O O T B A L L’ S N O .

1 F A N
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XAVI LETS RIP

BENTLEY THE BARMAN • CLOUGHIE THE RAPPER • FJORTOFT THE TRAINSPOTTER
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 E D I TO R’ S L E T T E R

EDITORIAL
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1. Xavi is a fan of Danny Drinkwater…
Editor Hitesh Ratna
Managing editor Huw Davies
…and Brentford, Craig Gardner, Middlesbrough and
Art editor Anthony Moore everything else about English football. That’s because the
Deputy art editor Tom Chase
Features editor James Maw former Barcelona and Spain superstar is obsessed with
Staff writer Andrew Murray watching the game whenever he can, something we discovered during our
Staff writer Chris Flanagan
Chief sub editor Gregg Davies chat with him. From a swanky hotel in Qatar, where he’s playing for Al Sadd,
Performance editor Ben Welch he told us about his struggle to be accepted by the Spanish media, the day
Performance writer Alec Fenn
Videographer Andre Hoo he almost joined Milan and his plans to one day manage Barça.
Global digital editor Gary Parkinson
Deputy digital editor Gregor MacGregor 2. Kemar Roofe has 65 pairs of trainers
Digital features editor Joe Brewin The midfielder collects them, you see, when he’s not banging
Social media executive Harriet Drudge
Digital apprentice Ben Clark in the goals for Oxford United. And that’s just one of the many
Editorial secretary Sarah Weetch Have any
thoughts on the
things you’ll learn reading this year’s Football League Top 50,
Thanks to Jeff Beasley (picture editor), Haymarket Pre-Press
(repro), Fernando Solanas, Steve Harrison, Jade March, issue? Feel free voted – as ever – by the fans. Turn to page 66 to find out where
Vitesse supporters’ club, Tom Phillips, Daniel Venn, Tim Barnett, to share with a
Louis Massarella and the good people at Rockingham Arms your team’s star player finished and who tops the list.
follow and tweet
FL Top 50 photos Leon Csernohlavek, Jill Jennings, Ian Tuttle
@FourFourTwoEd 3. Tom Cruise has nothing on David Bentley
Pictures PA Photos, Action Images, Getty, Twitter
Global brand director Andy Jackson The former Blackburn and Tottenham winger turned mixologist
Global editor-in-chief David Hall
Business development director Andy Baker extraordinaire as we put your questions to him at his restaurant
Global account director Adam Kaczmarski in Marbella, Spain. He gives the full truth on leaving Arsenal,
Marketing manager Ollie Stretton
International director Alastair Lewis proclaiming himself the next David Beckham and retiring early.
Senior direct marketing executive Michelle Le Grice
Syndication enquiries Isla Friend 4. Jay Rodriguez is an expert on knees
Circulation manager Nick Lyon No surprise, really, as the Southampton forward has spent
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 M AY 2016

UPFRONT
20 Top 10 nightmare neighbours in football
“Damn it, who let the camels out?”
30 Non-league’s 70-goal-a-season striker
...and he’s on course for 100 before it’s over
32 How old is your team?
Our infographic reveals who’s sprightliest in the 92
36 Ask A Silly Question: Jan Aage Fjortoft
“I’m sure Kanye will solve all of the world’s crises”

FEATURES
One-on-One: David Bentley
In an incredibly revealing interview, the ex-winger
8
explains why he left Arsenal as a youngster and
retired at 29 – and why he regrets nothing

42 COVER STORY Xavi exclusive

The Premier League’s great and England can win
the Euros – Xavi knows how to make a magazine
happy. But he means it, and more. The greatest
midfielder of his generation hails Leicester, talks up
Le Tiss and unveils his plan to manage Barcelona
52 Non-league programmes
Even in the 10th tier a club must make a matchday
programme if they’re to avoid a fine. Introducing:
the one man who bashes out a bunch of them
57 A brief history of music in football
Did you know Jimmy Hill wrote the first FA Cup final
song? Or that Brian Clough rapped on a pop single?
Read on for more musical madness in the game
62 Vitesse: life as Chelsea’s feeder club
The Dutch club have five Blues youngsters on loan,
taking them to 19 in the past few seasons. We ask
the fans if they fear their club is losing its identity
66 The FFT Football League Top 50
It’s back! Our annual countdown of the best players
between the Championship and League Two – as
voted by you, the fans – returns, with each division’s
winner interviewed. Let the arguments commence

Jay Rodriguez on his ACL hell

The Southampton striker was in the England setup
84 and the form of his life when a simple landing took
it all away. He opens up about his two-year layoff

Is there any point in crossing the ball?

One in every 92 balls into the box actually leads to
90 a goal, but still teams use it as a tactic. FFT asks if
‘getting it in the mixer’ still has a place in football

94 Action Replay: Football’s first world tour

In the 1930s Islington Corinthians embarked on
an epic 95-game trip, taking on barefoot Indian
teams, over-enthuastic Egyptian fans and a jaguar

PLANET FOOTBALL
101 Tevez’s table football set – No spinning, Carlos!
102 Filipe Luis on Mourinho, Messi, Simeone and more
106 Bebe speaks: “I felt lost at Manchester United”
Plus Parma start again; the team kicked out of the
league but pushing for Europe; Zico’s best goal

PERFORMANCE
111 Light up your game by improving your reactions
114 Benik Afobe tells you how to score at any level
120 Crunch game tips from Rio Ferdinand and others
Plus Train in the rain; make great matchday meals
with only leftovers; play into your forties

6 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com

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ONE-ON-ONE
Does he regret his U21 snub? Did he ever
make Wenger laugh? Why did he fall out
of love with the game? And did he really
kick a ball off an office block into a skip?
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY...

David Bentley
Interview Leo Moynihan Portraits Mark Beltran

Breaking up with his girlfriend in the 1988 Below Bentley helped instead of chipping the keeper, I was thinking:
movie Cocktail, Tom Cruise says: “Everything
ends badly – otherwise it wouldn’t end.” In
FACT FILE Tottenham qualify
for the Champions
“I don’t want to. I can’t be bothered.”

April 2013, football ended badly for David Full name David Michael Bentley League in 2009-10 Was being compared to Dennis Bergkamp
Bentley. Hooked on the hour in a 3-0 defeat Date of birth 27/08/1984 at a young age a help or a hindrance?
at Cardiff, the former Blackburn, Spurs and Height 5ft 8in Position Winger James Jalloah, Islington
England man trudged off the pitch and, like Place of birth Peterborough A help. Working with Dennis Bergkamp was
Cruise’s barman persona, realised he was no Clubs 2002-2006 Arsenal 9 games (1 goal); a huge help, too. How could it not be? He was
longer in love. He never played again.  2004-05 Norwich City (loan) 28 (2); brilliant, full of advice and support. And what a
Today, though, the affable, cheeky Bentley – 2005-2008 Blackburn Rovers player – one of the best I’ve seen. I scored that
once dubbed the ‘new David Beckham’ – is 2008-2013 Tottenham Hotsp chip on my debut and maybe the crowd saw
relaxed, happy and mixing the drinks in the 2011 Birmingham City (loan) a bit of him in me. I had no problem with the
restaurant that he co-owns in Marbella on West Ham United 5 (0); 2012 comparison. I was terrified working with these
Spain’s Costa del Sol. Make FourFourTwo’s a 8 (0); 2013 Blackburn Rovers great players, though. I s**t myself every day
large one and we’ll crack on with the questions.  International 2007-08 Engla I went into work. I had to put on a cocky, fake
act and pretend to be someone else, to get by.
Who were your childhood idols?  London but I never supported a team.
Ben Daniels, via Facebook My first game was Tottenham and all Did you ever make Arsene Wenger laugh?
Eric Cantona and Gazza. I had posters of them my mates were Tottenham but I played Steven Kelly, Facebook
on my bedroom wall. Away from football, my too much to seriously support them. I loved Arsene Wenger. He’s probably the best
grandad was a huge hero. I was obsessed with manager I ever came across. The dressing
the 1950s and people like James Dean; to me, What did it mean to you to score room at Arsenal was fantastic – a great
Grandad was like that. He was a bit of a boy – that chip for Arsenal against laugh. I bet they miss that now. The
a painter and decorator who liked a drink and Middlesbrough on your debut?  manager wasn’t really the type to join in,
a fight. I’m drawn to people who are a bit edgy. Bill Vaulkes, London although he probably laughed when I told him
I liked Gazza and Cantona for those reasons. I can’t really explain it. It was incredible. I was leaving: “Why do you want to leave here,
As a kid, I turned up for my first day at Arsenal I couldn’t tell you how I did the good things you prick?!” But I just couldn’t wait to play.
wearing my Cantona shirt with the collar up.  I did. The ball would come to me and
sometimes something really good would Did staying at Arsenal so long hamper your
Who do you actually support? I’ve read it happen. It’s weird. It was never a progress? Do you think this is happening to
was Arsenal, Spurs, Manchester United…  conscious thing. My God, it was fun other English youngsters at big clubs?
Pablo, Oxford though. I think things changed when it Keil Hampton, via Facebook
[Laughs] Dad joined the RAF so I grew up all became a job. By the end of my career I didn’t stay that long. I left, and some
over the place. Eventually we moved to north I was having conscious thoughts and probably thought I was mad. I felt that if

