Innehållsförteckning för Issue 10 från World Soccer Presents

The first15 years of the Premier League was a time of English football emerging, bleary eyed, into the daylight of a more global, less insular approach to the national game, while still not quite shaking off some old habits. As the newly-rebranded top flight sought to establish itself on the global stage, it was an era characterised by exotic signings, topsy-turvy seasons and chaotic football. The following15 years has had plenty of the above too, plus more. The 2007-08 campaign, where our story resumes, is the perfect place to begin. The season finale saw, for the first time ever, two English teams meet in the Champions League final, as Manchester United and Chelsea locked horns on a torrential night in Moscow. That final fell in the middle of a sequence…

November 6, 1986 would prove an auspicious day for British football. That was when Manchester United appointed Alex Ferguson as manager. Now, after 21 years, his passion for football – winning football, that is – is undiminished even at 65 and after steering United to19 major trophies and winning World Soccer’s 2007 World Manager of the Year. The Scot proved the point yet again a few weeks back when he was banished from the dugout and charged by the FA with using “abusive and insulting words” to referee Mark Clattenburg during a1-0 defeat by Bolton. Ultimately, no action was taken, and Ferguson remained unrepentant: “A team near the bottom will battle, scrap and fight because they do not have the quality of team we do, but the key thing is…

They certainly do like a comeback on Merseyside. When Liverpool last won the World Soccer World Team of the Year award, back in 2005, it was on the back of a remarkable fight back from 3-0 down at half-time to beat Italians Milan on penalties in the Champions League final in Istanbul. Now, 14 years later, a similarly spectacular turnaround helped Liverpool win their sixth European crown – now three more than any other English team. In the semi-final first leg against Barcelona at the Nou Camp, they had succumbed to an imperious Lionel Messi display, whose individual brilliance probably deserved to be rewarded by a larger margin than the 3-0 scoreline. Yet back at Anfield, and roared on by a capacity crowd hoping for another European miracle, Liverpool pulled…

THE STORY On February 7, 2008, a meeting of the Premier League club chairmen received a presentation from PL chief executive Richard Scudamore. He outlined plans, also explained on an elaborate DVD, to play a 39th round of league matches in five foreign host cities each season, starting in January 2011. The plan would earn each Premier League club around £5m a season in broadcasting rights, ticket sales, sponsorship and hosting fees. THE RESPONSE The club chairmen were enthusiastic, with the exception of Liverpool’s Rick Parry. In the outside world, the plans were universally condemned, from FIFA president Sepp Blatter down. Blatter slammed the plans as “an abuse of association football” and said they could affect England’s 2018 World Cup bid. “If you go against the authority of FIFA and…

Does John W. Henry, Liverpool’s new owner, know what he has let himself in for? The billionaire owner of US baseball side Boston Red Sox paid £300 million – through his company New England Sports Ventures (NESV) – to buy the Premier League club after fighting off legal action by previous owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett to prevent the sale. After a tense courtroom drama ruled in Henry’s favour, Hicks blamed a “conspiracy of British establishment” and then dropped a £1 billion compensation claim for “an extraordinary swindle”. Now Henry faces the challenge of arresting Liverpool’s long-term decline. Manager Roy Hodgson is under pressure over poor results, with the club dropping into the relegation zone and being dumped out of the League Cup by fourth-tier Northampton Town. On top…

Over theodds PORTSMOUTH’S DEMISE IS LINkED DIRECTLY TO OVERSPENDING BY CHELSEA AND MANCHESTER CITY It almost works as a neat image to point out that premier League clubs wearing red – manchester United and Liverpool – entered 2010 with serious debts, while those in blue – Chelsea and manchester City – had their loans paid off by indulgent billionaires. that, though, leaves out the deep blues of portsmouth, who limp on in a financial state more parlous than any premier League club since Leeds United’s 2003 implosion. The premier League, led by its chief executive, richard Scudamore, remains wedded to the dogma that its football clubs are not clubs but commercial companies with shares available for purchase by anybody. Scudamore presents this as a virtue, pointing to the huge investment…

