Innehållsförteckning för May 2019 från FourFourTwo UK

Welcome to the latest issue of FourFourTwo magazine, which is the 299th and my first as Editor in Chief. I’ve been a reader since it launched back in 1994 and want to make sure it remains the number one - magazine. The football media landscape has exploded across all mediums during the last quarter of a century, from radio and television to streaming and podcasts, and independent magazines and expanded newspaper coverage to Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. My aim is to ensure that every football fan involves themselves with FFT on one of our many platforms. In my first two weeks here, we’ve adapted the online stories to make them punchier, more topical and more personal, and already we’re seeing significant traffic growth of over 35 per cent week on…

1 STYLE ICONS England Camden To mark International Women’s Day, Camden Town Ladies unveiled a special kit for their matches in the Greater London Women’s Football League. The shirt featured illustrations of four iconic women with connections to the area: sculptor Dame Barbara Hepworth, novelist Buchi Emecheta, suffragist Dame Millicent Fawcett and American poet Sylvia Plath, who was married in Camden. All proceeds for the kit go to the Fawcett Society, campaigning for gender equality. 2 “I’M KIND OF A BIG DEAL” USA Los Angeles Will Ferrell is apparently set to star in a new film about Chuck Blazer, and to celebrate – or possibly to get into character – he turned up at an MLS match with a falcon. Ferrell is a co-owner of Los Angeles FC, and he…

CLUB WOLVES POSITION MIDFIELDER Value £25m Age 19 Foot Right Height 1.78m Nation England THE STORY SO FAR: Born up the road in Stafford, and a Wolves player since he was eight, Gibbs-White has long had the tag of the academy’s brightest talent. The dynamic midfielder made his first-team debut in an FA Cup win over Stoke in January 2017 and later that year won the Under-17 World Cup with England, starting every game from the last eight onwards and scoring in the final against Spain. He excels in one-on-one situations and shows impressive confidence in taking on defenders at every opportunity. That was demonstrated on his first Premier League start, against Chelsea in the autumn: deployed as a wide forward in Nuno Espirito Santo’s 3-4-3, he set up Raul…

Hi, Dom. As you have an excellent Italian surname, can we do a quiz called How Italian Are You? Of course. My dad came from a very small village called Venafro, which is actually older than Rome. It’s in the mountains and people live a simple way of life up there. I’ve visited a few times and it’s beautiful. Here goes, then. First question: do you enjoy arguing? Our Italian friend claims that arguing is a valid hobby and a good form of exercise. I’ve had some very good arguments – usually with my dad, who’s an Everton supporter. He’s a mixture of Italian and Scottish, and you don’t really want to be messing with that. My missus would also tell you that I’m an opinionated nightmare. I’m a bit…

Move over, Messi Stars for Germany at the 2006 World Cup, scoring three goals and beating Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to the Best Young Player award. World Cup winner Part of the Germany squad that wins the 2014 World Cup Final in Brazil, Die Mannschaft’s first time lifting the famous trophy since unification. Farewell strike Makes emotional farewell appearance for Germany in 2017 – his 130th cap – and scores unstoppable 25-yarder to defeat England 1-0 in Dortmund.…

✱ STAR LETTER BAN MID-SEASON CHANGES OF COACH I firmly believe a club’s declared squad at the start of a season should be their lot – no transfer window in January, no managerial sackings. Allow emergency loans and a window in the close-season, but that’s it. Clubs being unable to change manager mid-season would encourage better coaching standards, as they would invest for a longer period instead of chopping and changing. They’d also save on the costs of firing managers and appointing new ones. And if clubs couldn’t buy players in January, they’d invest in youth setups instead of throwing around vast transfer fees. Finally, coaches with greater job stability can instil ideas without fear of players ‘getting them sacked’. Pete Gibson, Leeds Is there an issue you feel strongly…

Jan Age Fjortoft While Ole Gunnar Solskjaer becoming a Premier League boss surprised some he played with, others who knew him well always felt he had what it takes. “I was the captain of the national team when Ole Gunnar joined us,” says former Premier League striker Jan Age Fjortoft. “We played in Northern Ireland, he was a sub and he said to me, ‘Jan, when you are out there I’ll follow your movements and learn from you.’ I thought he was taking the piss, but he wasn’t joking and when he joined Man United, I realised this attitude made him the perfect sub. It has made him a really good manager, too.” The Norwegian played flight simulation games on the coach with his compatriots, Henning Berg and Ronnie Johnsen,…