8 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com

 “Manchester United
were big at the time so
to score a hat-trick was
incredible. We went out
in Manchester after”
 ONE-ON-ONE

Bentley “learned
a lot” at Norwich
despite relegation
I stayed at Arsenal, I could end up as nothing.
I feared for my future. I’m sure there are
youngsters at clubs today with the same fears.
How was your time at Norwich? Was being
relegated on the final day by losing 6-0 at
Fulham your worst moment in football?
Wesley, Needham Market
No. Experiences like that can be good for
a young player. Norwich was great for me:
I was playing and I enjoyed the setup. We
were losing, though, and that is always hard.
The dressing room was good; there were some
big personalities and when they talked, they
talked sense. I was gutted they went down
but I learned a lot there.
How did you celebrate scoring that hat-trick
for Blackburn against Manchester United?
Pete Robinson, via Facebook
That was the day after I signed for the club
[permanently, while on loan from Arsenal]
so it was very special. Manchester United w
big at the time and to get three was incredi
I went out to play, really determined to do
something. I played upfront and it went we
We all went out in Manchester after the
match. There was no social media back in
those days so we could let our hair down a
more. I think Twitter and Instagram have
probably affected players’ freedom.
We had played Newcastle that afternoon,
and I knew that I was having this big party
afterwards so I knew we had to win. I scored
two just to make sure the party was good.
Robbie Savage: an individual with some
profound thoughts on life, fashion and
football, or just a bit of a wally?
Tony Dunkley, Sidcup
Robbie is a great lad. I enjoyed every day
working with him. You had to have thick skin,
though: Robbie loved the banter and he was
relentless. I love that. Today, people get the
hump with it all and start crying, and that’s
boring. Robbie was perfect for me. I was
terrorised by him, but it made me stronger.
What did the people of Blackburn think of
your baby blue Ford Mustang?
Luke Bowers, Newcastle
I’m not sure, but I loved it! I was obsessed
with Steve McQueen and his movie Bullitt.
That’s why I bought that motor – I had to
have one. It certainly looked different in the
club car park, that’s for sure.  they didn’t want me to go, but I didn’t. I called
Do you regret leaving Blackburn? That
was your best period as a footballer...
Hasan Haq, via Facebook
I regret the way I left, because I forced it
through a bit. [Chief executive] John Williams
was always good to me and the club were
great, but I did force the move. I did what
I had to do – I wanted to be back in
London and Spurs was a big move for
me but it might’ve gone smoother
Below right It was What was the reason you withdrew from
one hell of a debut... the England Under-21 squad in 2007,
Below ...but Bentley and were you surprised by the reaction?
left Arsenal in search Colin, via Facebook
of regular football I wasn’t surprised by the reaction, but I’d
Bottom Head over played 60 games that season. I explained it to
heels at Blackburn Fabio Capello: if we had made the [European
Championship] final with the under-21s then
I wouldn’t really have had a break at all, as
Blackburn were in the Intertoto Cup the
following season. I couldn’t do that. This was
10 years ago and everyone called me a wanker;
today everyone’s in ‘the red zone’ and getting
rested! I was adamant, though, and I knew my
body. I was shattered. I phoned Stuart Pearce
and said: “I can’t do it.” I wasn’t disrespecting
the under-21s. Pearce didn’t say much, but the
next day he was in the papers, slagging me off,
and he even compared my decision to soldiers
fighting in Afghanistan. That was strange.
I think that may have been when I started to
fall out of love with the game a little. I thought:
‘What a load of s**t this is’. I could have just
told Blackburn to say I was injured, because
Pearce and was honest, and that’s what I got. 
Do you regret saying, in the infancy of your
England career: “I’m here to take Beckham’s
place and that’s what I’ll be trying to do”? 
Jake Spencer, via Facebook
There’s loads of questions about regret here –
I don’t regret anything! What else was I going

What’s Mark Hughes like as a manager?

Andy William, via Facebook
He was good. He played me, so I liked him
[laughs]. He let me be. He was a great
man-manager and he gets what it is to be
a player. I’ve heard he was quiet as a player
and a really bad trainer, but he has turned i
a great coach. Chelsea and Manchester Unit
could do worse. I once had a party at my ho
and he came along. He brought a massive
magnum of red wine with him – vintage.

