Innehållsförteckning för May 2022 från FourFourTwo UK

“I always remember this lieutenant running around handing out grenades because we were expecting a counter-attack on our location. I just remember looking at him and saying, ‘I’m missing the f**king World Cup for this s**t’.” Forty years ago, a teenage Phil Stant was a regular for Reading’s reserves. He was also in the army, stationed at Aldershot and combining a potential football career with one in the services. Before April 2, 1982, the thought of heading off to war had barely even crossed his mind. “Our main training was all focused on the Cold War and a Russian invasion of Europe – that’s all everything was geared around,” he tells FFT. “We had The Troubles in Northern Ireland, but when the Falklands came up, most of us squaddies were…

XI BEST: Gary Walsh, Stephen Darby, Andy O’Brien, Rory McArdle, Wayne Jacobs, Jamie Lawrence, Gary Jones, Stuart McCall, Benito Carbone, Dean Windass, Bobby Campbell. WORST: Rouven Sattelmaier, Matthew Bates, Kelvin Mellor, Jason Gavin, Adam Chicksen, Josh Wright, Harpal Singh, Michael Standing, Bruno Rodriguez, Kai Brunker, Kurtis Guthrie. PLAYER B: Carbone [right] is the most talented City player I’ve ever seen, but the best in our history? McCall. Captain, leader, legend and so much more. W: Plenty of contenders, but given how he was handed the captaincy upon signing and failed on so many levels, Wright gets the nod. MOMENT B: Beating Wolves 3-2 at Molineux to seal our first promotion to the Premier League in 1999 [above] – then the big games that followed at Valley Parade. W: Almost going…

The upheaval that football causes for your family is probably the worst part of it. When you take on a new club, you have to be close enough to get there easily – you really don’t want too much travel, because I don’t think that works at all. I never wanted to be apart from my family, but then I’d be the only one with a reason to be somewhere. When you think of it like that it’s a very selfish thing really, even though you’re trying to provide for them. You’re asking your wife to settle into a new house, a new area, and make a home of it. Kim and I have lived in 48 different places we worked out, which is far too many. Managers don’t talk…

You were a precocious footballer, making your senior debut with River Plate at the age of just 16… Yes, my football life has always been full of surprises. I made my debut as a teenager, when I was a few years away from finishing school with much still to learn. At that age I reached the top, at a club with the history of River Plate, and it’s one of the greatest memories I have. Who were the most significant people in your playing career? Probably my parents. I didn’t get to enjoy my father very much because he died the week after I signed for Barcelona, when I was 19. It was a very complicated time. My mother took care of me and was always by my side. She…

In the beginning, there were only two. After Sky invented football in 1992, the Premier League’s first decade was defined by a titanic tussle: Manchester United’s immovable object against Arsenal’s irresistible force. Between them, they won 11 of the opening 12 available titles. Embodied by their warring, irascible bosses Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, theirs was a rivalry of philosophies, personalities and individuals who traded insults on the pitch, in the media and, in the case of one memorable encounter between Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira, in the tunnel. “It’s funny,” United midfielder Paul Scholes once said, “in team talks against Arsenal, the ball was very, very rarely mentioned.” The Premier League’s two best teams chased each other’s tails for over a decade, providing a narrative of one-upmanship, fierce rivalry…

ENTER MR CHARISMA Jose Mourinho invoked the spirit of soon-tobecome icon Ron Burgundy at his first press briefing as Chelsea gaffer in 2004. “Don’t call me arrogant but I’m a European champion,” proffered the supercilious Portuguese of his recent Champions League triumph at Porto. Oh, and “I think I’m a special one.” It didn’t take long for another misquoted Mouism to enter football’s lexicon. “They left the bus in front of the goal,” he huffed after Spurs held his Blues to a draw, with a tactic that would soon become synonymous with Jose himself. Not that it mattered, as he guided Chelsea to a first league title for 50 years, breaking records including most victories (29), clean sheets (25) and fewest goals conceded (15). ARSENE’S WATCHING YOU After Chelsea beat…

Looking back, that 2012 Premier League title was probably the most beautiful of my career because of the way it happened. Manchester United had won four out of the previous five championships, and we were looking to make a big impact. We all wanted to prove ourselves; to be vindicated. The entire season was unforgettable. From August 2011 to May 2012 it was a long, intense race with our neighbours. Neither side let any other opponent overshadow us. United started strongly with that memorable 8-2 win over Arsenal, but we also thrashed Tottenham 5-1 at White Hart Lane thanks to a spectacular performance from Edin Dzeko, who scored four goals that same day. By the eighth game of the season, we were top of the table. We then held that…

