lobbed goalkeeper Kevin Carr to make it 4-3.

The Rs desperately sought an equaliser, but as is often the case they left the back door open and Wharton wandered unmarked into the six-yard box to make it 5-3 with six minutes to go. Surely that was the end of the great comeback?

As you obviously know by now, no it wasn't. Towering centre-back Steve Wicks looped home a far-post header on 86 minutes before an injury-time equaliser from 5ft 7in midfielder Gary Micklewhite lifted the Loftus roof.

The post-match press conference was heavy on the cardiac references. "These kind of games are great for the fans but they give managers heart attacks," said Mullery. "We needed a miracle in the second half and we got it."

Jack Charlton was understandably less jovial, describing it as "a total embarrassment, absolutely diabolical. I have never seen anything like it in my 32 years in the game. I went mad at the players because there were times when they were going to give me a heart attack. They just stopped playing.

Charlton was barely a month into the job, having replaced Arthur Cox, who had resigned when the board refused to improve his contract despite the Magpies' impressive promotion. And Charlton was scathing about the club he had walked into: "There are so many things wrong at Newcastle it is incredible. People are asking me where I intend to start with the problems, but I just don't know. It will take years to put right. Some of the players couldn't even breathe in the second half. I don't know where they got their education from before, but, believe me they'll get it from me in the months to come."

Indeed, the draw at Loftus Road was the start of an eight-game unbeaten run for Newcastle, but the majority were draws and the former Middlesbrough manager's less than scintillating football never captured Geordie hearts. He resigned the following summer, and Newcastle spent the rest of the 1980s bobbing about in mid-table before relegation and rebirth in the 1990s.

Mullery didn't even make it to Christmas. He was sacked less than six months after arriving at QPR, later claiming that the "moaning, groaning" players "treated me, themselves and their profession with contempt". In a neat twist to the Newcastle result, Rangers had gone out of the UEFA Cup to Partizan Belgrade despite winning the home leg 6-2, becoming one of only three teams in the history of European competition to lose a four-goal first-leg lead.

QPR Peter Hucker, Warren Neil, Steve Wicks, Terry Fenwick, Ian Dawes, Gary Micklewhite, John Gregory, Wayne Fereday, Mike Fillery, Simon Stainrod, Gary Bannister. Sub: Ian Stewart (Fillery, HT). Manager: Alan Mullery.

Newcastle Kevin Carr, Malcolm Brown, Wesley Saunders, Glenn Roeder, John Anderson, Peter Haddock, Neil McDonald, David McCreery, Kenny Wharton, Peter Beardsley, Chris Waddle. Manager: Jack Charlton.

Nine other 5-5 draws...
Manchester United 5-5 Lincoln City (Division Two - 16 November 1895)
USSR 5-5 Yugoslavia (Olympic First Round - 20 July 1952)
Tottenham Hotspur 5-5 Aston Villa (Division One - 19 March 1966)
Chelsea 5-5 West Ham United (Division One - 17 December 1966)
Ghana 5-5 Ivory Coast (CSSA Nations Cup - 15 February 1982)
Southampton 5-5 Coventry City (Division One - 4 May 1982)
Netherlands 5-5 Belgium (Friendly - 4 September 1999)
Lyon 5-5 Marseille (Ligue 1 - 8 November 2009)
Chesterfield 5-5 Crewe (League Two - 2 October 2010)

The Joy of Becks (and Fergie and Scholes): Life based on a love of football

Gary Parkinson — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:02:00 GMT

Eras, and specifically the end of them, are declared too often in football. Those of us old enough to remember the 1980s will recall complaints about the lack of characters in the game "these days", as if Mario Balotelli would never exist. But there is certainly something fin-de-siecle about a week which has seen the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson, Paul Scholes and David Beckham.

The young Scholes and Beckham grew up in a 1980s chiming with the Thatcherite mantra of opportunity through self-improvement, and although it's a comparison the former shipyard socialist Ferguson may view with dismay it's also one he embedded in the failing Manchester United he took over in 1986. But unlike so much of that decade, there is a great joy in Beckham, Scholes and Ferguson.

Although each man in his own way came to symbolise much more, at the heart of all three is a love of football. For all his gruff demeanour and prickly provocation, Ferguson celebrated every goal his team scored with childlike glee, jumping in the air or clapping maniacally. At the centre of the slick Brand Beckham machine was the small boy who had practised his kicking technique for unimaginable hours alone. And the legendarily undemonstrative nature hid Scholes' one true passion: playing football.

The three were very different in many ways – try imagining Paul Scholes walking up the red carpet with Tom Cruise – but were (ahem) united in their desire to triumph in style. Few managers can have had Ferguson's immense will to win while retaining the equally insistent demand to entertain. The Scotsman mentioned it repeatedly, insisting his teams live up to the legacy of what he habitually referred to as "this great club".

That desire drove Fergie on: there's always the next game, the next campaign, the next necessary victory. "Winning a trophy doesn’t really mean anything to me after it’s gone," he once told FFT. "At the time it’s the most cherished thing. But as soon as it’s over, it’s soon forgotten. Well, not soon forgotten, but it evaporates. Your next step is the important one, and the mentality here is of that nature. The players are brought up, as soon as they succeed, to go for the next thing.’

INTERVIEW Alex Ferguson

Although Beckham quickly became acutely aware of his image, it never stopped him putting in the hard yards on the training ground. Not many people can get Fabio Capello to admit he was wrong, but the Italian would eventually concede that dropping the MLS-bound Beckham from the Real Madrid team was a mistake. Reinstated, the Englishman helped inspire Madrid to the title – and a late doomed bid by the Bernabeu bigwigs to cancel the Stateside transfer.

In many ways, Scholes was cut from very different cloth. (In fact, one magazine surveyed its readers to ask which of the two players they identified with, and went so far as to claim that those who admire Beckham were "reading the wrong magazine".) Scholes couldn't abide the sort of circus that surrounded Beckham – this is a man who told FourFourTwo that "I don’t think I’ve ever acted big-time. I could never jump to the front of a queue or anything like that: I'd be too embarrassed."

But he shared Beckham's love of the game. Playing alongside his England colleague at the end of the last century, with Ryan Giggs and Roy Keane in one of the finest midfield quartets English football has ever seen, Scholes delighted in the joie de jouer: "We had a different attitude… We just went out to score more goals than the other team, home or away, and I loved being a part of that."

ONE-ON-ONE Paul Scholes

That craving for goals, games and glory can manifest itself in different ways. And it's very hard to shake. Having retired too early for a player whose game was based on intelligent reading, Scholes couldn't resist returning to Old Trafford, his only footballing home, for more.
Beckham, by contrast, circled the globe in search of new footballing adventures – but again, couldn't get enough. Moving to the MLS's March-to-November season gave him a chance to play for Milan. These loan moves, derided by dullards as money-making shopping trips for the wife, displayed a clear desire to play 12 months per year, if at all possible: Beckham was like the kid who couldn't say no when his mates asked him out for a game.

And if Beckham was trying to prove his fitness and form for England, what's wrong with that? Unlike many of his generation – including, it has to be said, a few clubmates – he has never announced his international retirement. Even when Capello, having picked Beckham for 16 of the 21 England games for which he was available, dropped the 35-year-old as part of an evidently necessary rejuvenation after the 2010 World Cup, a spokesman said "He will always be available for his country, when fit and if needed he will be there".

It seems that Beckham's career is frequently to be judged on England's performances. If that career is consequently to be seen as somehow a failure, then it is partly to do with the expectations placed upon England during his international career, which lasted from the heightened hopes of the immediate post-Euro 96 era to the dashed dreams of South Africa 2010. If England didn't satisfy public demand during the tournaments he appeared in, then it can hardly be blamed solely on Beckham, despite the 1998 red card and subsequent vilification he fought so hard to overcome: he scored at all three World Cups and contributed assists at both Euros.

From the bellowed anthem on in, Beckham never hid his love of playing for his country, and to many he will be remembered in an England shirt rather than the colours of Manchester United, Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, Milan or PSG, clubs for whom he amassed 20 trophies. Perhaps that's because Beckham was somehow supra-club, public property. Perhaps it's because he moved restlessly around in search of football. He was always the boy knocking on your front door, holding a ball and asking if you wanted a game.

"I still look at myself and want to improve things," he told FFT. "I’ve done a lot of things and won a lot in my career, I’ve been England captain, played for Man United, played for Real Madrid, but there wasn't any point when I sat back and thought 'I've made it' because I had always had my dad telling me: 'You haven’t made it yet. You've played 100 games for Man United but you still haven’t made it.' That was the thing about being at a club like Man United: we were brought up to believe that until you retire you don’t look back on your career and think of what you’ve done or the fact that you’ve made it. Until then, until you retire, you’re always trying to better yourself."

ONE ON ONE David Beckham

It's a drive to succeed, for sure, but also to entertain and have fun. Anyone who has ever taken a ball onto a field and marvelled at the possibilities will empathise with that. And while we shouldn't pretend that Their Likes Will Never Be Seen Again – plenty of young modern players and managers exhibit the same love of the game – let's be honest and admit it, even the majority of us who aren't United fans: they will be missed.

What the stars told FourFourTwo about David Beckham

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:09:00 GMT

We've interviewed a fair few people down the years, and the subject of Mr Beckham has come up more than a couple of times.

Here are some our favourites anecdotes, tributes and passing mentions...

Becks meets Mr Mandela (left), who has never been interviewed by FFT

SVEN-GORAN ERIKSSON unsurprisingly names Becks in his dream team
"A great captain for me and an inspiration to everyone. His right foot was – and still is – outstanding, while his crossing and set-pieces were the best I’ve seen. A great person as well."

ROBERTO CARLOS responds to being asked if he was upset about not being the best-looking man in Madrid after Becks' arrival
"Yes, very upset. That really annoyed me. Boy, did it annoy me! [Cooing] David is guapííííííííííííííííííííííísimo [unbelievably good-looking]. He's very good-looking, very, very, very handsome, it's amazing, incredible! I'm delighted that Victoria's been lucky enough to meet a guy like David, that they have such a nice family and that people admire him and respect him so much all over the world."

GLENN HODDLE on Beckham's mental state during France 98
"I didn’t feel he was focused enough [to play in the first game against Tunisia], I really didn’t. There were lots of things happening. And when someone does something like that [the kick that brought the red card against Argentina] it shows you’re not focused, you just don’t do that, what are you going to gain? So there is a good possibility there is a link between the two situations. However, I still say it was a diabolical decision to send David off. It was a booking, not a sending off. The referee crucified us there."

MELANIE C on that same World Cup red card
"We were watching the game in a bar in New York and we couldn’t believe it. It was a very difficult time because Victoria was really worried and you couldn’t hide from it, it was everywhere. It impacted on the band a bit too. We were thousands of miles away from home and we were getting all this attention over it. But we all stuck together. We all felt really protective over David."

GEORGE BEST on the Giggs/Beckhan debate
"Ryan Giggs because he is more exciting on the ball. Giggs gets me on the edge of my seat when he runs at defenders. David is a great player, you’d have to be mad to think otherwise, but I think he could do even better. He could score more goals for instance, and use his left foot more, but I suppose he doesn’t really need it."

DARREN CURRIE talks Beckham's real legacy...
"When you think of footballers and tattoos you immediately think David Beckham and I’m not ashamed to say that he’s a guy I really admire and look up to. Becks has set the trend in terms of tattoos and has made it a million times more fashionable than it once was. He made a big statement with that angel on his back, likewise his children’s names, and a lot of people have followed suit."

MATTHEW LE TISSIER nominates Beckham for his Perfect XI
"I was in the England squad when he made his debut against Moldova in 1996 and while his work-rate is phenomenal, I can safely say he's the best at set-pieces that I've seen by a mile. In that 6-3 game, he scored a superb free-kick bent into the top corner even though we had a man on the post. I just thought, "Oh my God"..."

RUSSELL BRAND on meeting Becks in LA
"When I was in LA I missed going to the games. I thought about going to the Galaxy. I met David Beckham when I was in LA and he said, ‘Come along.’ And I thought, ‘Yeah, I will go.’ He’s quite impressive in real life. It’s very difficult to distinguish what his natural persona is and what’s been bestowed upon him by his position, but he was good looking and nice, so when he mentioned going I thought about it, but I didn’t go in the end. It’s not the same as Upton Park, is it?"

SAMUEL ETO'O isn't worried about looks
"I don’t and I’ll say it again. I’m very happy with who I am. He is more handsome, but I am the better player."

LUIS FIGO on rumours he and Prince Dave didn't see eye-to-eye at Madrid
"It was something totally made up by the press. I laughed a lot at those stories. People wrote things without even knowing what’s happening in the dressing room. I’ve always had a great relationship with David. He’s a good person who is easy to deal with."

PAUL CHUCKLE (of Chuckle Brothers infamy) on the possibility of D-Beck buying his beloved Rotherham
"Why doesn't David Beckham come and buy Rotherham and build a team up? It'd be a nice hobby for him. Posh'd be alright: there's Meadowhall Shopping Centre just up the road. And the kids would love to meet me and Barry. That'll swing it."

MICHAEL DAWSON wonders how Becks copes with the fame, as if he doesn't have the same problems...
"I think David Beckham is an absolute legend to cope with all the things he has to put up with. It's mad attention, all the time, every day."

THEO WALCOTT on meeting his hero
"I’d already been introduced to David Beckham in Madrid when Arsenal played Real in the Champions League last season. He was really nice and gave me plenty of words of encouragement, and when I joined up with the World Cup squad, he was there again to greet me and really made me feel a part of the set-up straight away. He was great with all the young players in the squad, and was obviously a respected captain."

ROD STEWART (yeah, that's right) compares his own abilities to those of Goldenballs
"I was never really that good as a player,” he says. “I didn’t really think I was going to be a professional player because I could tackle and pass the ball but I could never take anyone on. I could never run at a full-back, but then I suppose David Beckham can’t either."

RAUL on his enduring memory of Becks at Madrid
"The image of him celebrating with his sons on the pitch [after Madrid won the title in 2007] stays with me. He had such a massive desire to win something with Real Madrid. It was one of his most difficult years with him being left out of the England team but he demonstrated in the last three months of the season what a great player he is. He could have stayed here for another couple of years and he would have continued to be an important player for us. [Leaving Madrid for LA Galaxy] was a decision he took in a difficult moment when he was out of the team and he had to make his mind up."

MANI has the last word
"Beckham. He’s a supernova-bright b*st*rd when it comes to playing football and he provides a lot of entertainment for a lot of people."

Blue Moon rising: FourFourTwo meets Mancini in summer 2010

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:31:00 GMT

Despite missing out on Champions League qualification to Tottenham the previous May, all the signs in summer 2010 pointed to a Premier League title challenge from Manchester City in the coming season. Steve Anglesey met City boss Roberto Mancini to see what made him tick... Portraits: Jill Jennings

Below the scarf, beneath the Armani, Roberto Mancini has a pipe-smoking sailor inked into the skin of his right leg. Now the debonair ex-altar boy is pondering a return to the tattoo parlour. “This one is the club badge of Sampdoria,” he says, pointing. “If I win the Premier League with Manchester City? I have another leg…”

The manager’s broad grin is intended to play down expectation at the start of this, Manchester City’s most keenly anticipated season in over 40 years. Yet on a pre-season lunchtime in west Manchester, as space is cleared in their training ground car park for whatever this summer’s new signings might choose to drive, he can’t disguise a palpable buzz in the air. You have to wonder whether it will grow louder over the next 10 months, ending with the buzz of the tattooist’s needle.

It’s been a while since anyone in the higher echelons of Manchester City dared to mention the title. Since November 15 1990, in fact, when then-chairman Peter Swales welcomed Peter Reid as manager and told the press: “We were the last Manchester team to win it and we’ll be the next.”

Well, not quite. Yet 10 managers, four chairman, three relegations and 11 Manchester United titles later, here City are again – this time for real. When Swales made that promise 20 years ago, Reid’s reaction was to laugh nervously and look heavenwards. Now Mancini is looking at the stars. “It is an incredible challenge,” he says. “We must change the history of Manchester City.”

Adds his goalkeeper Shay Given: “We want the silverware. When you talk to fans you can sense the excitement, but there’s also a bit of desperation to win something. I can’t sit here and say, if we finish fourth we’ve had a good season. We do want to set our sights higher than that and win something. Worst-case scenario has got to be finishing in the top four.” He laughs. “The four trophies would be nice.”

And what of City’s notoriously and justifiably fatalistic fans? The ones who used to sing what was once described to me by a former City manager as “the most depressing thing I’ve ever heard”? The chant went: “We never win at home and we never win away. We lost last week and we’re going to lose today. We don’t give a f**k, ‘cause we’re all pissed up. MCFC, OK.”

Rock photographer Kevin Cummins, whose book on the club’s final season at Maine Road is a classic, is among those pinching himself. “I’ve just seen the new Sky billboards. There’s Terry, Gerrard, Rooney and then there’s Adebayor. You do think to yourself, ‘What are we doing up there?’”

No doubt all this will be dismissed at Old Trafford as typical Blue giddiness, a fervid affliction which has descended infrequently over the past two decades and always with similar results. Signs of a blue moon rising – Forward With Franny, Thaksin Shinawatra, FA Cup runs in 1993 and 2007, a UEFA Cup charge in 2009, last season’s Carling Cup semi-final gut-punch – have consistently proved to be false dawns. United had the last laugh last season, days after City chief executive Gary Cook told American fans that the team would overcome their local rivals and reach Wembley. No doubt they will giggle again when they hear Mancini’s new jacket, featured on these pages, is modelled on a design worn by manager Joe Mercer when City last captured the top-flight championship.

Yet while they ridicule the club’s lofty ambitions and write off as mercenaries the latest big names, United fans cannot as easily dismiss the biggest name of all, that of His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. While the Glazer family struggles to manage their debt – City fans have long mooted an Eastlands banner ticking up the overdraft, to match the infamous Old Trafford flag which tallies City’s trophyless years – the trillionaire from Abu Dhabi’s oil wealth continues to gush in and the noisy neighbours are turning up the volume.

In less than two years at City, Given says he has seen momentous changes. “There’s twice as many at the press conferences; photographers hiding in the trees with long lenses. People are jealous of Manchester City now. There are managers up and down the country and supporters who wish they had the Sheikh at their club. He puts his money where their mouth is.

“I was told before I’d signed about the huge ambitions for the club. I didn’t come down in the last shower of rain, so I had a pretty good idea, but the scope is incredible. Not just the playing staff, but the training ground – things at the stadium that people don’t see. The whole infrastructure of the club; the medical set-up; the facilities. The Sheikh wants to challenge with the really big boys.”  

The 39-year-old Mansour was born seven months after one of the cases of endearing misfortune which have defined the phrase ‘typical City’. Having won the title and the FA Cup in successive years, the swashbuckling team assembled by Mercer and Malcolm Allison then claimed the European Cup Winners’ Cup. Yet thanks to Chelsea’s momentous FA Cup final replay win against Leeds on the same night, the victory went untelevised and virtually unnoticed outside Manchester. The 1976 League Cup aside, it was City’s last major trophy.

In the intervening 38 years, as poets as diverse as Robert Lowell and Half Man Half Biscuit’s Nigel Blackwell have observed in the past, the light at the end of the tunnel invariably proved to be that of an oncoming train. Having forced Mercer out, Allison blew a four-point title lead in 1972 by bringing in the gifted but divisive Rodney Marsh. John Bond took City to the 1981 FA Cup Final and bought Trevor Francis, but departed swiftly afterwards after being told to sell the brilliant striker to balance the books.

Howard Kendall took City into the top six in 1990, then declared his spell at Maine Road to have been “an affair” and went back to his “marriage” at Everton. Paul Lake, the club’s most promising player in a generation and a probable future England captain, was forced into retirement in 1996 after an ankle ligament injury was mistreated. City missed out on Europe under Stuart Pearce in 2005 when Robbie Fowler missed a last-kick penalty in the final game of the season.

So it came as little surprise when Shinawatra – hailed as a billionaire saviour when he arrived in June 2007 with Sven-Goran Eriksson in tow, briefly taking the team to the top of the Premier League – proved to be a human rights abuser unable to return home to claim his frozen funds thanks to a pending prison sentence for corruption. Less than 12 months after treating fans to a pre-match Thai buffet outside the stadium, the disgraced Prime Minister instructed his advisors to get him out. By early August 2008, Shinawatra was negotiating with three separate Middle East consortiums and attempting to sell Stephen Ireland to Sunderland without the consent of new manager Mark Hughes. Says journalist David McDonnell, who covers the club for the Daily Mirror, “They were scouting around for bargains. He didn’t have a pot to p**s in.”

Now, finally, Manchester City caught a break. Sheikh Mansour’s investors caught wind of the negotiations and concluded the deal within three weeks, stopping to sign Robinho for a British record £32.5million before finally assuming full control in mid-September. Without factoring in wages, this summer’s early moves for Yaya Toure, David Silva and Jerome Boateng took his total investment in the club to over £460million in less than 24 months, easily eclipsing the £300m spent at Chelsea by Roman Abramovich in his first two years.

City are naturally defensive on the issue of their wealth, and the unspoken notion that Premier League success is merely a commodity – a rich man’s plaything. “Who are the richest club?” Mancini asks. “There are a lot of clubs who are very rich. The difference is that Manchester City, when Sheikh Mansour and [chairman] Khaldoon Al Mubarak arrived, must work very, very hard because they had to reduce the gap from the other teams. For this they had to invest money to buy new players.

“Look, it is normal. We have to spend money. The teams we want to challenge now – United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Inter, Milan, Real Madrid – all spent in the past and will spend now.”

Asked whether a more level financial playing field might benefit the entire Premier League, Mancini concedes that it “might it be fair, but this is football. It’s right to make sure all the clubs must be OK financially. But there must be a situation where, if there’s an owner with a lot of money, he’s allowed to spend it to win. We cannot close that gap if we do not do this.”

And City need to close it quickly – not just because of the weight of expectation the Mansour millions have brought, but because of UEFA’s stated ambition to limit clubs to spending only 75 per cent of their turnover on wages, to be enforced within the next two years. With a vast payroll reportedly swollen to the tune of over £200,000 a week by Yaya Toure alone, McDonnell believes it is “going to be very interesting to see how they can alter their finances to comply”.

City have benefitted from improved season-ticket sales, at increased prices, and larger sponsorship deals. They are mulling ambitious plans to increase the City Of Manchester Stadium’s capacity to over 60,000 and build a new training ground, casino, shopping centre, hotel and even  a theme park on the post-industrial wasteland they own around Eastlands. But a City source says that is “two or three years away, minimum”. Only recently, an absence of planning and licensing permission forced them to scale back a modest development of pop-up matchday bars and restaurants on the roads leading to the ground.

The focus now is firmly on a Champions League berth which would return at least £30 million, and upwards of £45m should City get past the group stages. Last December, in a messily-handled divorce, it was decided that Hughes was no longer the man to deliver.  Still highly regarded by players and staff, the Welshman was blamed for a cavalier playing style undermined by a defence which leaked like a sieve despite big-money hires Joleon Lescott (who, to be fair, had injuries) and Wayne Bridge (who, to be fair, had other distractions).

“We conceded too many goals, threw away too many leads, had too many draws,” says Given, still a huge Hughes fan. “It was very disappointing. We bought a few defenders last year and it does take time for them to settle, getting to sort your relationships on the pitch.

“We beat Chelsea home and away but slipped up against lesser teams. So we’ve got to approach every game like we’re playing Chelsea or United. We’ve got to treat every team like it’s the best team in the league. Teams really turn it up when they play us now. We’ve got to combat that. We’re a scalp now.”

Enter three-time Serie A winning manager Mancini, who belied his image of urbane chic by toughening up City on the field and on the Carrington training pitches. “Behind the scarf he is quite a fiery character,” says McDonnell. “You can see that in the feud he had with Fabio Capello in Italy and the row he had on the touchline with David Moyes last year. The players all loved Mark Hughes, and they don’t like Mancini’s double training. But they do have a lot of respect for him.”

Adds Cummins: “What he needs to do now is prove he’s a winner. The perception is that last year he was intimidated by the stature of some clubs, even when they were awful.” That caution, typically Italian in the eyes of some fans, saw City surrender a healthy advantage in the Champions League race with stolid draws against weak Liverpool and Arsenal teams. Meanwhile Tottenham abandoned caution and seized the initiative with stirring wins against Arsenal, Chelsea and ultimately at City.

While stating flatly that the upside of missing out on the Champions League is “nothing”, Mancini has no regrets. “Spurs had been building a team for many years,” he says. “Their squad are strong, fantastic players. They’ve been in the Europa League. They were more experienced than us. But every time we played against them, and against Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, we played at the same level as them. This is important. We played at the same level and we became a team. Congratulations to Spurs, but this year it will be different.

“Was I too cautious at the end of last season? I don’t think so. When you win, you are a fantastic manager. When you lose you are Italian and too conservative.”

There is, of course, little conservative about City’s spending. Three buys of the highest quality – Toure, Hamburg’s Jerome Boateng and Valencia’s David Silva – have arrived for a combined £60m and more seem certain to follow as Mancini seeks to create a fluid, deep, interchangeable squad.

“It’s a very exciting time,” says Given. “They are real coups. Boateng looks pretty assured: he can play in the middle and on both flanks. Toure just looks immense. He’ll bring a real presence to the team. Silva is in the mould of a Modric. He can drift into little gaps and holes, he can see through balls and that killer pass. We missed that last season. Stephen Ireland can do it too but he had injury problems last season and it hurt us down the stretch.”

Says Mancini: “The new signings have this in common – they all can pay in different positions. Boateng can play in every position in the defensive line, Yaya can play behind the defence, can play right midfield or left midfield, can play behind the striker. And Silva can play every position in the midfield and behind the striker. If we buy more players like this it gives me more chance to move positions when players get injured or tired. Or change what happens on the field, from 4-4-2 to 4-3-1-2.

“I try to buy players who are an investment; who are young; who can play for the club for many years. And, when Manchester City decides to sell them, they will have a good resale value. It’s important to have individual leaders. It’s not just that we have a good player with a good personality off the pitch, but a big personality on the pitch is important now.”

Mancini is quick to dispel the idea that players are identified by Abu Dhabi, as occurred during the club’s pursuits of Robinho and Kaka. “It is me,” he says. “This is my job. I know the European players very well and I identify who we should buy. Clearly I speak with Brian Marwood, who I work very closely with, and the owner. But it’s important that I’m the one who identifies the players and explains why he will be important.”

Mancini knows that for all his good fortune, he has a fight on his hands. Though he speaks in the highest possible terms of “fantastic man” Gareth Barry, Carlos Tevez and kung-fu enthusiast Nigel De Jong, City may still lack a real leader – hence their doomed pursuit of John Terry last summer – and what Given calls a “Terry Butcher, Tony Adams type”.

The manager worries that late arrivals from the World Cup will hamper a tough Premier League opening. He knows the Europa League, in which City will play 17 games if they are to win it, will take a heavy toll, though the increased playing opportunities may bring increased harmony to the dressing room.

But he also knows this is the season when Manchester City could rewrite history. “We have the investment to make a fantastic club,” he says. “I think the fans will have a very happy season.”

For years, Manchester City have been the loser hero in a Judd Apatow comedy. If Steve Carrell was The 40-Year-Old Virgin, they are The 34-Year-Old Trophy Virgins. But in the final reel, the loveable schlub gets the girl. As Mancini says, “After many years, this is the time.”

Roberto Mancini: Quick Qs
What’s with the new hair?
First time in 10 years I’ve cut it. It’s a lot colder.

They said you were going to be fired if you didn’t reach the Champions League. Will you get fired if you don’t do it this season?
I didn’t get fired. I’m still here. I have a three-year contract and I will stay for three years. So I must win this year or next year. I can win the Europa League or the FA Cup. We hope to win the league or get in the Champions League.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned as a coach?
You must always work 100 per cent, but it’s most important to work harder when you win. When you lose, it’s easy to go back and correct your mistakes. When you win, you think ‘everything’s OK’. When you do that, you lose.

In recent years, City have had a great record of bringing players through from the academy – the likes of Shaun Wright-Phillips, Stephen Ireland, Micah Richards, Nedum Onouha. With big-name players arriving, how will the kids break through now?
I played in Serie A when I was 16 so I know it’s very important to have players coming in from the academy. In five months here I brought five young players into the first team, so they will get a chance. We will have a squad of 24, 25 and then the young players, so they can play too.

Did you know anything at all about Manchester City when you got here?
Yes, at first because Trevor Francis talked about them at Sampdoria. But in Italy, they know Manchester City’s history. There’s always talk of Manchester United, because they’ve won everything, but we knew City too.

You worked under future City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson at Sampdoria and you were his assistant coach at Lazio too…
I must say thank you to Sven, and to Vujadin Boskov, because I was a player who always wanted to ask, ‘Why are we doing this work?’ and they would explain I was born with  a football at my feet and football in my brain.  I had a vision of how I wanted a team to play football and they helped me to develop this.

Now you’ve brought in another Sampdoria connection, David Platt, as first-team coach...
We played together for two years and talked many, many times after that. He is a friend of mine. David is an important man in England: he was England captain, Arsenal captain. He managed the under-21s. It means something.

Is David as thin as he was at Sampdoria?
Yes! Yes! [Look of resignation] No. I think he must try and get into good shape!

Interview: Steve Anglesey. Portraits: Jill Jennings.
This feature was originally published in the September 2010 edition of FourFourTwo.

Mancini dies by the sword of Damocles

Gary Parkinson — Mon, 13 May 2013 23:18:00 GMT

Manchester City have summarily sacked Roberto Mancini. FourFourTwo.com Editor Gary Parkinson on the Greek tragedy of the Italian at the Etihad...

In the end, the only surprise was the time of death. Many had suspected that Manchester City would pull the plug on their support machine for Roberto Mancini, but few suspected it would be with two league games left to play. At least Roman Abramovich waited until the end of the season to have Carlo Ancelotti sacked in a corridor.

Few in football will be glad to see the back of the urbane Mancini, and there are a great many City fans who will howl at the blue moon over the sudden demise of "Bobby Manc". But not many will be shocked by it. City have an agenda, and some might say the daggers have been drawn for the manager since December 4th, when the club's decrepit Champions League campaign wheezed into an early grave.

True, City were unlucky to be drawn in a Group of Death with the champions of Spain (Real Madrid), Germany (Borussia Dortmund) and the Netherlands (Ajax), but their abject return of three points from six games was the worst by an English team in the Champions League, eclipsing Blackburn's hapless attempt in 1995: like Rovers, City were out by Christmas.

Where did it all go wrong? Mancini watches City crash out at Dortmund

Fourth place in Group D meant Mancini didn't even get a tilt at the consolation bauble of the Europa League. There were those who thought this a blessing in disguise, clearing the way for a determined defence of their Premier League title against a resurgent Manchester United. But five days after that dismal night in Dortmund ended their European adventure, United won 3-2 at the Etihad to go six points clear at the top. City never caught them, nor even looked likely to do so.

The manner of City's home defeat to United cut like a knife. The visitors had gone two up through Wayne Rooney, once briefly a City target until his Old Trafford contract was extended, but Mancini's men had battled back to parity through Yaya Toure and Pablo Zabaleta – until they were defeated in injury time by a deflected shot from Robin van Persie.

Mancini made no bones about his summer pursuit of the Dutchman, but again United had outmuscled their upstart neighbours. True, the Old Trafford top brass had rescinded their long-term plan not to spend big on players whose contracts would take them beyond the age of resale value, but Van Persie was a special case. And once Manchester United were interested, he was only going to one club.

That wasn't the way City wanted it to be. A club in a hurry, they wanted the Premier League title to foreshadow their elevation to the level of European super-club. Instead, they found themselves outmanoeuvred in the transfer market, oil money unable to compete with the perceived establishment. Mancini may have won a league, but he's no Alex Ferguson. The fact that nobody is didn't save the Italian.

And so he is ejected from the hot seat, just as he had been at Internazionale, where he had also found himself failing to meet the expectations of continental success. At least at Inter he retained the league title, albeit in the aftermath of the Calciopoli scandal which weakened their rivals. But still Massimo Moratti turned to Jose Mourinho, who combined domestic domination with a continent-conquering campaign in the Champions League.

He's behind you: Mourinho and Mancini

That is the level of achievement for which Manchester City are striving, and they will seek a suitable man to take them there. And although the fans have been foursquare behind their man, Mancini must have known what he was letting himself in for when he took the job. After all, he was appointed on the day his predecessor Mark Hughes was sacked, two hours after a bizarre 4-3 home win over Sunderland following which the Welshman, clearly knowing his impending doom, waved a forlorn farewell to the fans.

At that point, City were sixth; they finished fifth, then third, then top. Second is no longer sufficient. According to a club statement, "the club had failed to achieve any of its stated targets this year, with the exception of qualification for next season's UEFA Champions League."

On that day in December 2009, as Hughes waved goodbye to the City fans, one of those watching on from the stands was Roberto Mancini. Like Damocles the courtier in the old Greek tale, Mancini was only too happy to assume the throne and be surrounded by opulence; but whereas Damocles had to sit below a sword suspended by a single horsehair, the unveiled threat hanging over Mancini was that he must take Manchester City ever forward.

Football is not life and death, thankfully. But in a true Greek tragedy, a once great hero suffers a downfall, and while managing a team to the Premier League title may not be "heroic" in the tabloid sense, it was certainly enough to elevate Mancini into Man City folklore. But when he failed to maintain momentum, winning the title 12 months previously was no defence, just as it hadn't been for Ancelotti at Chelsea.

Along with Mourinho and Manuel Pellegrini, Ancelotti may now be on the shortlist of men to replace Mancini. But whoever takes the job had better keep the club kicking onwards, and beware the sword ever hanging over their head.

"Fergie? We're not close" – when FFT met Moyes

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:00:00 GMT

In November 2009, FourFourTwo featured an exclusive interview with Everton manager David Moyes. He told us about his route to the top, living with his dad, almost signing Michael Essien – and if he could succeed Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.

The red hair is starting to fade and the deepening lines across his face tell their own story. But David Moyes – the fourth-longest serving manager in England – remains as intent on returning Everton to their former glories as he was the day that he swept into Goodison Park seven and a half years ago, shaking the old stadium to its very foundations.

Such longevity in so hazardous an occupation is remarkable in itself, but the way in which Moyes has transformed Everton is stunning, justifiably earning him a reputation as one of the Premier League’s best managers. So high has the Scot’s stock risen in fact, that he’s now reputed to be Sir Alex Ferguson’s preferred heir to the throne at Old Trafford

FFT has been warned that Moyes can be awkward with journalists and highly sensitive to questions on issues – such as Joleon Lescott’s transfer to Manchester City – where his managerial authority has been breached.

But today Moyes is relaxed and genial, expansive when asked about supposedly ‘forbidden’ subjects. He seems ebullient after  a productive training session earlier in the day. Bumping into Sylvain Distin on the way in, Everton’s new defender jokes how he wouldn’t be staying for voluntary training in the afternoons – as he did at former club Portsmouth – because the morning sessions here are “exhausting enough”.

Moyes, the archetypal tracksuit manager, clearly thrives when pushing his players through their paces and is pleased after a good workout. Still dressed in his training kit, he folds his right leg up against his chest, sprawling his other leg across a chair in Finch Farm’s media suite, and chats with the ease of a man at home in these surroundings.

“We’re quite proud at Everton. We think we’ve built up a decent team at Everton and Joleon was part of that and we wanted him to stay,” says Moyes of the transfer saga that so disrupted Everton’s pre-season.

"I felt that Joleon had been here three years and the group that we’d got together – we’d finished fifth and got to a cup final – could have warranted a bit longer.”

What Moyes found particularly hard was the way Lescott made it clear he no longer wanted to play for him. “Joleon is in the main a decent lad, but in the end didn’t act that way,” he says. Moyes is not one to dwell on the past, however, and refers to the matter as a “closed chapter”.

At Everton’s Friday press conference shortly before we meet, Moyes belatedly unveiled two new signings, Dutch defender Johnny Heitinga and the Russia midfielder, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov. It’s mid-September, a month after the start of the new season, but for the first time Moyes has had a full squad available for a training session.

His message is that the season starts here.  “If I’d had these players six weeks ago, I’d have been ecstatic,” he says, looking pleased anyway.

 Two influences dominate David Moyes’s ascent to being the most outstanding British manager of his generation: his Glasgow childhood and his experiences as a journeyman player.

"Glasgow’s my home and football was what you done,” he says, as if it were as elemental as eating and sleeping. His father coached Drumchapel Amateurs, a junior club with an incredible record of transforming young players into professionals, including Kenny Dalglish and Alex Ferguson. Moyes credits his father, who now lives with him and does some scouting for Everton, as being a crucial influence. “I used to help him get the strips ready and see him makes arrangements,” he recalls. Because of this, the ethos of management “has probably been within me” since childhood.

After representing Scotland at schoolboy and youth level, Moyes broke into the Celtic team as a teenage centre-half, winning the SPL title in 1981-82. But despite the promising start, he was unable to make a first-team place his own. Desperate for regular action, he sought a move to England and after a transfer to Arsenal fell through, joined Cambridge United in 1983. Besides a spell with Dunfermline in the early-1990s, he never again played in the top flight.

“I don’t regret it because it gave me an opportunity to see football in a different way,” he says. “I was at Cambridge, at Bristol City,  I went to Shrewsbury – it’s not an illustrious route, but I tell you what, the background I had from Celtic stuck with me. You were required to win, and if you could win with style that was the way you should do it. But if not, you should win.”

He describes losing regularly at these clubs, having been at Celtic, as a “complete shock”. “All that losing is probably the reason I’m a miserable bugger today,” he laughs, but one senses that those days still live with him, and make him so intensely motivated now.

In 1993, Moyes joined Preston, where he spent nearly a decade. He always possessed the natural authority that set him out as managerial material. “He had that little bit of a commanding personality about him,” says the Hull midfielder Kevin Kilbane, who played with Moyes at Preston and was later managed by him at Everton. “He was a character within the club who you used to respect, but he had a bit  of fear factor around him too.”

In January 1998, with Preston threatened by relegation to Division Three, Moyes became player-manager. By May 1999 he’d guided Preston to the Division Two title, and for the next three years they were in the hunt for promotion to the Premier League. Suddenly he was hot property.

He remained at Deepdale until March 2002 when the call came from Everton – “the first real big club to come in for me.” Although he won over Evertonians immediately, in particular by referring to their’s as “the People’s Club”, he faced a harder task in the dressing room. For years Everton had been chronically mismanaged and Moyes’s predecessor Walter Smith had accumulated a squad of ageing, underperforming players, many on lucrative long-term contracts. A culture of complacency permeated onto the pitch, where Everton were perennial strugglers. It was a club, Moyes recalls, where finishing 13th was considered “a good season”.

At Deepdale his squad “would’ve done anything you said”, but things were different at Goodison. He says that it was “a fight” just to establish himself. “I had to change it from a club that was just surviving,” he says. He wanted “a younger football club, a fresher football club”.

For the first year, Moyes seemed to revitalise Everton through sheer force of personality. Abetted by the emergence of a 16-year-old Wayne Rooney, Everton finished seventh in 2002-03, having occupied a Champions League spot for most of the season. Two years later, without Rooney and with minimal spending, he defied all expectations and took Everton to fourth place. He is still the only manager to crack the top four since Bobby Robson’s Newcastle in 2002.

"A lot of that early time was led by me: driven, motivated, a great desire to succeed. As it still is today – I don’t think it’s changed,” he says. But he believes that his managerial style has evolved. As he has assembled his own players he no longer has the daily battles with the inertia he first found at Goodison. Everton’s squad is now younger, fitter, hungrier and prepared to run through walls for him. 

Moyes has completely altered perceptions of Everton, who are now an established top-six force, missing out on European qualification just once in five years. But while he takes justifiable pride in his achievements, there is  a sense of unfinished business; that he needs silverware to consider himself a true success.

“People say ‘David Moyes needs to win something’ – and I do,” he says. “But if I win one trophy I’ll want to win another one. My ambition is to have the football club say ‘We want to finish first in the Premier League, not fifth.’”

Although he won’t admit it, lack of money holds Everton back. For the second year, Moyes’ net spend is nil; over seven years it averages out at around £3.3million per year.

Perhaps because of these constraints, Moyes has a reputation for signing outstanding players at rock bottom prices. Tim Cahill cost just £1.5m, Mikel Arteta £2m. Lescott was signed for £5m and sold for £22m. Others – such as Michael Essien, who Moyes tells FFT he tried to sign from Bastia in 2003 – have got away. But Moyes admits that the transfer market is now harder and big money is needed, even for an unknown.

He says it rankles when he sees Everton outspent not only by rivals, such as Spurs and Aston Villa, but also by clubs like Sunderland. Yet his response is typically pragmatic: “If you don’t have it, then you can’t spend it.

“When you’re finishing fifth and wanting to be pushing, and ambitious, and wanting to show your players you’re ambitious, that’s where I feel sometimes that I let the players down because I can’t really give them more,”  he admits. “That’s where sometimes I feel disappointed I’m not able to do that.”

It says much about his inherent sense of responsibility that he accepts a burden that rests with the chairman, Bill Kenwright. He has earned huge prize money – £15m last year – but had virtually none of it to spend. Kenwright frequently espouses a “24/7” search for investment, but after five years of looking has found none – despite many other clubs doing so.

Kenwright describes Moyes as his “best friend in football”. When Moyes is asked about his relationship with him there is genuine warmth. He says that Kenwright is “one of the reasons” he’s been at Everton so long. Indeed, one senses that despite limited financial resources, Moyes prefers to work with Kenwright – who gives him free rein in the running of the club – than he would a chairman with deep pockets but a penchant for meddling in his affairs.

Yet what happens when there are no more bargains or prodigies that can compensate for the board’s parsimony? Moyes bats the question away, saying that he wants Kenwright to think Everton can win the Premier League. “Obviously we need the tools to try and win the Premier League,” he says. “I want us to be driven together and him not accepting finishing fifth  in the same way that seven years ago we were accepting not finishing outside the bottom five."

An announcement is due soon in the public inquiry investigating Everton’s controversial move to a new stadium outside the city limits. Moyes hints that this might resolve Everton’s parlous financial state.

“I’d like to think by two or three years time that the club would have a new input in some way, whether it be a new stadium or new investment,” he says. “We’re going to be building on a position of fifth in the Premier League rather than fifth from bottom. If that’s the case it’ll still be a big jump... but I think we’ll enjoy that jump more than the one we’ve had to take over the years.”

Until that time he will wheel and deal in the transfer market, and rely on Everton’s Academy. Six players, most notably Wayne Rooney, have progressed to be first-team regulars during Moyes’ time at Goodison. This season Jack Rodwell, an 18-year-old midfielder with the swagger of a young Steven Gerrard, looks set to make a first-team shirt his own.

“He’s an elegant midfielder. He can run, he’s quick, he’s good on the ball. What he needs is time; maturity will come with that,” says Moyes. “It wouldn’t be unrealistic after this World Cup for Jack to force his way into the England squad.”

Despite spending half his life in England, he still regards Scotland as his home and may go back one day. The Scotland or Celtic manager’s job might be attractive then, but says it’s “not on my agenda now”.

Asked about the speculation that he’s Fergie’s preferred successor, Moyes is dismissive.  “I think last year it was Roy Keane,” he says.  “I think the year before that it was Mark Hughes. The year before it was Steve Bruce.  I just get on and try and not let it affect me if  I can. I don’t think it does affect me in any way.”

He is full of admiration for Ferguson, though, describing him as the “best manager in the world”, but says their relationship is exaggerated. “Folk think that because we’re Scottish we must be really, really close, but I wouldn’t say that’s the case,” says Moyes.

Like Ferguson, Moyes is a workaholic: intense, driven, ambitious, motivated by fear of losing. He admits that there is little balance between his private and football life. “My wife understands me,” he says.

“He’s very hands on and runs Everton from top to bottom,” says Kevin Kilbane. “He’s a very good coach, very much an organiser. He’ll make sure he’s the main voice on the training ground. He leaves no stone unturned and makes sure he covers every area. His attention to detail is brilliant.”

At one point during our interview, FFT asks Moyes if he “used to” work 16-hour days when establishing himself as Everton manager. For the only time his eyes fix into an icy stare. “I do,” he interrupts, not liking the implication that he is slacking. “I do every day... If I don’t then somebody else will be overtaking me. Someone else will be taking my job. I have to work every day, every week as if it’s my last.”

What does he put being English football’s fourth-longest-serving manager down to? Moyes puffs his cheeks. “Having good players. A bit of luck. I work hard. I don’t take [my job] for granted. I try to make myself better  as often as I can by seeing what’s new.”

But it’s Everton, and bringing success  to Goodison, that remains his obsession.

“I can’t lose my drive and my desire,” he says. “Football’s got to keep driving me on.  I think that’s why I’m probably still here.”

THE MOYES GUIDE TO MANAGEMENT

Coaching badges will only teach you so much
I’d done my coaching badges but what they don’t teach you is what happens when you walk into the dressing room on the first morning and you have David Ginola, Tommy Gravesen, Paul Gascoigne, Duncan Ferguson sitting in front of you, looking at you to take the lead.”

Have a good chairman
What managers need and want is chairmen who want to work with them and help them, aren’t wanting to be the centre of attraction, don’t want to make the decisions and will leave it to the manager – and if things aren’t going well, will support him. I think everybody knows Bill Kenwright’s done that for me.”

Fear is a great motivator
“If I don’t work that hard then somebody else will be overtaking me. Someone else will be taking my job. I have to work every day, every week as if it’s my last.”

Find yourself a schoolboy prodigy
“I remember another manager saying, ‘How lucky is David Moyes, taking over at Everton and having a player like Wayne Rooney?’ And I was – I really was lucky to have a talent like that on my doorstep. We put him in the team and everybody knows where he’s gone, so good luck to him.”

Give kids a chance
“The academy has played a major part for us, and we rely on it here because we’ve not been able to go out and spend lots of money. I do say to many people, ‘If I was a parent [of a young footballer], Everton is a club that gives your kids a chance.’ We don’t have loads of players and there’s not a blockage to get to the first team. If you’re good enough, I think you’ve got a real chance here.”

Interview: James Corbett. Portraits: Jill Jennings. From the November 2009 edition of FourFourTwo. Subscribe!

Win a game at Old Trafford

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:46:00 GMT

Want to play at Old Trafford? Of course you do. Even if you’re nonplussed about scoring a goal at the same ground that hosted the likes of George Best, Bobby Charlton and Eric Cantona every other week – even if you’re a hardened Liverpool fan – it’s a tempting offer.

The world’s best players have gushed over the grand old stadium’s history, facilities and atmosphere. And the pitch... have you played on a Premier League pitch? From the rare occasions FFT have been allowed to tear up a beautiful playing surface with miskicks and shanked corners, we can tell you that playing on real, Premier League-quality turf is an experience that cannot be underestimated.

Interested? Well, here’s the good part: FourFourTwo, in partnership with Chevrolet, is giving you the opportunity to win a day at Old Trafford on Bank Holiday Monday May 27th, during which your team will compete in a small tournament. Each team will play two 30-minute games and the teams will be managed by bona fide legends Bryan Robson and Andy Cole, who – after a spot of lunch – will hand out prizes and post-match analysis. The day will last from 9.45am to 4pm.

Three teams have the chance to play in the four-team tournament at Old Trafford, with FourFourTwo making up the numbers (be afraid, be very afraid). The competition closes on May 21st, and all you have to do is...

Tell us why your team deserves to play at the Theatre of Dreams. Your season needs to have been one to remember or one to forget, whether it was littered with silverware or made horrifically memorable by relegation. Why should you get the chance for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? You tell us by emailing contact [at] fourfourtwo [dot] com - with "Old Trafford competition" in the subject line.

Good luck… except if you play FourFourTwo.

Follow Chevrolet FC on Facebook and Twitter

It was a bad weekend for...fans of Fergie, Noisy Neighbours and Fallen Foxes

Simon Carter — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:29:00 GMT

Simon Carter names those who suffered most in domestic football on Saturday and Sunday...

Football
The announcement of Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement and David Moyes’ subsequent appointment at Manchester United has cast a long shadow over football this week, while fans everywhere digested the news and tried to imagine a Fergie-less era. Whether you were a United fan in mourning, a Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal or Manchester City supporter with a broad smile or simply a shell-shocked fan from elsewhere, Ferguson’s retirement seemed to overshadow everything else.

That included the actual football played this weekend. In the build-up to the FA Cup final, participating players and staff were quizzed on their views of Ferguson (as were Andre Villas-Boas and Rafa Benitez before last Wednesday’s crucial fixture at Stamford Bridge). United’s dead rubber home game against Swansea – Ferguson’s last at Old Trafford – was touted as the only game that mattered on an otherwise important weekend.

But that’s not to say that the focus on Ferguson (and to a lesser extent, David Moyes’ farewell to Goodison Park) was a bad thing. After all, given everything the man has achieved he deserves a weekend dedicated to his honour. Top-flight football in England will be much the poorer without the relentless chewing of gum, furious watch tapping and increasingly delayed goal celebrations as age has taken hold.

For people of a certain age, nay, people of any age, Ferguson has been a constant point of reference for so long that it’s unimaginable, weird even, to think of a Manchester United side not led by the fiery Glaswegian. United fan or not, Ferguson’s presence in the Old Trafford dugout has been a comforting, albeit sometimes infuriating, one.

And to think that this time last week all we were concerned about was a piddling eight-way Premier League relegation battle and pulsating end to the Championship season. It all seems so long ago now.

In the event it was an emotional day at Old Trafford, to the point where the 90 minutes of football – as good as United’s 2-1 win over Swansea was - seemed to get in the way. Even the presentation of the Premier League trophy felt like a needless distraction. It was a day for United fans to show their enormous gratitude to the man who has changed their club forever, and one to say goodbye (for the second time) to Paul Scholes, who would have appreciated his manager taking 99 per cent of the limelight.

Alex Ferguson – love him or loathe him – will be missed by everyone in English and European football, so let’s end this tribute with the words of the man himself, addressing the Old Trafford crowd for the last time: “It’s been an unbelievable experience for all of us.”

The Noisy Neighbours
It seems strange to say, in a world where ESPN started their coverage at 08:00 on Saturday, that the FA Cup final wasn’t given the build-up it deserved. But with Ferguson dominating proceedings, even this game felt like something of an after thought. For those involved with Manchester City, the focus on Ferguson will have been particularly needling.

But worse still, when the spotlight was off Ferguson it was turned to Wigan Athletic, the archetypal plucky underdogs. From their relatively recent incredible rise through the leagues to chairman Dave Whelan’s own FA Cup history (as you will know by now he broke his leg during the 1960 FA Cup final where his Blackburn Rovers side were beaten), the Latics were the only topic of conversation for those with romantic desires.
For once the “noisy neighbours” were very quiet.

And quiet they would remain as a strangely muted City side rarely showed their class before being beaten by Ben Watson’s injury-time header to give Wigan their first-ever FA Cup.

As if losing the FA Cup from a position of clear favourites wasn’t bad enough for Roberto Mancini, by Sunday afternoon the BBC were confidently reporting he would be sacked within the week and replaced by Malaga’s Manuel Pellegrini, despite the Italian’s post-match protestations to the contrary.

But it wasn’t all champagne and dancing for Wigan either. Yes, Saturday was a great day, but Sunday saw the threat of relegation grow larger than ever as Sunderland, Southampton, Newcastle and Norwich all picked up at least a point (the latter two winning to guarantee safety). It’s a lot to ask, but if Wigan do not beat Arsenal tomorrow night they will almost certainly be relegated. Lose, and it is confirmed.

So, What Else Happened?

With Ferguson, Moyes and the FA Cup dominating the weekend to such an extent, it was possible to forget that the rest of the Premier League still had jobs to do. And, unusually, most clubs will be happy with their work. The likes of Newcastle and Norwich will be delighted with their wins, while QPR and West Brom won’t be harmed by defeats. Ditto Stoke City and West Ham, who were beaten by Tottenham and Everton respectively. Even Fulham, beaten 3-1 at home by Liverpool courtesy of Daniel Sturridge’s excellent hat-trick, won’t be too heartbroken given Wigan’s situation.

A bad weekend for lovers of drama then, right? Erm, no.

Fallen Foxes
You just have to know where to look, and as usual, all of the drama was in the Championship. Watford, who last week narrowly missed out on promotion, hosted Leicester in the play-off semi-final second leg, trailing 1-0 on aggregate. A brace from Matej Vydra, including a wonderful opening goal, had put the home side 2-1 ahead on the day (2-2 on aggregate) when Leicester won a last-minute penalty when Anthony Knockaert fell in the box.

Knockaert stepped up and smashed the ball directly at Manuel Almunia (and then again from the rebound) to send the game into extra time. Or so it would seem. With screams of the crazy League One curtain closer between Brentford and Doncaster Rovers two weeks ago, Watford counter-attacked and Troy Deeney, sent off in Watford’s final league game, thumped a winner past Kasper Schmeichel to book the Hornets’ place at Wembley and break Gary Lineker’s heart.

What a strange and magical weekend. Let’s turn to Ferguson again for the final word: “Football… bloody hell.”

ACTION REPLAY Tantrums and teacups: Fergie at Aberdeen

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:17:00 GMT

His managerial style became famous at Manchester United, but Alex Ferguson had a fearsome temper way before that. In this September 1998 FourFourTwo feature, Mike Wilson reveals the story of Fergie's Aberdeen years

It was wall-to-wall Willie Johnston on the day Alex Ferguson’s appointment as Aberdeen manager was reported. Which, translated into column inches, meant the back and front pages for the errant winger – he’d been charged with stimulant misuse and was on his way home from the World Cup in Argentina – and a couple of paragraphs for Ferguson.

High summer; 6 June, 1978. Three days after Scotland’s abject defeat by Peru, the racier read was: ‘Why I took those tablets.’ Twenty years on, however, almost everyone makes way for Alex Ferguson. Now, newspaper articles speculate about his place among the managerial legends, alongside Bill Shankly, Matt Busby and Jock Stein. Johnston, meanwhile, runs a boozer in Fife.

We all know how the Aberdeen chapter in Ferguson’s managerial career reaches its thundering climax. That sublime moment on 11 May 1983 when, on a rain-soaked night in Gothenburg, a young John Hewitt threw himself at a Mark McGhee cross to win the European Cup Winners’ Cup against mighty Real Madrid.

How that chapter begins, though, is shrouded in mystery. The Scotsman newspaper, trying to make sense of his surprise sacking from St Mirren, began its article with the memorable line: ‘It must be the heat.’ Ferguson was accused of having breached the his contract: the St Mirren chairman, William Todd, said the board was unanimous. Ferguson had to go.

Ferguson’s response, with trademark gusto, was to become the first football manager to demand an industrial tribunal – which he lost, even though in his four years at St Mirren he not only secured promotion to the Premier Division, he also infused the team with young talent. His legacy at Love Street has a familiar ring to this day. But sometimes, given a sniff of success, clubs get ideas above their station.

November 1978: Fergie at his tribunal

‘I remember the day when he was sacked,’ says Iain Munro, a St Mirren player at the time. ‘We didn’t know any of the background; all we knew was that there had been a board meeting. Although it was the summer we had been coming in for some top-up training and he came down into the dressing room and told us. The players couldn’t believe it because he was so highly regarded.’

The sacking was also a bolt out of the blue for Ferguson’s assistant at the time, Ricky McFarlane: ‘It must have been a Tuesday, after a board meeting, and I phoned him from Blackpool Zoo. I was on holiday and I was just touching base. He told me he had just been sacked. He didn’t tell me why exactly and the St Mirren board tried to keep it as low-key as possible. The press speculated about it, that, maybe, it had something to do with how expenses were being paid.’

Ferguson’s agony didn’t last long, however, Aberdeen, without a manager after the departure of Billy McNeill for his first love, Celtic, were quickest off the mark to snap him up. The mutual regard that was quickly forged between Ferguson and the Dons’ then chairman, Dick Donald, was only hinted at when Donald said: ‘We are impressed with Ferguson’s record and he is a candidate for the job.’

•••••

When they play Fergie’s tune it is usually to the accompaniment of cheers. In the three years separating that wonderful night in Gothenburg from the call to manage Manchester United, there was the small matter of two more Premier Division titles, three further Scottish Cups and yet another League Cup. Plus a trip to the 1986 World Cup, as Scotland manager.

At United it took a little longer than it did at Aberdeen to secure the first League title, but at both clubs the effect was liberating. ‘The first title is the biggest thing,’ says McFarlane. ‘Anything after that is icing on the cake. The league championship for any manager is a big obstacle. When he was at Aberdeen, no-one outside the Old Firm had won the League championship for nearly 15 years.’

The title arrived at the end of Fergie’s second season but that was not soon enough to stop the critics airing doubts about his abilities. Between the summer of 1978 and Christmas 1979, Aberdeen lost two League Cup finals and their form was little more than ordinary in the League. There were moments, just as there were later at United, when both time and tide seemed to be running against him.

May 1980: That first league title at Aberdeen

‘At the end of the day the manager is a gatherer of a team,’ says McFarlane. ‘When he went to Aberdeen he was clever enough not to go out and just buy. That was quite a brave thing because he had a tough first year. Mark you, there were some good players already there, including some amazing signings such as Steve Archibald and Gordon Strachan.

But it would have been easy to have gone out and bought. Instead he kept his nerve, even though it wasn’t the smoothest of years. Aberdeen isn’t the easiest place for any new manager to go and he was a young manager from Glasgow. And there were a lot of strong-minded players there.’

But then, after losing to Kilmarnock on 21 March 1980, Aberdeen embarked on a 13-game unbeaten run, eating up the massive lead built up by Celtic, who were beginning to go off the boil after their exit from the European Cup quarter-finals at the hands of Real Madrid.

Come 3 May 1980 it was neck and neck, thanks, in no small measure, to two quick-fire wins by Aberdeen at Celtic Park. The penultimate game of the season for Aberdeen was an away fixture against Hibernian, who were heading for relegation. On the same day Celtic, playing their last game, were away at St Mirren. All they could manage was a 0-0 draw while Aberdeen thumped Hibs 5-0 at Easter Road. For the first time in 25 years, the title was theirs.

Ferguson’s fingerprints were all over the trophy. ‘He seemed, even back then, to like mobile full-backs, midfield steel and a wide left player,’ says Pat Stanton, Ferguson’s assistant for the title triumph. ‘I never did ask him why he appointed me. We stayed in digs together. Both being new to the area we hadn’t yet taken our families up north. He liked a good laugh. He had a great memory for telephone numbers.

Fergie hugs Stanton at Easter Road

‘At a football club there are so many people around and maybe a few who don’t fancy the manager – maybe thinking he was a bit of an upstart – and I felt I was there to look after his back.

‘We were a much tighter outfit in the second season – his influence was starting to show. It doesn’t have to take much to turn a good season into a winning one. It might just be a few breaks of the ball, a couple of goal-line clearances, an incident or two that gets the team feeling they won’t lose goals and they will easily score them. The first season was hard. He had the industrial tribunal and his father was ill. He was travelling up and down the country all the time.’

In two with the tactical genius came the man-management of soon-to-be mythological proportions. Ferguson is routinely described as ‘streetwise’. That exact word is used, quite independently, by three witnesses from Fergie’s early days: Iain Munro, Alex McLeish and Craig Brown.

Brown was assistant to Ferguson during the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and he well remembers Ferguson’s anguish when, after Scotland’s hasty exit from the so-called Group of Death (their opponents were West Germany, Denmark and Uruguay), Arsenal and Spurs both overlooked him in favour of other managers.

Fergie and friends say goodbye en route to Mexico

‘There are two outstanding things about Alex Ferguson – his photographic memory and his wonderful eye for a good player,’ says Brown. ‘He can remember every kick of the ball, which means he can adapt quickly to changes in a game.’

The obsessive nature of the successful football manager was easy to see in Ferguson during his managerial stints at East Stirlingshire (for four months at the start of his career), St Mirren and Aberdeen. Infamously Ferguson, son of Govan – the Glasgow district of shipyards and hard men with a love for education – was also a man with a temper. Brown remembers that, in Mexico, Ferguson was not only good at Trivial Pursuit but would take his defeats – albeit rare ones – badly.

••••••

Stanton recalls Ferguson’s great passion for the game: ‘He’d go crackers but his outbursts would never last, they were always soon forgotten. Maybe a few of them were premeditated. He tended to do the shouting at half-time. He took defeat bad, particularly games we should have won. Often he would disappear, go into his shell, keep out of the road by going into his office, sick and fed up with it.’

Munro says of Ferguson’s St Mirren days: ‘He was very good at taking the pressure off players before a big game by taking it on himself. Before games against the Old Firm he would invariably make some inflammatory statement that not only got the punters along but turned the spotlight on him and away from the players.’

McLeish’s recollections tap into a similar vein: ‘He would create causes. A regular one was the supposed west-coast bias of the media. He liked the players to have that chip on their soldier.’

‘When St Mirren were still in the First Division,’ says McFarlane, ‘Partick Thistle were the number one team in the division. But he would wind up their manager Bertie Auld something rotten. They would beat us quite regularly but he made them out to be the enemy and eventually we started to get results. As the St Mirren players lined up in the tunnel to play them he would say: “Remember boys, God is on your side.”’

Neale Cooper, part of a tough Aberdeen midfield, endorses those views: ‘I’ve seen many a cup of tea thrown at half-time. You knew you had to do well for him or you would be told. But he was very fair. If you worked for him and did your best he looked after you. If you stepped out of line he would come down on you. His training was great, his coaching ideas were superb and he liked a laugh. He knew that different players thrived under different styles of management.

‘The thing about Fergie was that when you did well he would really praise you and that was a nice feeling. It was a very happy dressing room.

‘He was a winner. We were once playing Celtic and I was called in to the office beforehand and told I was man-marking Charlie Nicholas. He was their main player. Stop him playing and that will be half the battle. He wanted me to think about it all week in the build-up. The boys had a bit of a laugh about it, they kept asking if I was thinking about Charlie.

‘So, by the time of the game, I was quite keyed up. Two or three seconds on the clock, Frank McGarvey passed the ball to Charlie and I went flying in. Charlie was lying there, holding his knee. At the time, I thought, you know, maybe I was a bit brainwashed.

Neale Cooper (Champagne Charlie not pictured)

‘But never, ever was I sent out to hit a boy. Look through the side, they could all play a bit. You have to win the battle before you start playing. But there is a difference between going out and kicking teams and refusing to be messed about. We refused to be messed about. No-one would trample over us. Teams knew they had a game on.’

A hint of where that mental toughness came from can be found in a conversation remembered by Stanton. But it must be prefaced with McFarlane’s observation that Fergie had sufficient self-confidence to listen and learn from other people.

‘As a player he would always argue his corner,’ says McFarlane. ‘He would be the one going into the manager’s office to fight for deals; on the park, as a centre-forward, he fought his corner. But he was good at learning from other people. He would acknowledge what people said, he would say: “Here, that’s a great point, there.” A lot of people wouldn’t be so public.

‘He was also a fierce trade unionist, always somebody who had an opinion. To be fair he went on coaching courses and was always keen to go into management.

‘You have to remember that, at that time, very few players talked about management. But he wanted to do that. We were still not that long out of the era when the manager was the figure in a suit and hat. No-one, for example, hand heard of player-managers in those days.’

The conversation Stanton vividly remembers involved himself, Ferguson and Stein, a mentor to Ferguson just as Fergie has become a mentor to many of today’s young managers, including McLeish. ‘Both of us were speaking to Stein one day. I think it we were sitting down, having a cup of tea.

'Big Stein said: “It wouldn’t be a bad thing to get a reputation for being a right hard bunch.” Like the Leeds United of the 1970s who battled their way to the top and then, once there, started to play good football. To have the feeling that everybody was against us – referees, the SFA, the media. I think he [Ferguson] took that on board.

Ferguson and Jock Stein in 1983

‘To be successful in Scotland you have to go to Ibrox and Celtic Park and win on a regular basis. Too many teams went with the attitude: “We’ll play well, but we’ll eventually lose.”’

McLeish – like Cooper, McGhee, Munro, Strachan and countless others – is a graduate of the clubs Ferguson managed early in his career who has decided to follow the same employment route. ‘There was one game in the League Cup against Celtic at Celtic Park which is now considered watershed in the club’s history,’ says McLeish.

‘I came off the bench to play, in midfield as it happened. And he said: “Put Tommy Burns out of the game.” I said, in true Nobby Stiles style: “For good?” And he said: “No, just mark him out of the game.” And we won that night, 2-1. That was when we started going to Glasgow and winning.

‘A lot of us had the winning mentality and Ferguson enhanced it. He did rule by fear. I had known nothing else because I was a new boy. I just thought this was the way every manager worked.

Gothenburg, May 1983: Fergie rallies them before extra-time

‘The biggest fear for me was losing my place in the team. That is what should drive every professional player.
‘It’s no secret Fergie could blast off in the dressing room. But as he has got more successful, he has mellowed.

'Some of it was definitely premeditated. He fined John Hewitt for overtaking him in his car after training. I can swear he turned that one on. I was in Fergie’s car when he was being overtaken and I’m sure he hadn’t noticed until we started winding him up about it. He was just humming away to his Frank Sinatra tapes.

‘So he says: “Aye, watch this.” He goes into the dressing room and blasts John. John leaves. White. Fergie comes out, winking at me. And I thought: “He can turn it on and off.” John Hewitt picked up his wages and found he was fined. I suppose Fergie didn’t have too much cause to blast me. I feel extra-privileged that I am closer than most who continue to keep in touch with him.’

•••••

The last word goes to Terry Scott, the kit man at Aberdeen. Scott symbolises another Ferguson trait: loyalty. Scott was in charge of the reserve team at Pittodrie when Ferguson arrived; 20 years later, Ferguson took his Manchester United back to Aberdeen for Scott's testimonial.

‘We got on great, right from the start, and we are still very close,’ says Scott. ‘His enthusiasm struck me at the start. He wanted to come in and do a job and I thought: “This is a man who knows what he is about.” He had a way with players, his man-management was excellent.

'He could sum up people right away and knew how to handle them. He knew those who could be shouted at and those who needed an occasional wee pat on the back. He took a lot of interest in the kids, which a lot of managers don’t.

The words of tribute come easily to Scott. In part, that is a reflection of the deep well of affection he has for the former Aberdeen manager. But it might also be because such words are well-practised. Before we spoke he had just been interviewed by a Granada TV crew who were preparing a documentary on the Manchester United manager. Nowadays the media can’t get enough of Alex Ferguson.

Gothenburg, May 1983: The final whistle goes

OPINION Success, succession, paternalism and generations
FEATURE Fergie's 10 best and 10 worst moments at Man United
HISTORY Alex Ferguson at Manchester United: A detailed history
GALLERY Every trophy Fergie won at Man United
PSYCHOLOGY Does Moyes have the mettle? An expert speaks
FEATURE Follow that! How legends' successors have fared or failed
PERFECT XI The Alex Ferguson Old Trafford Dream Team
GALLERY Fergie Time: A pictorial history of watch-tapping

FourFourTwo: Now on iPad

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:25:00 GMT

In the interests of keeping tech-savvy iPad-wafting FourFourTwo fans in the loop, it’s our great pleasure to bring to your attention the iPad edition of FourFourTwo magazine.

Completely re-designed for iPad, the mag focuses on the stories and dishes out little bits of interactivity when you need them. It includes everything from the monthly magazine but adds interactivity, with this month’s moving-picture highlights including PSG’s Lucas juggling a ball on his Parisien balcony and Michu chatting about his favourite training drill.

People have been pretty impressed so far, and Apple chose to run it as an Editor’s Choice not only on the front page of their Newsstand but also on the front page of the whole App Store. Woo-hoo!

Wing your way over to the App Store and have a gander at FourFourTwo's iPad edition. The future's here.

I want it! Gizzit me now!

Does Moyes have the mettle to follow Fergie? A psychologist speaks

Joe Brewin — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:33:00 GMT

With David Moyes announced as Sir Alex Ferguson's successor at Manchester United, Joe Brewin quizzes a top sports psychologist on the challenges ahead

The heart, the soul, the passion, the genius. The tantrums, teacups and rages. The watch-tapping, gum-chewing, dead-eyed stares and no-nonsense nagging. Soon it will all be gone. But somehow, somebody must step up to fill the gaping void left by Sir Alex Ferguson – and it’s outgoing Everton boss David Moyes.

After 11 years at Goodison Park, Fergie’s fellow Glaswegian is set for centre stage in football’s most thankless position. But just how do you follow a man like Fergie?

In all likelihood, Moyes won’t be able to match his predecessor’s 13 Premier League crowns, five FA Cups, four League Cups and two Champions League titles. He will not be the same untouchable presence at Carrington. But he will be expected to hit the ground running.

It will take a strong mind, of course. But more than that, according to leading sports psychologist Dan Abrahams, it will require every manager’s most desired commodity – respect.

“It’s a massive word in football,” Abrahams tells FourFourTwo. “That's where his biggest challenge lies, especially if he suffers a few opening defeats.

“Players like to be coached, rightly or wrongly, by managers who have a history of playing or a level of success at a certain level. If it was Arsene Wenger or Jose Mourinho going in, they could point to the Invincibles of 2003/04 or two Champions League titles.

“The challenge Moyes has is that he really can’t point to any trophies or any enormous successes, and he can’t draw upon an illustrious playing career. So how he builds that respect is going to be his big challenge.”

Ferguson didn’t have it easy when he took the reins at Old Trafford, but the underachieving club he took over in 1986 is a million miles from the one Moyes is about to inherit.

November 1986: Fergie and United’s players size each other up

Now the 50-year-old must work out how to gain the esteem of Ferguson’s country-conquering squad. After all, the likes of Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes have been exposed to nothing but the departing manager’s methods at club level. According to psychologist Abrahams, who has worked with top clubs including Tottenham, Celtic and West Ham, a balance is crucial.

“I don’t think it’s a case of stamping your authority and I don’t think it’s a case of stepping back,” he says. “I think it’s about doing what he’s done on a daily basis for many years at Everton.

“You just have a different selection of players, a different training ground, a different match day ground and a different coloured shirt.

“It is different for different players. It’s an art, it’s not an exact science and there are going to be some players who will be profoundly happy. Then there will be other players who would be profoundly disappointed and upset.

“What a new face has to bring, however, is renewed energy and vigour. At the same time, it’s almost cliché to say it, but you have to prove yourself to a new manager whoever you are.”

At Everton, Moyes gradually built a squad that climbed from finishing in the bottom six for six consecutive years to being in the top eight for seven seasons. But at Old Trafford he will preside over a glittering array of stars who, says Abrahams, may not necessarily warm to their new man immediately.

“If those players do not perceive Moyes to be good enough, if those players have the perception that they aren’t going to play for him – which can happen often – then his reign might last not that long,” he says.

“But it might be difficult for Manchester United players to rebel in the dressing room with Ferguson or Bobby Charlton in the background, with that rich history of success.”

United pride themselves on stability, and Abrahams says that the change of management can have a crucial effect on players.

“I’m warmed ‘em up for ye, Davie”

“What you can guarantee – and I’ve seen it – is that you do get a different player mentalities in training when a new man turns up,” he says. “They have to prove themselves and they have to show him they are capable of being first choice. There is plenty of competition between players for only 11 spots.

“Then there is the potential for fresh tactics and a new way of going forward. It is a fresh voice, so that is interesting, and it can be both exciting and daunting for players.

“At United there’s always a high intensity – it’s renowned for being that way – so whether that increases, whether the players enjoy that new voice and that new approach, remains to be seen.”

When the dust has settled, attentions will finally turn to his successor. Scrutiny from the start seems inevitable. And ultimately Moyes does not have silverware or European glory to fall back on. He has only his character and a respectable record with Everton that, to his great credit, has got him this far.

And so the million pound question: can he really succeed in Ferguson’s house?

“I’ve worked closely with players and coaches who have been with him and I think yes,” says Abrahams. “He’s intelligent, he’s calm, he’s tactically astute and to my mind he has been good in the transfer market over the years.

