Innehållsförteckning för October 2024 från FourFourTwo UK

When Bukayo Saka took the long, lonely walk to the penalty area at the Dusseldorf Arena to strike England’s third spot-kick against Switzerland at Euro 2024, the nation held its collective breath. Memories of his missed penalty against Italy three years ago were still fresh in everyone’s minds, along with the awful abuse he was subsequently subjected to. Many feared the pressure that he might be feeling in that moment. After two deep breaths and a short run-up, though, Saka calmly slotted the ball into the back of the net, sending Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer the wrong way. There was no screaming or outpouring of emotion, as we’d seen from Stuart Pearce when he scored from the spot against Spain at Euro 96, following his miss at the 1990 World…

“I CAN’T BELIEVE WE BEAT ALAVES 5-4 – IT WAS A CRAZY GAME” Germany 1-1 England June 26, 1996 European Championship “The biggest highlight of my life was the Euro 96 semi against England, because the atmosphere inside the stadium was unbelievable. It was the first time I’d been to Wembley and I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, what kind of old stadium is this?!’ I had no idea how big Wembley was, because we’d played in the north of England until then. It was packed and I understood immediately just what that match meant to people. I get goosebumps even now. I couldn’t concentrate on the game – I was listening to 75,000 fans singing. It was amazing. England were a fantastic team with a lot of great players…

On August 1, 2019, Arsenal’s great new hope appeared. Unai Emery was convinced he’d found a left-footer capable of scoring freely from the right wing, the man who’d lead the Gunners into the future. “He will add pace, power and creativity, with the aim of bringing more goals to our team,” the Basque boss declared. “A top-class winger has been one of our key objectives.” Nicolas Pepe cost Arsenal a club-record £72 million, but the club believed Lille’s 24-year-old would guide them back into the top four and beyond. As it turned out, he’d score just 16 times in the Premier League during three seasons with the Gunners – £4.5m per goal. The player Emery needed had been on the club’s books for 11 years, having moved from Watford when…

DOMINIC SOLANKE TOTTENHAM For the second Premier League season in succession, an Englishman was the Premier League’s most expensive summer acquisition – and once again it was a north London club flashing the cash. After Arsenal paid more than £100 million to recruit Declan Rice ahead of 2023-24, this time it was the turn of Tottenham, who paid Bournemouth an initial £55m (rising to £65m) for Dominic Solanke. Even just a summer ago, the notion that anybody would stump up such a large sum of money for Solanke would have been met with bewilderment, given the player’s top-flight prowess until that stage. Ahead of last season, Solanke’s Premier League record read: 96 appearances, 10 goals – that’s one strike every 544 minutes. A forward who’d been tipped for greatness as…

Nestor Combin’s face told the story of the 1969 Intercontinental Cup better than any match report. Blood poured from the Milan midfielder’s nose down a severely swollen, clearly broken left cheek and onto what had been a shimmering white shirt. His left eye was already shut from the savage elbow he’d just received. A boxing referee would have stopped the fight long ago. “I truly have no idea why he had it in for me,” said Combin the next morning, on the topic of one Ramon Aguirre Suarez. It wasn’t just Combin on the Estudiantes defender’s radar – he had already kicked forward Pierino Prati out of the game and nearly decapitated Milan’s playmaker prince, Gianni Rivera, with a chest-high assault. His personal call sheet that night read: one goal,…

How did you beat the drop, following your appointment in early February by relegation-threatened Charlton? There was a good squad here; they just needed a bit of belief and to be harder to beat. We were probably in top-10 form by the end and we even felt disappointed with a 16th-place finish. We should have won far more games than we did – we drew too many from a comfortable position to win. When I came into this fantastic club, we had a goal and managed to achieve it but we also laid down foundations for this season, so it wasn’t just a patch-up job. That could be a real platform to what we want to achieve this year. After that escape, are you aiming to get out of League…

The Football Manager World Cup was held for the first time recently, and some entrants were feeling confident. Like the proper World Cup, every competitor had their own photoshoot – the Lithuanian gaffer turned up in a suit and posed authoritatively, as if he was Carlo Ancelotti, while Saudi Arabia’s Nawaf Alhazmi gave it the big ’un, with the sort of fingers-in-ears gesture that Jose Mourinho would be proud of. Puzzling, given he wasn’t even one of the 20 bosses involved, instead acting as assistant to countryman Mohanned Alem. John Terry was in attendance to do the draw at the Exhibition Centre in Liverpool, thankfully resisting the temptation to do so in full kit, while Sam Allardyce was also a star guest, perhaps in return for free pints of wine.…

A broad grin crossed Roman Abramovich’s face as he held the trophy up to photographers. The party was already in full swing around him and he wanted to bask in the moment himself, posing for shots as the pyrotechnics illuminated the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Chelsea’s Club World Cup triumph in February 2022 was arguably the pinnacle of Abramovich’s 19 years as the club’s owner. The 21st trophy of a success-laden two decades at Stamford Bridge officially crowned the Blues as the world’s best team, for the first time in history. Abramovich, so often preferring to stay in the shadows rather than taking centre stage, wasn’t going to miss it. He made his way down to the pitch to join the players and manager Thomas Tuchel in…

Mick Harford will never forget the day doctors broke the life-altering news that he was suffering from prostate cancer. It was December 2020 and the former Luton, Wimbledon and England striker had been expecting little more than the usual advice from his GP about eating sensibly and getting enough exercise. “I’d actually been given the all-clear for prostate cancer a year earlier,” Harford – now 65 – tells FourFourTwo. “I’d initially been to see the doctor with concerns about how often I was going to the toilet. I was waking up several times a night and sometimes even needing to go again just 30 seconds later. They had me take a PSA [Prostate-Specific Antigen] test and it came back negative – there was just some inflammation, nothing to be too…