“Some thought I was mad to leave but I felt if
I stayed at Arsenal, I could end up as nothing”
to say: “I’m here to clean Beckham’s boots”?
I was there to try to take his place, wasn’t I?
People wanted me to say: “I’m here to learn
from him”, but that’s not me. David might
have thought I was a lunatic but he was great.
I’d tell him I was better than him, and offer
him free-kick competitions. We had a laugh.  further my England career. He has a villa near
What do you remember now about your
England debut? How did it feel at the time?
Alan Hall, via Facebook
Getting booed was interesting. Especially with
all my family there. I clapped [the fans] when
they booed me and I got stick for that, too.
We can be a very envious nation, I think.
Some fans got it into their head that I was
flash, and they wanted to see me fail.
It was another strange moment for me. I had
an England cap, which was always my dream,
but all I could think was: ‘That wasn’t what it
was cracked up to be’. I had watched Italia 90
and seen Gazza having a laugh by the pool,
with all the emotions involved, and I dreamt of
being part of that one day. I was only six. Then
it happened and I thought: ‘Is that it?’  I ever got over that bad start. I wanted
You made the squad, but not the bench, for
that Euro 2008 qualifier against Croatia.
Could you have saved Steve McClaren?
Eli Daniels, via email
Who knows if I would have helped that night?
I was sat behind [Steve McClaren] and as soon
as the brolly went up I said: “What is he doing?
He’s going to get caned for that.” He had that
little tuft of hair he didn’t want to get wet!  I’m very much a team man. People won’t
Did Fabio Capello know that you and Jimmy
Bullard referred to him as Postman Pat?
@dribsy27, via Twitter
[Laughs] Yes, he did. One of the other players
grassed us up, I think. I loved going away with
Jimmy. Capello wanted us in bed early and
all that – he stopped us having ketchup, the
skipper had to be there before we could all sit
down to eat... it didn’t make any sense to us.
I had a lot of respect for him, though. He had
told me that I should leave Blackburn to
me out here in Spain. I never see him, though.  Below “A free-kick
I remember Juande Ramos moving you to
right-back in one game at Spurs – were you
surprised by that? How was your relationship
with him? And what was the mood like at
Spurs at that time [autumn 2008, as the
club made its worst ever start to a season]?
Gary Foster, Hemel Hempstead
Nothing surprised me – it was such
a strange time. I joined him there,
thinking he’d be another Wenger, but
it was a nightmare. I was so excited
to be there and it all went wrong.
All my mates are Spurs fans and they
were like kids, so excited that I was going
to be playing for their team. I’m not sure
to be part of something great at
Tottenham, but it wasn’t happening.  PAL’S
How did you sneak all that
McDonald’s food past security
and into the England camp
under Fabio Capello?
Jimmy Bullard, friend and
former England team-mate
I used to get a lot of things past security!
My mate would pass by and I worked it by
telling the security there was a problem
on the top floor – something simple, like the door won’t open up
there. He’d leave to check it out and the burgers would arrive.
ON E - ON - ON E
What was it like, scoring that
incredible long-distance goal for
Spurs at the Emirates in that
famous 4-4 draw? How many times
have you watched it back? Do you
think you could do it again?
@BigCub_, via Twitter
I’ve never watched it back. It was
another moment when I felt, prior to the
game, that I was going to do something good.
All my mates were there, Harry [Redknapp]
had just come in after Juande Ramos, and
I felt that this was going to be a big night; that
everything had been getting on my nerves
and this was going to be different.
The ball just sat up nicely for me. We had
been in a meeting before the game and it was
Inset Fabio introduces mentioned that their keeper [Manuel Almunia]
himself to the squad liked to stand off his line, so I just hit it. I think
Above left A derby I hit it out of frustration because of the way
goal for the ages... the season had gone. If I had been in a good
Above right ...thanks mood I might have controlled it and played it
to Almunia making wide to my full-back. Instead, I smashed it.
a dog’s breakfast of it And yeah, I could do it again. 
competition? Are you I heard that you love Kings of Leon. What’s
having a laugh?” been your best experience watching them?
Simon Massey, Bristol
I had my top off in the mosh pit once at
Wembley Arena [in December 2008] – I was
having a great night. The thing is, a picture
got in The Sun and I ended up getting fined
a week’s wages by Spurs! I’d seen them in
Camden before they were famous and loved
them. I met them eventually and ended up on
a night out with the band. I’m not telling you
about that night, though – rock ’n’ roll!
Is it true Jose Mourinho showed interest in
signing you when he was Inter Milan boss?
Adam Cooper, via Facebook
Yeah, he was keen, but it just never happened.
I’m not sure why. It was probably something
between the two clubs; something to do
with money. He wanted to bring me to
POSER Chelsea when I was at Blackburn, too. 
? What was the highlight of your time at
White Hart Lane? Finishing fourth in the
2009-10 season was pretty great, right?
Stuart Thomas, via email
believe that, but I came to Tottenham to be
part of a great team. Personal moments, such
as the Arsenal goal, are great – but yes, my
favourite memory is qualifying for the
Champions League that season. It had all
clicked under Harry and that was great. 
FourFourTwo.com May 2016 11
 ONE-ON-ONE
Has it been overhyped, or was drenching
Harry Redknapp with water [above] after
Spurs got into the Champions League by
beating Manchester City really something
that broke your relationship with him?
Darren Walsh, via Facebook
I think it was, yes. He wasn’t happy; he thought
I was being disrespectful. I did it because we
all loved him so much. I had played a lot and
been involved. I was dropped for the game,
even though I had set up goals the week
before – he picked Aaron Lennon ahead of me
– so I could have had the hump with him but
I didn’t. I was well happy. We’d done it. I was
part of it, and because the whole dressing
room liked him, I did him with the water. It got
back to me that he wasn’t pleased, and that
was disappointing because I really like him.  Is it true that at one stage in your career
What’s the story behind that video of you
kicking a ball from an office block into a skip?
Penny Hampton, via Facebook
It was when I was at Tottenham. We’d lost on
the Saturday and I was having a bad time.
Red Bull asked me to their offices in central
London to do a stunt. I wasn’t interested
but went along anyway, and the next thing
I know I’m on the roof with a ball. I said I was
going to hit a red bus, which worried them as
they thought I might kill someone. Instead,
we aimed for a skip. Bang – it’s gone in. I had
bet my agent his expensive watch and the ball
went straight in. It got lodged and just stuck.
It was probably the best thing I ever did!
You were named man of the match on your
Birmingham debut against Aston Villa. How
did the Second City Derby compare to the
north London one? Admit it: it’s more tasty!
Steve P, via email
They do hate each other, but it’s not as good
as Arsenal vs Tottenham. Sorry!
How gutting was it to be injured so early on
at West Ham? You’d started pretty well…
Greg Smyth, via email
That was a bit of a bummer because I was
really enjoying it there. That injury was my first
long-term knock, and I think I began to give up
on it all. I had got some excitement back and
the fans were good, so I was gutted.  and I was getting caught up in all the
Did you enjoy your spell in Russia at
FC Rostov? How did the move happen?
Paddy Verrill, via Facebook
After West Ham I fancied a move away. Why
not? It was sold to me well, the finances were
very appealing and it was in the back of my
12 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com
“There’s loads of questions
about regret in here – but
I don’t regret anything!”
mind that I might pack it all in
soon. I thought three or four
months would be good.
Someone told me I would be
the first English player to play
out there and that milestone
appealed to me, too. The club
are in the south of Russia, the
weather was great and I liked it.
It was certainly an experience.  online account and ended up with 70. But I
What was your second spell
with Blackburn like? Did you find the
club quite chaotic under Venky’s?
Chris Lawson, via email
When I came back from Russia, I went back to
Spurs and waited it out to the end of my
contract. Blackburn came in, and I’d liked it
there first time around so I thought: ‘Let’s give
that a go’. But I found a very different place.
Venky’s had come in and the club was all over
the place. The club I knew had gone. I think
that was the last nail in the coffin for me.
I had fallen out of love with football.
Your last professional game for Blackburn
was away at Cardiff in a 3-0 defeat. What
was going through your mind during that
game? Were you thinking of quitting?
Gareth Benson, via Facebook
My dad was at the game and he knew I was
on the edge. There were problems in the camp
political s**t. I played and I was rubbish
and at half-time there was a big row
in the dressing room. I hated that.
I would always defend myself and
players, but this time I wasn’t arsed.
We went back out, I walked around
for 15 minutes and got taken off.
I looked at my dad in the stands and just
shook my head. I welled up and came off.
As I took my pads off, I said: “This is the last
game I ever play.” And it was. That was that.
Where do you get your hair cut? And what
product do you use? Fabulous volume!
Chris Burden, via Facebook
I haven’t had my hair cut by a professional
since I was seven! I do my own hair. I have
funny hair – it’s a bit crazy. I use VO5. I get it
from Morrison’s in Gibraltar. 
You said you quit because
football had lost its sense
of fun. What was the
craziest bit of ‘banter’
you ever suffered?
Harrison Prescott, London
I had my car stolen, but
the worst was someone
s**tting in my wash bag
when I was at Spurs.
I think it was Jonathan
Woodgate. I opened it up and there was
a big turd inside. I found it funny. Every day,
mad things would happen. Once, I walked out
onto the training pitch in Ugg boots. Harry
took one look at me and said: “F**k off.”
you were placing 100 bets a day?  
Alan Venn, via Facebook
Yeah, I was bit of a gambler. I had a dog and
two racehorses. I loved it. I did have a bit
of a problem, though. I struggled with it.
I needed a vice, I think. I wasn’t into video
games or DVDs. It was addictive, but I always
had a lid on how much I’d bet. I was quite
good at it. I started out with one grand in my
was aware that it could have got out of hand.
Above Flying, in all
senses of the word, You were involved in an Irish TV programme
at Birmingham City last year, playing a Gaelic football match for
Above right Boasting the well-known Crossmaglen Rangers. How
Russia’s finest quiff... did you feel about that experience overall?
Bottom ...thanks to an John Britton, via Facebook
old friend, Matt Clay I got a phone call from a television company
asking if I’d like to give it a go. I get loads of
those – things like I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out
Of Here! – but this one interested me, so
I became a Gaelic footballer for a week. We
were up in Northern Ireland. It might have
been tricky, as my family are all armed forces,
but it was brilliant. The people were superb.
How did the restaurant business come
about? Who’s the most famous guest
you’ve had in there so far, and who would
you most like to serve dinner to?
Reuben, Liverpool
I started La Sala in Marbella with my agent
Rob Segal and a few others. We have one in
Chigwell in Essex, too. I love it. We had the
Prince of Monaco in here once. My ideal guest
would be Leonardo DiCaprio – he’d be fun!
Who would you like to see quizzed here?
And what question would you ask them?
Tweet us @FourFourTwo with #1on1
4 COVERS! HOME NATIONS COLLECTORS’ EDITION

T H E Y ’ V E Q UA L IF IE D

NORTHERN IRELAND ENGLAND WALES REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

EURO 2016 B U T H O W FA R C A N T H E Y G O ?
EXTRA PREVIEW MAGAZINE
EVERY TEAM RATED
STAR PLAYERS INTERVIEWED

JUNE ISSUE AVAILABLE MAY 4

BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN
Thomas Muller loves a megaphone. After scoring a 91st-minute equaliser to force extra-time
in Bayern Munich’s Champions League knockout tie against Juventus, the 26-year-old went
on to lead the celebrations following FC Hollywood’s eventual 4-2 win. A year earlier, Muller
had done the same after helping to beat Porto in the quarters. Can you hear him at the back?
Picture Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty
THE
BEAUTIFUL
GAME
THE
BEAUTIFUL
GAME