“I think he’ll absolutely love the challenge – and he’ll do it with a who-dares-wins attitude.”

Dan Abrahams is a leading sport psychologist who has worked with the likes of Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United and Celtic. See danabrahams.com for more.

OPINION Success, succession, paternalism and generations
FEATURE Fergie's 10 best and 10 worst moments at Man United
HISTORY Alex Ferguson at Manchester United: A detailed history
GALLERY Every trophy Fergie won at Man United
FEATURE Follow that! How legends' successors have fared or failed
PERFECT XI The Alex Ferguson Old Trafford Dream Team

Follow that! How the replacements for managerial greats have fared

Tom J Doyle — Thu, 09 May 2013 10:59:00 GMT

How do you follow a true great? With Sir Alex Ferguson leaving Manchester United, Tom J Doyle analyses those who have had big acts to follow

And with that, an era ended. Yes, the curtain is finally coming down on Sir Alex Ferguson’s epochal reign at Manchester United. After 26 years and 38 trophies (including 13 Premier League titles and two Champions Leagues) the Scot is finally leaving Old Trafford, a place so much like home that the North stand has even been named after him. With increasing commercial revenue and a squad finely balanced between the promising youth of Rafael, Phil Jones, Danny Welbeck and David de Gea and seasoned heads such as Robin van Persie and Michael Carrick, Ferguson could not be handing the baton over at a more appropriate time.

And yet… just how do you replace a man like Sir Alex Ferguson? That is the unenviable task facing the new arrival, and rightly or wrongly, they shall be judged by the great Scot’s achievements. It looks increasingly likely that David Moyes will be asked to have a crack at the most tantalising job in world football, but we live in a world littered with tales of managers trying – and failing – to replace successful men before them. Anybody hoping to step into the incumbent’s shoes to try out their own little awkward victory jig would do well to heed these lessons of the past…

No Brucie Bonus here
Scotland captain Bruce Rioch played for clubs such as Aston Villa, Derby County and Everton before impressing as a manager at Middlesbrough and Bolton, leading both up two divisions to the top flight with swashbuckling football. In June 1995 he arrived at Arsenal as the permanent replacement for George Graham, whose trophy-strewn Highbury career had ended in the ignominy of a bung scandal.

Straight-laced sergeant-major Rioch led the Gunners to fifth place (they had finished 12th the year before), helped by the signing of legend-in-waiting Dennis Bergkamp for a British record £7.5m. However, in September 1996 he was summarily sacked after clashing with the board over transfers – not helped by Ian Wright's transfer request after being dropped by Rioch, who unfavourably compared the terrace hero to Bolton forward John McGinlay. Arsenal hired Arsene Wenger, leaving Rioch as a prime example of a manager sandwiched in between reigns.

The not-so-Neilly men
A double European Cup winner with Nottingham Forest, Martin O'Neill managed his way up through Grantham Town, Shepshed Charterhouse, Wycombe Wanderers and Norwich City before joining Leicester in 1995. In five fabulous years he led the Foxes to two League Cup triumphs and four successive top-10 Premiership finishes before leaving for Celtic in 2000.

Since then, Leicester have made 13 managerial appointments, with much less success. Peter Taylor (pictured) was the first, lasting little over a season, and City dropped from the top flight two years after O'Neill's departure. Although Micky Adams took them back up in 2003, they went straight down and by 2008 were in the third tier. O’Neill’s current unemployment shows that while sides often suffer from the departure of a charismatic leader, a close relationship between club and manager can suit both parties. You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, and all that jazz.

A Clough act to follow
What more can you say about Brian Clough that the man hadn’t already said about himself? Perhaps the only manager to rival and even out-do Ferguson for controversy and ruthless desire, he led Nottingham Forest to the First Division title and two consecutive European Cups. However, Clough’s time with Forest came to a sorry end in 1993 with relegation in the inaugural Premier League season.

His immediate replacement, former Forest full-back turned Leyton Orient manager Frank Clark, led the club straight back into the top flight and finished third in the Premier League – but two seasons later Clark was gone and so were Forest, eventually landing in the third tier. They're now pushing for promotion back to the Premier League but they have made 14 'permanent' managerial appointments since Clough, whose shadow still looms large over the City Ground.

Big Sam, Little Sam
Replacing Sam Allardyce at Bolton was never going to be easy. 'Big Sam' had taken Wanderers from second-tier struggles to cup finals, Europe and four successive finishes in England's top eight. When Allardyce walked away in April 2007, Bolton promoted his assistant Sammy Lee: Little Sam stepping into Big Sam's sizeable shoes.

The former Liverpool player (and England coach) started well enough, steering Bolton into Europe as the 2006/07 season finished, but the one point from his two games in charge proved a reliable indicator. He was sacked in October after winning just five points from his first nine games. Gary Megson kept Bolton up, but Owen Coyle eventually took them down and Bolton are back in the second tier, awaiting another Allardyce.

Scottish spirit
Without wanting to put undue pressure on whoever replaces Ferguson at Old Trafford, the club’s older supporters have seen the same thing happen before with a previous Scottish great. Sir Matt Busby spent 24 years in the Old Trafford hot-seat and brought the glory years to Manchester United despite the tragedy of the Munich air crash, winning the European Cup (a first for a British club) in 1968 just 10 years after the destruction of his ‘Babes’.

However, after Busby became General Manager in 1969 the club went into decline. Amiable boot-room promotee Wilf McGuinness (pictured) lasted 18 months before Busby came back; the distant Frank O'Farrell lasted 18 months; Tommy Docherty even took them down a division. United had to wait for 26 years, and Alex Ferguson, before they were again Champions of England.

You’re the Guy for me
If ever a man knew a club inside out, it is Guy Roux. In 1961, at the age of 23, he became player-coach at amateur local-league Auxerre; 44 years later he was still there (although not playing, obviously), in charge of a club which had spent 25 consecutive season in the top flight, winning it in 1996. Paternalistic and hands-on, Roux developed Auxerre into a French powerhouse of emerging talent, with the likes of Eric Cantona, Laurent Blanc, Djibril Cisse and Philippe Mexes all getting a chance to develop under his tutelage. Apparently single-handedly, he moulded the club into a genuine force in French football; he started his reign manning the club’s switchboards, and ended it in 2005 winning the French Cup for a record-equalling fourth time.

Following him would always be a big ask – especially as Roux hovered in the background with a hand in transfer policy – and it proved beyond former France and Spurs manager Jacques Santini (pictured), who was sacked shortly after Roux's testimonial match. Jean Fernandez fared better, leading Auxerre into the 2010/11 Champions League, but Auxerre now languish in Ligue 2. It seems there’s only one Guy for Auxerre, and he’s not in the dugout.

So, if it is to be David Moyes for Manchester United, he must be sure to be his own man and stick to his guns. And listen to the money men of course. And the fans. And the media. And the…on second thoughts, it may well be worth taking a moment to raise a glass of your best red and realise that there will never be another like Sir Alex Ferguson. No? Didn’t think so. It’s over to you David – no pressure...

Success, succession, paternalism and generations: the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson

Gary Parkinson — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:48:00 GMT

FourFourTwo.com Editor Gary Parkinson reacts to the retirement of Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson

The shock is a surprise. It shouldn't be unexpected to hear of the retirement of a 71-year-old who has achieved all he ever wanted. But soundbite after soundbite starts with "shock", as if Sir Alex Ferguson's departure were an unexpected seismic wave.

It may not have been unforeseeable but it will change the bedrock of British football, and may have far-reaching effects. Ferguson's reign wasn't just long, it was huge: Manchester United became the world's biggest football club (and brand) and dominated the English game in an almost unprecedented manner.

Now, much of that is under threat. The club no longer has the financial muscle to dominate the transfer market, instead being forced to pick its battles (and redraw the lines where necessary, such as the purchase of Robin van Persie despite a previous determination not to spend money on ageing players with questionable resale value).

But while nouveau-riche clubs like Manchester City and Chelsea have spending power, they have struggled to compete with United's allure of consistency and stability, radiating from Ferguson. The pull of working for Sir Alex has been enough to attract several players who could have earned more elsewhere. Now those players will wonder how stable Old Trafford is; how long the knight's replacement will last.

SUCCESSION CRISIS

From success to succession. It has long been said that only a fool would follow Fergie into the hot seat; it's never easy to replace a legend. Who followed Queen Victoria on the British throne? Nobody wants to be the Gordon Brown to Ferguson's Tony Blair.

And the new man will work under a shadow. Just as Matt Busby loomed over Wilf McGuinness – and Liverpool had to ban Bill Shankly from the training ground, where he was turning up to interfere with Bob Paisley's sessions – Ferguson may struggle to avoid the temptation to dictate from the directors' box. Even if he means to keep his distance behind the scenes, he'll have to maintain near-silence in public if his words aren't to be twisted into tabloid fodder – especially as he will no longer have the unveiled threat of the next press conference with which to keep the hacks in line.

None of the potential replacements feels exactly right. David Moyes is the closest to a continuity candidate, mainly by dint of being a slightly scary Scot generally accepted to have Everton punching above their financial weight. But Moyes's team have frequently underperformed for months at a time, with late-season runs saving face; imagine the media reaction if Manchester United were 14th in December, as Everton were last season, or won one game in two months, as happened this autumn. True, Moyes would have better players, but he would also have to up his game considerably against the better opponents: his Everton sides have failed to win in 45 away games against the traditional "big four", picking up just 18 points from 135.

Then there's Jose Mourinho, fluttering his eyelashes and suddenly ignoring texts from Roman Abramovich. Mourinho certainly has the stones to replace his good friend Ferguson, and the trophy-laden pedigree to match the job, but there are large question marks over his dominating personality and the club's subsequent stability: he hasn't lasted more than three seasons at any club, and tends to leave broken hearts behind him.

The decision is an incredibly difficult one for the club's hierarchy, and they will be criticised whoever they appoint: a promising young manager like Jürgen Klopp will be "unproven", while an older hand like Ottmar Hitzfeld or Jupp Heynckes would be "short-termism" and a pale imitation of Ferguson. And however the succession is handled, it will throw fresh spotlight on the running of a club which is already having to cope with replacing powerful chief executive David Gill in the summer.

Without the protective shield of Ferguson and Gill, the never-popular Glazers will find themselves increasingly exposed to public question. A club united – pun very much intended – by the unimpeachable knight may find itself pulled in different directions, with impatient rivals only too happy to capitalise. United have won 13 of the 21 Premier League titles and it's easy to forecast they won't match that rate, but it's to be hoped that the competition becomes more keenly contested rather than simply being dominated by someone else.

PATERNALISM AND GENERATIONS

There will be those who mourn the passing of an era by calling Ferguson the last great paternalistic manager. That's an understandable overstatement. While some are happy to concentrate on the first team, there are plenty of managers who want top-to-bottom control of their club – Moyes, Arsene Wenger and Sam Allardyce spring immediately to mind – and gradually gain it as their success earns them authority. If a manager brings glory to the first team and expresses an intelligent interest in improving the Academy or scouting system, the board will usually listen. Business sense and managerial structure doesn't end with one retirement.

In the end, we should be glad that Ferguson has retired, because there were fears that he wouldn't. Not just from embittered rivals – and there were plenty of those, for Fergie loved to ruffle feathers while knocking off perches – but also from those who remember the fate of his mentor, Jock Stein. Ferguson, who had recruited the former Celtic legend in the run-up to Aberdeen's 1983 European Cup Winners' Cup triumph, was again alongside the big man on 10th September 1985 when Stein died on duty, having suffered a heart attack during Scotland's crucial World Cup qualifier in Wales. Stein was 62, nine years younger than Ferguson is now, and although the outgoing Manchester United manager appears to have kept himself in good physical condition it has long been a worry that the ever-passionate Ferguson might suffer the same fate.

Football is a very different game to when Ferguson first took charge in 1974, as East Stirlingshire's part-time manager on £40 per week. In particular, the English top flight has changed immensely since his Old Trafford appointment in November 1986: that season, newly-promoted Norwich finished fifth, and you had to scroll past Wimbledon, Luton, Forest, Watford and Coventry in the final table to find United down in 11th. That's not to mention the enormous off-field changes – the Taylor Report-sponsored surge to all-seater stadia, the Premier League's concentration of money at the top of the pyramid, the wall-to-wall media coverage via Sky and the worldwide web (neither of which existed when Fergie moved to Manchester), and the huge increases in revenue which have changed the face of football.

An entire generation has grown up with Ferguson bestriding the English game. There are players, journalists and millions of fans who have known no other Manchester United manager, no other top man in the Premier League – for even when others won the title, and even when Mourinho first came to England, there was no doubting Ferguson's position as the grand old man of the game. He reached the standard retirement age of 65 on New Year's Eve 2006; since then he has won another five top-flight titles, a number only bettered in entire careers by Bob Paisley and Aston Villa's 19th-century secretary-manager George Ramsay.

Five league titles is also the total achieved by Herbert Chapman and Matt Busby, both managers with whom Ferguson has strong parallels. In the final analysis, it may be that Chapman changed football more than Ferguson – even Sir Alex can't have a claim to have introduced the concept of tactics, or changed the prevailing mindset to reflect alterations to the Laws of the Game – but Fergie relishes the comparison to Sir Matt, Old Trafford's previous legendary patriarch.

Like Busby, Ferguson is a hard-bitten son of the West Scotland industrial zone who, following a reasonably well-regarded but hardly spectacular playing career, arrived at Old Trafford intent on single-handedly shaking up an underachieving club – and did so, with extraordinary success. Both men did so by root-and-branch reform of an ailing club, with particular attention given to youth development, and both men reaped rich rewards from the fruit of that youth system, eventually conquering the continent.

When Fergie arrived at Old Trafford, nobody asked him to replicate Busby's success; the overarching aim was to end the 20-year wait for a league title. Ferguson delivered spectacularly, regularly and joyously – not every manager celebrates his team's goals with such obvious relish. The desire to entertain was topped only by the need to succeed. Now Manchester United need to find his successor, and the world will be watching with interest.

FEATURE Fergie's 10 best and 10 worst moments at Man United
HISTORY Alex Ferguson at Manchester United: A detailed history
GALLERY Every trophy Fergie won at Man United
PERFECT XI The Alex Ferguson Old Trafford Dream Team
GALLERY Fergie Time: A pictorial history of watch-tapping

Fergie Time: A pictorial guide to Sir Alex's various watch-tapping techniques

James Maw — Wed, 08 May 2013 10:47:00 GMT

Sir Alex Ferguson is famous for three things: Being a great football manager, have a malfunctioning backside, and being strict timekeeper (when it suits).

Here's our guide to his moves as far as the latter is concerned...

The Kenneth Williams

The Dying Swan

The Raging Elbow

The Inverted V-Sign

The Subtle Hint

The 'No Jacket Required'

The Late-Returning Drunken Teenage Daughter

The Delayed 18:24 Service To Manchester Piccadilly, Calling At...

The "Sh*t, I'm Missing Peak Practice"

The Plastic-Strapped Claw

The "Don't Even Go There, Girlfriend"

The Master watches the Apprentice...?

Hislop: No question Manchester United could cope without Wayne Rooney

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 08 May 2013 08:30:00 GMT

For the last time this season, ESPN have posed a trio of FourFourTwo readers' topical questions in an exclusive addendum to their Press Pass show – this week, former Reading, Newcastle and West Ham goalkeeper Shaka Hislop answers the following posers:

Is a wide-open relegation battle the sign of a strong league, or a weak league?
Would Manchester United cope without Wayne Rooney better than Wayne Rooney would cope without Manchester United?
How might Mourinho's potential return to Chelsea go wrong?

ESPNFC Press Pass - the football discussion show that takes a daily look at the global game - airs at 11pm Monday to Friday, plus Sunday evenings on ESPN. Follow the show on Twitter

Bad Weekend for: Dreamers, holiday-bookers, Posh folks and Watford goalkeepers

Simon Carter — Tue, 07 May 2013 15:00:00 GMT

It was a Bad Weekend for…

Those who thought they were safe
Reading's trip to Fulham held a significance that nobody expected. With the Cottagers on 40 points and the Royals already relegated, the fixture seemed set to be an end-of-season stroll in which Martin Jol's men would quietly guarantee their already almost certain safety.

However, a 4-2 defeat leaves the Londoners still stuck on the ‘magical’ 40 points, which could by tonight be just two points clear of safety (if Wigan beat Swansea) with two games to play. Norwich’s 2-1 home reverse to resurgent Aston Villa, Southampton’s loss at Tottenham and Newcastle’s draw at West Ham squeezed a bottom half in which nobody is yet safe.

As the sun sets on another Premier League season, the early completion of the title race and rapid relegation of two candidates threatened to render the season end dull, especially compared to the excitement in the Football League. But a final fortnight's relegation battle between seven or eight teams should be enough to keep us watching until May 19th.

Watford goalkeepers
The Championship's astonishing last-day drama can be approached from many different angles. And the most compelling tale of the automatic promotion drama centred on young Jack Bonham.

As Watford sought the victory over Leeds that could seal promotion if Hull failed to beat Cardiff, the 19-year-old Hornets goalkeeper had arrived at Vicarage Road expecting to watch from the stands; after all, thus far in his tender career he hadn't made a senior club appearance or even been named in the matchday squad. Then Manuel Almunia pulled a hamstring in the warm-up and Bonham was on the bench – until the 24th minute, when Almunia's replacement Jonathan Bond suffered a sickening collision. While nine medics took 12 minutes to load a neck-braced Bond onto a stretcher and staff cleared the pitch of bloodied tissues, Bonham warmed up on the touchline.

It didn’t take long for what could have been a dream debut – promotion and all of that – to turn into a nightmare. Less than 20 minutes after coming on, Bonham was involved in a mix-up with Joel Ekstrand which allowed Leeds' Dominic Poleon to roll into an empty net.

Almen Abdi's quality equaliser gave the Hornets hope, and the injury delay brought the advantage of foreknowledge: Watford could react to Hull's result against Cardiff. So when the champions equalised late on at the KC, all of Vicarage Road knew that Gianfranco Zola's men had 15 minutes to score a promotion-clinching goal.

Watford gamely threw everything forward, leaving them vulnerable to the inevitable counter-attack. As Hull’s players and fans watched on TV screens and smartphones, breaking the habit of a lifetime by willing Leeds on, Ross McCormack broke beyond the Watford defence and tried to chip the young goalkeeper. The chip was tame but Bonham found himself caught between palming the ball, punching it and attempting to catch it. In the end, he did none, instead merely helping the ball into the goal.

So, Gianfranco Zola and Watford go into the play-offs to face late re-entrants Leicester City – possibly with Bonham still between the sticks. Let’s hope he continues to show the spirit demonstrated by his post-match tweet: "I believe in myself, my ability and have the best people around me to go forward."

Posh folk
Meanwhile, at the other end of the table the relegation candidates swapped places seven times in a fraught 90 minutes before the fickle finger of misfortune finally pointed at Peterborough.

Some would say that the writing was on the wall as early as September after the Posh lost their opening seven games, but Darren Ferguson’s men have fought hard since then, amassing 54 points from 39 games. Not a great return, sure, but a better haul than their fellow relegation candidates. And at least they fought to the end, unlike Wolves, who surrendered their Championship status with a whimpering 2-0 loss at Brighton.

Cruellest of all for Peterborough was the manner of their relegation. With their fate in their own hands, a point would have been enough to save them, and with only seven minutes remaining in their game at Crystal Palace, they had all three. Even Kevin Phillips' 83rd-minute equaliser was OK, considering Barnsley were drawing at Huddersfield and had a worse goal difference. But with seconds remaining a Mile Jedinak header gave Palace all three points and sent Peterborough back into League One.

It was a heartbreaking end to a rollercoaster season. For the neutral, however, it was incredible.

Shattered dreamers
The play-offs can the most exciting, exhilarating way to end a season – the likes of Watford, Brighton, Crystal Palace and Leicester will certainly hope so – but they can also be cruel.

So pity poor Burton Albion – who missed out on automatic promotion from League Two by two points – and Cheltenham, who were one point further back: both saw their promotion dream end this weekend with play-off defeat. Pity Sheffield United, who saw a 1-0 first-leg lead wiped out at Yeovil. Perhaps most of all pity Swindon, whose season ended in penalty shoot-out defeat to Brentford (although it was heartening to see the Bees win on penalties after the way they missed out on promotion last week). With Wembley in use next week for the FA Cup final, the finalists face a fortnight's wait. All the worse for those who finally lose.

Hednesford Town
Last Friday FourFourTwo previewed the title race in the Evo-Stik Northern Premier, where North Ferriby United and Hednesford Town have battled for the sole automatic promotion spot. With both sides in terrific form and going into the game on 90 points, one of them was destined to be consigned to the dustbin of ‘unlucky losers’.

Hednesford started the day in second place on goal difference and did all they could, winning 2-1 at fifth-place AFC Fylde with a late goal. Unfortunately for them, North Ferriby were at the same time cruising to a 2-0 home victory over Ashton.

So Hednesford once again face Fylde, this time tonight at home in the play-offs. It's a hurdle they have fallen at for three consecutive years, but fans of the Pitmen will be praying that their stunning form – which saw them claw back a nine-point disadvantage in six weeks – will pull them into the Conference North this time around.

Last day drama in the Evo-Stik Premier puts Football League in the shade

Simon Carter — Fri, 03 May 2013 10:47:00 GMT

Followers of English football have pretty much been starved of top-of-the-table drama this season, with three of England’s top four divisions crowning their title winners weeks before the end of the campaign.

While caps must assuredly be doffed to Manchester United, Cardiff City and Gillingham, the second half of the season has lacked the drama of a barnstorming title battle in the Premier League, Championship and League Two.

While Doncaster Rovers’ breathtaking 95th minute ascension to the top of League One on the final day of the season will take some beating, those with an eye on the Evo-Stik League Northern Premier Division will half be expecting something even more dramatic.

After a season long dust-up, North Ferriby United and Hednesford Town go into the final game neck and neck on 90 points. This tally is certainly impressive - indeed, it would have been enough to win any of the four elite divisions, but the points accrued only tell part of the thrilling season-long story.

Hednesford couldn’t have possibly wished for a better pick-me-up following last season’s play-off heartbreak (the ‘Pitmen’ have suffered play-off defeat for three seasons on the bounce). They won five of their first seven games, drawing the other two.

A surprise home defeat to Worksop Town (by the relatively jaw dropping score of 4-0) was one of only three pre-Christmas defeats.

North Ferriby started more slowly. They picked up just one point from the first nine, but came to life in late-August with a 4-0 thumping of Frickley Athletic at the catchily-named Rapid Solicitors Stadium. That win spurred them into a run of five consecutive wins. They wouldn’t lose again in the league until early December.

That defeat came against the team who would prove to be their title rivals. Hednesford’s 3-2 win boosted their title push, while sparking a mini slump for the home side, who wouldn’t win again until Boxing Day.

Both sides’ form since the New Year has been exemplary, with North Ferriby losing just once, and racking up goal difference bothering 6-1 and 5-1 wins against Eastwood Town and Stocksbridge Park Steels along the way. Hednesford have been almost as consistent, losing two league games. One of those two defeats came in the second meeting with North Ferriby, who exacted revenge with a 3-2 away victory of their own.

The nine months leading up to Saturday’s decider have been memorable, bordering on vintage, for supporters of both clubs, with both North Ferriby and Hednesford hoping to add the league title to cup success. North Ferriby claimed the Doodson Sports Cup thanks to a penalty shoot-out victory over Curzon Ashton; Hednesford took the Staffordshire Senior Cup by thrashing Rushall Olympic 5-1 at Port Vale, and the Birmingham Senior Cup at Walsall’s Bescot Stadium by dispatching Sutton Coldfield Town).

So it all comes down to the final game. North Ferriby host Ashton United, whose manager, Danny Johnson announced his resignation on Monday. Hednesford, meanwhile, travel to AFC Fylde, who have secured their own play-off spot after a spate of rearranged games.

It’s not quite winner-takes-all, with North Ferriby clearly in the box seat thanks to a eight-goal advantage in the goal-difference stakes. But in a season that has seen so many twists and turns, the last day of the Evo-Stik Northern Premier could create tension, excitement and glory to match anything the upper echelons of the English game has produces this season.

NEW ISSUE Galacticos Reunited, 10 years on: Zizou, Ronaldo, Figo & Bobby Carlos talk to FFT

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:48:00 GMT

Ten years ago, FourFourTwo collected Galacticos. Our iconic March 2003 issue featured Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos, among others, on what it's like inside the world's biggest club.

Things have changed a lot since, but to mark the 10th anniversary we tracked down all four legends, shoved them in the famous shirts – now officially retro, and no jokes about Ronaldo please – and asked them again about the majesty and madness of millennial Madrid: "We were like The Beatles," says Figo.

In a compelling 20-page special, Zizou reveals that he cried before his final game, while all involved speak of the fun they had – on and off the pitch. "Look at us on that cover," says Figo: "Everyone is laughing." No wonder. "We were like kids enjoying ourselves on the pitch," says Roberto Carlos. "I was lucky to be able to play with those players," agrees Zizou, while Ronaldo simply says: "It was wonderful". He's not wrong. Read all about it in the new issue – out Wed 1 May.

There may never be another Galacticos project, but the name is often mentioned when clubs buy big names for big money. One such club is Paris Saint-Germain, who shelled out €43m on Brazilian prodigy Lucas Moura – and again FFT is right there with him.

Hopping into Lucas's white Porsche Cayenne, we go on a turbocharged tour of Paris while he talks openly about his humble childhood, his decision not to move to Manchester United, Brazil's World Cup chances and his plans to topple the great Leo Messi.

The millionaires might be getting younger, but at the other end of the age scale some players are playing into their late thirties. So why did Michael Owen retire at 33? FFT investigates the theories behind burnout, quizzing the experts and discovering how sports-science centres like the Milan Lab are analysing the psychology behind longevity.

One man who played on to his late thirties was Lee Dixon, and the Arsenal legend is this month's One on One victim, discussing his anger towards George Graham, the time he pinched Patrick Vieira's car keys, how he could have stopped Ryan Giggs in 1999 and why he swapped the BBC for ITV.

But FourFourTwo has never been just about the big names and bright lights, and we spent Easter with the homeless: namely Gateshead, who have been on the road since January due to a turfing mishap. As the manager says, "Maybe we'll be a really good away side next season..."

We also hear another side of football from disabled fans, learning what it's like to get "coined" in your wheelchair or toppled over in crowd surges – and how facilities have improved surprisingly slowly: at the 1999 Champions League final, disabled fans were given a letterbox view of the pitch which didn't include either goal…

FFT also journeys back in time to the Victorian era, when football was first codified – but players smoked their pipes, used their hands, "hacked" each other with impunity and used people as the woodwork.

We also glance back to Lazio's 1974 Scudetto-winning team, the Italian Crazy Gang who upset the established order, the opposition and each other, their absorbing story ending in tragedy.

Plus: The amazing first column from our new writer Diego Forlan, a fascinating Champions League finals infographic and picture special, what autographs say about a player and, in our Performance playing-advice section, a masterclass from Michu.

FOURFOURTWO NOW ON iPAD! The world's greatest football magazine is now available on iPad. Featuring everything in the magazine with added interactivity – this month’s moving-picture highlights include Lucas juggling a ball on his Parisien balcony and Michu chatting about his favourite training drill – the iPad app is available for free here.

Vine videos of the new issue in print and iPad form

This issue of FourFourTwo was brought to you by Lee Dixon, Adrian Chiles, Ibrahim Affelay, Gianluca Vialli, the Deaf Champions League, Irvine Welsh, MOTD2 editor Stephen Lyle, Andy Hinchcliffe, Diego Forlan, The Player, Zinedine Zidane, Roberto Carlos, Luis Figo, Ronaldo, Michel Salgado, Manchester United head of fitness and conditioning Tony Strudwick, Southampton head of sports science Mo Gimpel, Javier Zanetti, Martin Keown, Professor Magni Mohr, Lucas Moura, Gateshead chairman Graham Wood, Gateshead manager Anth Smith and various "Heed Army" fans, disabled supporters Chas Banks, Phil Downs, Kevin Peek and Melvin Collins, Italian journalist Francesco Recanatesi, Felice Pulici, Luigi Martini, Bob McNab, Rene Girard, Carlos Ruiz, Tom Dent, Pablo Luguercio, Antonio Luiz Neto, Jesus Tricolor (no, really), Everton strength and conditioning coach Dave Billows, Willian, Sebastian Bassong, Michu, Mikel Arteta, Adebayo Akinfenwa, Stuart Pearce, Nathan Ellington and Sami Hyypia.

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It was a Bad Weekend for… Men, dinosaurs and Bees

Simon Carter — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:32:00 GMT

It was a Bad Weekend for…

Men in black (and white)
There’s no doubt that this has been a massive week. Forget Luis Suarez and all that, news of JLS splitting up (they only had one shot, and they made it count) shook a world already slipping off its axis at the realisation the Bundesliga had taken over football. And so it was on Saturday that the Premier League represented a welcome break for us all.

All except Newcastle, still shaken from their derby defeat of a fortnight ago (and the aforementioned JLS bombshell), abysmal for 90 minutes and worth every bit of a 6-0 home defeat to Liverpool – their worst for nearly a century.

That is not to say Liverpool weren’t magnificent. They were efficient with possession and clever with their movement. Philippe Coutinho, Daniel Sturridge and Jordan Henderson were able to roam and play with freedom, while the visitors were unusually clinical, scoring six goals from just 11 shots. Remember, this was a side deprived of their top scorer: manager Brendan Rodgers wore a ghastly black shirt/tie combo in mourning for his suspended Uruguayan. Or was it a tribute to Kop favourite Johnny Cash?

But as good as Liverpool were on Saturday, Newcastle were much worse. Following this defeat the Magpies are just five points above the drop zone and give the appearance of a side sleepwalking their way to relegation. The lack of remaining games and the general incompetency of the sides below them may well save the Toon but this has been a rotten year for last season’s surprise package.

The bottom two
It’s customary to feel sorry for relegated clubs, empathising with their fans for the heartache of dropping a division after a season of false hope. But any sympathy evaporated over 90 listless, turgid minutes at Reading as the Premier League’s bottom two served up a terrible advert for Championship football.

We sympathise for the 23,388 fans at the Madejski Stadium, who lost time they will never, ever get back, but the goalless draw that confirmed both Reading and QPR’s relegations will have surely made every neutral thrilled to see the back of both.

Shearer, Hansen and Lawro
Though in danger of being touted the ‘Poor Man’s Gary Neville’, Everton’s Phil Neville took his seat on the Match of the Day sofa on Saturday to test his punditry chops next to the mighty Alan ‘never heard of Hatem Ben Arfa’ Shearer. And it took just a few seconds for Neville Junior to show BBC viewers that there is more to analysis than simply describing exactly what happened out on the pitch.

In the process of talking viewers through Liverpool’s many goals against Newcastle, Neville gave the viewer insight, showed nous and spoke with the simple touch that viewers of Sky’s Monday Night Football have come to love from his elder brother. Meanwhile, when Gary Lineker asked Shearer what had gone wrong for Newcastle, he informed us that they lacked desire. Thanks Alan.

It’s probably too much to ask that Alan Hansen will expand beyond his famed one word summaries (think “Passion. Pace. Desire. Skill. Kick”) or that Mark Lawrenson will tone down his one-man comedy routine. But with Neville leaving Everton this summer, the BBC could do much worse than convince him to sign a contract with them.

Robert Madley
What better way to ease into a Premier League refereeing career than with an end-of-season, mid-table contest with nothing at stake? For Robert Madley, West Brom’s visit to Southampton on Saturday ticked all the boxes for his first shot at officiating an elite game – until it all started to go wrong.

Three red cards later and the wrath of fans of both sides weighing heavy, Madley will have travelled home on Saturday teatime seriously debating his latest career move.

Dean Saunders
In a season that has seen its share of questionable managerial moves – Michael Appleton must regret his flit from Blackpool to Blackburn – it’s hard to top Dean Saunders’ mid-season dash from Doncaster Rovers to Wolverhampton Wanderers.

At the time, the switch seemed very clever. League One Doncaster were riding high (as was Saunders’ reputation) while Wolves were in a ‘surely it can’t get any worse’ position after the disastrous tenure of Stale Solbakken. At the time, Doncaster were running into rocky ground – a patch of poor form immediately before and after Saunders’ departure threatened their season – and Wolves were desperate.

Oh, hindsight. In a week where Robert Downey Jr. quipped his way back onto screen as a slightly emo Iron Man, hindsight again proved itself as the one superpower really worth having as Wolves wandered even deeper into Championship relegation trouble by way of a 2-1 home defeat to Burnley. Doncaster, meanwhile, won the League One title, in astonishing circumstances we'll come to further down the page.

Results elsewhere mean that to preserve their Championship status, Wolves need a final-day win, defeats for Peterborough and Barnsley, and a four-goal swing. It’s not impossible but as Scunthorpe proved in League One (relegated despite beating play-off-bound Swindon 3-1), when you put your fate in the hands of others even the biggest of efforts can prove fruitless.

As for Saunders, though he's no superhero, you can forgive him too for feeling a little bit emo as he contemplates his passage back to League One – while the club he left behind celebrates leapfrogging him.

Bees
What a weekend for bees! A late spring and growing use of pesticides, coupled with three years of unpredictable weather, has seen the UK’s bee population plummet. Now there are real concerns over honey quantities and crop yields dependent on the insects’ famed pollination skills.

But the sorry plight of our bee population dives almost into insignificance when compared with our footballing Bees.

Brentford started the day in third place in League One, two points behind the team they faced at Griffin Park, Doncaster. The maths were simple: if Brentford won, they would be promoted. If they didn’t, they would wind up in the play-offs and Doncaster would go up automatically.

A tense and even game all came down to a 95th-minute ‘next goal wins’ scenario when Brentford were awarded a penalty. Club captain Kevin O’Connor was the man whom Brentford manager Uwe Rosler “selected to take the penalty”, but Marcello Trotta grabbed the ball – and in the excitement and tension of the moment, the Bees players decided among themselves to entrust the Italian loanee, rather than the 486-appearance legend in his 15th year at the club, with the kick that would take them to the Championship.

As Trotta's penalty crashed against the crossbar Brentford’s players and fans stopped, stunned, knowing their chance of automatic promotion was gone. Worse was to come for the Bees, as Doncaster raced up the other end to score a winner through their own long servant James Coppinger. It was a goal that would ultimately win them the title at the expense of Bournemouth, who finished second after a goalless draw at Tranmere.

Meanwhile in League Two, a seven-way battle to avoid relegation came to rest on the results of just two games: AFC Wimbledon’s home clash against Fleetwood, and Barnet’s visit to Northampton. Wimbledon had started the day in the bottom two with Aldershot (relegated after a brave but unsurprising 2-0 defeat at Rotherham, who achieved promotion) and a goal difference that was the worst in the division. In short, only a win would do.

And just like the League One promotion chase, League Two’s relegation battle came down to a penalty kick. With the scores tied at 1-1, Jack Midson netted from 12 yards to put Wimbledon ahead with 18 minutes remaining. Depending on results elsewhere, this could have relegated any one of four other clubs, or even Wimbledon themselves.

Fortunately for Wimbledon, at roughly the same time, Northampton were knocking in a quickfire double that would ultimately send Barnet – Edgar Davids and all – to non-league football.

Leagues One and Two have been as rich and entertaining as ever and will be massively missed over the final few weeks of the season, with most Premier League business taken care of and the Championship ending next week.

But no fear – the play-offs start on Thursday.

Your chance to be in an ad with Gareth Bale and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:00:00 GMT

Are you a grassroots football player? Do you always strive to perform to the highest level possible? Then you could star in Lucozade Sport’s new advertising campaign and meet two Premier League stars.

One lucky FourFourTwo reader will win the opportunity to participate in a photoshoot in May 2013, alongside Lucozade Sport ambassadors Gareth Bale and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain.

That lucky reader could be you. If you want to meet the Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal stars, all you have to do is tweet a photo of yourself on the pitch in your football gear to @FourFourTwo, with the hashtag #LucozadeSportStar.

For terms and conditions, click here

Suarez bite: "I've seen worse"

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:05:00 GMT

Once again, ESPN have posed a trio of FourFourTwo readers' topical questions in an exclusive addendum to their Press Pass show – this week, former US international defender Janusz Michallik answers the following posers:

Is Suarez's bite the worst thing you've seen on a football pitch?
Is Europe entering a new period of German and Spanish dominance?
Which European player would you like to see switch to the MLS?

ESPNFC Press Pass - the football discussion show that takes a daily look at the global game - airs at 11pm Monday to Friday, plus Sunday evenings on ESPN. Follow the show on Twitter

It was a Bad Weekend for... dentists, apologists and escapologists

Simon Carter — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:53:00 GMT

It was a Bad Weekend for…

Unsavoury Suarez
Did he have a bad weekend? Or did Luis Suarez have exactly the type of weekend that he thrives on? It’s not news that the Uruguayan is partial to a little controversy. Anyone could immediately name several unsavoury episodes, and while he almost always apologises afterwards, the fact is that he keeps on finding trouble.

Liverpool’s excellent game with Chelsea yesterday afternoon could have been about goals, substitutions (Rafa Benitez, we’re looking at you) and Daniel Sturridge, but Suarez made sure it was all about him. And in 90 minutes we saw every argument for and against his winning the PFA Player of the Year award.

First, the good. Mazy runs, shot after shot, a simply beautiful assist for Sturridge to score Liverpool’s first equaliser and a late, late goal himself to rescue a dramatic point for his side.

Now, the bad. Despite protestations that the sun was in his eyes, there was no need for Suarez to handle the ball to turn a relatively harmless Chelsea corner into a penalty kick. This coming just minutes after the aforementioned assist made it all the more frustrating. And then came the bite.

There aren’t words to describe the idiocy, the shamefulness and the brutality of biting Branislav Ivanovic. It was a disgusting act that would be funny were it not so disgusting. He has, of course, got form here. Back in November 2010, while captain of Ajax, Suarez bit PSV Eindhoven's Otman Bakkal.

The resultant ban of seven league games meant that he never played in the Eredivisie again as he signed for Liverpool before the suspension was up. With his current employers almost certain to miss out on European football next season, and a lengthy ban Premier League no doubt on the horizon, who can say with any certainty that we’ll see Suarez in a Liverpool shirt again?

If he is to leave, would we miss him? His skill is undoubted but unlike Mario Balotelli, the incidents that follow and surround him leave a bad taste. While the Premier League is the poorer for Balotelli’s absence, there will be many who would be glad to see the back of Liverpool’s current No.7.

The champions
Manchester City’s title defence hasn’t been the disaster that many make it out to be. True, they're a country mile behind their local rivals, but they have spent most of the season comfortably ahead of the chasing pack, beaten United at Old Trafford and reached the FA Cup final.
So it could have been worse.

But for all the good they have done, the season could well be remembered for the meek surrender of one Sunday afternoon in North London. For an hour City cruised, leading 1-0 thanks to a simple but well-worked early goal from Samir Nasri. In a game they needed to win to ensure that the title race lasted for at least one more week, the champions were cool and in control.

And then Tottenham scored. A mis-communication between Joe Hart and Vincent Kompany allowed Clint Dempsey to poke the equaliser, and that was all it took for City to give up the ghost, the game and the title race. Within five minutes, Spurs were in front as the Citizens fell apart, Jermain Defoe with an excellent finish before Gareth Bale completed the comeback with an excellent third.

So all eyes are on Old Trafford tonight. If United win, they are champions; if Aston Villa win, both QPR and Reading are relegated. If it’s a draw… well, erm… there's more to look forward to this weekend.

Wigan’s spring
We all know the drill: Wigan are exceptionally poor from August to March and then inexplicably turn into the English Barcelona (with more pie than paella) and sweep all before them to preserve their Premier League status. It happens year after year and has been the subject of lazy punditry and lazy journalism (ahem) for weeks now.

Except nobody seems to have told Wigan.

While it is entirely possible that Roberto Martinez is simply setting up a scenario that will challenge his considerable Houdini skills, Wigan’s spring 2013 form has been patchy at best. An FA Cup run has diverted attention and late home wins in the league against Newcastle and Norwich at the end of March kept the clichés coming, but since then they have struggled to a draw at QPR and been goallessly beaten at Manchester City and, on Saturday, at West Ham.

Martinez batted away questions about whether the cup run has delayed his side's annual spring spurt, but the Latics are leaving it late. If they don’t improve over their next three games – against Champions League-chasing Spurs, obdurate West Brom and Martinez's old side Swansea – they could run out at Wembley already relegated.

Hooped drop-danglers
If Wigan have worries, it's almost resignation time for their bottom-three colleagues QPR and Reading, who were both easily beaten (2-0 by Stoke and 2-1 to Norwich respectively).

The hooped brethren are now so far behind the rest of the league that they could have their relegations confirmed tonight – albeit only in the unlikely event that Aston Villa win at Old Trafford.

Rangers’ manager Harry Redknapp summed up the hopes of both sides when he said that any thoughts of survival were now “in tatters”.

Steve Sidwell's stats
Joey Ramone once said, to paraphrase, that being in a rock band was an awesome job, but when it came down to it, it was still a job and therefore still sucked. While most of us wouldn’t agree that this applies to being a Premier League footballer, it seems that Fulham’s Steve Sidwell is right on Ramone’s side.

See, Sidwell was in a funk about returning to work after a lovely bit of time off following a recent red card. Presumably Sidwell spent his three-game holiday doing what the rest of us do when off work: played a bit of PlayStation, ate toast for lunch, watched Homes Under the Hammer and tossed a coin to decide whether to shower or not. And he was in no mood to give up that utopia just yet.

And so, 12 minutes into his return against Arsenal, Sidwell took strike action. Unfortunately for the Gunners’ Mikel Arteta, Sidwell struck the Spaniard’s ankle.

So another red card and at least another three games off. If Sidwell plays his cards right, he might never have to go to work again.

The forgotten few
Though it’s very unlikely that West Brom will mount a late charge for fifth place and a Europa League spot, or that Fulham will be dragged into the Championship, every team in the Premier League still has something, mathematically, to play for.

Not so in the Football League. With England’s bottom three tiers on winding-up duty, the amount of sides with nothing interesting going on – no relegation scrap, no play-off rumble – is growing by the game.

Saturday's results mathematically ended the season for Championship sides Birmingham, Derby, Leeds and Middlesbrough (although Boro haven't been seen much since Christmas anyway). In League One, where most teams have just one game left to play, there are 13 teams who will snore their way through next weekend and it’s probably best to avoid the Facebook updates of the 10 League Two sides from Chesterfield down to Accrington who all have nothing interesting to say.

This time of year is without doubt the most exciting, dramatic, torturous and exciting of the year. For many, it’s the reason we love football. But as April draws to a close, spare a thought for those with nothing whatsoever to play for.

Scunthorpe's great escape
Even if it's making hearts race in northern Lincolnshire, Scunthorpe's end-of-season attempt to get out of the relegation zone might not make a screenplay. Two wins and a draw from their last six isn't Hollywood stuff, but Saturday's 1-0 win at MK Dons gave the Iron hope of a happy ending.

Sadly for Scunny, at the same time their rivals were also doing well: Oldham beat Crawley while Colchester and Shrewsbury fought out a 0-0 which saved the Shrews but left the U's three points above the drop zone.

And so in Saturday's final reel, Scunthorpe must win their home game against play-off side Swindon, hope that Colchester lose at Carlisle and pray for a three-goal swing along the way. It’s tense, it's improbable, but at least it's possible.

Nerves at the bottom of League Two
Much like Scunthorpe in the league above them, Aldershot grabbed themselves what may ultimately prove to be a pointless win on Saturday by beating Dagenham & Redbridge at home.

The victory keeps the Shots’ slim survival hopes alive, but their Football League future is more than precarious, being three points and six goals from safety – with their sole remaining game a trip to Rotherham, who need the win to ensure promotion. But it also drags the Daggers three places down into the drop-zone dog fight.

We’ve loved the bonkers League Two relegation battle this year, and there are still seven sides – more than a quarter of the league – who can still go down, so who’s to say Aldershot can’t pull off the improbable? Given that four of the bottom seven won on Saturday, only a fool would rule anything out.

Exe offenders
Exeter City’s season unravel since Christmas when a promising promotion charge started to derail, week by week. Without a win since March, and with the play-offs disappearing, the Grecians needed to beat Cheltenham on Saturday to keep their season alive.

Well, it was never going to happen. The Devonshire side have been absolutely stripped of confidence and although they went through the motions, they were unable to prevent a fifth defeat in six games.

So that’s season over for Exeter, who are now four points outside the top seven with only a game to play. A offer of a mid-table finish would have been snatched up gleefully at the beginning of the season, but having tasted the top, City fans won’t be satisfied come the final whistle next Saturday.

Unless Torquay are relegated.

FFT in Cardiff: when the fans first saw red

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 11:02:00 GMT

Cardiff City are back in the top flight for the first time over half a century. But their promotion-winning season began in ignominy, with fans warring over a change in the club's colours, instigated by the Malaysian owners. FFT was present in August as Malky Mackay's team kicked off their campaign on a damp Friday night: the first match in the 2012-13 Football League season. But first, we must set the scene.

May 7, 2012: 6.30pm. Ten minutes after Cardiff City have finished being roundly spanked by West Ham in the Championship play-offs, losing 5-0 on aggregate, an online story drops the bomb. From next season the Bluebirds are to rebrand as the Red Dragons, changing their famous blue strip of 105 years to  red in an attempt to tap into a lucrative, apparently colour-conscious Asian market.

It’s dismissed as a prank; a wind-up;  a Swansea fan mocking his team’s rivals with vicious ingenuity, preying on the natural unpredictability that comes from foreign ownership – in this case, Malaysian owner Vincent Tan and chairman Dato Chan Tien Ghee, aka ‘TG’. “As if this could happen,” most people agree. “Cardiff are the Bluebirds; how could we wear red?”

Little over three months later, with FFT present, the unthinkable is happening. Cardiff are lining up for their first league game of the season, at home to promoted Huddersfield, wearing red shirts. The club’s badge has been changed to show a red dragon, accompanied by an entirely new slogan. Around the stadium, there is  a heady mix of blue and red Cardiff  shirts. Just what the hell happened?

“IT WAS A REASONABLY EASY DECISION TO MAKE”

Money happened. While promotion to the Premier League allows teams  to swim in golden coins like Scrooge McDuck, and even promotion followed by relegation results in  a handy parachute payment (which helped the three demoted teams to rise straight back into the Championship play-offs last season), missing out altogether can be costly. Losing in the play-offs three years in a row? Financially as well as emotionally, that hurts.

Cardiff, it was revealed in the summer, are losing £1 million every month. Every. Single. Month. Bonnie and Clyde had a better relationship with the bank. Vincent Tan, having already paid off £40m of debt, gave the club a choice that was seemingly as simple as: red or dead?

“He was wedded to the idea,” Cardiff chief executive Alan Whiteley tells FFT. “I don’t think he’d have walked away from the club, but he would have scaled down the level of investment considerably. We didn’t want to give him any chance to walk away.

“Cardiff is the capital of Wales, red is the national colour of Wales and the dragon is the national symbol of Wales. A dragon is seen as a very strong symbol in the Asian market, as is the colour red. I’m not saying emotively it’s easy for people to get their heads around it, but it was a decision that, commercially speaking, was reasonably easy to make.”

For some Cardiff supporters, there was no debate. As Peter Ribbons, computer programmer and fan since the early 1970s, tells FFT at the Huddersfield curtain-raiser: “I’d rather we were in business playing in something or other than be in Portsmouth’s position.” But for others, the lack of a real plan and evidence – not to mention consultation, with the change presented as a fait accompli – made the decision not so much a no-brainer as something more contestable; a... well, a ‘brainer’.

“A lot of people say, ‘Where’s your business plan?’” Whiteley continues, “but it’s a marketing strategy that combines various cultures.” When asked at a supporters’ meeting for proof that red shirts would make Cardiff more appealing in Asia, the chief executive said, “Vincent Tan has not put in black and white where he thinks the money will come from; he just believes he can do it.” Whiteley then responded to a query of whether he thought the plan would work with six words: “I don’t know. I’m not Asian.”

Furious Cardiff fans in blue, tolerant Cardiff fans in red. As 21,000 enter the Cardiff City Stadium on a rain-soaked and angrily humid Friday night, everything seems set up for war.

“I DON’T SUPPORT THEM  ANY MORE. THEY’RE NOT  THE SAME TEAM”

But what we see as we enter the ground is  an entente cordiale. Red and blue shirts are worn side-by-side in harmony. There are two different opinions, it’s true, but not adamantly pro- or anti-red; more, ‘What’s the problem?’ and ‘Well, if we must’. “I wasn’t happy, but  you take what comes along,” says Peter Ribbons. “You move on,” affirms Howard Jenkins, a match-going supporter for over 50 years. Says policeman Peter Mulhern: “Everyone I’ve spoken to says the same: you don’t support  a colour, you don’t support  a badge, you don’t support a player, manager or chairman – you support the club.”  It’s like this everywhere.

Obviously no Cardiff fans were saying back in May, “You know what’s holding us back? These damned blue shirts”, but the colour change has been accepted as either necessary  or even irrelevant to the club. “Whatever the colour, I’ll support them,” continues Howard. “I watch them play away, and they never play in blue away [until this season, of course]. I remember Cardiff going up to the old First Division in 1960. I’m wearing red, but I’ve still got all that history.”

As the Sky cameras scan the ground for signs of animosity, it’s clear that they’d have more luck finding a punch-up at a nunnery. Not only have most fans accepted the change with varying degrees of happiness (indeed, shirt sales are up, though this could be attributed to the signing of Craig Bellamy), but it seems the most disillusioned have stayed away, with almost 100 season tickets being refunded.

Somewhat ironically, disenchanted fan Ben Dudley sold his support on eBay. “It was a silly thing, really – I thought I’d get 20 quid,” he tells FFT. “But it really took off. The winner got to pick who I’d support, with the money going to Ty Hafan children’s hospice and Help For Heroes. There were bids from fans of Besiktas, New York Red Bulls, Rangers, Mexico’s Club America and more. In the end, a Spurs fan paid £845, so I’ll be going to as many of their games as I can.

“As for Cardiff... I feel like I don’t support them any more. They’re not the same team. Personally, I don’t want them to get promoted, because if they go up to the Premier League in red, they’ll stay red  forever.” Would he go back to blue if Cardiff  did the same? “I’d give it a go.”

Despite the likes of Dudley dodging the Cardiff City Stadium the attendance isn’t bad, especially for a televised match on a Friday – but it also explains the lack of uprising. The strongest negative feeling is one of discomfort. Perhaps not coincidentally, the atmosphere is more akin to a library than a book-burning.

“ONCE FANS WERE INSIDE THEY COULDN’T TAKE IT”

This lacklustre backdrop to the season’s opening day isn’t helped by a dreadful first half. Huddersfield are without ambition; Cardiff, ammunition. In the stands, the Terriers’ 500-odd travelling fans, perhaps inspired by  a Huddersfield Twitter account mocking up  a pre-match playlist including Red Suede Shoes and Red (Da Ba Dee), unite in “You sold your history” and “Are you Wrexham in disguise?”, while Bluebirds staunchly ignore the giant red elephant  stomping around the room.

Supportive banners reading ‘KEEP CARDIFF BLUE – F*CK MODERN FOOTBALL’ have been spotted at matches in Austria, Canada and Indonesia yet in Cardiff, only one, reading ‘WE BLEED BLUE’, has made it into the stadium – and it’s removed by stewards. Its owners leave at half-time. “I know people who left in the first half,” says Ben. “They found it hard to walk away from the club but once  they were in the ground they couldn’t take it.”

But just as no one is complaining about the rebrand, no one is complaining that no one is complaining. In most quarters – not only the office of Alan Whiteley, who tells FFT after the match that the fan reaction went “as well as we could have hoped” – people are glad there is no clash beyond the sight of a red home team playing in a blue stadium.

Cardiff City have thankfully moved on from times marred by violence, even winning Family Club of the Year more than once, and nobody is keen to see a return to the days when hooligan firm the Soul Crew ran amok. The closest FFT sees to any brutality is a typically psychotic South Wales seagull nearly savaging a child for his chips. A peaceful protest by Keep Cardiff Blue is cancelled amid claims of threats towards their safety, but officially it is banned by the club,  who want the  focus to be on football.

“THE PLAN WAS  NEVER TO STOP  FANS WEARING BLUE”

With the second half underway, Cardiff fans  in all colours are hoping for a change in fortunes on the pitch. With more chances come more chants; the golf claps and ironic shouts of “Come on you Reds” are soon replaced by huge cries of “Bluebirds” and unflattering songs explaining Swansea supporters’ bin-based culinary habits. But  the visitors have upped their game too,  with 21-year-old debutant Sean Scannell  as lively as he is theatrical, both of which  earn him boos from the home crowd.

You feel there’s more significance than  usual to this opening-day result for Cardiff.  Pre-match jokes of ‘lucky red shirts’ are just that – jokes – but a win would do no harm in winning over begrudging supporters. And  with 91 minutes on the terrifyingly giant clock, captain Mark Hudson obliges, sliding onto the end of a Joe Mason knockdown to grab  a late winner. “We are top of the league, say we are top of the league!” chant  Cardiffians blue and red, and FFT doesn’t have the heart to point out they would  be top anyway with a draw, being alphabetically ahead of Huddersfield.

Joy unbounded, fears unfounded. Instead of protests against the visiting Vincent Tan, who is in fact welcomed and responds by doing the Ayatollah, the only abuse has been towards some poor refereeing, the aforementioned Scannell and “fat b*st*rd” Anthony Gerrard. Sold by Cardiff having never featured after his penalty miss condemned Cardiff to defeat in the League Cup Final, he makes his Terriers debut in injury time and is booked for an ugly foul (“Do you think football is a tickling contest?” he’ll later tweet).

As fans flood out of the stadium, you’d be forgiven for thinking the home support are simply wearing home and away shirts, such is the accord. “I’m disappointed,” says one blue absentee. “I thought there’d at least a bit of a fuss. I heard that Sky said [the rebrand] went without a whimper.” Tragically, the damage has been  done for some now-former fans. Dave Sugarman, aka blogger The Lone Gunman, has missed only two home games since 1975 but says he “will never feel the same affection to the club again” and boycotted the match.

But for the club and Alan Whiteley, whose first reaction to hearing about the rebrand was quite literally, “Oh God, what have I got myself into?”, the worst may be behind. There was never any expectation for every fan to be won over, and some, including brothers Simon and Mark Baralos, say they will attend games but never buy a red shirt – but the plan, we’re told, was never to stop fans wearing blue or chanting “Bluebirds”.

So what do we learn? That fans put up with anything? No – AFC Wimbledon have shown that not to be true (though the original club’s relocation made the situation more extreme than Cardiff’s) and there are early discussions taking place about a Cardiff splinter club being formed if there is enough interest. It seems that although some naturally disagree, for many a football club is more than a colour  or a hastily rejigged badge with a bluebird apologetically added at the bottom. And perhaps the sight of fans happily mingling in old blue and new red kits is encouraging.

Football has changed. For all the passion, pride and partisanship, the biggest ‘P’ of all for modern fans may well be pragmatism. We can’t know now what Cardiff fans will be saying in 50 years’ time, but their club does at least have a better chance of surviving that long. Only time will tell if pub chats will open, “Remember that one mad season we played in red?” or “I can’t believe we ever wore blue.”

Words: Huw Davies. From the October 2012 issue of FourFourTwo. Subscribe!

Is there room at the inn for Chelsea’s trio of brilliant young Belgians?

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:00:00 GMT

Sports writer Scott Johnson explains how Chelsea's three hottest young talents could slip the net...

While Eden Hazard's influence at Chelsea continues to grow, fellow Belgians Romelu Lukaku, Thibaut Courtois and Kevin De Bruyne are on the outside, looking in.

Lukaku is enjoying an impressive campaign on loan at West Brom, Courtois has been earning rave reviews in his second year at Atletico Madrid, while De Bruyne has shone in a struggling Werder Bremen side. This should bode well for Chelsea’s future, but will the soon to be former European champions be willing or able to integrate them in to the side any time soon? IIt may be a case of use them or lose them.

Signed within a few weeks of each other in the summer of 2011, during the brief tenure of Andre Villas-Boas, Lukaku and Courtois were acquired as part of the ill-fated overhaul of an aging team. Significant sums were spent, fees rising to a potential £17m and £8m respectively, for two of Europe’s brightest teenage prospects. De Bruyne was added in January 2012, shortly before Villas-Boas was dismissed, for a further £7m, but it is not Chelsea that have reaped the benefits thus far.

Lukaku has long been considered a phenomenon in his homeland. Tall, quick and strong, with positional intelligence and excellent aerial ability, he scored 121 goals in 68 games for Lierse before his 13th birthday and netted 131 in 93 games for the Anderlecht youth team. Making his senior debut 11 days after his 16th birthday, he scored 15 goals in 25 starts in his first senior season.

He agreed professional terms at Anderlecht while still at school and his education was subsequently documented for a fly-on-the-wall show entitled ‘De School Van Lukaku’ (Lukaku’s School). On a field trip with his classmates, they visited Stamford Bridge, where Lukaku revealed: “What a stadium. If one day in my life I will cry, it will be the day I play here. I love Chelsea.” He has shed only tears of frustration thus far, claiming he has endured the “worst moments” of his career at the club and refused a Champions League medal. "I've not even touched the cup. I don't deserve it because I was not on the list. I don't touch anything I don't deserve.”

He averaged 32 minutes of playing time in 12 games for Chelsea, but has featured regularly for West Brom and is currently the top-scoring teenager in Europe. With 10 goals in 18 starts, Lukaku has been instrumental in cementing the Baggies in the top half of the table. Hawthorns boss Steve Clarke is keen to agree another loan deal for next season, but has admitted that he expects him to return to Stamford Bridge. Yet Lukaku's immediate future will surely depend on who is appointed Chelsea’s next manager.

Villas-Boas signed Lukaku, “even though our team is competitive enough in that sector of the field." That is no longer the case. Didier Drogba and Daniel Sturridge have since left and Fernando Torres will surely be shipped out this summer if a suitor can be found. Chelsea had the chance to recall Lukaku in January, but instead signed Demba Ba. It is surely a no brainer that he will be recalled in the summer, but regular first-team football is still far from guaranteed, as a new manager is likely to target that area of the team for strengthening.

Courtois has recently admitted his future also remains unclear, revealing: “I was hoping that this week I would find out what will happen but Chelsea have asked for a bit more time, perhaps because they are going to get a new coach. I don’t know what will happen but I will have to wait a little longer before I find out.” His situation is complicated by the presence of Petr Cech, who has this season returned to the levels of consistency which saw him win so many plaudits in his first four or five years in West London. Still only 30, it is unlikely Cech will be relinquishing his role any time soon, but Courtois is fast becoming one of the finest goalkeepers in Europe and will not return to his parent club to sit on the bench.

Since replacing David De Gea between the sticks at the Vicente Calderón Stadium, Courtois has been a revelation, instrumental in Atletico’s Europa League win last year and setting a new record of 820 minutes without conceding a goal this year. Six foot, six inches tall, he is an imposing figure and, like Lukaku and De Bruyne, a regular in the national squad. A third year is believed to be agreed in principle with Atletico and a £20m price tag has also been floated. He may prove to be the right man at the wrong time.

Winger De Bruyne was signed from reigning champions Genk and immediately loaned back to the club. In August, he agreed a season-long loan to Bremen and, like Courtois, he has yet to represent his parent club in a competitive fixture. It has been suggested Chelsea may use him as a makeweight in a deal for long-term target Andre Schurrle of Bayer Leverkusen.

Three years ago, Chelsea’s U18 side won the FA Youth Cup final. Only four of that side remain at the club, and all of them are currently out on loan. It remains to be seen how many of the U19 side that finished runners up in this season’s NextGen series will make the grade, but Lukaku, Courtois and De Bruyne find themselves in a similar position, trying to break in to a side of established internationals.

Chelsea may be tempted to sell the trio in order to help balance the books, with one eye on the Financial Fair Play regulations, but they may live to regret it should the Belgians fulfil their potential elsewhere.

Footballers remember Thatcher: "A lunatic", "always up to no good"

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:21:00 GMT

Footballers recall a single-minded but divisive figure who was never far from the headlines...

Michael Johnson July 2007
"Thatcher – gone now but was really funny, always up to no good"

Stephen Ireland January 2006
"Thatcher is a lunatic...got a screw loose or something!"

Bradley Wright-Phillips August 2005
"Thatcher's just crazy. I won't go into detail but you have to keep on eye on Thatch at all times"

Micah Richards April 2006
"Recently I was wearing Calvin Classics – Thatcher didn't approve, so picked me up and ripped my boxers. I had to go home without any. It was actually hilarious at the time"

Rohan Ricketts November 2002
"At a hotel in Bournemouth I saw Thatcher launch a two-footed tackle on this huge plant pot. Smashed it to pieces, then casually reported the breakage to the receptionist"

Bad Weekend for: Lions, Magpies, Seagulls and Tykes

Simon Carter — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:18:00 GMT

It was a Bad Weekend for...

Millwall Football Club
Oh, Millwall. They were never going to be the darlings of the domestic cups; despite the Lions' run to the FA Cup semi-final, the public had already been besotted with League Cup heroes Bradford and Liverpool's FA Cup conquerors Oldham. But, still.

Their fans famously sing that no one likes them and they don’t care, but it's hard to believe that the vast majority of Millwall fans are indifferent to the effect on their club's public image when a global audience of millions saw supporters attacking each other, then stewards and police, during their 2-0 defeat to Wigan at Wembley.

Can anyone truly say that they don’t care that the defining image of the game – and possibly this year's FA Cup – is that of a young Millwall fan, crying her eyes out at the violence going on around her?

No, surely the vast majority of Millwall fans will be sick to their stomachs that their club, who have done so much in the past 20 or so years to restore their reputation, once again face the ire and disgust of the footballing public.

The club were quick to distance themselves from the violence – “Our position is clear. Anyone associated with our club found guilty of violent behaviour will be banned indefinitely from Millwall matches in addition to any punishment they receive from the authorities” – there is no doubt that the weekend of their FA Cup exit was a bad one in more ways than one.

Newcastle – and Sunderland's relegation rivals
Management's very easy when you think about it. Rock up to a club, shout at the players in a mixture of English and Italian and watch the points come rolling in. Very simple.

Perhaps there’s more to it than that, but there’s no doubting that Paolo Di Canio has had an effect at Sunderland. The second-most "winningest" manager in England over the last 18 months has had exactly the galvanising influence that Black Cats owner Ellis Short hoped, leading Chelsea at half-time at Stamford Bridge in his first game before masterminding yesterday’s stunning 3-0 victory in the Tyne-Wear derby.

It’s 13 years since Sunderland won at St. James’ Park and although only a few points separated the sides, Newcastle's home record has been the difference between a poor season and a rotten season – albeit a better one than their visitors, who started the day separated from the relegation zone only on goal difference.

But Sunderland, swashbuckling, running and counter-attacking as though their survival depended on it, ransacked the Toon with three tremendous goals to leave the home side stunned – and the visitors vaulting above Villa, who had been held at home by Fulham, and the increasingly worried Stoke City, outclassed by Manchester United.

Of course, things change quickly in football and if Sunderland lose at home to Everton this coming weekend, the jury will be back out for Di Canio. But right now, after a derby win, you won’t find many Sunderland fans grumbling about the controversial Italian’s appointment.

High hopes in the lower regions of the Championship
The current Championship bottom three reads Barnsley, Wolves and Bristol City. Although City have long seemed doomed, recent form had given succour to the other two: Wolves had won three on the bounce and pulled themselves up to 18th, while Barnsley had suffered just one defeat in seven.

But this weekend has put a stop to all that optimism as both sides suffered miserable afternoons. The three teams that now sit just above the drop zone all won: Peterborough surprised Watford, Blackburn eased past Derby… and Huddersfield won 3-1 at Wolves, who lost two goals and sent-off midfielder Jamie O'Hara within a suicidal three-minute spell.

Meanwhile Barnsley had a much more drawn-out trauma against Charlton, who are putting together a late play-off charge. The Tykes can point to two red cards as part-cause of their 6-0 home defeat, but they were 4-0 down at the time of the first red. The truth is that Charlton dominated for the entire game, scoring twice before half time and then at will thereafter.

Both Barnsley and Wolves have four games to save their skin; with five of those eight games coming against teams with genuine promotion hopes, you have to fear for both of them.

Bury's survival hopes
Last weekend, League Two leaders Gillingham become the first Football League side to win promotion this season. This weekend, Bury replaced them, becoming the Football League's first relegated side by dropping from League One.

Like most relegations, this had been on the cards for weeks before the home defeat to Oldham confirmed their fate. Oldham needed the three points to put themselves beyond Bury’s reach (although they're by no means safe from the drop) and was the latest wretched result in a wretched season for the Shakers, racked by financial crisis and desperate for a saviour.

It was a bad day too for the Oldham ticketing department as hundreds of ticketless fans were left locked out of Gigg Lane despite the Latics’ reassurances that turnstile entry would be available on the day.

Commiserations then to Bury, who can still play a part in the relegation skirmish when they take on fourth-bottom Scunthorpe at home tomorrow night.

Unlucky Torquay
You know you’ve had a bad day when your season gets worse without you kicking a ball. That’s what happened to poor old Torquay on Saturday; thanks to a waterlogged pitch, the Devon side couldn’t play their highly-anticipated relegation scrap with Barnet (the game has now been rearranged for tomorrow). And while the players rested, their rivals set about making the most of the break.

York travelled to high-flying Northampton sitting second from bottom of the Football League and knowing that, with an inferior goal difference to most around them, the outlook was bleak. However, they will have also known that with Torquay out of action, a point would take them out of the relegation places and strike a huge psychological blow to their rivals.

With this in mind, York played with a freedom and verve belying their lowly position, out-passing, out-shooting and out-scoring opponents who had won 10 in a row at home. All of which meant that Torquay slipped into the bottom two, without even playing.

So it's all eyes on Plainmoor tomorrow night, when a Torquay win would make things very interesting; indeed, if it were matched with a home victory for bottom-placed Aldershot against midtable Southend, and a Plymouth loss at playoff-chasing Chesterfield, it would leave the entire bottom six separated by a single point with two games to go.

Prem Notes: Eye-opening findings from each top-flight game

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 09:50:00 GMT

Premier League facts from Opta, our partners on the FREE Stats Zone app – which now also covers La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1

Newcastle 0-3 Sunderland

Sunderland scored with 3 of their 6 shots on target.
Sunderland had the best conversion rate in the Premier League this weekend (38%). They are ninth for the season.
Sunderland had the lowest pass completion this weekend, 64%. They also played 21% of their passes long.
Newcastle completed 303 passes (of 375), Sunderland just 120 of 187 – a weekend low in both attempts and completions.
This was the third time Sunderland had scored 3 goals in an away game this season, having only done so twice at home.
Newcastle’s possession figure of 66% was their best of the season; their previous high had been 59%.
United had 5 headed shots but only 1 was on target.

Stoke City 0-2 Manchester United

Robin van Persie is the first player in Premier League history to score 11+ away goals in three different seasons.
Wayne Rooney made 81 passes in this match (at a completion rate of 82%), more than any other player on the pitch – but attempted no tackles.
The Red Devils have scored a league-high 14 goals from corner situations in 2012/13.
Charlie Adam made more unsuccessful passes than any other Premier League player this weekend (16 out of 46).

Arsenal 3-1 Norwich City

Norwich have scored 11 goals from free kick situations this season (direct and indirect), the most in the Premier League.
Arsenal have now conceded 10 goals from crosses at home this season, a league-high, but only two from crosses on the road.
The Gunners have scored 18 goals in the final 15 minutes of games this season, by far the most in the top flight.
Mikel Arteta made 102 passes. He has made 100+ on 10 occasions this season, more than any other player.

Aston Villa 1-1 Fulham

Fulham have now accrued 5 own goals this season, a Premier League joint high with Manchester United.
Fulham didn’t have a single shot on target today, despite scoring an own goal.
The sides had 28 shots on goal between them (Villa 18, Fulham 10) but only four on target.
Villa made 33 interceptions (to Fulham's 20) – more than any other side this weekend. They also only conceded 5 fouls, a weekend low.
Villa completed 9 of their 10 attempted take-ons, with Charles N'Zogbia completing 4 of his 4 and Matthew Lowton, Jordan Bowery, Christian Benteke and Joe Bennett also beating their man.

Everton 2-0 Queens Park Rangers

QPR's Clint Hill made 17 clearances, 11 headed. Both were highs in the Premier League this weekend.
QPR have conceded 13 goals from corner situations this season, 5 more than any other team.
Andros Townsend attempted 6 take-ons and completed them all. Junior Hoilett attempted 8 and completed 2.

Reading 0-0 Liverpool

Reading's Alex McCarthy made 10 saves. Only Jussi Jasskelainen (11 for West Ham v Spurs) has made more in a single game this season.
Luis Suarez had 5 shots on target today; 3 more than the entire Reading team.
Suarez has hit 17 shots against Reading this season without scoring.
Lucas made more tackles than any other PL player this weekend (7), but only won 2.

Southampton 1-1 West Ham United

Only Tottenham and Chelsea have scored the first goal of the game more often than Southampton (18) in the Premier League this season.
Andy Carroll has scored 3 goals in his last 2 Premier League games.
Southampton have now dropped 24 points after scoring the first goal, the most in the Premier League.
Southampton had 11 blocked shots in this game, a Premier League weekend high. They had 19 shots to West Ham's 8, but only 5 on target to their visitors' 3.

Stats Zone is bigger and better than ever! Our FREE Opta-powered app now features the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Serie A, Champions League and Europa League.

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Liverpool legend Nicol: Everton have no chance of finishing in top four

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:10:00 GMT

ESPN have posed FourFourTwo readers' topical questions in an exclusive addendum to their Press Pass show. This week, Steve Nicol answers the following questions:

Will Wigan's FA Cup run affect their survival bid?

Has Rafa Benitez done a good job at Chelsea?

Do Everton really have a chance of finishing in the top four?

ESPNFC Press Pass - the football discussion show that takes a daily look at the global game - airs at 11pm Monday to Friday, plus Sunday evenings on ESPN. Follow the show on Twitter

It's never too late: The greatest Football League promotion surges of the play-off era

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 10:08:00 GMT

Since they were introduced in 1987, the play-offs have given hope to Football League sides languishing in mid-table around the time the clocks go forward. Here are some of the more impressive late promotion surges of the play-off era, as recalled by Rob Ellis...

Cambridge (Division Four - 1989-90)
Cambridge had already enjoyed a remarkable campaign before the promotion race reached its final stages.
With 36-year-old John Beck in his first managerial role following Chris Turner’s resignation, the U’s caused one of the major cup shocks of the season by beating Millwall in a fourth-round replay at the Abbey Stadium. Victory against Bristol City followed, before their attempts to become the first fourth division team to reach the FA Cup semi-finals were ended by defeat to eventual finalists Crystal Palace.
Although they stated April in 16th place, Beck’s men returned their focus returned to their promotion push, winning seven of their final nine league games to claim a sixth-placed finish.
After edging past Maidstone United in the semi-final, Dion Dublin then scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory against Chesterfield in the first play-off final to be held at Wembley to complete a historic season for the club.

Torquay (Division Four - 1990-91)
Clear leaders in November after a 14-game unbeaten run, the Gulls’ promotion quest subsequently hit the buffers leading to manager Dave Smith losing his job in April.
But under the guidance of youth coach John Impey, the Fourth Division club were reinvigorated, keeping their season alive with a 2-1 win against York on the final day. Impey’s men then survived a nervy night at Turf Moor to complete a 2-1 aggregate win against Burnley in the play-off semi-final, setting up a clash with Blackpool at Wembley.
Penalties were required to determine the result for the first time and after goalkeeper Gareth Howells successfully converted Torquay’s fifth spot kick, Dave Bamber missed the target to hand the Devon club promotion.