The events of December 27, 1948 were etched into the mind of Jimmy Jones until the legendary Irish League striker’s passing 65 years later. The pitch invasion in a fixture between his largely Catholic Belfast Celtic and the largely Protestant Linfield nearly ended his career – and ultimately did end his club. “I noticed the crowd surging onto the field towards me,” Jones – still the seventh-highest scorer in football history, with more than 600 strikes – would later recall. “There wasn’t a policeman in sight.” Jones was knocked unconscious and had his leg broken so badly by Linfield fans that amputation was considered. That game was the catalyst for Belfast Celtic, ‘The Grand Old Team’, to withdraw from the Irish League after six trophy-laden decades. An end-of-season tour of…

Birmingham City might be at their lowest ebb for 30 years, but seldom has the mood around the club been so optimistic. Despite a first season under new owners ending in relegation to League One, there is a groundswell of belief that Blues are heading back to the top. An American investment firm, Knighthead Capital Management, took control of the club in July 2023. After a miserable decade’s toil under first Carson Yeung, who went to prison for money laundering, and then the reckless Trillion Trophy Asia, Birmingham had the promise of a fresh start and bold ambitions. New chairman Tom Wagner and chief executive Garry Cook, the same role he once held at Manchester City, spoke confidently about aspiring to be “world class” in all areas. Regardless of how…

The ex-Spurs and Norwich centre-half discusses Luka Modric’s genius, Ledley King’s resilience and Chris Hughton’s humanity What was your experience like in coming through the acclaimed French academy centre at Clairefontaine? I can’t speak highly enough about the place. Clairefontaine was the best experience of my life, and the biggest experience in terms of developing an overall football IQ. It was the place to be, and I learned everything there. You eat and drink football, and it was a dream to be part of this big family. I was 13 when I arrived, so still young, and they nurtured me as a footballer and as a man. After emerging at Ligue 1 side Metz, you signed for Chris Hughton’s Newcastle in 2008. Your first season ended in relegation but seemed…

THE BEAUTIFUL GAME CHILD’S PLAY Polish duo Jakub Blaszczykowski and Lukasz Piszczek were given a farewell match at Borussia Dortmund – against 100 kids. The legends dribbled upfield to win a penalty, but were unable to score from the spot. Kick it in the top corner, they’re only little! Photo Hendrik Deckers/Borussia Dortmund/Getty Images “THE SUNSHIIIIIINE!” When Dunfermline heard Oasis were reuniting, they wasted no time – bear mascot Sammy the Tammy donned one of Liam Gallagher’s jackets, got a name tag in Oasis font, a tambourine and a mic, and played the hits ahead of a fixture against Ayr. Tickets were much easier to get hold of for this gig, judging by the number of empty seats… Photo Ewan Bootman/SNS/Getty “CHEERS, GUYS!” Every year, Bayern Munich stars attend a…

​​01 From which club did Chelsea sign Ivory Coast powerhouse Didier Drogba in the summer of 2004? 02 In which European city would you find both the Estadio Benito Villamarin and Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan? 03 Who is the Netherlands national team’s all-time record goalscorer? 04 With which playing position would you associate Italian icon Dino Zoff? 05 Which side did all three of England’s goalscorers play for when the Three Lions thrashed Germany 5-1 in 2001? 06 Who did Borussia Dortmund beat in the 1997 Champions League Final? 07 Which flower appears on the badges of Blackburn, Chelsea, Leeds, Sheffield United and Southampton? 08 The Derby della Lanterna – or Derby of the Lighthouse – is fought between which two Italian clubs? 09 Who is the only man to…

YES JAMES ANDREW EDITOR @JamesAndrew_ Sky Sports have not been shy about shouting about their new broadcast deal with the EFL, with more than 1,000 games to be screened this season across the three leagues, the League Cup and the EFL Trophy. From 2025, the amount of Premier League games broadcast in the UK across Sky and TNT will also rise to 267 games per season – 70 per cent of all matches. But while the number of games available to watch on TV is going up, one thing remains: the 3pm blackout. The blackout means that no matches are allowed to be televised live between 2.45pm and 5.15pm each Saturday, a rule introduced in the 1960s to protect crowds lower down the football pyramid. For example, if Salford were…

When the list of nominees was unveiled, people could have been forgiven for doing a double take. Club of the Year: Chelsea?! Viewed through the prism of men’s football in recent years, Chelsea, Barcelona, Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain would be seen as quite the collection of basket cases. Yet this quartet reached the Women’s Champions League semi-finals in 2023-24 and they make up the contenders for the Women’s Club of the Year award at this year’s Ballon d’Or ceremony – along with US side NJ/NY Gotham, apparently imported from a Batman comic. Despite chaos in the men’s team, Chelsea’s women’s team have continued to succeed even after Todd Boehly & Co bought the club. In the 2022-23 campaign, Chelsea did the domestic league and cup double, serenely picking up 58…

30 STADIO LUIGI FERRARIS Named after an ex-Genoa player who was killed during the First World War, the 33,000- capacity Stadio Luigi Ferraris is Italy’s oldest venue still used for football. Constructed back in 1911, it’s been Genoa’s home ever since, also opening its doors to Sampdoria in 1946. Often described as an ‘English-style ground’, the towers in all four corners make it unique. NOTABLE MATCH Ireland’s penalty shootout win over Romania in the last 16 of Italia 90. 29 ESTADIO MUNICIPAL How many football grounds are carved into a mountain? It’s a distinction claimed by the Estadio Municipal de Braga, the work of an architect named Eduardo Souto de Moura who won a prestigious award for his daring design. A special setting to watch games, it hosted a couple…