While Bielsa’s two-day reign at Lazio in 2016 created a legend of volatility, it was merely the most exceptional example of how he’s not in the habit of serving one club side for long. Spells managing the national teams of Argentina and Chile covered sizeable stretches of his career, spanning six and four years respectively, but Bielsa has never held the same domestic job for more than three full seasons. When he signed a two-year contract with Leeds, sources close to him in Argentina said at the time that he’d stay for a second term only if they were promoted to the Premier League at the first attempt. Bielsa has three assistants – Diego Reyes, Diego Flores and Pablo Quiroga – who have worked with him before. None have been…

HOW DID WE DO IT? At FourFourTwo we like to think we know a bit about football. But we also know that you do, too. So, when it comes to naming the top 50 – oh, all right, 51 – players in the Football League, we consider it our duty to hand things over to you, the fans of clubs in the magical 72. To identify the best from below England’s top tier, be they League Two stalwarts or Championship loanees, we polled supporters from every Football League club. You each told us five players in your club’s division (but not at your club – yes, we’re onto you) who you think have shone this season, and we gave points according to the rank you gave them, from first to…

Georg Meier (left) was one of Germany’s best motorcyclists, who became the first foreign champion of the Blue Riband Senior TT race on the Isle of Man in 1939. He also went on to open BMW’s first official used car dealership, and during the 1966 World Cup visited England so defender Karl-Heinz Schnellinger (right) & Co. could personalise his wheels for a competition prize. Karl-Heinz, signing a car is very much like making love to a beautiful woman...…

2 ARSENAL 0 ASTON VILLA May 2, 1981 Division One Villa fan Andy Jackson “After a roller-coaster tussle with Bobby Robson’s Ipswich Town, it all came down to the last Saturday of the season, and it was in our hands. Avoid defeat at Arsenal and Aston Villa were Division One champions for the first time since 1909-10. Lose, and the Tractor Boys would pip us to top spot if they won their remaining two games. My dad and I had travelled the length of the country, experiencing every twist and turn, and what better place to finish than Highbury, one of the great old grounds in English football? The Clock End was full – dangerously so. There was a crush as kick-off neared, with some Villa supporters passed overhead to…

Kevin Keegan: “On the final day of the 1995-96 campaign the Premier League trophy was at St James’ Park, though we never got to see it. The league brought a replica just in case we beat Spurs in our last game, and Manchester United lost at Middlesbrough. But we could only draw, while United won at the Riverside Stadium and were handed the real trophy on the pitch. We never got to have a look at the replica; it was hidden away deep in the bowels of St James’ Park, then whisked off without us ever catching a glimpse. For large parts of the season we had one hand on the trophy - we were 12 points clear of United at the top of the table and playing incredible football…

CLUBS 1998-2003 West Ham 2003-10 Chelsea 2010-13 Liverpool 2011-12 Lille (loan) 2013-14 West Ham 2014-16 Aston Villa 2015-16 Coventry (loan) 2016 Coventry 2016 -18 Tampa Bay Rowdies COUNTRY 2001-10 England It’s a normal Tuesday morning inside the central London offices of 10Ten Talent – until FourFourTwo turn up. Just a few hundred yards from Marble Arch, agents are making their morning phone calls to check in on players, and everything is tranquil. But minutes later, star client Joe Cole has arrived and he’s stood in the centre of the office, lobbing playing cards everywhere. Cole was described as a magician with a football during his playing days. On this occasion, he’s playing along with FFT’s request to be another kind of conjuror, card tricks and all. The 37-year-old brought his…

“GAZZA WOULD ME BE A PERFECT FIT ES FOR OUR TEAM RIGHT NOW” W Favourite car? A 1990 Lexus LS400 in white, with red seats and a fake fur leopard-print steering wheel cover. Favourite singer? Bishop Bullwinkle. Favourite food? A Teesside Parmo with very dark, very limp chips. First game you ever attended? Italy vs North Korea at Middlesbrough’s Ayresome Park in the group stages of the 1966 World Cup. I have no memory of it other than being lifted over the turnstile by my dad to get in for free. Who was your childhood hero and did you ever meet them? Football-wise, it was John Hickton. I never met him but I did get quite close to him when he opened a toy shop in Middlesbrough. He wore a…

Bielsa’s innovation has spawned many coaching careers – some inspired by him directly, others influenced by his way of thinking. Diego Simeone of Atletico Madrid and Spurs’ Mauricio Pochettino are two former players of his who made the most of what they saw. At Leeds, Adam Forshaw is catching the bug, too. The midfielder is 27 and – injury permitting – years away from retirement, but he told BBC 5 Live recently that time spent under Bielsa’s wing has made him think for the first time about a managerial career. “He’s making me think I would like to be manager,” revealed Forshaw. “He brought a lot of things into my game which I feel I could take into management one day, and he has made me think differently about the…