Bradford (Division Two - 1995-96)
Rookie manager Chris Kamara guided Bradford on a sensational ride into Division One, after the Yorkshire side had lingered in mid-table into late February.
Coming in to replace Lennie Lawrence, who had swapped Valley Parade for Luton's Kenilworth Road, Kamara oversaw eight victories in 12 league games, culminating in a thrilling final-day 3-2 win against Hull.
Leapfrogging Chesterfield into the final play-off spot, the Bantams then recovered a two-goal first-leg deficit to beat Blackpool in the semi-final, a result that cost Sam Allardyce his job.
Teenage local lad Des Hamilton put Kamara’s side into an early lead in the final against Notts County before Mark Stallard assured promotion in the club’s first-ever appearance at Wembley.

Northampton (Division Three - 1999-00)
Nine points off the automatic places in sixth place at the start of April, Northampton looked like they’d have to face the lottery of the play-offs to return to Division Two. Kevin Wilson’s men were faltering when a 2-1 loss at Plymouth was followed by a surprise 4-3 home defeat to Halifax.
But after back-to-back 1-0 wins at Carlisle and Darlington had breathed new life back into their promotion hunt, the Cobblers sprinted for the line. Three wins in eight days stole Northampton back into the top three before an away victory at Torquay sealed promotion.

Crystal Palace (Division One - 2003-04)
Crystal Palace were in disarray in the November of 2003 following a 5-0 defeat at newly-promoted Wigan, their third consecutive loss, consigned them to 20th place in the Championship. Steve Kember was sacked and a relegation battle was on the horizon.
With Ian Dowie at the helm, the Eagles then underwent an incredible transformation picking up 16 wins in 23 games, in most part thanks to the goals of prolific striker Andy Johnson.
Despite defeat on the final day to Coventry, Dowie’s team were in with a shot of an unlikely promotion. A penalty shoot-out win against Sunderland set up a play-off final against early-season promotion favourites West Ham at the Millennium Stadium.
Neil Shipperley scored the only goal of the game and the early-season strugglers had achieved one of the great promotion surges.

Sunderland (Championship - 2006-07)
Having amassed the lowest points total in Premiership history the year before, morale around the Stadium of Light continued to plummet when defeats in all of their four opening games rooted Sunderland to the foot of the Championship table under new manager Niall Quinn. Further embarrassment was to come as Bury, bottom of the Football League, dumped the Black Cats out of the League Cup in the first round.
Quinn moved upstairs, and two new recruits changed the mood of the club, as Roy Keane took the reins as manager and Dwight Yorke joined the club on transfer deadline day.
From that point onwards, Keane’s side embarked on an amazing sprint to promotion, losing just one of their last 20 games, with another new signing David Connolly ending the season as top scorer.

Blackpool (Championship - 2009-10)
Sat in ninth place and six points off the play-off spots in mid-March, Blackpool looked unlikely to be making many headlines come the end of the season. But six wins from their last eight games ensured the Tangerines pipped Swansea to the final play-off place.
Aided by the performances of talismanic midfielder Charlie Adam, their late-season form continued in the semi-final, as they overcame Nottingham Forest 6-4 on aggregate in a dramatic contest.
Just as they came from behind to snatch a top-six finish, Ian Holloway’s side needed to show all their resolve as Cardiff twice took the lead in the final.
But after Gary Taylor-Fletcher levelled the scores, Brett Ormerod grabbed the winner and the Seasiders took their place in the top flight for the first time in 43 years.

Dagenham and Redbridge (League Two - 2009-10)
In 11th place with two games left, Dagenham and Redbridge’s League Two play-off hopes looked slim.
But Graeme Montgomery’s 91st-minute winner ensured the Daggers leapt into seventh with a 2-1 home victory against Hereford, meaning they were in control as they headed to bottom-placed Darlington on the final day of the regular season.
Goals from Jon Nurse and Joshua Scott booked John Still’s men a place in the play-offs, before a magnificent 6-0 first-leg triumph against Morecambe set up a Wembley final against Rotherham.
The Daggers twice took the lead, only to twice be pegged back by Millers striker Ryan Taylor, before Nurse bagged a 70th-minute winner to complete an amazing month for the East London club.

It was a bad weekend for... Harry Redknapp, Grant Holt and Blackburn Rovers (again)

Simon Carter — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:18:00 GMT

The Doomed

There were very few raised eyebrows at Reading on Saturday lunchtime, with the only real surprise being that Southampton weren’t able to take more of their chances in the ‘Nigel Adkins Derby’.

The 2-0 scoreline barely hinted at the level of superiority enjoyed by the visiting Saints, who will have gone some way towards eradicating any disappointment felt at losing out on last season’s Championship title to the Royals.

The loss more or less consigned Reading to the drop. Although technically they can still finish the season on 41 points, the odds of them even reaching even the 31 point mark (which would currently see them level with 17th placed Sunderland) seem remote. The manner of the defeat – very much in the ‘roll over and die’ vain – spoke of a side preparing themselves for a season in the second tier.

Elsewhere in the bottom three, Queen’s Park Rangers threw away their best chance of making up ground on those above them by conceding a last minute equaliser to visitng Wigan. Rangers had taken the lead (in perhaps unlikely fashion given they were reduced to ten men midway through the first half thanks to Bobby Zamora’s stray boot) with barely five minutes of normal time to play, but two of the three vital points were snatched away from them by Shaun Maloney’s superb free kick.

The result leaves QPR just one point better off than Reading with six games remaining. Post game, manager Harry Redknapp seemed to have all but given up, admitting “if we had won, it would have given us a lift to go on a run and stay up.”

With games against Everton, Arsenal and Liverpool still to come, you can forgive his pessimism.

Potty Fans

Fans. Supporters. Punters. Whatever you want to call them, there is nowhere else in the country where such spotlight is placed on those in the stands than in the Potteries. Since Stoke City were promoted to the Premier League in 2008, fans at the Britannia Stadium have been widely accredited as the noisiest and most passionate in the league, with commentators repeatedly resorting to the old ‘Twelfth Man’ cliché. Indeed, Stoke’s home form has been a major factor in their four consecutive top flight seasons.

But recently, Stoke fans have been painted as an ungrateful bunch of ne’er-do-wells for having the front to voice displeasure at what has been served up to them this season. Is it the style of football? Is it the form that has seen the Potters tumble towards the relegation zone? Is it Tony Pulis seemingly lacking the nous to turn it around? Chances are it’s all three, but the media consensus seems to be that the supporters should be damn well grateful to be where they are.

Yet Saturday’s 3-1 home defeat to Aston Villa was surely avoidable. Despite a poor season overall, Stoke had only been beaten twice on home turf, and hold a positive goal difference. Villa, by comparison had conceded more than anyone bar Newcastle on their travels.

But the Villans have discovered character, and that’s exactly what Stoke are lacking. Whereas Villa have won three of their last four league games, Stoke have won just once in 2013. Their fans are worried, and rightly so with Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and four relegation candidates still to play, the Potters will not enjoy an easy ride at any point from now until May.

Yesterday’s Man

When Southampton were promoted to the Premier League at the end of last season, there was one man their 31 goal striker, Rickie Lambert, hoped to emulate: Grant Holt. Former teammates at Rochdale (where in two seasons the pair helped themselves to 55 goals), Lambert will have looked at Holt’s debut Premier League season with a mixture of pride and envy. Holt, you see, was scoring at a rate of almost a goal every other game, ending the season with an impressive 15 strikes in 36 games amid growing murmurs of a possible England call up.

But Lambert’s debut Premier League season has thus far been every bit as impressive as Holt’s, with the Saint grabbing 14 goals in 31 games thus far. But there is no way that the Southampton man will be looking to emulate Holt’s second season.

The Norwich frontman has failed to even approach reaching the heights of last season, scoring just five times in the league in nearly 30 games. Brought on as a substitute in his side’s 2-2 draw with Swansea on Saturday, Holt looked well off the pace. His first significant contribution to the game was raking his boot down Chico’s shin in a challenge that should perhaps have seen him dismissed. Minutes later, Holt was booked for another foul on the Spanish defender.

What next for Holt? Despite a poor season he is still Norwich’s second top scorer and a cult hero at Carrow Road. At the age of 31, however, you can’t help but feel that if the Canaries manage to beat the drop, his days in East Anglia could be numbered.

The Shambles That Is….Blackburn Rovers

Ah, Steve Kean. Old Keano. The last good Blackburn Rovers manager. Perhaps overstating it a bit, but it’s worth noting that despite being wildly unpopular and vilified to the point of resignation, Kean did at least leave Rovers third in the Championship when he departed in September. Third. And with only one defeat to their name.

What has followed has been a season that has been so bizarre it would be funny were it not so tragic – although you suspect Burnley fans may have still raised a titter. Caretaker manager Eric Black was replaced by Henning Berg, who in turn replaced by Michael Appleton, who was then fired himself, leaving Gary Bowyer as the only man in East Lancashire yet to have a turn. Now, with six games left of the season, Blackburn have finally found themselves third from bottom in the Championship, and in deep relegation trouble following Saturday’s 3-2 defeat to fellow strugglers Sheffield Wednesday.

The Championship relegation battle is so tough that Wolves’ run of four wins in five still only sees them one point above the drop zone and Peterborough, undefeated in eight games, are second bottom. The point is, unless you suddenly find yourself in play-off form, you’re going down – just ask Bristol City.

Rovers haven’t been in the third tier of English football since 1980, but come August they could be renewing hostilities with the likes of Preston, Carlisle and the newly crowned Johnstone Paint Trophy winners, Crewe.

League One Chasers

With just a handful of games remaining in the League One season, Doncaster Rovers and Bournemouth used the weekend to all but sew up the two promotion spots. Following Doncaster’s 1-0 win over Tranmere and Bournemouth’s 3-1 home victory against Notts County (that’s six in a row for Bournemouth now), there are now a mighty five points separating second and third.

Which is bad news for the other promotion hopefuls, as seven teams duke it out for just four play-off spots and a shot at that last promotion place. Yeovil and Brentford in third and fourth must be favourites, but they are equally as far from second as they are from eighth, which, in a league where bad form can strike out of the blue (Hello Tranmere and Scunthorpe), their positions are far from secure.

For months, League One looked like a league nobody wanted to win, but now that two teams have decided they’d actually quite like to finish top, it seems the rest are being left behind.

League Two’s Other 23

On Saturday, Gillingham became the first Football League team to secure promotion this season, with their 1-0 win over Torquay United enough to put them far enough ahead of fourth place for them to chill out until May.

In what was a strange weekend in League Two, started by Port Vale’s Friday night 7-1 shellacking of Burton Albion, every team from third to seventh lost, as if demotivated by Gillingham’s dominance.

But congratulations must go to the Gills for a solid, if somewhat unremarkable season, that has seen them climb to first place on the back of an impressive away record (they have lost just one on their travels all season) coupled with decent home performances.

The signs are that they won’t take their foot off the gas just yet, with Vale snapping at their heels in second place, but ‘Mad Dog’ Martin Allen can already start to look forward to next term.

Ramsey insists harsh lessons learnt this season will help Arsenal move forward

Ben Welch — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:30:00 GMT

Five years ago the Premier League’s top clubs were all clambering for a 17-year-old Welsh prodigy who’d been shining brightly in the Championship.

The teenage sensation looked set to join the newly crowned Champions League winners, Manchester United, but to everyone’s surprise he chose north London over the North West.

You could be forgiven for thinking we were talking about Gareth Bale, but Tottenham’s star man made the switch to White Hart Lane a year earlier. The player who shunned Sir Alex Ferguson in favour of Arsene Wenger was Bale’s compatriot Aaron Ramsey.

While Bale was being labelled as a curse (he was in the midst of 25 game winless streak for his new club), Ramsey was being hailed as one of the most exciting prospects in British football as Arsenal paid Cardiff City £5 million for his services.

How the Welsh pair’s fortunes and reputations have changed since Ramsey moved into the flat beneath Bale in London. After making a promising start to his Arsenal career, Ramsey’s progress was halted by a double leg fracture in 2010. Over in N17, meanwhile, Bale finally broke his curse and has gone on to become – according to France and Real Madrid legend Zinedine Zidane – the best footballer in Europe right now.

But having battled his way through a difficult few years, Ramsey is determined to not end up as an unfulfilled talent. At 22 he’s a key player for Wales and his growing influence in the Arsenal first team is seeing him getting back to his best for club and country.

“I was shocked when I heard I’ve been at Arsenal five years,” Ramsey tells FFT. “It doesn’t feel that long, but I’ve been through a lot. My career at Arsenal started off really well and then I got injured.

“That was hard and took a lot mentally to overcome. Naturally, that took a while to get over and it really set me back.

“Injury aside, I think it’s gone pretty well for me at Arsenal and now I’m feeling good about myself again.”

Ramsey has found form at just the right time, with Arsenal battling for a top-four finish with Chelsea, Everton and Spurs – the latter driven forward by Bale’s virtuoso performances.

After six wins, one draw and one defeat in their last eight Premier League games there is renewed optimism around the Emirates – a stark contrast to the gloom that engulfed the club for much of the season, following erratic league form and shock cup defeats to Bradford and Blackburn.

The Arsenal fans vented their frustrations from the stands, jeering the team through this difficult period, with some calling for Wenger’s resignation. But, as challenging as the period was, Ramsey insists, the players are better for it.

“You’re not going to be at your best in every game and with the way we play it can be frustrating when we struggle to break teams down that just come to defend – and that’s when the criticism starts,” he says. “That’s when you can hear a few groans in the crowd, and that’s difficult, but we’ve learned a lot. As a professional footballer you have to overcome these things.

“We definitely have a lot of potential and quality players in the team, and we’ve proven that with some of the results we’ve got since then.”

The Gunners are now four points behind third-placed Tottenham with a game in hand and Ramsey believes his team must maintain their rhythm if they are to secure Champions League qualification for a 16th successive season.

“The biggest thing we need to change is consistency. We need to start going on lengthy runs and getting results when we’re up against it,” he says.

“The team gets behind each other and we all believe in what we do and each other’s qualities.”

Champions League qualification aside, the season marks an eighth consecutive campaign without a trophy for the Gunners.

When Ramsey first signed on the dotted line for Wenger, the manager would have sold him a future filled with silverware and glory – but it hasn’t quite worked out that way. While he would have wanted to get his hands on more trophies, the boy from Caerphilly has no regrets. According to Ramsey, he has learned some invaluable lessons during his time in England’s capital, both as footballer and as a person.

“I’ve definitely grown up a lot. When I was at Cardiff I was still living with my parents and then I moved to London and lived with Chris Gunter, who had just signed for Tottenham.

“Knowing someone down here made life easier, but coming to live in London was a big life change.

“There’s a much quicker pace to everything and a lot more traffic. When I was at home my mum would do everything for me. Then suddenly I was on my own and having to buy my own food and cook. I had to grow up a lot – both on the pitch and off it.

“When you come here you learn to play the Arsenal way. That’s not just a style of play, it’s a mentality. Yes, you have to master quick one-two touch passing with lots of movement, but you also have to learn what it is to be an Arsenal player – you have to believe in it.”

He reserves special praise for Wenger – the man who flew him out to the European Championship in Austria and Switzerland in 2008 to persuade him Arsenal was his ideal match.

“He’s a very approachable guy who you can go and ask how you did and what you need to do to improve after every game,” says Ramsey, talking at a coaching session for kids as part of Disney XD’s Aim High on Goalmouth.

“That’s a good thing to have in a relationship. You know where you’re at with him and you know what he thinks you can do to improve.

“He’s helped me in so many ways and that’s why he’s done so well over the years. He’s given youngsters opportunities and developed them into great players.”

Any critics questioning Ramsey’s ability to meet the expectations pinned on him as a teenager should remember the 22-year-old is still far from an established Premier League performer.

Having overcome a loss of confidence following his career-threatening injury, he’s now ready to show his full potential – a quality Wenger has proven track record of nurturing.

The Gunners manager has never lost faith and neither should the club’s fans. Ramsey’s career may not have taken a different path to that of his old friend Bale, it may just be moving at a different speed.

Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey took part in a training session with Canonbury Primary School for Disney XD’s Aim High on Goalmouth. Be sure to check out Aaron on Goalmouth at 5:30pm on Thursday April 4 on Disney XD

In the new issue: Football League Top 50, 'One-Man Team' myths debunked, Forlan on custard

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 13:00:00 GMT

Even a cursory glance at the Championship, League One or League Two table will tell you that things are certainly hotting up throughout the Football League. From the dogfight at the bottom of the fourth tier, to the battle for places in the Premier League, there’s drama and tension at every turn.

Which all makes this the perfect time to focus on all things Football League in the May 2013 edition of FourFourTwo – out now digitally and in print. As well as exploring exactly how English football’s heart and soul got its mojo back, we also name the Top 50 players in the Football League for 2013 – as voted for by the fans.

We’ve spoken to terrace-dwelling representatives of all 72 clubs to identify the 50 most feared and respected players in the three divisions. Find out who was voted the best player at every club, as well as the Football League over all. Without wanting to give too much away, the run-down features interviews with this month's cover stars - Wilfried Zaha, Tom Ince, Jordan Rhodes and Charlie Austin.

Sticking with the Football League theme, we look into how Walsall’s players are doing their bit for the environment and look at the career of Football League’s most prolific ever goal-scorer, Arthur Rowley. The former West Brom, Fulham, Leicester and Shrewsbury striker netted 434 league goals (including 26 league hat-tricks) in a 19-year career - we find out what made him so potent in front of goal, and try to understand why after, despite all his success, he still felt his potential was unfulfilled.

We also go One-on-One with former Manchester United, Villarreal, Atletico Madrid and Inter forward Diego Forlan. The Uruguayan discusses anything and everything, from his nation’s Copa America triumph of 2011, to his attempts to teach Spanish to former team-mate Andrew Cole. He also exclusively reveals exactly how much he missed English custard when he moved to Spain.

Could a lust for the yellow stuff see Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes swap La Liga for the Premier League? Probably not, but the Spaniard is still pondering a move to England anyway. The Catalan custodian tells FFT how his childhood in Tenerife helped forge his love of English football, and of his desire to enjoy new experiences in his career, even if that means leaving the best club in the world.

The old cliché “there’s no ‘I’ in ‘Team’” gets trotted out by cheap-suited middle-management types roughly twice a nanosecond, but it’s also often applied to football. With Liverpool and Tottenham both accused of being a ‘one-man team’ in recent times, FFT examines if such a thing really exists, and whether building your team around one star player is actually just common sense.

Meanwhile, AC Milan coach Max Allegri explains why he doesn’t miss Andrea Pirlo, Fulham striker Mladen Petric proves he has a few tricks up his sleeve, and the great Michel Salgado debates whether players really do always get their own way, in his last ever column.

All this, plus the usual tales from around the football world in Planet Football, the history of shirt sponsorship, a meeting with fans who boss the boardroom, and more pro-tips in our Performance section.

GET IT HERE Read the new issue digitally or subscribe to the print edition

The May 2013 edition of FourFourTwo was brought to you by...Diego Forlan, Massimiliano Allegri, Andy Cole, Javi Garcia, Jimmy Bullard, Monty Gimpel, Duncan Jupp, Mladen Petric, Tom Pope, Steve Claridge, Paddy Madden, Jordan Rhodes, Charlie Austin, Yan Klukowski, Cameron Jerome, Miles Storey, Gary Pallister, Michel Salgado, Danny Hollands, David Hockaday, Lee Dixon, Nemanja Vidic, Ben Hamer, Jacqui Oatley, Matt Bloomfield, Tom Ince, Wilfried Zaha, Robbie Mustoe, Dave Merrington, Phil Brown, Stuart Ripley, Matt Le Tissier, Dean Holden, Febian Brandy, Andy Taylor, Dean Smith, Rudi Gutendorf, Victor Valdes, Wrexham's fans-cum-directors, Mark Creighton, Andy Morrell, Liam Daish, Ray Russell, Howard Riley, Victor Ezeji, Emmah Godwin, Jozef Kaplan, Wim Jonk, Daniel Kokosinski, Michael Ballack, Darren Ward, Cowdenbeath's groundsman and MMA fighter Michael 'The Count' Bisping.

Hislop: For top clubs, there's never a good time for international breaks

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:23:00 GMT

Once again, ESPN have answered a handful of FourFourTwo readers' topical questions in an exclusive addendum to their Press Pass show – this week, former Newcastle and West Ham goalkeeper Shaka Hislop answers the following posers...

International breaks: Is there ever a good time for club sides?

Should international tournaments feature pre-qualification for weaker nations?

With Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all once again struggling in World Cup qualifying, is there any hope for the Celtic nations?

ESPNFC Press Pass - the football discussion show that takes a daily look at the global game - airs at 11pm Monday to Friday, plus Sunday evenings on ESPN. Follow the show on Twitter

A surprise in fourth and a shock relegation: We predict the rest of the Premier League season

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 08:30:00 GMT

The end of the international break sees focus return to club football for the remaining two months of the season. If you're anything like us, you're probably wondering how the laugh-a-minute madness of the 2012/13 Premier League season will pan out.

Well, we’ve run through the rest of the Premier League season's results to calculate what will happen. At least one of the current bottom three won’t be relegated; at least one of the current top four will end the season with very little to show for their efforts.

We haven’t skewed the results or gone for wacky 'what ifs' – this is what is going to happen. Probably.

First, a reminder of the table as it is now...

WEEK 31 (Saturday, March 30 – Monday, April 1)

There’s immediately change at the foot of the table as Aston Villa fall into the drop-zone by losing to Liverpool, after Wigan climbed out with a 2-1 home win over Norwich (possibly thanks to the ball rebounding in off the victim of a neck-high two-footed challenge).

The top seven all win to keep the European places plus ça change, Arsenal and Manchester United seeing off Reading and Sunderland respectively by four- and three-goal margins. Things look increasingly drastic for the Royals, seven points from safety – as are Queens Park Rangers after opening April with a controversial defeat to Martin Jol’s Fulham. “The referee was a right April Fool,” says Harry Redknapp to nobody in particular.

WEEK 32 (Saturday, April 6 – Monday, April 8)

New Reading boss Nigel Adkins gets a further taste of the job at hand, as his new charges throw away the lead not once but twice to only draw a six-pointer with his former employers, Southampton, at the Madejski. There’s also another setback for QPR, with a narrow reverse to relegation rivals Wigan condemning the R’s to the bottom. Redknapp refuses to admit survival is beyond even he, but the eight-point gap between his side and 17th looks all but unassailable, even with Nwankwo Kanu brought in on a free transfer and £120,000 a week.

Sunderland’s run of difficult games gets off to a bad start as they lose at Stamford Bridge, leaving them just one place and point above the relegation zone.

At the other end of the table, a vital 1-0 win for Everton at White Hart Lane puts David Moyes’ men within touching distance of the Champions League places. With Arsenal dropping points at The Hawthorns, Tottenham stay fourth – for now.

There’s less spice about the Manchester derby than last year, but a goal apiece within the first 10 minutes livens the atmosphere. Much against the run of play, City prevail 3-2 thanks to two Yaya Toure strikes and close the gap on the leaders to a mere 12 points. Game on!

WEEK 33 (Saturday, April 13 – Wednesday, April 17)

Southampton climb to 12th by beating West Ham and Manchester United thump Stoke 1-0 at the Britannia despite a 10-minute cameo from Michael Owen in which he doesn’t touch the ball.

Meanwhile, it’s a bad weekend for teams in blue and white hoops: QPR and Reading suffer Merseyside misery against Everton and Liverpool respectively. To make matters worse, Aston Villa claim a valuable win over sad travellers Fulham and Sunderland nick a potentially vital point in the Tyne-Wear derby.

Going into midweek, Wigan’s artistic little renaissance is revealed to be a false dawn painted by a cut-price impostor. Or, in football terms: they lose 3-0 to Manchester City. Turns out their fabled end-of-season form isn’t miraculous but entirely plausible when you’re facing Newcastle, Norwich and QPR. Manchester United beat West Ham, who have now taken one point from five games; Chelsea, their weekend fixture postponed by three days due to their FA Cup run, take a firm hold on third with a 4-2 victory over Tottenham.

The big midweek match is Arsenal v Everton, and Spurs fans are delighted to see them share the points – but it’s still enough to relegate Spurs to sixth in the table. Liverpool are only four points off a Champions League spot, which Brendan Rodgers calls “not an ugly target to be splintered with money-poisoned arrows but a proud meadow in a dying spring, within physical reach but emotionally unattainable, at least until Daniel Sturridge recovers from his latest setback”.

WEEK 34 (Saturday, April 20 – Monday, April 22)

Sunderland start the weekend in the relegation zone for the first time this season – and end the weekend out of it. A goalless draw at the Stadium of Light ensures that much, frustrating visitors Everton, who reflect on an opportunity lost as top-four nemeses Arsenal and Tottenham both drop points (though Spurs are happy to draw with Manchester City).

On Monday night, Manchester United get their hands on the Premier League trophy by sauntering into an unassailable 17-point lead over City. The Red Devils seal the deal in style, yawning their way to victory over a valiant but vulnerable Villa.

Down at the bottom, drop-dreading QPR attempt to breathe life into a putrefying corpse with a deserved win over Stoke, in spite of Jonathan Walters sewing up Goal of the Season with a bicycle kick (later revealed to be assisted by ropes and pulleys). Wigan are right back among the dirty business thanks to a dreadful performance in a 2-0 defeat to West Ham, who take that and party. Saturday also sees wins for West Brom, Swansea and Norwich, before Chelsea see off Liverpool on Sunday.

WEEK 35 (Saturday, April 27 – Tuesday, April 30)

Hope! QPR beat Reading to give themselves the slimmest of chances of dodging the drop – while mathematically relegating the Royals and their manager, Michael Appleton.

Despair! Sunderland’s 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa, the scoring opened by a superb volley from Christian Benteke, leaves the stunned Black Cats three points from safety with three games to play. Martin O’Neill spends most of the post-match press conference tearing out his hair.

Glory! Manchester United begin what is essentially a lap of victory now with a 3-1 victory over a tame Arsenal outfit. The highlight of the match is a bizarre own goal as Per Mertesacker literally sighs the ball into his own net.

Disaster! Tottenham, still tired from their Europa League exploits on Thursday, see their top-four ambitions take a pounding as Wigan shock them 1-0 for the second time this season (and the fourth time in five years).

Result! Chelsea’s 5-0 shellacking of Swansea, minor revenge against their League Cup woe and ball boys everywhere, means they are mathematically assured of a top-four finish. Rafael Benitez mentions this 16 times to journalists after the match.

Draws! The Baggies nab two points on the road at Southampton and then Man City; Norwich stay above Stoke with a hard-fought draw in the Potteries.

Other games! West Ham lose at the Etihad, Newcastle surprise Liverpool with a competent, effective, Gallic performance, and Everton see off Fulham 1-0 to go fourth – and three points clear of Arsenal.

WEEK 36 (Saturday, May 4 – Wednesday, May 8)

Normal service is resumed: home wins for Tottenham (over Southampton), West Brom (over Wigan), West Ham (over Newcastle) and Fulham (over hapless Reading). Manchester United vs Chelsea, a fixture beginning to occur even more frequently than el Clasico, finishes just as predictably: 0-0.

QPR are relegated at Loftus Road with a defeat to Arsenal, who not only turn up but play rather well. Sunderland’s goalless draw with Stoke fully earns its last slot on Match of the Day – in fact, Gary Lineker questions to camera whether anybody wants to watch the game’s alleged ‘highlights’ at all – but it does drag Sunderland and Martin O’Neill, by now completely bald, one point closer to safety. Nonetheless, it’s an opportunity missed for the North East club, not least as Stoke are forced by an injury crisis into playing Robert Huth as a lone striker.

Elsewhere, there are victories on the road for Manchester City and Aston Villa, who overcome Norwich 2-0 thanks to goals from Christian Benteke (again) and Gabby Agbonlahor. A thrilling Merseyside derby ends 2-2, helping Arsenal and Tottenham to close the gap on Everton. On Wednesday, Chelsea beat Fulham at Craven Cottage.

It didn’t look that way in March but somehow, both Aston Villa and Wigan – who scrape a win over Swansea in midweek – are now almost guaranteed safety. Southampton are in the biggest danger of being overtaken by Sunderland but incredibly, as we go into the final fortnight there are eight teams who could still take the single remaining ticket to the Championship.

WEEK 37 (Sunday, May 12 – Wednesday, May 15)

Sunderland have done it: they’ve pulled off a massive, titanic, gargantuan 1-0 win over Southampton to leapfrog Mauricio Pochettino’s men and climb out of the relegation zone, if indeed you can leap and climb at the same time. The Saints are staring down the barrel of a gun without a paddle to their name, and try as they might, Newcastle just can’t scrabble clear from the danger zone and its trapdoor (stop now – Ed). The Magpies lose a five-goal thriller to QPR, who play as if they have nothing left to lose but all their players over the summer.

There are wake-up calls for Wigan and Villa, battered 4-1 and 4-0 by Arsenal and Chelsea, reminding them that although it’d take a miraculous series of events, one of them could still go down on goal difference. Chelsea’s victory comes on Wednesday, having beaten Millwall 4-0 in the FA Cup Final at the weekend.

Tottenham have the Europa League final to look forward to but that’s all: a draw away to Stoke takes them out of the running for qualification to the Champions League (and, indeed, the Europa League unless they win the final). Everton are still favourites having beaten West Ham 2-0 – but they face a trip to Stamford Bridge.

WEEK 38 (Sunday, May 19)

All to play for. Chelsea could finish second; Everton and Arsenal both want fourth; one of five teams (Southampton, Sunderland, Newcastle, Aston Villa or Wigan) will be relegated. It’s Super Duper Pooper Sunday!

Both Manchester teams wrap up their seasons with victories, City thrashing Norwich 3-0 and United prevailing 3-1 over West Brom, while Liverpool finish on a high by beating QPR with ease. Reading also win, surprising everybody at Upton Park, not that it matters much as they walk off into the Championship sunset.

Fulham overtake Swansea in the table by beating them at the Liberty and Wigan and Villa draw 0-0 to ensure safety – albeit a misfiring one – for them both.

Sunderland’s joy at exiting the relegation zone is short-lived. They go down 2-1 to Tottenham, who lost to Benfica in Amsterdam just days before to round off another frustrating season. But Southampton still need to win to stay up – and they do, scrapping to a 1-0 victory over Stoke. Cue celebrating people in red-and-white shirts and crying people in red-and-white shirts.

But the real drama is for fourth. In the dying minutes Arsenal are trailing 2-1 at St James’ Park and know that with Everton losing at Chelsea, they could snatch fourth if they can just equalise. Players are thrown forward in a very un-Wenger-like manner until they win a corner in the 93rd minute. Szczesny goes up... but it’s headed clear and Newcastle run up the other end to score.

It’s all over. Everton have qualified for the Champions League; Arsenal have missed out for the first time under Arsene Wenger. Sunderland have been relegated, along with QPR and Reading.

Who saw that coming?

An awful penalty, a severed finger and a pierced penis: football's harshest yellow and red cards

Nick Moore — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:09:00 GMT

On Sunday, former Ajax, Real Madrid and AC Milan star Clarence Seedorf was sent off for only the second time in his career - for walking off the pitch too slowly.

Having just been substituted towards the end of Botafogo's 2-1 win over Madureira, the Dutchman trudged off to the other end of the pitch to waste time, rather than exit by the nearest touchline as instructed by the referee. The official promptly showed Seedorf a second yellow card, much to the veteran's delight...

Here are ten more bizarre yellow and red cards.

The footballing Russian doll
The mandatory yellow for shirt removal has always seemed miserly, but what if a player were to tear off the garment only to reveal another, identical top? Eric Hassli from Vancouver Whitecaps found out: after dinking in a penalty against New England in June 2011, he performed this daring statement – while already on a yellow – and was promptly sent off. Kudos for trying, Eric.

Thierry’s ennui
When Thierry Henry patted Portland Timbers’ Adam Moffatt on the head after a squabble in June 2011, the man in black weirdly decided that this constituted ‘violent conduct’. Difficult to justify – unless he just fancied dismissing the Frenchman for being a patronising git.

Fetch the rulebook! (No.1)
In Greece, Asteras Tripolis’ Adrian Bastia was punished in December 2008 for tripping a pitch invader in an attempt to help apprehend the naked interloper. The referee decreed that this was worthy of a red. Cruel.

Tripping yarn
Pull off a Panenka successfully and you can appear rugged, fearless and sexually alluring. Do it wrong and you’re Benny Hill. Al Ahly’s Amir Sayoud found himself in the latter camp in 2011, as he attempted to convert in such a manner, but instead hoofed the ground and performed a face-plant. The official then gave him a yellow card for “disregarding an opponent” – which in Egyptian rules must translate as being a berk.

Stripped off
Is undressing as you’re substituted just good pre-bath admin? Not according to Ukrainian officials. In November 2011, Dnipro’s Samuel Inkoom removed his top as he jogged off, only for the ref to wave a second yellow before his replacement could come on. His gaffer, ex-Spurs boss Juande Ramos, wasn’t understanding either, calling Inkoom’s action “unforgiveable”.

Pierced penis
Unless they’re consenting adults in the privacy of their own home, a man’s Prince Albert is not something he should share with a referee. This was not the case for Aaron Eccleston from Old Hill Wanderers, Australia. After being struck in the nether regions in June 2011, Eccleston lowered his shorts to “check it was still there” (the piercing, we presume) and was sent off by the hawk-eyed official for wearing ‘dangerous jewellery’. “I don’t think my mum’s going to be happy,” said Macclesfield-born expat Eccleston afterwards.

Target practice
Refs love to give it out, but can they take it? Anzhi’s game against Zenit in Russia in 2011 suggests not. Moroccan Mbark Boussoufa gently chipped towards the spot where a free-kick had been given, brushed the ref’s back – and was angrily dismissed as if he’d kicked the ref in the swingers while calling his mum a bike. Baffling.

Fetch the rulebook! (No.2)
Brazilian kid Pottker got his marching orders for Figueirense under-20s against Bahia after snaffling an uncontested drop-ball for himself and scoring, instead of the usual etiquette of kicking it back to the team originally in possession. The referee sent him off... but let the goal stand.

Ref given the finger
Players can take celebrations too far, but when a man is on the floor scrabbling about for a body part he’s accidentally ripped off, adding a ‘hurry up’ card to his woes seems somewhat unfair. Such a fate befell midfielder Paulo Diogo of Swiss side Servette in 2004, however, after he trapped his wedding ring in a barrier while celebrating with the fans, losing digit and ring in the process. The ref was unimpressed with Diogo’s histrionics and second-yellowed him for mucking about. The time-wasting stump was later amputated.

VIDEO Diogo's unfortunate moment(s). Contains blood...obviously

There was definitely contact, ref...
But the worst decision of all? That would be the one made at Belgian game Templeuvois vs Quevy in 2011 in which the former’s Julien Lecomte was sent off for diving – while being stretchered to hospital with three displaced neck vertebrae and severe concussion having being elbowed in the head.

This article was originally published as a list in the September 2012 issue of FourFourTwo

Can you name England's under-21 stars of yesteryear?

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 13:40:00 GMT

England's first under-21 match, a goalless draw against Wales at Molineux, took place in 1976.

Since then, hundreds of young hopefuls have featured for the Lion Cubs (a nickname that, mercifully, hasn't caught on), but they haven't all gone on to star at senior level like the Beckhams, Rooneys and Jake Livermores of this world.

We've trawled the photo archives for snaps of England U21 sides down the years - do you recognise all the players? You can even have a stab at the results of all the matches, if you so wish.

Disclaimer: The only prizes are the ones you find deep within your soul

Click on the team photos for a larger version.

November 13, 1984 - Turkey v England

September 7, 1993 - England v Poland

November 15, 1994 - England v Republic of Ireland

May 30, 1997 - Poland v England

June 8, 1999 - Bulgaria v England

March 29, 2000 - Yugoslavia v England

May 24, 2001 - England v Mexico

August 19, 2003 - England v Croatia

Bonus

You may think this is cheating a bit, but it's our quiz, so we'll do as we please.

Here are the starting XI from England U20's Toulon Tournament fixture against Argentina in 2003. Good luck...

June 13, 2003 - England U20 v Argentina U20

ANSWERS Find out who you missed

The Last Great Poacher: How Mourinho, modernity and muscles ruined Michael Owen's career

Gary Parkinson — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:27:00 GMT

The news that former bright young things have reached the age of retirement always comes as something of a shock, but perhaps more so with Michael Owen than most. Owen has had a long and varied career but he will always be best remembered as the teenager who scored against Argentina, the kid with the world at his feet, the future of English football. In fact, he was anything but.

Owen's story says much about the changing nature of football. When he emerged as a startlingly precocious prodigy, playing for the regional U11s at age eight, just about every team played 4-4-2 and desperately wanted a goal-poacher. By the time he broke into the Liverpool first team in 1997 (aged 16), the Reds had experimented with three at the back, but nobody played one upfront. It was the accepted wisdom that strikers hunt in pairs.

But when Owen returned from Madrid in the autumn of 2005, Jose Mourinho's Chelsea (and, to those of lesser means, Sam Allardyce's Bolton) were popularising the single-striker system that still dominates tactical thinking. And with nobody to play off – no Kenny Dalglish to the poacher's Ian Rush, to use an Anfield exemplar – front-runners like Owen became less popular, overlooked in favour of all-round athletic target men expected to bring midfield runners into play. Instead of a big-man/little-man partnership, coaches sought a big man (Didier Drogba if you had money; Kevin Davies if you didn't) to do the work of two. Suddenly the Jimmy Greaves-style fox in the box was out of vogue.

Some even regarded poachers as a luxury, no matter how lethal their strike-rate. In the summer of 2006 Manchester United happily sold Ruud van Nistelrooy, whose five years at Old Trafford had brought 150 goals in fewer than 200 starts but only one league title. Only in the last decade have football fans regularly offered the objection: "Yes, but what does he do except score?"

CHANGING ROLES

Owen tried to re-establish himself as a modern striker, frequently dropping off between the lines to link up play, but he was never going to be as effective as that young man streaking away from a stranded defence. It was partly physiological: injuries have been a constant worry since his teens. His hamstrings had already started to trouble him by early 1999 as Liverpool sought to exploit his split-second switches from standstill to sprint, a five-month absence a worrying harbinger of troubles to come. After 2002/03 he never again maintained sufficient fitness across a Premier League season to feature in 30 league games – or score 20 goals.

He didn't know it at the time, of course, and in summer 2004 sought to stretch himself – in a positive, non-hamstring-tearing way – by moving to Real Madrid for £8 million. Despite a slow start at the Bernabeu he did his job: scoring goals. Although unable to get a regular place in a first XI featuring Ronaldo, Raul, Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane and David Beckham, he scored as a substitute so consistently (18 goals in 41 games, only 15 of which were starts) that he topped the goals-per-minute chart. Owen was still unquestionably one of Europe's most dangerous strikers; he just needed to move to a club where he could prove it.

And so to Newcastle, where it all went wrong. It's fair to say the Magpies weren't Owen's first choice of English club: they had finished the previous season 14th, way behind the two Merseyside clubs who sought his signature: Champions League holders Liverpool and his boyhood idols Everton, who had finished fourth but needed a top-class striker. But Newcastle blew away the opposition by doubling Madrid's money with a £16.8m bid.

DECLINE AND FALL

It's tempting to see that as the start of the decline, but it's not that simple. Despite a worryingly immediate thigh injury, Owen regained fitness and scored seven in his first 10 Newcastle games. Moreover, in November 2005 he scored two late goals in England's impressive 3-2 friendly win over (who else?) Argentina. That made it 35 international goals at the age of 25, just 14 behind Sir Bobby Charlton's record. Having scored in four successive tournaments, he was looking to the future.

Then the injuries came in earnest. A broken metatarsal on New Year's Eve effectively ended his season, and although he was ready for the World Cup he tore a cruciate ligament against Sweden, all but demolishing the subsequent season. Newcastle reacted angrily, suing the FA for anything up to £20 million and threatening to withhold his participation in England games.

As the public spat continued, questions arose over Owen's commitment to the club, creating an impression which still lingers that the player was simply collecting pay-cheques. In summer 2007, as the latest manager Sam Allardyce confirmed that Owen had a £9 million release clause, chairman Freddy Shepherd offered to "carry him back" to Liverpool, but the striker pledged his future to his employers, saying, "I believe that these can be good times to be at Newcastle."

He was wrong. Neither Shepherd nor Allardyce lasted long and the club spiralled. Owen missed a slice of the 2007 pre-season with another thigh injury, then needed a double hernia operation, then picked up yet another thigh injury – on England duty. He regained fitness and form in the spring, but it was a false dawn: in summer 2008 his pre-season was once again disturbed, this time by a calf strain and, almost unbelievably, mumps. Owen's contract expiry in 2009 coincided with Newcastle's relegation; the club's £40m investment (£16.8m fee, £110,000 per week in wages) had yielded 26 goals in 71 league games.

He had joined Newcastle with dreams of medals and goalscoring records, but he left them as something of a figure of fun: firmly, if unfairly, established as a liability and mocked when his management circulated a 32-page brochure advertising his eminent employability. He earned a pay-as-you-play contract at Manchester United, crawling past 50 appearances over the three seasons, before the odd cameo at Stoke this season. And that, it seems, is that.

It seems odd that a man who has scored 40 goals for his country and 222 for various clubs, who won the Ballon d'Or and has collected nine senior winners' medals, could come to be regarded as something of a disappointment.

But unlike other products of the media age, and despite dalliances with the usual 21st-century ancillary activities of advertising and videogame endorsements, the somewhat dispassionate Owen was never really widely popular. Goals were always his currency, so when they were harder to come by they became a rapidly receding memory – and, like his style of play, seemed to belong to a past age. He once said, "Scoring gives you a 10-second buzz, but I wouldn't describe it as joyful." For Owen, the buzz was a business – and the business has changed.

NEWS Owen to retire at the end of the season
INTERVIEW Owen in 2007: I’d love to be a manager or a coach

Michael Owen: The early years

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:01:00 GMT

Looking back at the first footballing steps of Michael Owen – for Liverpool and England...

Give him a ball: Owen at 14, eagerly awaiting the future

17 May 1996: Liverpool's FA Youth Cup win over West Ham

2 July 1996: Graduating from Lilleshall

6 May 1997: First league goal, at Wimbledon

23 July 1997: Tiny in baggy clothes, but a pre-season first-team regular

16 Sep 1997: Scoring after six minutes of European debut at Celtic

11 Nov 1997: His first senior England training session

11 Feb 1998: Making his England debut against Chile

5 Apr 1998: PFA Young Player of the Year (Oggy won the Merit Award)

21 May 1998: A pre-World Cup standard bearer with Hoddle and Shearer

5 Jun 1998: Sign of the times – boot-flogging at the new Dome

30 Jun 1998: That goal against Argentina – early promise unfulfilled?

ONE-ON-ONE "Football’s been a massive part of my life so I’d love to stay involved"

It Was a Bad Weekend For… Comedy, derbies, safe bets and hatred

Simon Carter — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:37:00 GMT

It Was a Bad Weekend For…

The title race
While Alex Ferguson bemoaned the fact that Manchester City’s 2-0 defeat to Everton hours before his side faced managerless Reading at Old Trafford “took the edge off” his side’s performance, the Scot can’t have had many better days this season than he did on Saturday. Though Manchester United huffed and puffed their way to a 1-0 victory courtesy of a deflected Wayne Rooney shot, they now lead their nearest rivals by 15 points at the top of the Premier League and need only 13 more (from a possible 27) to secure a record-breaking 20th top-flight title.

Goodison Park, never a happy hunting ground for Roberto Mancini or Manchester City (they've now lost there for four consecutive seasons), was the scene for a 90-minute digest of City’s season with a few good moments diluted by passages of poor play, questionable desire and petulance, both on the pitch and on the sidelines in the shape of the sulky Italian manager.
Mancini’s assistant David Platt used the post-match interview to complain that refereeing decisions had cost City dearly, and they almost certainly should have had a second-half penalty. However, given that Everton had a goal wrongly disallowed for offside and had a half-decent penalty shout of their own turned down, it seems as though Platt was indulging in a little straw-clutching.

This is the second week in a row that Everton have appeared on these pages, and it’s almost impossible to believe that this is the same side who surrendered to Wigan just a week ago. As predicted last week, an excellent Toffees’ win instantly restored any love lost for manager David Moyes following their FA Cup exit.

So is the title race over? Well, Manchester United have a 15-point lead with nine games to play, which seems unassailable – but bear in mind that they threw away an eight-point lead over the final six games of last season. Maybe now we’re clutching at straws.

Lee Nelson’s Well Good Arrest
Simon Brodkin (who?), better known as BBC3 comedian Lee Nelson (seriously, who?) was arrested at Goodison Park during the teams’ pre-match warm up for pitch encroachment.
In the guise of his footballer alter-ego Jason Bent, Brodkin gained access to the pitch in full Manchester City kit and proceeded to run through a warm-up routine while the likes of Joe Hart and David Platt looked on in bewilderment.

Unfortunately for Brodkin, security staff didn't see the funny side of his publicity stunt and he was soon marched off the pitch and turned over to the police. To make matters worse, the BBC quickly moved to distance themselves from Brodkin’s actions. He will appear in court – presumably under yet another identity – on April 3rd.

Same old Spurs?
This time last year Tottenham Hotspur were in a downward spiral of form so severe that it would see them beaten to third place by Arsenal, eventually costing them a Champions League spot (by virtue of Chelsea winning the competition) and arguably accounting for manager Harry Redknapp’s job.

The last seven days have seen Spurs lose three times, starting with last Sunday’s 3-2 loss at Liverpool, taking in a tiring trip to Inter Milan and, most shocking of all, yesterday’s 1-0 home defeat to Fulham courtesy of a Dimitar Berbatov goal.

Certainly it’s too early to say a collapse is inevitable – Arsenal are still four points behind them in fifth place – but with a visit to Swansea next for the Londoners and an extremely testing April on the cards, AVB will have to wring every last drop of effort from his squad to avoid a repeat of last year’s heartache.

Championship chasers
A routine 2-0 win for league leaders Cardiff City was made sweeter and sweeter as the weekend rolled on. Closest rivals Hull City were first to boost the Bluebirds as they conceded a late winner to the in-form Nottingham Forest to lose 2-1. Just moments later the final whistle rang out at Oakwell, where Barnsley's 1-0 win gave Watford their second defeat on the bounce.

Then came Sunday and Crystal Palace’s trip to the seaside. Though they started brightly against Brighton, Palace were undone by two quick goals just before half-time and another shortly after. The 3-0 scoreline certainly wasn’t reflective of the overall play but Cardiff, like Brighton, won’t care a jot.

All of which means that Cardiff enjoy a seven-point lead over second place and, more importantly, a nine-point lead over third. With only nine games left to play it would take a collapse of, er, Cardiff proportions to stop the Bluebirds joining rivals Swansea in the Premier League.

Blackburn, despite that goal
Blackburn Rovers enjoyed a mini-revival back in January when Michael Appleton joined as manager after a brief spell at Blackpool. With only one defeat in his first five league games, not to mention FA Cup wins at Derby and most impressively Arsenal, the fans might even have applauded the decision-making of their much derided board.

But that unexpected glory at the Emirates is now more than a month ago. Rovers have been dumped out of the cup after failing to score in three hours against Millwall, and they haven't won in the league since February 9th, a seven-game streak in which they've only scored four goals – half of them in a 3-2 home defeat to second-bottom Peterborough.

Luckily for Appleton, nothing dispels bad feeling in Blackburn like a win over Burnley. Unluckily for him, they didn't get on in Sunday afternoon's derby – and although David Dunn's 95th-minute equaliser against the 10-man Clarets was celebrated wildly, in the cold light of Monday morning a point is only the thinnest of paper over the many cracks at Ewood.

With the international break causing a two-week Championship hiatus, Rovers will spend a fortnight three points behind their rivals but only four points above the increasingly competitive drop zone. Next up for Blackburn is the Good Friday visit of Blackpool that nobody is calling ‘The Michael Appleton Derby’.

Safe bets on Stevenage
Before the 41st minute of their Saturday afternoon League One match, Stevenage had scored just one goal in their previous five leagues games, while visitors Sheffield United hadn’t conceded at all since February 9th. And when you start a story like that, there's only one way it's going to go.

Yet it isn’t just the goalscoring statistics that made Stevenage’s 4-0 destruction of the promotion-chasing Blades so remarkable, it's the teams' general form going into the game. Boro had lost eight of their previous nine league games as a half-decent season unravelled, while Sheffield United were unbeaten in eight and just three points off the top spot.

But the real story here is Daniel Lopez's 23-minute hat-trick. Lopez (born exactly one day after Wayne Rooney, fact fans) has been farmed out on loan twice this season, first to League Two Aldershot where he grabbed a goal every other game and then to Barnet where just last Saturday he scored a hat-trick in their 4-1 League Two win over Morecambe. Recalled to Stevenage following an injury crisis, the Spaniard wasted no time in laying his claim to a regular starting spot.

Where do both sides go from here? Stevenage can continue their revival, and perhaps Lopez his goalscoring exploits, tomorrow when they visit rock-bottom Bury, while Sheffield United will have to wait a week before they face the side who have replaced them in second spot, when Brentford visit Bramall Lane.

Edgar Davids' war on Accrington
As well as eyebrows raising and jaws dropping all over the place, Edgar Davids’ decision to help out at Barnet back in October was greeted with one huge question: why? General consensus is that Davids, who has been living in North London for a few years, wanted to carry on playing football into his 41st year and genuinely wanted to help out his local club. But on Saturday we discovered the real reason: Edgar Davids hates Accrington.

Who knows what it is about the small side from the north west that has so riled the former Ajax, Milan, Juventus and Holland star. Maybe it was that infernal milk advertisement back in the 1980s; maybe he has a distrust of all things ‘Stanley’ after a mishap with a razor tool. Either way, kudos to the man for biding his time and finally getting his revenge.

Because on Saturday, during his side’s 3-2 defeat at Stanley, Davids was sent off against Accrington for the second time this season. His ire wouldn’t have been quashed by what his manager (himself) saw as a soft second yellow card. In the words of Davids: “The second one was absolutely not a yellow card because I didn't do anything.”

Elsewhere, results conspired to leave an incredible five teams, including Barnet, tied on 40 points at the bottom of League Two. If Barnet and Accrington are the unlucky two to be relegated this season, expect Davids to resume his one-man war on Stanley in next season’s Conference.

VIDEO Nicol: No need for Spurs to fear another collapse after Anfield defeat

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:00:00 GMT

Once again, ESPN have answered a handful of FourFourTwo readers' topical questions in an exclusive addendum to their Press Pass show – this week, Liverpool hero Steve Nicol answers the following posers...

1) Following the row involving Fergie and Rafa Benitez, does anybody actually care about handshakes?

2) After their frustrating defeat at Anfield, are Spurs set for another late-season collapse?

3) Could anybody from above the Premier League's current bottom five get sucked in to the relegation scrap?

ESPNFC Press Pass - the football discussion show that takes a daily look at the global game - airs at 11pm Monday to Friday, plus Sunday evenings on ESPN. Follow the show on Twitter

Bad Weekend For: Scapegoats & scapegoaters, Black Cats & Rams, Shakers & Shrimps

Simon Carter — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:30:00 GMT

It Was a Bad Weekend For…

Fluffy-haired scapegoats
It was a brutal moment in an afternoon filled with them for the sour Toffees. As the stadium announcer called out details of Everton’s 67th-minute change – Darron Gibson replacing Marouane Fellaini – jeers rang round Goodison Park in a clear indication of the supporters’ opinion of Fellaini’s contribution to the horror that had been unfolding all afternoon.

It was harsh, as was the sight of home fans flashing V-signs at their Belgian hero as he headed straight down the tunnel. Yes, Fellaini had had a poor game, but then so did at least seven or eight of his team-mates, and there was no such ire directed at Kevin Mirallas when he was removed as the home support indulged in a little misdirected scapegoat-ism.

The angry confusion of the Everton fans spoke of an understandable bewilderment at just who was to blame for their 3-0 home FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Wigan Athletic. Why did Everton freeze when presented with a seemingly straightforward passage to Wembley? Because freeze is what Everton tend to do (think last year’s semi-final with Liverpool)? Because they, like most observers, took Wigan for granted? Or just because they had a very bad day?

Credit must go to Wigan, who were outshining their hosts well before the four minutes that saw them score three times and briefly forget about yet another wretched league campaign. Their reward for some superb running football is their first-ever FA Cup semi-final in their history – and with their opponents being either Blackburn or Millwall, who drew 0-0 yesterday, surely the best chance they'll ever have of an FA Cup final appearance.

Since this tie was drawn three weeks ago, the noise has been incessant that Everton and David Moyes need to win a trophy. But they don’t, and it's ridiculous to suggest that Moyes’ legacy at Goodison will be measured in silverware rather than consistently decent league positions on a comparatively minuscule budget. Beating Manchester City on Saturday lunchtime would be the perfect reminder to the supporters of what a superb manager they have.

Chelsea scapegoaters
As Rafa Benitez watched his Chelsea side endure a terrible start to their FA Cup game at Manchester United, he will have felt aggrieved. Though United raced into a 2-0 lead, their general play was not good and Benitez will have sensed that opportunity would come his side’s way.

However, he will have also seen that certain parts of the team were not performing. Victor Moses was failing to make the most of the space that United’s lopsided formation afforded him, contributing little to the first half. In the middle, Frank Lampard made a hash of the chances presented to him and failed to anchor the midfield to give Juan Mata and Oscar the room they would need to create chances for Demba Ba.

So Benitez took action, seven minutes into the second half, replacing Moses with Eden Hazard (and switching Mata to the right) and Lampard with John Obi Mikel. As the substitutions took place, the chants of “You don’t know what you’re doing” from the Chelsea supporters were so audible that ITV commentator Clive Tyldesley couldn’t help but mention it.

Benitez, it turns out, does know what he is doing. Interim manager or not, unwanted or not, his changes worked perfectly with Chelsea now able to exploit United’s left (to the point where Wayne Rooney was shifted there) and Mikel joined Ramires in holding the midfield together while Chelsea pressed for goals.

OK, so Manchester United were at times terrible (Tom Cleverley in particular had a rotten afternoon, repeatedly giving the ball away) but now Chelsea were capitalising and drew level within 16 minutes of the changes. By the time the final whistle blew, the only surprise was that the visitors hadn’t managed to win the game with David de Gea making a superb last-minute save to deny Mata.

Benitez knows he's never going to win over the Chelsea fans. But he does know what he's doing, and considering they're all going to have to put up with each other for a couple of months yet, the Stamford Bridge supporters might as well give him some respect.

Endangered Black Cats
The announcement that QPR’s wage bill accounts for a diabolical 90% of their turnover did nothing except confirm football’s perception of the Hoops as a club stuffed with mercenaries, with everybody from manager Harry Redknapp to highly-paid stars such as Christopher Samba and José Bosingwa looking to line their pockets with chairman Tony Fernandes’ money with little or no interest as to whether the club avoid relegation or not.

Which may or may not be true. But in just two games, QPR have transformed themselves from relegation certainties to a side who genuinely appear to have a chance of surviving. It’s not just that they have won back-to-back games in the Premier League (for the first time in 17 years) or the manner in which they achieved the victories – particularly with an energetic and controlled performance at the weekend – but the fact that they are beating the sides around them in Southampton and Sunderland.

Which turns the conversation to the north-east club, who are finding themselves closer and closer to trouble. Martin O’Neill’s side are without a win in six games and although they sit upon a six-point cushion that separates them from the relegation zone, upcoming games against Manchester United, Chelsea and Newcastle mean that Mackems could face a more stressful than they expected end to the season. As O’Neill himself has said, Sunderland “need to start winning, really.”

Demolition Derby
Unless you're a Nottingham Forest fan, you’ve got to feel for Derby County. Outside bets for a Championship play-off spot at the beginning of last month, the Rams haven't won in eight after the fixtures computer dealt them a wretched run of games which has seen them play almost half of the top 12 sides in the division in recent weeks.

On Saturday they travelled to Birmingham, hoping to build on Tuesday's impressive showing at league leaders Cardiff (they briefly led and left with a point). At St. Andrew’s, Nigel Clough's side once again took the lead but this time succumbed to three second-half goals to leave with nothing but a 3-1 defeat and half a glance over their shoulder at the teams below them.

Like Sunderland, are six points above the dreaded dotted line, which should see them safe. There is good news too, for Rams supporters: following next weeks’ East Midlands derby with Leicester City, they only face one top-half side in their remaining eight games.

Rock-bottom Bury
By no measurable indicator have Bury, at any point, had a decent season. But on Saturday it got a whole lot worse. Winless in League One until October, Bury were kept away from the very bottom first by the shockingly poor Hartlepool and then, when Pools rallied and clawed their way up the table, by the sorry mess that is Portsmouth.

But even Portsmouth, despite the shovelfuls of bad luck that have been heaped upon them in the last few years, have summoned the strength to put up a fight and so Bury now find themselves at the very foot of the table.

Indeed it was at Pompey that the Shakers finally hit rock bottom as the south coast club ‘pulled a QPR’ and won for a second game in a row (following last week’s incredible 2-1 win at Crewe), easing past their visitors 2-0.

Bury have a game in hand over both Portsmouth and Hartlepool, and are capable of good results: their last two wins were against Swindon and Doncaster. But with the gap to safety now standing at eight points, and with nearest rivals Hartlepool, Portsmouth and (until recently) Oldham in decent form, we could soon hear the death rattle of Bury’s season.

Miserable Morecambe
Morecambe endured a dismal day at Barnet, turning a 1-0 half-time lead into a 4-1 defeat and being reduced to 10 men by goalkeeper Barry Roche's dismissal. It was a bad day in an average season for the Shrimps, who before Saturday had won 13 and lost 13.

A squad already down to its bare bones – they filled only five of their allotted seven substitute spots – will now be further stretched during Roche’s suspension, including tough fixtures with Gillingham and Northampton.

Conversely it was a great day for the hosts, who continued their good form under Edgar Davids to climb to the top of the mini-table of seven teams at the bottom of League Two.

Welcome to Planet Mario: A taste of life in Balotelli's world

David Hall — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 11:45:00 GMT

FourFourTwo Editor David Hall went to Milan and found himself in the middle of Mario-mania...

Walking up to the San Siro was a great moment for me. Several things came to pass to make that moment special. The most obvious thing was the occasion: “AC Milan vs Barcelona” is a hat-trick of words that would excite even the most jaded football fan (not that I consider myself to be jaded, by the way). The fact this was an evening kick-off right in the middle of a city that had gone completely mental for, and found new hope in, their new signing Mario Balotelli, brought even more expectation to the evening.

The stadium was a sell-out – a rare occurrence these days – and, I must confess, it was my first visit to this top three contender in the football-stadiums-you-must-visit-before-you-die list. There was an odd moment when a big piece of official branding outside the stadium proclaimed this to be the “ROAD TO WEMBLEY”… in these supremely sexy surroundings, it felt weirdly unglamorous to see those words.

AC Milan and Barcelona hope to emulate Bradford City

In a moment of crappy timing that often happens to us in the world of monthly magazines, I was visiting Milan literally hours after we had sent the final pages of our April issue – out now digitally and in print – to press. That will be the April issue with Mario Balotelli on the cover. Bizarrely, I found myself no more than three yards from the man himself as he sauntered around the corporate boxes with (stunning) girlfriend, Fanny, in tow.

Being in the middle of Mario mania was a real eye-opener. Seeing him move amongst the people occupying the posher areas of the San Siro, I got a very small insight into what his life is like. He would walk somewhere, stop and then gradually more and more people would gravitate towards his position, until he would decide it was getting a bit much and then move on. I imagined a voice in Mario’s head saying, “Mario will now stand here and wait… Mario will now stand here and wait… Mario will now stand here and wait…”

Mario and Fanny take in the big match atmosphere

What that fleeting glimpse of Mario mania confirmed for me was the man’s undoubted star quality. He exuded confidence, everyone in his presence was excited to see him and his stand-and-wait routine caused a buzz wherever he went.

During his time in the UK, the British press, on the whole, enjoyed making him look like a bit of a wally, and I include FourFourTwo in that. In our defence, what I think we never really lost sight of was the fact that he is a really good player. I was gutted when I twigged he would be cup-tied for this game against Barcelona. It was destined to be an electric atmosphere, but it would have been superb had Balotelli played *shakes fist in the general direction of Manchester*.

My invite to the game came from the ultra hip and happening fashionistas at Dolce & Gabbana. The high-end clobber kings have a good thing going with AC Milan where they dress all the players for official club business. In return, D&G enjoy a pretty spectacular corporate standing area almost on the pitch at a corner flag known as “The Gold Club”. Amusingly, this game took place right smack bang in the middle of Milan Fashion Week, so I was sadly not only the worst-dressed person in the D&G area but also comfortably the ugliest. Hey-ho. At least there was football to watch.

Our man's view of the pitch (and the backs of the beautiful people's heads)

The game unfolded in exhilarating style. Barcelona’s tiki-taka didn’t really show any cutting edge but Milan, driven by Kevin Prince Boateng, who appeared so pumped I had him down for a red card at some point, looked ready to pounce. Every time Milan got possession there was an expectant roar and I actually started to feel a bit sorry for Stephan El Shaarawy. He was getting hit with some momentous crossfield passes, a few of which were landing right in front of where I was standing, and the noise volume went up every time he got it under control. Pressure? Just a bit.

As the game went on, the D&G standing area became busier and I’m pretty sure my aforementioned ugliness and clear lack of any discernible sartorial skill, meant that I was gradually edged further and further back. That, or I’m just not very good at jostling with elegant Italians.

When the referee blew for half-time, there was a palpable feeling of relief but also of, “Hang on a minute here, lads… we could get something out of this”. That’s a loose translation of the mutterings I heard. Barcelona certainly looked off the pace, particularly at the back and the very faintest whiff of Catalan blood was in the air.

Mario Balotelli: Once again the centre of attention

Mario popped into the D&G area again. Stood… waited… stood… waited and then went back to the box next door, which I only discovered later contained Robinho too. What a night out that would be, eh?

The second-half was brilliant. Milan were unrelenting and when The Prince put them 1-0 up, the flipping roof came off. People I’d been craning to see round in the D&G box, turned to me and, I’m pretty sure, would have hugged me had the ugliness and poor clothing not prevented them. And when Sulley Muntari finished off a brilliant move for the second, the whole place exploded with a “can you believe this is actually bloody well happening?!” kind of vibe. Incredible.

I looked over to the box next door and I could just see the top of Balotelli’s grey baseball cap bouncing around as he celebrated in a group hug with his entourage.

Muntari and Boateng celebrate victory with some robotic dancing (possibly)

At the final whistle, I was whisked away through a car park under the stadium which was filled with, what I can only guess were, the players’ cars, past Novak Djokovic who was posing for pics with fans, to a minibus all set to take a few of us back to various hotels in the city. We pulled away and started our inch-by-inch crawl through the huge departing crowd and general melee. I started to exchange texts with a couple of FourFourTwoers, mentioning seeing Balo and what an amazing night it had been.

Suddenly, I was conscious of a bit of ruckus kicking off behind our mini bus. I looked over my right shoulder and saw a big pack of people running and riding mopeds across the road. I slid over to the other side of the bus to see what they were running after. There right underneath my window was a bright red Ferrari and Fanny sitting in the passenger seat.

This was too good. Rather than give it an hour or so, Balotelli had decided to drive his highly conspicuous motor right into the middle of sell-out match traffic. That’s Mario. He’s box office and he doesn’t really much care who knows it. Milan loves him for it.

NEW ISSUE Mario's homecoming, the making of Mourinho, a chat with Michu and much, much more

GET IT HERE Read the new issue digitally or subscribe to the print edition

Whatever happened to Giles Barnes?

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT

Sports writer Scott Johnson talks to a midfielder who was rated among English football's hottest young talents five years ago, and is now looking to rebuild his career in the USA...

When former Derby, West Brom and Doncaster midfielder Giles Barnes talks you through the injuries he has endured in his career to date, you wince.

“I was playing with an ankle stress fracture in the run to the 2007 play-off final with Derby,” Barnes explains. “For whatever reason, I didn’t have a scan on it and was taking injections - it cracked in the final. It was a fracture but then it split.

“The following February, I dislocated and ruptured knee ligament tendons. I went on loan to Fulham, but soon got a partial tear of my Achilles tendon. I went back to Derby for pre-season, trained when I should have been resting and it fully ruptured in a friendly against Stoke City.”

But the former Derby County prodigy is still playing, which is perhaps an achievement in itself. Currently plying his trade with Houston Dynamo in MLS, Barnes says: “Most people would have given up after all that, but I’m still here, still fighting, and I still want to play in the Premier League. I’m still 24 and I’m just happy to be playing.”

MLS enthusiasts and anyone who watched David Beckham’s LA Galaxy defeat Houston in the 2012 MLS Cup Final will have seen Barnes introduced late in the second half. With his side trailing, he was unable to inspire a surprise comeback. However with a full pre-season now behind him, he is looking to have a far greater impact in the new season.

“I came over here in September, at the back end of last season. I didn’t have a pre-season and when I got the phone call I was on holiday in Monaco. I had two weeks to get fit as they needed help with their final play-off push. We both understood that my role would have to be coming off the bench because I hadn’t done anything from April to September, just training on my own.”

A long-term MLS target, his move Stateside has been a long time in the offing. “I got asked to come to the MLS a couple of years ago but I chose to stay in England and play a season in the Championship. I got approached by Houston last January, when I was coming to the end of my contract at Doncaster, but I decided to stay for another six months. I had a lot of interest from England and Italy, but I thought it was the right time to come out here and start a new chapter in my life.”

In moving to Houston, Barnes joined one of the most successful franchises in MLS. After relocating from San Jose in 2006, the Dynamo won the MLS Cup twice in their first two seasons and are play-off regulars. Part owned by boxing great Oscar De La Hoya, they play at the brand-new, purpose built BBVA Compass Stadium in front of near capacity crowds of 22,000.

His goal for this season is simple: “to go one step further than last year and win the cup”

Barnes signed his first professional contract on his 17th birthday and Phil Brown gave him his Derby debut nearly soon after. He soon became a key figure at Pride Park, and established a lofty reputation with the Championship side, who eventually achieved promotion in 2007.

Derby famously recorded a record low points total in their 2007/08 campaign, most of which Barnes missed through injury. The frustration of extended spells on the sidelines also prompted his move to Fulham in January 2009. “The reason I left Derby to join Fulham was that I had missed out on the Premier League, I felt like I had been robbed of my chance,” he concedes, but things only got worse at Craven Cottage.

Despite a string of impressive performances for the reserves, Barnes did not record a single first team appearance for Roy Hodgson’s side. “I had just come back from my knee injury, played a few reserve team games then Roy told me I would be playing the following Saturday. The Tuesday before, I felt something wrong with my Achilles and I never really recovered from that.”

He joined West Brom in February 2010 but found the arrival of Hodgson a year later was once again a bad omen. “When he arrived, we were just above the relegation zone and he told me that if the team were mid-table, I would be playing,” Barnes explains. “The way he wanted to set up the team in a solid formation wouldn’t allow for a free spirit, so I would be used sparingly, if at all. That was a bitter pill to swallow, but at least he didn’t leave me in the dark.”

A move to Steve McClaren’s Nottingham Forest failed to materialise (“the club knows why it didn’t happen”) but Barnes did complete a move to Doncaster in August 2011. He made 36 appearances for the Championship strugglers, largely utilised in an unfamiliar position. “I got asked to play in a certain, restricted midfield role, winning second balls, a lot of tackling, a lot of heading, not allowed to roam free, which isn’t really my game. I had to change my game in order to play and played quite a lot."

Rovers were eventually relegated, as an influx of ‘super agent’ Willie McKay’s high-profile clients underwhelmed and underperformed.

“We had some well-known, big game players. We all got on with each other, everything was fine, it just didn’t click on the pitch,” Barnes says. “Nobody wanted us to go down and everyone wanted to play for the club, Dean Saunders is a very enthusiastic manager, it didn’t work but it wasn’t for a lack of trying.”

Barnes is looking rediscover the fine form of the early days of his career with Houston, and also hopes to return to his favoured position. “When I first started out, I was given a lot of freedom to roam around the pitch, and that was down to Billy Davies. He knew how to play me and where I wanted to play. The teams I have gone on to play for have not allowed me to play that role, I’ve played wide or centrally with a lot more responsibility.”

He regards Davies fondly and considers the recently reappointed Forest boss as the most influential manager he has worked with thus far. “Billy Davies was the one I really enjoyed working with. When you’re 18 years old and you’ve got a manager that trusts you, making you feel 100ft tall, what more can you ask for? Over here, I’m loving working for Dominic Kinnear, who is also Scottish and knows Billy. There are a lot of similarities between the two.”

In May 2007, Barnes was profiled by FourFourTwo’s Boy’s a Bit Special feature. When asked where he expected to be in five years’ time, Barnes answered: “In the Premiership – although there might be a chance we’ll get there much sooner. I’d also like to be knocking on the door of the England setup. I’ve yet to play for the U21’s, so I know it’s going to be a big ask to push for a senior call. But you’ve got to set yourself targets.”

Reflecting on these claims, Barnes concedes: “Injuries are a big part of the game and I had a lot for two and a bit years. My faith and belief have helped me through some dark times, it’s a big part of my life, a big part of what my grandma and my dad instilled in me. I’ve had some great times at some great clubs and I’ve had some low times with the injuries, but I’m still playing and that’s an accomplishment for me. You can’t live with regrets.”

Boy's A Bit Special Giles Barnes speaks to FFT in 2007

In the new issue: Mario's homecoming, the making of Mourinho & a chat with Michu

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 08:00:00 GMT

He was never likely to stay quiet for long, was he? With the ink barely dry on his new contract, Mario Balotelli is the cover star of the April 2013 issue of FourFourTwo – out now digitally and in print – as we bring you the inside story of his return to Italy.

We have tales of near-riots at restaurants, a dream two-goal debut and a brush with the law outside an airport. All this from a man Italy coach Cesare Prandelli claims has “found some serenity” since returning home.

While English football wipes a tear from its eye and waves goodbye to Super Mario, FFT also focuses on the man left picking up the pieces following his departure. We trace the career of Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini back to his playing prime in Italy. Between his lethal partnership with Gianluca Vialli at Sampdoria and his fiery on-pitch protests against officials and journalists, we find a man more similar to his exasperating former charge than you might think.

But of course, Mancini isn’t the only coach to have struggled when controlling particularly individualistic players. We look at some of the game’s other ‘Unmanageables’. From Robin Friday turning up drunk to training carrying a swan, to Edmundo “borrowing” a monkey from a local zoo, via the gun-toting Faustino Asprilla and ref-stamping Hristo Stoichkov, we show that letting off fireworks in your bathroom is actually fairly tame.

From players nobody wants to manage to those everyone does. We take a look at some of the January bargains who are already impressing in the Premier League. Find out how midfield dynamo Lewis Holtby could help take Spurs to the next level, why Arsenal really need Nacho Monreal, how Moussa Sissoko has matched up to Spain’s finest and how Philippe Coutinho has found “a Dad” in compatriot Lucas Leiva.

Perhaps the ultimate bargain of the season has been Swansea’s super-Spaniard Michu. The £2.2 million man chats to FFT about finding his feet in Wales, being overlooked by the national side and how he sees himself as “a mini Russell Crowe”.

FFT takes a trip back in time to when the scourge of Barcelona, Jose Mourinho, was on the staff at Camp Nou – where he provided Bobby Robson with the best scouting reports he’d ever seen and was chummy with one P.Guardiola. We trace Jose’s journey from translator to tactical mastermind by speaking to those who were there.

No magazine gets more access to legends than FourFourTwo, and in this month's One-on-One it's Michael Ballack answering your questions. The battling former Chelsea midfielder talks ice skating, learning football “the communist way” and Elton John: wedding singer.

Ever wondered what it’s like to get sent off in a World Cup final? Or get in a 26-man ruck on the pitch? How about dating a member of Atomic Kitten? We get to the bottom of these, and other unique football posers with the help of Pedro Monzon, Perry Groves, Lee Trundle and various other current and ex-pros.