“WE’VE GOT A MOUNTAIN

TO CLIMB HERE, LADS...”
If you’re anything like us, you can’t wait for Euro 2016. Well, neither could these two
teams from March’s European Mountain Villages Championship, who played a precursor to
June’s tournament 3,500m above sea level (the highest altitude for any game in Europe)
on the Allalin Glacier in Switzerland. Hosts FC Gspon beat Italians FC Piedimulera 3-0.
Picture Ruben Sprich/Reuters
 THE
BEAUTIFUL
GAME
THE
BEAUTIFUL
GAME
 THE
BEAUTIFUL
GAME

IT’S NOT FLARE PLAY

As methods of intimidation go, it’s pretty effective, but throwing a flare
into the opposition dugout isn’t to be encouraged. Thankfully, this errant
pyrotechnic, launched at the Hannover bench by Wolfsburg’s travelling fans
in March, didn’t cause any injuries – unless you count home team doctor Felix
Hessel’s slightly singed pants, or the 4-0 Wolfsburg victory that followed.
Picture Hay/CityPress 24
 UPFRONT

“The video’s
been quite 34
popular. To
be honest,
it’s worth
watching
just for the
random dog” 36

29

TOP
The

ANNOYING NEIGHBOURS
Jack Wilshere has annoyed his next-doors by
erecting a fence. A fence? Is that all? These
players upset the locals for far worse reasons

1 “Do you know

what time it is?”
In retirement, Australia’s 1974 World
Cup captain Peter Wilson wanted to live
in obscurity. With one exception. The
tough-as-nails ex-Socceroos skipper
loved taking his prized motorbike for
a spin, much to the annoyance of the
locals near Wollongong in New South
Wales. Wilson was as uncompromising
in his response as he was on the pitch,
simply revving his Chopper louder (and
later) at night. Wisely, his neighbours left
Upfront editor Andrew Murray; Top 10 words Jon Spurling
mansion for then-Manchester City
defender Joleon Lescott. “It’s quite
exciting for my son, who’s a City
“And I don’t want
a bleedin’ goldfish in
fan, but we’re indifferent,” huffed a plastic bag, neither”
another. Presumably there was
room for a £121,000 Mercedes
on the driveway.
5 Lord Bendtner is
shown the door
3 Camels on
the loose!
When Kuwait reserve keeper Adam
Bendtner: doing
what he does best
“We thought the door was stuck, so
we tried to open it and it caused some
damage,” explained a (possibly) contrite
Marjan’s camels escaped from his Nicklas Bendtner following a kerfuffle at
front yard while he was on World Cup
4 All dolled up with
nowhere to go
his Bushey flat in 2013. After dinner with

him in peace. Even if they weren’t duty at Spain 82, his neighbours got the friends, Bendtner and his posse wanted
getting any themselve ocal In 2010, then-Derby goalkeeper Stephen a midnight swim at the flat’s gym. Not to
Bywater – now at Burton Albion – was be denied by a stuck (or locked) door,

2 If you
build it,
they will
nvaders
ounded
fore
forced to cover up a bizarre piece of
modern art in his garden, featuring
a portable toilet, a mattress, a horsebox
they kicked it in. The Dane paid damages
and vowed to concentrate on “doing
what I do best”... missing chances and
come and moa ouncil covered in graffiti and a blow-up doll. wearing a sponsor’s green undies, then.
“It’s very loud and ver anded One local resident called the fearsome
annoying,” complaine
Alderley Edge residen
2011 after work bega
an
his pets
hter
feature “abhorrent”, which seems
a reasonable description. Bywater said
sorry and later flogged it on eBay. Maybe
6The dog did it
Following his decision to quit
football in the early 1990s, former Luton
ripping down a bunga asy for he’d come to his senses and decided striker Lars Elstrup explored the meaning
to make way for a six . that he thought it was a load of tat, too. of life by chanting loudly in his flat with

20 May 2016 FourFo

 UPFRONT

35

26

LAYING
OFF THE
SHOULDER
OF FOOTBALL

caused,” said a spokesman for the ANDRES INIESTA

Rooneys in 2010, after locals complained
about the 1am racket made at their
son Kai’s first birthday party. “It was
disgraceful,” wailed one none-too-happy
neighbour. “There was rap music

45%
blasting – and on a Sunday night, too.”
To be fair, baby Kai was a huge Jay-Z fan.

8 “Go and get the bat…” Reported birth rate 619.7

After taking exception to a cohort increase in Catalonia MILLION
of travelling fairground folk settling at after he scored late on
the bottom of his garden one weekend, in the 2009 Champions People watching on
former Wimbledon midfielder Vinnie League Semi-Final TVs worldwide when
Jones decided he’d ask them to leave in his goal won the 2010
his own tactful manner. Their response He’s invested World Cup for Spain
was to take a baseball bat to the $10m helping WHAT HIS against the Dutch
hardman’s car, which he drove into to develop his MOHAWK
training on Monday. Minus a windscreen.
“Good weekend, Vinnie?” chuckled
own vineyard,
Bodega Iniesta
LOOKS LIKE
manager Bobby Gould. “I’ve had worse,
boss,” came the response.
£100 PER Sexy 1%
NIGHT
9 Buffon’s bedroom Cool 2%
Rate to stay at Iniesta’s
Olympics Jamie Vardy 5%
winery on Airbnb (his Chia pet 5% As a kid he dreamed
The Buffons, with When Italian goalkeeping royalty
former team-mate Robert De Niro in of playing for Real, but
the result of all Gianluigi Buffon hooked up with Italian
Ronaldinho’s Brazilian Taxi Driver 10% his parents didn’t want
those late nights journalist Ilaria D’Amico in 2014, the
pad is $15,000 a night) Ridiculous 77% him to live in Madrid
Juventus stopper’s neighbours reckoned

#9
they were a bit too close, too often.

just his pet daschund for company. The
Dane had numerous run-ins with his
neighbours, who complained about
Elstrup’s “bizarre singing, and his dog’s
PSYCHOLOGY
He’s the
“They’re at it like rabbits, day and night –
ninth-most
the noise is unacceptable,” complained
He studied a Roger Federer DVD in 2010 liked athlete
one outraged neighbour. Ilaria
to help him cope mentally with an injury on Facebook
gave birth to the couple’s first child in

wailing”. The racket came to an end
when he upped sticks and joined the
Wild Goose religious sect. “The people
there understand me better,” he said.
€240,000
September 2015, which may well have
curtailed their nocturnal shenanigans.
10 Eadie Rider
What better way to welcome

7 Noisy neighbours your new team-mate to the club than Amount he gave to childhood club Albacete in 2013 to help keep them afloat
“Wayne and Coleen [below] invite him around to your house and
apologise for the noise and any offence scream around the neighbourhood on
ONE-WORD TIMELINE

miniature bikes? That’s what Leicester’s

Robbie Savage did when Darren Eadie
1984 Bambino

1994 Albacete

2010 Winner

2014 Golden

signed from Norwich in 1999, and pretty

2002 Debut
1996 Masia

2008 Euros

2012 Anna

2016 Hairy
2005 Solid

2015 Five

soon, the pair had seriously irked Sav’s

neighbours. When Savage’s dog sitter
had a pedal, too, the police were
summoned and the bikes swiftly went
back in the garage. Very wise.

FourFourTwo.com May 2016 21

 UPFRONT

MEET THE CROWD

IN THIS MONTH APRIL 1986

came about thanks to a handy

A small troupe of contribution from the Oxfordshire
Banbury United fans club’s fans. No, not to the Brazilian’s
transfer fee – largely because there
put their hands in wasn’t one – but to his wages.
their pockets to fund Banbury created the
Spencer Villa Fund (the
a Brazilian star in club’s original name)
January. No refunds last autumn, but boss
Mike Ford showed great
allowed... or needed restraint with his
windfall, waiting
Alvin’s stardust downs Most fans think football would be
a whole lot easier if they could
patiently to find the
right player. Barcelos,

unfortunate Magpies
Defender Martin is the Hammers’ unlikely
hero as Newcastle are hit by a keeper crisis
It’s a great football quiz question:
who was in goal when Alvin Martin
scored the only top-flight hat-trick
against three different goalkeepers?
But unless you are a West Ham or
Newcastle anorak of a certain age,
you’re unlikely to know the answer.
The Toon arrived in east London for
a Monday night match already in the
“All the crowd were shouting my
name,” recalled Martin, who wrestled
the ball away from spot-kick-taker
extraordinaire Ray Stewart, before
blasting his only career penalty past
international squad-mate Beardsley.
“I got a rollicking from [manager] John
Lyall when we got back to the dressing
room,” said the defender. “He thought
From
just buy a striker themselves, Brazil to once of Oxford City
and not because it’d mean Banbury but by then playing
in Serie D, was
having a few million hidden in
the back of the sofa. Down in that man.
the Southern League Division The fund is
One South & West, however, not some grand
it’s more reality than dream. money-making scheme
When Felipe Barcelos dictated from on high;
swapped the Italian fourth it’s been mooted for
tier for the English eighth by some time. Its contributors
joining Banbury United in even helped to come up
January, the move only with the idea.