On May 2, 2009, Leicester City played Crewe Alexandra on the final day of the League One season in front of a crowd of 6,982 at Gresty Road. The Foxes were promoted to the Championship as champions. Seven years later, they celebrated winning a first-ever Premier League title following an extraordinary campaign where everything fell into place, to the delight of neutrals everywhere. Leicester are the first English champions to win World Soccer’s World Team of the Year award since Manchester United in1999 and only the third to win the accolade, along with Everton in 1985. A perfect storm of factors combined to deliver the title, while Claudio Ranieri’s “English attack, Italian defence” tactics made perfect use of the players at his disposal – a mix of bargain signings and…

Emmanuel ADEBAYOR £25m Arsenal to Manchester City Summer 2009 The Manchester City and Togo striker sat down with World Soccer to discuss why he moved to Eastlands from North London. Why did you leave Arsenal? It was a very difficult decision because I didn’t want to leave Arsenal, to be honest. But they told me that they had an agreement with Manchester City and, whether I liked it or not, I had to leave. I was like: “I’m not leaving!” But at the end of the day, when I had a good discussion with the boss, I realised that he was trying to tell me. What didn’t come out straight from his mouth is: if I stayed, I would not have a chance to play. But for me, there is…

OCTOBER 2012 THE INFLUENTIAL ARGENTINE How the Premier League’s top teams are adopting Marcelo Bielsa’s philosophies When Manchester City beat Manchester United in what was effectively a title decider at the end of April last season, the area in which they were dominant was clear: the game seemed to confirm that United lacked bite in midfield. Yet United responded by signing Robin van Persie, a striker, and Shinji Kagawa, a creator. Even before the end of last season, manager Alex Ferguson was dismissive of suggestions that the back of his midfield needs strengthening. The Scot, it seems, is part of a growing movement among coaches of elite teams who see passing above all else. The theory, really, is that of Marcelo Bielsa. In 1992 his Newell’s Old Boys side lost…

With 91 minutes on the clock, the dream was dead. Manchester United were on the verge of a1-0 win at Sunderland, taking them three points clear of their neighbours at the top of the Premier League table. City were trailing 2-1 at home to Queen’s Park Rangers; they had to score twice to seal the title on goal difference. Then, the first ray of hope burst through the clouds of City despair. Edin Dzeko met a David Silva corner to head in the equaliser – 2-2. QPR, down to ten men after Joey Barton’s sending off, showed no interest in keeping the ball, instead launching it towards City goalkeeper Joe Hart before retreating to the edge of their own penalty area, as they attempted to baton down the hatches for…

Leicester City’s shock 2015-16 Premier League triumph will be remembered as the greatest underdog victory of English football’s modern era. The 5,000-1 outsiders defied the odds to win the title race by some distance, leaving far wealthier, more accomplished and more experienced sides in their wake. Leicester’s achievement – with a core of players either rejected or overlooked by other clubs – was all the more remarkable given their form of the previous season and the departure of manager Nigel Pearson. At the start of the campaign, Leicester had been many people’s favourites to be relegated. Pearson had been sacked and replaced by Claudio Ranieri, whose most recent employment had been with the Greek national team, where he had been dismissed after four months following a Euro 2016 qualifying defeat…

You are great friends with Mohamed Salah, but when it comes to awards such as the African Footballer of Year you are inevitably up against him. You’ve finished second to him in the past two years – does this create a rivalry between you? You’d love me to say there is [a rivalry] wouldn’t you? [laughs]. The media seem to expect there to be, but I can honestly say it isn’t even a competition for us. I think you can see that in our relationship both on and off the pitch. Everyone is trying to do all that they can for the success of Liverpool – it’s not just about us. We represent the club and the city to the best of our ability and it’s something we enjoy. Mo…