We’ve all heard the phrase “his left foot is only good for standing on”, but what has happened to the truly two-footed players? Arsene Wenger, Diego Forlan and former Manchester United youth coach Eric Harrison discuss whether it’s really a modern phenomenon or if the best footballers have always been one-footed.

As if their tetchy first-team clashes weren’t enough, we bring you yet another Barcelona vs Real Madrid fixture: the Mini Clasico. For the first time since 1998, the reserve sides of the two Spanish giants went head-to-head, and FourFourTwo was pitchside to bring you the inside track.

One man, 12 clubs, 700 games, nearly 250 goals. We take you inside the home and inside the mind of veteran forward Jamie Cureton. Now enjoying a new lease of life at Exeter City, the cult hero tells FFT why he said ‘no’ to Fergie, how he ended up playing in South Korea and why he’s living with his Mum aged 37.

If that’s not enough for your monthly football read, we’ve also gone inside talkSPORT for an in-depth look at the world of the football phone-in, grabbed an exclusive word with Schalke loanee Ibrahim Afellay, talked to Michel Salgado on doping, to David Haye on Danny Shittu, discovered stats on the world’s most prolific academies and, of course, brought you our monthly Performance section.

FourFourTwo: There really is no substitute.

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The April 2013 issue of FourFourTwo was brought to you by Michu, Demba Ba, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Michael Kightly, Freddie Sears, Alan Connell, Diego Simeone, Michael Ballack, Sean St Ledger, Jimmy Gilligan, Pedro Monzon, Jamie Cureton, Diego Forlan, Perry Groves, Giles Barnes, Gary Mabbutt, Fredi Kanoute, Graham Poll, David Busst, Anton Hysen, Michel Salgado, Mark Noble, Paddy Amond, Phil Chisnall, Brian Deane, Andres Vasquez, Steven Pienaar, Dele Adebola, Mickey Thomas, Warren Feeney, Ramon Morales, Marcus Bent, Eric Harrison, Michael Reiziger, Leroy Rosenior, Lee Trundle, Danny Kelly, Paul Hawksbee, Dietmar Hamann, Urs Meier, Mike McCurry, Tony Cottee, Jordi Cruyff, Paul Parker, David Haye, Ibrahim Afellay, Carlton Palmer, England’s six-a-side team and Fiorentina youngster Jackson Beckham Diego Socrates da Silva de Jesus.

GET IT HERE Read the new issue digitally or subscribe to the print edition

Bad Weekend For: Birthday boys, Giggs celebrants, title processions and South Coast bubble-blowers

Simon Carter — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:54:00 GMT

It was a bad weekend for…

Birthday boys
On Saturday, Southampton hoped to celebrate manager Mauricio Pochettino’s birthday with a home win over QPR that would put clear air between themselves and the bottom three. An entertaining game, which Southampton controlled almost throughout, proved not to be the birthday present Pochettino wanted as the visitors grabbed three vital points with a 2-1 win.

That should have been a nice gift for the other birthday boy, Harry Redknapp. Although he was given an understandably hostile reception from the home fans, Redknapp’s fist-pumps of joy at the final whistle painted a picture of a very satisfied birthday boy. But Redknapp used his post-match interview to rage at the “disgusting” Daily Mirror for printing an article claiming that a recent Dubai training break had descended into a “stag party”.

So both men had a bitter birthday – unless of course they got home to a One Direction birthday cake.

Giggs tributes
With Sir Alex Ferguson widely expected to heavily rotate his Manchester United squad ahead of the crunch Champions League tussle with Real Madrid, Saturday’s home game against Norwich was all set to be Ryan Giggs’ 1,000th senior appearance.

To that end, bloggers, columnists and proper journalists across the land were briefed to write glowing tributes, career retrospectives and, on The Guardian website, a list of every player to have ever been a teammate of the Welshman (a long day at work for somebody there).

Alas, all that work was wasted as Giggs wasn't even named in the squad for United’s 4-0 stroll, with Ferguson proving once again that he holds no truck with media considerations. The reason for Giggs’ exclusion? It seems that Ferguson is a sentimental old fool after all, and wanted to save the special milestone for tomorrow night. He’s just a cuddly granddad at heart.

Cardiff’s procession
Since New Year, Middlesbrough have featured heavily in this column by making it their mission to undo all of their early good work. And here they are again, but this time in the guise of conquering heroes, flipping the finger to the form-book and giving league leaders Cardiff a good old beating.

OK, perhaps that verges on hyperbole, but Boro’s form has been so wretched of late that the entirely unexpected 2-1 home victory will have been welcomed by players and fans alike with joy not seen since the return of Juninho. Goals from Kieron Dyer (no, really) and on-loan debutant Sammy Ameobi gave Middlesbrough a deserved first-half lead before an Aron Gunnarsson header pulled Cardiff back into the game midway through the second half.

With a goal difference decimated by poor results, Boro have work to do to cement a play-off place – but with their next four games all against sides in the bottom half, all may not be lost from a season that was sailing away down the Tees.

Bournemouth's South Coast bubble
Preston North End stunned League One a fortnight ago with a 2-0 victory over league leaders Bournemouth just days after losing their manager. It was a good day for Preston – who have since recorded creditable 1-1 draws with Swindon and MK Dons – and a very bad one for Bournemouth. But things have since gotten much worse.

In a league where just a handful of points separate seven promotion hopefuls, a couple of bad results can cause a terrifying slip down the table (the case in point being former runaway leaders Tranmere who, after six defeats in 10, find themselves clinging onto a play-off spot), and Bournemouth have had more than a couple of bad results.

Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Leyton Orient was Bournemouth’s fourth loss in a row, with all but one of the defeats coming against sides below them in the table. Next weekend they face Doncaster, who now lead the pack, before taking on the only side in the division on a worse run: Stevenage.

Neither Up Nor Down
Without a win in 11 games, York City are on the edge of being drawn into the League Two relegation fight, and a 2-0 home defeat to League Cup finalists Bradford on Saturday saw the end of manager Gary Mills.

Mills was the man who guided York back into the Football League last season via the Conference play-offs but with the team struggling for goals, confidence and points, sentiment could not be a factor for the City board.

A statement released by the Minstermen said that a new manager should be in place in time for next Saturday’s game against Wimbledon. With the Dons having slipped to bottom place following their defeat to Cheltenham on Saturday, the fixture could be one to watch.

Poor Vale
Manchester City, Middlesbrough, Tranmere and Bournemouth have all somewhat mapped out handy guidelines for anyone looking to derail their own championship challenge. It’s not recommended reading, and it’s guaranteed to upset your supporters, but League Two Port Vale look to be the latest club to fade as the season enters its final weeks.

Reverses against Morecambe and Exeter and draws with Barnet and Wimbledon in recent weeks meant that Vale went into Saturday’s visit to Oxford two points behind leaders Gillingham.

Though Oxford’s home record is quite poor, and Vale were without a defeat on the road since the autumn, the visitors managed only one shot on target in the entire game and were deservedly beaten 2-1.

Fans will hope that the defeat acts as a wake-up call ahead of tomorrow’s visit of Bradford with a gang of teams just below them desperate to steal their promotion spot.

Five conclusions from Tottenham's North London derby win over Arsenal

Gareth McKnight — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:26:00 GMT

Tottenham edged out north London rivals Arsenal 2-1 in a crunch derby clash on Sunday at White Hart Lane, with two quick-fire goals in the first-half proving enough to claim all three points. The result moves Spurs back up to third place ahead of Chelsea, and leaves the Gunners five points adrift of the Champions League qualification places. Although there is still a lot of football left to be played this term, the game showed us a number of things about these bitter rivals.

Tottenham are mentally tougher

Tottenham struck quickly and decisively towards the end of what had been a relatively even first half to give themselves a solid 2-0 lead at the break. But they will have had the previous two North London derbies in mind, when they threw away 1-0 and 2-0 leads to ultimately twice be thumped 5-2 by the Gunners.

When Per Mertesacker's deflected effort found the back of Hugo Lloris' goal after 51 minutes, Spurs looked in trouble and in the past may well have wilted under Arsenal pressure. However this time a stern defensive effort and the tireless work-rate of all the players allowed them to close the game out.

Michael Dawson and Jan Vertonghen must receive plaudits for their steadfast efforts in the Tottenham backline, but the whole side showed a mental toughness to stand up and fight when under pressure. Harry Redknapp's teams, as talented as they were, at times lacked this stubbornness; Andre Villas-Boas has seemingly instilled a dogged outlook on what used to be an unpredictable Spurs side.

Arsenal's defensive frailties persist

Arsenal looked to play a high line to deny Spurs' attacking players space, but were punished for a lack of concentration and organisation in the first half. The Gunners were given a warning early in the encounter when Gylfi Sigurdsson cut in from the left and overhit a through-ball to the onrushing Gareth Bale, but the visitors did not learn their lesson.

Later in the half, the Icelandic midfielder found himself in a similar position, with Bale making an almost identical run. Thomas Vermaelen and Per Mertesacker failed to organise their back four to play an effective offside trap, and Sigurdsson this time played his pass to perfection, enabling the Welshman to open the scoring. With a similar move resulting in the second Spurs goal soon after - Scott Parker feeding Aaron Lennon this time - the softness at the heart of Arsenal's rearguard was shockingly exposed.

Jack Wilshere is fighting a lonely battle

Arsenal probably just edged the first 30 minutes of the game and had more of the ball in the second half after Mertesacker's goal, however the Gunners failed to create many clear-cut chances for their forward players. Despite neat interplay, it looked like the Gunners lacked a clinical pass in the last third to get the goals they needed to get back in the game.

Jack Wilshere was once again his side's standout player, as he battled Mousa Dembele and Scott Parker diligently, and looked to grab the game by the scruff of the neck. Despite excellent box-to-box runs, winning back possession and neat footwork, it looked at times like Arsenal did not have the players around the England international to make the most of his individual ability.

Tottenham are not a one-man team

Much of the pre-match build-up to the game surrounded Gareth Bale, and rightly so given his recent excellent form and goalscoring exploits. Arsene Wenger however refused to change his tactics to try to shackle the Welshman and declined to deploy a man marker on the attacker.

Despite scoring the all-important first goal for Spurs with a deft run and ruthless finish, Bale was very quiet in the first-half and had little part to play in the game. He was more involved in the second 45, but still did not show a performance of the scintillating standards that has resulted in such acclaim of late.

On the day, Tottenham's other flying winger Aaron Lennon actually looked like more of a threat than his illustrious team-mate, and the combined team effort to win the game, with Jan Vertonghen picking up the man-of-the-match award. Bale may well be the team's most high-profile player, but he is not the only one of top quality.

The race for the top four is far from over

While some Spurs fans will doubtless claim their team's victory over Arsenal signifies a power shift in North London, their celebrations shouldn't get out of control just yet.

Yes, Tottenham have made a once one-sided derby much more competitive, and on current form look like a more rounded and better team than Arsenal, but with Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City still to play - not to mention their ongoing Europa League campaign - Spurs are by no means guaranteed a place in the top four. Similar gutsy performances to the one on Sunday are needed to ensure a place in next term's Champions League, in what is set to be a close race for qualification.

Arsenal, on the other hand, have a more favourable run-in than their neighbours, and despite Sunday's defeat, Wenger will be confident of his side picking up points against the weaker teams in the division. The Gunners’ revival towards the end of last term, when they closed an even more sizeable gap, will also still be in the minds of both clubs. Arsenal must aim to crank up the pressure on their rivals once again.

VIDEO ESPN's Robbie Mustoe on Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Man City – and Nathan Dyer

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT

As usual, ESPN have answered a handful of FourFourTwo readers' topical questions in an exclusive addendum to their Press Pass show – and as host Andrew Orsatti finds out, Robbie Mustoe isn't holding back...

At the League Cup Final, was Nathan Dyer right to be so upset not to get the penalty?
How long can Manchester City keep the title race alive?
Which two out of Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal will join the Mancunians in the top four?

ESPNFC Press Pass – the football discussion show that takes a daily look at the global game – airs at 11pm Monday to Friday, plus Sunday evenings on ESPN. Follow the show on Twitter

It Was a Bad Weekend For… Romance, Royalty, Tigers, Wolves & Cod

Simon Carter — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:24:00 GMT

It was a bad weekend for…

Romance
Although Bradford City have beaten more Premier League teams this season than QPR, facing Swansea in the League Cup Final always looked like it would be one step too far. And so it proved yesterday afternoon as the Swans took apart the Bantams for 90 minutes at Wembley to win their first-ever major trophy with a convincing 5-0 victory.

Despite a pre-match blessing from the Dalai Lama, and Cup Final suits from famed tailor Simon Carter (a much more successful homonym of your correspondent), Bradford forgot their cup form and instead brought their League Two form.

With Valentine’s Day now a distant memory, romantics everywhere suffered a double-whammy when first Swansea made it perfectly clear that they would not make the same mistakes as Wigan, Arsenal and Aston Villa before them – and then the heartless Jonathan de Guzman denied teammate Nathan Dyer the chance of a hat-trick by insisting on taking a penalty with the cup already effectively won.

But romance is overrated and Swansea’s master-class in possession football, and how to deal with lower league opposition – seducing Bradford into committing men forward before ruthlessly exploiting the space left behind – was fitting of any cup final.

So Swansea, and Michael Laudrup, take 2013's first major English silverware and can look forward to European football next season. Meanwhile Bradford resume their play-off push on Wednesday night as they welcome Dagenham & Redbridge to Valley Parade. Despite yesterday’s lack of romance, they can expect a loving welcome from their adoring and admirable fans.

The Royals (1)
Now the Queen is no fan of football but it is believed that Her Majesty enjoys tuning in five minutes before major cup finals to hear her subjects deliver a rousing rendition of her aural wallpaper God Save The Queen.

Pity poor Ma’am then, had she asked a foot servant to flick over to Sky Sports at 15:55 yesterday to hear her anthem: she’ll have been greeted instead with the sound of commentators and pundits patronising Bradford to within an inch of their lives.

The Football League’s decision to forego the national anthem due to the presence of a Welsh side in the final did cause faux rage in certain parts of the media, but if our gracious Queen did stay tuned in after kick-off, she’ll have realised, like the rest of us, that’s it all really about the football.

The Royals (2)
Looking back it feels as though there was a certain inevitability about Wigan’s 3-0 win at Reading on Saturday. After all, the Latics have been embroiled in relegation battles on an annual basis for years and know the territory well; furthermore, their only two wins in the last 16 (!) league games have come in the crunch six-pointers against Villa and the Royals themselves.

Yet for the first half-hour at the Madejski, Roberto Martinez's side were the very picture of nerves, repeatedly conceding possession and offering little going forward. And little wonder, as Reading’s recent form has borne the hallmarks of a team on the rise, with battling wins over Sunderland, Newcastle and West Brom and a remarkable comeback draw with Chelsea.

But, even ignoring the implications of the result, there were a number of worrying signs for Reading on Saturday afternoon. Considering all the recent praise of their fighting spirit, the Royals crumbled following Arouna Kone’s double just before half-time. Once Wigan scored immediately after the break, Reading played as though they couldn’t wait for the game to finish.

The lack of character on display was epitomised by Pavel Pogrebnyak’s senseless lunge on goalscorer Maynor Figueroa, for which he earned a straight red card.

Why Reading showed so little belief against a team who started the day below them in the table is a mystery – but it certainly doesn’t bode well for March trips to Everton, Manchester United and Arsenal.

Mauled Tigers
It’s fair to say that Bolton Wanderers haven't had the season they expected. Having been relegated from the Premier League by a single point with a fairly decent squad and a well-regarded young manager in Owen Coyle, the Trotters were promotion favourites with the bookies.

Fast-forward seven months and Bolton have a new manager, and new ambitions: survive (they have been as few as three points above the relegation zone), consolidate, and push for promotion next year. Yet on Saturday, Wanderers fans got a glimpse of what might have been as their side destroyed high-flying Hull City.

By 10 past three Bolton had scored three times and hit the post against a Hull side who hadn’t conceded in nearly 200 minutes. Such was Wanderers’ domination that when Hull eventually did score, Bolton immediately regained their three-goal cushion just two minutes later.

The Tigers began the day in second place and with genuine hopes of closing the gap on leaders Cardiff. The 4-1 defeat allowed the apparently unstoppable Watford to leapfrog them with a 2-1 win over Derby. And Bolton? Though it’s probably too late to mount a serious play-off charge, Saturday was a good day in a disappointing season – and hope for the future under Dougie Freedman, who had turned Crystal Palace from drop-dodgers into promotion contenders.

Sorry Wolves
Having slipped into the bottom three following Tuesday’s defeat at Barnsley, Wolverhampton Wanderers suffered the very definition of a Bad Weekend as both Saturday and Sunday hurled bucketfuls of ‘suck’ their way.

First, on Saturday – when Wolves didn’t even play – just two of the bottom 10 Championship sides lost, pulling Wolves further into the relegation mire. And waiting for them at Molineux on Sunday afternoon were league leaders Cardiff, who'd already won eight away league games – more than anyone bar Watford. It didn't bode well.

And so it proved, as Cardiff put together a regulation 2-1 victory to stretch their lead at the top to eight points – and leave Wolves in a sorry, sorry state. Like Bolton and Blackburn, Wolves have had to severely realign their expectations for this season: if they are not to suffer back-to-back relegations, they need wins and fast.

But if winning is a habit, Wolves simply haven't got it. No team in the division has won fewer games this season; they haven't won since before Christmas, gaining four points from the last 11 games; moreover, the two teams above them have games in hand, and the (only) two teams below them are picking up wins.

Boro (1)
Oh Middlesbrough! Their post-Christmas form reached a nadir this weekend as Boro hosted a Millwall side smarting from five consecutive league defeats. Inevitably, the Lions won and Middlesbrough finally fell out of the play-off spots. There’s still time to turn this around; the question is, how?

Boro (2)
Bit by bit, Stevenage’s season is falling apart. In the most open League One in memory (only two points separate the top six), the Hertfordshire side were until very recently one of the sides with a shot at promotion. But recent form has beached them in lower mid-table.

The warning signs were there as early as November when Boro suffered back-to-back 4-1 defeats, but draws with Bournemouth and Tranmere seemed to steady the ship before a 2-0 win at Hartlepool put them firmly back in the promotion race. Unfortunately, that was as good as it got.

Consecutive home defeats over Christmas heralded a run which has seen just two wins from 11 league games (having won more than half of their opening fixtures). On Saturday, Boro were humbled 2-1 by Shrewsbury, their fourth successive defeat.

With 43 points on the board, Stevenage are safe from relegation, yet with 15 points separating them from the play-offs, promotion looks highly unlikely. There are certainly worse things than three months of mid-table boredom, but it will be a new experience for many fans of Stevenage, who have spent the business end of the last four seasons either in the play-offs or winning the Conference title.

League One, post-Paolo
“I am the manager and they are the fans. For this, they have to hope that I will be the manager in the future because it's difficult to find another one like me.”

Paolo Di Canio may have been talking directly to Swindon fans when he said those words, but anyone with even a fleeting interest in the Football League will find League One a quieter and less interesting place after the exit of the Italian (and his entire backroom staff). We can only hope that the crazy Di Canio roadshow rolls into town somewhere else very soon.

Oh, Cod...
The bottom of League Two looks like a six-way stramash over the two relegation spots, with Plymouth finally sinking to the bottom on Saturday and Torquay joining the likes of Aldershot and Barnet by losing for the sixth consecutive game this weekend.

But it is up towards the top that we focus and the moneyed Cod Army of Fleetwood Town. The North West club have enjoyed a stratospheric rise in recent seasons using the Crawley Town blueprint (i.e. have more money than everyone else), but any thoughts of back-to-back promotions have been scuppered in recent times thanks to a drop-off in form.

Following a midweek 4-0 home thumping by Burton Albion, Fleetwood travelled to struggling Aldershot hoping to avoid a repeat of the FA Cup tie in which the Shots upset the odds to proceed to the third round. Unfortunately for Fleetwood, Aldershot, buoyed by new blood in the dugout, made light work of their visitors consigning them to a fourth defeat in eight games.

If things don’t improve soon, Fleetwood could lose touch with the play-off contenders and their promotion hopes will surely, er, flounder.

VIDEO Robbie Earle on Man City, Gareth Bale and the club who most need a trophy

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 23:13:00 GMT

Former Premier League favourite and ESPN pundit Robbie Earle answers FourFourTwo readers' topical questions, namely:

Where's it gone wrong for Man City? Do they need a new manager?
Is Gareth Bale the best player in the Premier League?
Which team most desperately needs to win the FA Cup?

ESPNFC Press Pass – the football discussion show that takes a daily look at the global game – airs at 11pm Monday to Friday, plus Sunday evenings on ESPN. Follow the show on Twitter

How the FIFA rankings are worked out

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 10:58:00 GMT

In last September's issue, after much media tutting about England climbing to third in the FIFA rankings while Brazil sank out of the top 10, FourFourTwo published an explanation of the equation behind the table.

With yet more furore today as England rise to fourth and Brazil sink to 18th, we thought it worth a fresh look. But it's not our equation, so don't blame us... (click and zoom for bigger version)

Information from football-rankings.info
All positions relate to August 2012 rankings, published August 8

Bad Weekend: Joe, Roberto (both of 'em), Kenny, Dean & Ronnie

Simon Carter — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 10:53:00 GMT

It Was a Bad Weekend For…

Hart of the City
By any measure you wish to take, this was an exceptionally bad weekend for the Premier League champions. Bad that they lost at Southampton; bad that their main title (and local) rivals ruthlessly took advantage of their slip-up; and bad they now sit closer to sixth place than first. This was an awful weekend for Roberto Mancini’s men.

Manchester City were humiliated in their 3-1 Saturday tea-time defeat at St. Mary’s after a series of glaring defensive and goalkeeping gifts gave the hosts control. Gareth Barry’s misplaced pass in the seventh minute, which led to Jason Puncheon’s opening goal, was a sign of things to come as City buckled under constant high pressing from the impressive Saints.

England goalkeeper Joe Hart suffered a nightmare as he let a routine save through his legs to allow Steven Davis to poke home, before a bizarre own goal from Barry shortly after half-time ended any small hopes of a comeback raised by Edin Dzeko's 39th-minute goal.
But the huge errors should be the least of Mancini's worries, compared to the limp, heartless performance, wayward passing and ineffective attacking.

The following day, Manchester United inevitably seized the initiative. After a 2-0 home win over Everton stretched their lead to 12 points, Sir Alex Ferguson admitted that he had planned to rest seven players ahead of Wednesday's Champions League trip to Real Madrid. Psychologically crushing the neighbours – out of Europe and now with only the FA Cup to play for – and cruising towards a Liverpool-beating 20th title, it was as good a weekend for United as it was a bad weekend for City.

Still, say what you like about Joe Hart, but at least he has a flake- and itch-free scalp.

The Latics of Lancashire
Though there’s no doubting that Wigan weren’t as bad as the 4-1 reverse at Chelsea would suggest (and nor were Chelsea that good), alarm bells should definitely be ringing around the DW Stadium.

The defeat, combined with Aston Villa’s win over West Ham yesterday, sees the Latics fall to 19th, three points behind safety and in real danger of relegation. They’ve been here before – every season, or so it seems – but Wigan are without a victory in their six league games during 2013 (their only wins have been 1-0 FA Cup scrapes past Bournemouth and Macclesfield).

Their last victory was over Villa on December 29th; before that they'd had another six-game winless run (losing five) since scraping past Reading 3-2 at home. Their next league game is the return against Reading and they desperately need to win: one victory in 13 – a third of a season – is relegation form in anybody's book.

Manager Roberto Martinez is very well respected within the game, and makes an excellent and knowledgeable pundit, and it’s true that he has been hamstrung by Wigan’s constant requirement to sell their better players... but other than a win at Tottenham in November, this has been a season without many highlights and one that seems destined to end in disappointment.

With four teams now firmly in the relegation dogfight, Wigan will need more than luck to grab hold of 17th place.

Limp Lions
Millwall’s defeat to Blackpool on Saturday was as unlucky as it was disappointing. OK, so the Lions enjoyed a giant slice of luck in the first half when James Henry put his side ahead by scoring direct from a corner, but a decent performance counted for nothing when Nathan Delfouneso's last-minute goal put Blackpool 2-1 ahead (pictured) – and then Shane Lowry hit the woodwork for Millwall seconds before the whistle.

The loss is the latest in a wretched sequence of results for Kenny Jackett's side: despite knocking Aston Villa out of the FA Cup, they've won only one Championship game in the last nine. Indeed, four defeats on the bounce have seen Millwall slip from play-off contention: in a tight division, they're now six points behind sixth place and only seven above the drop-zone.

The FA Cup is undoubtedly a distraction – the Lions have only gained one point from a possible 15 since their Third Round tie with Preston – and with non-league Luton up next, the run could go on for a while yet.

Three days after visiting Luton the Lions host lowly Peterborough before next weekend's trip to Middlesbrough (who certainly have their own problems). If they take nothing from those games, then a cup run could prove the highlight of their season – and possibly even the source of relegation trouble.

Wolves… and Leeds
There were some fantastic games in the Championship this weekend, starting with Watford and Crystal Palace's 2-2 Friday night draw. On Teesside, Middlesbrough and Barnsley exchanged the lead before the visitors stole it by the odd goal in five, while Sheffield Wednesday fought back from 2-0 down at home to Derby to rescue a point with two goals in six minutes.

But there are few games where both teams will have left as disappointed as Wolverhampton Wanderers' clash with Leeds United.
Wolves led, as they have several times this season, following an own goal from Lee Peltier, before Luke Varney and Ross McCormack put the visitors ahead. A win for Leeds would have been vital in their push for a play-off place, with so many Championship sides in with a realistic shout of a top-six finish. However, Neil Warnock’s men lost concentration in second-half injury time to allow Danny Batth to head in an equaliser.

The home side will have felt disappointed, despite the timing of the equaliser, after again dropping points from a winning position. Results elsewhere conspired to send them just one place above the relegation zone, with Dean Saunders still seeking his first win after more than a month in the job.

So both left disappointed, but at least Leeds can look forward to an FA Cup tussle with the newly generous Man City next weekend.

League One title-chasers
Tranmere Rovers (League One pacesetters, undefeated in the league until October 20th, certainties for promotion) lost again on Saturday. The 2-1 defeat to Leyton Orient was Rovers’ third in four matches and second in successive weekends. It’s a good job that nobody’s capitalising on the league leaders’ mistakes.

See, Doncaster Rovers (second in League One, more wins than anybody else in the division, only two away defeats all season) also lost on Saturday. Their surprise 2-1 home defeat to Walsall was also their second in successive weeks.

What has caused the league-leading Roverses to suddenly start losing is anybody’s guess (although Dean Saunders' departure from Doncaster could have had some effect), but it’s certainly unusual for the league’s top two sides to both lose in consecutive weeks.

Will the trend continue next week? The chasing pack – led by Swindon and Bournemouth, both now just a point behind the top two – will certainly hope so.

'Proud' Preston
Preston North End are very much in trouble after a 1-0 defeat at fellow strugglers Colchester left them just five points clear of the relegation zone. North End have lost three in four games (admittedly, compared to Tranmere, that’s championship form), after only losing eight of the previous 26.

Unpopular manager Graham Westley said after the game that “the difference between what we're doing and winning is very slight.” But then so is the difference between going down and staying up.

Nobody at Preston will relish a visit to Yeovil tomorrow night, after the Glovers racked up their sixth win on the bounce on Saturday. Mind you, after that it's high-flying Bournemouth (who themselves have won four on the spin) at Deepdale – where Preston’s record is atrocious: only Hartlepool have won fewer home games.

Two surprise wins and all will be forgiven for Westley. Two unsurprising defeats and he could be in big trouble.

Bradford
On Sunday February 24th, Bradford City will walk out at Wembley Stadium to face Swansea in the League Cup Final with the goodwill and support of the entire footballing nation behind them. The Bantams have had an incredible, and well-documented, run to the final, beating Premier League sides Wigan, Arsenal and Aston Villa along the way.

But has their league form suffered as a result? It may be a little simplistic to blame the euphoric distraction of a once-in-a-lifetime cup run for a dip in league form but the fact is that Bradford have not won the league game directly following any League Cup tie this season (going all the way back to the first round).

On Saturday, Bradford lost 1-0 at home to second-placed Gillingham. Not a terrible result, but it continues a winless run stretching back to Boxing Day. Early-season form had put the Yorkshire side in promotion contention, but recent results have seen them drop six points behind the play-off zone.

Soon, the distraction will be over and Bradford can concentrate on trying to get out of League Two. The Bantams play Dagenham & Redbridge in the game immediately following the final, incidentally. Just in case you fancied a flutter.

Is Adam Le Fondre the most efficient Player of the Month ever?

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:27:00 GMT

When Reading 'super-sub' Adam Le Fondre was this week named Premier League Player of the Month for January, having not even started a league match throughout the month in question, FourFourTwo pondered whether a player had ever won the award having played fewer minutes.

Here are the ten players to have endured the least match time before being named the best the Premier League had to offer that month...

10. Jose Antonio Reyes, Arsenal
August 2004, 229 minutes

9. Paul Merson, Aston Villa
February 2000, 224 minutes

8. Teddy Sheringham, Manchester United
October 2000, 215 minutes

7. Steven Gerrard, Liverpool
March 2001, 213 minutes

6. Thierry Henry, Arsenal
April 2000, 188 minutes

5. Danny Murphy, Liverpool
November 2001, 186 minutes

4. Alan Smith, Leeds United
August 2000, 180 minutes

3. Fernando Torres, Liverpool
February 2008, 179 minutes

2. Robin van Persie, Arsenal
November 2005, 154 minutes

1. Adam Le Fondre, Reading
January 2013, 85 minutes

Research: David Turner

I went to Spain and fell in love with Dortmund

David Hall — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 15:30:00 GMT

At the cover-shoot for the latest issue of FourFourTwo, Editor David Hall has a holiday romance with the sexy new kid on the European block...

My first sight of the Borussia Dortmund squad came across a dusty car park in La Manga, Spain. As we walked towards the lush training pitches, I said to one of FourFourTwo’s German contingent, “Is this the youth team?” He chuckled before saying, “No, that’s the first team.”

As we got closer, the more familiar faces started to come into focus. Christ, there’s Mario Gotze… he’s tiny! There’s Marco Reus, Robert Lewandowski… flipping hell. They’re all so young!

What followed was a masterclass in intensive training. A quick, pressing drill was marshaled by the club’s irrepressible coach, Jurgen Klopp. As the ball fizzed around the pitch, the booming Klopp dished out praise loudly (“GUUUUUUUUUD, MARCO… GUUUUUUUUUUUUD!”) and corrected quietly while striding around the perfect playing surface.

The purpose of the morning’s drill was to retain possession while attacking at high speed, but if possession was lost the attacking team had to pounce on the poor sod who’d had the audacity to win the ball and snatch it back. The intensity was high and at one point the tackles were flying in. It was then I realised that none of them were wearing shinpads. This lot were full on.

I had arrived in La Manga the night before this training session. My absolutely rammed EasyJet flight had got me into Alicante airport around 10.30pm and my off-off-off airport car rental place (Dickmanns Rent-a-car, for those of you interested) furnished me with a sat-nav-free motor to feel my way through the 90-minute pitch-black drive to La Manga – it’s dead glamorous this magazine lark.

By the time I turned up at the massive urbanisation known as La Manga, all the players were tucked up in bed and a few members of the press team and backroom staff were setting about the wine list in the hotel bar.

At this point, it’s probably worth pointing out that the whole reason for my trip was to oversee the photoshoot with four Dortmund players and their coach for the cover of FourFourTwo's March 2013 issue.

The magazine had never given the cover to a German club side before and I was very keen to make sure we captured the vibe of this young, happening setup who had marauded through the Champions League group stages with levels of glee usually reserved for four-year-olds let loose on a pick’n’mix.

We'd spent a month in and around the club, in Dortmund as well as at La Manga, and we'd uncovered a fascinating story. But we know that when it comes to photography, it can be tricky to get footballers to do much of anything other than fold their arms and look bored, so I wanted to be on hand to pull faces, shout, scream, set myself on fire… pretty much anything that would make the buggers sit up and take notice.

So, back in the hotel bar at midnight, it was with undisguised dismay I received the news from the club’s press officer that the next day’s shoot had moved from the rather cryptic “afternoon” slot in the team’s itinerary to after dinner at 8.15pm. My you-must-be-having-a-laugh-mate-that's-non-refundable return ticket on Easyjet was booked for 9.45… and Alicante’s a long way from effing La Manga!

The next morning, once I’d watched the team training, I set about tearing up my well-laid travel plans and putting my credit card to good use to extend my stay for the shoot. About £500 later, I was sorted and set for the evening’s photographic boogie.

And so to the shoot…

For a couple of hours I became a photographer’s assistant as he set up his makeshift studio in a hotel meeting room. At first, this involved trying to find a working electric socket after the initial ones we used blew up under the strain of some rather epic flashguns.

That minor crisis averted, I became the stand-in for Gotze, Reus, Klopp & Co. as the photographer snapped test shot after test shot to make sure he got the lighting just right.

We decided to shoot everyone from two angles: head on and from above. The 'above' shot involved the use of a slightly wobbly stepladder, which in itself wasn’t a major concern. What was more worrying was the kit the photographer had brought to shoot with: a Hasselblad camera. Roughly £20,000 of kit, up a rickety stepladder. The snapper also took it upon himself to use an ironing board as a temporary workspace for his laptop and camera… sweaty times.

Access to players is something that FourFourTwo enjoys with regularity, but often that access is brief, particularly when there are four players and their coach all on site at the same time. We were pretty sure we’d get about 20 minutes in total to get all the shots we needed to execute the cover and also the feature’s opening spread. Ambitious? Well, we like a challenge here at FourFourTwo.

In brilliantly German fashion, the players and Klopp started to arrive for their shoot not just on time but early. From here on in, I must have taken on the appearance of a confused tourist as the next half-hour or so was conducted entirely in quickfire German – my only input coming via the photographer who became a de facto interpreter as well as hot-shot lensman.

As the players had to change into their freshly pressed kits, the already-tracksuited Klopp took to the white backdrop to be shot first. What followed was a complete romp. He posed, aped, pulled faces, jumped in the air, shouted and generally had a good time. I’m pretty confident when I say, there is no way in hell you’d catch a Premier League manager doing this… and, quite frankly, that’s a goddamn shame.

Watching Klopp in front of the camera reminded me of a quote from my favourite film, This Is Spinal Tap. When keyboardist Viv Savage is asked for the motto he lives life by, he replies “Have a good time, all of the time.” That’s what being around Dortmund feels like. You get the feeling that it’s mostly down to Klopp.

For his final shot we asked Klopp to point and shout like he was on the training pitch. He was having trouble finding a focal point to aim at with both index finger and shout, so I went and stood in the line of sight where we wanted him looking. “LAUF!” he boomed at me. It was so loud that I pretty sure someone in the hotel’s reception started dialling the local police. “LAUF!” he shouted again.

Later I discovered that “lauf” means “run” – how appropriate that the coach of a team who had steamrollered Europe’s elite with incessant running should be shouting that. I didn’t run, by the way, but I did crack up at the absurdity of the situation. Brilliant, but absurd nevertheless.

As Klopp’s stint in front of the camera came to an end, the players filed out all changed and looking the part. There were some exchanges in German and it was clear that Marco Reus was either annoyed or pretending to be annoyed.

It transpired he wasn’t entirely in the loop as to the “fun” vibe we were after in the shoot, but he dutifully stepped up with buddy Mario Gotze and within minutes they were giving us exactly what we were after. The same went for Sebastien Kehl and Robert Lewandowski.

The whole mood of the shoot was helped by Klopp, who chose to stick around and take the mick out of his players. Some snippets of translation came through. When the photographer told the players to turn their chest to the camera, Klopp was making wisecracks about them showing more breast… and you thought it was only English humour that did silly smut. The players responded with sniggers, then laughs and before we knew it they were throwing shapes and having almost as good a time as their manager had had in front of the camera.

With the session done (I believe we managed the whole thing in less than 25 minutes in the end – virtual high-five!) I shook hands with each of the players and thanked them for their time. I actually mistimed my handshake with Gotze who dropped his shorts just as I walked over to him with hand outstretched. Basically, I wound up shaking the hand of a €40 million player while he had his shorts round his ankles. Weird things happen in this job sometimes.

Personally, I'm really pleased with how the whole picture and feature turned out, but ultimately, it doesn’t really matter what I think. It’s up to those of you who pick up the March issue to let me know what you think. It’s on the newsstands from Wednesday 6th February and also available to read digitally from fourfourtwo.com/digitalmag. We all hope you enjoy it – Dortmund certainly did.

Portraits by Stefan Grey (and David Hall)

The new issue of FourFourTwo includes exclusive insight into Dortmund, plus Gerrard & Carragher in conversation, Nemanja Vidic, Neymar's agent, Phil Neville, oligarchs, Kaka, Lilleshall, Michael Ballack, Queen's Park v Rangers and Barnet v Aldershot. More details here

In the new issue: Inside Borussia Dortmund, Gerrard & Carra in conversation

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:30:00 GMT

We at FourFourTwo had a dilemma. How could we possibly follow up our extraordinary Players’ Poll issue? And how, after everybody had been talking earnestly about the state of football off the pitch, could we bring readers back to the heart and soul of the beautiful game?

Then we had an idea. Outside Barcelona, one team embodies the exhilaration football can bring to even the most miserable and cynical of fans. One team combines youthful exuberance with utter footballing brilliance, and love and respect for the fans with a healthy, enviable plan behind the scenes (just don’t call it a business model).

We knew what to do. We would infiltrate the club’s inner sanctum to give you, the readers, the untold, unknown inside story of Borussia Dortmund for the March issue of FourFourTwo magazine, out now digitally and in print.

How did Dortmund go from the verge of bankruptcy to German double winners and five-time conquerors of Bayern in just seven years? We went inside the club to find out, speaking to the backroom brains about succeeding without charging fans more than £200 for a season ticket; asking the likes of Robert Lewandowski and Marco Reus about their Champions League aims and, of course, getting the lowdown from mercurial manager Jurgen Klopp. Plus, we weigh up Klopp vs Pep in the new battle of the Bundesliga. It’s a must-read.

BEHIND THE SCENES FFT editor David Hall meets Klopp and the gang

So if Klopp’s Dortmund are Germany’s biggest hopes for a Champions League winner, who are England’s? Manchester United are out for revenge after last year’s humiliation, and leading the charge is captain Nemanja Vidic – a man who doesn’t the meaning of giving up. He speaks exclusively to FFT.

Also in conversation are Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher. We sat in as the Liverpool lads and childhood chums talk Champions League glory, failure with England and Scouse fashion. With both players bursting with honesty, this is a real eye-opener.

To Brazil, now, to spend a day in the life of Neymar’s agent. If that sounds dull, fear not – it’s anything but. Wagner Ribeiro is the man who handled the moves of Kaka, Robinho and now Lucas Moura to Milan, Madrid and PSG respectively, and who has to deal with abuse from Brazilian fans as a result. We join him for an average day in which he lunches with Lucas, natters with Neymar’s dad and settles the odd club-splitting player dispute. Business as usual...

What makes oligarchs buy football clubs? That’s what we ask in the new issue, looking at the increasing number of multimillion-pound investors across the world. Whether it’s for love, money or power, there’s always a reason – and it’s not always good for the fans.

The first thing to suffer from an oligarch’s takeover is often the youth system, which leads us seamlessly – ish – into our Action Replay feature on Lilleshall. What japes took place after hours in a mansion in the country, representing the FA’s school of football, especially with ‘loverman’ Michael Owen on the loose? We walk the halls for memories on the precursor and exact opposite of St George’s Park.

Let’s get down ‘n’ dirty now with not one but two ‘on the ground’ features. We headed to Hampden Park to see how Queen’s Park supporters coped with being outnumbered 60 to 1 by visiting Rangers fans, and also dropped in for a pint of misery at Barnet v Aldershot: cold, hungover fans watching a League Two relegation battle. As one fan reminds Edgar Davids, “We’re Barnet, not Barça!” He’s realising that now.

Football League clubs have their fair share of die-hard supporters, but global reach isn’t limited to the likes of Manchester United and Real Madrid. We speak to the foreign fans of unlikely clubs, including the Forest fan in Georgia, USA and the Bournemouth fan in Norway. Obviously.

Our One-on-One is a cracker this month, too, as we sit down for a chat with Phil Neville. Whether they are posers about Merseyside, Manchester or how he could have been a professional cricketer, he answers your questions with a straight bat. You know he gets up before 5am even now? Madness.

And if you want more, you greedy sods, we have exclusive interviews with Kaka, Antonio Di Natale and Michael Ballack, as well as a look at an alternative Champions League for purists in which only league winners qualify and, of course, Performance, starring Rio Ferdinand, Branislav Ivanovic, Sebastien Bassong and a bunch of people who aren’t defenders, too. Improve your game with help from the best.

SEE MORE OF THE ISSUE

The March 2013 issue of FourFourTwo was brought to you by... Jurgen Klopp, Marco Reus, Robert Lewandowski, Dortmund captain Sebastien Kehl and the club’s director of football, chief executive and marketing director (they’re different people), plus...

...Diego, Kaka, Yaya Toure, David McGurk, Kevin Keegan, Neymar’s agent, Danny Webber, Luke Rodgers, John Cartwright, Rod Thomas (remember him?), Edgar Davids, Phil Neville, Branislav Ivanovic, Michael Ballack...

...and Ibrahim Afellay, Tom Pope, Rio Ferdinand, Ray Wilkins, Martin Taylor, Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Michel Salgado, Nemanja Vidic, Sebastien Bassong, Justin Hoyte, Gus Poyet, Antonio Di Natale, Tranmere’s physio, Joe Cole’s dad, Lofty from EastEnders and a very confused Roger Hunt.

GALLERY The weekend's best shots

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 12:03:00 GMT

It's not always England: quarter-final defeat by penalty shootout accounts for Africa Cup of Nations hosts South Africa.
– Chris Ricco/BackpagePix, Sports Inc/Press Association Images

...and for every loser, a winner: Mali celebrate beating South Africa
– Chris Ricco/ BackpagePix, Sports Inc/Press Association Images

Things can only get worse: Rangers players, dejected after a first-minute goal from Dundee United's Johnny Russell in the Scottish Cup Fifth Round. Rangers, who ended the match down to nine men and losing 3-0, had returned their ticket allocation in protest at United opposing their application to rejoin the SPL.
– Kirk O'Rourke, Rangers FC/Press Association Images

One of those days: Edin Dzeko completely miscues as Man City are held 2-2 by Liverpool, who dominate possession and keep City even further behind Manchester United.
– Martin Rickett, PA Wire/Press Association Images

Shop window: David Beckham looms large in the Paris Saint-Germain store on the Champs Elysees.
– Mousse/ABACAPRESS.COM/Press Association Images

Meanwhile at the other end of the Eurostar route, new Fulham signing Urby Emanuelson settles in at Craven Cottage. He came on as a substitute in the 1-0 loss to Manchester United.
– Joe Giddens, EMPICS Sport

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is among those to walk off as the game at Fulham is interrupted by floodlight failure just before half-time.
– Adam Davy, PA Wire/Press Association Images

Birmingham City fans make plain their feelings about former manager Alex McLeish, who had left the club to manager bitter rivals Aston Villa. On Saturday he returned to St Andrews for the first time with his new side Nottingham Forest... and lost 2-1, with both Birmingham goals scored by his January transfer target Chris Burke.
– Mike Egerton, EMPICS Sport

Peterborough fans on the London Road terraces. Posh overhauled visitors Burnley, who had struck in the first minute, but a late Martin Paterson equaliser left things all square – and Peterborough bottom of the Championship.
– Stephen Pond, PA Wire/Press Association Images

Pile-on: Newcastle United's players and staff celebrate the late winner against Chelsea by their january signing Moussa Sissoko.
– Steve Drew, EMPICS Sport

Bad Weekend For: Pepe, Demba, Johnny & more

Simon Carter — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 10:39:00 GMT

It Was a Bad Weekend For…

Pepe Reina
At some point between rushing from his goalmouth and tussling unsuccessfully for the ball with Sergio Aguero, Liverpool’s Pepe Reina must have wondered whether he was doing the right thing. Unfortunately, by the time that thought crossed his mind, the error-prone stopper (who has, since the beginning of last season, made eight mistakes leading directly to opposition goals) resembled a poker player with too much already in the pot, so he decided to go ‘all-in’ keep up his mindless charge.

Reina’s wanderings may ultimately have cost his side two points but Liverpool have several reasons to be pleased with their 2-2 draw at Manchester City. Daniel Sturridge was excellent; the goals from Sturridge and Steven Gerrard were top quality; and Liverpool outplayed their illustrious hosts throughout the entire game.

That said, the Merseysiders yet again proved vulnerable to balls played diagonally or directly across the pitch – City’s first goal came from a low cross, and it was a crossfield pass which led to Reina’s error before Sergio Aguero’s wonderful finish.

So bad weekends for Reina, Liverpool’s defensive coaches and most connected with Manchester City (who now sit nine points off the title pace) but an excellent afternoon of football for everybody else.

Johnny Heitinga
Twenty-four hours before a Pepe Reina howler gifted Manchester City the equaliser in a 2-2 draw with Liverpool, Everton’s Johnny Heitinga was having himself a day to forget. Why? Well let’s ask the man himself: “Played worst game ever in the shirt of Everton. Let teammates and fans down but they never let me down. Will work hard to come back strong.” So Heitinga said on Twitter of his 65 minutes' work on Saturday afternoon.

His performance was undoubtedly poor and certainly contributed to the recently terrible Aston Villa finding themselves with a 3-1 lead at Goodison Park. Fortunately for the Dutchman, Marouane Fellaini was back in the scoring mood to rescue a point for the Toffees during a relentless second half.

With Phil Jagielka and Sylvain Distin the defensive partnership of choice for David Moyes, Heitinga has regularly been the subject of transfer speculation – something which will not have been helped by Saturday’s antics – but there's no better way to restore your reputation than with a towering performance at Manchester United, where Everton go on Sunday. Johnny, it’s over to you.

Demba Ba
OK, so Demba Ba deserves less sympathy than most for having the misfortune to turn out for Rafa Benitez’s stumbling Chelsea side – after all, he chose to go there while the rest of the squad had Benitez thrust upon them. But it would take a hard heart (or perhaps the heart of a Newcastle fan) not to have feet a little sorry for the Senegalese striker on Saturday.

In arguably the game of the weekend, Newcastle and Chelsea exchanged the lead regularly before the Magpies won by the odd goal in five. The game had everything, including sensational goals from Frank Lampard and Juan Mata, but Ba will have left St. James’ Park feeling very sorry for himself.

As well as being on the losing side, Ba suffered a broken nose after taking former teammate Fabricio Coloccini’s boot to the face in an incident that Benitez claimed should have led to a penalty and red card. But what will have stung Ba more than his shattered conk will have been the performance of his replacement at Newcastle, Moussa Sissoko.

Sissoko was due to be a summer transfer target for Newcastle before Ba’s flit to Chelsea forced their hand. Impressive in the midweek victory at Villa Park, the Frenchman was thrown in at the deep end with a place in the starting line-up. He caused Chelsea problems throughout the 90 minutes, eventually scoring the goals that won his side the game. Demba who?

Giant killers
Rewind seven days and we were salivating over the FA Cup exploits of Millwall, Leeds, MK Dons, Oldham and Luton whose giant killings of Aston Villa, Tottenham, QPR, Liverpool and Norwich sprinkled magic all over the fourth round.

Today, each of those sides are rubbing their sore behinds after falling back to earth with an almighty crash this weekend. In the Championship, Millwall and Leeds suffered 1-0 home defeats (to Hull and Cardiff respectively) while in League One MK Dons were hammered 3-0 at home by Bournemouth.

Also in League One, Oldham lost for the eighth time in nine matches, this time 3-1 at Walsall, which led to manager Paul Dickov handing in his resignation. Even Brentford, who drew 2-2 with Chelsea, couldn’t do any better, losing 3-0 at Yeovil.

And down in the Conference (normally outside of the Bad Weekend remit) Luton were beaten 1-0 at Barrow. On the other hand, none of the slain giants lost this weekend – so maybe there’s something to be said for FA Cup humiliation.

Paul Gascoigne
In sad, but sadly unsurprising, news it was reported this weekend that former England midfielder Paul Gascoigne’s life is in danger as he again submitted to his alcoholism. His agent Terry Baker took to Radio 5 Live’s airways to plead for Gazza to seek help after the 45-year-old was reportedly disorientated at a charity event last week.

Everybody in football will hope that Gascoigne seeks and receives the help he needs.

Michael Owen
Little Michael Owen of Stoke faces an FA charge this week after throwing a punch at Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta in his side’s 1-0 defeat on Saturday. The fact that poor Michael faces time on the naughty step for his tantrum is bad enough, but it must really grate the former striker that his punching was as wayward as his finishing and his foe received nothing more painful than a whipping by the gush of air generated by Owen’s fist.

Next week, Owen tries to kick a ball boy and falls over.

Middlesbrough
The annual slump is on at the Riverside. Post-Christmas form has in recent years seen Middlesbrough relegated and miss out on a play-off spot – and it’s happening again.

Four wins in five league games over December saw the north-east side move to within three points of Championship leaders Cardiff. After last season (when Boro won only six games between January and May), fans will have hoped for a steady start to the year.

Alas, it was not to be. Middlesbrough have so far lost every league game this year, conceding 10 goals to Derby, Watford, Leicester and now Ipswich, who defeated them 4-0 at Portman Road on Saturday. Can the slump continue? The visit of relegation favourites Barnsley on Saturday should tell us.

Notts County
Notts County manager Keith Curle was relieved of his duties this weekend after his side fell to a 2-1 defeat at League One’s bottom club, Hartlepool. The defeat was only County’s fourth in 10 games but was enough to see Curle on his way to the job centre.

Although still eight points from safety, Hartlepool will be heartened by recording back-to-back victories... and by the fact that their scorers were Peter Hartley and James Poole. Hartley and Poole. What’s not to love? You’ve got to credit the board for the joke, which has been in the planning phase since Poole joined Hartley at Hartlepool back in 2011.

Next week at Brunton Park: goals from Jimmy Carr and Sandy Lyle.

Tranmere and Doncaster
But it wasn’t all fun and games in League One as the league’s top two sides, the Rovers of Tranmere and Doncaster, both lost. Tranmere’s 1-0 home defeat to Carlisle and Doncaster’s 2-0 loss at Bury will have given heart to the chasing pack – not least Bournemouth, who cruised to a 3-0 victory at MK Dons to move to within four points of the leaders.

With five teams within six points of the summit, League One could be England’s most exciting division.

Accrington Stanley
Accrington were busy on transfer deadline day, strengthening their squad with four new signings to bolster their flagging season. Of the four, two (Paul Rachubka and Mark Hughes) were in the starting line-up for their new side’s trip to Port Vale on Saturday – but neither could help prevent a 3-0 hammering.

The defeat was the latest in a woeful sequence for Accrington who have won just once in their last 10 games (losing seven), a run which has seen them freefall down the League Two table to the point where they sit just three points off bottom place.

No milk jokes please.

Hislop: Arsenal aren't flat-track bullies - they're just inconsistent

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:30:00 GMT

Former Premier League goalkeeper and ESPN pundit Shaka Hislop says Arsenal's main problem is inconsistency, playing down the suggestion the North Londoners are 'flat-track bullies'. The Gunners have recently enjoyed emphatic victories over Reading (5-2), Newcastle (7-3) and West Ham (5-1), but lost relatively meekly to Manchester City and Chelsea during the same period.

In this week's ESPN Press Pass taster, the experienced glovesman, who played in over 250 Premier League matches throughout his career, also explains that Liverpool will have no trouble banishing the memories of their shock FA Cup defeat to Oldham on Sunday, and disagrees with Sir Alex Ferguson's suggestion that the current Manchester United squad is the club's best ever...

ESPNFC Press Pass - the football discussion show that takes a daily look at the global game - airs at 11pm Monday to Friday, plus Sunday evenings on ESPN. Follow the show on Twitter

How to complete a deadline day deal: A minute-by-minute guide

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:30:00 GMT

Eric Walters, Head of Player Recruitment at Base Soccer, talks us through Leon Best’s last-gasp move from Coventry to Newcastle in February 2010

Sunday 31 January
17:15
I'm at the Emirates Stadium to watch Arsenal vs Manchester United when the phone rings. It's Coventry City chairman Ray Ranson, informing me that the club have agreed a fee with Newcastle and asking whether Leon would be interested. I ring Leon, who expresses an immediate interest.

17:40
I leave the game early and head back home. While en route, I have a further chat with Newcastle, informing them of Leon's proposed personal terms.

21:15
Newcastle ring back wanting an answer to their final offer and following a further telephone conversation with Leon, both parties come to an agreement. With Leon in Leamington and myself in Essex, it's a case of getting all my paperwork together and us both setting up for the north east.

22:45
I finally get on the road.

Monday 1 February
03:15
Thanks to roadworks on the A1, I don't get to the hotel until the early hours. Leon calls at 2am saying he's arrived.

07:30
An alarm call wakes me and it's a light breakfast with Leon. We can't go for the full English as he will be having his medical later today!

08:45
We arrive at the Newcastle training ground to be greeted by the Sky Sports New cameras and a number of fans by the gate.

09:30
While Leon goes to a local hospital to have his medical, I remain at the training ground to finalise the contract with the club. Leon returns, having passed.

12:00
We have lunch and discuss the move further while Leon meets Newcastle manager Chris Hughton.

15:00
The deal is done. Leon signs, in the presence of Hughton. He is now officially a Newcastle player and the news is made official via the club's website.

16:00
It's back to St James' Park for the official photocall with the local press, Leon undergoes interviews.

Tuesday 2 February
02.30
I arrive home. It's been a mad 33 or so hours! With Leon set to make his debut in two days' time against Cardiff, I'll be off to St James' again. This time by train!

This feature originally appeared in the April 2010 edition of FourFourTwo magazine

It Was A Bad Weekend For… Goliath

Simon Carter — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 11:09:00 GMT

So many cupsets, so little time…

The Giants of... Liverpool
On Saturday December 8th, Oldham Athletic won 2-0 at fellow League One strugglers Colchester. It was a good win to follow an impressive FA Cup Second Round victory over Doncaster, which gave the Latics a Third Round trip to Nottingham Forest to look forward to.

That win over Colchester was Oldham’s last league win (they haven’t won at home in the league for even longer, since November 24th) which helps underline how monumental – and unprecedented – their 3-2 victory over Liverpool was yesterday.

As a fierce rain battered Boundary Park, Oldham played without pressure or expectation against a Liverpool side full of stars (including the prized partnership of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge). The home side played their own game, keeping the ball and creating chances. When Liverpool had the ball, Oldham were positionally disciplined and kept their heads.

By contrast Liverpool often played like strangers, repeatedly failing to find one another and snatching at half-chances. Of the 20 shots the visitors had at goal, only a handful could be called real chances.

Ultimately, individual errors cost Liverpool but it speaks volumes that there was no late surge following Joe Allen’s 80th-minute deficit-reducer. Steven Gerrard’s shot against the bar notwithstanding, Liverpool never mounted a concerted effort.

Oldham welcome Everton in the next round to battle it out for a quarter-final place. Could the Latics be this competition’s Bradford?

The Giants of… Norwich City
There are few hard-luck stories in English football that can rival Luton Town’s recent history. Relegated from the top flight the season before the Premier League was created (thus missing out on the riches to follow), the Hatters have suffered 20 years of relegations, financial woe, mismanagement and, eventually, non-league football.

But there is more than a little magic around Kenilworth Road this season. With the side on the charge to once again make the Conference play-offs, Luton are fast becoming the story of this season’s FA Cup.

From being six minutes away from crashing out to Nuneaton in the First Round, Luton have seen off Wolverhampton Wanderers (costing Stale Solbakken his job) and now, amazingly, won at Norwich City.

Never in the Premier League era has a non-league side knocked a top-flight club out of the FA Cup, guaranteeing that Scott Rendell’s 80th-minute strike will go down in history and will be talked about for many years to come.

Luton’s reward is a home time with fellow giant-killers Millwall. What price another upset?

The Giants of… QPR
Queens Park Rangers’ unbeaten start to 2013 came to an embarrassing end on Saturday afternoon as they were humbled by League One’s MK Dons in front of their own fans. The Loftus Road stands were filled with confusion rather than outright anger as the visitors kept scoring and scoring, bagging four times in the first hour of the game.

By the time MK had taken that 4-0 lead the confusion turned into action as thousands of home fans walked out, leaving only a relative handful to see a mini-fightback leave the final score at an ever-so-slightly more respectable 4-2.

QPR manager Harry Redknapp bemoaned the fact that his side, which was weakened but included seven internationals, weren't able to beat a team two divisions below them, choosing to use the result as proof that the squad needs reinforcements. It's debatable whether a cup shock proves a lack of squad depth, quality or focus – but what is beyond doubt is that MK Dons thoroughly deserved their win.

The Giants of… Aston Villa
The Bad Weekend keyboard is suffering: the letters A, S, T, O, N, V, I and L are in danger of being worn away. The Villans continue their residence on these pages (there’s no such thing as bad publicity, right?) by crashing out of the FA Cup on Friday night to round off a nightmare week.

In truth, it’s questionable whether losing 2-1 at Championship side Millwall was actually a shock, considering that there are only 11 league places between the sides (the same distance separates Villa from Arsenal) and the fact that Aston Villa are, well, hopeless. To put it into context, it’s not as bad as going out of the League Cup to a League Two team. Over two legs.

As we’ve already discovered, the 2004 finalists can look forward to a trip to Luton in the next round where they will fancy their chances of advancing to the quarter-finals. And with at least two non-Premier League teams guaranteed to make it through the next round, who knows how far the Lions could go.

The Giants of… Tottenham Hotspur
The FA Cup was eminently winnable for Tottenham Hotspur – a fact not lost on Andre Villas-Boas, who chose a strong side (albeit without a recognised striker) for Sunday's trip to Leeds United, including Aaron Lennon, Gareth Bale, Scott Parker and Clint Dempsey.

Spurs created a host of first-half chances, scoring exactly zero of them, either side of Luke Varney’s opening goal for the home side. The rest of the game reflected favourably on Leeds’ top-flight pretensions as the promotion chasers matched their guests throughout the 90 minutes. A Ross McCormack goal just after half-time gave Tottenham too much to do, and they could register no more than a Clint Dempsey goal.

Leeds fans were crying out for Manchester United after the game, keen to resume the old rivalry, but they will have to make do with a trip to Manchester City. For Spurs, chasing fourth place in the Premier League with a realistic shot at Europa League glory, maybe AVB can legitimately acknowledge that they can at least concentrate on other priorities.

The Giants of… Chelsea
Oh Rafa! Five defenders? Only one striker? With Chelsea setting up for their FA Cup tie with neighbours Brentford in basically the same way as they did at the Nou Camp last season, there was always a possibility that the Bees would find enough space to create the chances to embarrass their visitors.

That Benitez only saw fit to throw on a second striker with eight minutes remaining and his side 2-1 down gives the rest of the football world an insight into why the Spaniard is so unpopular at Chelsea. The one silver lining for Rafa is that in a weekend of big cup upsets, there isn’t much focus on his side’s 2-2 draw – even less than their aggregate League Cup semi-final defeat to Swansea.

The End of the Adventure
What makes giant-killings so special is their rarity: for every Luton, MK Dons or Oldham, there are numerous other sides who get slain by their giants. This weekend ended the FA Cup adventures of Macclesfield, who had memorably put out Cardiff in round three, when they lost 1-0 at home to Premier League Wigan Athletic.

Elsewhere, Aldershot will have to return to the reality of a League Two relegation battle after being unfortunate to lose at Championship side Middlesbrough when within seconds of forcing a replay.

Meanwhile, neither Brighton nor Sheffield United could turn their impressive league form into giant-killings, falling at the hands of Premier League sides Arsenal and Reading respectively.

Peter Odemwingie
Despite having a fine season, West Bromwich Albion’s Peter Odemwingie is well and truly down in the dumps. First the winger had his Christmas ruined when he was excluded from Nigeria’s Africa Cup of Nations squad. His frustration won’t have lifted after seeing his country draw their first two games in the competition.

However, what has really upset Odemwingie is his club’s decision to turn down a transfer bid from Harry Redknapp’s QPR. The bid, believed to be in the region of £3m, was dismissed out of hand by West Brom’s technical director Richard Garlick, leading Odemwingie to submit a transfer request.

When this too was rejected the Nigerian released a statement saying that he was “deeply hurt and in some ways offended” by his club’s decision. Who knew the lure of a relegation battle was so strong?

The Ever Popular Alex McLeish
When Arsenal’s Wojciech Szczesny and Laurent Koscielny collided in the dying minutes of the 2011 League Cup final to allow Birmingham City’s Obafemi Martins to score the winning goal, Alex McLeish’s managerial reputation was secured.

Despite getting Birmingham relegated that season, McLeish has managed to dine out on that reputation ever since, first convincing Aston Villa to hire him for a disastrous year before somehow compelling Nottingham Forest to sack the impressive and popular Sean O’Driscoll so they could immediately install McLeish.

Things have, predictably, gone badly for McLeish at Forest with only one win in his first six games. This form has seen the Tricky Trees fall to 10th in the Championship, six points off the play-off zone. On Saturday, Forest were well beaten, losing 3-0 at home to Watford – a performance that McLeish described as “brain-dead”.

Meanwhile, in his first home game for new side Bristol City, former manager O’Driscoll was busy masterminding a much-needed win…

Claude Davis
Though not in the same league as Jonathan Woodgate’s legendary debut for Real Madrid, Claude Davis’s first outing for Rotherham United was definitely one to forget.

Football League veteran Davis was brought in to help consolidate Rotherham’s defence as they push for a play-off place. Giving away a penalty and then getting sent off before half time was probably not what anybody had in mind.

Davis’s performance contributed to a terrible day for the Millers against visitors Bristol Rovers, who started the day propping up the entire Football League.

Rotherham will now have to put the 3-1 defeat behind them and prepare for a tough assignment against high-flying Northampton next Saturday. And Davis? Well at least he doesn’t have to worry about playing next week.

Inside the secret transfer network of Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea...

Andrew Murray — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 14:36:00 GMT

Some of the world’s top clubs and most influential agents met to very little fanfare at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium last month. FFT sneaked in to find out exactly why... Words: Andrew Murray Pictures: Daniel Lynch

Last May, Milan’s out-of-contract star Gennaro Gattuso nearly joined Boca Juniors. Within minutes of being told the two-time Champions League winner was a closet fan, club and agent were in face-to-face talks. Reluctant to uproot his family to South America, Gattuso joined Swiss side Sion instead.

But how could this happen so quickly? The answer is the Wyscout Forum, where 100 of the world’s top clubs – including Manchester City, Liverpool and Juventus – and three times as many agents meet in a room and are left to it.

If you haven’t heard of it, you’re not alone: this is one of the most guarded events in the already cloak-and-dagger world of scouting. Held twice yearly to coincide with the opening of the summer and winter windows, the forum is marketed as speed-dating for transfers, as clubs and agents sit down for a series of pre-arranged 30-minute meetings to thrash out future deals.

Armed with an access-all-areas pass and with ear pinned firmly to the ground, FFT has arrived at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium for the latest instalment of football’s newest and most exclusive event. Could this be the future of the transfer market?

“They missed out on a player because they couldn’t find the DVD among the 300 stacked in the office”
A suave, strapping thirtysomething in a fitted suit and skinny tie, Matteo Campodonico couldn’t less resemble the traditional notepad-clutching scout shivering by a windswept pitch. Yet that's how all this started, nine years ago.

A former semi-pro who played in Serie D, Campodonico collected a friend and a video camera and began filming entire games for Serie A clubs from 2004. But things really changed when he met Walter Sabatini, then Lazio’s director of football, now with city rivals Roma.

“On the last day of the January transfer window in 2008, he missed out on a player because he couldn’t find the DVD from the 300 stacked in his office,” recalls Campdonico. “His chairman went nuts. It got me thinking that there must be a better way.”

A year later, he launched the Wyscout computer platform. It's now one of the biggest scouting tools in the world, with more than 60,000 full games available, 500 more added each week, and 30 full-time analysts dedicated to 120 leagues from Serie A to Cyprus and Africa. Three hundred teams worldwide use the technology, including the whole of Serie A, 75% of Champions League clubs and 70% of the Premier League.

“A decade ago we nearly had to strengthen our floors because of all the VHS tapes we received,” says Rennes sporting director Jean-Francois Creachcadec. “Five years ago, I got a satellite dish and tried to persuade a friend in Sweden to give me the viewing card so we could watch Scandinavian football. Now it’s all on a computer or iPad. Wyscout is a revolution.”

The technology allows clubs to watch full games or assess tagged attribute highlights such as passing, aerial challenges or aggressiveness. You can look for players by position, narrowing the search by goals scored, age and even EU passport. All this comes at a cost – around €10,000 a season – but Wyscout takes no cut of any transfer fee.

“We can see more players and decide which ones to watch in the flesh,” says Fulham chief scout Barry Simmonds. “Nothing will ever replace putting your coat on, getting in your car and going to a freezing cold stadium to watch a player, but it saves a huge amount of money in travel and hotel costs.”

An extension of this player database, the Wyscout Forum began in Milan in 2011. “The idea is to add a transfer dimension to the scouting platform,” says Campodonico. “It’s difficult for sporting directors and agents from different countries to meet; our forum gives them that chance.” The latest update includes a transfer zone, where clubs can list available players or agents their unattached clients.

“In just one day, I can inform all the agents or clubs I choose about who my club wants”
Lined up alphabetically across three cavernous Emirates rooms, the clubs’ tables serve notice of the forum’s worldwide appeal. Boca Juniors are beside Bournemouth, Watford next to Werder Bremen.

As the first morning develops, ordered chaos ensues. Clubs, agents and product developers – whose name tags are coloured red, yellow and blue respectively – jostle for position to meet Liverpool or Chelsea. Whether it’s players or private jets being pitched, knowing who’s talking to whom adds genuine intrigue. So do hushed conversations in the corridors connecting one room with another.

“It’s a great chance to meet other clubs and agents,” says Kiko Espinar, Espanyol’s head of video analysis and one of the first in La Liga to use Wyscout. “In just one day, I can inform all the agents or clubs I choose about who my club wants. To do that without the forum would take a year. Most people here can’t buy or sell, but we can begin the process.”

“For us it’s about establishing and developing relationships with clubs,” agrees Nantes consultant and former player Bruno Cheyrou, fresh from a meeting with old club Liverpool. “We won’t be offered Ibrahimovic or Ronaldo; it’s about finding footballers from smaller countries who we can develop.”

Though dominated by clubs from Western Europe, emerging markets are loathe to miss such an ideal networking opportunity. “We’re the only team here from the Middle East,” says Liam Weeks, head of performance at Emirati champions Al Ain, home to ex-Sunderland forward Asamoah Gyan.

“European clubs take us seriously by being here. We’re not some graveyard for old players in search of a final pay cheque – we want to take younger players who look at us to provide a route back to Europe.”

“It’s a tough sell: clubs are already bored of you by the time you open your mouth”
After lunch, the rumour mill goes into overdrive. Sunderland and Aston Villa are both looking to offload, allegedly, while Chelsea – who declined to talk to FFT – are interested in forging links with Mexican up-and-comers Jaguares.

Whether offering players or showing off swish scouting models, 30- to 40-year-old men beaver away on an endless stream of laptops and iPads. English and German teams listen intently, Spanish and Italian clubs are a blur of swift hand gestures, while the harem of Wyscout showgirls – a more conservative version of Formula One’s Red Bull posse – provide glamorous directions between tables.

Jorge Cyterszpiler, however, rarely leaves his seat, conducting all his business from the VIP suite reserved for elite agencies. Carrying a slight paunch and a limp, he is constantly flanked by an entourage. This is one of Argentina’s most powerful agents, in no small part because he was Diego Maradona’s right-hand man until 1985.

“This event is all about improving our image and meeting new agencies and clubs,” says Cyterszpiler while doodling a largely illegible ‘starting XI’ of his current stars – captained by Malaga’s Martin Demichelis – just for FFT. “Our transfers don’t happen here, but we enjoy being here, meeting new, intelligent people.”

We hear a similar message from Leon Angel, the chairman of Base Soccer, one of the first agencies in the UK to use the Wyscout database to find future clients. “It’s not somewhere to conclude a deal, but the forum is a very useful way to put a face to a name you may have spoken to on the phone,” says Angel. “We don’t want to throw 100 names at a club just because we’ve got them. We want to offer the right player. That establishes a relationship based on trust.”

Away from the elite lounge’s designer suits and overpowering aftershave, the situation is different. Independent agents pinball from table to table, offering their clients with mixed success. “Clubs are already bored of you by the time you open your mouth,” says one, who asked not to be named. “It’s great to get your foot in the door, but it’s a tough sell.”

One squat Eastern European – a balding man approaching 50 years of age, sporting a grey goatee – is accompanied to every table by his ravishingly statuesque wife. Towering above him, FFT wonders if she’s there as negotiator-in-chief or an aide memoire that clubs can’t forget.

“Wyscout gives people the chance to speak to someone at Manchester City that they otherwise may not get,” says Rob Newman, the Premier League champions’ senior scouting and recruitment manager. “We’re here to show our doors are open. There have been a couple of snippets of information and products I’ve seen today that could save us millions.”

So lots of relationships, then, but little transfer activity. As the forum’s first day comes to a close, FFT is beginning to wonder if this is just one big flirtation. When are we going to see some action?

“That was the third time I’ve been offered the same player”
Possibly put off by an especially crisp north London morning, fewer delegates return for a second day. But those who do are more relaxed and reveal some of the event’s secrets. “Whether clubs admit it or not, this is the perfect place to recruit or offload players, especially just before the transfer window,” says Hearts director of football John Murray, who is missing the dress rehearsal for his son’s wedding to attend.

The event 12 months ago was a perfect example. Wolves had spent some time watching the Jambos’ Icelandic midfielder Eggert Jonsson and chose the forum to touch base with the Scots. “We had time to find a replacement, and didn’t play him much over the festive period so he wouldn’t get injured,” admits Murray. “This could be the future.”

“Yesterday we met representatives of 10 players and clubs who we’re interested in doing business with in January or the summer,” says a chief scout at an up-and-coming continental club whose players are rumour mill regulars.

“To negotiate you go to a Mayfair hotel, otherwise proper agents aren’t interested – it’s too open here. But with everyone already here, what better time to do it?” He confirms that negotiations took place the previous evening with a member of the Premier League’s traditional ‘big four’ for the January move of their star international midfielder.

“I’ve been a scout for 15 years and I’ve seen nothing else like this,” says Fulham’s Simmonds. “In five years, this will be huge – they’ll have to book Wembley! There’s a lot of cat and mouse and any deals are pretty embryonic but it’s great to put names to faces.”

Covering the event for Sky Sport Italia is Gianluca Di Marzio, well schooled in round-table meat-markets thanks to the Calcio Mercato. In the final days of each transfer window, Serie A and B clubs converge on Milan’s ATA hotel to beat the stress of the last-minute fax. Loitering outside waiting for his move to Siena to go through, Luca Toni was collared by Fiorentina and signed for the Viola instead.

Can the Wyscout Forum replicate this system? “That would be my dream,” says Di Marzio, a more excitable version of Sky Sports’ Jim White. “Instead of relying on text messages or calls from clubs frantically trying to do late deals, everyone who means anything in the European game is under one roof to rubber-stamp deals.”

“It would be amazing to get federations here to ratify transfers in the future, especially now we’ve launched the transfer zone facility,” agrees founder Campodonico. “Clubs also want these forums in South America in the future, so that could also be the next step. It’s all very well knowing where good players are, but teams want to contact them easily. Premier League clubs are especially keen.”