Wiki says what?

midst of a goalkeeping conundrum.
First-choice Martin Thomas took the
field with a shoulder injury but lasted
only until the interval, by which time
the “breathtaking fluidity” of the
home side’s attacking play (the Daily
Telegraph’s words) had given them
a 4-0 advantage. Alvin Martin – a
central defender, lest we forget –
opened the scoring with a close-range
volley after just three minutes.
“I’ll go in goal,” Peter Beardsley told
Newcastle manager Willy McFaul at
the interval. “He said I was too little.
Instead, Chris Hedworth went in.”
However, Hedworth dislocated his
shoulder 12 minutes later and, after
failing to keep out Martin’s second
goal – a header from a corner in the
64th minute – he departed and
Beardsley stepped up. “I only
let in three goals,”
the magnanimous
England forward
later shrugged.
With his team
leading 7-1, Martin
entered the record
books six minutes
from time when
the Hammers were
awarded a penalty.
it was unprofessional. We were still in
with a shout for the title and he said it
could’ve gone down to goal difference.”
Despite winning 11 of their final 14
games, the Irons finished third behind
Liverpool and Everton. Remarkably,
Gareth South
Frank McAvennie and Tony Cottee, who Wiki says
both scored more than 20 league goals
that season, bagged only one goal “In 2005, Southgate
between them in the 8-1 win and not
a single hat-trick between them all
a poem to the collec
season, while Martin scored only one children Roary & Fri
other goal in the entire campaign.
“It was a unique experience,” Martin
said, “and I didn’t even know I’d scored
against three different keepers until
Southgate says
a local reporter told me afterwards.” “I’m afraid it’s not tru
Also in this month The company actua
1975 Malcolm ‘Supermac’ MacDonald threatened to sue
scores all five goals for
England against Cyprus me about the ‘claim’
in a Euro 76 qualifier.
1993 Iconic Nottingham
The guy who wrote
Forest manager Brian the book said: ‘You
Clough announces he is
to retire after 18 years at
never contributed
the City Ground. anything’. But I’d
2007 Brazilian superstar
Ronaldo appears in an never claimed to.
episode of The Simpsons,
because why not?
Very odd.”

22 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com

 UPFRONT

“Honestly, it feels

SOURCED STRIKER
just like home”

“A club like Banbury United is very
close: we know the manager, we know
the players, and the players know us,”
explains Keith Reading, one of the
transfer kitty’s donors. “There have
always been supporters who have put in
a bit financially to keep the club going,
because we’ve been on hard times.
It seemed a logical step to bolster
the playing budget.”
That existing bond grew even closer
this season when Banbury become
a fan-owned club.
“It’s an idea I had spoken to fans
about even before I got involved in the
supporters’ club,” commercial director
Mark Allitt, who headed the fund’s
creation, tells FFT. “I’ve been a fan since
I was a little boy, and I’m 40 now. I went
to the hardcore set of supporters to get
it going, and then it grew.”
It’s a small group of benefactors –
Ford. “We trust Mike’s judgement,”
says Reading, firmly.
So how does the new signing
himself feel about the situation?
Well, pretty good, given that
Barcelos can thank his benefactors
individually. “When he scored
his first goal,” Reading says,
“he ran behind the goal, giving
all of the fans high fives.”
“The wins mean a lot more for them
because they’re the ones putting in
the money,” Barcelos explains. “They
brought me here to score goals and
give them wins, so to score, and win,
is more for them than for us. I think
they’re doing a great job.”
Allitt adds: “We played the league
leaders, Winchester, recently and
beat them to go top. Felipe scored
a cracking goal, but then in the
second half he missed two
Felipe helps Banbury

Words Huw Davies

around 30, paying monthly by direct
debit – which makes for cosy transfer
negotiations, not that the backers are
putting much pressure on manager
one-on-one chances. One of the guys
joked: ‘I want my money back!’” to knock Winchester
off top spot
A round at the bar, courtesy of the
fans’ own purchase, may have to do.

THE BIG FOUR

Coach on the couch, Mexican memories and a reminder of when England ruled the world

Jurgen Klopp: God Is Round ‘66: The World Cup Mister

The Biography
Elmar Neveling (Ebury, £12.99)
‡‡‡‡‡
Charting Kloppo’s rise from functional
defender at Mainz to the most
rock-and-roll of managers at Borussia
Dortmund, Neveling speaks to those
who know the Liverpool boss best to
distil truth from legend. It’s an intriguing
journey into the coach’s psyche.
Best quote “‘Just listen to me, for f**k’s
sake!’ he said of the TV man’s analysis.”
Juan Villoro (Restless, £11.99)
‡‡‡‡‡
Mexico’s answer to Bill Bryson, Villoro
has spent his life watching football. This
collection of essays range from straighter
profiles of Diego Maradona and Lionel
Messi to touching odes to fandom. His
description of Savo Milosevic holding
court at the Bernabeu for Osasuna is
worth the price of the book alone.
Best quote “Get him inside the chicken
coop, and he won’t be a peacock!”
in Real Time
Ian Passingham (Pitch, £14.99)
‡‡‡‡‡
We all know who won the 1966 World
Cup, but England’s victory has clouded
our memory of an eclectic tournament.
Passingham’s day-by-day account
revisits the untold stories, including how
Brazil feared failing newly-invented drugs
tests for drinking coffee. Enjoyable stuff.
Best quote “A top North Korean official
today boasted: ‘We invented football’.”
Rory Smith (S&S, £18.99)
‡‡‡‡‡
The modern English manager (still
colloquially called ‘Mister’ abroad)
doesn’t travel well, but the revolutionary
ideas of a group of largely forgotten early
20th-century coaching pioneers inspired
the Dutch, Spanish and Hungarians into
becoming world beaters. It’s fascinating.
Best quote “After each win, Pentland’s
players would snatch his bowler hat and
jump on it. He got through 20 a season.”

FourFourTwo.com May 2016 23

 UPFRONT

MAN OF GOD HARD AS NAILS

Walsall’s club
chaplain is none
other than former
hard nut Peter Ha
So does this mean
the man upstairs
is a Saddlers fan?
When it comes to careers after
retirement from playing, Peter H
road to Damascus (OK, the Besc
proof God works in mysterious w
An uncompromising defender w
played for Huddersfield and Wals
in the 1970s and ’80s heyday of
hatchet men, Hart looked beyond
common post-football ventures a
instead became Walsall’s club ch
It’s safe to say he surprised a few
people. As Hart’s former Huddersfield
team-mate Steve Kindon put it: “My “This’ll look great
magnificent old captain has gone from hanging up in
kicking people to death on the field to the vestry”
saving souls off it.That beggars belief.”
The sentiment isn’t lost on Hart, the
vicar of St Luke’s Church in Cannock, a vicar because, in simple terms, for help come Saturday? Shouldn’t he
who found God around the time of his They called him I sensed God’s call to ordination.” have sought divine intervention during
the
second daughter’s baptism while he Hart breaker (or Now, as well as conducting church the Saddlers’ defeat to Bristol City in the
they
was still playing for Walsall. should have done services, weddings and baptisms, he Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final last term?
)
“Steve made me laugh, in his regularly rubs shoulders with Walsall’s “Not really,” laughs Hart, “because the
inimitable way, but he raised an players in a sport with a reputation for players are big enough, strong enough
interesting point,” Hart tells FFT. “I was So, at the age of 33, the hedonism rather than restraint. “They’re and talented enough to stand on their
a very competitive player in the most future Rev. Hart swapped his captain’s sensible, thoughtful, intelligent and own two feet. God has given them
competitive areas of a competitive armband for a dog collar and headed off respectful lads, and – dog collar or not ability and what he asks them to do
sport. I was aggressive and sometimes to theological college, to be ordained – they know I appreciate what they’re is use it without interference.
angry but I was always honest and as a Church of England minister. going through,” he smiles. “The best bit “I don’t pray for the team to win, but
committed to the cause. “I was using the gifts God gave me, of the job is Friday afternoons, when I may well pray for an individual if he’s
Words Rob Stewart

“For some people, the two jobs so it seemed natural to be a footballer I’m in the dressing room or canteen going through a difficult time.
couldn’t really be any further apart, while being a Christian,” he says. “There chatting with players and staff.” “What I never do is preach along the
but those qualities can be equated was no question whatsoever of any kind Given he has a foot in each camp, does lines of what it was like ‘back in my day’.”
with the Christian faith.” of compromise. I decided to become the 58-year-old ever ask the almighty Amen to that, brother.