JORDAN CLARK ACCRINGTON MIDFIELDER AGE 25 Clark’s 15 goals and assists in all competitions up to March 1 made the winger an asset as Stanley acclimatised to life in League One. CURTIS TILT BLACKPOOL DEFENDER AGE 27 Tilt, a late bloomer, began his league career at 26 yet he looks ready to play higher still, now he has curtailed his card-collecting habit. DAVID WHEATER BOLTON DEFENDER AGE 32 Only one centre-half in tier two (Adam Webster) can top Wheater’s stats for heading, tackling and accurate passes forward. Yes, really. JACK PAYNE BRADFORD MIDFIELDER AGE 24 Payne will be free in July unless Huddersfield extend his contract. His fine attacking displays on loan at Bradford will seduce several clubs. LIAM SERCOMBE BRISTOL ROVERS MIDFIELDER AGE 28 In a tough season for…

JOHAN CRUYFF Inspired Ajax to European Cups in 1971, 1972 and 1973 before establishing Barça as a major force, first as a player, then as a European Cup-winning gaffer. JOHAN NEESKENS The midfield maestro played alongside Cruyff in Amsterdam for all of those European Cup triumphs before following his old pal to Catalonia in 1974. RICHARD WITSCHGE Midfielder signed from Ajax by Cruyff in 1991. Sadly missed Barça’s 1992 European Cup Final victory over Sampdoria at Wembley through injury. PATRICK KLUIVERT Came off the bench to secure Ajax’s 1995 Champions League Final win over Juventus, then moved to the Camp Nou after a season-long stint at Milan. EDGAR DAVIDS A key figure in the Amsterdam club’s success in the early-90s, he later spent six months on loan at Barça and…

Oueens Park Rangers made a habit of getting under the skin between 1981 and 1988. Or at least their artificial pitch did. When Rangers finally ripped up their infamous synthetic ‘OmniTurf’ surface, it ended a seven-year itch to reintroduce the green, green grass to Loftus Road. More accurately, it closed the book on seven years of carpet burns, lacerations and scars, seismic judders to the joints delivered courtesy of a bone-hard pitch. Plus, a tennis-ball bounce that wouldn’t have looked out of place at Wimbledon. “Basically, it was a bit of carpet over two feet of concrete,” said Peter Hucker, goalkeeper in the Hoops’ Division Two promotion-winning season of 1982-83. They won 16 of their 21 home matches, lost just twice and scored a league-high 51 goals on their path…

KIT CLASH Formed back in 1876 – a few decades before Partick was subsumed into Greater Glasgow – the club worked their way through plenty of strips until eventually settling on red, yellow and black in 1936-37, having borrowed the local rugby team’s kit. FRANK EXCHANGE “I’m not sure about that,” said Grandstand presenter Frank Bough when told the Division Two winners were 4-0 up against Celtic in the 1971 Scottish League Cup Final. “That might be a mistake.” It was no mistake: the Firhill upstarts prevailed 4-1. AULD HABITS Stuck in a losing rut in the ’70s, Patrick boss Bertie Auld made his first XI train against no opposition. “After 15 minutes it was 0-0 – Bertie went mental,” recalled Alan Hansen. “Still 0-0 after 30, he changed the…

Club Call Pre-Twitter, Snapchat or Instagram, when the best way to get the latest updates from your club was to get on the blower and, well, just listen. Zenith Data Systems Cup Also known as the Full Members’ Cup, it was contested while English clubs were banned from Europe after Heysel and won by Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Nott’m Forest from 1989-92. Now, what is a Zenith Data System anyway? Chelsea kit – 1994 away -96 This Blues’ “so bad we can’t forget it” garb featured an array of grey, navy and chunky orange stripes. Even Ruud Gullit couldn’t make the get-up look good.…

FABIEN BARTHEZ “Fabien’s a very good friend of mine, and we can sit and talk for hours. Like so many goalkeepers, he has an air of eccentricity about him. My abiding memory of France training sessions would be his reluctance to go in goal. He’d insist on playing as an outfield player during practice matches. On the occasions we did convince him to stay in goal, he’d come sprinting up the pitch screaming, ‘Come on, let me take it’ every time his team won a free-kick!” PAUL INCE “Paul was a fantastic player and really competitive. We were together at Inter, and when we went to warm up before every game, he’d groan and say, ‘Do I have to?’ He was always eager to just get on with the game.…