With the event winding down, agencies in full debrief mode and clubs slowly filtering towards the exit, FFT catches the eye of City’s Rob Newman, who has been in deep conversation with a South Korean agent. “Do you know what?” begins Newman with a weary look. “That was the third time I’ve been offered the same player today. You do get a few too many chancers, but we’ve got what we came for.”

What that might be, he won’t say. While no transfers were finalised in FFT’s dizzying two days of transfer speed-dating, a few wheels have been irrevocably set in motion at the Wyscout Forum. “There are definitely deals that get done here, at least conceptually. Otherwise, why bother coming?” says one unnamed agent. “It’s obvious, isn’t it?”

A common hazard: The other occasions ballboys and ballgirls made the headlines

Andrew Murray — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:49:00 GMT

Thanks to Eden Hazard’s trigger-happy toes, football’s young ferriers are in the news. FFT's Andrew Murray investigates what happens when ballboys become the story...

That’s not Serey clever

Unhappy at one particular upstart’s delaying tactics to undermine Sion’s attempts to overturn a 1-0 reverse at Lausanne in May 2012, Geoffrey Serey went on the attack. With an open handed slap usually the preserve of [consults Big Book of Wrestlers] Hulk Hogan, the defensive midfielder’s clip copped for an eight-game ban.

Boca’s butcher
After punching the odd opponent, referee and coach in his somewhat forceful career, Boca Unidos keeper Gaston Sessa completed the set in October 2012. On the receiving end of a 3-0 reverse at Independiente Rivadavia, the veteran stopper whelped a ball straight back at the unsuspecting ballboy.

Sent-off immediately, the man dubbed the Butcher by the Argentine press spent a night in the cells for his trouble. After his release, Sessa attacked an Independiente fan outside the police station for having the temerity to talk to him. Nice guy.

The Emperor’s new groove
Generously proportioned one-time footballer Adriano was never blessed with a particularly tight turning circle, so spare a thought for this poor ballboy, who felt the full force of the then Corinthians striker in June 2012.

One of just seven appearances the former Inter Milan forward made for the Paulista club, the Emperor used a well-positioned ballboy as a buffer between him and the running track. Or a plate of sausage meat.

“Get it clear, son”
It’s the last minute of a league decider, your goalkeeper’s stranded up the field and the opposition’s star striker is clean through. What do you do?

Sneak onto the pitch, hack said goal-bound shot clear and run for the hills, obviously.

Inspired by such ingenuity, intrepid substitute Mauricio Arias Gomez sprang from his warm up to do likewise in Argentina’s Liga Belvillense semi-finals.

“I’d seen the Brazilian lad on TV,” said the unrepentant San Martin de Marcos Juarez defender with the sort of save his beaten goalkeeper could only dream. “All I knew was the ball mustn’t go in. It was instinct.”

The ballboy assist
A collection of home help now, from across the world. First, Hapoel Haifa ballboy Ofek Mizrachi’s quick thinking against Bnei Lod in the Israeli second division in March 2009.

Next, we’re off to Spain and Diego Torres, an Atletico Madrid youth-teamer flings a fresh ball to Arda Turan, who in turn throws to Falcao to thunder the third in a 6-0 shellacking of Deportivo La Coruna. Rojiblanco coach Diego Simeone thanked Torres personally after the game.

Best of all, though, is Brazilian 22-year-old Fernanda Maia. The Botafogo ballgirl refurnished Sebastian ‘el Loco’ Abreu with a new ball, as the Great Fire flew up the wing to register the third in a 3-1 win that secured the 2012 Rio de Janeiro state championship.

“I did what I always did,” said Maia. “But I didn’t score the goal, Maicousel did.” She did, however, score a Playboy photoshoot.

“What a finish from the youngster”
All these assists are all well and good, you may be thinking, but surely no ballboy has ever scored a goal? Wrong!

In the Sao Paulo Cup, Santacruzense snatched a 1-1 home draw against Atletico Sorocaba thanks to an 89th-minute moment of inspiration. A Santacruzense player shoots narrowly wide, so the lad behind the goal gets another ball and rolls it into an unguarded net. Somehow, referee Silvia Regina de Oliveira gave the goal on his linesman’s advice.

“I should have trusted my own vision,” wailed the perplexed referee, who was suspended for one game.

“You can’t do that to our ballboy”
They’re a protective bunch, the Greeks. When PAOK’s pitchside helper attempted to retrieve the ball for a Panionios corner in December 2007, he got a brusque shove for his troubles from curt winger Dario Fernandez. Cue much pushing and shoving from all those in the box, and a veritable hailstorm of bottles launched from the crowd.

Spurs’ best ballboy… literally
Anorthosis Famagusta player approaches wag youngster. Motions for ball to be thrown his way. Spurs ballboy obliges. To his balls. Simple.

Bovvered...
Finally, if you’re going to be a ballboy, at least look like you’re interested.

Additional research: Christopher O’Callaghan

Eden Hazard and the ballboy: Maybe two wrongs just make two wrongs

James Maw — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:10:00 GMT

When footballing controversy meets social media, the result is rarely handsome. So it comes as no surprise to see much bickering over Chelsea playmaker Eden Hazard's petulant prod at a Swansea ballboy during the dying minutes of Wednesday evening's League Cup semi-final second leg.

No sooner had Hazard sheepishly removed his gloves and departed the area of play, than two distinct schools of thought were formed.

The first theory insists that there's no excuse for kicking a child (although at 17 he's probably already attempting to buy booze and sneak in to over-hyped Quentin Tarantino movies) – an entirely blameless victim in the whole sorry episode. Subsequently, Hazard should be handed a lengthy ban akin to that doled out to Eric Cantona following his infamous karate kick on Crystal Palace fan Matthew Symonds in 1995. After all, this was basically the same.

The second theory insists that Hazard was well within his rights to attempt to prod the ball out from underneath the insolent ballboy, who brought the torso-toeing upon himself by seeking to waste those last few valuable seconds Chelsea could have spent knocking the ball about without really creating decent goalscoring opportunities. As self-appointed sportsmanship tsar and social-media guru Joey Barton says: "Hazard's only crime is he hasn't kicked him hard enough."

Competing theories are what makes the internet the go-to destination for an argument. In the desperation to win the battle, nuance is negated, balance obliterated by bias. Those who attempt to see both sides are quickly drowned out in the need to shout the loudest. And it's not just the internet: countless TV pundits have witlessly wittered that "if it's not a penalty, it's got to be a booking for diving", overruling Isaac Newton by precluding any possibility of gravity. In a contact sport, there will be grey areas. If only we had independent arbiters with years of experience to judge them.

Perhaps it's indicative of the necessarily divisive psychology of sport: us against them. Football fans are encouraged from childhood to be tribal, and to shout louder than the opposition, so perhaps it's a bit much to expect them to remove the blinkers and quietly debate the issues. We require winners and losers, goodies and baddies, and the media is quick to join in with it – especially if it fuels lucrative phone-ins and polls, and fills the endless hours of broadcast.

But back to Swansea, where the story should be about an attractive footballing side gaining just reward for enterprising football and bucking the trend of the big boys powering their way to cup finals even when employing their shadow squads. Instead it's an untidy squabble and an undignified scramble to present the events as a black-and-white issue: if you deride one side, you must be declaring loyalty to the other.

There is a third possibility: that both Hazard and the ballboy were in the wrong, and both should be punished. One suspended for three competitive first-team matches (the standard punishment following a dismissal for violent conduct), the other banned from ever again darkening a top-level touchline and forced to get himself a haircut that doesn't make him look like a giddy One Direction fanboy. Then we can all move on, with the world just about able to continue spinning on its axis.

We think option C may just be the best bet.

Revealed: Football's 20 highest-earning clubs and where their revenue comes from

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Real Madrid top Deloitte's Football Money League for the eighth successive year - but which clubs are gaining fast and who is on the slide?

Take a gander at the below infographic to find answers to those questions, and a whole lot more...

(click and zoom to view a larger version)

NEWS Real Madrid lead Money League, but Man City continue to climb

A bad weekend for all the Premier League bottom-dwellers but Reading

Simon Carter — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 09:58:00 GMT

Simon Carter names those who suffered most during Saturday and Sunday's football action (or lack thereof...)

The Usual Suspects
The likes of Aston Villa, Wigan, Newcastle and Reading have all featured heavily in Bad Weekend this season due to their uncanny knack for having bad weekends. And for three of them, this weekend was no different.
Aston Villa rushed into a 2-0 lead in their West Midlands derby at West Bromwich Albion; a side who have also struggled for form in recent weeks. Paul Lambert’s side took that two-goal cushion in to the break, yet there was almost a sense of inevitability about a second half which saw the home side score the two goals required to deny the visitors all three points.
Meanwhile, at the DW Stadium, Wigan threw themselves into the bottom three after squandering a gift of a lead to finally lose 3-2 to Sunderland in what was an incredible game. Wigan, despite 20 shots at goal in an effort to secure the points, are now 19th in the table.
And up in Newcastle, the home side led 1-0 against the suddenly far from useless Reading, through a wonderful free-kick from Yohan Cabaye. No Reading player had scored a second half goal away from home in the league all season; a slightly obscure stat, but one which only served to illustrate just why the Newcastle fans were so audibly peeved when Adam Le Fondre’s late double sealed the win for Reading.
In coming from behind in successive weeks to beat West Brom and Newcaslte, Reading have shown the have the spirit to fight back. If they can successfully turn around their season after a poor opening five months of the campaign, the teams around them will have much cause for concern.

Martin Tyler
The unseen work of a commentator all happens pregame, where much time is spent perfecting pronunciations and teasing out interesting statistical titbits with which to regale the viewer. But Martin Tyler seemed to have spent the build-up to yesterday’s Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester United game rehearsing snappy snow-related one-liners.
Just minutes into the game, Tyler uttered; “We were worried that White Hart Lane would have a white hard pitch.” Not a bad attempt and one that saw the veteran commentator through until half time. As the second half got under way we were told that “the white stuff is melting as it hits the heated pitch, and we are entering the melting pot of the game” – a tenuous effort that even Mark Lawrenson would have rejected.
By the time our commentator had informed us that “the gritters have been on the roads of London all day and Man United will need grit now”, it seemed that even Tyler had grown weary of his winter based comedy act. He did throw in a half-hearted white snow / white shirts comparison in at the end but you sensed that he knew the game was up. Let’s hope for better weather next time Martin.

Yellow Fever
Only five points separated Liverpool and Norwich City going into Saturday’s clash at Anfield, but few would have been surprised to see the home side cruise to a 5-0 win.
While the first meeting between the sides following Norwich’s return to the Premier League last season was a 1-1 draw at Anfield in October 2011, Liverpool - and in particular Luis Suarez - have made very light work of the Canaries ever since. In April 2012, Liverpool won 3-0 at Carrow Road, courtesy of a Suarez hat-trick, before an early season visit to the same venue in 2012/13 saw the Reds romp to a 5-2 victory, with Suarez hitting another treble.
So it would have been with much trepidation that Norwich made the long journey to Merseyside. Though there was no Suarez hat-trick this time (he did grab himself one goal), this was arguably the most complete Liverpool performance under Brendan Rodgers and one which may give them the confidence to - whisper it - launch an assault on fourth place.
As for Norwich, while they’ll undoubtedly be happy not to be facing another league meeting with Liverpool for at least another seven months, the defeat at Anfield is the latest in a disappointing sequence which has seen Chris Hughton’s side lose five of their previous six league games. With only one away win all season, and the second leakiest away defence in the league, it’s clear where they must improve.

The QPR Squad
He might balk at his reputation as a ‘wheeler-dealer’, but there’s no doubt QPR manager Harry Redknapp loves to busy himself in the transfer market. So Redknapp’s post-match interview following his side’s 1-1 draw at West Ham on Saturday will have caused certain Rangers players much concern.
In roughly the first thirty seconds of his interview, Redknapp said: "We do need to make one or two signings in the right positions and let one or two lads go […] The squad needs improving […] There are one or two other quality players around who we have been talking to […] I am looking to improve the quality and strengthen other areas too.”
Maybe Jermain Defoe should keep his phone switched off until February.

Same Old ‘Boro
The second half of a Championship season is normally marked by Cardiff City’s fall from grace. No matter how well they’ve started a season, by the time the final bars of Auld Lang Syne ring out, the Bluebirds have usually started to crumble.
But so far there’s no sign of that happening this campaign (Cardiff’s win at Blackpool on Saturday saw them open up a 10 point lead at the top of table), so there’s room for another side to take on the mantle of ‘The Championship’s Worst Finishers’. Step forward Middlesbrough.
The North East side have form here. Last season they were within a whisker of topping the table as the tinsel and crackers were brought out, but won only six games from January to May - to put that into context, they had won 12 from August to December. This saw them fall from second place to seventh, missing out on a play-off spot in the process. And this term currently looks set to follow the pattern.
An impressive first half of the season saw Boro consistently hover around the top two, but so far in 2013, they are yet to win a league game. The latest failure was Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Leicester City. Though three defeats in a row can hardly be called a collapse, a packed February sees them play six games including tough trips to Ipswich Town and Crystal Palace, and a visit from a Leeds United side who beat them only last month.
Just three points off an automatic promotion spot, and five points above seventh place, it would take something disastrous for Boro to make a mess of their season. But history shows it can be done…

The Pools Panel
While the entire Premier League and Championship fixture card escaped the ‘cold snap’ unscathed, Leagues One and Two saw their schedule decimated.
Of the 23 matches in England’s third and fourth tiers, only nine actually took place, with League Two the worst affected - only three games were played, fewer than in the Conference.
So it was a bad weekend for fans, players, officials and ground staff, who were all suddenly left with an empty afternoon. But pity too, the poor Pools Panel. Inactive for pretty much the entire season, the three man panel had their snooker watching plans scuppered this weekend as they tried to figure out the likely result of the likes of Bury vs. Stevenage and Rochdale vs. Gillingham.
And with snow forecast on and off for the next three weeks, those overworked souls could be very busy indeed.

Unbeaten Howe
Unfortunately for League One Bournemouth, their visit to Walsall did not fall victim to the snow. Unbeaten in the 15 games since Eddie Howe had returned from his ill-fated tenure at Burnley, the south coast outfit were dispatched by one the league’s other in-form sides.
The 3-1 defeat is something of a setback to Bournemouth, who would have climbed into the play-off places with a victory, but there would have been few more disappointed with their day than Eunan O’Kane. The Cherries midfielder, believing he had heard the referee blow for a foul, picked up the ball in his own area. But unfortunately for O’Kane, the referee hadn’t whistled, leaving the man in black with no choice other than to point to the spot.
Still, up next for Bournemouth are bottom-of-the-table Hartlepool United. Surely the perfect tonic for any team to suffer a bad weekend?

When G-Nev upset P-Nev and 27 other hilarious stories you've NEVER heard

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 14:54:00 GMT

The February edition of FourFourTwo has, as well as the Players' Poll and an exclusive interview with Rio Ferdinand, 28 of the funniest footballing stories you've never heard. We asked our network of writers to dish the dirt on players and managers behind the scenes and they duly obliged with tales about Lionel Messi, Sir Alex Ferguson, Diego Maradona and more.

Here are two to get your mouths watering – you can read the rest in the February 2013 issue, out now. If you like what you see, subscribe!

Gary gets shirty with Phil
by Matt Allen, former FFT staff writer

When FFT was dispatched to Manchester to interview the Neville brothers in 2000, there was no mistaking the chain of command. On their arrival, Gary introduced himself and grabbed my tape recorder, brandishing it like a microphone throughout the interview. With each question he passed the gadget from his mouth to Phil's, though mainly to his.

Later, when it was announced that we would like to take some photos, the drama really began. Both brothers had arrived in the same blue Diadora T-shirt. Gary wasn't happy and quickly took charge. "You're not wearing that," he barked.

"Why not?" pleaded Phil. "I like it."

"We'll look like a right pair of dickheads. Go and change it."

"But I want to wear it," pleaded Phil.

Gary wasn't budging. Phil, crestfallen, wandered back to his car in the pouring rain and found another shirt.

Gary may have had these previous photoshoots on his mind

"Sistine Chapel? No, Bella Pasta"
by Steve Anglesey, FFT contributor

In the days when interviews used to be conducted at players' homes, I was invited round the Manchester City midfielder Nicky Summerbee's place, next door to Ryan Giggs.

You couldn't help but admire his entrance hall, which had a huge replica of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel fresco on the ceiling.

"Good, innit?" he said. "I saw it on the ceiling of an Italian restaurant."

Not pictured: Summerbee's Mona Lisa, as seen on an episode of The Simpsons

From the February 2013 issue of FourFourTwo, out now. For more fun and football, subscribe now.

Hislop: Madrid showdown won't distract Man Utd from title bid

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 13:29:00 GMT

Former Premier League goalkeeper and ESPN pundit Shaka Hislop says Manchester United's upcoming Champions League double-header against Real Madrid shouldn't prove too much of a distraction from their Premier League title bid - adding that the real test will come later in the season when they face a tougher run of domestic fixtures.

In this week's ESPN Press Pass taster, exclusive to FourFourTwo.com, the former Reading, Newcastle, West Ham and Portsmouth No.1 also discusses the controversy surrounding Manchester City skipper Vincent Kompany's red card at Arsenal, and the emotions Premier League players go through during the transfer window.

ESPNFC Press Pass - the football discussion show that takes a daily look at the global game - airs at 11pm Monday to Friday, plus Sunday evenings on ESPN. Follow the show on Twitter

The truth behind the transfer window rumour mill

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 12:00:00 GMT

Once mere space-filler, the tabloid transfer story is now huge for players, fans and clubs alike. But who dances to whose tune? FourFourTwo asks the protagonists...

Rupert Murdoch had a problem. The year was 1969 and, having acquired a failing newspaper in The Sun and resolved to turn it tabloid, the Australian got the bad news: a limited number of suitable printing presses meant the first editions of each paper would have to be finished and en route to newsagents across the UK long before the final whistle of evening football matches had blown.

This was potentially disastrous news for a title targeting football fans as its core audience. Yet not only did Murdoch and his first editor, Larry Lamb, overcome it to create what would soon become Britain’s most popular paper, they inadvertently created something bigger.

Their solution was to fill the first edition, on pages which would be replaced by match reports later, with transfer gossip stories. “Eventually Murdoch got another printing press in the north so they could get the football in first time,” says a Fleet Street veteran. “Then people complained that they missed the transfer stories! So they got back in and have been getting in ever since.” A monster was born.

Told by key participants who prefer to remain anonymous for reasons which will become clear, here is the story of how the transfer rumour mill grinds up its heady swirl of information and disinformation – and how players, agents and clubs use it for their own ends…

The Agent I think part of the fascination with the transfer rumour mill is this: in football, you have so few chances to actually win anything. So seeing your club pursue and eventually complete a massive transfer is as near as some supporters will come to actually winning something.

The Tabloid Journalist The demand now is insatiable. When you look at the numbers of readers online, transfer stories come out on top for sport stories. Even a tenuous transfer story involving one of the big clubs can top the charts.

The Premier League Player How do they start? Let’s say I wanted a move…well, if you’re Premier League quality you can get one, but it isn’t as simple as going into the manager’s office and putting  a letter on his desk.

The Chief Exec A written request is the worst thing for a player or an agent. Every contract has an annual loyalty bonus built in and even if a player is sold in the most acrimonious circumstances, as long as he didn’t hand in a transfer request the club has to pay that for the remainder of his contract. Players and agents don’t want to lose that so you end up doing this dance.

The Tabloid Journalist Half of what I do with transfer stories is stay on top of things. Who is coming to the end of his contract at a big club, or what positions does that club need to strengthen? Then you target those players’ agents and their clubs and make the calls. A recent example is Tottenham. The minute they weren’t in the Champions League, some of us would be hitting the phones to see what that meant for Luka Modric and Gareth Bale. Those kind of stories are 50 per cent of the rumour mill; the rest will be tips that come from agents, players, clubs…

The Premier League Player I had a couple of moves where I just wanted to leave and a couple of other moves where I heard another club were interested but were getting no encouragement. It makes sense to get the ball rolling. The most direct way would be to talk to your agent and say, “Put it out there for me.” Or you can talk to your mates, and they might talk to their agents. Sometimes you’d talk to people inside your club; the scouts or someone you trust and who you know has got a relationship with a journalist. But you never know in football. One time, when I wasn’t getting picked, I mentioned to someone I trusted that I knew a team were interested in me. I thought he’d tell one of his contacts. The next morning I was straight in the boss’s office and he told me: “Look, you can forget all about going to them.”

The Chief Exec The transfer market is a nefarious world where things are not always what they seem. Players, agents and clubs do things to further their own ends.

The Premier League Player On one occasion, a team-mate of mine wanted a move. He picked a day when we had a day off, then tipped off a local journalist that he’d been made to train away from the first-team squad, with the kids. They made sure there was a photographer there in the bushes. He wasn’t even supposed to be in training at all but he came in specially, just for the photos! That story alerted a couple of people and a few days later he was beaming in the changing room, saying, “It worked: [top Premier League side] have been in for me.”

The Sunday Journalist Sometimes it’s blatant. One of my contacts is mates with a player who’s an international and a regular Premier League goalscorer. A few weeks ago, my contact tells me his mate has told him Manchester City are after him. Now, he’s good, but he’s not that good. So you wonder why he’s saying this – to get City to talk to his agent, to get someone else to get in touch? A lot of it is wish fulfilment. But if you can successfully plant the seed that City might be interested, and it gets in the paper somehow, then I suppose it only takes one person to read it…

The Tabloid Journalist It’s almost unheard of that a player will call with a tip about himself, and very rare that an agent will ring up out of the blue and say, “Liverpool want my player.” There is a small group of agents I talk to all the time. The best tips are from them when one of their players isn’t involved and they’re repeating something they have heard. They have no agenda in the story and it’s come purely because people in football like to gossip as much as the rest of us do.

The Sunday Journalist  Football is a village. I have a list of 15-20 managers I can call, and in most cases they’re just as aware of what is going on elsewhere as they are with events at their own club. If you do a favour for a manager, he will give you something in exchange. A manager phoned me this morning and said: “I want this goalkeeper but I hear he’s going elsewhere. Can you find out?” I was able to help, and he gave me a tip about another big story, which is definitely happening, at a neighbouring club.

The Tabloid Journalist There are so many people involved in any transfer – the manager, the chairman, the director of football, the player’s representative, the player himself – and each of them are likely to speak to another four or five people about it. It’s like six degrees of separation; only in football it’s more like two degrees of separation.

The Chief Exec Of course it works both ways. It’s an agent’s modus operandi to use contacts in the press, so clubs will do it too if they want a player out or in. During the process of a big transfer saga, a club can brief journalists on what’s going on if it suits them.

The Tabloid Journalist With Samir Nasri, all three clubs [Arsenal, Man City and Man United] were briefing. One of the top four clubs is notorious for secrecy but they have briefed continually about what they said were done deals, weeks before the player actually signed. But in some cases the briefings, for whatever reason, aren’t correct. One of last January’s biggest signings, I was categorically told by the club, was absolutely dead on the morning that it happened. One funny one was Tottenham’s loan deal for David Beckham. Spurs put out an unequivocal denial, then two days later Harry [Redknapp] said, “Yes, I’d love to sign him and we’ve had talks”. I don’t blame the press officer: they were telling the truth as they knew it.

The Agent Some clubs leak news of who their targets will be in March or April because tickets for next season might not be doing so well. There is one high-profile chairman who is notorious for this.

The Chief Exec In some cases, when they can’t get the fee they want, a chief exec or a manager or a chairman might phone one of their opposite numbers at another club and say, “Look, I want £10 million for this bloke, but they are only offering £8m. Can you phone your mate at the paper and say you’re bidding £9m?” If they know them really well and that happens, you’re likely to end up getting the price you wanted from the only club that was really interested in the first place.

The Tabloid Journalist When a big story is going on, it becomes harder. In the big cases – Ronaldo to Madrid, Modric to Chelsea, Fabregas to Barça – the club goes into lockdown. The club, the player and the agent will agree not to talk to the press. What you rely on then is that people in football love to gossip. So you might not have been in the meeting or spoken directly to one of the three people who were, but at least you can talk to another agent who’s spoken to the agent in question – or a team-mate of the player, or a mate of the chief exec. Saying that, one of the biggest moves of the last few years involved a player going into the manager’s office and telling him that he wanted a transfer. And even before that player had said goodbye, I had been briefed by the agent about what one side of the conversation would have been.

The Agent An agent is going to use whatever means are at his disposal to get the best deal for his player. Say you have an instance where a player is happy but you can use another club’s interest to get him a pay rise. In that case you might give the local paper access to the player, who will say something like, “It’s flattering that X are interested but Y are the club I love and it’s breaking my heart that they don’t seem to want to keep me.” Then you’ve got the local fanbase on the back of the club and you’ve put the ball in their court.

The Sunday Journalist The Wayne Rooney thing from a couple of seasons ago has been portrayed as a case of a player using the threat of a transfer to get a pay rise, but it wasn’t like that at all. Fergie forced his hand beautifully but that statement, when it came out, wasn’t a transfer request – it was a cry for help. He wanted to stay but he wanted them to spend. And eventually the Glazers promised to spend and they have.

The Agent Of course, there are instances when you’ll do the same interview with the local paper when you have no intention of your player re-signing for that club.

The Sunday Journalist The hardest part is filtering the truth. There are very few agents I would listen to for a transfer story – they have too many agendas. There is a culture of lying. I probably disregard 70 per cent of what I’m told.

The Chief Exec Agents love an auction for a player but they don’t happen as often as the papers would have you think. There are what I call ‘rule of three’ stories, where there are three clubs claimed to be involved. Those stories have almost always come from agents and of the clubs mentioned, one will be really interested, one would be the club the agent and player want to be interested and the other one would be, in most cases, pure fantasy.

The Sunday Journalist It’s not always the case that the player is party to any of the intrigue. A few years ago I heard Jermain Defoe was wanted by Sunderland and by coincidence I was interviewing Defoe the next day for some sponsor. So at the end I turned the tape off and asked, “Is there any truth in this Sunderland stuff?” He said, “We’re the last to know. Sometimes people I’ve played with get a call that just says: ‘Congratulations – you’re going here’.”

The Chief Exec There are instances  I know of where a story appears linking a player to a club, which he eventually signs for, when I know another club is offering him more wages. That bit didn’t get into the papers. The suspicion has to be that the agent was getting a bigger fee from the first club and didn’t let the player know about the second. The game is littered with instances where agents didn’t represent the best interest of their player; they represented the best interest of themselves.

The Tabloid Journalist The biggest pressure is to have a consistently good strike rate. There are these websites which measure how many of your stories come true or not, but that’s completely unfair. There are countless deals which break down for reasons that are nothing to do with us. Chelsea and Modric: the interest was there and the truth was there until it went away. But did Chelsea want him? Absolutely. Did he want to go there? Absolutely. And Andy Carroll and Carlos Tevez: there was a potential swap there. Kenny Dalglish denied it, and I’m not saying he knew about it, but it was being talked about between the clubs and I believe the players knew about it. It’s depressing to be briefed on someone like Van Persie by an agent or club or contacts you have made over years as a journalist, and do the story, to be told on Twitter: “You’ve made it up.”

The Sunday Journalist I get angry when people on Twitter have a go when one of your stories doesn’t land, and say that means it was never true in the first place.

The Agent For every deal that happens there are five that don’t. There are so many obstacles in the way, so many wheels turning at the same time, and it only takes one thing to go wrong.

The Sunday Journalist It’s not an exact science, of course – you wouldn’t believe the elements involved. There are 20 different things that need to happen in any transfer to get it all the way through. I’ve been doing a story about [Player X], who is going to a Premier League club from Africa. The player is away at a World Cup qualifier, so they fly in his agent and everything looks good. Then they get a call from another agent with documentation proving that the first guy is not the player’s real agent. They begin the process again with the other guy and everything looks good. Then it turns out the player has let his passport expire so he’ll need a new visa, and hang on, there’s another club in his own country who want him now… There are so many layers. There’s a manager who’s intercepted a player in an airport arrivals lounge when he was going to a neighbouring club! I’d done the story that he was going to the other club, so I was wrong even when I was right.

The Agent Do fans feel let down when a transfer doesn’t happen? Probably, but only if it’s their team involved. Most are satisfied with a bit of hidden knowledge because everyone loves speculation; everyone loves knowing something you’re not supposed to know.

The Tabloid Journalist The interest is bigger than ever. You’ve got a Football Manager generation now aware of all these obscure players and prodigies across the world, and if they’re aware of them, then agents and clubs are aware of them too.

The Chief Exec The Americans have fantasy baseball and we have the transfer window. It’s our obsession.

This feature was originally published in the August 2012 edition of FourFourTwo magazine

How much does it cost to follow each Premier League team away from home?

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:24:00 GMT

With the cost of attending Premier League matches currently somewhere near the top of the football news agenda, FourFourTwo has crunched the numbers to see which set of fans are being asked to fork over the most cash in order to follow their team away from home (click and zoom to enlarge...)

NEWS Cost of following Premier League away matches revealed

Research: James Maw, Camilla Chapman & Jamie Allen

Prem Notes: Reading's late starters, QPR's non-starters, Chelsea shade Stoke, Baines tops Europe

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 08:45:00 GMT

Premier League facts from Opta, our partners on the FREE Stats Zone app

Queens Park Rangers 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur

QPR have scored with just 8.1% of their shots so far this season. The last teams to have a worse shot conversion rate in a single Premier League season were Middlesbrough (7.7%) and Wigan (7.6%) in 2008-09. 
QPR became the seventh team this season not to get a shot on target in a Premier League game – the fourth to fail at home.
 Julio Cesar made 7 saves for QPR as they kept a clean sheet against Tottenham – more than any other keeper at the weekend.

Aston Villa 0-1 Southampton

Aston Villa's Christian Benteke had a round-high 12 touches in the opposition box this weekend.
Saints made the highest % of passes in the opposition half this weekend, 81%.

Everton 0-0 Swansea City

Leighton Baines created 7 goalscoring chances in this match, meaning he’s created 76 in the Premier League this season – more than any other player in the top five European leagues.
Swansea's Ashley Williams made a joint round high 17 clearances in this game (Michael Williamson of Newcastle also 17).

Fulham 1-1 Wigan Athletic

Franco Di Santo ended a run of 1095 Premier League minutes without a Premier League goal.
 Shaun Maloney completed 39 of the 41 passes he attempted in the game, including all 18 of the passes he made in the final third of the pitch.
Wigan had a joint high 15 unblocked shots at goal this weekend.

Norwich City 0-0 Newcastle United

Newcastle attempted just five shots in this game – in no PL game this season have they attempted fewer.
Norwich attempted more long passes than any other side this weekend.
The Canaries conceded a round-low five fouls.

Reading 3-2 West Bromwich Albion

Reading have scored the highest proportion of goals in the final 15 minutes of Premier League games this season (35%).
18% of all passes WBA attempted were long passes, the highest rate in the league this week.

Stoke City 0-4 Chelsea

This was the first time that Stoke have conceded four goals in a Premier League home game.
Stoke only had one fewer shot that Chelsea (12 v 13) and only one fewer on target (5 v 6).
Chelsea were forced to make 33 headed clearances in this game – the most they have been forced to make this season and more than any other side this weekend.

Sunderland 3-0 West Ham United

West Ham’s Daniel Potts won the most tackles of any player this weekend (7 from 7).
Sunderland were caught offside a round-high 5 times.

Man Utd 2-1 Liverpool

Patrice Evra assisted 2 goals in a Premier League game for the first time in his career.
Liverpool won just 1 corner in the game, the fewest they have managed to win in a Premier League game this season.

Arsenal 0-2 Manchester City

Jack Wilshere was fouled the joint-most times of any player in any Premier League game this season (7).
David Silva (114) had the most touches of any player this weekend.

Stats Zone is a free-download app from FourFourTwo powered by stats from Opta, updated LIVE in-play. Stats Zone is brought to you in association with FFT's bet partners Coral.

Plus – get the Europa League Stats Zone, also free!

Download Stats Zone • Europa League Stats Zone • More info • Analysis

Frank Lampard and Chelsea: We have a few questions

Gary Parkinson — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 12:07:00 GMT

FourFourTwo.com editor Gary Parkinson on the Frank Lampard contract saga...

Would Lampard (or his agent) accept a wage drop?

It is widely believed that Lampard's current deal, agreed in 2008, is worth £150kpw. That's still among the highest remunerations in world football, and represents a £7.8m annual commitment, before goal bonuses, win bonuses, trophy bonuses and any signing-on fee. With Lampard turning 35 in summer, he surely can't command that much compensation. The question is whether he (or his agent) will insist on continuing at that level, or would prefer to open negotiations with other interested parties.

There may be a warning from history here. In summer 2010, Lampard's old Chelsea and West Ham team-mate Joe Cole – then 28 – left Stamford Bridge after failing to cut a deal, amid rumours he was demanding a six-figure weekly wage. Despite being linked with Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham – all teams competing in the Champions League the following season – Cole ended up at Liverpool; his career stalled to the extent that this month he has willingly accepted a contract cancellation to rejoin the Hammers on much lower wages.

Do Chelsea need to make a stand?

Not long after the Roman Abramovich-funded transfer spending spree boosted Chelsea into the European elite – financially, if not initially on the field – the club announced a long-term intention to break even. The resultant guffaws were barely stifled, but in the era of Financial Fair Play – not an ivory-tower desire, but a UEFA directive which can exclude clubs from European competition – clubs need to bring their salary expenditure into line with their income.

As Chelsea remain unable to find a suitable new stadium to boost their revenue, they need to literally cut their losses. Player wages are an enormous part of their overheads, and the Blues cannot simply sign blank cheques: they, like any other club, need to balance how much they pay different players.

For £150kpw, they could pay two or three wages: the very necessary Demba Ba is said to be on a 'mere' £75kpw. Looked at another way, it could well be that Chelsea have already allocated the 'Lampard' money for next season: they signed a lot of players last summer and are in the process of renewing contracts for several important first-teamers.

If Lampard leaves, who takes his place? A signing?

Probably not. Although you might not peg Chelsea as a model club, they have at least carried out one classic piece of long-term management strategy by signing replacements in advance. Two summers ago they got Juan Mata for £23.5m and a five-year deal which is set to be improved and extended; last summer, they added three more attacking midfielders in an unmistakable game of hunt-the-successor.

Marko Marin may not have overly impressed as yet, and despite his £25m pricetag Oscar is more one for the future than the immediate present, but Eden Hazard was a major investment for a 21-year-old – £78m in total, according to the Telegraph. That's a substantial investment in much younger players than Lampard.

Even if the England man was to adapt his game into a deeper position, there's a fair amount of competition there: roadrunner Ramires, dependable Mikel, redeployed Luiz, promising McEachran. None have Lampard's lustre, but neither do they demand his lucre.

If Chelsea were only to renew one contract – Lampard or Ashley Cole – who should they keep?

The England left-back is also out of contract and has apparently taken umbrage at only being offered a one-year extension, in line with Abramovich's apparent new policy for thirtysomethings. Cole has just turned 32, Lampard will be 35 in June. If finances dictate that only one player could be retained (and if Cole would accept the one-year deal), who is more likely to be important to Chelsea next season? It's not an easy answer, but a straw poll of Chelsea fans seems to indicate that while the heart says Frank, the head says Ashley.

Isn't this what Chelsea have needed for a while – rejuvenation?

For an age – probably since Jose Mourinho left, but possibly even before – there has been a strong suspicion that Chelsea's senior players hold too much power. Didier Drogba has gone, Lampard and Cole could be next, leaving Terry and Petr Cech as the only thirtysomething regulars left over from the Mourinho era. Given the club's huge investment in the next generation – Hazard, Mata, Oscar and Ramires, plus the five-year extension given to Mikel last summer, and that's just the midfielders – could it be that the next manager might at least be spared widespread dressing-room dissent, if not interference from above?

Can Chelsea learn anything from Manchester United?

Most clubs can, whether or not they care to admit it. Amusing as it might be to say "Yes: Give a manager long enough", Alex Ferguson's longevity means he has overseen the ageing of several club legends. Some have been cast aside (Mark Hughes, coincidentally to Chelsea); several have been absorbed into the club (Brian McClair) or farmed off to friendly pastures (Bryan Robson, Steve Bruce); and one or two are still on the playing staff.

Like Chelsea, United have a policy of only giving one-year contracts to thirtysomethings. In the case of Ryan Giggs, now 39, that's a lot of contracts. Paul Scholes (38) and Rio Ferdinand (34) are also running out of contract: that's three Old Trafford legends with more than 2,000 United appearances between them who are now free to talk to other clubs.

Yet compared to the Lampard saga there has been barely a peep about their futures. True, Giggs and Scholes are one-club 'lifers' but Ferdinand is similar to Lampard: ageing but competent and perfectly capable of commanding a large contract elsewhere. So why no noise? One answer is media management. Ferguson has never been one to bow to a press agenda, and once he has tersely dismissed a press-conference question over contract speculation the subject tends to die – especially when United rarely make their own noise on the topic.

By contrast, Chelsea appears a very leaky boat. Some of that is media mischief-making – Lampard's agent Steve Kutner denies the widely-circulated quotes about a lack of contract talks – but the club's image stands in stark contrast to United's respected hierarchy. That's hardly surprising when Chelsea continue to sack managers with startling rapidity, creating an atmosphere in which the players are more important than the notional 'boss'. Such a situation hardly ever occurs at Old Trafford, and when it does, the players usually don't last long: ask Messrs Keane and Beckham.

The United fans tend not to hold the passing of legends against their manager, who has had time to prove his own worth. Success brings a lot of forgiveness, and if Chelsea win the Premier League or Champions League next season without Lampard, the celebrations will hardly be muted by his absence.

FA Cup Third Round picture special: Lions, dogs, wigs, wins and general delight

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 13:20:00 GMT

The finest images from the FA Cup Third Round weekend...

"Eeh, it's quiet...": Blackburn fans make their way to watch Rovers beat Bristol City 3-0. The 5,504 attendance was Blackburn's lowest in 21 years.
Picture: Colin Shorrock/Demotix/PA Images

Perhaps not of its own volition, a dog awaits the teams as non-league Mansfield host Liverpool. The top-flight side won 2-1 in controversial circumstances, their second being clearly handled by Luis Suarez. Woof justice? [You're fired - Ed.]
Picture: Mike Egerton/EMPICS Sport

School bus queue? No, it's the mascots in the Etihad Stadium tunnel, awaiting the Manchester City and Watford players.
Picture: Sharon Latham /Manchester City FC/Press Association Images

It's his big day too: Macclesfield mascot Roary the Lion leads out the teams at Moss Rose. Two late Matthew Barnes-Homer goals gave non-league Macc the win over Championship leaders Cardiff.
Picture: Dave Thompson/PA Wire

A specially-attired Hastings fan supports his team at Middlesbrough. The seventh-tier side, 131 places below Boro and playing their ninth FA Cup game this season, fought bravely but lost 4-1.
Picture: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire

A smile from new Chelsea signing Demba Ba at St Mary's Stadium. The European champions demolished Southampton 5-1, with Ba bagging a brace.
Picture: Chris Ison/PA Wire

Bournemouth's Steve Cook looms over Wigan's Mauro Boselli in front of a closed stand at the DW Stadium. As the teams drew 1-1, top-flight Wigan will have to travel to the League One side's Dean Court home, which will be somewhat closer to capacity.
Picture: Martin Rickett/PA Wire

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew gestures at Brighton's David Lopez, grounded after a tackle by Shola Ameobi. The Newcastle forward was sent off and Brighton went on to win 2-0.
Picture: Clive Gee/PA Wire

Jose Baxter celebrates Oldham's third goal at Championship side Nottingham Forest. Having won 3-2, the League One side will now host Liverpool – an intriguing opponent for Baxter, who was once Everton's youngest ever senior player.
Picture: Rowan Staszkiewicz/EMPICS Sport

We have lift-off: Sunderland manager Martin O'Neill celebrates as his side come back from 2-0 down to draw at Bolton.
Picture: Peter Byrne/PA Wire

Old Father Time: Sir Alex Ferguson asks the ref how long he's playing, presumably after Robin van Persie's stoppage-time equaliser for Manchester United at West Ham.
Picture: Nick Potts/PA Wire

Many hands make light work: Janos Kovacs celebrates non-league Luton's 1-0 home win over second-tier Wolves, who promptly sacked their manager Stole Solbakken.
Picture: Landov/PA Images

It Was a Bad Weekend For… FA Cup Special!

Simon Carter — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 11:10:00 GMT

Simon Carter looks at the weekend sufferers...

Newcastle's cup hopes (yet again)
Seagulls versus Magpies is a clash as old as time itself (probably) so it was with dry mouths and racing hearts that twitchers, tweeters and ITV awaited Saturday lunchtime’s FA Cup tie between Brighton and Newcastle. The avian clash, a repeat of last year’s Fourth Round fixture, was the perfect appetiser for a cup-tastic weekend – and served up our first shock of the round.

Brighton, in front of over 20,000 fans, controlled the game from the start, passing the ball around with carefree abandon and a confidence gained from the visitors’ weakened line-up and hopeless away form. The Seagulls have won many friends for their style of play and by the time Andrea Orlandi tucked away Wayne Bridge’s cross shortly before half time, it was obvious that the travelling Geordies were in for a tough afternoon.

The second half was a more even affair but Newcastle lost heart with every passing minute, visibly so once Shola Ameobi was sent off for a second bookable offence. Though Will Hoskin’s victory-sealing goal didn’t arrive until the 88th minute, Alan Pardew and Newcastle had long since accepted their seventh defeat in eight games.

Brighton will again welcome Premier League opposition in the next round – either Swansea or Arsenal, who played out a thrilling 2-2 draw on Sunday – while Newcastle will try to adjust to life with only one Senegalese striker. The sides return to their very different league campaigns but don’t be surprised if they meet again next year, one way or another.

Stole Solbakken
In a light-hearted Friday press conference, Wolves manager Stale Solbakken exclusively revealed that it is as possible to slip on a banana skin in Norway as it is in England (which is to say, not very: have you ever actually seen anyone slip on a banana skin?). His comments raised laughs from the assembled hacks but there was nothing funny about Wolves’ performance, and subsequent defeat, at Luton on Saturday.

If any tie had ‘shock’ written all over it, it was this one – so much so that when the result came in it may not even have raised Roger Moore’s eyebrow. Wolves are currently just six points above the Championship relegation zone while Luton are enjoying their customary Conference Premier play-off charge.

Statistically the game was very even so a 1-0 home victory for the Hatters was hardly an unfair result, but there’s no escaping the fact that a Championship side should certainly have beaten non-league opposition – something that wasn’t lost on the Wolves board, who sacked Solbakken immediately after the game and have already appointed Dean Saunders as his replacement. Never has someone slipped so hard on a banana skin.

The league ladder
A staple of FA Cup Third Round day, alongside re-runs of Ronnie Radford’s mud-spattered goal and Arsenal’s vomit-shirted 1992 defeat to Wrexham, is the oft-repeated statistic of how many league places there are between various opposition.

The biggest gap was the 131 places that separated Championship side Middlesbrough and their visitors, non-league Hastings United. That gap proved too much for the away side as Boro cruised to a 4-1 win, even allowing themselves the luxury of a saved penalty. But if 131 places is too much of a chasm, what about a measly 81?

Such was the difference between runaway Championship leaders Cardiff and their hosts, mid-table Conference side Macclesfield. All was going to form when the Bluebirds took a second-half lead... but then they slipped to a 2-1 defeat.

It could be argued that Macclesfield were somewhat fortunate in the award of the penalty that provided Matthew Barnes-Homer (his second of a memorable brace) with the winner, but the truth is that there was little difference between the sides all game and The Silkmen were worthy winners.

Cardiff will undoubtedly be disappointed to have ducked out of the competition so early but, without the distraction of a cup run, this may be the year that they finally avoid their traditional end of season slump. With Macclesfield gleefully into the Fourth Round for the first time in their history, maybe this wasn't a bad result for either side.

Tricked Trees
Nottingham Forest fans still shaken, angered and confused by the sacking of Sean O’Driscoll at Christmas (and the subsequent recruitment of Alex McLeish) will say that their team’s 3-2 home defeat to League One strugglers Oldham was nothing other than preordained. Whether or not that's true, there’s no doubting that there was a liberal sprinkling of ‘Magic of the Cup™’ in the East Midlands air on Saturday.

Oldham’s recent form has been awful: they have lost four of the last five League One games and are just two places above the drop zone. Forest, by contrast, have made a decent fist of their campaign and are currently within three points of the play-offs.

So when the Latics’ Matt Smith turned the ball into his own goal early in the game, McLeish’s first win with the Tricky Trees looked to be on the cards. But Forest failed to build on their impressive start and lost cohesion when Andy Reid limped off. They also struggled to adapt to the second-half expulsion of Danny Collins.

But let's not take anything away from Oldham. They threw men forward after the break and, in seven magical minutes, ran in goals from Robbie Simpson (twice, his first an absolute belter) and a wonderful free kick from ex-Everton wonderkid Jose Baxter.

Billy Sharp halved the deficit as the clock ran down but Forest had shown little to suggest that a fightback may be on. McLeish really needs a win to avoid becoming the least popular appointment since Rafa Benitez turned up at Stamford Bridge, and he needs that win sooner rather than later, with an impending East Midlands derby against, well, Derby, who had no such trouble disposing of their own League One visitors. Speaking of which...

Tranmere Rovers
No cup shock here, but this was an awful day for Tranmere. The Merseyside club have made light work of League One this season, spending most of the campaign in top spot, and would have been relishing a visit to Championship side Derby to test their promotion credentials.

Derby edged a relatively even first half, taking the lead through Ben Davies just before the break. However, the second half was an annihilation as the home side added four different scorers – with the fifth goal scored by a 16-year-old. Ouch.

Rovers now have a week to lick their wounds, tell themselves that it was a one-off, and take their frustrations out on Crawley next Saturday.

The Magic Of The Cup Draw
Though Oldham will no doubt be looking forward to the visit of Liverpool and Luis Suarez’s hand, while Middlesbrough will be pleased (for very different reasons) with pulling Aldershot out of the hat, the Fourth Round draw on Sunday afternoon was about as exciting as, well, a Sunday afternoon.

Stand-out ties of the round are, erm, well Millwall against Aston Villa might be OK and Reading haven’t played Sheffield United for a couple of years. Then there’s always the mouth-watering tie between QPR/WBA vs. Sheffield Wednesday/MK Dons.

Of course the draw is random, and we grow tired of the all-Premier League ties but you do get the impression that ESPN and ITV may spend the time between now and January 26th fighting over which ties not to show. Mind you, you wouldn’t be human if you weren’t looking forward to a rematch between Derby and Blackburn, who hotly contested a 1-1 draw back in October…when’s the Capital One Cup back?

Beckham, Coldplay and beans on toast: Meet Tottenham's new midfield maestro, Lewis Holtby

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:45:00 GMT

FourFourTwo's man in Germany, Titus Chalk, tells us more about the German midfielder heading for White Hart Lane...

He is a devoted Everton fan, loves Coldplay, Walkers crisps and beans on toast, and is the Under-21 captain of his country. Improbably, though, that’s Germany, home of the richly talented Schalke midfielder Lewis Holtby.

Holtby, whose dad is a Liverpudlian who served in the RAF in Germany, caught the English media’s eye in 2010 while turning in man of the match showings on loan at Mainz. Suddenly, he looked like an improbable solution to England’s creative shortcomings.

“My childhood dream was to play for England,” Holtby tells FourFourTwo. “I always wore England shirts and David Beckham was my favourite player. But once I had played for Germany’s Under-18s, I decided to stay loyal. I love playing for Germany and am very happy I made that choice.” Holtby has since earned a handful of senior caps under Joachim Low as the call from England came too late, and he was even close to making Germany’s Euro 2012 squad.

Schalke, meanwhile, finished third in the Bundesliga to nab Champions League football again next season, having reached the semi-finals in 2011. Holtby’s form – though interrupted by a nagging ankle injury – was instrumental in driving them up the table. As one half of the Royal Blues’ double pivot with American Jermaine Jones, ‘Lucky Lewis’ orchestrated the team’s play with the precociousness that has become almost standard for Germany’s youngsters, even if his true calling is a little further forward.

A certain evergreen Spaniard had that post covered at Schalke all season (not to mention Klaas Jan Huntelaar scoring 50+ goals), but Holtby isn’t complaining. “It was an honour to play with Raul,” he says. “He’s always got an open ear for every young player, and he runs around on the pitch like a little kid. He might be turning 35, but he’s as fit as a horse.”

The 21-year-old – that’s Holtby, not Raul – says he is happy simply to have established himself in the Schalke starting XI after being sent out on loan twice by previous manager Felix Magath. “I don’t do this for the money,” he says. “I know we get paid well, but I love football and I love playing it.”

That’s music to the ears of German fans. England, though, are left to mourn the one who got away.

This piece originally featured in July 2012 edition of FourFourTwo

In the new issue: Players' Poll reveals drug-taking, match-fixing, depression...

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:09:00 GMT

Explosive. That’s the only way to describe the February 2013 issue of FourFourTwo, out now digitally and in print. No other word would suffice after our Players’ Poll – except maybe “Blimey!”

Under the condition of anonymity, our survey of 100 professional footballers in England and Scotland threw up some incredible results. More than half told us pro players use drugs. A similar number have witnessed racism on the pitch, while one in six say match-fixing goes on.

A quarter don’t mind losing as long as they have a good game, eight out of 10 say depression is a problem among footballers, three-quarters say match tickets cost too much and two-thirds agree that players can get their manager sacked.

And... well, we don’t want to give too much away, although we did write a news story with some eye-opening revelations. But if you want to know what players really think about fans, fame, racism, match-fixing, gay players, diving and influencing referees, this is a must-read.

We also spoke anonymously to a manager, a referee, a chief exec and a physio – plus our regular columnist The Player – for the truth about being in the beautiful game. Read about the gaffer who risked player injury, referees who take the easy way out and what it’s like for a manager to be sacked.

But football can still make your heart swell with hope. Our One-on-One this month reveals how a kid on the Peckham estates can become a Champions League winner and England captain... via a bit of ballet. Rio Ferdinand answers your questions and reveals all about his ban for missing a drugs test, facing off against a hooded gang and his finest moments for club and country.

Rio wasn’t at Manchester United’s return to Galatasaray (because he was talking to FFT!)... but we were. Our intrepid reporter revisited Istanbul as they played there once again 19 years after the Red Devils were welcomed to Hell and recalls one of the most hostile environments an English team has ever seen.

And the insights keep on coming. We infiltrate the secret meetings of clubs and agents in the Wyscout Forum, the speed-dating of football – and the future of the transfer window.

Why are there still no gay footballers at the highest level, when players have come out in cricket, rugby, basketball and more? That’s what we ask former NBA star John Amaechi and his thoughts are enlightening: the problem is in boardrooms, not dressing rooms.

After something a little lighter? Then have a gander at the 28 funniest stories you’ve never heard: hilarious anecdotes from our reporters from their collective decades in the industry. Maradona playing night-vision golf, Noel Whelan forgetting who he is, the day FFT called Posh Spice a minger...it’s a cracking read.

Elsewhere, we meet the man who can make you a millionaire. Tony Ansell says he knows “bugger all” about football but he brings in six-figure sums every year betting on the game. How does he do it? And how can you get in on the action? Read and find out.

We’ve all heard how hard it is to retire from football. Now imagine what it’s like to be forced to stop doing what you’re best at and find a whole new career... when you’re a twentysomething. We find out from Rob Jones, Richie Pitt and Lee Hendrie about life after football and the riches it brings.

In 2004, nine Leicester City players were arrested on a false accusation of rape while on a training camp in Spain. They were lined up while a lawyer told them “You, free; you, jail.” How did this happen? FFT reveals the truth about La Manga.

There’s plenty more, of course, in a bulging February issue. Fabrice Muamba tells us of his future plans, Shakhtar star Willian reveals his desperation to move to London and we have the story of how the London Olympics destroyed Hackney Marshes, while in Performance, Olivier Giroud, Danny Simpson and Leandro Damiao share their tips.

Like what you see? Then subscribe!

The February 2013 issue of FourFourTwo was brought to you by 100 anonymous professional players, Rio Ferdinand, Bobby Gould, Fabrice Muamba, Michael Kightly, Gary Pallister, Danny Simpson, Leandro Damiao, Olivier Giroud, Michel Salgado, Lee Hendrie, Jack Midson, Julian Dicks, Christopher Drazan, Dexter Blackstock, Richie Pitt, Willian, Rob Jones, James Scowcroft, Robbie Savage, Neymar’s brother, Olympic gold medal-winning boxer Anthony Joshua, the Crystal Palace cheerleaders, the transfer window movers and shakers, secret hooligans and the kit man who smuggled Jose Mourinho out of Stamford Bridge.

Good Christmas for...

Vithushan Ehantharajah — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 20:54:00 GMT

We normally point out who's had a bad weekend. But for the festive season, Vithushan Ehantharajah thought he'd ignore the puddings and concentrate on the crackers...

Sunderland
Consecutive 1-0 wins give Sunderland six points out of a brace of fixtures from which their more sceptical followers would have settled for two.

While the win at Southampton was secured by Steven Fletcher’s eighth goal of the campaign, Adam Johnson temporarily lifted the Scot's scoring burden against Manchester City to surprise Joe Hart – and himself, so much so that he almost forgot to make a point of not celebrating against his former club.

It was Johnson at his best, jinking onto his left foot before thumping the ball at Hart's near post for his third of the season, drawing him level with Stephane Sessegnon as Sunderland’s second top scorer.

Only seven of Martin O’Neill’s players have found the net this season – the lowest number in the Premier League, an issue that needs to be addressed. As Manchester City started to chase the game, Sessegnon, Johnson and James McClean started to exploit the increasing amount of space between City’s holding midfielder Javi Garcia and their back four.

But Sunderland couldn't find that second goal, through a combination of hot-headedness and poor decision-making – McClean particularly guilty of both, thrashing a shot wide of the near post as Sessegnon bust a gut to break into the penalty area unmarked. Given City’s propensity for late goals this season, Sunderland can thank their lucky stars that their profligacy didn’t cost them.

Phil Neville
Becoming only the seventh player to make 500 Premier League appearances, the younger Neville marked the occasion with a faultless display at right-back on Boxing Day.

While the Everton captain’s delivery on to the head of Phil Jagielka would prove to be the decider against Wigan, it was his diligence in the defensive third that was ultimately the difference between the two sides.

With the score still 1-0 and the Everton defence being pulled to the left by a Wigan break, Neville tracked Arouna Kone’s run to the near post, blocking his effort inside the six-yard box.

His pure footballing ability has often been mocked, but the former Manchester United man has proven his worth to David Moyes – in defence and midfield. Indeed it was at Old Trafford in December 2002, in one of the many fierce encounters against Arsenal around that time, where Neville first showed his worth in the middle of the park.

Positioned by Sir Alex Ferguson in the gap between United’s injury-ravaged midfield and defence, slightly on the right to quell the threat of Thierry Henry and Robert Pires, he stopped Arsenal’s creativity at the source with challenges, interceptions and an air of authority that few United fans had seen in him before, but many Everton fans have enjoyed since.

Manchester United went on to win 2-0 (on their way to securing their eighth Premier League title at the end of the season) and Neville was given the man of the match award. He might not have as much energy as he did that day, but there’s no denying he is a better footballer.

Juan Mata
Quite the disparity between Chelsea’s two matches across Christmas, both in the scoreline and the resistance offered by the respective opponents.

The 8-0 demolition of Aston Villa saw a return to the ruthless Chelsea who displayed such an insatiable appetite for goals that, were it not for the final whistle, you’d wonder if it could ever be satisfied.

Against Norwich, they had to battle Wes Hoolahan’s attempts to coax the door open and Grant Holt’s desire to bash through it. The defence stayed resolute, though an unmarked Sebastian Bassong could’ve added to his already impressive goal tally at the buzzer.

Mata’s sixth goal in his last eight games settled the tie – his seventh overall, an improvement on last season’s tally. The romantics will peddle Michu as player of the season – and they have every right to – but his smaller, more beardsome compartiot has been at the heart of all of Chelsea’s good work.

As Eden Hazard’s early form tailed off and Oscar began to grow, Mata has drifted about to all three angles of Chelsea’s supplementary attacking trident with the sort of purposeful mastery that makes a mockery of the league’s barnstorming bravado.

It may be puerile use of stats, but without his goals or assists, Chelsea would be 12 points worse off in the league. Rafa Benitez still has work to do to get the defence at Stamford Bridge to what he deems as acceptable – although two successive clean sheets is a good start – but he can do so in the meantime knowing Mata is taking care of business at the other end.

West Bromwich Albion
Given the winter programme, West Brom’s two defeats in the beginning of December seemed ominous, particularly the defeat to Arsenal – a game which, for once, had Steve Clarke at odds with what he wanted to set out to achieve at the Emirates.

Given Arsenal’s strife and the visiting side’s form, there was scope for an away win which very few would be able to label an “upset”. The aftermath was as close as West Brom fans have come to dismay at Clarke’s methods, but a deserved win at the Hawthorns against Norwich was followed by a fairly routine, albeit fortuitous, win at QPR.

As one difficult period is being overcome, another begins, as the excellent Youssouf Mulumbu reports for Africa Cup of Nations duty with the Democratic Republic of Congo from the first week of January. Together with Claudio Yacob, he has played an integral part in West Brom’s solidity with all-action displays at the centre of Clarke’s plans – qualities exhibited by Chris Brunt who has ably deputised in the middle in the absence of Yacob.

Gareth Bale
The Welsh wide man celebrated his first Premier League hat-trick, albeit against a battered, inexperienced and overawed Villa side.

There is a large amount of bile toward Bale, seemingly brought about by what many perceive as an over-rating of his talents by a British-biased media, and sustained by his theatrics on and off the ball.

His “diving” irks – even if yesterday provided a clear example of what many players have described as “jumping out of tackles”, when Fabian Delph nearly snapped his knee ligaments with a horribly misjudged tackle – but mostly it seems to be (to steal a term borrowed by Raheem Sterling) his “swagger”.

At Villa Park, the “swagger” was in abundance, even in a frustrated first half in which the only moments of note were long-range efforts from one of the most cultured left feet around.

Villa set up to stifle, but with Bale drifting in from the left, he was always likely to find space in the inside channels. Ashley Westwood, Delph and Karim El Ahmadi struggled as Mousa Dembele darted in an around them while Jermain Defoe and Emmanuel Adebayor took turns to drop off and find a way through what was frequently a flat back five.

Defoe broke the deadlock, and thus Villa’s resolve, as Paul Lambert implored his young side to take more risks. Bale found more space, this time further forward, and broke through in between Adebayor and Defoe to cash in. Thrice.

Stoke City defending from the top
The effectiveness of Stoke’s pressing was accentuated by Liverpool’s persistence in playing their way out of defence, particularly during a passage of play near the end of the first half where it looked like the visitors' defence were passing through fear rather than ethos, as every touch drew an opposing player closer and closer.

Much is made of the way Tony Pulis lines his sides up but one must marvel at just how he manages to extract every ounce of effort from his players. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to assume that a trial at Stoke City is much like an NFL scouting combine – a week-long showcase where measureable qualities such as size, speed and strength of college football players are analysed – such is the emphasis Pulis puts on a footballer’s raw qualities.

Nicol: Liverpool must sign goal scorers if they are to make top four

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 10:46:00 GMT

Former Liverpool defender Steve Nicol says the Anfield club must sign proven goalscorers if they are to have any chance of clinching a top four spot.

The ESPNFC Press Pass pundit, who made 468 appearances for the Reds between 1981 and 1995, says the January transfer window will offer manager Brendan Rodgers and the club's owners the chance to wrong the errors of the summer window.

Nicol also discusses David Beckham's next career move and his best and worst Christmas party memories...

ESPNFC Press Pass - the football discussion show that takes a daily look at the global game - airs at 11pm Monday to Friday, plus Sunday evenings on ESPN. Follow the show on Twitter

Football's managerial pairings: Deadly duos or dead in the water?

Guest Writer — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 11:44:00 GMT

It’s often said that two heads are better than one, but is this true of football management? Can two managers effectively occupy the same throne without bickering over everything from tactics to transfer targets? With Grimsby currently flying high under the prolific partnership of Rob Scott and Paul Hurst (see the January 2013 issue of FourFourTwo for more details), Will Taylor delves into the archives to decipher why this isn’t a more common occurrence in modern football.

1986-87: Coventry City
With time running out on a disastrous league campaign, Coventry turned to John Sillet and George Curtis in a desperate attempt to avoid the drop. The pair manufactured two wins from the final three games, culminating in a memorable escape on the final day of the season.
Their last-gasp heroics rejuvenated an ailing squad and the club went on to blossom under the tactical nous of Sillet and the meticulous organisational skills of Curtis. Just a year later the duo shared their finest hour, guiding the Sky Blues up the fabled 39 steps at Wembley to collect the FA Cup after a surprise extra-time victory over Tottenham Hotspur in an upset ranked among the biggest in Cup Final history.
Curtis bowed out in the aftermath of the euphoric celebrations, allowing Sillet to take full control and oversee one of the most successful periods in the club’s history, before leaving the club in November 1990.
Verdict: Triumphant

1991-95: Charlton Athletic
The managerial relationship between Alan Curbishley and Steve Gritt was certainly a marriage of convenience rather than a pre-arranged affair. In the summer of 1991, both men applied for the vacant post at the Valley and with the board unable to separate the two, they were both ushered into the Addick’s hot seat.
After narrowly missing out on a playoff position in their debut season, a prolonged spell of mid-table obscurity followed. With the prospect of progression seemingly becoming ever more distant, the board chose to act, and it was Gritt who found his head on the chopping block.
The decision to give Curbishley full control proved a shrewd one, with a famous play-off victory over Sunderland sealing a return to the top flight after an eight-year absence in 1998. Although they were promptly relegated, they bounced back at the first time of asking and only returned to the Football League after Curbishley left the club in 2006.
Verdict: Uninspiring

1992-93: Tottenham Hotspur
The power struggle between chairman Alan Sugar and Terry Venables (manager then chief executive) overshadowed all other matters at White Hart Lane in the early 90s.
Venables 'moved upstairs' upon the Amstrad man's arrival in N17, with Peter Shreeves taking over as manager for the 1991/92 season, before being replaced by first-team coach Doug Livermore and goalkeeping coach Ray Clemence in the top job (or at least, the highest one below Sugar and Venables).
Spurs made a slow start to the 1992/93 season - the first of the Premier League era - taking just three points from their opening five matches. The arrival of Teddy Sheringham saw a slight upturn in their fortunes, but, this being Tottenham in the 1990s, the season was one of inconsistency and a mid-table finish. To make matters worse, their FA Cup run was ended by arch-rivals Arsenal in a Wembley semi-final.
When Sugar controversially opted to dispose of the popular Venables at the end of the campaign (yes, yes - "you're fired", etc), Livermore and Clemence were replaced by Spurs hero Ossie Ardiles in the dugout.
Verdict: [shrug]

1995-96: Bolton Wanderers
Although 2012 marked the end of Bolton's 11-year top-flight stay, they weren't always up at the sunny end of the pyramid: by 1995, they had spent just two of the previous 31 seasons in the top flight. Bruce Rioch led them back there but legged it to Arsenal, leaving his assistant Colin Todd to take the reins… which he opted to share with Roy McFarland.
As title-winning Derby centre-backs, they had exuded an air of calm confidence and excellence; precisely none of this was evident in a Bolton team which plunged to the bottom of the table and stayed there. By the New Year's Day defeat at Sheffield Wednesday, Bolton had gained a pathetic 10 points from 22 games, including just one on the road, and were nine points adrift of safety.
McFarland was sacked the next day, but Todd remained. Bolton doubled their pace in the second half of the season but still went down in last position; Todd led them to the second-tier title the following season, then straight back down again.
Verdict: Terrible

1998: Liverpool
The luckless coupling of Roy Evans and Gerard Houllier is the highest profile, and arguably least successful example of joint-managers to date. The Frenchman’s arrival should have signaled a new era on Merseyside, but the move saw the club begin to drift further from the top of the Premier League.
The Liverpool board were clearly caught in two minds, eager to inject a splash of European flair without neglecting the valued tradition of appointing from within the Anfield ‘boot room’. Evans’ 33 years of service meant he was entwined into the very fabric of a club that hadn’t appointed an ‘outsider’ since 1959. They simply didn’t have the heart to sack him.
The seemingly incompatible duet lasted four uncomfortable months before Evans handed in his notice, with the Anfield side languishing in eighth place. Houllier beautifully illustrated the contrasting emotions at the time, stating; "The passion of this game is that it is traditional, it is orthodox. But at the same time you have to be adventurous; you have to do something that is more forward thinking.”
Despite his stuttering start, Houllier eventually won over the fans and steered the Reds to a memorable treble of League, FA and UEFA Cups in 2000.
Verdict: Poor

1998-2000: Millwall
Theo Paphitis was eager to breathe life back into a Millwall side anxiously trying to claw their way out of Division Two. After a demoralising campaign under Billy Bonds, Paphitis opted for the sentimental appointment of Keith ‘Rhino’ Stevens and Alan ‘Macca’ McLeary and tasked them with emulating the success they enjoyed at the Den during their playing days.
Stevens, was originally at the helm on his own with McLeary acting as his assistant and the duo marked their first season with a trip to Wembley. However, 47,000 fans failed to inspire the Lions to victory, watching in despair as they succumbed to a 1-0 defeat against Wigan in the legendary Auto-Windscreens Shield Final.
The following season saw McLeary elevated to ‘co-manager’ and the change helped inspire a promotion charge that saw the club finish fifth. Sadly, there was a whiff of déjà vu for Millwall, who failed to reach the playoff final after a 1-0 aggregate defeat…to Wigan.
Sadly, it wasn’t a case of ‘third time lucky’ for the unfortunate twosome, who were sacked in September following a dismal start to the 2000/01 season. Mark McGhee was bought in and had the club top by Christmas, sealing the title with a 5-0 trouncing of Oldham in May.
Verdict: Mediocre

2000-01: Middlesbrough
As the cracks began to appear across the hull of the good ship Boro, troubled helmsman Bryan Robson sent out a distress signal. Although the Riverside Stadium side were bottom of the Premier League as the season approached the halfway stage, this was a bizarre cry for help, especially as he requested the lifeboat be manned by Terry Venables.
Initially, ‘El Tel’ was thought to act merely as a personal assistant rather than a puppet master, a nightlight to help combat this ongoing nightmare. Yet, it became worryingly apparent that there wasn’t room in the dugout for both men, with Venables declaring, ‘I will pick the team and have major input into preparing for games.’
Robson was shuffled into the shadows and placed in charge of a proposed ‘£20m transfer budget’. Was he the first inadvertent Director of Football in the English game? Regardless of the confusion, Middlesbrough avoided the drop with relative comfort, finishing the season in 14th place.
Verdict: Awkward success

2003-05: Partick Thistle
In spite of a recent history littered with co-manger c**k-ups, Partick Thistle ignored the overwhelming evidence and appointed Gerry Britton and Derek Whyte.
However, this was a unique scenario, as both men were still on the playing roster at Firhill Park. Sadly, neither their exploits on the pitch or the touchline could prevent the Jags plummeting out of the Scottish Premier League. The pair were sacked as Thistle continued on their downward spiral, with the incoming Dick Campbell unable to prevent a second successive relegation.
Verdict: Abysmal

2012–present: Barnet
Edgar Davids may rival Ryan Giggs on the age front, but he shows no intention of hanging up his boots anytime soon. In October, he was appointed player, captain, co-manager and just about every other title Barnet had at their disposal, joining Mark Robson in the dugout.
Davids’ debut was marked with an impressive 4-0 annihilation of Northampton, but although the 13 points accrued in the ten League Two matches since Davids’ arrival are a vast improvement on the meager three they collected in the 11 beforehand, Barnet are still at the foot of the table.
Verdict: Jury’s out

2012-present: St Albans City
On Tuesday, the Evo-Stik League Southern side confirmed James Gray and Graham Golds as full-time joint-managers, after an impressive spell as joint-caretakers.
Verdit: Jury's not even been selected yet

The January 2013 issue of FourFourTwo goes behind the scenes at Arsenal, speaking to the men that matter as they reveal their master plan for success at home and abroad, including Arsene Wenger, Ivan Gazidis, Thomas Vermaelen, Santi Cazorla, Kieran Gibbs, Ken Friar, OBE and Liam Brady. Former Manchester United and Chelsea midfielder Juan Veron also answers your questions, while we reveal our annual Top 100 Players in the World list and meet Grimsby Town's managerial double-act. Subscribe! or download it digitally

Bad Weekend For: Brendan's hubris, Roberto's durability, and anybody who's any good

Simon Carter — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 13:55:00 GMT

It Was a Bad Weekend For…

Brendan Rodgers' hubris
Comedy is, as we know, all about the timing. On Saturday afternoon, media outlets from the BBC website to Sky Sports News, not to mention countless radio stations and Twitter feeds, indulged themselves in Brendan Rodgers-related schadenfreude.

See, just 24 hours before his Liverpool side hosted (and were well beaten by) a revived Aston Villa side at Anfield, Rodgers was spending his time speculating that The Reds could, with a bit of consistency, finish this season as high as second place. Well, sort of. What he actually said was that Liverpool were “11 points off second and that can all turn around rather quickly”.

Whether you interpret that as a wildly over-optimistic prediction (something of a tradition at the club) or as a slightly misjudged attempt to boost his players' confidence, there’s no doubting that Rodgers will have wished he could swallow his words come 5pm on Saturday.

If Rodgers did need a reality check, this game was perfect as it clearly demonstrated how far his side are from challenging for the title. Dominating the early exchanges without taking advantage has become the Liverpool way in recent times but this, coupled with their capitulation after going behind, will leave nobody in any doubt as to the League Cup holders' position in the Premier League hierarchy.

Aston Villa’s Christian Benteke was clearly the difference between the sides, scoring two and making the other with an ingenious back-heel. A player of the Belgian's ilk may be exactly what Liverpool are missing, but Rodgers will have despaired at the sight of Benteke strolling through the home defence for his second goal.

Liverpool face Fulham next. Whatever happens, you can be sure that Rodgers will choose his pre-game words more wisely in future.

Wigan's durability
Just as Arsenal fans grow tired of the annual early season struggle and post-Christmas revival into the top four, supporters of Wigan must be weary of the yearly relegation battle (though it does usually end with improbable salvation). Season after season, the Lancashire side find themselves ‘in the mix’ for one of the bottom three spots before rallying come springtime.

In recent times the club have been forced to spend the early stages of the season regrouping following notable departures such as Antonio Valencia, Lee Cattermole, Wilson Palacios and Charles N’Zogbia but with Victor Moses as the only big name out of the door, and with the highly regarded Ivan Ramis and Arouna Kone coming in, this season was set to be different.

When playing well, Wigan can cause problems for anybody (see Manchester United and others at the end of last season, and back-to-back autumn wins over West Ham and Tottenham) but there is growing frustration at the DW Stadium over the lack of consistently good performances this term.

The latest defeat came on Saturday when they lost 2-1 to the impressive Norwich through goals from Anthony Pilkington and a header from the smallest-man-on-pitch Wes Hoolahan. The result keeps Wigan in the bottom three and as one of a group of four teams who seem likely relegation candidates – if Villa, Newcastle and Sunderland don't also get involved.

The Latics have conceded two or three goals in each of the seven games since Bonfire Night, and Christmas may not bring glad tidings with fixtures against Arsenal, Everton, Villa and Manchester United to come before twelfth night. Lose them all, and they could finish with the same fate as those perennial survivors of the 1990s, Coventry and Southampton.

The Life of Ryan
It seems unlikely that Stoke centre-back Ryan Shawcross will ever in his life have been described as the victim of bullying. But anybody who saw the treatment doled out to him by Everton’s Marouane Fellaini on Saturday afternoon will have felt a pang of sympathy for the England defender, whose bruising afternoon also included an unlucky own-goal.