Fan vs Player Sheffield Wednesday

Q: When did the Owls Q: Who was the club’s Q: Who was manager Q: Who scored first in Q: In what year were
last win the FA Cup? top scorer in 2014-15? when the Owls won the Wednesday’s 3-0 the club relegated from
PW: 1935. We beat PW: We didn’t score ’91 League Cup Final? League Cup win over the Premier League?
West Brom 4-2. I wasn’t many last season! It was PW: What a day for the Arsenal in October? PW: 2000, I think. 
there, obviously!  either Chris Maguire or club! Ron Atkinson.  PW: I was there, so I’ve LP: That’s a bit of
LP: Geez, we’re going Atdhe Nuhiu. Nuhiu?  LP: I had high hopes no excuse if I get it a depressing question
Interviews Richard Edwards

Paul Whitaker way back, aren’t we? We LP: I can’t get this for this quiz! Rapidly wrong. Ross Wallace?  to end on, isn’t it? It
Accountant, 52 nearly won in 1993 but wrong – he’ll never diminishing! There are LP: I had a good view of feels like a while ago.
Liam Palmer that’s not the question, forgive me... whoever he pictures up everywhere it from the bench! Ross Err, I’ll go for the
24-year-old is it? 19...33?  is. Was it Atdhe?  of this. Trevor Francis?  Wallace, definitely.  1999-00 season? 
Owls defender
1-0 Fan 2-1 Fan 3-1 Fan 4-2 Fan 5-3 Fan wins!

FourFourTwo.com May 2016 25

 February 18, 1997
Guara 0 Internacional 7
“At the beginning of my career I played
for my local team, Guara, in Brazil. We
lost 7-0 to Internacional [in the Copa do
Brasil] and played very badly, but two
weeks later I was playing for Inter – they
liked what they had seen of me in that
game, despite the result. They are such
a huge club and made everything
happen for me. If it wasn’t for that, the
rest of my career could not have taken
place. It was a gift from God.”
November 1, 2000
Internacional 1
Corinthians 0
“This is how I got my move to Europe
[left picture]. Some scouts from Bayer
Leverkusen were at this match, and
I played really well, scored the winner
and was named man of the match. You
could call it very good timing. The move
Interview Pete Hall
already looked likely to happen anyway,
but this performance meant everything
happened much quicker, and soon
I was on my way to Europe. It was so
26 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com
“I have never had to concentrate so hard. But how
many players get to say they’re the world’s best?”
important to make the most of my
chance to get to Europe; if I hadn’t,
another player may have taken my
spot. Another gift from God!”
June 30, 2002
Germany 0 Brazil 2
“The World Cup final [middle picture] is
the biggest stage of all. I’d played every
minute of the tournament, even though
some members of the press thought
I should have been dropped after my
performance against England. We were
the best team, and the pressure was
all on us coming into that final. We
delivered, and won the trophy. It was
a really tough match; Germany had
many great players who wanted to
win the World Cup for the first time in
many years, and I have never had to
concentrate so hard. But it was all worth
it, to become a world champion. How
many players can get to say that they
are the best in the world?”
April 30, 2002
Bayer Leverkusen 1
Manchester United 1
“We got a great result in the first leg
at Old Trafford [a 2-2 draw in the
Champions League semi-final], which
nobody expected, but United were still
favourites. They had a great team, and
a manager determined to win the
Champions League again. They threw
everything at us in the second leg
[main picture]. We had to defend solidly
and throw ourselves in front of every
ball, particularly in the last 10 minutes.
I have never had to put my body in the
way of so many shots. But somehow we
managed it and got to the final, which
was a huge achievement for a team like
Bayer Leverkusen. It just wasn’t our
night in the final against Real Madrid,
but to get that far was still incredible.”
April 28, 2010
Barcelona 1 Inter Milan 0
“We had won the home leg [of the
Champions League semi-final] 3-1, so
going into the return in Barcelona, we
knew we couldn’t lose 2-0. I’ve never
felt pressure like that in my life. Just 28
minutes in we lost Thiago Motta, and,
a man down, we had to hold off the
European champions on their own pitch.
The fact that we managed to hold on
against so many talented players was
incredible. Lionel Messi in particular was
so tough to play against [right picture].
That made it even more special. We had
made it to the European Cup final.”
 HOW TO MAKE
A FOOTBALL
PROTEST SON
Worcester City Supporters’ Trust have rewor
folk classic Dirty Old Town to persuade the lo
y
council to approve a new ground. The trust’s (left) and Pascal Smith
Rich Widdowson explains why – and how

1. GET ANGRY singing [also to Dirty Old Town, been played

“We’ve been playing at Aggborough, referencing their own quest to on Radio 5 Live.
Kidderminster’s ground, since 2013 build their own ground]. We sat t all took less
and spent three years working with in the pub when our Alfreton han a week.”
the council on a new site, Perdiswell. game was called off [in February]
Then, out of the blue, even though and said: ‘Why don’t we make 5. PLAY TO
there’s an application on the table, our own video for the FC United A BIG CROWD
the new Tory council leader told the game?’” Then we wrote it. Fans get their message The day was
press he doesn’t like the idea. across in the match huge success:
“The club paid 25 per cent of the 3. BORROW A PUB PUNK against FC United ur biggest
£40,000 costs to put the application “One of the guys, Pascal eague crowd
together – apart from that, the trust Smith, sings in a Clash tribute t Aggborough,
did it all, through sponsored walks, band. He’s been there and done ith banners
bike rides, a ga round. He 4. TELL EVERY MAN AND HIS DOG everywhere and more than 600 kids,
Liverpool legen d it up and “The video’s quite popular because parents and coaches from local
last tie at the o orded it in of a random dog. Pascal and the junior clubs, plus 500 FC United fans,
We won’t be pu his home chairman of the trust, Dave Wood, who were the perfect opposition.
studio as are strumming away, trying to “The song has got us back around
2. FIND we couldn’t remember the words – there’s no the table with the council and soon
INSPIRATION afford a music – and this dog comes from there will be a hearing date, where
(IN THE PUB) proper one. nowhere and looks up at Dave as we’ll know our fate.
“We’ve got Pascal Smith: e put out he tries to shoo him away. It’s “We’ll fight the fight. We know
a lot of respect Worcester 0-second worth watching just for that. best, and we’ll protest.”
for FC United, calling sion, then two “We had over 5,000 views on
and they’re s later we Facebook and a couple of thousand To download Bring City Home,
notorious for rack properly.” downloads within a few days. It’s visit citypunk.bandcamp.com

“ GOT ANY
The People’s Game name, which asked listeners: a catchy number from South pub-rock reworking of Woody
In 2008, Waltham Forest “Didier Drogba, what kind African singer Koos Kombuis Guthrie’s tune This Land Is
fan Graham Larkbey railed of name is that?” Hmm. warning fans there are “f**k Your Land was ambitious,

EARPLUGS?”
against his eighth-tier club’s
move to Ilford. The People’s
Game is an acoustic rant
against... well, everything,
peppered with asides of
Sadly, not all protest
Die Fokkol Song
World Cup protest songs can
be a bit try-hard – see Pop
Will Eat Itself’s diatribe
all trains, f**k all taxis, f**k
all jobs…” You get the idea.
Green And Gold
“It’s dreadful, obviously, but
and not just for rhyming
‘trophies’ with ‘Yankies’. The
song claimed: “Green And
Gold will make the Glazers
sell or fold”. It did not.
Words Huw Davies

“Not in my book” and “What about Brazil 2014 beginning: it’s for a good cause” – the
songs in football can a surprise, eh?” It’s not to be “An opening ceremony of words of Manchester United Turn to p57 for more on
confused with an altogether FIFA hegemony”. But 2008’s blog Republik of Mancunia. football’s occasionally rocky
match Bring City Home charmless ditty of the same Die Fokkol Song isn’t too bad: Frank and Malcolm Haglem’s relationship with music

FourFourTwo.com May 2016 27




 UPFRONT

RONALDO+VARDY = ASHLEY FLYNN!