No one expected Robinho to sign for Manchester City, least of all Robinho himself. The Brazilian scored on his debut against Chelsea at Eastlands, kissing the badge on his shirt in delight as he dashed across the pitch, although if he had got his way he would have been playing for the other side that afternoon. The forward was wearing the sky blue of a club who have won nothing in 30 years, not the darker blue of a club who won two of the last four Premier League titles and were just a slippery penalty spot away from Champions League glory in May. One of the summer’s longest-running soap operas was not supposed to end this way, with a twist that wasn’t in the script. “I wasn’t even thinking…

£25m Manchester United to Manchester City Summer 2009 So, finally, the Carlos Tevez saga closed a tumultuous chapter, with his £25 million acquisition part of a promiscuous round of striker shopping by Sheikh Mansour’s Manchester City. Just after the Argentinian was unveiled at City – grumbling that Alex Ferguson had not wanted him enough at Manchester United – the FA and Premier League slipped out the news that they had cleared West Ham United of any further wrongdoing in the morass of their conduct over Tevez. And that, we are supposed to feel, is that. Since he landed in English football back in 2006, Tevez has zipped tirelessly across penalty boxes, kept West Ham up single handedly, won two Premier League titles and the Champions League with United, and trailed…

• Made 250 Premier League appearances or played 200 games for just one club• Appeared in any of the Premier League Team of the Decade or 20-Year Anniversary teams • Won a Premier League Golden Boot or Golden Glove award• Been voted as Premier League Player of the Season• Won three Premier League titles• Scored100 Premier League goals• Kept100 Premier League clean sheets As of 2022,16 players have been inducted… Alan SHEARER Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle United Active: 1992-2006 Inducted: 2021 441 APPEARANCES 260 GOALS 64 ASSISTS 1 TITLES 3 GOLDEN BOOTS ICONIC MOMENT In February 2006, Shearer achieved a lifelong dream by netting his 201st goal for Newcastle United in a Premier League game at home to Portsmouth – thereby becoming his boyhood club’s all-time top scorer, beating the previous record…

SERIOUS OPINION Hard-hitting opinions from the game’s most respected writers. EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS Face-to-face with football’s biggest names. TALENT SCOUT Spotlight on the talented youngsters tipped for the top. EXPERT ANALYSIS Football’s burning issues analysed by expert figures in the game. COMPETITION GUIDES Essential previews of football’s biggest tournaments. EYEWITNESS REPORTS News and features from our global network of correspondents. Subscribe now to World Soccer –shop.kelsey.co.uk/subscription/WSC Or buy individual issues – shop.kelsey.co.uk/issue/list/publication/WSC facebook.com/WorldSoccerMagazine @worldsoccermag www.worldsoccer.com…

In the dying of an empire, echoes of past glories are everywhere. Manchester United’s players raised a smile and popped the champagne at Cardiff’s Millennium stadium after dispatching Wigan Athletic 4-0 to win the League Cup in February, but the wider world thought only of how dismissive Sir Alex Ferguson used to be of this competition when he was marching the club to Premiership titles and European Cup success. As the manager now grapples with a patchy, unbalanced squad, a soured relationship with much of his former adoring crowd, and his own workaholic unwillingness to retire, the League Cup win came not so much as blessed relief, but as a poignant reminder of better times past. In former years, Fergie used to rest his first-team players for League Cup matches,…

The great Hungarian coach Bela Guttmann was hugely successful during his career in South America and Europe, leading Benfica to two European Cups, but he was always adamant that “the third season is fatal”. Beyond that, he felt, he could no longer motivate players; they had seen all his tricks and he had run out of ways to surprise opponents. On the spectrum of coaches, Guttmann stands at one end as a shock merchant, somebody who came in, rattled cages, shook things up and – sometimes – prompted spurts of success. In terms of a modern equivalent, a coach who is always wandering, winning trophies across a range of countries, the closest comparison isJose Mourinho. At the other end of the scale are the likes of Alex Ferguson, Guy Roux…