It all started with an Everton corner in the second half of the 1-1 draw at the Britannia Stadium. Although referee Mark Halsey missed the incident, TV cameras caught Fellaini sneaking a glance at the officials before, happy that the coast was clear, launching a headbutt at Shawcross. The Stoke man crumpled in a heap and will have been no doubt surprised to see no punishment for his aggressor.

Emboldened by getting away with it, Fellaini followed his headbutt with an elbow to Shawcross’ face at a later corner and a right hook minutes later. Post-game Fellaini’s manager David Moyes said that he had seen the headbutt and that “it was a terrible thing to do” and that he “expect[s] him to be punished”. The Belgian himself has also released a statement apologising to Shawcross.

By the time you read this, the FA and Premier League may have already viewed video of the incidents. Expect Fellaini to have Christmas off this year.

Championship Nosebleeds
The top of the Championship is somewhere that nobody likes to be. Each time Crystal Palace or Cardiff – or even, for a few brief moments earlier this season, Middlesbrough – drag themselves to the summit, gravity intervenes and succeeds in pulling them back down.

On Saturday afternoon, Cardiff welcomed the seemingly hopeless Peterborough to the Cardiff City Stadium – where the Bluebirds had garnered 30 points from 30 this season. Peterborough, the bottom side in the league, had lost seven of their previous eight league games and had scored only nine away goals all season.

In a statistically even game, Peterborough enjoyed large spells of dominance and found themselves 2-0 ahead just after half-time. The home side did pull a goal back in the dying minutes but that wasn’t enough to rescue even a point from the game.

Elsewhere, second-placed Palace were cruising at St. Andrew’s, leading Birmingham 2-0 thanks to two goals from, who else, Glenn Murray. As things stood, Peterborough’s heroics in the Welsh capital meant the Eagles were heading back to the top of the league.

Once again, the curse of first place struck and Palace fell apart, first allowing substitute Nikola Zigic and then Papa Bouba Diop to strike for the home side to leave the tie all-square.

With the top two doing their level best to keep the title race interesting, both third-placed Boro and fourth-placed Hull won to leave just three points separating the top four.

Whatever twists and turns the race for the Premier League throws up this term, one thing’s for certain; come May, somebody will have to be top.

Henning Berg
This season, Blackburn were managed for eight games by Steve Kean, then spent six games without a manager and have now been under Henning Berg for nine games. Things haven't worked out particularly well so far for the Norwegian: they did better when they were managerless, losing only one of those half-dozen games.

As if it wasn't bad enough for Berg to lose to an empty chair, his tenure has been statistically far worse than that of the deeply unpopular Kean. Saturday’s 2-0 loss to Blackpool was Berg’s fifth in his nine games (and his fourth in the last five), with some onlookers already questioning his position.

The result leaves Rovers seven points off the play-off places – surely a minimum requirement this term – and 11 points above the relegation zone, in 15th place. When Kean resigned they were third.

While this run isn’t yet a crisis, Berg – and the Blackburn fans – should perhaps thank Steve Kean that they’re not in a worse position.

League One Nosebleeds
The Championship isn’t the only league where teams at the top have struggled this weekend, as nosebleeds also afflicted those at the top of League One. League leaders Tranmere played out their fourth successive draw (two of which have been 0-0) in a top-of-the-table clash with Sheffield United.

The Blades have really struggled to grab this league by the scruff of its neck and Saturday’s impotent performance by the side in third is typical of this term so far.

Doncaster suffered the worst defeat of the league’s top sides, losing 4-1 at home to Coventry (who are in excellent form with six wins from their last eight fixtures) while Stevenage fared little better, throwing away a lead to lose 2-1 to Crawley in front of their own fans.

All of which was good news for Brentford, who continued their remarkable form with a 2-1 victory at Notts County (that’s seven wins from nine) and MK Dons, who limped to a 1-0 victory over hapless Hartlepool.

So where does that leave the table? With just six points separating first from tenth, it leaves the table in a very exciting state.

League Two Nosebleeds
The theme continues as we reach League Two: remarkably, only two teams in the entire top half were able to carve out a victory.

However, with first-placed Gillingham drawing with eighth-placed Fleetwood, Port Vale and Cheltenham (second and third respectively) playing out a 1-1 draw, fifth- and sixth-placed Bradford and Southend finishing 2-2 and Burton and Chesterfield (ninth and tenth) also finishing all square, there wasn’t much room for anybody in the top half to have won.

Devonshire sides Exeter (seventh) and Torquay (eleventh) both drew with sides in the bottom half, so will perhaps be disappointed with their day’s work but all of this means that while only two top-half sides (Rotherham and Dagenham & Redbridge) managed to win on Saturday, not a single one of them lost.

The Football League looks set to continue to thrill us all as we enter the Christmas period and it’d take a brave soul to bet on any title winners, promotion candidates or relegation fodder. Well, except Hartlepool.

Weekend Shots: Bubbles, banners, bricks and broken records

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:15:00 GMT

Some of our favourite photos from this weekend's games around the world:

How did he do that?: Swansea react to Norwich's Sebastien Bassong scoring the visitors' second goal of the game. (PA/Nick Potts)

Blackpool's Nouha Dicko celebrates scoring his side's equaliser against old boss Ian Holloway's Crystal Palace. (PA wire)

Job done: Barcelona's Lionel Messi leaves his workplace with a shirt, a win, two goals and a record for strikes in a calendar year. (AP Photo/Angel Fernandez)

Bubble burster: Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers is framed by bubbles after West Ham score against his visitors, who would go on to win 3-2. (Empics/Stephen Pond)

Before their Suzuki Cup semi-final against the Philippines, members of the Singapore team hold a minute's silence for victims of Typhoon Bopha in southern Philippines. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Brighton sub Kazenga LuaLua rescues a point at Charlton with an extravagantly celebrated free kick. (PA wire)

Sankt Nikolaus (3): Eintracht Frankfurt players take time out from the Werder Bremen game to play it up for the fans. Bremen gave generously too, gifting their hosts a 4-1 win. (DPA/PA/Foto Huebner)

Manchester City and Manchester United players react to the late winner by Robin van Persie (No.20, at rear). (PA/Dave Thompson)

Mohun Bagan midfielder Syed Rahim Nabi is carried off after being hit by a brick thrown from the crowd during the game against East Bengal. Mohun Bagan walked off the field, and in the ensuing violence 40 people were injured, including policemen. (Demotix/PA/Bhaskar Mallick)

Under a banner reading "No football without respect", a 12,000-strong silent march commemorates Dutch linesman Richard Nieuwenhuizen, who died after being mugged by four players during a youth-team game. (Demotix/PA/Ruud van der Lubben)

Bad Weekend: Coins, lost bounces, autmunal funk and the threat of collapse

Simon Carter — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:44:00 GMT

It Was a Bad Weekend For…

Balotelli, Nasri and a fistful of coins
Fans of irony (and let’s face it, who isn’t a fan of irony?) had lots to savour in the Sunday clash at the Etihad Stadium between Premier League champions Manchester City and league leaders Manchester United.

How ironic that United, the team who have repeatedly given their opposition a head start this season only to pull it back in heartbreaking fashion, threw away a two-goal advantage to see 0-2 turn to 2-2 with only minutes left on the clock.

How ironic that City, the team who won the Premier League in May with an injury-time goal to turn a 2-2 into a 3-2 victory, should lose this contest to an injury-time goal that decided a five-goal thriller.

But yesterday served up much more than delicious slices of irony pie; there were enough subplots to distract even Alanis Morissette from the situational irony. First there was the latest chapter from Why Always Me: The Autobiography of Mario Balotelli; the Italian's woeful performance (the first 10 minutes aside) was brought to an end by an apoplectic Roberto Mancini following a misjudged back-heel early in the second half.

Then there was the mystery of the disappearing Samir Nasri, who shrunk and shrunk from his position in the defensive wall facing Robin van Persie’s 92nd minute free-kick until there was nothing left but his leg. Unfortunately for young Samir, that leg deflected RVP’s shot away from the diving Joe Hart into the corner of his team’s net.

But what of City’s fans? The actions of a few fans at the Etihad seemed to suggest that Manchester City simply have so much money these days that their fans have no option other than to fling handfuls of change onto the pitch. Of course, we shouldn’t make light of the situation, especially given that one of the coins caught Rio Ferdinand above the eye and was an unsavoury end to a fantastic spectacle.

The result leaves Manchester United six points clear at the top of the league, and we all know that United really get going after Christmas. Mind you, they said City would prosper now they were out of Europe…

The Baggies' bounce
As easy (and tempting) as it would be to award West Bromwich Albion a place in Bad Weekend based simply on the fact that they lost to Arsenal, they are here by virtue of now having lost three games in a row following a tremendous start to the season.

The 2-0 loss at The Emirates does come with a sprinkle of caveats, courtesy of a referee who must now be on Arsene Wenger’s Christmas card list. Santi Cazorla was lucky to escape injury after the gust of wind generated by Steven Reid’s boot gliding past his ankle caused him to tumble in the box; sympathetic ref Mike Jones gave the penalty.

Amends could have been made had Jones given a free-kick to WBA in the 64th minute following Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s push on Goran Popov instead of allowing the Arsenal man to plough forward into the penalty box where he was brought down by a desperate Chris Brunt.

So two penalties and two justifiable grievances for the Midlands club, who still sit above their opposition in the table, but the loss on Saturday comes on the back of consecutive defeats: a first-half horror show in a 3-1 loss at Swansea and the usual home defeat to Stoke.

If Steve Clarke wants to resurrect the Baggies’ impressive early-season form he will be grateful for back-to-back home games – against West Ham and Norwich – before a Boxing Day trip to QPR. Perhaps they'll get their bounce back after all.

Woeful Wednesday
Among the usual footballing clichés – 2-0 is a dangerous score, it’s important to score when you’re on top, you can never write off Germany – is the one about beating the teams around you during a relegation scrap.

And of course that one would seem to hold a bit of water. After all, with points hard to come by at the bottom of the table, where better to gain them than by stealing them from your rivals? Sheffield Wednesday took this to heart a few weeks ago when they recorded back-to-back wins against the perennially awful Ipswich (the last game before Mick McCarthy rode in) and Peterborough.

Those wins left the Owls on 15 points from 14 games. Not a great return, admittedly, but not too bad for a recently promoted team looking for consolidation.

Fast forward to this festive period while some things have changed, others have remained the same. Wednesday are no longer in the business of beating those teams around them, as proven by Saturday’s 3-2 loss to a Bristol City side who were tied on points with them. And their points tally has, on the back of seven consecutive league defeats, stayed resolutely on 15.

There’s little doubt that Dave Jones is a fine manager and most Wednesday fans would probably still say that he is the man for the job. Indeed, had Saturday’s fixtures been frozen at 84 minutes, the Owls would have won 2-1 and instead we'd be talking about Milwall’s surprise 3-0 defeat to McCarthy's Ipswich.

But of course the game didn’t stop after 84 minutes and Wednesday are in real trouble. Next up is Barnsley, who are just one place above their hated South Yorkshire neighbours. Now, what was that about beating the teams around you?

Winless Walsall
League One's leading Sheffield Wednesday tribute act Walsall started the season in pretty good form, striding up the table on the back of five wins from their opening nine games before collapsing in an autumnal funk which has seen them glide down the table: they now sit just three points above the relegation zone.

In what was a horrible weekend for Dean Smith's Saddlers, they made the short journey to face near-neighbours Coventry who hit five goals for the second time in a handful of weeks to run out 5-1 victors.

In an afternoon of few positives for Walsall (they did at least take the lead) they can take solace from the news that not a single team in the bottom eight registered a win.

The pre-season relegation tips confounded critics with their early-season form, and recent draws against Tranmere and Crawley suggest that the rot might not be terminal – but if manager Dean Smith can't sort the side out soon, it could be a long winter in the Midlands.

Wasteful Rochdale
In April Exeter travelled to Rochdale for a game that both needed to win to avoid relegation from League One. The resultant match was one of the best of the season with Exeter forging a 2-0 lead only to throw it away by conceding three goals in the last 11 minutes.

Of course, both sides were eventually relegated and League Two is all the richer for it – a sentiment proven by Saturday’s hugely entertaining clash.

Exeter again found themselves with a 2-0 lead but this time had the good sense to add a third before half -ime. This left the home side with a supremely difficult task in the second half but, perhaps with inspiration from last season, they took to their task with gusto.

Despite running in 31 shots at goal Dale were unable to claw back the deficit, running out of time at 3-2 (though there was still time at the end for double goalscorer Terry Gornell to be sent off for a kick).

This was Rochdale’s third consecutive defeat in a row and one that leaves them just outside the play-off places. Fans at Spotland will hope this lapse doesn’t turn into a collapse, but with 14 goals scored in the last three league games involving Rochdale, neutrals won’t care what the result is as long as the net continues to bulge.

See the goal Matt Le Tissier believes is deserving of more attention

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 09:48:00 GMT

Few players have a clip-reel quite like Matt Le Tissier - but which strike does the Southampton hero think deserves more air time?

"I scored a goal as part of a hattrick in the 1989/90 season at the Dell," Matt tells FourFourTwo.

"I picked the ball up about 40 yards from Norwich's goal, went past three or four players and then smashed it in off the inside of the post with my right foot. It never gets shown, but I was very proud of that one.

"I'll sometimes watch some of my goals back on YouTube - if I'm bored! People will sometimes send me links to them on Twitter, so I'll have a look. It's always nice to remember."

Matt Le Tissier was speaking at the opening of Decathlon’s new store in Southampton. As the world’s biggest sports retailer, Decathlon is a gateway to sport and is committed to putting sporting activity back at the heart of the nation’s local communities by making it accessible to all. To find out more about how your grassroots club can benefit go to www.decathlon.co.uk

Top 100 Players: Ageing England quietly drop off, but rejuvenation is due

Guest Writer — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 15:03:00 GMT

The new issue of FourFourTwo includes the Top 100 Players in the World – and there aren't many Englishmen in it. But as Joshua Smith reports, it's all part of the process...

England’s status in football is declining. A reasonable, if by no means electrifying, Euro 2012 campaign helped restore a bit of pride and show that the national team can still go toe-to-toe with some of the world’s best international teams and emerge with some sort of credit. It is, however, the nation’s inability to produce the world’s best footballers that continues to worry those who keep an eye on the long term.

Since FourFourTwo started compiling a list of the Top 100 Best Players In The World half a decade ago, the average age of Englishmen involved on the list has risen. Obviously this has largely been in line with the ageing of the players on the initial list, but their number has not remained static: the likes of David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville are no longer on the list and there is a lack of young English players emerging who are capable of taking their places.

Of the Englishmen on the latest list, only Joe Hart did not also appear in 2007 – and in the intervening years, English representatives Jamie Carragher, Joe Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen and John Terry have also slipped off. In five years, Hart and Jack Wilshere are the only Englishmen to become fresh additions to the Top 100, and England has slipped from 13 entrants on the first list to just five now.

The downfall was swift. That class of '07, who had been heralded as part of England’s ‘Golden Generation’, failed to even qualify for Euro 2008. And although the English Premier League continues to attracts some of the sport's biggest names, the nation has struggled to replace the big names of the last decade with the faces of the future.

"You and I are gonna live forever…"

Such dips are natural as national teams rejuvenate. Italian representatives on the list halved from 12 in 2007 to six in 2011, but have been climbing again since as a new breed comes to the fore. The new German generation has seen that country's total rise from just three in 2009 to 11 this year.

Roy Hodgson will be pinning his long-term hopes on the likes of Tom Cleverley, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Danny Welbeck stepping up their games – not to mention Jack Wilshere reclaiming his place in the pantheon, having fallen off the list after spending much of the year out with ankle trouble.

Sterling and Zaha step up

Hodgson clearly has his eyes on the future, with Raheem Stirling, Wilfried Zaha and Carl Jenkinson all making their England debuts in Sweden. Meanwhile, of the 13 English players on the 2007 list, only two (Gary Neville and Owen Hargreaves) have retired but only four have featured for the national side since the Euros. The older players are falling away; it's time for the youth of England to prove they are adequate replacements.

Youth development is a long-term process. It will take at least a decade to see if the FA’s renewed commitment to developing young talent at its St George’s Park national football centre can help the country regain its place among the game’s elite. In the meantime, it will be interesting to see if any of the young players currently starting to shine can ascend become among the game’s top 100 stars.

IN THE NEW ISSUE: The Top 100 Players In The World, Inside Arsenal & Veron On-on-One

Classmates to strangers: The post-Emirates evolution of Arsenal's midfield

Michael Cox — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 12:12:00 GMT

ZonalMarking.net's Michael Cox marks the release of the January 2013 edition of FourFourTwo - featuring an access-all-areas look behind the scenes at Arsenal - by analysing the development of the Gunners' midfield since the break-up of the 'Invincibles' and the club's move the the Emirates Stadium...

Arsenal’s move to the Emirates Stadium in the summer of 2006 meant many changes , with the wider availability of tickets and increased commercial revenue supposedly giving the club more chance of long-term success. But it also had some negative short-term consequences – chiefly because Arsene Wenger was unable to sign players of a certain calibre, and was instead forced to concentrate on promoting youth.

“I thought: ‘We are building a stadium, so I will get young players in early so I do not find myself exposed on the transfer market without the money to compete with the others,” Wenger outlined, in an interview with the Daily Mail in 2009. “I build a team, and we compensate by creating a style of play, by creating a culture at the club […] the people you meet at college from 16 to 20, often those are the relationships in life that keep going. That, I think, will give us strength that other clubs will not have.”

Nowhere was this policy more evident than in the midfield. When Arsenal moved to the Emirates, Denilson and Alex Song were 18, Cesc Fabregas was 19, Abou Diaby was 20, Mathieu Flamini was 22. These players were the epitome of Wenger’s belief. Each offered something different: Denilson was a relaxed passer, Song a sturdy holding midfielder, Fabregas a classic Spanish playmaker, Diaby a powerful forward runner, and Flamini a scrappy defensive midfielder. Meanwhile, 29-year-old Gilberto Silva would provide the experience.

The problem with Wenger’s attempted cohesion was the lack of consistency from season to season. Players came and went, and it was impossible for all five to be successful at Arsenal. Perhaps Wenger would argue his footballing philosophy was so overarching that literal connections between specific individuals were unnecessary, but the fact remains: since Arsenal’s stadium move, Wenger’s first-choice midfield combination has changed every season.

In the first year of the Emirates, it was simple – Gilberto and Fabregas played in the centre of the pitch. They’d been together the previous season following the departure of Patrick Vieira, and helped Arsenal to the Champions League final. Gilberto sat and broke up play, while Fabregas shuttled forward from a deep-lying midfield position to create.

The Spaniard was clearly the heartbeat of the side, but equally crucial was Gilberto’s contribution, evident from the first game of the season: when Arsenal looked set to lose their Emirates debut, Gilberto snatched an equaliser. In the first North London derby against Tottenham at the Emirates, Gilberto slotted home two penalties. He became a genuine goal threat, managing double figures in the league, and with Thierry Henry out injured, Gilberto wore the captain’s armband.

BEHIND THE SCENES FourFourTwo spends a month with Arsene, Ivan & Co.

Gilberto and Fabregas looked set to continue as Arsenal’s first-choice combination, but in the summer of 2007, Wenger fell out of love with the Brazilian. Gilberto had captained Brazil to the 2007 Copa America (although he missed the final through suspension), underlining his leadership skills, but William Gallas was named as Henry’s permanent replacement. Meanwhile, by the time Gilberto reached full fitness, Matthieu Flamini had taken his place in the side.

Gilberto left at the end of the campaign, but that didn’t matter, for Flamini and Fabregas was now Arsenal’s favoured midfield partnership – the Frenchman had previously appeared a scrappy utility player, most impressive in the 2005/06 Champions League run in an unfamiliar left-back role. Given a chance in midfield, he was a revelation – he was more all-action than Gilberto, and it brought the best out of Fabregas, who became an assist machine and won the PFA Young Player of the Year award. Flamini and Fabregas appeared to be the way forward. "They are very mobile going forward and are technically very good,” Wenger stated at the time. “Before we had players more with impact, now their strength is more about ability.”

Except it wasn’t – Flamini’s decision to leave for Milan was hardly a shock, but left Arsenal unprepared. Xabi Alonso was linked with a move - at a time when Rafael Benitez was trying to replace him in the Liverpool midfield with Gareth Barry - but nothing materialised and instead, it was Denilson’s time to step up. Arsenal fans were sceptical, but Wenger was insistent. “Denilson has different qualities to Flamini,” he admitted. “But if you look at the numbers at the end of the season, you will see he is a very good player.”

Although it might seem odd now – Denilson has been loaned back to Sao Paulo with seemingly no future at Arsenal – he was excellent in the 2008/09 season. He was more of a natural passer than a holding midfielder, but adapted his game admirably to cover for Fabregas’ darts forward. And how about those numbers Wenger spoke of? He started in 36 of the 38 league matches, and was the league leader in terms of both passing, and winning possession.

Midway through the campaign, Fabregas became injured. Denilson remained in midfield, alongside Abou Diaby or Alex Song, and it worked. Arsenal hadn’t lost in the twelve league games Fabregas missed, so Wenger was reluctant to change the defensive base of the side. The problem was in the final third – Arsenal went on a run of four consecutive 0-0 league draws, and so Fabregas’ creativity was used higher up the pitch.

Arsenal switched to a midfield three, with Denilson and Song behind Fabregas, who returned in April with two goals and five assists in his first four matches in his new role. “In this part of the pitch, I can do dangerous things in terms of giving the final ball, and I have more time to go to dangerous positions to score a goal as well,” Fabregas said, and it became his permanent position. It wasn’t the plan at the start of the season, but Arsenal now played three central midfielders.

In was only natural that this format continued into 2009/10: Song sat deep, Denilson spread the play wide (or Diaby could come into the side to provide more thrust) and Fabregas created from high up. In that campaign, Wenger came closer than ever to finding the right balance in the centre – the players had cohesion, but also filled different roles.

This was the Wenger grand plan: all four midfielders had been at the club since their teenage years, had all been part of that original five (Flamini was the only one who had left), with another youngster, Aaron Ramsey, impressing before his infamous injury at Stoke. Arsenal’s midfield was as cohesive as any in the league, the problem was simply upfront – with Robin van Persie injured for the majority of the campaign, neither Andrei Arshavin nor Nicklas Bendtner could provide goals consistently.

NEW ISSUE Our Top 100 players, the Little Witch and Arsenal's masterplan

In 2010 there was another reason for optimism – Jack Wilshere. He took the place of Denilson or Diaby, fielded alongside Song in a ‘double pivot’ that seemed inspired by the German World Cup side of 2010 – rather than sitting deep permanently, Song could switch positions with Wilshere and join the attack, although Fabregas’ near-constant injuries made it difficult for Arsenal to find cohesion.

But in the summer of 2011, the plan started to unravel. Fabregas finally left for Barcelona after years of speculation, Denilson was discarded, Wilshere picked up an injury that was see him sidelined for over a year and Abou Diaby didn’t manage a single start. Samir Nasri, supposedly Fabregas’ replacement in the centre, fled to Manchester City.

2011/12 was, by a distance, Arsenal’s most disorganised season in central midfield. Mikel Arteta was seen as something of a panic buy, although performed exceptionally; the returning Ramsey started the season well but was exhausted by Christmas; Tomas Rosicky also returned and made some key contributions; while on-loan Yossi Benayoun made sporadic appearances at the top of the triangle. Tactically, the midfield changed again – Song became even more of a playmaker, contributing a staggering number of assists for Robin van Persie, but often neglecting his defensive duties.

In the summer, Song followed Fabregas to Barelona, so Wenger has played either Wilshere or Diaby alongside Arteta. On paper, the trio of Arteta, Wilshere and Santi Cazorla looks fantastic; Arteta passes from deep and can scrap in midfield too, Wilshere provides quick transitions from defence to attack, while Cazorla thrives between the lines.

But so far, the understanding isn’t there. Before this season, Arteta hadn’t played with Wilshere, and he hadn’t started a game with Diaby. And of course, none of them had started with Cazorla. It’s not necessarily a barrier to success, but it’s the opposite of Wenger’s vision. He wanted to keep together a group of players from their teenage years to the first team – Arsenal’s current midfielders, alas, are relative strangers.

Why taking Euro 2020 on the road could be 'the least worst option'

Gary Parkinson — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:36:00 GMT

FourFourTwo.com editor Gary Parkinson wonders why the kerfuffle when a multi-venue Euro 2020 was inevitable, if not even preferable...

So the wonks have had their way. As predicted, UEFA's executive committee has confirmed that Euro 2020 will be held in a number of cities, abandoning the idea of appointing competition hosts.

The reaction has been immediate, overwhelmingly negative and, judging by FourFourTwo's Twitter mentions, rather sweary. But is it such a disaster?

Football fears change: witness the boot-dragging over the introduction of goal-line technology, not to mention the reaction to the expansion of the Euros to 24 teams from 2016. Entire websites and magazines are given over to grumbling that things were better in the old days. So why isn't anyone suggesting we revert to the four-team tournament that held sway between 1958 and 1976?

That might be flippant, but there are good reasons why the multi-venue idea was floated. It shares the money around more evenly, which isn't something UEFA is usually accused of. Indeed, when Wembley was awarded its second Champions League final in three years, the complaints of favouritism were long and loud – in England, let alone abroad. Although UEFA have their faults, they're inevitably damned if they do and damned if they don't. For decades, the complaint was that such organisations are fusty stick-in-the-muds unwilling to try something new.

Yes, to an extent the multi-venue tournament will take away from the "event" nature of the Euros for match-going fans, but that has been getting diluted for decades. Euro 2020 will mark the 20th anniversary of the first co-hosted tournament, in Belgium and the Netherlands; 20 years before that, Euro 1980 in Italy was the first to feature more than four teams – previous tournaments had been over within five days. In other words, the multi-country idea has been around half as long as the Euros proper.

Euro 2012 was a case in point, the hosting honours being shared between Poland and Ukraine. 'Polkraine' was a marriage of convenience for the two hosts, but inconvenience for the fans: there's nearly 1000 miles between host cities Wroclaw and Donetsk, and many fans opted not to take on the logistical inconvenience of travelling.

The problem for UEFA is that there simply aren't many candidates. England and Germany don't bother bidding for the Euros, concentrating instead on World Cups. Of the other nations regarded as 'major', France are hosting Euro 2016 (for a record third time, prompting accusations of favouritism at Platini), while Spain and Italy are too unsure of their financial futures to bid.

Indeed, the uncertain fiscal future hangs like a fist over such tournaments, which usually require massive investment and frequently raise questions about the hosts' ability to fulfil their duties. With the Eurozone almost constantly on the verge of breaking up, why would countries take the risk of loading themselves with a massive financial responsibility?

The last few years have seen several potential Euro 2020 hosts withdraw their candidacy, whether or not it was ever officially announced. Turkey had expressed an interest, but withdrew when Istanbul made the three-city shortlist for the 2020 Olympics. Others to withdraw after murmurs of interest include Belgium, the Netherlands, Bulgaria/Romania, Hungary/Romania and Croatia/Serbia/Bosnia-and-Herzegovina.

That left only two tenders, both joint bids: Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland on one hand, and Azerbaijan and Georgia on the other. Fine countries all, but against that background UEFA's multi-venue decision starts to make more sense.

Most countries simply don't want to host the Euros, and the exceptions usually don't have the infrastructure to do it alone, leading to ersatz groupings and forced camaraderie. Taking the show on the road minimises risks to the hosts, multiplies the options for travelling fans – and might even make the tournament more interesting.

Why it really does matter whether you win your Champions League group

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:48:00 GMT

Does it matter if you finish top or second in your Champions League group? Sir Alex Ferguson, whose Manchester United team topped their group, thinks so ("You hope you do finish top. There are certain teams there [that you want to avoid]"), while Arsene Wenger of runners-up Arsenal says "we play the second game away, but that is not statistically proven to be such a disadvantage ". But whatever the managers may say, you can prove that it does matter by crunching the numbers.

Firstly, witness the list of finalists since 1993/94 (the Champions League's second season, but the debut campaign had a late stage in which the only the two group winners progressed – straight to the final). In the 18 subsequent seasons, 13 tournament winners (72%) had topped their group, as had 15 beaten finalists (83%) – meaning that only 8 of 36 finalists (22.2%) had been group runners-up. Group winners are 3.5 times more likely to reach the final.

Inter, 2010: an exception that doesn't prove the rule

In 1999/2000, the Champions League format was changed again, with the introduction of a second group stage producing the eight quarter-finalists (and turfing eight teams out of the competition). This system lasted for four years, and of the 32 teams who got through this second group stage, 24 had been first-stage group winners, 8 had been runners-up. First-stage group winners were three times more likely to get through the second group stage.

The current system came about in 2003/04, with the group winners and runners-up going through to the Round of 16 knock-outs. Since then, 23 of the 72 round-of-16 losers (32%) have been group winners, 49 of the 72 Ro16 losers (68%) were group runners-up. Group winners are more than twice as likely to get through the Round of 16.

Research by John Sward and Fran Tye.

Hislop: PSG the best fit for globe-trotting Jose Mourinho

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 11:30:00 GMT

In a new fortnightly feature, FourFourTwo will be picking the brains of the team at ESPN’s football debate show, ESPNFC PressPass.

This week, former Reading, Newcastle, West Ham and Portsmouth keeper Shaka Hislop talks Mourinho's next move, the world's best goalkeepers and Rafa Benitez's strife at Chelsea...

ESPNFC Press Pass - the football discussion show that takes a daily look at the global game - airs at 11pm Monday to Friday, plus Sunday evenings on ESPN. Follow the show on Twitter: @ESPNPressPass

Behind the scenes at Arsenal: FourFourTwo spends a month with Arsene, Ivan & Co.

Guest Writer — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 08:30:00 GMT

FourFourTwo has been granted unprecedented access to one of the world's biggest and most famous football clubs – Arsenal. We sent journalist and broadcaster Sam Delaney to have a snoop around at the North London club to find out what makes the Gunners tick, and his findings are in the new issue of FourFourTwo - out now. Here, Sam describes his month peeking behind the curtain at the Emirates Stadium...

The editor explained my mission: I was to travel deep inside the heart of one of the biggest, most talked about and often strangest football clubs in the world: Arsenal. Sometimes they call themselves ‘The Arsenal’, which is just one of the things that makes them so strange. And, to some, a bit annoying too. But they’ve never bothered me that much. I’m a West Ham supporter and we’ve always reserved most of our animosity for other London clubs.

In fact, I’ve always found Arsenal fascinating. I suppose it’s because, in a game governed almost entirely by knee-jerk decisions and irrational behaviour, Arsenal take a different path. They have always seemed a bit more considered. Irritatingly, they don’t bend to the will of fans or the media and make the sort of brilliantly exciting, ludicrously rash decisions that keep the wheels of this preposterous game of ours turning. Instead, the powers that be over at the Emirates seem more concerned with what’s best for the club. They’re all clever and grown-up. See what I mean? Annoying.

I knew there was unrest among the fans. I’d seen the comments on Twitter from dissatisfied Gooners slagging off the board. Some were even saying they wanted Arsene Wenger out. This, of course, seemed a bit stupid to an outsider – but what did I know? Committed Gooners probably studied balance sheets, went onto the Companies House website to check out yearly accounts, attended AGMs to quiz the chief exec and generally nerded up on exactly what was going on inside their beloved club. Maybe they had good reason to be disgruntled.

The way I saw it, Arsenal were doing pretty well. They never seemed to overspend, they weren’t in the sort of crazy debt that other big clubs had found themselves in, they were run self-sufficiently and still managed to get into the Champions League every year. OK, they weren’t mounting a serious challenge for the title these days but since Chelsea and Manchester City started breaking the bank, how were they really supposed to compete?

When I first visited the training ground in mid-October, they were on a decent run, having just beaten West Ham 3-1 at Upton Park. Santi Cazorla had played a blinder and Lukas Podoski was starting to find his feet too. It felt like I was going to be writing a story about the dawn of a bright new era at Arsenal: Wenger looked all set to prove his doubters wrong again by fashioning a whole new super-team from the ashes left behind by Robin van Persie, Cesc Fabregas and the rest.

Recent big-name departures haven't been easy for Arsenal fans to swallow

But two days later they lost away to Norwich. A few days after that they lost at home to Schalke 04 in the Champions League. In the weeks that followed, defeat at Manchester United and uninspiring draws against Fulham, Aston Villa and Everton left them midtable, with the calls for change at the top of the club growing louder.

What I’m saying is, their season seemed to take a nosedive from the moment I started hanging around the place. Coincidence? Almost certainly. But I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt each time Wenger’s side took another stumbling step through the autumn months.

Especially after I’d met him a couple of times and he’d expertly won me over with his laid back charm and intelligent Gallic lyricism. Dreamy? That’s going a bit far. But I would say that he was rather more human than I expected him to be. I knew he very rarely gave one-on-one interviews to journalists. So I suppose I felt flattered to be there chatting to him in the first place. But let’s get this straight: I am as cynical, jaded, unimpressed and generally miserable as the next hack. I wasn’t going to be won over by a big name and fancy French accent alone.

Our meeting was scheduled for the same day as the Arsenal AGM. I knew that the nature of our conversation would hinge on what happened at this big showdown beforehand. As I got off the tube at Holloway Road and walked towards the Emirates, I checked Twitter to discover that the AGM couldn’t have gone much worse, with a row breaking out between board members and fans and Wenger having to call for unity. I was ushered into a windowless room to wait for him. He arrived promptly and without the miserable demeanour I was expecting.

I figured it wasn’t often you get some time alone with a man like Wenger, so even though it sounded as though he'd had a rough morning, I had to ask the questions that really mattered to Arsenal fans. Like why he kept losing his best players. And how he intended to stop this from happening in the future. And how he thought he could bring the good times back to Arsenal without actually signing any expensive new talent. And to be fair he didn’t hesitate or flinch from any of the questions. He was relaxed and honest in his responses.

You’ll have to read the piece to see the exact nature of his answers. But suffice to say there was a clear theme to everything he said: that Arsenal was honest, straight, decent and above board. They didn’t run up huge debts and they didn’t offer to pay people more than they could afford. He believed in building a team slowly, not throwing one together willy-nilly and hoping for the best. I looked in his eyes and could see he sincerely believed everything he said. He genuinely couldn’t see the sense in doing things any other way. And when he said it, it all seemed so obvious. Why would anyone gamble the future of the club on doing it any other way?

Some disappointing results have again left the spotlight on Arsene Wenger

When I walked out of that room I was a Wenger convert. That night I hosted the evening show on talkSPORT and found myself passionately defending the Arsenal way and the principles Wenger stood for. It was strange but it was like that time alone with the strange Frenchman was my Road To Damascus moment.

A few days later I had a similar chat with chief executive Ivan Gazidis in the Arsenal board room. Gazidis gets a fair bit of stick from Arsenal fans who think he’s an ineffectual money man. But he struck me as knowing his football: he talked excitedly about the ridiculous 7-5 victory over Reading he had witnessed the night before. This chat was longer: it was mid-morning and Gazidis seemed very relaxed about giving me as much time as I needed to go through all the issues surrounding the club.

I got the sense he was also on a bit of a personal PR drive following the fractious AGM. Maybe he wanted to prove to the public that he was more than just a bean-counter in a suit but a passionate football man. I wasn’t sure what to think. He made broad points about the financial stability of the club and did so in very long, politician-like answers. His themes were similar to Wenger’s: honesty, integrity, self-sufficiency and a pride in the way they did things at Arsenal. They both declared that Arsenal was a brave club because it dared to do things its own way. That might turn out to be the wrong way, of course, but it still takes guts to take that risk.

Gazidis might have been a bit overkeen to talk about shirt sponsorship and commercial deals but ultimately I still bought what he said about building a club on firm foundations. Like Wenger, he seemed perplexed about the alternatives. “Are we just supposed to keep spending more than anyone else?” he asked, incredulous. But none of what he said addressed what Arsenal fans were asking: what about the £70million or so lying around in the bank from all those player sales? Why hasn’t Wenger spent that yet?

Chats with fans and a few former club insiders who wished to remain nameless hinted at an inner struggle at Arsenal. The common belief is that the board have made those funds in the bank available to Arsene Wenger but he chooses not to spend it. Why? Perhaps he’s on a personal mission to prove that success is possible without excessive spending in the transfer market.

Perhaps he’s just naturally prudent when it comes to money. But the club are well off and look set to only get richer now their stadium debts are almost clear. They’ll never be able to spend like Man City but they can certainly afford to spend more than they have done recently. Why they don’t is ultimately a mystery. Only Gazidis, Wenger, majority shareholder Stan Kroenke and a few others know the truth.

Everyone at the club felt proud that, in spite of this relative financial caution, they were perennials in the Champions League. But between my article going to press and the January issue of FourFourTwo hitting the shelves, Arsenal lost 2-0 at home to Swansea City and slipped to tenth in the Premier League. I was left thinking that this could be the year that Wenger’s luck ran out.

Someone told me that Wenger is so powerful at Arsenal that he actually got to interview Ivan Gazidis for the position of chief exec. So he effectively interviewed his own boss. I wonder how Gazidis feels about that now? If it’s true that Wenger is the best paid manager in the world – as one former insider told me – and that it’s him, not the board, who refuses to splash out on star players, then you can imagine that Gazidis, Kroenke and the rest might be starting to get frustrated with the Frenchman. Next summer, he’ll be going into the final year of his contract. It’ll be interesting to see how negotiations for an extension unfold.

The January 2013 edition of FourFourTwo is available now

IN THE NEW FFT Our Top 100, the Little Witch and Arsenal's masterplan

In the new issue: Our Top 100 players, the Little Witch and Arsenal's masterplan

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 08:00:00 GMT

The January 2013 issue of FourFourTwo is here - and it’s one you’ve been waiting for. FFT reveals the 100 best players on the planet, while we also meet the men who matter at Arsenal as they reveal their masterplan for success at home and in Europe…

Show me more

We have obtained unprecedented access to the beating heart of Arsenal and interviewed the men who matter in the very inner sanctum of the club itself. Exclusive interviews with the likes of Arsene Wenger, Ivan Gazidis, Santi Cazorla and Liam Brady will give you the kind of insight into the Arsenal masterplan you’ve always wanted. Don’t worry Gunners fans, it's all under control…

There are certainly a few players to have donned the famous red of Arsenal in the latest incarnation of our annual 100 Best Players in the World feature - and not all of them have been sold by the North Londoners, honest.

BEHIND THE SCENES FourFourTwo spends a month with Arsene, Ivan and co.

How many Premier League stars have broken into the 100? Where does your favourite rank? Do you agree with the list? And most importantly, who finished third…? All these questions will be answered.

From the best players on the planet to one of the most dangerous places on it; how do you start a football league in Afghanistan? We tell the story of the Afghan Premier League, where the passionate fans risk everything just to attend a match. If you ever needed some perspective on the game, then this is it...

Can having two managers possibly cause anything but grief? There is certainly a patchy history, but we go to Grimsby Town to meet Rob Scott and Paul Hurst, who are aiming for the Football League and currently sitting pretty near the top of the Blue Square Premier. Is this joint revolution about to end Grimsby’s decade of dejection?

Ever noticed how some players seem to follow certain managers around? We focus on a selection of such partnerships between bosses and the charges seemingly made for each other, including Nolan and Allardyce, McGovern and Clough and Carvalho and Mourinho. We then identify what makes the ideal manager’s man.

If you've ever been miffed at having to wait ten extra days and suffer a tense replay in order to find out your team's FA Cup fate, spare a thought for fans in the grip of Britain's worst winter, 50 years ago. That year, the third round took 66 days to complete thanks to 261 postponements caused by the coldest winter in over 200 years. We look back at the trials and tribulations of those involved in the longest third round in history, and hear about ice skating at Blackpool and flame-throwing at Norwich. Not a snood in sight.

From the cold depths of the early sixties, to the gleaming prospect of the future and online streaming of live football. FFT investigates whether this really is the way ahead for fans or a major threat to the game’s financial structure. It's (mostly) illegal you know…

Argentine maestro Juan Veron also reveals that the best goal he has scored was in training, why Paul Scholes will kill you and why he shouldn’t have left Man Utd for Chelsea in our frank One-on-One encounter.

Elsewhere, we have some hot and steamy pay-per-minute chatline action with velvet-tongued custodian Big Neville Southall, investigate the demise of the former Brazil under 17 sensation and ‘seal-dribbler’ Kerlon, and give you coaching tips from Demba Ba, Yaya Toure and Gianfranco Zola in our Performance section.

This edition of FourFourTwo was brought to you by... Arsene Wenger, Santi Cazorla, Ivan Gazidis, Thomas Vermaelen, Kieran Gibbs, Liam Brady, Mikel Arteta, Ken Friar, Jack Butland, Oscar Pistorius, Yaya Toure, John McGovern, Ian Rush, Robert Lewandowski, Oscar, Suso, Filippo Inzaghi, Guy Branston, Teddy Sheringham, Bobby Gould, Leandro Damiao, Gianfranco Zola, John Ruddy, Junior Lewis, Garath McCleary, Jordan Henderson, Juan Sebastian Veron, Juan Ramon Veron, Bradley Johnson, Antonio Di Natale, Neville Southall, Ugo Ehiogu, Demba Ba, Kenny Miller, Matt Bloomfield, Alessandro Nesta, Olivier Dokunengo, Michel Salgado, Newcastle's tea lady, Grimsby's joint-managers and Team GB Olympic gold medallist Greg Rutherford.

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The man who left behind Man U & Tottenham – to begin again in Belgium

Guest Writer — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 11:30:00 GMT

Sports writer Scott Johnson speaks to the 20-year-old fullback who has gone against the tide by swapping the English Premier League for Belgium's Jupiler League...

Forget Michael Owen’s switch to Stoke and Scott Sinclair swapping Swansea’s wing for Manchester City’s bench – the most left-field transfer of the summer involved a Manchester United youngster and failed move to Tottenham.

Having allowed his contract with the Red Devils to expire, left-back Ezekiel Fryers spent the summer training with Spurs, with a view to completing a move to the North London side. However, when compensation proved an insurmountable stumbling block, he was left facing an unexpected move to Belgium.

“United offered a three-year contract but I rejected the offer,” Fryers tells FourFourTwo. “Spurs were interested but the fee [Manchester United requested] was too much. Then Standard Liege arrived with a good opportunity for me to play regular games and get experience.”

Fryers was happy to swap Manchester for Wallonia

In upping sticks from Old Trafford over the summer, Fryers became the third star of United’s 2011 FA Youth Cup winning side to leave the club within 15 months of that triumph, following Paul Pogba (Juventus) and Ravel Morrison (West Ham) out of the exit door.

“I don’t know the other players’ situations,” Fryers says. “I thought it was the right time for me to leave and get experience playing in good league.”

Fryers hasn't heard from Sir Alex Ferguson since leaving the club, with the United boss believed to be less than pleased at the young defender’s departure.

The 20-year-old started in the Carling Cup victories at Leeds and Aldershot last season, emerging from the bench in a further four games, including a Champions League tie against Otelul Galati. Fryers reflects on this relatively fruitful period as "a great experience", but remains convinced it was the right time to leave the club: “You never know what will happen in football, but I made the right decision for me.”

"When I were your age this were nowt but fields..."

Ferguson's reaction may have been born of frustration. With Patrice Evra struggling to find consistent form and a shortage of alternatives at left-back, Fryers may have been afforded more first-team opportunities had he stayed. That said, Fryers has his doubts: “I feel the club would have still brought in a left back because there was talk of me and Fabio going on loan.”

United subsequently signed Alexander Buttner from Vitesse, loaning Fabio to Queens Park Rangers.

Since arriving in Liege, Fryers has already matched last season’s appearance count, and is enjoying playing for a new club in a new country.

“For me, every game is more experience. It is a new challenge for me but I think I’m doing well as far as now. The Belgian League is different, but there is a lot of quality. It has developed some great players that are now in the Premier League."

Standard currently sit seventh in a 16-team league, but are intent on climbing the table, ahead of an elaborate play-off phase which begins in March.

Fryers (right) in Jupiler League action against Mons in October

“Standard Liege is a top club in Belgium who want to be in the top three every year. We're not doing so well at the moment but are getting better and better. With the play-off system, the end of the season is the most important period.”

With very few young British players willing to experience foreign football cultures, Fryers deserves credit for embarking on his European adventure – one which presents challenges both on and off the pitch.

“It is important to play different styles of football, but it is also a big challenge because you need to adapt to living in another country and to the way they play football,” says Fryers.

Fryers has represented England three times at Under-19 level, but it remains to be seen whether playing overseas will help or hinder his international opportunities. At present, Fryers is content to concentrate on developing and cementing his place in the Standard defence: “My first goal is to grow as a player, not to get international recognition directly.”

Having signed a two-year deal, Fryers intends to remain in Belgium for the foreseeable future, but having come so close to joining Spurs, he knows nothing can be set in stone.

“In football, everything changes very quickly. Today I’m at Standard in the first year of my contract and I want it to be as good as possible. Maybe after that I can go one step higher. Step by step.”

Bad Weekend For: Rafa, Arsene, Keith, Micky & minnows

Simon Carter — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 10:53:00 GMT

It Was a Bad Weekend For…

The Two Sides of Chelsea
A magnificent first-half performance in which Rafa Benitez’s Chelsea tore into their London rivals West Ham United was marked by an intensity and tempo that was reminiscent of the Spaniard’s Valencia and Liverpool sides. The fluidity of the passing, the efficiency of the chance creation and the attitude of the players meant that most would have been surprised to see the score stand at just 0-1 (courtesy of a well-worked Juan Mata goal) as half-time came at Upton Park on Saturday lunchtime.

Much has been made since the game of Sam Allardyce’s half-time substitutions, and while there's no doubt that Matt Taylor and especially Mohamed Diame did make an impact, there's a strong argument to be made that the remarkable second-half turnaround was equally due to Benitez’s lack of reaction to his opposite number’s changes. The Hammers’ belief grew visibly with every passing minute and by the time the underwhelming Eden Hazard was replaced in a life-for-like substitution with Oscar, the home side had already equalised and were more than a match for Chelsea.

The 3-1 defeat is the latest awful result in a sequence that has seen the early season pacesetters winless since the 4-2 win over Spurs on October 20th. Though you can never predict the thought patterns of owner Roman Abramovich, is it inconceivable that if Chelsea fail to beat Nordsjaelland on Wednesday, and crash out of the Champions League, they could be looking for their third manager of the season before the week is out?

Misfiring Gunners
Since they opened the season with back-to-back draws, every poor Arsenal result – and there have been a few – has prompted the “Worst Arsenal start to a season since…” statistic. The midweek 1-1 draw at Everton saw the counter click back to pre-Wenger times but the Gunners’ 2-0 home defeat to Swansea on Saturday has had the pundits once again scrabbling for statistics. Having been outshot by their opposition, Arsenal can have few complaints about a result which leaves them 10th in the Premier League and 15 points behind the league leaders Manchester United – but that, of course, doesn’t mean that the fans should be happy about it.

You’d have been forgiven for thinking that Rafa Benitez was in town, given the cavalcade of boos that greeted the final whistle on Saturday, but with only three wins in their last 10 home games, the supporters have every right to voice their displeasure. Arsene Wenger’s attempts to locate a silver lining following the game will have done little to appease the dissenting supporters, with his assertion that the poor form “is a good chance to stick together and show we're a strong club” sounding rather flat.

Before the month is out, the North Londoners face West Brom, Reading, Wigan, West Ham and Newcastle. They could win all of those games (and some would argue that they should) but with confidence and spirit alarmingly low, December could be Wenger’s toughest test yet.

Barnsley
Mick McCarthy’s resuscitation job on Ipswich Town (the Tractor Boys now have seven points from the last nine following Saturday’s 2-1 win at Bolton) has left an opening in the bottom three of The Championship for a hopeless side in need of a break. And while Sheffield Wednesday have enthusiastically swan-dived down the table on the back of six consecutive defeats, they have a rival in the hopelessness stakes: near-neighbours Barnsley.

The mid-'90s Premier League darlings are having a strange sort of season where they can’t make up their mind if they’re a good side on a bad run or a bad side who get the odd good result – similar in many ways to Bristol City. The last six weeks have seen the Tykes draw with Crystal Palace, Bolton and Burnley – all good results – yet lose heavily to the likes of Nottingham Forest and Watford (who beat them 4-1 on Saturday).

With just 19 goals to their name from 20 games, it’s clear where Barnsley’s troubles lie: they have conceded just one more home goal than the magnificent Crystal Palace and the same in total as play-off chasing Leeds United. That nine of their strikes have been scored by one man, Craig Davies, and that five of their goals came in that remarkable 5-0 win at Birmingham further illustrate the mammoth task that manager Keith Hill has on his hands.

Next weekend they travel to Leicester, who boast the meanest defence in the entire league. Don’t be surprised to see Barnsley in the bottom three before too long.

Micky Mellon
During a playing career that took in stints at Blackpool, Tranmere, Burnley and Kidderminster with a loan spell at Cork, it’s unlikely that Micky Mellon drew many comparisons with Roberto Di Matteo. But following Mellon’s sacking from his position as Fleetwood Town boss on Saturday, there are parallels to be drawn.

Just weeks after Di Matteo led Chelsea to their first ever Champions League win in May, Mellon guided the Cod Army to the Football League for the first time in their history (just one season after managing them into the Conference). While Di Matteo started the season in fine form, steering Chelsea to the top of the Premier League, Mellon was busy consolidating Fleetwood into a respectable seventh place – good enough for a play-off spot in League Two.

But RDM was unceremoniously fired following a disastrous cup performance in Turin (the Blues’ 3-0 defeat to Juventus left their Champions League hopes hanging by a thread). And on Saturday, following a poor performance where Fleetwood were beaten 3-2 in the FA Cup by the struggling Aldershot Town, Mellon was also unceremoniously fired.

The man who became Fleetwood Town’s first ever full-time manager when he took on the role in 2009 will have woken up this morning wondering what else he could have done to earn a reprieve – but after a wonderful three years, he shouldn’t be out of work for long.

Giant-killings
For a while in yesterday afternoon’s FA Cup Second Round tie (21 minutes to be exact) non-League Alfreton Town led their League One opponents Leyton Orient, setting up the tantalising possibility of the weekend’s first giant-killing. But that moment lasted all too briefly and before long Orient were in control, eventually running out 4-2 victors to set up a Third Round tie at Hull City in January.

Those looking for shocks elsewhere in the Cup were left disappointed on a surprisingly low-key day of football. There was, however, the treat of the Third Round draw which has thrown up some interesting fixtures in the shape of Brighton v Newcastle, Crystal Palace v Stoke and Tottenham v Coventry in a replay of the 1987 Cup Final.

Muller and Messi's Golden Years: A graphical representation

FourFourTwo Team — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 21:17:00 GMT

The Flea jumps over the Bomber: Leo Messi has overtaken Gerd Muller's record for goals in a calendar year. We looked into the two remarkable years and found some eyebrow-raising statistics – like how Messi scores more doubles than singles, but Muller bagged more hat-tricks; how Muller was better in spring and Messi in autumn; and why international teams feared them...

UPDATE, Sunday 16 December: Yet another double for Messi means we've tweaked the stats once more. We'll be needing a new set of crayons for Christmas.

Research by Andrew Murray with Joshua Smith and Will Taylor

How Pele taught me to be the Editor of FourFourTwo

David Hall — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 11:39:00 GMT

For me, January 2013 will mark a professional milestone. It will be three years since I became the editor of FourFourTwo magazine – essentially, an anniversary of the proudest day of my working life. In those three years, I’ve been consistently amazed and pleased in equal measure at watching doors open when I start conversations with the phrase, “Hello, my name’s David and I work for FourFourTwo magazine.” FourFourTwo is respected in the world of football – that’s what 18 years of covering the game like us does for you.

Sadly, I have a confession to make. About six months into my tenure, my excitement bubbled over. I was offered a significant amount of face-to-face interview time with Pele. The Pele. Rather unprofessionally, I became extremely giddy at the thought of landing this exclusive with an undisputed legend of the football world. In hindsight, I put my reaction down to only being in the job a short time... and the fact it was Pele. I mentioned that, didn’t I?

The giddiness continued right up to and beyond me writing my editor’s letter, which reported aforementioned giddiness back to our loyal readers. On publication, an elder statesman in the FourFourTwo world read my letter before pulling me to one side for a quiet word. Access like this is what we expect here at FourFourTwo, I was told. It’s what our readers expect. It’s what the football world expects. And, to be frank, pull yourself together, you wally!

"Now if you put that headline up there, Dave..."
"EEEEEEEEE!!!!! PELE!!!!!"

Now, as that three–year anniversary appears on the horizon, I understand exactly where that elder statesman was coming from. In the past 12 months alone, we’ve managed to speak to some top names in football purely because of who we are. Put simply, when the legends of the game speak, they speak to FourFourTwo. The contents pages of the issues we’ve published during our 18-year history read like a Who’s Who of the beautiful game. This is going to sound like a brag, but the truth is no other publication in the world comes close.

We decided it was time to celebrate this history by gathering together a collection of our biggest interviews into one bumper mag, which we've called FourFourTwo Legends: The Interviews. We picked the interviews from our famous One-on-One slot – where the readers choose the questions – and it was a lot of fun re-visiting the lengthy chats we’d had with Maradona, Beckenbauer, Pele, Eusebio, Platini… I’m just showing off now, right?

You’ll probably see this on a newsstand near you in the lead-up to Christmas. It would make a great stocking filler for any football fan. Or you could just treat yourself. I keep one right here on my desk… just to remind me, should that giddiness rise again.

Like a footballing Advent calendar, we will be giving away a copy of FourFourTwo Legends: The Interviews every day from December 1st to 24th on our Competitions page. The magazine is available digitally via Zinio and physically in most newsagents, especially WH Smith and Tesco.

Bad Weekend: Rafa, Pilgrims and the North-East generally

Simon Carter — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:48:00 GMT

It was a Bad Weekend for…

Poor Old Rafa
If you’re a Chelsea fan who was at the Bridge for your side’s 0-0 draw with Manchester City yesterday, chances are that you woke up this morning with a raw throat.

As Rafa Benitez, the European Champions’ latest interim manager (whatever happened to caretakers?), was introduced to the faithful yesterday, a prolonged boo shook the old stadium to its foundations.

The source of the supporters’ ire has been well documented and Benitez hasn’t really helped himself this week by suggesting that Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard could be out of the door by the end of the season, but this protest was notable as being the first real occasion where Chelsea fans have turned on owner Roman Abramovich.

Hostilities were sidelined for a wonderful minute’s applause for the sadly departed Dave Sexton, but the supporters were back on message as the 16th minute ticked around with a vocal celebration of Roberto Di Matteo (who wore the squad number 16 as a Chelsea player).

The match itself didn’t help the atmosphere, as the torrential downpour that has taken residence over the UK this weekend meant that both sides found consistent quality hard to come by.

As for Rafa? He needs to take Roberto Mancini's advice: "Win, win, win, win, win" – starting with three points on Wednesday in the derby against Fulham, if he is to get the fans on side rather than let a spontaneous complaint becoming an ongoing campaign.

The Black Cats
It may seem somewhat harsh for a weekend review to focus on the plight of Sunderland. After all, they scored twice against the team now in third, and despite the 4-2 loss to West Bromwich Albion there were several positives.

They showed plenty of spirit to fight back from 2-0 and then 3-1 behind, with only a last-minute sucker punch restoring the Baggies’ two-goal cushion. Stephane Sessignon appears to be interested again, they've scored five goals in two games, only one of them by Steven Fletcher, and scored twice in a home league game for the first time since April.

Throw in a freak goalkeeping error for West Brom’s second goal and a penalty-that-never-was for their third and you could argue that the Black Cats have a lot to take away from the defeat.

But after last week's trip to Fulham brought a long-awaited victory – their first in seven attempts – the loss at home to West Brom hurt the home fans deeply. Most Mackems will believe their club to be above Saturday's visitors in terms of prestige, support and history; they certainly have a healthy financial situation, a great stadium with a dedicated support, a talented playing staff and a highly respected manager. They should be pushing for a top six place rather than languishing just three points above the relegation zone.

Normally, the phrase ‘papering over the cracks’ is used to describe a victory won despite a side’s weaknesses (see Arsenal’s 5-2 win over Tottenham last week); it is indicative of Sunderland’s plight that a defeat could inspire the same words.

The Black Cats’ next two games, at home to Harry Redknapp’s QPR followed by a trip to Norwich, could define their season.

The Toon
A Bad Weekend for North-East clubs (see Sunderland above and Middlesbrough below) wasn’t lightened by Newcastle's defeat at Southampton.

Though it would be overly simplistic to blame the defeat on the Magpies’ midweek European adventures, the stats show that of the seven league games that have followed Newcastle’s Europa League commitments, the Toon have only won two. More to the point, four of Newcastle’s five league defeats this season have come on a weekend following a European midweek.

For the sake of balance, we should point out that two of those defeats came at the hands of Chelsea and Manchester United and that there is no guarantee that a fresher squad would have beaten either West Ham earlier this month or Southampton, who dispatched them yesterday.

And focusing solely on Newcastle’s third consecutive league defeat would be unfair to a Southampton side who, in playing some wonderful football, completely dominated proceedings and kept their first clean sheet of the season.

It’s far too early to start speculating whether the "man with the eight-year contract", Alan Pardew, may be in danger of losing his job but there’s no doubt he could do without a midweek trip to Stoke, where the Potters haven’t lost in the league since early last season.

Unsackability
The campaign to get "unsackability" into common parlance (which, er, started last weekend) came to an abrupt halt late last week after the unsackable Mark Hughes was sacked.

OK, so it wasn’t "bouncebackability" but it’s not a bad word.

The Chasing Pack
Congratulations must go to Cardiff, who once again leapfrogged their way to the top of the Championship following a hard-fought 2-1 win at Barnsley. But a lot of the credit for the rise of the Bluebirds (Redbirds?) has to be directed towards the generosity of the chasing pack.

Crystal Palace’s return to their early season away form (they suffered back to back road defeats in August) saw the former league leaders go down 2-1 at Leeds – the Eagles’ first loss in 14 league games and the first for new manager Ian Holloway – with a midweek trip to high-flying Hull next up.

But Hull have their own problems after a surprise home defeat to Burnley. While sitting in fifth position with the halfway point of the season approaching may be more than the Tigers would have hoped for, the loss, their second in three league games, leaves them just three points above 10th position.

However, the shocker of the weekend award is on its way to the Riverside Stadium – the scene for Middlesbrough’s hopeless 3-1 loss to a Bristol City side who hadn’t won in 11 games. Boro had stormed into Championship contention on the back of five consecutive league wins, briefly topping the table, but back-to-back defeats have seen them slump to five points off the pace.

But it wasn’t all bad news for the chasing pack: of those chasing the chasers only Nottingham Forest and Derby County recorded victories.

Deja Wolves
In what must be a prolonged avant-garde homage to the 1993 comedy classic Groundhog Day, Wolverhampton Wanderers continued their repetitive behavioural patterns of losing the lead, this time allowing Nottingham Forest to inflict another home defeat.

Up next for Stale Solbakken's men is Tuesday's visit of Millwall, who won at Blackburn this weekend. Expect Wolves to take the lead and lose the game, before travelling to Bristol City next weekend where they will take the lead…

October’s Boys
Sheffield United and Doncaster Rovers were October's League One pin-ups, but while Donny seem to have gotten over their early November blip, the Blades continue to stutter with just one win since Halloween.

Unbeaten all season until a 1-0 loss at MK Dons earlier this month, Danny Wilson’s men fell 2-0 at the home of play-off challengers Brentford on Saturday afternoon after a terrible first 45 minutes. For Brentford, who have been accused of over-relying on Saturday’s goalscorers Clayton Donaldson and Harry Forrester, the win moves them to within one point of their opponents.

Crawley Town shook off an early October defeat to embark on a four-game unbeaten run which included three consecutive victories. November, however, has not been as kind. After opening the month with a 3-1 loss at Coventry, the Reds played out back-to-back draws before losing once again, at home to Yeovil. On Saturday afternoon they visited Gresty Road clearly short on confidence and were lucky to lose just 2-0 to Crewe.

The other October success story were Colchester, whose form exactly matched that of Crawley. Since the turn of November they have fared a little better than the boys from Broadfield Stadium, picking up a win over Bury, but their 5-1 defeat at MK Dons this weekend proves they’re yet to shake off their November blues.

Leyton Orient, meanwhile, will be hoping this month never ends. After suffering a horrifying October, Orient have now won four league games on the bounce, the latest being an impressive 2-0 home win over Preston.

Thanksgiving Pilgrims
Last Thursday was Thanksgiving Day in the USA, the day where families throughout the country get together and give thanks and spend time with one another. The centrepiece of the day is a feast of turkey and trimmings, reminiscent of the meal that the Pilgrims ate on the very first Thanksgiving, way back in the 17th Century.

But, in the tenuous link of the weekend, one group of Pilgrims, Plymouth Argyle, won’t be giving thanks to anybody today.

The team suffered another narrow League Two defeat on Saturday, 1-0 at home to Chesterfield. The loss was the fifth time in 10 games that Argyle had recorded a single-goal defeat and leaves the West Country boys perilously close to the bottom two.

With no fixture next weekend due to the FA Cup, the Pilgrims may at least be thankful for a chance to regroup before they face fellow strugglers York on December 8th.

Ali Al-Habsi
The yellow winter ball, greasy with rain water, spooned up into the air, spinning all the while. As the blazing floodlights bounced playfully off the sphere, a thought fleetingly entered Ali Al-Habsi’s brain: “Go on… drop it… just for a laugh…”

OK, so that might be taking poetic licence a bit too far – I’m sure the Wigan goalkeeper’s thoughts are in Arabic as opposed to English – but all playground goalkeepers will surely have had the above scenario play out for real.

As it happens, Al-Habsi let the dropping ball slither through his grasp, hitting his head as it dropped into the goal – but the look on the Oman No.1’s face afterwards said that it was anything other than amusing.

Luckily for him, his teammate Jordi Gomez was busy at the other end of the pitch compiling a perfect hat-trick (left foot, right foot, header) to earn his side a 3-2 victory over Reading in a thumping game. Thank heavens for skilful Spaniards.

Redknapp's kick up the Rs: What Harry will do at Loftus Road

James Maw — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 16:52:00 GMT

With Harry Redknapp poised to become QPR manager, James Maw examines what the new gaffer will inevitably do...

1) Repeatedly mention 'four points from 12 games'
Redknapp's curiously defensive catchphrase during his early days at Tottenham was "they had two points from eight games before I got here". This curt reminder usually followed a poor result. It won't be all sunshine and laughter between now and May, and in the darker moments, Redknapp will be sure to mention Sparky's awful start.

2) Get points on the board quickly
Once Saturday's trip to Old Trafford is out of the way, the West Londoners have a favourable run of matches. Next Tuesday sees a trip to Sunderland, with home games against Aston Villa and Fulham in early December, along with an away day at Wigan. It could be the perfect time for him to take the helm, building up a head of steam in those early fixtures will give his team some much-needed confidence ahead of the tougher challenges coming over Christmas – including West Brom, Liverpool and Chelsea.

3) Spend plenty of cash in January
Well, obviously. Not that anyone should call him a wheeler-dealer, as Sky's Rob Palmer discovered in this not-safe-for-work, explicit-language clip:

Redknapp does need to shake the QPR squad up and he’ll most likely be on the lookout for a striker, especially with Bobby Zamora out for at least three months with a hip injury and Andrew Johnson unlikely to return anytime sooner from his knee ligament injury. But the defence also needs shoring up, which leads us on to…

4) Raid White Hart Lane
Hayden Foxe, Svetoslav Todorov and Shaka Hislop to Portsmouth; Nigel Quashie and Ricardo Fuller to Southampton; Martin Cranie, Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch to Portsmouth; Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch, Niko Kranjcar and Younes Kaboul to Tottenham. You get the idea – Harry likes to keep things familiar. Likely targets in January will be Michael Dawson and, of course, Jermain Defoe. Helpfully, both have already been linked with a move to Shepherds Bush in the recent past.

5) Get the best out of Adel Taarabt
Sure, he may have labelled the Morocco international a 'fruitcake', but Redknapp has never doubted the playmaker's ability – at least in public – and now could be the time they finally hit it off. Redknapp was willing to give Rafael van der Vaart and Gareth Bale freedom to play as and where they pleased last season, and it could well be that he affords the Loftus Road fans' favourite similar slack in the coming weeks, freeing the midfielder from the shackles placed on him by Mark Hughes. This would certainly be something to which you'd expect Taarabt to respond positively.

6) Try and sign David Beckham
Whether or not D-Beck and family fancy swapping the West Coast for West 12 is unknown, but the former England skipper is certainly on the market and Redknapp will certainly be keen, having been foiled in his attempts to take the football icon to Tottenham in 2011.

7) Keep QPR in the Premier League
Although his attempted salvage job at Southampton in 2004/05 ended in failure, his subsequent successes at Portsmouth (2005/06) and Tottenham (2008/09) suggest he has the know-how to steer the currently less-than-super Hoops clear of the drop. Not least as, and we'll repeat this, he'll spend loads of money.

Chelsea in crisis: How a tense week in Blackpool ended the Blues' title hopes

Guest Writer — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 12:00:00 GMT

Sports journalist Martin Claytor looks back on a season which unraveled for Chelsea

A title-chasing team; player unrest; headline controversy and a manager determined not to back down. Not another 2012 Chelsea saga - this was the finale to Chelsea’s dramatic 1964-65 season.

Roberto Di Matteo may have been forced to tread a diplomatic path around the controversies that dogged his eight-month tenure as Chelsea manager, but he should be grateful to have not been confronted with the type of problem faced by one of his illustrious predecessors. A situation that killed off any chance of bringing the first league title to Stamford Bridge in ten lean years.

In 1965, Chelsea were nearing the end of their second season back in the old First Division. Nicknamed ‘Docherty’s diamonds’, after their charismatic manager, the team was on course for an unprecedented ‘treble’. Tommy Docherty had assembled a young squad built around players from the youth system, such as Terry Venables, and astute buys, like George Graham and Eddie McCreadie.

The Chelsea squad pose at the start of the 1964/65 season

Playing attractive football, the team first secured the League Cup – beating Leicester City 3-2, over two legs. However, despite this success and the fact that they had led the league table for much of the season, the pressure was starting to tell on the players as March and April came around. Despite being favourites, a semi-final defeat to Liverpool put an end to FA Cup hopes and a slump in league form saw the team drop to third in the table with three games to go.

As the tension rose, Docherty’s volatile temperament clashed with the views of some of the more outspoken members of the side. Hints of dressing room unrest and of players ignoring the manager’s tactics on the field were beginning to undermine Docherty’s position.

With three matches to go, Chelsea lay two points behind the leaders, Manchester United, with Leeds in second place. Two points for a win at the time meant that there was still every chance that the title race was in the balance – despite Chelsea’s last three fixtures all being away and having to be played in one week.

As all three matches were to be played in the north-west, at Liverpool; Burnley and Blackpool, Docherty decided to base the team in the area for the whole week – setting up a training camp in Blackpool. It seemed a good idea, but the side was heading for meltdown. Pictures in the press showed an apparently relaxed group of players, in their distinctive training kit of hooped tops and striped shorts, enjoying the break - the reality was very different.

The week started badly, with a 2-0 defeat at Liverpool on the Monday further damaging their title hopes. With five days to go before the next game, frustration started to set in – the players began to get bored with the surroundings and resented the restrictions being placed upon them.

Docherty's strict managerial style may have back-fired

In the middle of the week, the dam burst. Desperate for a night’s entertainment, eight of the squad sneaked out of the team’s hotel – leaving a fire door open for their eventual return beyond the late evening curfew time. Unfortunately for them, they hadn’t bargained on a sharp-eyed night porter spotting the door and informing Docherty of his suspicions that the players were missing.

Like a cartoon wife waiting behind the door for her husband to return from a late session at the pub, the manager stayed up until the culprits arrived back in the early hours of the following morning. Fearing that his authority was in danger of being destroyed, Docherty decided upon drastic action.

His decision was stunning. All eight players, including seven key first team members – Venables, Graham, McCreadie, John Hollins, Marvin Hinton, Barry Bridges and Bert Murray were sent home for breaking the curfew. Reserve team player, Joe Fascione joined the seven.

From headlining title hopes during the previous few days, the London evening papers were torn between commending or questioning Docherty’s stance. Nevertheless, the damage was done. With a team made up of remaining first teamers, reserves and virtual unknowns – including two players who only ever played for the club in this one match, the side was thrashed 6-2 at Burnley on the Saturday. Their championship hopes were over.

Restored to the team and apparently forgiven, six of the eight returned for the final match two days later. With nothing to play for and unrest still simmering below the surface, the season ended with a 3-2 defeat at Blackpool and confirmation of third place in the table.

A miffed Venables arrives at Euston station, having been sent home

Could such an event on a similar scale happen again today? The chances are slim to non-existent – and even that’s being generous. While Sir Alex Ferguson and other managers have disciplined individuals for curfew breaches in recent years, there has been nothing like Docherty’s actions since.

A top four Premier League finish today, let alone the top spot, brings the promise of huge potential financial rewards. To run the clubs and to stay at this level, the money is vital. Fans expect success; the wage bills are large and the owners demand results. As with other aspects of the job, this has meant a subtle change in the delicate relationship between managers and players. It is almost impossible to imagine a manager willing to take such a risk today – particularly during the run-in to possible honours. Discipline may be there, but is usually dealt with internally – although unrest may remain.

In 1965, Docherty survived as manager because of influential support for his actions. Chelsea’s chairman backed him completely, while other managers spoke out in support. At a time when society was becoming more liberal, football club chairmen were fighting to retain complete control over their players and welcomed this disciplinary approach. Burnley’s autocratic chairman, Bob Lord, was particularly outspoken in his praise of Docherty – not too difficult to do when your team has thumped six goals past title contenders. Docherty also did not have to face the type of media interest so evident today – although he might have relished the weekly press conference had it been around then.

While his job was never in danger, Docherty’s relationship with various players deteriorated after Blackpool and discontent continued to rumble in the dressing room. Within a fairly short time, Venables and Graham had left the club – along with a number of other players. Docherty started to rebuild the team – a task he was unable to see through to completion. Two years later, he resigned – having been suspended by the FA for 28 days. Ironically, for disciplinary reasons following a club tour to Bermuda during the summer.

Venables went on to manage England; Graham became a manager renowned for strong discipline while McCreadie and Hollins would both later manage Chelsea. Would they have had a little bit of sympathy with any of their players occasionally stepping out of line? Perhaps they might have allowed themselves a wry smile before reading the riot act.

Pep, Rafa, Knappsy, JT... Di Canio?! Eleven possible Di Matteo replacements

Guest Writer — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:01:00 GMT

Alright, who's next for the Chelsea hot seat? Craig Matthews looks at some possibilities

Rafa Benitez
Although he has been out of the game since 2010 after his disappointing six-month spell at Inter Milan, Benitez is the bookies' early favourite to take the Chelsea hot-seat. Boasting an impressive CV, including Liverpool's 2005 Champions League win plus two La Liga titles and a UEFA Cup with Valencia, Benitez could be the man to take Chelsea back to the top. His great relationship with £50m Fernando Torres will help him in the interviewing process and he could be just the man to get the former Anfield favourite scoring again.

Pep Guardiola
The former Barcelona manager will be high on the wish list for any vacant managerial job. With such incredible success at the Nou Camp (three La Ligas and two Champions Leagues in four years) Guardiola would surely be an appointment to bring a smile to any Chelsea fan's face. Questions have been asked about how good he is tactically and the fact he inherited such a phenomenal squad, but no one can take away the success he brought. If elected he would bring his tika-taka style to Stamford Bridge, which would go down great with Roman Abramovich, who seeks good-looking football as well as victories. Guardiola is first choice for majority of Blues supporters.

Guus Hiddink
The current Anzhi Makhachkala manager became a favourite amongst many at Stamford Bridge during his 2009 spell as interim Chelsea manager. The Dutch tactician can be proud of his exploits then, with a record of just one loss in 22 games and a cruel Champions League semi-final defeat to Barcelona on away goals. With a 30-year management CV, Hiddink is a management veteran who would surely will be looked at as a possible target. But with Anzhi not short of money and Hiddink only having been there for nine months, Chelsea would have to pay full whack to get their man.