A tenth-tier hitman is pulling up trees and tearing up the record books for AFC Emley, and
admits to FFT: “Everything I’ve hit has gone in”. Can he really score 100 goals in one season?
“One of my strike partners played Flynn has blasted 70 goals from his tells anyone who calls he always wants to know
a great through-ball for me the first 35 games already this term, that I can’t move until about the football,” says the
other day,” recalls Ashley Flynn. including six hat-tricks, and with at summer,” says Flynn. striker. “He’s a huge fan
“Afterwards he said: ‘Normally I’d least 10 more matches of the campaign “But I’ve been scoring of Guiseley AFC in the
follow up on a pass like that, but left – several more if Emley make the against very good Conference, and he’s
I didn’t even bother this time. I just play-offs – an otherworldly 100-goal opposition in the cups, constantly harassing their
knew you were going to score’. season is still possible. One hundred! so I feel that next management to sign me.
And he was right. I chipped the The goal maniac, season I can play at He reckons I’m better than
keeper with one touch.” a litigation executive a decent level.” any of their forwards.
There are white-hot for a solicitors’ firm Flynn gives credit to “I concentrate on work
scoring spells, Cristiano in Leeds by his team-mates for during the day, but if I’ve
Ronaldo-style, and then day, has the spree. “Everything has just clicked,” got a game, then by mid-afternoon
there are scalding, unsurprisingly he says. “My strike partner, Kieran Ryan, I’m thinking about football.”
skin-stripping, drawn scouts has been putting chances on a plate for However, the media attention Flynn
Words Nick Moore; Photography Mark Parsons

scorching scoring from several me. He must be setting assists records. has been getting isn’t going to his head.
spells that get tiers up, who “The most goals I’ve got in a season “It’s gone a bit mad – loads of people
a bit ridiculous. smell another was 42; this year I had 30 by October. It’s are calling up – but I just like to play
Flynn, 26, who Jamie Vardy been silly. Everything I’ve hit has gone in.” football,” he says. “I even have a few
plays for AFC Emley (above right). Flynn, a Newcastle fan and Alan games for the reserves now and then,
in the Northern “I’m banned Shearer scholar who drifts between the which the first-team manager hates. But
Counties East Division from driving at central defender and right-back to find I like helping out. I enjoy scoring goals.”
One (level 10 in the the moment space, is even getting attention in court. Vardy was still in non-league at 25, so it
league pyramid), falls into so the “There’s a barrister I deal with, and isn’t too late for Flynn’s ascent to begin.
the latter camp. manager once we’ve talked about business What price a place at World Cup 2018?

THE 110% BALL QUIZ

1 Who finished
the 2014-15
season as League
Q12: No, Crouchy,
the answer isn’t two
One’s top scorer?

2 Which team
have reached
three UEFA Cup or
Europa League finals
(trophy pictured above, next to
a Hoover) without winning one?

3 Which team have appeared in

the most Ligue 1 seasons?
11 Which Scottish League One side
play at Somerset Park (above)?

4 Which teams comp

in the Mid-Ulster d
12 For how many Premier
League or Football League
clubs has Peter Crouch scored
a league goal: six, eight or 10?

5 Which current Prem

League striker’s
name is an anagram of
7 Three goalkeepers
featured for Arsenal
when they won the Double
9 At which club did
Carlo Ancelotti
(right) start his career in 13 Five players made their
England debut alongside
‘A Phallic Booster’? in 2001-02. Name them. management in 1995? Wayne Rooney in February 2003’s
Q8: Well, he
3-1 defeat to Australia. Can you
didn’t with

6 How many goals d

Jamie Vardy score,
Spurs, anyway
8 True or false: Jurgen
Klinsmann never 10 Excluding Leo
Messi and
name three of them?

in all competitions, in his

first season at Leicester?
won a domestic league
title as a player.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who of La Liga’s still
active players is its all-time top scorer? 14 Which Championship team are
sponsored by Flamingo Land?

30 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com

 UPFRONT

GOALS, GOALS, GOALS!

Flynn isn’t GODFREY CHITALU, 107 GOALS
The man many Africans reckon is better
football’s only than Messi. Unofficial records show that
record-breaking in 1972, Chitalu scored 107 goals for
Kabwe Warriors. The five-time Zambian
net-botherer Football of the Year later became the
unfairly ignored national team boss, and was killed in
the tragic 1993 plane crash that wiped
by history, as this out the Bullets’ entire squad.
unappreciated
ARCHIE STARK, 67 GOALS
trio demonstrate Dixie Dean’s record 67 goals in a season
was matched Stateside by Glasgow-born
forward Stark, who moved to America as
a boy and turned out for Bethlehem Steel
in Pennsylvania. He got 67 in 44 games in
1924-25, but turned down the chance to
go the 1930 World Cup because he was
too busy setting up a business. Quitter.

JOSEF BICAN, 57 GOALS

“If I got five chances I scored five goals,”
the Austro-Hungarian net menace (left)
once said. “If I got seven, then it was
seven.” Lightning-fast (he could run the
100m in 10.8 seconds), he was Europe’s
top scorer on five occasions, and in 1943
got 57 in 24 matches for Slavia Prague,
including seven in a 10-1 win over Zlin.

19
15 Which of these African
countries is yet to produce
a Premier League goalscorer: Burundi,
Q20: No points
awarded for
‘too many’
Burkina Faso, Niger or the Democratic
Republic of Congo?

16 What record does Rosario

Central’s Cesar Delgado hold
jointly with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez?
Name the four
17 Which six Blackburn Rovers
players made the PFA Team of players pictured
the Year in 1994-95, the season they
won the Premier League title?
who have scored Q24: Cafu lifts the
cup – but where?
a hat-trick in the
18 In which country do
Southern United play? Premier League.
20 How many England caps did
David Batty win: 34, 38 or 42? 24 Which city hosted the
2002 World Cup Final?

21 Which club connects

Roberto Carlos, Florent
Malouda and John Arne Riise?
25 I played in Spain and
England for a combined
10 years. I have won the Premier
League, the Champions League

22
A B Which Premier League club (twice), the FA Cup, the League Cup,
captain was once the Community Shield, the
C D a team-mate of Spurs boss Championship, La Liga and
Mauricio Pochettino? the Supercopa de Espana,
and I have an Olympic
Q14: “Look, we didn’t
ask for this, OK?” 23 Which Bundesliga
club are nicknamed
the Billy Goats (right)?
gold medal. Who am I?

Answers on page 39

FourFourTwo.com May 2016 31

 UPFRONT
Average age

AGE 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

YOU’LL WIN
West Bromwich Albion 29.6
Man City 28.7
Brighton 28.5
Watford
QPR 28.4
Burnley 28.2
Exeter

NOTHING
Norwich 28.1
Swansea
Middlesbrough
Notts County
Sunderland 28
Leicester
Bournemouth

WITH KIDS
Crystal Palace 27.9
Luton
Doncaster 27.8
Ipswich
Birmingham 27.7
Stoke
Arsenal 27.6
Nottingham Forest
So says Tony Pulis, who Morecambe 27.5
Sheffield Wednesday
fields the oldest side Scunthorpe Hiram Boateng is
Sheffield United 27.4
in league football – but AFC Wimbledon
the only under-21
Burton Albion player used by
look at those Tykes tyros Bury Crystal Palace, as
Chelsea
Derby
27.3 a sub in February
Mansfield
Premier League Rotherham
Championship Port Vale 27.2
Cardiff 27.1
League 1 MK Dons 27
League 2 Oldest team fielded in 2015-16 West Ham
Youngest team fielded in 2015-16
Aston Villa
Bradford City
Bolton 26.9
Everton Highest percentage
AVERAGE AGE PER LEAGUE Hull of under-21 players