10 DENNIS BERGKAMP VS NEWCASTLE MARCH 2, 2002 In the aftermath of spinning around Nikos Dabizas for this iconic strike, people started asking Bergkamp if he’d meant it. “For many goals, players just decide at the last moment what they’re going to do,” the Arsenal great recalled to FFT in 2020. “That was the same with me.” The Dutchman himself may have seen no big deal – but everyone else did. His deft pirouette and nonchalent finish is still eulogised as the ultimate goal of a beloved, luxurious footballer. No mean feat. 9 THIERRY HENRY VS MANCHESTER UNITED OCTOBER 1, 2000 In the heat of the Premier League’s titanic rivalry, Henry unleashed a piece of wonder that would forever be played before clashes between the two giants. The flick and…

“Honestly, I thought Alan Hansen had a point with his ‘win nothing with kids’ line. He just said what 90% of people were thinking…” For a bloke who claims to have known his place on the second rung at Old Trafford, Nicky Butt didn’t do too badly. The midfielder made 387 appearances for one of the world’s biggest clubs, under one of the world’s finest managers, with 11 major trophies to show for it. That all of this came alongside a bunch of his best mates and with the team he’d always supported only made it more satisfying for Gorton’s most successful son. Butt will forever be associated with Sir Alex Ferguson’s great achievements at Manchester United, as part of the most famous crop of youngsters in British footballing history,…

Whatever the opposite of the Midas touch is, Peter Ridsdale had it for two disastrous years in the early 2000s. Football clubs, motor racing championships, top deals for goldfish bowls – if Ridsdale was involved, then things often went awry. All was going well in 2001: David O’Leary’s Leeds United had made the semi-finals of the Champions League, with a young team that would surely dominate the Premier League in years to come. So, it was time to think even bigger – by branching out into motor sport. Enter Premier 1 Grand Prix, a new series set up with help from Graham Kelly, the serious chap who’d presided over FA Cup draws galore in the 1990s, as FA chief executive. Billed as football’s answer to Formula 1, it was devised…

Which Leicester City hero has got the loudest cheer this season? Vardy? Ndidi? The almighty Albrighton? Or maybe it’s Ant Bates, whenever the non-flying fan has staggered into a foreign bar after another freakishly long journey. Bates (pictured above, left) has become the Dennis Bergkamp of Foxes fans, trundling overland to various European ties because aeroplanes are out, due to childhood illnesses. “After one of the operations they discovered a blood clot, so I can’t fly,” he tells FFT. “It’s OK, though – I find another way…” But that way doesn’t involve the TV or a sofa – this season, Bates has spent no fewer than 122 hours on trains in his bid to follow Leicester away from home in Europe this season. A 34-hour round trip to see the…

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Not all break-ups leave a bitter taste. In mid-November, more than five years on from his first Camp Nou exit, Dani Alves renewed his declaration of love for Barcelona. This was no wistful nostalgia trip – the club had just announced their legendary right-back’s unlikely return. “I return home from where I never left… may it be eternal while it lasts!” the Brazilian – struggling with the concept of eternity – wrote to celebrate his reunion with Barça, where he played from 2006-18 and lifted 23 titles of various shapes and sizes. The 38-year-old’s homage to Catalonia hasn’t been without early drama, either: he was finally allowed to make his second bow in January, assisted Barça’s only goal in his next appearance, then blew up against Atletico Madrid in February…

“Derby played a friendly in Iceland once, where the ground backed onto the sea – there were no ice baths there, so the players who’d played in the first half spent the second up to their waists in the Atlantic,” says Steve Nicholson. It’s further evidence that over the course of 1,000 successive matches, the Derby Telegraph’s chief football writer has seen it all with the Rams. It was August 2002 when Nicholson took his place in the Pride Park press box – hardly unknown territory for a man who’d already been number two on the paper’s sports desk – for a 3-0 win against Reading. He didn’t know it at the time, but it would be the first in an astonishing four-figure run – reached in February, for Derby’s…