Jose Mourinho
The Special One is destined for a return to English football, having also departed the Bridge in the wake of a demoralising Champions League fixture. The Premier League has been deprived of his tactical nous and egotistical nature but a much-anticipated homecoming will depend on whether old wounds have fully healed. Mourinho's name crops up whenever Chelsea’s managerial hot-seat becomes available, but while a back next summer isn't inconceivable, he is extremely unlikely to leave Real Madrid until they too have conquered Europe.

David Moyes
Much has been said about the loyal Scotsman being able to create something from nothing. However this would not be the case at cash-rich Chelsea. With plenty of Premier League experience, Moyes could certainly be the man to turn the Blues' fortunes around. Impressing constantly during his decade in charge at Everton, he has been able to find great buys for the blue side of Merseyside. However his lack of trophies may go against him in this one.

Unai Emery
Previous Valencia and current Spartak Moscow manager Unai Emery has become known as a master tactician from his time at Los Che. With such impressive displays at the Mestalla, Emery’s name has to be included for his work on a shoestring budget. His strange yet effective rotation system is enough to bamboozle any opposing manager. Although he only joined Spartak on a two-year deal in May, the compensation package for the Spaniard wouldn't dent Abramovich’s bank balance.

Paolo Di Canio
One of the most outspoken men in football, Di Canio is surely a long shot for the vacant position. Impressing well at Swindon Town with a first-season championship, the Italian has gone on to put the Robins in fine shape for back-to-back promotions. His year at the County Ground has created some fantastic occasions, most notably the cup giantkillings of Stoke and Wigan. But with so little experience, it's unlikely that the former Lazio and Milan star will get his chance now.

Jurgen Klopp
Klopp has attracted an impressive congregation of admirers after guiding Borussia Dortmund to consecutive league titles in the Bundesliga. His side are currently sitting pretty at the top of Manchester City’s European ‘group of death’, playing an attacking brand of football that is both disciplined and deadly. Klopp recently declared that his dream of managing in England is a forgotten memory, but having seemingly conquered Germany, he may just be tempted by this new challenge.

Vitor Pereira
Perhaps it will be a case of third time lucky for Roman Abramovich should he once again decide relieve Porto of their manager. The assistant to Andre Villas-Boas during their remarkable quadruple-winning season two years ago, Pereira was immediately promoted to the top job when Chelsea poached Villas-Boas. Pereira continued the Portuguese giants' fine domestic form by guiding the Dragons to the Liga title in his first season, and has already claimed the illustrious scalp of Paris Saint-Germain during this year’s Champions League.

Harry Redknapp
Not for the first time this week, Redknapp finds himself linked with a West London club. The 65-year-old was perhaps harshly dismissed after guiding Tottenham to fourth spot last season and has publicly stated he would only return to management for a ‘top job’. Redknapp is renowned for his ability to inject confidence into a struggling squad of players – perhaps the only remedy this Chelsea side requires

John Terry
Could Chelsea’s talisman be the perfect short-term fix for Roman Abramovich while he seduces the regenerating Pep Guardiola? Terry would certainly command the respect of a mischievous dressing room and was often seen standing in Di Matteo’s shadow, bellowing out instructions, when confined to the touchline. A total lack of managerial experience is just one of many obstacles, but he could find himself in contention should the club seek a cheap and swift appointment.

High hopes, glamour, Logan's Run: Why Abramovich should be careful what he wishes for

Gary Parkinson — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 13:38:00 GMT

As Roberto Di Matteo starts clearing his desk at Stamford Bridge, FourFourTwo.com Editor Gary Parkinson explains why we really shouldn't be surprised...

In the 1976 sci-fi film Logan's Run, a 23rd-century civilisation manages its consumption of resources by killing everyone who turns 30 years old. As they approach the critical day, a crystal implanted under their flesh starts to flash.

Over the last month, Roberto Di Matteo's crystal has blinked with ominously increasing rapidity, and this morning he was dismissed after 262 days in charge at Stamford Bridge. He managed five more days than his predecessor and former boss Andre Villas-Boas (257 days), who himself had clung on 13 days longer than the last but one permanent incumbent, Luiz Felipe Scolari (244 days). Chelsea managers don't get 30 years: most don't even get 30 weeks.

Consumption of resources seems not to be a problem for Roman Abramovich. For all the talk of trying to run the club as a business rather than a toy, an aim which predates UEFA's Financial Fair Play initiative, Chelsea are still in the habit of spending eye-watering amounts of money to hire players and fire managers.

NEWS Chelsea discard manager Di Matteo

Despite recently announcing an annual profit – albeit over a period which included the £50m Champions League prize money but ended shortly before the club spent a similar amount on Eden Hazard and Oscar – Abramovich has spent something like £88m in managerial pay-offs. For context, that's £42m more than Everton's entire net spend since the Premier League began.

Anyone professing to be "shocked", "stunned" or "amazed" simply hasn't been paying attention, either to the long-term plotline or the short-term noises off. Chelsea started this season brilliantly, but they had done so under Scolari before a November wobble, and the Brazilian was gone by Valentine's Day.

Di Matteo's sacking might be ungrateful, short-termist, unrealistic and – as various self-appointed guardians of dignity wearing other teams' shirts have been quick to say – classless, but it isn't unexpected. As Sky Sports News presenter Mike Wedderburn mentioned to a momentarily startled Tony Cascarino, there are similarities with the legendary Sword of Damocles: for Tony's benefit, Damocles was a king's courtier who assumed the throne, above which was suspended a huge sword dangling by a single hair. In other words: be careful what you wish for.

Smile if you got a big pay-off!

But there will be plenty to come forward for the job: as @MirkoBolesan noted, "you get paid loads and don't stay there long enough to have your reputation ruined". After a couple of young managers in Villas-Boas and Di Matteo, Abramovich may wish to swing back toward experience. That idea would delight the increasingly visible Harry Redknapp, who might by now have been fire-fighting four miles away at Loftus Road had QPR owner Tony Fernandes not displayed the patience so manifestly absent in his Stamford Bridge counterpart.

The bookies' early favourite is Rafa Benitez. The Spaniard's stock has risen since Liverpool's has fallen – in 2009 he led the Anfield club to second place with 86 points, which would have won the title the following year – and of course has also won the Champions League. Benitez is certainly up for a challenge – it's nearly two years since he left Inter, where his decision to follow Treble-winning Jose Mourinho displayed either hubris or happiness to aim high – and Chelsea's owner would hope Fernando Torres could be reinvigorated by the man who brought him to England. So, presumably, would Torres, who since summer 2010 has seen the back of five managers – Benitez, Roy Hodgson, Carlo Ancelotti, Villas-Boas and Di Matteo.

If Abramovich wants experience, he might turn back to the man he approached in May before having his hand forced by Di Matteo's Champions League triumph: Fabio Capello. True, the Italian is now in charge of the Russian national side… but so was Guus Hiddink when Abramovich needed him in February 2009, and the Dutchman combined duties to everyone's satisfaction. A proud man who left the England job on a point of principle – the FA's decision to remove the armband from John Terry without consulting their manager – Capello might delight in rubbing a few English noses in it, especially with the Terry/FA subplot having rumbled on in the meantime.

Existing responsibilities aside, Capello's main problem might be his reputation as a proponent of somewhat dour football. Amid the apparent chaos of Chelsea's managerial selections, there is something of a pattern: idealism alternates with pragmatism. So the empire-building of Jose Mourinho was followed by the quiet calm of Avram Grant, then Scolari's brave new world and Hiddink's dose of reality. And after AVB's failed reboot, Di Matteo himself had to be turned from interim to incumbent once he'd won the Champions League.

Having got the job (and Champions League) by making Chelsea difficult to beat, Di Matteo splurged on creative players to meet the club's apparently insatiable demand for attacking football. It's a hard row to hoe: nowhere – not even Real Madrid – is the need so acute to balance glory with glamour, success with style. And so, inevitably, talk turns to Pep Guardiola.

Guardiola is often held up as an idealist, and certainly his Barcelona team reached heights of brilliance which defied belief: pacy attacking football, determined defence (note how much more porous they have become under Tito Vilanova) and trophies galore: at one point they were hoarding half a dozen per season. But they won nothing last season – which would irritate Abramovich's trigger finger – and Guardiola walked away, taking advantage of his habitual one-year rolling contract.

Perhaps he fits the bill after all. Some depict him as a sensitive flower unable to cope with the inevitable interference and pressure he would get at Chelsea, but as Barcelona boss he carried the hopes and expectations of the Catalan nation. If he takes advantage of Chelsea's desperation and sets out demands for total footballing control of the club, he could also secure his own exit strategy: it would be no surprise or detriment if Guardiola left after a short period, but he could also build upon his own legend.

If Chelsea go with Guardiola, he will be their third successive young manager. Like the dystopian Logan's Run, it seems life at Chelsea is a young man's game. Just don't be amazed when the next guy's crystal starts to flash.

FEATURE Ten of football's most brutal managerial sackings
FEATURE Roman Abramovich: He came, he saw, he conquered

Ten of football's most brutal managerial sackings

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:30:00 GMT

Roberto Di Matteo may think he's had it bad, but as FourFourTwo's Richard Edwards reveals, it could've been far worse. Text, Ceefax, online, on his son's birthday: there are many ways to fire a manager, each more heartless than the last...

Brian Welsh, Cowdenbeath (2008)
The Scot was enjoying a holiday across the pond when he indulged in a spot of internet browsing – big mistake. After logging on to a news website he found he had been fired after the side’s relegation to the Scottish Third Division.

Martin Jol, Tottenham Hotspur (2007)
When the giant Dutchman’s phone vibrated midway through the second half of Spurs’ UEFA Cup tie against Getafe, he could have been forgiven for being a little confused. Confusion would soon have turned to anger, though, after it turned out the text was from his mate telling him that he was no longer required at White Hart Lane after news of his imminent sacked was leaked.

Jose Peseiro, Saudi Arabia (2011)
Making Mike Ashley appear patient and understanding is no easy task, but the hatchet men of Saudi Arabian FA make it look effortless. Peseiro lost his job after just one match of this year’s Asian Cup, the third time the country had sacked a manger midway through a tournament, with World Cup winning manager Carlos Alberto Parreira among the victims.

Bruce Rioch, QPR (1997)
The former Arsenal boss was idly flicking through the channels when he decided to take a quick peak at Ceefax and found out his days at QPR were numbered. “I was at home watching the Louise Woodward case on television when I turned on Ceefax and read that I had been sacked,” said Rioch. QPR chairman Chris Wright said he was ‘genuinely sorry’ for the way the news was delivered - an apology Rioch undoubtedly accepted with good grace.

Mark Poulton, Chichester City (2010)
“The club are a complete mess and a shambles – I’m better of out of it,” said the manager of Sussex County League side, Chichester City. He’s wasn’t wrong. Poulton was given the news of his sacking midway through a Sussex Charity Cup match against Redhill as a clearly excited club director decided he couldn’t wait 45 minutes to make the call. “I must be the first manager in football history to receive a call during a game to say that he had been fired,” he said. We think he is.

Frank Clark, Manchester City (1998)
You know what’s it’s like, you’re in the car on your way to the training ground, you fancy some lively debate on a local radio station and turn it on to find out a manager has been sacked. Then you find out it’s you. The unfortunate listener was Frank Clark, who found that his future lay away from Maine Road in the most soul-destroying manner imaginable.

Tony Adams, Portsmouth (2009)
When you’re bumbling towards potential extinction there’s little room for sentiment, but you would have thought Peter Storrie could have waited until the end of Atticus Adams’s fifth birthday party before delivering the news that his dad wasn’t part of the club’s long term plans.

Derek Dooley, Sheffield Wednesday (1973)
It was Christmas Eve 1973 when Dooley turned up at Hillsborough and made his way to the ‘Blue Room’. He thought he was there to discuss transfer budgets. He wasn’t. Instead he was given the chop by the Wednesday board. Bah humbug.

Ruud Gullit, Chelsea (1998)
The Dutchman’s relationship with Chelsea was already on the rocks when Ken Bates decided the dreadlocked one’s days were numbered at the Bridge. A dispute over cash was thought to be at the heart of the decision to dispense of Gullit but no-one at Chelsea was in any rush to let him know of his dismissal. In the end Teletext told him the good news.

Harald Schumacher, Fortuna Cologne (1999)
Schumacher was left speechless when Fortuna chairman Jean Loering told him not to bother coming back for the second half of the club’s match against Waldhof Mannheim. “I idiolised Schumacher as a player but I’m not going to sit on my hands while he takes my club to the grave,” said Loering.

This feature was originally published in the March 2011 issue of FourFourTwo

Bad Weekend For: Sorry Spurs, hapless Hughes and worried Wycombe

Simon Carter — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:31:00 GMT

Tottenham

It’s hard to say which image from Saturday lunchtime’s catalogue of disasters will be hardest for Tottenham Hotspur fans to digest.

The vision of a forlorn Emmanuel Adebayor trudging down the tunnel following his early sending off; the shot of former Spurs man Sol Campbell applauding Lukas Podolski’s deflected goal that put Arsenal 2-1 ahead; the lingering camera that focused on a dispirited Andre Villas-Boas looking for answers in his Coaches’ Notebook; the sight of Gareth Bale tumbling into the advertising boards as his shot-cum-cross fizzed past the onrushing Jermain Defoe and out into touch, or any of the five goals that their rivals put past the recalled Hugo Lloris.

There’s no doubt that the 5-2 defeat to Arsenal (the second successive such result at The Emirates) will hurt Tottenham fans and each of the memories listed above will be hard to shake but, as their manager has said, Spurs can take a lot of heart from the loss.

Before Adebayor’s moment of lunacy, the away team were fully in control of the game with AVB’s adventurous 4-4-2 tearing into a shaken Arsenal. With Spurs a goal to the good (they also had a Gallas strike disallowed for offside) at the time of the red card, it’s not hard to imagine the likes of Aaron Lennon, Bale, Adebayor and Defoe terrorising Arsenal all afternoon, had it remained 11 v 11.

But in truth, Tottenham fans will just be looking to put the result behind them and bracing themselves for whatever thrills next await them in what already seems a topsy-turvy season, with four straight wins in September and October immediately followed by four defeats from five over October and November.

With back-to-back home games awaiting them in the league, followed by tough assignments at Everton and Fulham, it doesn’t look like the season will settle down just yet.

Mark Hughes

If unsackability were a word, which it isn’t, it would be the perfect one to explain the press obsession with Southampton manager Nigel Adkins’ job status. It must be, can only be, the unsackability of QPR’s Mark Hughes that has led to a media, desperate for stories of necks on chopping blocks, to speculate that the man who has led The Saints from League One into The Premier League could be facing the sack.

Though bewildering, the Adkins stories did lead to an early contender for pun of the season with Saturday’s game between the two sides at Loftus Road being dubbed ‘El Sackico’. And, fittingly, it was Adkins’ side who came away with three points after effortlessly dispatching the home side.

That QPR have many problems, not least sitting at the bottom of the league without a win, is beyond any argument but it would be hard to contest that many of them couldn’t be fixed by a change of manager. The popular discourse is to campaign for managers to be given as much time as possible but Hughes’ mismanagement of his charges can only end badly.

Who, other than Hughes, is responsible for letting Southampton’s Jason Puncheon have the freedom of Loftus Road on Saturday? Is anyone other than the former Blackburn, Fulham, Manchester City and Wales manager to blame for a formation that marginalised Q.P.R’s attackers while leaving their defenders vulnerable from almost any angle? Is the man who waited until his side were 2-0 down before making a significant change really the right man to lead Rangers to safety?

Most importantly, will Hughes’ assertion that he will not quit finally force Chairman Tony Fernandes into action?

Merseyside Storylines

One of the most popular narratives of the current season has been the perceived shift in power on Merseyside. Everton’s stunning early season form - which started with an opening day win over Manchester United and numbered just one defeat in the opening 11 games – contrasted sharply with their near neighbours’ stuttering start.

While the derby draw late in October provided few clues either way, there have been more than enough signs for even the casual observer to declare that Liverpool are far from ready to give up their crown as Merseyside’s top team. And at no time has this point been more nakedly addressed than on Saturday afternoon.
While Everton were slipping to a surprise 2-1 defeat at the home of a spirited Reading, the Reds were busying themselves with a second half destruction of Wigan at Anfield. Two goals from Luis Suarez (and yes, his teammates did celebrate with him) and an icing-on-the-cake effort from Jose Enrique were enough to ensure that, for only the second time this season, Liverpool bettered Everton’s weekend result.

The Anfield men do still sit five points behind their blue rivals but, given that their only defeats this term have come to sides currently in the top six, those already drawing comparisons with 2004/5 (when Everton finished the season above Liverpool) may soon be eating their words.

Challengers

On a day when reigning champions Manchester City finally found their true form to dispatch Aston Villa 5-0 (admittedly with the help of one extremely generous penalty decision), the score-lines that will have most pleased The Citizens were those at The Hawthorns and Carrow Road.

Chelsea became the latest victims of West Bromwich Albion’s wonderful start to the season, falling 2-1 to Steve Clarke’s men. Outplayed for almost all 90 minutes, the Premier League pacesetters looked unimaginative and brittle with Juan Mata and Oscar on the bench (presumably with Tuesday’s trip to Juventus in mind) and John Terry missing through injury. The defeat was Chelsea’s fourth consecutive league game without a win and leaves them four points off the pace.

Meanwhile, in East Anglia, Manchester United were up to business as usual – letting the opposition take the lead. Anthony Pilkington’s 60th minute header meant that Saturday’s was the 12th game in 19 in which the Red Devils have fallen behind this season. But, for the third time, United were unable to turn it around, with Pilkington’s strike remaining the game’s only goal.

Following the game, Sir Alex Ferguson admitted that Norwich were the better team and said that his side deserved nothing. If his relaxed demeanour surprised people, a quick glance at the fixture list will tell you the reason why – next Saturday his side host Q.P.R.

Posh Boys and Farm Boys

Last week started badly, and embarrassingly, for Peterborough United. News broke that four of their players had been fined and transfer listed following an unauthorised night on the tiles after the weekend’s 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace, with two of the players cautioned by the Police.

While apologies have been made and with one of the players, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, has been quickly dispatched on loan to Portsmouth, the farce dominated the build-up to Saturday’s visit of Blackburn Rovers. Though it’s impossible to say whether there was a direct knock-on effect, the fact that the home side were 2-0 down inside twenty minutes possibly speaks volumes.

The game ended 4-1 to Blackburn with Jordan Rhodes netting the hat-trick which secured Henning Berg’s first win as manager. The result leaves Peterborough bottom of The Championship.

Posh manager Darren Ferguson refused to speak about disciplinary issues post match and instead applauded his team for “sticking to the task” and not letting Blackburn “get five or six”. Not exactly a rallying cry but words that may bring calm and unity to the dressing room.

Peterborough are joined in the bottom three by Mick McCarthy’s Ipswich Town who were absolutely thrashed at Leicester as five different goalscorers netted to leave the final score at 6-0. Following the game McCarthy admitted that there “were no positives” and that his next job was to “make sure it doesn’t happen again” (though he did say something similar after losing 5-0 to Crystal Palace recently).

Next up for the Tractor Boys is a visit of Peterborough on Saturday. With both teams looking to put an awful weekend behind them (indeed an awful season thus far), the clash could be the highlight of next weekend’s fixture card.

Hartlepool

So far, this has been one hell of a season for Hartlepool United, with the pain kicking in before the League One campaign had even begun thanks to a 5-0 thrashing at Crewe in the League Cup. Fans of the Monkey Hangers have since had to endure a wasted trip to Leyton Orient (the game was called off due to traffic problems), a 5-0 hammering to Preston North End, a penalty shoot-out defeat in the Football League Trophy and a 6-1 FA Cup mauling at Chesterfield.

They even lost the rearranged game with Leyton Orient.

Yet at home, Pools haven’t fared too badly. Inhabitants of Victoria Park have seen their side draw with high flyers such as Swindon and Doncaster and take four points from relegation rivals Scunthorpe and Shrewsbury.

But on Saturday, that semi-decent home form was left in tatters by mid-table Coventry City. The 5-0 home reverse was the debut of new manager John Hughes who had arrived from Livingston on Tuesday after Hartlepool’s talks with Phil Brown had broken down. While it would be wildly unfair to place much, if any, of the blame for this defeat at Hughes’ door, it was certainly not the start he, and the fans, had hoped for.

At half time, the score was 0-0 (though in truth Coventry were unfortunate not to be ahead) but three goals in ten minutes early in the second half saw Hartlepool’s resistance crumble.

The result left Pools in disarray, seven points adrift of Bury at the bottom of League One. Though their next two fixtures are against sides also in relegation trouble, with almost half the season gone, it might already require a miracle for Hartlepool to survive.

Rock Bottom Wycombe

In League Two, Barnet and Aldershot made well documented awful starts to the season and dropped to the bottom of the table faster than Ashley Young in the penalty area. However, both sides have enjoyed good form of late with each of them losing just one of their last five games (Barnet, in fact, have won three of their last six despite being winless before that).

This is in stark contrast to the form of Wycombe Wanderers who have lost four and won none of their previous six games.

The latest defeat, a 3-1 loss at Northampton, saw The Chairboys fall to 24th spot for the first time this season and leaves rookie player manger, Gareth Ainsworth, with a huge job on his hands.

Ainsworth was given the job permanently following a relatively successful spell as caretaker manager and follows in the footsteps of Martin O’Neill, John Gregory, Lawrie Sanchez and Paul Lambert who have all sat in the hotseat at Adams Park.

With all of the other 91 teams now above them, fans will be hoping that Ainsworth is the man to keep Wycombe’s 125th season from turning into a disaster.

The best shot of the 2011/12 season – official

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 00:01:00 GMT

The shots are in, the votes are cast and the winners have been announced for the finest photographs of the 2011/12 Barclays Premier League season. Press Association snapper Owen Humphreys has been named the Barclays Photographer of the Season after submitting a portfolio of five images, reproduced below for your ocular enjoyment (click for larger versions):

Daniel Sturridge celebrates with Chelsea team-mates

Complicated shadows at Newcastle v Stoke

Shola Ameobi goes for the throat – of Alex Song

Joy for AVB and his Chelsea benchmates

Papiss Cisse celebrating a goal against Bolton Wanderers

Humphreys gets the Photographer gong, but the Barclays Shot of the Season came from Tom Jenkins, a photographer for the Guardian and Observer. Jenkins' camera caught the Swansea mascot looking decidedly unimpressed at being left out of the team huddle against Arsenal at The Emirates:

The judging panel included Sky Sports commentator Martin Tyler, Football Writers’ Association chairman Andy Dunn, last year's Barclays Photographer of the Season winner Martin Rickett, UK Picture Editors’ Guild chairman Alan Sparrow and The Times' Chief Sports Photographer Marc Aspland. Owen Humphreys receives a Barclays Award and £10,000 to spend on photographic equipment and Tom Jenkins a Barclays Award and £5,000 to spend on the same. Well done to both.

Bad Weekend For: Celebrations, match-balls and Perspex

Simon Carter — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 11:34:00 GMT

It was a bad weekend for...

Luis Suarez
Much, perhaps too much, has been written about Liverpool’s start to life under Brendan Rodgers and the stuttering manner in which they have adapted to the change in style from the more direct approach favoured by previous manager Kenny Dalglish.

While the Anfield men have meandered their way to 13th in the Premier League following yesterday’s creditable 1-1 draw at Chelsea, there have been a number of bright spots – the performance against Manchester City, the 5-2 win at Norwich, the emergence of Raheem Sterling and the development of Luis Suarez into a potent goal threat.

Up until this season, the controversial Uruguayan had scored just 15 league goals in 44 appearances since his move from Ajax in January 2011. His equalising goal against Chelsea made it 8 in just 11 games this season – an excellent return. So why was this a bad weekend for the Liverpool No.7?

Away from Anfield it’s rare for Suarez to touch the ball without the opposition fans straining their vocal cords to boo him. His reputation as a diver and a cheat, as well as the more unsavoury allegations about his character, have made him a marked man. This is something that Suarez seems to thrive on – see his ‘dive’ celebration in the Merseyside derby against Everton.

But it seems that he is not that popular even with his own team-mates.

Following his 73rd-minute equaliser yesterday, Suarez barrelled away to the corner flag, celebrating wildly into the camera. As he turned round, arms spread wide to greet his onrushing teammates, he instead saw the rest of the Liverpool team jogging back to their own half. Not a single player went to celebrate with him.

In the latest issue of FourFourTwo, ‘The Player’ talks about the way teams react to goals, pointing out that you can tell how highly a player is thought of by the way the team celebrates their scoring feats. In his words, “if it’s an egotistical player who thinks he’s carrying the team, the mood will be different [to when a popular player scores].”

In the new issue: Goals, goals, goals – Leo Messi, Radamel Falcao, Micky Quinn and more

It’s arguable that Suarez is in fact carrying this Liverpool team. And it’s possible that his team-mates were weary from the effort required to keep Chelsea to one goal and then fashion an equaliser. But to an outsider looking in, it would appear that Luis Suarez is even unpopular among his own workmates.

Chicharito’s match ball
It’s an understandable desire of formerly great teams to try and revive past glories. The memory of better days keeps the likes of Liverpool, Preston, Nottingham Forest and Leeds demanding more than their current lot.

One team who certainly have magical glory days in their history is Aston Villa – Ron Saunders, the European Cup and all that – which makes their re-enactment of January 6th 2002 all the more puzzling.

On that day, a decade and more ago, Villa hosted Manchester United in the FA Cup Third Round. When Phil Neville headed the ball past his own keeper, the home side were 2-0 up and cruising to the next round at the expense of the Premier League champions, but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ruud van Nistelrooy scored three goals in five minutes to knock the Villans out.

Though there was arguably less at stake in this Saturday’s tea-time kick-off, it's not hyperbole to toss around words such as heartbreak and devastation. Villa fans feel that they haven't had their share of good moments recently so the elation of a 2-0 lead over United was an unfamiliar but welcome feeling.

United manager Alex Ferguson deployed his half-time substitute Javier Hernandez to great effect. First the Mexican dug the ball from under his feet to bring the visitors back into the game before his goal bound shot was deflected in by the unfortunate Ron Vlaar.

At 2-2 the home side had their moments, notably a hat-trick chance for Andreas Weimann, but there was a crushing inevitability in Hernandez’s late headed winner.

As soon as the final whistle went, Hernandez grabbed the match ball – as is customary after a hat-trick – but with all sources, including the referee, declaring United’s second an own goal for Ron Vlaar, Chicharito can expect a strong letter from the Premier League asking for their ball back.

Wolves’ Perspextive
The little-known curse of Bad Weekend struck again this weekend. The curse, which seems only to affect teams in The Championship, has been slaying victims since Birmingham were first featured on these pages way back in September. The Blues had just limped to a 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest when we reported on their shaky start the season; the following Saturday, they found themselves 5-0 down at half-time at home to Barnsley.

The curse has affected others in the second tier: Ipswich, whose manager Paul Jewell resigned just days after we said he would; Owen Coyle, who found himself turfed out of Bolton just days after his Bad Weekend debut; Blackpool, who lost Ian Holloway immediately after FFT’s prediction; and now Wolves.

Last week, we sadly reported that Wolves were so hopeless at hanging onto a lead that they had cost themselves a healthy cushion at the top of the table. With the curse hanging over them, Wolves were helpless to stop themselves twice throwing away a lead at home to Brighton on Saturday before the away side joined in, throwing away their own 3-2 lead to let Wolves equalise through Roger Johnson in the final minute.

Manager Stale Solbakken was so infuriated with Craig Mackail-Smith’s equaliser to square the game at 1-1 that he punched a hole in the roof of his dugout. When asked after the game if the Perspex was OK, a confused Solbakken could only reply that “prospects are good.”

Woe is Leeds
There has rarely been a dull moment for fans of Leeds United this season. Regulars have seen on average around three goals per game – and some of those moments have been fantastic, like League Cup wins over Premier League Everton and Southampton, the see-saw 3-3 draw with Blackburn and the opening day win over Wolves.

But every silver lining has a cloud and the good moments have been shadowed by incidences of incompetency, disaster and controversy. As well as poor moments on the pitch (they recorded only one win in five in October) there have been moments to forget away from the football – remember the fan who attacked Sheffield Wednesday’s Chris Kirkland?

It would be hard to argue, however, that Leeds fans have had to endure much worse than Saturday’s home defeat to Watford. The sides went into this fixture level on points and the locals had every reason to be confident, given Watford’s inconsistency.

Going into half-time, Leeds were a goal behind when Jason Pearce was given his marching orders. Neil Warnock used the break to tell his sides to attack at all costs, convinced he could win the game even with 10 men. Admirable, perhaps, but when they were reduced to nine men following Rodolph Austin’s leg break (Leeds having already used all three substitutions), it would have made sense for Warnock to instruct his men to shut up shop.

Whether unable to corral his men into a defensive formation or unwilling to surrender the game, the Leeds boss stood helpless as the visitors ran in five second-half goals. A gloomy day for Leeds was brightened only briefly by a Michael Tonge penalty which left the final score at 1-6.

Indications are that a proposed takeover is imminent but with upcoming fixtures against three of the top six sides, Leeds fans should be just as worried about their footballing future as they are about their financial one.

Surprised Stevenage
Up until Saturday afternoon, this had been a fine season for Stevenage under manager Gary Smith. After a season of consolidation last time out following a promotion, their League One campaign had a look of real promise.

Until Graham Westley showed up. Though his managerial methods divide people, Westley will go down in Stevenage’s history as the man who led them into the Football League for the very first time. His second spell at the club was an unqualified success, reaching two FA Trophy finals (winning one) and securing promotions to League Two and then to League One.

In January of this year, Westley departed Broadhall Way to manage Preston and this weekend, for the first time, he took his new side to his former home.

Given Preston’s inconsistency this season, most would have seen an away victory as unlikely but on more than one occasion this term, Stevenage have crumbled at home. The 4-1 loss on Saturday was the third time in all competitions that they have conceded four goals in a home fixture and despite a great win at Yeovil last time out, it was actually the second successive home league game where this has happened.

Before October’s 4-0 home defeat to Swindon, the Boro had been undefeated at home in the league and with the next two visitors to Broadhall Way being league leaders Tranmere and play-off rivals Crawley, Gary Smith will be hoping to recapture the fortress spirit.

Basement Beatings
There is a strong case to be made for League Two being the most optimistic and open league in the English professional game. While the upper reaches of the Premier League are a relatively closed shop, and with parachute payments regularly skewing competition in the Championship, a division where four teams are promoted and only two are relegated each season can often be a place of joy.

But when your team is on the end of a beating, it can be a very grim place indeed. Rotherham’s season took a surprising turn on Saturday when they visited Dagenham & Redbridge. Manager Steve Evans described their 5-0 defeat as a “shambles from start to finish” and a performance that was “as poor as it could be”.

Elsewhere, Barnet’s Edgar Davids-inspired run of form came to a grinding halt as Morecambe thumped them 4-1. The defeat was made all the worse by relegation rivals AFC Wimbledon recording a resounding 3-0 victory at a shellshocked York.

The most disappointing result of the day perhaps goes to Accrington, who fought back from a goal down to lead Northampton 2-1 going into the final 20 minutes. But three goals in seven minutes from the visitor (including a second and third for hat-trick hero Adebayo Akinfenwa) meant that Stanley were left licking their wounds. Maybe they could do with a glass of milk.

Our Best Goal part 5: Southend to York

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 07:25:00 GMT

More from Our Best Goal: for the December issue of FourFourTwo, we asked the fans for their club's finest ever effort. Enjoy!

SOUTHEND UNITED
Stan Collymore vs Bristol Rovers: Roots Hall, April 14, 1993
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

ST JOHNSTONE
Paul Sheerin vs Dundee: McDiarmid Park, September 27, 2008

ST MIRREN
Ian Scanlon vs Celtic: Love Street, November 19, 1983
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

STEVENAGE
John Mousinho vs Torquay: Old Trafford, May 28, 2011

STOKE CITY
Jimmy Greenhoff vs Birmingham City: St Andrew’s, December 7, 1974

SUNDERLAND
Vic Halom vs Manchester City: Roker Park, February 27, 1973

SWANSEA CITY
Alan Curtis vs Leeds: Vetch Field, August 29, 1981

SWINDON TOWN
Simon Cox vs Walsall: County Ground, January 27, 2009

TORQUAY UNITED
Lee Thorpe vs Stockport County: Plainmoor, April 25, 2006

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
Glenn Hoddle vs Watford: Vicarage Road, September 24, 1983

TRANMERE ROVERS
Jason Koumas vs Everton: Goodison Park, January 27, 2001
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

WALSALL
Roger Boli vs Southend: Bescot Stadium, August 30, 1997

WATFORD
Nicky Wright vs Bolton: Wembley, May 31, 1999

WEST BROMWICH ALBION
Cyrille Regis vs Norwich City: The Hawthorns, February 13, 1982

WEST HAM UNITED
Paolo Di Canio vs Wimbledon: Upton Park, March 26, 2000

WIGAN ATHLETIC
Maynor Figueroa vs Stoke City: Britannia Stadium, December 12, 2009

AFC WIMBLEDON
Glenn Mulcaire vs Bromley: Hayes Lane, July 17, 2002

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS
George Ndah vs Preston: Deepdale, February 22, 2003

WYCOMBE WANDERERS
Steve Brown vs Colchester United: Adams Park, April 15, 2000
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

YEOVIL TOWN
Dani Rodrigues vs Bury: Huish Park, April 17, 2004

YORK CITY
Jason Walker vs Grimsby: Bootham Crescent, October 15, 2011

-----------------------------
Our Best Goal part 1: Aberdeen to Bury
Our Best Goal part 2: Cardiff to Fulham
Our Best Goal part 3: Gillingham to Newcastle
Our Best Goal part 4: Northampton to Southampton
Our Best Goal part 5: Southend to York

Our Best Goal part 4: Northampton to Southampton

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 07:25:00 GMT

In the new issue of FourFourTwo, we asked the fans for their club's finest ever effort. So we put together some video playlists, and called it work.

NORTHAMPTON TOWN
Sean Parrish vs Cardiff City: Ninian Park, May 11, 1997

NORWICH CITY
Justin Fashanu vs Liverpool: Carrow Road, February 9, 1980

NOTTINGHAM FOREST
Archie Gemill vs Arsenal: City Ground, January 21, 1978

NOTTS COUNTY
Gordon Mair vs Ipswich: Portman Road, January 30, 1982

OLDHAM ATHLETIC
Dean Furman v Notts County: Boundary Park, August 14, 2010
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

OXFORD UNITED
Joey Beauchamp vs Blackpool: Manor Ground, April 6, 1996

PETERBOROUGH UNITED
David Farrell vs Barnet: London Road, May 17, 2000

PLYMOUTH ARGYLE
Scott Sinclair vs Barnet: Underhill, January 27, 2007

PORT VALE
Ray Walker vs Tottenham Hotspur: Vale Park, January 30, 1988

PORTSMOUTH
Matt Taylor vs Everton: Fratton Park, December 9, 2006

PRESTON NORTH END
Ricardo Fuller vs Leicester City: Deepdale, November 26, 2002

QUEENS PARK RANGERS
Trevor Sinclair vs Barnsley: Loftus Road, January 25, 1997

READING
Robin Friday vs Tranmere: Elm Park, March 31, 1976
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

ROCHDALE
Grant Holt vs Macclesfield: Spotland, August 27, 2005
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

ROSS COUNTY
Steven Craig vs Celtic: Hampden Park, April 10, 2010

ROTHERHAM UNITED
Rodney Fern vs Plymouth Argyle: Millmoor, May 2, 1981
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

SCUNTHORPE UNITED
Jermaine Beckford vs Carlisle: Glanford Park, May 5, 2007

SHEFFIELD UNITED
Tony Currie vs West Ham: Bramall Lane, March 22, 1975

SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY
Ian Mellor vs Sheffield United: Hillsborough, December 26, 1979

SHREWSBURY TOWN
Leo Fortune-West vs Rochdale: Gay Meadow, March 27, 2007
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

SOUTHAMPTON
Mick Channon vs Liverpool: The Dell, April 24, 1982

Our Best Goal part 3: Gillingham to Newcastle United

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 07:25:00 GMT

More from Our Best Goal: for the December issue of FourFourTwo, we asked the fans for their club's finest ever effort. Enjoy!

GILLINGHAM
Andy Hessenthaler vs Stoke City: Britannia Stadium, May 13, 2000
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

HARTLEPOOL UNITED
Adam Boyd vs Sheffield Wednesday: Victoria Park, April 15, 2005

HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN
Ricardo Fuller vs Motherwell: Tynecastle, December 22, 2001

HIBERNIAN
Russell Latapy vs Hearts: Easter Road, October 21, 2000

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN
Tony Carss vs Torquay: Alfred McAlpine Stadium, October 11, 2003
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

HULL CITY
Geovanni vs Arsenal: Emirates Stadium, September 27, 2008

INVERNESS CALEDONIAN THISTLE
Barry Wilson vs Motherwell: Fir Park, March 6, 2004
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

IPSWICH TOWN
Paul Mariner vs West Brom: Portman Road, November 6, 1976

KILMARNOCK
Eddie Morrison vs Raith Rovers: Stark’s Park, March 18, 1972
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

LEEDS UNITED
Tony Yeboah vs Wimbledon: Selhurst Park, September 23, 1995

LEICESTER CITY
Muzzy Izzet vs Grimsby: Filbert Street, November 30, 2002

LEYTON ORIENT
Matt Lockwood v Hull City: Brisbane Road, May 16, 2001

LIVERPOOL
Terry McDermott vs Tottenham Hotspur: Anfield, September 2, 1978

MANCHESTER CITY
Georgi Kinkladze vs Southampton: Maine Road, March 16, 1996

MANCHESTER UNITED
Ryan Giggs vs Arsenal: Villa Park, April 14, 1999

MIDDLESBROUGH
John Hendrie vs Millwall: Ayresome Park, October 13, 1990

MILLWALL
Gary Alexander vs Scunthorpe: Wembley, May 24, 2009

MK DONS
Izale McLeod vs Stockport: Stadium MK, December 5, 2006
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

MORECAMBE
Danny Carlton vs Exeter City: Wembley, May 20, 2007
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

MOTHERWELL
Colin O’Neill vs Celtic: Hampden Park, April 9, 1991

NEWCASTLE UNITED
Alan Shearer vs Everton: St James’ Park, December 1, 2002

Read this story or the footballer gets it…

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 11:26:00 GMT

With the news that Hulk's sister has been kidnapped (and safely released), here's one from the archives: in March 2011, FourFourTwo’s Andrew Murray investigated the madness that ensues when footballers and their families are kidnapped or held to ransom

“This was a stupid idea”
Sibling rivalry rarely lasts into adulthood, so the mind boggles at the number of dollhouses Paraguayan defender Lider Marmol must have destroyed as a kid to irk his sister so much. The sibling in question, Perla, ended up faking her own kidnapping in an attempt to extort $40,000 from her little bro. After stumping up in October last year, the concerned 25-year-old rushed from Cancun in Mexico (where he now plays) to the family home in south-east Paraguay to comfort Perla, apparently released unharmed after three days’ incarceration.
But cracks soon began to appear in the mother-of-five’s Coen brothers-style yarn. Police became suspicious of the amateurish hijacking and Perla’s inability to remember how, or where, she had been held hostage. Eventually she admitted to staging the abduction for a slice of her brother’s wealth. “I’m glad she’s safe, but this was a stupid idea she got into her head,” sighed the former Chicago Fire player.

The Cruyff (u)turn
It was one of football’s most enduring mysteries: why did Johan Cruyff miss the 1978 World Cup? At the time, it was assumed the Dutch maestro withdrew in protest at the military dictatorship in Argentina. But in 2008, Cruyff put an end to the speculation. “Someone put a rifle at my head and tied me and my wife up in front of the children at our flat in Barcelona,” he told Spanish radio of the 1977 ordeal, which forced him to reassess his priorities. Armed police slept in Cruyff’s flat for four months. “I couldn’t play in the World Cup after this.” Fair enough.

Birthday shopping spree
What better way to celebrate your third day since turning 24 than by being swiped outside your girlfriend’s flat? Santiago Ladino, Velez Sarsfield’s buccaneering right-back, was marched to various cash machines across Buenos Aires in October 2004 and forced to withdraw money so his four armed captors could go shopping. Sated after a few hours’ retail therapy, the thieves dumped the full-back outside San Lorenzo’s home ground, five miles away. “This incident is no big deal: it’s the kind of thing that happens in Argentina,” mused Ladino’s unflustered father, Carlos.

“Let’s go, No Yo”
Norum Yobo, brother of then Everton and Nigeria star Joseph, must have questioned the benefits of having a famous sibling when he was one of three men seized in the wee small hours outside Illusion nightclub in oil-rich Port Harcourt, southern Nigeria, in July 2008. His two friends were quickly released, but Norum had to wait 12 days for his ordeal to end, his snatchers attempting – and failing – to extort a ransom from the Premier League defender.

Berbatov’s real Godfather moment
As someone who learned English by watching the Godfather trilogy, Dimitar Berbatov must have feared the worst when Georgi Iliev, Bulgaria’s answer to Michael Corleone, had the 18-year-old snatched after CSKA Sofia training at the end of 1999, keen for the future Spurs and Man United star to play for his own team, Levski Kyustendil. Berbatov was en route to Iliev when he made a frantic call to his father Ivan, who negotiated a deal for his release.

Late 1999: Berba celebrates freedom (and a goal at Newcastle)

Romario returns fire
In 1994, Romario’s unique preparation for La Liga and World Cup glory ran as follows: call Pele “mentally retarded”; see his father get kidnapped; hold Rio de Janeiro’s underworld to ransom. After Romario Snr – Edevair – was spirited from a bar in the city’s Penha distict on May 5, and a $7m booty demanded, Brazil and Barcelona fans held their collective breaths.
Persuaded to stay in Spain by Barça coach Johan Cruyff (Real Madrid awaited two days later), Romario threatened to withdraw from USA 94 if his father wasn’t freed. Fearing for Brazil’s chances without their star, football-mad Rio mobsters inundated police with Edevair’s whereabouts. The 62-year-old was found in the stormed hideout sat on a mattress and glued to a telly, bought so he could watch his son create the only goal in the clasico win. Despite providing a diet of steak, beer and cigarettes for their victim, the captors were arrested.

“Papa, we’re waiting for you”
With the 2003 Clausura championship won, River Plate legend Leonardo Astrada had his retirement sorted. The 33-year-old would lift a record 12th trophy with River on the season’s penultimate game at Olimpo before heading to the golf course. Instead, Astrada was awaiting news of his father Ruben.
The 61-year-old was rammed off the road by rifle-wielding attackers, driven to a safe house and a $300,000 price put on his head. Before Los Millonarios’ final game, Astrada wore a T-shirt showing the message “Papa, we’re waiting for you.” Completing only 12 minutes of his swansong, Astrada left the pitch in tears. Ruben escaped after 27 days when the hostage takers abandoned their bolthole.

“I just want Quini back”
Set against a backdrop of a failed political coup six days earlier and bombings by Basque terrorist group ETA, Quini’s 25-day abduction had Spain gripped. After scoring two goals in a 6-0 demolition of Hercules in March 1981, the Barcelona no.9 was bundled into a van by two unemployed mechanics and a debt-ridden electrician, who demanded a £1.8m pay-off. Team-mate Bernd Schuster initially refused to play until his team-mate’s release: “Apart from legs, I’ve got a heart,” he insisted. “I just want Quini back.”
La Liga’s all-time sixth-most prolific scorer spent most of his incarceration in an underground Zaragoza car park until his ransom-less release, sporting a fetching beard. His clueless captors were each handed a 10-year jail term. Without their top scorer, Barça’s title hopes had collapsed – they won just one point from the four games he missed – but Quini still finished as the league’s top scorer.

Campos snatch has a bright ending
Mexico’s colourful keeper Jorge Campos had to come to his father’s rescue in February 1999. Campos Jr rushed back from international duty in Hong Kong after six AK47-armed members of left-wing rebels, the Popular Revolution Army (EPR), forced his 66-year-old dad from his car into a pick-up truck. Six days later, Campos Snr appeared at a police checkpoint 11 miles northwest of Acapulco in good health. Jorge refused to confirm whether he’d paid a reported five-figure ransom or simply blinded the captors with one of his shirts.

De la Pena uses his loaf
As Barcelona star Ivan de la Pena left the Nou Camp after training on January 29, 2001, he noticed he was being followed. A hasty circumnavigation of an underground car park in his Porsche later, the follicly-challenged midfielder rang the police with his would-be abductors’ registration number.
When local authorities caught up with the driver, he went on the run, flipped a stolen Ford Escort at a roundabout, shot a policeman and took his own daughter hostage before his eventual arrest. The other attacker, a struggling businessman who could already include a failed Barça kidnapping on an impressive CV, was arrested in 2003 and sentenced to two years’ prison.

IdlP: Short of hair, but not flair or brains

Real revolutionary
Not many captors become a successful sculptor and cubist painter, so hats off to Paul del Rio, who snatched Alfredo di Stefano from a hotel during Real Madrid’s South American tour in 1963. Working for Venezuelan guerrilla faction the National Liberation Front (FALN), Del Rio told Di Stefano not to panic: “We are revolutionaries who don’t agree with our country’s political regime. We’ll return you soon.” Indeed, the two-time European Footballer of the Year turned up at the Spanish embassy two days later.
Bizarrely, the pair were reunited in a publicity stunt for 2005 flick Real: The Movie. “Unfortunately the kidnapping coincided with his son’s birthday, so he celebrated it with us,” recalled Del Rio of the incident which featured in the film.

Pirates on the radio
 Fleet-of-foot Eduardo Bianchi – younger brother of then Boca Juniors coach Carlos – has his wife and athletic lower appendages to thank for a narrow escape. In the early hours of August 4 2003, Bianchi was preparing to open the family-run newsagents in Buenos Aires’ San Martin district when an armed gang sprang from a passing car. Reminiscent of his quicksilver 14-cap international brother, Eduardo took flight and sought refuge in a neighbour’s house.
His hysterical wife rang a local radio station, screaming: “Some people have just tried to kidnap my husband,” while transfixed listeners heard the mob flee in the background. “He’s very nervous and hasn’t slept a wink for 24 hours,” Carlos later declared, to nobody’s surprise.

Mum’s the word in Brazil
“Every day is a bad day when your mother is kidnapped,” said a philosophical Robinho four years after Marina de Silva Souza was seized from a relative’s home 45 miles from Sao Paulo, in November 2004. Santos’ prized asset was on the verge of a big-money move to Real Madrid when an armed gang jumped the garden wall, where Marina was preparing a barbecue. The 43-year-old was driven away in her car boot, while the other guests were locked in an upstairs toilet. Her 40-day abduction only ended when Robinho, then 20, paid the £50,000 ransom.
The case spawned a wave of copycat mum-nappings: Luis Fabiano’s old dear endured a similar fate in March 2005, nine months after Fabiano joined Porto for £7.3million. Shoved into a waiting car on the way to meet a friend in hometown Campinas, Sandra Helena Clemente became the fifth snatched relative of a Brazilian footballer in five months following the Robinho precedent. When locals heard screams coming from a house, a 35-man police squad stormed the captors’ hideout and the 45-year-old’s 60-day hell was over. No ransom was paid.
Marinho’s matriarch was next. The Corinthians defender shelled out $20,000 to release his mum, Alice Nazare, after she spent two months in captivity from May 2005. The 62-year-old was taken from her Santos home by a bunch of disguised florists. “It all started because people copied the Robinho kidnapping,” claimed Celio Marcelo da Silva – better known by his self-appointed moniker ‘Bin Laden’ – after his August 2005 arrest, proud of the legacy he’d began the previous year. “It doesn’t matter whose mother it is – people will kidnap them.”

Reunited: Robinho and his mum

Somalia’s training tale
We end as we began, with a phoney abduction – only this time the player himself faked his own kidnapping. Running late for pre-season training just last month, and aware of his club would fine 40% of his wages for such tardiness, Botafogo midfielder Somalia claimed he was carjacked at gunpoint at 7am, driven round Rio de Janeiro and relieved of money and jewellery.
But when police found CCTV footage of the 26-year-old leaving his apartment bright-eyed and bushy-tailed two hours after the alleged incident, doubts were raised and criminal charges brought. With the threat of a jail term hanging over him, Somalia has come clean. “I was recovering from a massive party,” he admitted. “I say sorry to the staff and the fans. What a mistake this was.”

Our Best Goal part 2: Cardiff City to Fulham

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 07:29:00 GMT

For the December issue of FourFourTwo, we asked the fans for their club's finest ever goal. Yesterday we brought you videos from the top of the alphabet: here's some more from the top drawer...

CARDIFF CITY
Peter King vs Middlesbrough: Ninian Park, October 3, 1970

CARLISLE UNITED
Warren Aspinall vs Brighton: Goldstone Ground, November 23, 1996

CELTIC
Henrik Larsson vs Rangers: Parkhead, August 27, 2000

CHARLTON ATHLETIC
Shaun Bartlett vs Leicester City: The Valley, April 1, 2001

CHELSEA
Gianfranco Zola vs Norwich City: Stamford Bridge, January 16, 2002

CHELTENHAM TOWN
Neil Grayson vs Plymouth Argyle: Whaddon Road, November 23, 1999

CHESTERFIELD
Dave Waller vs Halifax Town: Saltergate, October 17, 1989
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

COLCHESTER UNITED
Lomana LuaLua v Preston North End: Deepdale, March 7, 2000

COVENTRY CITY
Ernie Hunt v Everton: Highfield Road, October 3, 1970

CRAWLEY TOWN
Sergio Torres v Derby Country: Broadfield Stadium, November 1, 2011
There's a video online, but embedding is disabled... Boooo!

CREWE ALEXANDRA
Rodney Jack vs Bolton: Reebok Stadium, October 19, 1999
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

CRYSTAL PALACE
Don Rogers vs Stoke: Selhurst Park, February 17, 1973

DAGENHAM & REDBRIDGE
Paul Benson vs Kidderminster Harriers: Aggborough, February 20, 2007

DERBY COUNTY
Paulo Wanchope vs Man United: Old Trafford, April 5, 1997

DONCASTER ROVERS
Martin Woods v Nottingham Forest: Keepmoat Stadium, December 26, 2008

DUNDEE
Giorgi Nemsadze vs Dundee United: Tannadice, November 11, 2000

DUNDEE UNITED
Ralph Milne vs Dundee: Dens Park, May 14, 1983

EVERTON
Graeme Sharp vs Liverpool: Anfield, October 13, 1984

EXETER CITY
Martin Phillips vs Fulham: St James Park, September 16, 1995

FLEETWOOD TOWN
Jamie Milligan vs Farsley Celtic: Highbury, January 19, 2010

FULHAM
Clint Dempsey vs Juventus: Craven Cottage, March 18, 2010

It was a Bad Weekend For… Davids and Goliaths

Simon Carter — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 09:37:00 GMT

Simon Carter casts his eye over the leagues and FA Cup to announce: It was a Bad Weekend For...

Anyone But United (of the title-chasers)
His face covered in sweat and frustration, Mario Balotelli slumped back into his chair after being snubbed by manager Roberto Mancini following a second-half substitution in Manchester City’s draw at West Ham this weekend.

While the source of Balotelli’s irritation was undoubtedly his wayward finishing and the (arguably unprofessional) behaviour of his manager, his vexation will have been felt this weekend in many of the players, managers and fans of clubs chasing one of this season’s Champions League places.

City’s draw with West Ham, where Hammers’ captain Kevin Nolan had a goal wrongfully disallowed, saw the champions miss the chance to draw level at the top of the table with rivals Manchester United, who had earlier beaten Arsenal 2-1 at Old Trafford.

Neither City nor United would have had chance to take the top spot had Chelsea managed to hold onto their lead at Swansea, but as the hail thrashed down at the Liberty Stadium, the European champions struggled to keep possession and fell victim to a wonderful late equaliser from Pablo Hernandez.

Boos rang out at White Hart Lane where Tottenham Hotspur were completely outplayed by Wigan Athletic, with only another great performance from Brad Friedel keeping the scoreline to 0-1.

And across London at Craven Cottage, Everton failed to capitalise on their impressive play against Fulham, drawing for a fourth successive league fixture after a topsy-turvy 90 minutes in which the score eventually settled at 2-2.

Though it would be something of a stretch to say that either Liverpool or Newcastle United are aiming for a top-four spot this season, neither were able to take advantage of poor results from those around them. The Reds may have edged the Sunday afternoon clash at Anfield but required a stunning goal from Luis Suarez to salvage a point after Yohan Cabaye’s first half opener.

Of all the teams with realistic designs on a top four position come May, only Manchester United had reason to celebrate this weekend. Faced with an Arsenal side that had scored seven goals midweek (with hat-trick hero Theo Walcott on the bench), United would have expected a tough test from the Gunners.

While not as one-sided as last year’s 8-2 in the same fixture, the 2-1 result bears almost no resemblance to what happened on the pitch. United missed a penalty and had two further goals disallowed (both correctly). Nobody would have complained had the game finished 4-0 or 5-0.

After the match, Wenger bemoaned refereeing decisions for costing his side the game but Arsenal legend Tony Adams worried aloud that his former side lacks belief. After watching the Gunners surrender, it is hard not to choose Adams’ assessment over Wenger’s.

Hi-Ho Wolverhampton
On five occasions already this season, including three in October, Wolverhampton Wanderers have surrendered a lead to either draw or lose a game. Had they managed to hold onto each of those leads, they would be 12 points better off than they currently are, and would have a healthy lead at the top of The Championship.

Whether this quirk speaks of a lack of character or an understandable dearth of confidence following last season’s relegation and the departure of several key players such as Steven Fletcher and Matt Jarvis, recent results have shown signs of a worrying trend.

Wolves’ 2-0 defeat at Burnley (who were guided by new manager Sean Dyche) on Saturday marks the low point of the season so far – the 6-0 defeat at Chelsea in the Capital One Cup was somewhat expected. The fact that the Molineux side didn’t even have a lead to throw away speaks volumes about an abject display where they didn’t even look like scoring until well after the prolific Charlie Austin had put the home side two ahead with his 19th strike of the season.

Post-game, Wolves manager Stale Solbakken said that he “probably picked the wrong team” on Saturday. Many more performances like this one and he, and the fans, would be forgiven for applying the exact same thoughts to his decision to take over the club in the first place.

Goliaths
Ah, the FA Cup First Round (or to give it its full name ‘The FA Cup First Round Proper’). Always one of the most anticipated days on the football calendar, it’s a day when amateurs, semi-pros and professional footballers duke it out with only one thought in mind – getting through to the next round.

While fans of teams involved focus their minds on dreams of the third round, and a possible glamour tie with the ‘big boys’, FA Cup days for neutrals are all about one thing and one thing only, giant killings.

And we didn’t have to wait long for the first shock of the day as Conference Premier side Hereford United comfortably dealt with the threat posed by their hated League One neighbours Shrewsbury Town, dispatching them 3-1 in a Saturday lunchtime kick-off without ever breaking sweat.

Impressive as that was, Hereford were eclipsed later in the afternoon by Conference rivals Macclesfield Town, travelling to face a Swindon Town side who just days before had come close to knocking Aston Villa out of the League Cup. Swindon manager Paolo Di Canio reacted to his side’s 2-0 home defeat by threatening to fine his players.

Torquay United’s home tie against Blue Square Bet North minnows Harrogate Town seemed like a plum draw but despite raining in 17 shots at goal, the Gulls couldn’t breach the visitors' defence and went down 1-0.

Elsewhere shocks were relatively thin on the ground but the performance of the day award goes to Chelmsford City of the Blue Square Bet South, who beat Essex neighbours Colchester United (currently just outside the League One play-offs) 3-1 in front of 3,000 rapturous fans.

Possible Sunday shocks at Braintree and Gloucester (where the sides were to take on Tranmere Rovers and Leyton Orient respectively) fell foul of the wet weekend weather so it was left to Blue Square Bet South team Dorchester Town to provide the giant-killing.

All the talk in the build-up to this, the last of the weekend’s FA Cup ties, had been about part time David Beckham impersonator Jamie Gleeson who lined up for Dorchester against Plymouth Argyle yesterday. Though Gleeson managed to avoid the headlines, and was substituted in the second half, former Plymouth trainee Jake Gosling wrote his own with a neat finish to seal a 1-0 win.

So what next for the topplers of big names? Hereford make the trip to Cheltenham in the Second Round while Macclesfield will face Guiseley or Barrow. Harrogate will line up against Hastings, Chelmsford travel to Crawley and David Beckham’s Dorchester can look forward to a visit to either Luton or Nuneaton.

Davids
So with only a handful of the bigger clubs succumbing to the Magic of the Cup, First Round day was a bad one for several sides who saw their dreams dashed.

AFC Fylde, who had never played in the FA Cup First Round before, were well beaten 4-1 at home to League Two’s Accrington Stanley (who were managed for the first time by Leam Richardson). Carlisle United were made to work for their passage to the next round, eventually shaking off a tenacious Ebbsfleet United with the help of a couple of late goals to win 4-2.

Arlesey Town hoped for an Olympian performance at Coventry City’s London 2012 venue the Ricoh Arena, but the home side were too good, winning 3-0 and hitting the target 14 times. Bristol Rovers, Forest Green and the Met Police all managed goals against bigger opposition but none were able to even force a replay.

Fans at Field Mill
A strange statistical quirk meant that the 1,686 poor souls who made the trip to Field Mill to watch the FA Cup tie between Mansfield and Slough were the only fans in either England or Scotland not to see a goal on a day of some great football and memorable matches. Oh well, they get to do it all again a week on Tuesday in the replay...

Our Best Goal part 1: Aberdeen to Bury

FourFourTwo Team — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 07:30:00 GMT

For the December issue of FourFourTwo, we asked the fans for their club's finest ever goal. A pleasing number of you responded, and an exciting number of the goals are online for all to see. So sit back and enjoy these belters..

ABERDEEN
Charlie Nicholas vs Celtic: Pittodrie, February 17, 1990

ACCRINGTON STANLEY
Michael Welch vs Stockport County: Edgeley Park, August 18, 2006

ALDERSHOT TOWN
Scott Donnelly vs Cheltenham Town: Recreation Ground, September 26, 2009
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

ARSENAL
Dennis Bergkamp vs Leicester City: Filbert Street, August 27, 1997

ASTON VILLA
Dalian Atkinson vs Wimbledon: Selhurst Park, October 3, 1992

BARNET
Cliff Akurang vs Rotherham: Don Valley Stadium, October 18, 2008
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

BARNSLEY
Darren Barnard vs Huddersfield Town: Oakwell, November 27, 1998

BIRMINGHAM CITY
Barry Bridges vs Arsenal: St Andrews, March 12, 1968
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

BLACKBURN ROVERS
Morten Gamst Pedersen vs Fulham: Ewood Park, August 20, 2005

BLACKPOOL
Mickey Walsh vs Sunderland: Bloomfield Road, February 1, 1975

BOLTON WANDERERS
Frank Worthington vs Ipswich Town: Burnden Park, April 21, 1979

BOURNEMOUTH
Paul Moulden v Newcastle United: Dean Court, September 9 1989
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

BRADFORD CITY
Stan Collymore vs Leeds United: Valley Parade, October 29, 2000

BRENTFORD
Paul Brooker vs Swindon: County Ground, April 22, 2006

BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION
Bobby Zamora vs Halifax Town: Withdean Stadium, December 2, 2000
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

BRISTOL CITY
David Noble vs Crystal Palace: Selhurst Park, May 10, 2008

BRISTOL ROVERS
Rickie Lambert vs Luton Town: Kenilworth Road, September 8, 2007

BURNLEY
Tommy Cummings vs Newcastle: Turf Moor, January 19, 1952
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

BURTON ALBION
Dale Anderson vs Hucknall Town: Eton Park, September 18, 2001
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

BURY
Darren Bullock vs Sunderland: Gigg Lane, April 13, 1999
No video found: if you know of one, contact@fourfourtwo.com

In the new issue: Goals! Messi! Goals! Falcao! Goals! Micky Quinn! Goals!

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 10:02:00 GMT

In the December 2012 issue of FourFourTwo: goals, goals and more goals! Plus a world exclusive interview with the best player on the planet, and another who isn’t far behind...

There is no better sight in football (unless you're a goalkeeper) than seeing the ball nestle in the back of the net, scorer peeling away in celebration to a chorus of cheers from the crowd.

So it’s only right that we dedicate the new issue to goals. What’s the best goal your team has ever scored? You decide. How many goals have Stoke scored from set pieces? We tell you. And read about the goal that killed a man. But first...

In an edition dedicated to goals, there is really only one place to start. Lionel Messi gives an exclusive interview only available in FourFourTwo, explaining just how he bagged 72 goals in 60 games last season and who inspired him to become the deadly goalscorer he is today. Oh, and we speak to his first coach in Europe and that inspiration himself – some Brazilian bloke called Ronaldo.

From Barcelona to Madrid, for another exclusive interview with one of the hottest properties in world football – a certain Radamel Falcao of Atletico, described by columnist Michel Salgado in this issue as “the best no.9 in the world”. Can the Colombian hitman improve on an already incredible season? Does he want to play in the Premier League? And does he really count his goals?

Then it’s your turn. We canvassed all our readers to find the best goal scored by every club in the English league system and the SPL – all 104 teams. Now we reveal the results. You don’t want to miss this.

Heard the one how square goalposts changed the course of a European Cup final? Or how a goal was once the size of a church? Now you can, with our bizarre history of goalposts.

Few feelings in football come close to a last-minute winner. We look back at the most dramatic get-out-of-jail moments in recent years, ask why they happen and discuss whether any team can seize on them just as Manchester United can.

Scoring a goal doesn’t always make you popular: players come to expect abuse from opposition fans. But nothing compares to the tragic tale of Matthias Sindelar, the Austrian whose goal and cheeky celebration in Nazi Germany would ultimately spell his downfall. We revisit what exactly happened.

And on a happier note, we go to watch the Sunday League Pele, a man who is on course for 1,000 goals and gets miffed when he only nets a hat-trick. Can he do it in front of the FourFourTwo cameras?

Micky Quinn also weighs in with his meaty opinions in a revealing and riotous One-on-One. Prison, pies, punching John Fashanu – it’s all here as he answers your questions.

There’s much more, including exclusive interviews with great goalscorers Gary Lineker and Gerd Muller, a sit-down with Alexandre Pato and a classic graphic showing how Premier League teams score their goals. And you can win Messi’s signed boots and a personalised piece of art.

That’s not to mention Performance, starring Juninho, Sylvain Distin and Ali Al-Habsi as well as a guide on how to win in the rain, and the unbelievable story of Croatia’s very own FC United of Manchester upsetting the odds – all in the December 2012 edition of FourFourTwo.

This issue was brought to you by: Lionel Messi and his under-14s coach, Micky Quinn, Bobby Gould, Gerd Muller, Graeme Sharp, Ronaldo, Neal Bishop, Brian McDermott, Gary Lineker, Matty Taylor, Rhys Griffiths, Sylvain Distin, Gordon Banks, Radamel Falcao, Bradley Johnson, Gary Smith, Kelly Jones, Diego Simeone, Jocelyn Angloma, Negrete, Ali Al-Habsi, Colin Kazim-Richards, Christian Karembeu, Jeff Winter, Alexandre Pato, Michel Salgado, Juninho Pernambucano, The Sunday League Pele, Peterborough United’s mascot and the Dalai Lama

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Blog words: Vassilis Kakouris

It was a Bad Weekend for...

Simon Carter — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:12:00 GMT

Simon Carter exposes the weekend's main sufferers...

The second half of the Merseyside derby
A first half of epic proportions saw the only occasion in Premier League history where both sides in the Merseyside derby had scored more than once before the break. By half time, with the score locked at 2-2, stats fans were poring over the record books for the highest-scoring clashes in recent years, with many musing aloud how many times one side had come back from two goals down to win the derby.

Then came the break. Given the way both sides had defended at times in the first half, you could forgive David Moyes and Brendan Rodgers for using the interval to tell their charges to “tighten up lads”.

But the buzz around Goodison Park, and the watching nation, told of a second half submerged in goals and incidents.

While the second period was not completely without its charms – and it would be very unfair to compare it to second-half proceedings at Stamford Bridge - the half-time substitutions (two from Liverpool, one forced from Everton) disrupted the flow of the game and reduced clear-cut chances to a minimum. Ultimately, the play resembled what we’ve come to expect of a Merseyside derby at Goodison (though admittedly there was a rare lack of red-card action).

But of all the people responsible for the poor second half, nobody will take as much blame as the linesman who ruled out Luis Suarez’s injury-time goal. Arguable though it is that the goal should have been chalked off for the climbing of Sebastien Coates, the official reason given was offside. In the words of Gary Neville, “the linesman bottled it”.

27,006 people
If ever a match was tailor-made for the coveted ‘Last Spot on Match of the Day’ it was Stoke City v Sunderland. While the Premier League season has so far thrown up enough plotlines to keep us talking until May – Manchester United’s bonkers defending, Roberto Mancini’s slow meltdown, Chelsea’s Fantastic Four of Oscar, Mata, Hazard and Torres, West Ham and West Brom’s impressive starts, Sunday’s brilliant Chelsea-Manchester United game – the teams in red and white stripes have been determinedly ordinary.

Prior to Saturday’s match, Sunderland and Stoke had played 15 Premier League games between them and drawn a dozy 10, scoring just 14 goals in the process (the only player to have scored for Sunderland this season other than Steven Fletcher is Newcastle’s Demba Ba). The game, which finished 0-0, delivered everything we expected – a game so bad it forced Mark Lawrenson to invent a new word for it: “towsy” (no, us neither).

A number of people in the Britannia Stadium on Saturday were paid to be there – the players, staff, stewards and police – but pity the poor 27,005 fans who parted with their own cash to gain admittance. There are no refunds for gritty goalless draws - especially in Stoke.

But while each of those fans hopefully arrived home in one piece, a huge amount of sympathy must be directed towards Marc Wilson, the Stoke defender who was carried off the pitch with a broken leg midway through the second half. On the bright side, at least he didn’t have to watch the final half hour.

Julio Cesar
Of all of Mark Hughes’ summer signings at QPR, the one that raised more than an eyebrow or two was that of Julio Cesar from Inter Milan. Why, people cried, would the man named the third-best goalkeeper in the world just three years ago leave the former Italian champions to face an inevitable battle with relegation in the Premier League?

Some see the Brazilian as a mercenary, tempted to London by bags of cash, while others commend him for leaving the Inter bench (the Milanese club having brought in Samir Handanović over the summer) in search of regular first-team football. Whichever side of the fence you’re on, you would have to be pretty determined not to feel some sympathy for him on Saturday.

Time and again Cesar was left exposed by his QPR team-mates as Arsenal poured forward, averaging a shot at goal every four minutes. Time and again, the likes of Santi Cazorla and Olivier Giroud were left with time and space to fashion a shot. And time and again, Cesar stood up and kept his team level.

The Brazil international had a fantastic game at the Emirates on Saturday and while he will be more than happy with his performance, he could be forgiven if he had spent Sunday jabbing furiously at his roast dinner having been finally beaten by an offside Mikel Arteta just six minutes from time.

Tangerine dreams
Last season’s losing play-off finalists Blackpool made a storming start to the season, winning each of their first three games. Since then things have not gone well for the Lancashire club, who won many friends during their solitary season in the Premier League two years ago.

Inconsistency has reigned and while manager Ian Holloway has said that “the only thing I'm focusing on is trying to play decent football,” he cannot be a happy man at the moment.

Though it’s true to say that a draw with Brighton, who sit above Blackpool in the Championship table, is not inherently a bad result, it is the latest in a string of disappointing returns. A home draw against Nottingham Forest midweek followed defeats to Burnley and Charlton Athletic, with only an excellent 3-2 win at Hull City at the beginning of the month providing light after heavy defeats to Cardiff City and Huddersfield Town.

Holloway will be relishing his side’s next four fixtures – each of the teams they face are in the bottom half of the table – but if Blackpool cannot find some form soon, he may be tempted to act on the rumours linking him with the vacant post at Blackburn Rovers.

Toothless Orient
At home against Coventry City on Saturday, Leyton Orient had 13 shots at goal yet still lost 1-0. In their previous game, against Colchester United, they took 11 punts at the target and were beaten 2-0. And in the four league games prior to that, they had a combined 35 efforts at goal and scored just once, in a 1-0 win over beleaguered Hartlepool.

The above stats prove that there is no mystery at all as to why Orient find themselves just two points above the relegation zone. Although manager Russell Slade said post game that his side’s profligacy is “one of those things”, if his misfiring side doesn’t start scoring soon they could find themselves in serious trouble.

Next up for Orient is a trip to Conference North side, Gloucester, in the First Round of the FA Cup. The perfect platform, fans will hope, to turn those shots into goals.

League Two strikers
While Leyton Orient have their problems finding the net, at least the issues are localised to Brisbane Road. In League Two, a worrying weekend malaise fell over the combined strike force of the entire division.

Saturday’s fixtures yielded three goalless draws, six 1-0 wins and only two games where more than two goals were scored. This is the league that is home to Tom Pope of Port Vale, Jamie Cureton of Exeter City and Torquay United’s Rene Howe, who have 34 league goals between them already this term.

Ironically Pope and Cureton were involved of two of the highest scoring games on Saturday but neither they, nor their teams, scored with Port Vale going down 2-0 at Northampton Town and Exeter losing 3-0 at Cheltenham Town.

It’s hard to believe that a week ago the same teams were busily involving themselves in five-goal thrillers (five of the previous Saturday’s games contained five goals), huge routs (remember Barnet’s cobbling of Northampton?) and tense score draws. With League Two taking a break for the FA Cup next weekend, fans will have to wait to see if their strikers can find their scoring boots once more.

It was a Bad Weekend for...

Simon Carter — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 10:17:00 GMT

Simon Carter lists the weekend's main sufferers...

Sorry Arsenal
The autumn is traditionally the ‘oil and water’ period of the season. Early front-runners get rude awakenings, early strugglers wake up, and the league table settles into the form it will roughly take for the rest of the season.

With Chelsea thumping Spurs in the early Saturday kick-off, and the Manchester clubs both winning against Stoke and West Brom, the onus was on Arsenal to join their ‘Big Four’ chums in rising to the top.

A tea-time trip to Norwich didn’t look too daunting for the Gunners, given City’s recent results (4-1 and 5-2 defeats bearing more resemblance to betting odds) but a “very, very poor” Arsenal could find no way back from Grant Holt’s first-half opener.

Manager Arsene Wenger’s comments that the Canaries “wanted it more than us” and that Arsenal “didn’t win the decisive fights” hints at a note of complacency. Whatever the reason for Arsenal’s lacklustre performance, the visit of Schalke 04 in the Champions League is bound to resharpen the focus.

Adam Lallana
The Southampton captain struck his first Premier League goal in his team’s visit to West Ham. The smart turn and ferocious finish past Jussi Jaaskelainen offered a glimpse of the talent that has seen him capped at three levels for England and justified some of the expectation that followed him into the Premier League.

But Lallana’s goal was ultimately of little use to his side as their defensive failings struck again – this time to the tune of four second-half goals. Southampton have now conceded 24 goals in their eight Premier League games (a league record) and with Tottenham next up, things could be about to get worse for the Saints.

Paul Jewell
Ipswich's likeable Liverpudlian manager provided a breath of fresh air when his Bradford side arrived in the Premier League in 1999. He has maintained an affable air ever since and as a breezed into Portman Road in January 2011 as a replacement for the unloved Roy Keane, Jewell was all smiles as he set about trying to deliver the promotion repeatedly promised by chairman Marcus Evans.

However, like Keane and Jim Magilton before him, Jewell has failed to position Ipswich even as contenders for promotion and their latest defeat, 2-1 at Hull, has left the Tractor Boys struggling in 23rd place in the Championship.