In December 2005, Jose Mourinho won World Soccer’s World Manager of the Year award for the second year running. A presentation was arranged at Chelsea’s palatial training complex in Cobham, Surrey. Photographs were taken, a short interview took place and a polite request was made by this writer to respect an embargo ahead of the magazine’s publication the following week. “No chance,” came the reply from Chelsea’s chief press officer. “He’ll go back to his office now and he’ll be straight on the phone to his mates in Portugal.” “I have a problem – I’m getting better at everything related to my job to since I started” started”Jose Mourinho Within hours the story was running on Portuguese websites. Another tale to boost Mourinho’s reputation – and ego – at home and…

FIFA councillor Evelina Christillin, one of the main organisers of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and a passionate Juventus supporter, well remembers the July 2014 evening when Antonio Conte announced his shock resignation as Juve head coach. Just two months earlier, Conte had guided the side to a third consecutive Serie A title, thus completing their rehabilitation at the top table of European football in the wake of the infamous 2006 Calciopoli match-fixing scandal. In a Huffington Post article, Christillin recalled: “I was at a very serious meeting with bankers, in which we were discussing the Basel 3 agreement – the European Central Bank’s Asset Quality review requirements of Italian and other banks and matters of that sort. “All of a sudden, someone shattered the lugubrious solemnity by shouting…

The most obvious reaction to the epoch-changing Manchester City takeover by the Abu Dhabi royal family was the guffaws about how improbable it all was that City, perennial second fiddlers to United and with more cups for cock-ups than footballing prowess, should wake up one Monday morning and discover themselves to be the richest club in the world. It is indeed a remarkable leap. Less than ten years ago, City were being beaten by York City in the old second division (third tier) and deliriously celebrating a late, 1-0 victory at Macclesfield Town. Had City’s fans not loyally filled Maine Road to its capacity that season, had the manager, Joe Royle, not scraped the team up, had the cleverly assembled side of his successor, Kevin Keegan, not reclaimed top-flight status…

It started as the friendly takeover, even a love-in. But, just a year on, it is staggering to recall the warm, wonderful Scouse welcome Tom Hicks and George Gillett received when they walked on to the Anfield pitch bearing red and white scarves having just bought Liverpool. They were hailed as the men who would spirit the club back to the championship-winning ways that have eluded them for almost18 years. These American businessmen – Gillett is originally from Wisconsin, Hicks a takeover tycoon from Texas – would finally fund the building of the huge stadium in neighbouring Stanley Park that had been proposed for almost a decade. Now with their own billionaires, the fans believed their club would soon compete again with those that have outstripped them in recent years…

After the Cruyff turn, comes the Rooney U-turn. Or rather, the Rooney money-grab. Just days after apparently signalling his likely exit from Old Trafford, Wayne Rooney performed a spectacular about-turn by agreeing a new five-year deal that will make him Manchester United’s best-paid player on a reported salary of £180,000 a week. The change of heart provided a dramatic final twist in an extraordinary sequence of events that was played out – unusually for United – in public. It had begun with a row over Rooney’s fitness, with the player using the public opportunity provided by the Wembley mixed zone after England’s draw with Montenegro to question United’s claim that he was carrying an ankle injury. “For me it’s all about winning trophies – as the club has always done…

Sterling takes on the media January 2019 Raheem Sterling has been in outstanding form for both club and country this season, starring and scoring in the Nations League for England as they won in Spain, while his performances for Manchester City were recognised with an award as the Premier League’s Player of the Month for November. However, it is events off the pitch that have proved far more significant. After he was racially abused by Chelsea supporters at Stamford Bridge, Sterling used social media to not only highlight the abuse but also to express his concern about the wider portrayal of black players by traditional media, notably tabloid newspapers. The morning after City’s 2-0 defeat at Chelsea, he took the unusual step of posting a message to his 4.2 million…