You made 118 appearances for Cameroon, winning an Olympic Gold and two AFCONs. How does it feel to be one of the greatest Cameroonian players of all time? It’s a brilliant feeling, but it took a lot of work and belief in myself. I’m very proud, because in every profession your objective is always to go as far as possible. When I look back on my career, I know I did that. Cameroon famously wore sleeveless shirts at the 2002 AFCON, and onesies two years later. FIFA eventually banned both – what did the players make of them? Puma were our sponsor, and when they came to us with that sleeveless shirt we all really loved it – it was something different. No one else had worn a kit like…

HIGH-FLYING CANARIES Nowadays, Championship miners send the Canaries into the Premier League to see if it’s safe, but back in 1992-93 Norwich were title contenders. Yep, right up to the final weeks. Though they’d wasted their eight-point lead from December, Mike Walker’s Norwich were still top on April 3, with Mark Robins and Chris Sutton converting chances set up by the East Anglian estate agent firm of Fox, Crook, Goss and Phillips. Aston Villa actually had it in their hands from there, but Manchester United won their final seven games while Norwich conceded 16 in six – which, together with October’s 7-1 defeat at Blackburn, explains how they ended up finishing third with a-4 goal difference. No league title, then, but a UEFA Cup jaunt made Norwich the only British…

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MARC ALBRIGHTON WINGER CHRISTIAN FUCHS DEFENDER ANDY KING MIDFIELDER LEONARDO ULLOA STRIKER JASON BOURNE BBC RADIO LEICESTER DAVE BEVAN FAN AND AUTHOR OF THE UNBELIEVABLES BRAD VARNHAM PA ANNOUNCER, KING POWER STADIUM MA: Our only aim for the season was to stay up – that, and finish higher than we had the year before. The way we’d ended the previous season [with seven wins from nine] meant we finished 14th, and it almost looked like we hadn’t even been in a relegation scrap at all. CF: I joined the club when Nigel Pearson was still the manager. He sold it to me on the way that he wanted the team to play. He told me about ‘the great escape’ the year before, so of course it was a bit of…

1 MEXICAN STAND-OFF Queretaro and Atlas haven’t got on since a Liga MX fixture in 2007 – and things really got out of hand when they met again recently. Known for signing Ronaldinho in 2014, Queretaro were relegated by Atlas 15 years ago – games since then have seen trouble between opposition barra groups, and it exploded when the reigning champs visited the Estadio Corregidora in early March. Queretaro are struggling at the wrong end of the table – although relegation is suspended because of the pandemic, the bottom three must pay fines of up to £3m – and an early Atlas goal lit the fuse. Officials had optimistically placed stickers on seats to enforce social distancing – that proved ineffective as rival fans battled in the stands, with some…

VISIT THE HOME OF THE FOOTBALL QUIZ fourfourtwo.com/quiz 01 Christian Eriksen has returned to action with Brentford – in which year did Tottenham bring him to English football for £11 million? 02 Celtic were dumped out of the Europa Conference League by which Norwegian champions in February, losing 5-1 on aggregate? 03 The last non-Celtic or Rangers player to top-score in Scotland’s Premiership did so with 18 goals in 2017-18. Who was it? 04 Manchester City hold the record for the most points in a Premier League season. How many did they amass in that colossal 2017-18? 05 Which Berkshire outfit’s ground, York Road, is the smallest in the National League with a capacity of just 4,000? 06 Paul Ince is back in the dugout as interm boss of Reading.…

You signed on for Eibar in Spain’s second tier in November. Was it time to go home to the Basque Country? Like every summer, I returned to San Sebastian with my family, waiting for a proposal that would convince me. Unfortunately, nothing interested me so I was left without a team, which was a very strange feeling. I finished last season at Udinese with a lot of desire to continue and physically I felt good, so it hurt to be out of action for almost five months, without training or doing pre-season. The body suffers if you abandon daily work and that took its toll. In fact, I’ve found it hard to get back to feeling good – small muscular setbacks have stopped me from training normally, and made it…

Edouard Mendy didn’t see it coming. As the ball looped over his right shoulder and thudded a post on its way in, his teenage antagonist was already turning away with a devilish glint. Bukayo Saka had just put Arsenal 3-0 up against Chelsea on Boxing Day 2020, en route to three Premier League points that could hardly have been more welcome had they been slapped on the table by Santa Claus himself. That week, West Brom boss Sam Allardyce had fired an irresistible dig at the Gunners by suggesting they were relegation rivals for his doomed Baggies, following a miserable run that left the north Londoners 15th – their worst start to a season since 1974-75. A year into his tenure as manager, Mikel Arteta needed drastic action. Up to…