After the latest defeat Jewell told reporters that he would “think seriously about” resignation – and having previously walked out at Bradford, Wigan and Derby, he certainly knows where the door is.

Leeds’ reputation
The ‘Dirty Leeds’ moniker that attached itself to the Elland Road club in the 1960s and 1970s referred as much to the tough style of players like Billy Bremner and Norman Hunter as anything inherently rotten about the club and their fans.

Despite widespread historical enmity, Leeds have spent the best part of this millennium picking up a certain sympathy for their many plights, and attempted to shed the unwanted nickname. Pity then that the club's reputation has been dragged (back?) into the mud by the actions of one fan, who ran onto the pitch following his side’s equaliser in the Yorkshire derby with Sheffield Wednesday on Friday night and attacked goalkeeper Chris Kirkland.

Of course, Leeds United cannot be responsible for the actions of all of their fans – and have been quick to ban the protagonist, who has now also been arrested and charged with assault. But there is no doubt that the incident has brought unwanted attention and embarrassment to the club once again known as Dirty Leeds.

Tranmere's unbeaten record
This is as much a doff of the cap to Tranmere’s early season form as it is a commentary on their shock 3-1 reverse at Bournemouth on Saturday. Merseyside's third club have enjoyed a tremendous start to the League One season and remain well placed for a promotion push despite their first defeat of the campaign.

Ronnie Moore will no doubt be quick to chalk up the defeat to the effect of Eddie Howe’s return to the Bournemouth hot-seat and will today set about rallying his men for back-to-back home games this week against play-off chasers Doncaster and Preston.

Northampton Town
Northampton have muddled their way through League Two so far this campaign with strong home performances undermined by poor away non-performances – but there was nothing in their opening 12 games that hinted at Friday’s 4-0 defeat at Barnet.

The league-propping Bees have been Bad Weekend regulars this season but for once, they were the ones doling out the punishment. Perhaps they were inspired by the inclusion of Dutch legend Edgar Davids, or maybe they were galvanised by the unusual setting of a Friday night fixture. Maybe they've summoned the relegation fighting spirit earlier than usual this campaign.

Whatever it was that stimulated this spectacular win, you can sure they’ll be trying it again before Tuesday’s trip to fellow strugglers Wycombe.

Accrington’s Swedish pretensions
The highlight of the international break, other than watching Adrian Chiles trying to fill an hour of watching a roof not close, was Sweden’s visit to Germany.

The Swedes were 3-0 behind by half time and even a Zlatan Ibrahimovic team talk couldn’t prevent them from going four down shortly after the break. But then, the magic: Sweden became the first team in history to come back from 4-0 to Germany after a 93rd-minute equaliser from Rasmus Elm.

Not many in the UK will have seen that game but there were echoes when Accrington Stanley travelled to Oxford on Saturday. Oxford’s Tom Craddock was allowed a first-half hat-trick as Stanley slumped to a 3-0 half-time deficit. Like the Swedes, Stanley conceded a fourth goal (again for Craddock) soon after the break… could the Lancastrians emulate the Scandinavians?

No. Not even Ibrahimovic himself could have saved Accrington on Saturday and by the time Alfie Potter scored to make it 5-0, any thoughts of an unlikely comeback had long since disappeared.

International football
The astonishing events in Germany aside, the international break was met with a trans-European disinterested shrug – European and World Champions Spain didn’t even sell out their draw with France – and it was with open arms that club football was welcomed back all over the continent.

In England, following stuttering performances from the national team against San Marino and Poland, fans were treated to wonderful football and fixtures at all levels. From Chelsea’s 4-2 White Hart Lane win to Bolton winning from 2-0 down against Bristol City, and super games at Walsall, Bristol Rovers, Gillingham and York in Leagues One and Two, the message remained constant throughout: who needs England when you have English football?

Snorkels, hats and love-spuds: World Cup qualifiers in photos

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:40:00 GMT

Action from around the world. Warning: May contain nuts

Be prepared: Poland fans ready for the rearranged England match

Norn Iron fans were 11 minutes from ecstasy but still drew 1-1 in Portugal

Never mind the... Scotland fans once again witness something distasteful

After a German kicking, Republic of Ireland fans found fun in the Faroes

Croatia v Wales: the fans stage their own pre-qualifier game

Dutch fans were typically vibrant – as was their team, winning 4-1 in Romania

Somewhere in there is Olivier Giroud, France's equaliser in a 1-1 draw in Spain

Nein! Schweini can't believe it as Sweden claw a draw from 4-0 down

Honduras celebrate beating Canada 8-1, ending the visitors' qualification hopes

Messi leaves Chile in a blur as Argentina win 2-1

Meanwhile in Brazil, work continues on stadium building. Roll on 2014...

Rising stars and coming forces: Meet football's next big things

Joe Brewin — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 10:30:00 GMT

In the November 2012 edition of FourFourTwo - out now - we reveal twenty of the players who are about to move on up to football's A-list. Some of them are already on the verge of being househole names, while others are going about their business a little more quietly.

Here, we give you the chance to see a few of them in action - with moving pictures and everything...

Nick Powell - Manchester United & England U19

It didn’t take Crewe Alexandra fans long to realise Powell would be the latest young talent fly the nest destined for greater things. Similarly, it didn’t take Manchester United long to realise the player they had on their hands.

Powell, still just 18, shone in League Two with Crewe after breaking into the first team at just 16. YouTube is a haven for the classy midfielder’s stunning goals from last season, in which he scooped the Football League’s coveted Apprentice of the Year award, firing an unstoppable strike in the play-off final against Cheltenham to earn the Railwaymen promotion in the process.

A well-taken goal on his United debut against Wigan was a taste of things to come. Now he must continue to provide Sir Alex Ferguson with further food for thought.

Raheem Sterling - Liverpool & England U21

Not too many things appear to excite Roy Hodgson, but Raheem Sterling is clearly one of them.

Eyebrows were raised when the nimble 17-year-old was called up to the senior national team after just a handful of appearances for Liverpool, but it’s likely that few will be laughing by the end of the campaign.

We’re fairly sure that Stewart Downing’s inability to conjure anything of use for his team-mates last season is the reason behind his extended spell on the bench, although his cause has certainly been done few favours by the Reds’ emerging wing whippet.

Goals like the below, scored last year at the Under-17 World Cup, are what the Anfield faithful can expect soon enough.

Younes Belhanda - Montpellier & Morocco

French-born with north African roots? Pretty good in midfield? We’ll stop ourselves from stumbling over the thought of the next Zidane, but Younes Belhanda was Montpellier’s very own ‘Zizou’ last season.

The intelligent attack-minded playmaker was a shining light of the Ligue 1 side’s historic title success last season, firing 12 goals (including the storming goal-of-the-season howitzer below) as Montpellier lifted the crown.

This season the Moroccan international has the chance to strut his stuff in the Champions League. The 22-year-old stuck with Montpellier despite reported interest from several high-profile clubs, but it seems only a matter of time before greater things come his way.

Lorenzo Insigne - Napoli & Italy

This pint-sized prodigy may stand at just 5ft4in, but so far there is no talk of him falling short in Italy.

The explosive 21-year-old has risen through the ranks at hometown club Napoli and, after a string of successful loan spells, is now mixing it up with the likes of Edinson Cavani and Marek Hamsik in the first team.

The loss of Ezequiel Lavezzi’s was Insigne’s gain, with the youngster now slotting into PSG-bound forward's berth on the left. It’s a position which perfectly suits the silky starlet’s key traits; namely dribbling ability and an intricate style which leave Serie A defenders cursing and, frankly, rather dizzy.

Cristian Tello - Barcelona & Spain U21

These days it’s hardly a surprising when Barcelona unearth another next gem and slot him seamlessly into their front three. But with plenty of established ammunition ahead in the pecking order, it’s perhaps not a given that the latest La Masia youngsters will spill into the first team at will.

That, however, was exactly how things went down for flying forward Cristian Tello. The talented 21-year-old made his Barcelona league debut in January this year and followed that with a neat goal on his full debut against Real Sociedad.

Tello’s Champions League debut against Bayer Leverkusen – a 7-1 win - was drizzled in Barca brilliance. While pesky Argentine Lionel Messi stole the show with a nonchalant five-goal haul, Tello was on hand with the other pair to announce himself to Europe with a roar.

Premier League clubs circled in the summer, but the early signs this season suggest a prominent role for the nimble star.

Isco - Malaga & Spain U21

This season looks perfectly poised to be Isco’s in the spotlight.

The Spain under-21 international watched with joy as Malaga sold star man Santi Cazorla to Arsenal in the summer, paving the way for an even more prominent role for the supremely talented dribble wizard this season.

After being snapped up from La Liga rivals Valencia the previous summer, Isco enjoyed an outstanding campaign as Malaga qualified for the Champions League in fourth place.

The 20-year-old, who boasts impeccable vision, awareness and bags of confidence to boot, cracked a wonderful brace in a scintillating man-of-the-match display against Zenit St. Petersburg last month.

Watch out, Europe.

Oscar - Chelsea & Brazil

Brazilian midfield maestro Oscar has made a swift impression in Chelsea’s playmaker-packed midfield since his summer arrival from Internacional.

Perhaps it was a blistering full debut in the Champions League against Juventus that made Roberto Di Matteo’s mind up. "Whenever I have the ball at my feet I know exactly what to do," Oscar declared to FFT earlier this month. After seeing his wonderful brace against the Serie A champions, we’re not doubting that.

Blessed with a keen eye for goal, fancy footwork and a dazzling catalogue of tricks, the 21-year-old has already cemented his place in Brazil’s senior squad. A brace against Iraq, plus goals against Argentina and China, have certainly done his future chances no harm.

Ganso - Sao Paulo & Brazil

Paulo Henrique Ganso, otherwise known simply as Ganso, might have a rubbish Brazilian name (Goose) but his abilities on a football pitch go without ridicule.

Once labelled as 'the greatest revelation Brazil has produced in the last decade' by late Selecao legend Socrates, Ganso disappointed European scouts by joining homeland giants Sao Paulo this summer.

A glittering presence in midfield, the 23-year-old has drawn comparisons with an early Kaka after bamboozling Brazilian Serie A defences for almost four years at former club Santos.

It seems only logical for Europe’s finest to come calling sooner rather than later.

Radamel Falcao - Atletico Madrid & Colombia

OK, the prolific Atletico Madrid striker is hardly a new face – but isn’t it time he started regularly competing for the game's major honours?

The deadly 26-year-old set la Primera alight with a sensational debut season at the Vicente Calderon, firing 36 goals in only 49 league and European matches for Diego Simeone’s troops last season.

He was, of course, pivotal in their Europa League success and subsequently sunk Champions League winners Chelsea with a breathtaking hat-trick in the Super Cup final.

Need we go on? We could, but in essence all you really have to do is take a look at the Colombia international’s dreamy goal below...

Eden Hazard - Chelsea & Belgium

By now the new Chelsea fans’ favourite has already made his abilities known in the Premier League – but this is surely only the beginning.

An inspirational 2011/12 campaign with Lille in Ligue 1 was the product of four season’s worth of hard work and now is the Belgian’s time to bring his talents to England.

In 38 league games he scored 20 goals and conjured 15 assists from the wing. Essentially he was supremely deadly, productive and a downright pain in the backside for opposition defences.

The gifted 21-year-old has already netted twice and laid on six goals for his team-mates at Stamford Bridge this season. Now the only way is up from here.

For the full list, check out the November issue of FourFourTwo, OUT NOW!

Bad Weekend: Beatles, Bond, Brunton, Bury and beatings

Simon Carter — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 10:03:00 GMT

It was a bad weekend for…

England 2012
In October 1962, The Beatles issued their first single, Love Me Do. The significance of the debut was of course lost on the unknowing British public who purchased only enough copies to see it eventually limp to number 17 in the charts.

In that same October – in fact, the very next day – Dr No, starring a bewigged Sean Connery as James Bond, was released nationwide, marking the very first instance of 007 on our cinema screens and sparking a dynasty what would last six Bonds, 23 movies and counting.

And later that month, following a disappointing 1-1 home draw with France and an underwhelming 3-1 win in Northern Ireland, Alf Ramsey was appointed as England’s first “proper manager”.

So what have those monumental events from fifty years ago got to do with England’s run-of-the-mill 5-0 victory over San Marino on Friday? Not a lot, to be honest. In that era-creating month of October 1962, The Beatles, Bond and England all stood on the verge of global greatness; the same cannot be said of ‘Roy’s Boys’.

San Marino are, undoubtedly and demonstrably, terrible. Such is their slate of results and reputation that almost 90,000 bloodthirsty England fans bought tickets for Friday’s game, packing out Wembley in the manner of Romans attending a gladiatorial battle or, to bring it back to 2012, attendees at The Hunger Games.

Yes, England won 5-0 and yes, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s first England goal was as welcome as it was well-executed. But to give the result some context, when San Marino last visited Wembley in February 1993, Graham Taylor’s men ran out 6-0 winners with goals from David Platt, Les Ferdinand and Carlton Palmer. Yes, Carlton Palmer.

Carlisle
Carlisle United had enjoyed a quiet week since their creditable away win at Walsall last weekend. They weren’t called upon for Football League Trophy action (having been knocked out by Preston in early September) and other than a bit of admin required to rearrange a postponed trip to Bury, the preparation for the visit of Notts County to Brunton Park on Saturday was more than satisfactory.

Until The Magpies showed up. County dominated throughout, scoring two goals in each half to come away with a 4-0 win. When you’re the oldest professional side in the world, as County are, it’s not very often that you break club records (150 years’ worth of football means that most records have already been set and are unbeatable – their biggest win was in 1885 for instance) but the win was the 13th consecutive occasion that Notts County have avoided defeat on their travels – the first time in their history they have achieved this feat.

But where do Carlisle go from here? To Bury, for that rearranged game. And with the Shakers' 3-2 defeat at Crawley leaving them rooted to the foot of the table, Gigg Lane isn’t a bad place to go when you’re looking for a morale-boosting win.

Exeter City
It would be easy, when searching for Saturday strugglers in League Two, to look no further than Barnet’s 4-1 home reverse to Plymouth and Aldershot’s demoralising 4-0 hammering at Gillingham (the Shots' fifth defeat in a row). But the woes of the league’s bottom two clubs are well documented and neither loss was unexpected.

Further up the table, however, supporter-owned Exeter City are starting to watch the wheels fall off their season. Relegated from League One in May, the Grecians started the season poorly with a 3-0 defeat at home to Morecambe but then went on a six-game unbeaten run that included five victories and put them within touching distance of the top.

But a defeat to promotion-seeking Southend at the end of September sparked a sequence of losses that was broken only by the regulation victory over Barnet. Losing 3-0 on Saturday to Northampton, who have had a mediocre season so far, has left Exeter clinging on to the play-off places.

The play-offs would be a decent return from a season that manager Paul Tisdale admits is all about rebuilding his side following the departure of key players, but fans will hope that this dismal sequence doesn’t see a return of last season’s habit of putting together poor runs. Exeter only won two of 2011/12's opening 13 games – and only two of the season's final 14 fixtures.

Will the visit of under-achieving Chesterfield and a trip to over-achieving Dagenham & Redbridge breathe new life into their season or will the bad form continue? It depends which Exeter turn up.

England in pictures

FourFourTwo Team — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 09:20:00 GMT

Duty calls: the players arrive for training

Vaulting ambition: Roy Hodgson gives Trevor Brooking the slip

Roy wonders: Where's everybody gone?

New call-up Fraser Forster unfurls his full 6ft7in frame

Theo and Chambo model the fetching salmon pink bibs

Captain, manager and media bod at the press conference

In the new issue: The Next Big Things and the hardest coach ever

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 09:39:00 GMT

Futurology is a difficult business. As anyone who's followed FourFourTwo since 1994 will know, some of our Boy's A Bit Special predictions have turned out rather ordinary. But then, sometimes you just know when a player is on the cusp of greatness. And just as it's better to travel than to arrive, sometimes the excitement of anticipation is the best of all.

Show me more!

So it is with barely-contained glee that in the new issue of FourFourTwo we unveil 20 players on the brink of brilliance at Manchester United, AC Milan, Liverpool, Barcelona, Manchester City, Real Madrid, Everton and more. Some you'll know, some you may not, but they're all worth a look. Remember the names…

Once one for the future, Jonathan Woodgate has ended up having a decidedly 'interesting' career. As he returns home to Middlesbrough he pauses to answer your One-on-One questions with honesty and not a little wit.

As usual, we've been watching the game at all levels, and used our unrivalled access to bring you all the best stories – from the stars to the gutter. We whip up a what-next for Wayne Rooney and peep behind the scenes at Juventus, but we also spend some time at Britain's most dysfunctional club (Port Vale, since you ask) and meet the drug-smuggler whose performances for his prison team won him a professional contract. (He's not one of the Next Big Things, though.)

From elsewhere in Planet Football we bring you the majorettes making training fun at Hannover, the world's most crazy football stadia (including one made out of a crocodile) and the fans travelling 1,000km for every home game.

In our player-enhancing Performance section this month, you'll get Rio Ferdinand on defensive headers, Patrick Vieira on protecting your back four, stretching advice from Olympian Louis Smith and a trip round Carlton Cole's mind gym.

And because we like a look back, we also round up the game's best-ever moustaches and recall the career: Alan Brown, perhaps the hardest coach we've ever heard of, and the man who made Brian Clough. Thanks for that, Mr Brown sir.

This issue of FourFourTwo was brought to you by Jonathan Woodgate, Nobby Solano, Paul Fairclough, Michael Kightly, Peter Reid, Colin Kazim-Richards, Patrick Vieira, Colin Doyle, Ali Al-Habsi, Michel Salgado, The Player, Raheem Sterling, Mickael Landreau, Philippe Albert, Enzo Scifo, Rio Mavuba, John Guidetti, Oscar, Maxim Molokoedov, Jamie Lawrence, Micky Quinn, Robbie Savage, Neven Subotic, Benjamin Huggel, Mauro Camoranesi, Rio Ferdinand, Adam Le Fondre, Patrick Vieira, Louis Smith, Carlton Cole and Razor Ruddock.

Show me more!

PS in a forthcoming issue we'll be looking for every team's best goal ever – and we want your help. More details: Name your club's best goal ever. Thanks!

Bad Weekend For: Scottish managers and a Senegalese striker

Simon Carter — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 09:40:00 GMT

The English leagues' weekend woe-sufferers, compiled by Simon Carter

Manchester United
It’s difficult to judge exactly the effect that losing the Premier League title in the dying moments of last season had on Manchester United, though the general consensus throughout the summer seemed to be that Sir Alex Ferguson’s side were a wounded animal, desperate to regain supremacy.

Judging by their league performances this season, injured stars notwithstanding, United are still licking their wounds. A surprisingly toothless opening day defeat to Everton was followed by four straight victories, but only the 4-0 home win over Wigan was anything like convincing.

Following a template first set last season by sides such as Basel, Ajax and Athletic Bilbao, opposition sides now see the Red Devils as a team that can be chased and harried – and as a team that are not too difficult to score against. Both Fulham and Southampton scored twice against the 19-time champions and only a lack of quality finishing prevented Liverpool from scoring more than once last weekend.

In short, Saturday teatime’s 3-2 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur – Spurs’ first victory over United since 2001, and their first at Old Trafford since 1989 – had been coming (though credit must go to Spurs for putting United to the sword where others have failed).

There's no doubt that with the likes of Paul Scholes, Shinji Kagawa, Nani, Wayne Rooney, Antonio Valencia and Robin van Persie, United are a formidable attacking force – as demonstrated by their second-half siege of the Spurs’ goal – but a lightweight midfield and a porous defence seem certain to undermine their offensive strength.

Next up for Manchester United is a trip to Newcastle, where they were soundly beaten 3-0 in January, and they must also travel to league leaders Chelsea before the month is out. United fans will certainly hope that their team soon show the kind of form that took them to within three minutes of the title last season.

Papiss Cisse
To the casual observer it would seem that there’s an unwritten rule that Newcastle’s Senegalese attackers, Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse, cannot both enjoy good form at the same time.

Demba Ba started last season in scintillating form, scoring 15 goals before the end of the year (including two Premier League hat-tricks) before international teammate Cisse joined in the January transfer window. It has been well documented that Ba’s form dipped as Cisse’s star rose, with the former only scoring one further goal last season while the latter hit 13.

Of course, it would be rather simplistic to say that the two of them can’t play together – Ba’s goalscoring drought should largely be attributed to his manager’s decision to play him on the left wing whenever Cisse was present – but with Ba once again starting the season in great form, Cisse has struggled to find the net, scoring only once, in the League Cup defeat at Manchester United.

On Saturday, Ba and Cisse started together against Reading with Ba scoring twice (the first a magnificent strike, the second via his hand) and Cisse drawing another blank. To underline how poorly Cisse performed, Alan Pardew withdrew the target man after 69 minutes when Newcastle were 2-1 behind and needing a goal. After playing every minute of Newcastle’s opening three fixtures, Cisse has now been hauled off in each of the last three games.

Cisse has shown throughout his career that he is too good for this drought to continue (scoring 52 goals in just 81 games in his last four seasons) but if he wants to avoid many more weekends like this one, he’ll have to find his magic boots sooner rather than later.

Everton’s opponents
Momentum is second only to luck as the major mystical force that decides a team’s fate, and all eyes were on Everton this weekend to see how they would react to a shock League Cup exit to Leeds during the week. When The Toffees fell behind after just six minutes at home to Southampton (who had won their midweek tie), it seemed as though momentum had won again.

But by half time, Everton were home and dry at 3-1 ahead, after a goal from Leon Osman and two from Nikica Jelavic ensured the Goodison Park club’s impressive start to the season continued apace. While Liverpool were busy at Carrow Road proving that talk of a shift in power in Merseyside may be a little premature, there’s no doubt that any club facing David Moyes’ boys in their current form can expect to have a bad weekend.

A listless defeat to West Brom early in September is the only blip for Everton who, but for some dreadful refereeing decisions in their 2-2 draw with Newcastle, would only be a point off pacesetters Chelsea.

Playing terrific football, with an unleashed Marouane Fellaini particularly impressive, Everton threaten to fill Newcastle’s place as everybody’s second favourite team. Moyes said after the win against Southampton that he would have paid to watch his side, but the way Everton are playing, even he might struggle to get a ticket for their next home game: a genuinely mouth-watering derby with Liverpool.

Bolton Wanderers
It’s fair to say that things are absolutely not going to plan for Bolton. Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat to Crystal Palace leaves the preseason promotion favourites languishing in 18th spot in The Championship.

Over the summer, Owen Coyle was allowed to clear the players he didn't want and keep the ones he did, brusquely turning down a £4m Swansea offer for Mark Davies. Bolton seemed to be the best bounce-back bet of the three relegated clubs, given Wolves’ terrible campaign and the farce at Blackburn (which may end following Steve Kean’s departure – but may not). However, despite Coyle's claim that his side are “playing at a high standard”, The Trotters have found goals, clean sheets and wins hard to come by.

With three away defats in four, Bolton need to make the Reebok a fortress but the fans are staying away – only 16,000 saw their side outpassed, out-shot and ultimately outscored on Saturday – and Coyle is facing increasing calls for his dismissal; although he will never be as unpopular with Bolton fans as predecessor Gary Megson, he needs swift and strong action to regain their belief in him.

Tomorrow’s visit of Leeds would be the perfect place to start, but with Phil Gartside having repeated that Bolton's finances require promotion and Coyle's side woefully below his pre-season target of two points per game, it's not beyond belief that another goalless home defeat could signal the end – and Kean may not be only Scottish manager to leave Lancashire this week.

Basement Boys
No manager likes to mention the ‘R’ word, and October 1st is admittedly early to be talking about relegation, but every league table shows a dotted line of doom above the drop slots and it’s hard not to be drawn into early speculations.

In the Premier League’s basement this weekend, Norwich suffered a demoralising 5-2 home defeat while Reading were twice pegged back to be denied their first win of the season.

In League One, Bury remain rooted to the bottom despite a decent 2-2 draw at Stevenage while the four teams above them all played each other. Oldham will know they should have done much better than to lose 1-0 at home to Coventry and Hartlepool will no doubt be disappointed to have been rolled over so easily by Colchester.

It’s not all doom and gloom in the drop zone. Peterborough’s surprise win at Hull, thanks to a wonderful hat-trick from Emile Sinclair, meant that The Championship’s bottom three enjoyed an unbeaten day (Millwall and Ipswich earned draws at Burnley and Barnsley respectively) – but in League Two, the story is very different.

With only two relegation spots available, Barnet and Wycombe have spent the opening weeks making those places their own. Saturday afternoon was familiarly unpleasant for Wanderers, who sacked manager Gary Waddock last week, as they were walloped 3-0 at fellow strugglers Dagenham & Redbridge.

Barnet will consider themselves unlucky, having lead at Fleetwood before having goalkeeper Graham Stack sent off on 29 minutes, but with only two points on the board and games imminent against promotion hopefuls Exeter and Southend, the permanently drop-dodging Bees seem set to stay Basement Boys for some time.

Name your club's best goal ever

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 13:21:00 GMT

In a forthcoming FourFourTwo we'll be celebrating goals, goals, goals. In a special issue fronted by a world exclusive interview with Lionel Messi, we'll be celebrating the finest goals and goalscorers our game has ever produced.

And we want your help. We want to name and describe the best goal ever scored by each of the 92 English League and 12 SPL clubs. So which of your team's finest moments deserves description?

Your submissions are welcomed via Twitter, Facebook and Google+ (especially the latter two, where you've more room to wax lyrical); we'll include the best comments in the magazine. Links to videos are also very much appreciated: we anticipate some very pleasant viewing. It's a dirty job, etc.

So, tell us your club's finest goals. Not the most important ones – as misty-eyed as Chelsea fans may get over Didier Drogba's Champions League-winning penalty, it's hardly showreel stuff. We want your long-range wallops, intricate team moves and startlingly violent volleys.

As an extra incentive, in the issue we'll be naming the Greatest Goals Ever. Will your lot make the cut? Tell us why they should, via email, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook. Go(al)!

Email contact@fourfourtwo.com (use subject "Best Goal" and name your club)
Twitter @FourFourTwo using hashtag #ourbestgoal
Facebook facebook.com/FourFourTwo
Google+ plus.google.com/+FourFourTwo

John Bond in pictures

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 11:10:00 GMT

The former player and manager John Bond has died at the age of 79. We pay pictorial tribute to the former West Ham and Torquay right-back who went on to manage Bournemouth, Norwich, Manchester City, Burnley, Swansea, Birmingham and Shrewsbury.

7 January 1953: The 20-year-old Bond (at left) and West Ham team-mates including Malcolm Allison (second right) and future Manchester United manager Frank O'Farrell (right) help George Wright make a wool rug. No, really.

12 August 1954: Bond (bottom left) chats to Allison while they help team-mates practise piggyback-heading. As you do.

14 February 1956: The best way to prepare for a Cup tie against Blackburn? A seawater bath, enjoyed at Hove by (from top) Bond, Allison, John Dick and O'Farrell.

12 April 1961: At a rather different Upton Park, new Hammers gaffer and future England boss Ron Greenwood chats with his new players including Bond (far right) and, third right, Bobby Moore.

28 July 1976: Rocking the Admiral look as Norwich boss. He took the Canaries to the top flight in his third promotion as manager, and led them out at Wembley in the 1975 League Cup Final, which they lost to Aston Villa.

7 February 1981: Double sheepskin action with Peter Swales, chairman of Man City, where Bond had replaced Allison. Later that year he took City to the FA Cup Final but lost to Spurs.

1 May 1993: On his new-fangled portable telephone at Shrewsbury. He resigned shortly after and, by then in his sixties, effectively retired.

15 Jan 2000: One last job. Nearing 70, Bond is hired as Wigan's chief scout by Latics boss John Benson, his right-hand man during the glory days at Norwich and Man City.

5 August 1958: In his pomp halfway through his playing days at West Ham, where the goalscoring right-back was known as 'Muffin' for his ability to kick like a mule.

Bad Weekend For: Loss leaders, a lost leader, Owls and Blues

Simon Carter — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 09:35:00 GMT

Simon Carter surveys the English leagues for Saturday and Sunday sufferers

Lousy leaders
Ask a million different football fans what it is they love most about the game and chances are you’ll get a million different answers. But ask those same million fans to recount their most cherished memory and you can bet that a high percentage of them will regale you with play-by-play accounts of their favourite goals.

It’s the rarity of the goal that makes it so special, it’s what makes our sport so unique, and the feeling of seeing your side roar into the lead is one that’s hard to beat.

Except sometimes not everything goes to plan and the goal that put you in front is nothing but a cruel precursor to a heart-breaking defeat. All four divisions included teams that dangled the carrot of victory in front of their supporters only to throw it all away.

In the Premier League, Aston Villa led (albeit against the run of play) 1-0 at half-time, thanks to a gift of a goal from a Southampton defence still shaken from last week’s shellacking at Arsenal. Whatever Nigel Adkins said at half-time – maybe he’s invested in a hairdryer – clearly worked as the Saints ran four goals past Villa in a very one-sided second half.

On Sunday, Liverpool were ahead against Manchester United through a superb Steven Gerrard strike, despite being reduced to 10 men, before a wonderful goal by Rafael and a penalty from Robin van Persie left them defeated for the third time in five league games. At White Hart Lane, QPR seemed to be in with a shout of a first win of the season when leading 1-0 at half-time against Tottenham. Unfortunately for the Hoops, two goals in two minutes left them defeated and second from bottom in the league.

There was more of the same in The Championship where Derby let a 1-0 lead turn into a defeat at home to Burnley on Saturday, and Cardiff somehow turned a 2-0 half-time advantage into a 3-2 defeat at Palace. In League One, Preston slipped from 1-0 to 1-3 at Walsall and Crawley saw their 2-1 lead against league leaders Tranmere turn into a heavy 2-5 home defeat.

In League Two, both Morecambe and Rochdale let a two-goal lead slip, though Rochdale can console themselves with at least holding on to a 2-2 draw with Dagenham & Redbridge, while Exeter’s decent start to the season was undermined by conceding two in the last 15 minutes to lose 2-1 at Southend.

As any fan knows, it's better to have something from nothing than to throw it all away. The question is, would you rather have never been in front?

September Owls
September is traditionally a good month for owls. Their preferred dining options, mice and hedgehogs, are fully grown plentiful and scurrying around competing for food and shelter, making them easy pickings for the predators. Plus the earlier nights and later mornings means all the more time for hunting.

But for those Championship-roosting Owls of Sheffield Wednesday, September has been the cruellest month. Unbeaten since Dave Jones took charge in March – during which time they have escaped League One and defeated Fulham in the League Cup – Wednesday finally succumbed 2-1 to Palace on the first day of September.

A break for international football followed, but Wednesday’s next outing was a 3-0 thumping at Brighton before a sorry home derby defeat to Huddersfield. On Saturday they faced a Bolton side who, like them, had garnered seven points from their opening six games but who will have their eyes on promotion this season as opposed to Wednesday’s survival hopes.

Given the clubs' differing aspirations, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Bolton came away from Hillsborough with a 2-1 win but that is little solace for Owls fans who are seeing their club’s worst run since their relegation season two years ago.

Before September is over, Wednesday must travel to Southampton in the League Cup before facing a trip to promotion-chasing Wolves next Saturday. On the bright side, the visit to Molineux completes September’s fixtures and October can’t be that bad. Can it?

Championship Blues (Again)
Last week we reported on the plight of a Birmingham side who had limped to just one win in their first five games of the new season. It looks as though we might have focused on them seven days too early.

For a Saturday tea-time get-together, Lee Clark's side welcomed a Barnsley side who hadn't won at St Andrew’s this millennium and who hadn't kept a clean sheet in their last 24 away games. What followed could only be described as disastrous for the Blues as Barnsley carved the home side open time and time again.

Birmingham will have counted themselves lucky to be level at half-time, but if they learned any lessons they didn’t show it when Stephen Forster opened the scoring before Birmingham fan Craig Davies scored four goals to inflict his favourite team’s heaviest home defeat in recent memory.

Clark used his post match interview to describe the performance as “devastating” and “lifeless”. With imminent games against table-topping Brighton and perennial contenders Cardiff, Clark needs a lifeline from somewhere.

John Terry
Who knows what drove the former England captain to announce his “heart-breaking” retirement from international football late on Sunday night, though he may have jumped before being pushed. With an FA disciplinary hearing over the Ferdinand farrago scheduled for Monday, Terry was left out of Chelsea's Saturday win against Stoke amid rumours that his mind was not on the game.

In a statement, Terry said that “the FA, in pursuing charges against me where I have already been cleared in a court of law, have made my position with the national team untenable” before wishing England future success.

Whatever people think about John Terry as an individual, it cannot be argued that he didn’t give everything to the cause during each of his 78 caps – and that his position in the heart of the Three Lions' defence will be a big one to fill.

Bad Weekend For: Saints’ sinning defence and pre-match handshakes

Simon Carter — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 10:45:00 GMT

A look across the English leagues for the Saturday and Sunday sufferers, with Simon Carter...

Saints’ Sinning Defence
Fans of the Premier League have over the years been treated to some remarkable examples of what the momentum of promotion can do for teams tipped as relegation fodder. Ipswich Town’s fifth place finish in 2000/01 is perhaps the most striking example, but teams such as Portsmouth in 2004, Wigan Athletic two years later and Reading in 2007 have all enjoyed fine seasons following promotion from the Championship.

Unfortunately, the momentum that Southampton had built up over the past two years had little chance of carrying through into this season after the fixture computer dealt them a nightmarish start.

Decent showings against the Manchester clubs sandwiched a terrible performance at home to Wigan and, without a point to their name, it would have been far-fetched to expect anything better than a spirited defeat against Arsenal on Saturday.

But even that proved to be a wish too far, as Southampton crumbled in a shocking first half at the Emirates Stadium in which they conceded four goals, two of them scored by members of their own back four.

Although the talented Nathaniel Clyne’s own goal had a huge slice of misfortune, Jos Hooiveld, the Dutch defender who impressed as a goal getting centre-back for Saints last year, would have been expected to do far better with his clumsy effort. In fact he looked so flustered that he was taken off after just half an hour.

With 14 goals already conceded this season and the transfer window closed, Nigel Adkins clearly has some work to do on the training ground before his side welcome Aston Villa - who recorded their first win on Saturday - to St Mary’s next weekend.

The Championship Blues
Birmingham City’s League Cup win against Arsenal just over eighteen months ago, arguably the catalyst for that year’s relegation, must now seem like a memory almost as distant as their triumph in the same competition back in 1963.

After an adventurous 2011/12 which included highlights such as European football and a 6-0 thrashing of Millwall at The New Den and ended in the heartbreak of play-Off defeat, fans at St Andrews were hoping their side would go one or two steps further this season.

The disappointment of seeing the much-liked Chris Hughton depart for Norwich City over the summer was tempered by the arrival of promising young manager Lee Clark, who had more than impressed during his time at Huddersfield Town. However, five games in to his tenure, Birmingham find themselves at the lower end of the table with only one league win thus far.

After beating Peterborough just before the international break, the Blues looked to be on course to really kick start their season when cruising 2-0 away to Nottingham Forest on Saturday afternoon. before two goals in fifteen minutes meant they had to settle for a point. With their team dumped out of the League Cup by lower league opposition and adrift in the Championship, fans will be hoping that the rumoured take-over will happen sooner rather than later.

But fans of Ipswich would perhaps warn the Birmingham faithful to be careful what they wish for. Marcus Evans arrived at Portman Road back in 2007 with deep pockets and a five-year plan. The notoriously private Evans funded £8m worth of signings in his first three years but has since sanctioned almost nothing, with the £8.1m received for Connor Wickham nowhere to be seen.

With 15th, 13th and 15th placed finishes in the last three seasons, Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Middlesbrough, which leaves Ipswich in the bottom three, will have done nothing to convince fans that The Tractor Boys are heading in the right direction.

The Pre-Match Handshake
The September issue of FourFourTwo included a feature on the sorry ritual of the pre match handshake, with calls from the likes of QPR manager Mark Hughes to put an end to the forced geniality.

Saturday saw the traditional (if you can call nine years a tradition) practice take another beating as QPR’s Anton Ferdinand refused the hand of both Chelsea captain, John Terry, and England’s Ashley Cole.

Whatever the rights or wrongs of Ferdinand’s decision, the truth is that the very presence of the customary shake brought tensions borne from last season’s fall-out and the summer’s court case back to the surface. It might be naïve to suggest that without the handshake the tension would not have existed but at least it wouldn’t have been highlighted in front of the watching world.

West Country Woes
It’s quite rare for a whole region to be struck by a general malaise, the legendary ‘grimness’ of the North notwithstanding, but Saturday saw a particularly black cloud form over the West Country.

In the Championship, Bristol City stood to earn a good point at home to Blackburn Rovers after twice coming from behind to sit level at 3-3 as the clock struck 90 minutes. Regrettably, that seemed to act as a signal for City to stop playing, allowing first Scott Dann, and then Jordan Rhodes to grab all three points to send Blackburn to the top of the league.

The West Country’s sole representatives in League One, Yeovil Town, only had enough fit players to name a squad of 17 so perhaps they’ll be able to take their 1-0 defeat to MK Dons squarely on their depleted chin. But Bristol Rovers of League Two have no such excuse for their full squad going down 4-0 to league leaders Gillingham in a match that was over at half time with the score already at 3-0.

The Devon sides, Torquay and Exeter, both failed to win with Torquay falling 1-0 to Rotherham and Exeter drawing 1-1 away to York to deliver at least the faintest ray of sunshine to West Country supporters.

The final dose of misery came from Plymouth Argyle, who somehow contrived to concede three goals in 12 minutes to turn a 1-0 half time lead into a 3-1 home defeat to Port Vale.

Now where’s that cider?

Manchester United Fans
There is no doubting the past seven days have been some of the most momentous in the history of English football, and Liverpool in particular. Some of the coverage of the findings of the Hillsborough Report, which investigated the circumstances which led to the disaster of April 1989, has been excellent and is well worth seeking out.

There is, at last, overwhelming hope that the families of the 96 who died that day may finally receive justice, and all of football united in their disgust at the cover ups which led to the truth of what happened being buried for 23 years.

On Friday, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson used his pre-match press conference as a platform to implore fans of his club to once and for all put an end to tasteless chants about the disaster.

While some supporters claim it is tit-for-tat and that Liverpool fans regularly sing about the Munich disaster, the proximity to the report and the depth of feeling that came with it, and with United facing a trip to Liverpool next week, meant that this weekend was a particularly sensitive one.

If reports are to be believed a small section of the United support ignored Ferguson’s pleas and continued to sing songs alluding to the tragedy. While it has been asserted by the Manchester United Supporter’s Trust that the chants were about the Patrice Evra – Luis Suarez race row, the fact that the song in question refers to Liverpool fans as “victims” and that it’s “never [their] fault” meant that, at best, singing the song was a public relations disaster for the United support.

With United beginning to find form, it will be hoped that the supporters concentrate on singing songs about their own team in future.

Hillsborough: David Cameron's statement in full

FourFourTwo Team — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 13:02:00 GMT

After the Hillsborough Independent Panel examined nearly half a million documents – many previously unseen – relating to the 1989 disaster, Prime Minister David Cameron gave a statement to Parliament. Here is that astounding statement in full.

"Today the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Reverend James Jones, is publishing the report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel. The disaster at the Hillsborough football stadium on 15 April 1989 was one of the greatest peacetime tragedies of the last century. Ninety-six people died as a result of a crush in the Leppings Lane Terrace at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

There was a public inquiry at the time by Lord Justice Taylor which found – and I quote – that the main cause of the disaster was "a failure of police control". But the inquiry didn't have access to all the documents that have since become available. It didn't properly examine the response of the emergency services, it was followed by a deeply controversial inquest and by a media version of events that sought to blame the fans.

As a result, the families have not heard the truth and have not found justice. That is why the previous government – and in particular the Rt Hon Member for Leigh – was right to set up this panel. And it is why this government insisted that no stone should be left unturned and that all papers should be made available to the Bishop of Liverpool and his team.

Mr Speaker, in total over 450,000 pages of evidence have been reviewed. It was right that the families should see the report first. As a result the government has only had a very limited amount of time to study the evidence so far. But it is already very clear that many of the report's findings are deeply distressing.

There are three areas in particular: the failure of the authorities to help protect people; the attempt to blame the fans; and the doubt cast on the original coroner' s inquest. Let me take each in turn.

FAILURE OF THE AUTHORITIES

First, there is new evidence about how the authorities failed. There is a trail of new documents which show the extent to which the safety of the crowd at Hillsborough was "compromised at every level".

The ground failed to meet minimum standards and the "deficiencies were well-known". The turnstiles were inadequate. The ground capacity had been significantly over-calculated. The crush barriers failed to meet safety standards. There had been a crush at exactly the same match the year before. And today's report shows clearly that lessons had not been learnt.

The report backs up again the key finding of the Taylor Report on police failure. But it goes further by revealing for the first time the shortcomings of the ambulance and emergency services response.

The major incident plan was not fully implemented. Rescue attempts were held back by failures of leadership and co-ordination. And, significantly, new documents today show there was a delay from the emergency services when people were being crushed and killed.

ATTEMPT TO BLAME THE FANS

Second, the families have long believed that some of the authorities attempted to create a completely unjust account of events that sought to blame the fans for what happened. Mr Speaker, the families were right. The evidence in today's report includes briefings to the media and attempts by the police to change the record of events.

On the media. Several newspapers reported false allegations that fans were drunk and violent and stole from the dead. The Sun's report sensationalised these allegations under a banner headline "The Truth". This was clearly wrong and caused huge offence, distress and hurt.

News International has co-operated with the panel and, for the first time, today's report reveals that the source for these despicable untruths was a Sheffield news agency reporting conversations with South Yorkshire Police and Irvine Patnick, the then MP for Sheffield Hallam.

The report finds that this was part of police efforts – and I quote – "to develop and publicise a version of events that focused on allegations of drunkenness, ticketlessness and violence."

In terms of changing the record of events, we already know that police reports were significantly altered but the full extent was not drawn to Lord Justice Taylor's attention. Today's report finds that 164 statements were significantly amended – and 116 explicitly removed negative comments about the policing operation, including its lack of leadership.

The report also makes important findings about particular actions taken by the police and coroner while investigating the deaths. There is new evidence which shows that police officers carried out police national computer checks on those who had died in an attempt – and I quote from the report – "to impugn the reputations of the deceased"'

The coroner took blood alcohol levels from all of the deceased including children. The panel finds no rationale whatsoever for what it regards as an "exceptional" decision. The report states clearly that the attempt of the inquest to draw a link between blood alcohol and late arrival was "fundamentally flawed", and that alcohol consumption was "unremarkable and not exceptional for a social or leisure occasion".

Mr Speaker, over all these years questions have been raised about the role of the government – including whether it did enough to uncover the truth.

It is certainly true that some of the language in the government papers published today was insensitive. But having been through every document – and every government document, including cabinet minutes will be published – the panel found no evidence of any government trying to conceal the truth.

At the time of the Taylor Report the then prime minister was briefed by her private secretary that the defensive and – I quote – "close to deceitful" behaviour of senior South Yorkshire officers was "depressingly familiar". And it is clear that the then government thought it right that the chief constable of South Yorkshire should resign.

But as the Rt Hon Member for Leigh has rightly highlighted, governments then and since have simply not done enough to challenge publicly the unjust and untrue narrative that sought to blame the fans.

ORIGINAL CORONER'S INQUEST

Third, and perhaps most significantly of all, the Bishop of Liverpool's report presents new evidence which casts significant doubt over the adequacy of the original inquest.

The coroner – on the advice of pathologists – believed that victims suffered traumatic asphyxia leading to unconsciousness within seconds and death within a few minutes. As a result, he asserted that beyond 3.15pm there were no actions that could have changed the fate of the victims and he limited the scope of the inquest accordingly.

But by analysing post-mortem reports the panel have found that 28 did not have obstruction of blood circulation and 31 had evidence of heart and lungs continuing to function after the crush.

This means that individuals in those groups could have had potentially reversible asphyxia beyond 3.15pm, in contrast to the findings of the coroner and a subsequent judicial review. And the panel states clearly that "it is highly likely that what happened to those individuals after 3.15pm was significant" in determining whether they died.

Mr Speaker, the conclusions of this report will be harrowing for many of the families affected. Anyone who has lost a child knows the pain never leaves you. But to read a report years afterwards that says – and I quote – "a swifter, more appropriate, better focused and properly equipped response had the potential to save more lives" can only add to the pain.

It is for the attorney general to decide whether to apply to the High Court to quash the original inquest and seek a new one. In this capacity he acts independently of government. And he will need to examine the evidence himself. But it is clear to me that the new evidence in today's report raises vital questions which must be examined. And the attorney general has assured me that he will examine this new evidence immediately and reach a decision as fast as possible. But ultimately it is for the High Court to decide.

It is also right that the House should have an opportunity to debate the issues raised in this report fully. My Rt Hon Friend the home secretary will be taking forward a debate in government time. And this will happen when the House returns in October.

Mr Speaker, I want to be very clear about the view the government takes about these findings and why after 23 years this matters so much, not just for the families but for Liverpool and for our country as a whole.

Mr Speaker, what happened that day – and since – was wrong. It was wrong that the responsible authorities knew Hillsborough did not meet minimum safety standards and yet still allowed the match to go ahead. It was wrong that the families have had to wait for so long – and fight so hard – just to get to the truth. And it was wrong that the police changed the records of what happened and tried to blame the fans.

We ask the police to do difficult and often very dangerous things on our behalf. And South Yorkshire Police is a very different organisation today from what it was then. But we do the many, many honourable police men and women a great disservice if we try to defend the indefensible.

It was also wrong that neither Lord Justice Taylor nor the coroner looked properly at the response of the other emergency services. Again, these are dedicated people who do extraordinary things to serve the public. But the evidence from today's report makes very difficult reading.

Mr Speaker, with the weight of the new evidence in this report, it is right for me today as prime minister to make a proper apology to the families of the 96 for all they have suffered over the past 23 years.

Indeed, the new evidence that we are presented with today makes clear that these families have suffered a double injustice: the injustice of the appalling events – the failure of the state to protect their loved ones and the indefensible wait to get to the truth; and the injustice of the denigration of the deceased – that they were somehow at fault for their own deaths.

On behalf of the government – and indeed our country – I am profoundly sorry for this double injustice that has been left uncorrected for so long.

Mr Speaker, because of what I have described as the second injustice – the false version of events – not enough people in this country understand what the people of Merseyside have been through.

This appalling death toll of so many loved ones lost was compounded by an attempt to blame the victims. A narrative about hooliganism on that day was created which led many in the country to accept that it was somehow a grey area.

Today's report is black and white: The Liverpool fans "were not the cause of the disaster".

The panel has quite simply found "no evidence" in support of allegations of "exceptional levels of drunkenness, ticketlessness or violence among Liverpool fans" and "no evidence that fans had conspired to arrive late at the stadium" and "no evidence that they stole from the dead and dying".

Mr Speaker, I'm sure the whole House will want to thank the Bishop of Liverpool and his panel for all the work they have done.

And I am sure that all sides will join with me in paying tribute to the incredible strength and dignity of the Hillsborough families and the community which has backed them in their long search for justice.

While nothing can ever bring back those who have been lost with all the documents revealed and nothing held back the families, at last, have access to the truth."

NEWS PM 'profoundly sorry' for Hillsborough'

Binary media will never allow England to be average

Gary Parkinson — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 09:52:00 GMT

So half a week after "roaring along the road to Rio", Roy's Three Lions are castigated as castrated kittens once again. And the hacks fall over themselves to deliver their monochrome epitaphs for England.

Four days after delight over the demolition of Moldova, we are told by the media that England are hopeless, a disappointment, even an embarrassment: a horrific let-down after sporting events elsewhere. It seems that in the black-and-white world of the back pages, England can only ever be portrayed as brilliant or dreadful, as if there is no emotion other than glee and gloom.

In truth, as opposed to hyperbole, England simply didn't do that badly. There was much to be pleased about in the performance. For long periods before and after the Ukraine goal, England passed the ball with an unhurried thoughtfulness that, had it been in assured Azzurri, would have had the hacks purring over Pirlo's patience.

Sections of the media appear to already have Hodgson in their sights

Depleted, by injury and illness, by almost a full XI – and denied a legitimate, nerve-settling early goal by typically overfussy refereeing – England nonetheless had the better of possession and passing, owning 61.6% of the ball-time and making 601 passes to Ukraine's 365 (stats from Opta).

Even when the clocked ticked on, England continued to probe intelligently, reflecting Opta's pre-match tweet that they play a lower percentage of long balls under Hodgson than either of the previous two England managers. Even when Danny Welbeck (aged 21) replaced Tom Cleverly (23), Hodgson didn't throw two up top and hammer long balls at them, instead playing Welbeck wide to face the Ukraine goal and run at the defence; Daniel Sturridge (23) added more youthful impetus and final sub Ryan Bertrand (23) had the desired effect, overlapping from left-back to find Welbeck, who drew the handball from which Frank Lampard scored a well-deserved equaliser.

But like the result, the performance was far from perfect. England had more of the ball but didn't dominate in the manner expected of a side with intentions of breaking the quarter-final barrier. Cleverley had displayed the key weakness in his attacking-midfield armoury – goalscoring threat; Lampard failed to impose himself on the game for the first hour; Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain struggled to show his pace against a deep defence bolstered by a smothering midfield. And for all England's dedication to the short ball, Hodgson would surely have sent on Andy Carroll had the Gateshead wrecking-ball been available.

DIGITAL AGE, BINARY VIEWPOINTS

Measured reflection has never been a popular way to fill the back (or home) page. Since days of yore, print deadlines mean evening match reports are largely written during the game, and only changed by dramatic late events; even then, the general drift will be left as the writer simply changes the first few paragraphs (and possibly the last for closure).

The digital age hasn't made the procedure any better. Having followed the game on a minute-by-minute jabbed out by a different writer, internet readers want the chief scribe's report within half an hour of the whistle, so even if the paper's principal wordsmith wanted to suck his virtual pencil awhile for a less rushed viewpoint, there's no way it would be allowed.

Such considered cogitation is usually left to the elder statesmen, on whom we rely to put things into perspective. Sadly, it rarely happens. After Friday's win in Moldova, one broadsheet blowhard with nearly half a century of journalism behind him went all the way back to the lodestone, Alf Ramsey, in praising England's new generation; the Ukraine game had him collapsing back into facile sneering.

A rampant win over mighty Moldova had many pundits purring

You'd think the nation's journalists would recognise that not everything is black and white, considering the "fun" they had (along with every other Twitter wise-acre) riffing on the title of clit-lit hit 50 Shades Of Grey. You would also like to imagine that they would credit their readers – us – with a bit more imagination and depth than making the England team oscillate between being the pin-cushion for the nation's hopes and the voodoo doll for its self-loathing.

Take Euro 2012. Thrown into pre-tournament disarray by the Terry/Ferdinand fracas and Fabio Capello's resignation, England were widely expected to be a disaster. But they got through their group and were suddenly deemed contenders, before the narrowest of defeats to Italy brought the usual post-mortems and told-you-sos from those who had decried the team from the off.

To this writer, England were again a complicated mixture at the Euros. In the opening draw with fancied France, they were disciplined but blunt; beating Sweden, they lost defensive concentration but were triumphantly versatile in attack; beating Ukraine, they mixed fortitude with fortuitousness; and against Italy, they were diligent but limited.

Despite the search for the eye-catching headline, that's usually the case with England: rarely disastrous losers or non-qualifiers, but even more rarely world-beaters. Serial quarter-finalists for a reason, they again displayed last night why they are neither the fearsome force described in Saturday's press nor the embarrassments widely lambasted today.

Maybe, like Pirlo, writers need to think things through rather than hammering out the route-one easy ball to headline hype.

Bad Weekend For: Boo-boys, fall guys and certain days

Simon Carter — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 10:19:00 GMT

Another weekend's woe-waddlers lined up by Simon Carter

It was a bad weekend for:

Roy Hodgson’s detractors
There are some who remain to be convinced that Roy Hodgson is the right man to lead England to glory, or at least respectability, at the next World Cup. Moreover, there are some so sure of his inevitable failure that they hope for him to do so as soon as possible so that a more suitable replacement can be found in time for Brazil. Members of that second group will have had something of a disappointing start to their weekend with England’s 5-0 thumping of Moldova.

While it’s true that hammering a team ranked 141st in the world won't necessarily silence the critics, there were several plus points from Friday night’s performance for Hodgson and his team.

Firstly, the decision to play Jermain Defoe as a lone striker transformed the way that England performed. In the absence of a club partnership like Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck, or a big-man little-man combination, the presence of the diminutive Defoe and a deep-lying Moldova defence meant that players such as Joe Hart, John Terry and Steven Gerrard were forced to look for options other than hitting long balls or looking for space behind the defence.

This made England's approach a slower, more progressive and evidently less ruthless. An unhurried methodology gave time, space and encouragement to full-backs Leighton Baines and Glen Johnson, which they exploited time and again – most impressively for Frank Lampard’s second goal. With eight men on the attack, and Moldova defending so close to their own goal, England repeatedly found themselves with an embarrassment of attacking options, something they gleefully took advantage of for James Milner’s superb team goal.

The performance and mere presence of Tom Cleverley was another major plus. Ostensibly playing in the hole behind the striker, his role as the spearhead of a three-man central midfield meant that both Lampard and Gerrard chose their attacking forays more carefully than they have in the past, during a first half where England enjoyed near total control. Though 45 minutes may prove to be another false dawn, England’s formation against Moldova may finally display how Lampard and Gerrard can play together.

It is arguable, perhaps, that the line-up on Friday wasn't future-proof and that many of the positives from the game were down to dumb luck. Baines and Cleverly were in because of injuries to Wayne Rooney and Ashley Cole; England’s third-minute penalty was very debatable; Lampard’s age and Gerrard’s club instructions possibly account for their more studied approach; and Baines’ goal had a Paul Parker-esque helping head. By the final whistle of Tuesday’s game against Ukraine, praise may look foolish but from a Monday morning perspective this was a very bad weekend for the anti-Hodgson brigade.

Whoever was to blame for Swindon’s defeat
If Swindon Town were a Manchester City, United or a Chelsea, their run of three defeats in six days would have been marked as a crisis and Paolo Di Canio’s eccentric behaviour would have led to loud calls for his head. But this is League One, so there has been a more restrained reaction to Swindon’s 1-0 home defeat (their first at the County Ground in 28 games) to the previously pointless Leyton Orient.

An unexpected 4-1 defeat to Preston North End last Sunday was followed by a listless 1-0 defeat to bitter rivals Oxford in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy on Wednesday night, and a performance that Di Canio described as “empty” against Orient will have rounded off an awful week for the Italian. But one person in this tale will suffer a worse weekend: whoever Di Canio chooses to blame for this most recent loss.

Just over a fortnight ago, Wes Foderingham was receiving plaudits as the solid custodian who had gone over 1,000 minutes of football without conceding a goal for Swindon but things began to change after he conceded three to Premier League Stoke City in a 4-3 League Cup win. Following that game Di Canio claimed that the rest of the Swindon side carried the keeper and that they had won in spite of him.

Matters came to a head at Deepdale last Sunday where Foderingham, who Di Canio would later say was “one of the worst players I have ever seen in a football match” and “the worst professional: arrogant, ignorant in some way”, was hauled off midway through the first half after conceding two goals in 20 minutes.

With Foderingham clearly blameless for the midweek defeat to Oxford, Di Canio set his sights on young centre-back Aden Flint, who played “as if he was on holiday” after coming on as a late substitute and making a mistake that led Di Canio to encourage Flint to admit that “we lost because of him.”

At the time of writing, it’s unknown who Di Canio blames for the defeat to Orient (though it seems unlikely he will blame himself) but whoever it is could do with taking damage limitation advice from Foderingham and Flint before training this Monday morning.

Saturday and Sunday
Like an over-excited tourist on an all-inclusive holiday, most of the weekend’s action was crammed into the first night, leaving Saturday and Sunday looking decidedly hungover. While the international footballing calendar did serve up its usual smorgasbord of goalfests (Spain, England and Hungary all scored five, with Bosnia and Herzegovina hitting an astonishing eight) and talking points (France’s lacklustre victory against Finland, Germany’s subdued win over the Faroe Islands and Ireland’s lucky triumph), UEFA’s decision to move these fixtures to a Friday night continues to leave Saturday with a lot of work on its hands.

Some would argue that the lack of Saturday internationals, Premier League and Championship action gives Leagues One and Two a valuable platform to show themselves off (and Sky, to their credit, did an excellent job of promoting the leagues), but a fixture card with only 21 league meetings does give the day something of an empty feeling. Notts County’s hard-fought win over Shrewsbury sent them top of League One, and Fleetwood and Port Vale performed fabulously in League Two, but for many, Saturday struggled to grab the limelight.

As for Sunday? With only two professional fixtures to its name, there’s no doubt Sunday will have been feeling a little bit sorry for itself but with Liverpool v Manchester United and Manchester City v Arsenal to come in a couple of weeks, Sunday definitely has better weekends on the horizon...

In the new issue: Barcelona's biggest challenge, Champions League extravaganza, gameheads and the Ashton Gate Eight

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 15:31:00 GMT

The calendar turns and it's new-issue time. This month, we take you inside the Camp Nou, interview yet another host of legends and headline acts, find out what's making Cardiff crazy, annoy FIFA-heads by clicking X in front of goal, and reveal Joe Royle's bathroom preferences...

It's not easy following a legend. That's the job Tito Vilanova has accepted, replacing all-conquering Pep Guardiola as Barcelona boss – just as the Camp Nou kingdom shows signs of crumbling, what with the title back ion the hands of the hated Real Madrid. Renowned Barça-based expert Graham Hunter takes you inside the camp to speak to Vilanova and others about what Barcelona do next.

To mark the start of the Champions League group stage, we celebrate 20 years of ol' Big Ears with fresh insight from participants including Yaya Toure, Nemanja Vidic, Olivier Giroud, Roberto di Matteo, Angel di Maria and Borussia Dortmund skipper Sebastian Kehl.

Elsewhere, we look at the rise of gaming among players – interviewing the big names for whom an evening isn't complete without Football Manager or FIFA. More seriously, we look at Mafia involvement in Italian football, and go to Cardiff to find a furore over the change to red kits.

And that's it. No, only joking. There's a One-on-One with France and Chelsea legend Frank Lebeouf, and we track down the Ashton Gate Eight: the Bristol City players who, 30 years ago, walked away from their livelihoods to save the club they loved.

Add in a look at luck (do you really make your own, Brian?), Darren Anderton on the games that changed his life, Louis Saha's hard-earned advice, the Dutch football Banksy, Rafa Benitez's Perfect XI, Diego Forlan on the country he's fallen in love with, the Rangers diehard following Celtic for a season and Joe Royle telling us about his favourite taps – and of course an entire Performance section featuring playing tips from Ashley Young, Kyle Walker and Shane Long – and you've got yourself a bargain, sunbeam. To the shops, now!

The October 2012 issue of FourFourTwo was brought to you by Tito Vilanova, Frank Leboeuf, Yaya Toure, Roberto Di Matteo, Olivier Giroud, Diego Forlan, Kyle Walker, Cesc Fabregas, Joe Royle, Carlo Ancelotti, Louis Saha, Ashley Young, Sebastian Kehl, Mancini, Gareth Bale, Robbie Elliott, Nemanja Vidic, Brian Jensen, Gus Poyet, Alan Dicks, Michel Salgado, Shane Long, Mikel Arteta, Riccardo Montolivo, Rafael Benitez, Adam le Fondre, Mark Cook, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Darren Anderton, Angel di Maria, Nobby Solano, Serge from Kasabian and the Ashton Gate Eight.

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Bad Weekend For: New boys and hundred-percenters

Simon Carter — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 09:00:00 GMT

A look across the English leagues for the Saturday and Sunday sufferers, with Simon Carter...

New Managers (André Villas-Boas Edition)
I have a friend whose favourite part of playing Football Manager is those first few months when he joins a new club. Many happy hours are spent reshuffling his squad, getting rid of players he doesn’t like the look of or who don’t fit his ‘vision’, and bringing in the replacements he hopes will lead his new side to glory. After the major reshuffle is done he starts to lose heart as the expensive new signings don’t gel as he would like them to and the old boys start to look better with every game.

Fortunately, my friend can just start a new game whenever things don’t go his way, but for real-life football manager André Villas-Boas there is no such luxury. Since becoming manager of Tottenham, Villas-Boas has spent a reported £57 million on six new players, including three on transfer deadline day, and sold or released 12 squad members as he sets about dismantling the ‘almost’ team that Harry Redknapp had put together.

While it's debatable how much control he has over transfers – it’s unlikely that he would have happily sanctioned the sale of Luka Modric – seeing the likes of Niko Kranjcar, Vedran Corluka, Modric and Rafael van der Vaart leave must have been difficult for Tottenham fans.

Of course, Villas-Boas could have appeased the restless supporters with a decent start at White Hart Lane but, just as at Chelsea last season, he has found winning Premier League games increasingly difficult. At home against Norwich on Saturday, Spurs were lucky to get as much as a point, even considering the lateness of the Canaries equaliser.

All in all it was a weekend that raised more questions than answers for all involved with Tottenham. This was perhaps inevitable given the surprise arrival of Clint Dempsey on deadline day and the non-arrival of long-term target João Moutinho, all of which will have disrupted the squad in the build-up to Saturday. Turgid, directionless and without flair, the winless Spurs, and Villas-Boas, will hope for better after the international break.

New Managers (Brendan Rodgers Edition)
“I would need to be a nutcase to even consider at this moment letting Andy Carroll go out.” So said Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers just over a week ago. But that was a different Brendan Rodgers. That was a Brendan Rodgers who had the tantalising prospect of new blood on the horizon. That was a Brendan Rodgers who thought that Clint Dempsey would just be one of the big names to arrive before the transfer window closed.

The thinness of the Liverpool squad won't even be the manager's main concern as he endeavours to eradicate the individual errors undermining any good work that his Liverpool side do. After well-publicised mistakes cost points against West Brom and Manchester City, errors by Steven Gerrard and, more directly, Jose Reina cost them dearly against Arsenal yesterday.

In a game where they completed more passes than the Gunners (thank you FFT Stats Zone) and controlled at least the wide areas of the field, Liverpool probably deserved better than the 0-2 result.

The bad news is that after three tricky opening fixtures, Liverpool must now travel to Sunderland and a squad-stretching Europa League clash in Switzerland before welcoming their old friends Manchester United. The good news? Among the free agents they can sign are both Michael Owen and Emile Heskey.

100% Club Part One
If you’re one of the supporters of the 90 teams who played English league football this weekend (fans of Chelsea and Reading had a weekend away from league action), some of you will have smiles on your faces this Monday morning whereas some of you will be dreading the inescapable ribbing that will define your day: Watford fans may want to throw a sickie. But however your weekend went, most of you will be able to look back over the start of the new season and pick out one or two highlights.

Fans of Southampton, Peterborough United, Leyton Orient and Scunthorpe may struggle more than most as each of those teams remain almost hopeless, manifestly winless and absolutely pointless.

Apart from Scunthorpe’s recent 4-0 home reverse to Yeovil, none of the pointless teams have seen themselves turned over (Southampton in particular were excellent against the Manchester clubs), but that only serves to add to fans’ frustration of seeing their teams repeatedly come away from games empty-handed.

With international football on the calendar for next week, Southampton and Peterborough will have to wait to kick-start their season whereas Scunthorpe and Orient will try their luck against the impressive Sheffield United and the ‘good-until-yesterday’ Swindon Town respectively. There could be more bad weekends on the horizon.

100% Club Part Two
At the start of this weekend, six Premier League and Football League teams could boast 100% starts to the season; by the end, only Chelsea remained. Mourning the loss of a perfect opening might seem a little self-indulgent, especially when compared to those enduring nightmare starts (see above), but fans of Swansea, Everton, Blackpool, Gillingham and Oxford will have woken up on Sunday morning to find that a little of the magic had gone. They'll now be worriedly scrutinising the fixture list for upcoming tricky away fixtures or potential banana skins.

Of those the five teams in question, three of them – Everton, Blackpool and Oxford – tasted defeat (for Everton it was actually their first defeat in 12 games) but there’s no shame in losing away from home to West Brom, Leicester and York respectively.

While Swansea may, with hindsight, feel pleased with their point after twice coming from behind against Sunderland, Gillingham will have been disappointed with their draw against the winless Chesterfield.

So what of Chelsea? The European Champions and England’s only perfect team? Anybody who saw even a few minutes of Falcao’s destruction of them in Friday’s European Super Cup (including Roman Abramovich if the tabloid reports of a £48 million January transfer are to be believed) will know that the Londoners will certainly not have enjoyed their weekend.

Bad Weekend For: Sidelined strikers, slow starters and overwhelmed managers

Simon Carter — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 10:23:00 GMT

Wayne Rooney
To some extent, this depends on your point of view. Manchester United did win, so from that perspective Wayne Rooney can be relatively happy with the Bank Holiday weekend. Even so, there was a lot here to suggest that Colleen would be well-advised to give her husband a wide berth for at least a few days.

Starting on the bench on Saturday after taking his Euro 2012 form into Monday’s game with Everton, Rooney saw his dual roles of talismanic goalscorer and deep-lying forward filled admirably by home debutants Robin van Persie and Shinji Kagawa, who both found the net and generally impressed against Fulham.

With United struggling to contain a resurgent Cottagers late in the second half, Rooney replaced Kagawa – but found himself off the pace and leaden-footed before finding Hugo Rodallega’s boot inadvertently driven deep into his thigh. The indications are that Rooney will be missing for the next four weeks.

The tabloids didn't bring any respite, with rumour that United were ready to cash in and sell him before his contract wound down… followed by claims that none of Europe's super-powers were interested in buying him. It could be some time before the England man has a good weekend.

Lightweight Villa
While Manchester United may be somewhat lightweight at the back, their stable of returning central defenders (not to mention their goalscoring prowess) suggests that they shouldn't struggle for long. Not so for Aston Villa.

Following last week’s listless defeat to West Ham, Paul Lambert – and the Villa fans – will have hoped for so much more than Saturday’s weak showing at home to Everton. While it’s clear that Everton are enjoying an excellent start to their season, the manner in which the home side were repeatedly carved open will set alarm bells clanging.

It had seemed that Villa’s main problem would be scoring goals, and Lambert was set to build on the justifiably sacked Alex McLeish's semi-solid foundations (they conceded just two goals more than fifth-placed Newcastle United last season). However, the performance against Everton and the general lack of character visible in the team led Lambert to admit post-game that he faces a “huge task” at Villa Park.

On the bright side, Villa did rally following the sending off of Ciaran Clark, scoring once and hitting the post (albeit in a period of the game where Everton evidently relaxed), which does suggest that there is potential in this young side. Unfortunately, it’s Newcastle away next week.

Slow starters
History has repeatedly shown that a good start does not always translate into a good season and vice versa. But that certainly doesn’t make a bad start any easier to digest and all four English divisions house teams that will wish they could go back 10 days and start again.

The hapless Aston Villa are one of 10 clubs who have started the Premier League season without a win; both Peterborough and Crystal Palace made it three defeats from three Championship games, while Birmingham have one point from nine; Scunthorpe’s 4-0 home defeat to Yeovil was their third League One defeat in a week (how they must yearn for Cliff Byrne); and League Two promotion tips Southend picked up only their first point of the season in a crazy second half at Northampton.

Of course it’s not about how you start, but how you finish and a good start isn’t always what it seems. Before Saturday, Ipswich, Barnsley, Crewe and Wimbledon will all have felt relatively confident for 2012-13, but after conceding an eye-watering 21 goals between them, some re-evaluation may be required.

Those who witnessed Mark Lawrenson’s shirt
Where to start? FFT is no style bible but nobody would recommend Lawro’s super-tight glossy grey shirt complete with weird button formation that he sported on Saturday’s Match of the Day.

Bad Weekend For: Whippees, new boys, optimism and Olympics

Simon Carter — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 10:28:00 GMT

Football is back... and you can't win 'em all. Simon Carter reports on those whose weekend didn't go to plan...

Whipping Boys
We’re not talking about the linesman who took a beating from Alan Pardew. Had it not been for the heroic efforts of Norwich and QPR, this could have been a ‘Liverpool Special’ as Luis Suarez’s profligacy, Joe Cole’s hamstring and the comedy stylings of Agger and Skrtel made it such a bad day for the Merseysiders.

Yet this was a terrible start to the season for a number of teams across all four divisions who took a refreshingly un-pragmatic approach to pragmatism and threw it out of the window. Exeter win the award for the worst start (0-3 at home to Morecambe), though Burton gave them a run for their money (3-0 at Rotherham) and Norwich’s capitulation (0-5 at Fulham) can't have pleased Delia.

But the award for England’s most whippingest whipping boys must be handed to QPR, who somehow contrived to have more shots at goal than Swansea, and more on target, yet still manage to concede five goals and see their woodwork struck on more than one occasion.

Arsene Wenger
On Saturday night, Arsenal fans will have been playing one goal over and over again in their heads. And it wasn’t one that was scored this weekend. On December 10 last year, the now departed Alex Song lifted a pass into the stride of the recently departed Robin van Persie, who steered an exquisite volley past a rooted Tim Howard to score one of the goals of the season.

Arsene Wenger probably also replayed that goal at some point during Saturday’s underwhelming 0-0 draw with Sunderland – possibly when he saw his team squander their 23rd shot at goal, or when he saw new signing Olivier Giroud screw a golden chance well wide.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with drawing with Sunderland, but if Wenger ever needed a win and perhaps a few goals, it was on Saturday. He will have known that a decent start to the season, with top performances from Lucas Podolski and Giroud would have helped silence those questioning his judgement over Van Persie and softened the revelation of the news that Song was on his way to Barcelona.

Instead, a visibly dejected Wenger was forced to speak candidly about the departures in his post-match interview, saying, “sometimes players leave you at their peak”. Sometimes?

The New Boys
It’s never easy settling into new surroundings; you have to change all of your addresses, arrange for Sky to come and fit a new dish, remember to tell your mum that you’ve moved (she wasn't happy last time!) and work out parking space etiquette.

It can be quite a stressful time. While some managers and debutants had a great first day (Steve Clarke and Michu for instance), recently relegated and promoted teams fared less well. Of the 22 teams that started this season in a different division, only four tasted victory: Wycombe, Doncaster, Crawley and West Ham.

While some have cause for celebration – Southampton, Reading and Sheffield Wednesday will all be reasonably happy with their day’s work – others, such as Exeter, Bolton and Wolves will be wishing more than ever that they could go back.

Our Hopes and Dreams
How long did it take for your season to fall apart? All summer you’ve been kidding yourself that this year would be different, leading yourself on with the same old promises that your big striker will be firing on all cylinders, that there’s a couple of good prospects coming up from the academy and that the tricky new winger looked quite tasty in pre-season.

Though we can’t really read too much into the opening day of a campaign (think Blackpool winning at Wigan two years ago and Bolton at QPR last year), it took Shrewsbury only four minutes to get a taste of life in a higher league, Barnet not much longer to resume business as usual and Wigan just six minutes to find out that their momentum from last season hadn’t carried over. But the good news is that the opening day is out of the way and you can cast that uncomfortable optimism aside. It didn’t really feel right anyway, did it?

All Other Sports
Thanks to Andy Murray’s heroics at Wimbledon and the aura of magic created by the Olympic Games, the return of the football season was, for some, a few weeks too early. Swimming pools are full to bursting and the roads are filled with cyclists, but at some point on Saturday, everything changed.

It doesn’t matter when or where you felt it; you may have been one of the 650,000 fans who felt it at a live match or maybe you felt it when goal after goal flew in during the second half of Saturday’s fixtures – or perhaps when you heard the roar of the Gallowgate End as Newcastle's Hatem Ben Arfa won and scored a penalty against Spurs on Saturday night. But it doesn’t matter how or when you felt it, you knew it was there – football is back.