HACKNEY WICK FC KITS hackneywickfc.com @hackneywickfc East London amateurs Hackney Wick FC have collaborated with Nike London and big-thinking firms Made to Mention and Hey Big Man Creative to release one of 2019’s hottest strips. The club, launched four years ago by reformed local ‘face’ Bobby Kasanga, wants to challenge London’s crime and gang culture and inspire a positive change within the local community. A beautiful kit, an important cause and a fantastic club on the rise in the 10th tier – keep up the good work. THE TERRACE – TOWELS £19.99  theterracestore.com Spring has sprung, and whether you’re beach body ready or not, summer is around the corner and FFT are bloody excited. Time to start planning away trips in between the Nations League Finals and Women’s World Cup.…

Going To The Match Duncan Hamilton (Hodder & Stoughton, £25) Named after LS Lowry’s famous painting of expectant crowds swarming towards Bolton’s Burnden Park, Going To The Match shows Duncan Hamilton’s skill at teasing out the nuances of what football means to fans. He is unashamedly nostalgic in places, lamenting that Burnden is now the site of a distinctly unlovely Asda, while mourning Scottish football’s lost glories. He is especially scathing about Newcastle owner Mike Ashley, insisting, “He doesn’t get it. He owns the flesh and the body of Newcastle, but not the soul.” But Hamilton isn’t a football romantic wearing rose-tinted glasses; he also marvels at the pyrotechnic skills of Harry Kane and Mohamed Salah, and admits that modern football is “quicker, slicker, more attractively skilful and tactically smarter”.…

The meeting took place at a hotel in Buenos Aires, beginning in the sunshine at 10am and finishing indoors an hour before midnight. They broke for a meal in the middle, on Marcelo Bielsa’s insistence, but even then they spoke about football – not in a broad or abstract sense, but keen, purposeful conversations about managing Leeds United. No one who sat down and listened to Bielsa doubted that he was taking the job. The delegation sent from Leeds to negotiate, director of football Victor Orta and chief executive Angus Kinnear, had hedged their bets by contacting other coaches of the same ilk, but one of their alternatives made the wrong impression by struggling to name a single player in the squad. When Bielsa first received contact, he sat up…

KALVIN PHILLIPS Phillips is a product of Leeds’ academy who was routinely overshadowed by other starlets around him but might prove to be as successful as any of them. For a time, the local lad was a generic central midfielder always searching for a niche, but Bielsa soon discovered it by moulding him into a specialist defensive midfielder, capable of being a ball-playing centre-back if injuries or tactics require it. The combination of the 23-year-old’s destructive work and his distribution of possession from deep could win him the club’s player of the year award this term, though it’ll be a pretty competitive field. KEMAR ROOFE The Leeds boss employs his trademark 3-3-1-3 formation on occasion, but more often than not he uses a 4-1-4-1 system. Roofe, a slight figure at…

Crikey, that’s stripey You have to applaud the attempt at evoking the Tyne-Wear derby. “You’re not as strong as Atlas” This cartoon guy can only cope with an oversized ball. Pathetic. Licence to shoot If you have any idea what a ‘lucky face’ is, then please get in touch. Pretty in pink It’s the craze sweeping the nation in the ’70s – synchronised football! It’s a family affair Scottish midfielder Bobby Kerr’s moustache was the real star... We’re Sunderland. We like red. The Ronseal of programmes. Club colours. Football. Badge. Job done. Hearts on wheels Who knew? Animals and bikes can have complex circulatory organs... Cutting-edge design “For my birthday, Mum, I’d like the Sunderland shirt with two mullets.” Eyes wide shut Gary Owers was so lethal, he could score…

Javier Margas Who? Former Colo Colo and West Ham defender, who played 63 times for Chile. Shortly after joining the Hammers in 1998, he snuck out of a window to elude Harry Redknapp and escaped to Santiago. He returned sporting a new claret-and-blue hairstyle to say sorry, then retired in 2001. Did punditry follow? No chance. “I don’t have the wherewithal to be a pundit,” he said, “just like I don’t have the fingers to be a pianist.” He bought a car once owned by Chile’s former dictator General Pinochet and also appeared on the country’s version of Shipwrecked in 2006, set on an island in the Dominican Republic. Nice. The weird stuff ends there, right? Wrong. In 2014 Javier procured a pair of old Boeing 737s, installed jacuzzis and…

“Hallam and Norfolk Football Clubs played the final match for this prize at Bramall Lane Cricket Ground on Shrove Tuesday. The game continued under the new rules of the Sheffield FA. The toss for choice of goals was won by Norfolk who, kicking with the wind, were not able to score. Ends were changed after half-time, and it was soon evident the Hallamites had the game in their hands. After half an hour Elliott kicked the ball, not through the goal but just over it, and it was touched down in splendid style by Ash, securing a rouge. Norfolk’s captain immediately kicked off, hoping to catch the opposition off guard. In their haste they left their goal unprotected, which a Hallam player took advantage of. Thus Hallam won, scoring two…