Joder,” says a man in his late 40s, sucking in his face as if biting on a lemon. F**k’s sake. He adjusts his weight from foot to foot as if awaiting a death sentence. Stood just in front of him are a slightly younger couple who appear to be his sister – shooting her older brother a cutting look – and brother-in-law, carefully cradling a ball of red and white dishcloths. Only upon closer inspection is a baby’s pudgy face vaguely visible. “The poor f**king kid… I can’t believe we’re actually here,” continues the man, taking off his sweater to reveal a green and white Real Betis shirt. Two sets of grandparents start laughing. “I hate this place.” The uncle is stood beneath the beautiful, ornate mosaic that has overlooked…

The final of the European Cup Winners’ Cup was just six days away, when the disaster happened. Just 70 miles north of Kyiv, a huge reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant had exploded, filling the night sky with radioactive particles. Nowhere in the vicinity was safe – not even Ukraine’s biggest city. As the Soviet Union hurried into damage limitation mode, 100,000 children were evacuated for their own safety. Among them was a nine-year-old Dynamo Kyiv junior by the name of Andriy Shevchenko, whisked 500 miles by bus to sanctuary by the Sea of Azov, on Ukraine’s south coast. First, Shevchenko’s club faced one of the biggest matches of their history, at Lyon’s Stade de Gerland against Atletico Madrid. While chaos reigned back home, Dynamo put on a masterclass,…

One football club just doesn’t seem enough these days. Manchester City are running offshoot teams from New York to Yokohama. Barcelona boast basketball, handball and even roller hockey sides. And now League One Fleetwood Town are building an empire, starting in South Africa and the UAE. Well, obviously. “A disrupter, that’s what we’re best described as,” says owner Andy Pilley – Zooming from the office, admittedly, not a sunny poolside. “I should be so lucky,” he laughs. “Actually, I was in Dubai up until a week ago…” Pilley (below) has plenty of energy – literally, that’s his main business – and with companies based in Dubai and Cape Town, he’s now launching some football clubs there too. The goal is to nurture new players, and either bring them to the…

Almost thirty years ago, in August 1992, Sky marked the new Premier League era with an advert so ’90s it could have come doused in Lynx Africa – Simple Minds, Vinnie Jones having fun in a shower, Tony Daley pumping iron and Darren Anderton doing sit-ups. ing sit-ups. Careering into view amid a backdrop of half-built post-Taylor Report stadia, garish blazers and cheerleaders emerging from some oversized Christmas crackers, the replacement of the former First Division was barely recognisable from today’s multi-million pound behemoth full of the world’s best players. Talk of a breakaway from the Football League wasn’t anything new. The Big Five clubs (Manchester United, Everton, Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs) had first discussed the possibility of the split with Greg Dyke – then the managing director of ITV…

1 BLACKPOOL 2010-11 The Premier League’s greatest single-season cameo started humbly: three days before their opening game, Blackpool had only 15 players. They still hadn’t received promotion bonuses. Stadium delays forced them to play away. Ian Holloway recruited five players in one day and watched newly-acquired Marlon Harewood score twice in a 4-0 win at Wigan. It was an incredible start to an incredible campaign. Blackpool lost their next match 6-0 but never stopped attacking: driven on by Charlie Adam, DJ Campbell and teenage supersub Matt Phillips, the Tangerines netted 55 goals, beating Liverpool twice. Their two meetings against Manchester United summarised it best of all: leading 2-0 at Bloomfield Road and 2-1 at Old Trafford, Blackpool lost both fixtures. Having spent almost the entire season outside the bottom three,…

Newcastle United’s 1995-96 season, as the cliché goes, had everything. It had great moments (“I will love it if we beat them”), great games (that 4-3 defeat at Anfield), great stats (12 points clear in early February) and great myths. Our memories tell us that Kevin Keegan’s side scored goals for fun that season, and conceded just as easily. In fact, they found the net just 66 times, one fewer than in the previous campaign, and conceded 37, only two more than eventual champions Manchester United. But why let the truth get in the way of a great story? And what a story it was. “The trouble is,” says left-back John Beresford, “we were having such a good time that it flew by – we didn’t get a chance to…