27.4
Northampton
Portsmouth i h P i L
Shrewsbury
Southampton 26.8
Stevenage
Wigan
Millwall 26.7
Bristol Rovers
Chesterfield 26.6

26.7
Southend
Reading 26.4
Carlisle 26.3 The youngest
Leyton Orient
Barnet Premier League
Huddersfield 26.2 line-up was Man
Rochdale United’s against
Wycombe 26.1
Watford: just

25.8
Fulham
Man United 26 23.1, including
Newcastle Marcus Rashford
Preston
Crawley (right), Timothy
25.8
York Fosu-Mensah
Cambridge and only three
Liverpool 25.7
Bristol City players over 25

26.3
Blackburn 25.6
Dag & Red
Walsall
Oxford 25.5
Coventry 25.4
Oldham 25.3
Plymouth
Newport 25.2
Blackpool 25.1
Charlton
Yeovil 25
Fleetwood 24.8
Tottenham
Wolves 24.7
Hartlepool
Figures correct as of March 9, 2016

Brentford The only 30-plus

24.6
Gillingham player to start
Statistics Ben Mayhew

Leeds 24.5 for Spurs this

Colchester 24.4
Accrington 24.2 Only club in the four season is Michel
Peterborough 23.8 league divisions not Vorm, against
Crewe 23.6
to have used a single Man United on
Swindon 23.4
Barnsley 23.2 player in their 30s opening day

AGE 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

32 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com

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 UPFRONT

YOU’RE B

GETTING
DRAWN
IN THE

Answers A. Dick Campbell (Forfar); B. Jose Mourinho (Chelsea); C. Terry Butcher (Newport County); D. David Dunn (Oldham); E. Brendan Rodgers (Liverpool); F. Chris Ramsey (QPR ; G. Steve Clarke (Reading); H. Karel Fraeye (Charlton)
MORNING
C

Artist Fraser MacDonald

has painted every
manager across England
and Scotland sacked E F
in 2015-16, spending
just an hour on each.
Can you name them? D
What do all of these pictures have in
common? Clue: all these pained-looking
individuals have now been put out
of their misery. Fraser MacDonald
embarked on an ambitious mission
in 2015: to produce one-hour portraits
of every manager sacked in England and
Scotland this season. He’s been busy.
“I’ve done about 40,” says the slightly
weary-sounding Scot. “I always wanted to
do a project that captures the sheer weight
of numbers of managers being sacked.”
So, he gathers images of gaffers while the
rumours swirl, then, when the axe does fall,
H
rapidly daubs a painting “that captures the
moment best”. There have been several
G
hectic periods for Fraser. “Four were sacked
in a week around Christmas,” he says, “and
another four while I was on holiday.”
Which are the standouts? “The one that’s
got the most attention is Terry Butcher,” he
says. “I actually couldn’t get a photograph
of him without his head in his hands.”
With an exhibition planned for the
summer, will Fraser carry on? “Nah, I’ll
finish at the end of this season and take
Words Si Hawkins

on something a little less all-consuming.”

Half-hour portraits, perhaps?

For the full gallery, visit sackedportraits.com

34 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com

 S I N G
T

M I S
HAVE YOU SEEN THIS REF?
Due for release at the end of the month, Kicking Off is an award-winning independent British
comedy film about the kidnapping of a whistleblower. It could start a dangerous new trend
It might be the most painful feeling
in football. Your side scores a crucial
goal, but only after much jumping,
screaming and opposition-mocking
do you clock the gut-wrenching sight
of the referee disallowing it. Nothing
you can do, though... or is there?
“England vs Argentina at France 98
sat with me,” recalls Robert Farquhar of
the disallowed Sol Campbell goal that
inspired the new film he’s written. “The
England team are all by the corner flag,
celebrating, and suddenly Argentina are
up the other end. They almost scored.”
Kicking Off is about Cliff and Wigsy, two
furious fans who concoct a drunken plan
to kidnap the referee who’s just helped Farquhar originally wrote Kicking Off as October, and has been selected for the
to relegate their team. Then Wigsy a play called God’s Official, which proved Guadalajara Film Festival in Mexico. “It’s
actually does it. What follows is an popular here and abroad. “There’s just an independent British comedy, but the
award-winning romp that ponders been one in Norway,” he says, “and I did subject matter is universal,” says director
football’s most mysterious figure: the get paid for a translation in Brazil once.” Matt Wilde, who also worked on the
referee, who isn’t an entirely sympathetic Refnap is clearly a universal theme. Liverpool FC-related One Night In
bound-and-gagged kidnappee. The flick has made early inroads. It Istanbul. “You know how passionate
“I’ve never met a ref won Best British Feature at Mexicans are about football.”
admits Greg McHugh, the Raindance Film Festival in What if someone there now kidnaps a
who plays Cliff, “but ref? “They probably think our film’s tame
you go on a journey: “This? Oh, compared to what they do,” Matt laughs.
liking him, not liking I just carry The film-makers are confident it will
him, questioning why it around also appeal to non-fans, as everyone
he’s a referee...” The with me” knows a football nutter. Does McHugh,
men in black must’ve most famous for the Jack Whitehall
wondered why, too. sitcom Fresh Meat, have any celeb mates
who’d refnap? “Whitehall’s an Arsenal
fan,” he says, “but he’d pay someone to
do it. He’d never get his hands dirty.”
Greg boasts some notable co-stars,
including Luther’s Warren Brown, Gary
Lineker’s ex Danielle Bux (which gained
the film some not-always-welcome
tabloid exposure) and three ex-players.
“Mark Bright came across well,” he says.
“Sir Geoff Hurst is very good in it as well.”
The third? Robbie Savage. If he ends up
a movie star, we’ll know who to blame.
“If there’s some kind of Bee Gees film,”
says McHugh, “Savage is a shoo-in.”
Maybe McHugh & Co. could make the
perfect sequel: Saturday Afternoon Fever.

Words Si Hawkins
Let’s be honest,
we’ve all thought That’s what you Kicking Off is in cinemas nationwide from
about it, haven’t we? get for diving April 21. Visit ourscreen.com/kickingoff
for more information about the film.

THE KIT CLASH

DERBY COUNTY
Rams fan Greg Walsh prizes curries over barcodes

HOME 1993-94 HOME 2015-16

“I have mixed feelings about this strip.
On the one hand, it brings back bad
memories of losing the Division One
play-off final to Leicester at Wembley –
plus it looks like a barcode. On the
other hand, I do miss seeing Marco
Gabbiadini in a Rams kit...”
STYLE RATING O O O O O
“It’s a fine retro effort, this one.
Some call it plain, but it reminds me
of our 1970s heyday under Brian
Clough. My biggest worry is having
more play-off heartache with it – that,
and advertising an online takeaway
chain. It tempts you to order a curry.”
STYLE RATING O O O O O

FourFourTwo.com May 2016 35

 UPFRONT

ASK A SILLY QUESTION

striker is scared of snowmen
He may be Norwegian ‘royalty’, but the former Swindon and Boro

Jan Aage “HRH” Fjortoft

Did you ever visit Swindon Steam
Railway Museum during your time
Hi Jan. There’s a great book called
with the Robins? Gus Poyet never
The Almost Nearly Perfect People
went, and later apologised to the
which claims Scandinavians are
good people of Wiltshere.
the happiest people on earth Would
you agree with that assessm or me, the main
Oh yes, we love being in a co windon is the magic
where there’s no sunshine fo ’s a huge roundabout
months, it’s freezing cold, an ut six or seven other
sometimes have bad summe within it. I always sent
yes… somehow Norwegians friends there. I’d tell
How is this possible in such an get through this,
consistently adverse condit man.” I was all right as
We’re in a well-functioning d even though we drive
we have freedom of almost e e of the road.
we are close to Mother Natur he Captain Cook
have got one of the longest c seum when you were
in Europe, and Olso is a great have a stuffed koala
Fair enough. Now, what ma ay of compasses.
you give yourself out of 10? e, but I did live in
I’ll go for an eight. I’m deduc my time with
point for the knee injury that – Wilton Castle – so
my football career, and anot y good. I was very
for the sake of it so I know th like a king.
be more happy. The secret is r make snowmen, or
passionate about what you d ovelty rather worn off?
Wise, very wise. Now, your absolute master of
an anagram of ‘Jog off, ran g snowmen. It’s part
Do you often find yourself education. The key is
sprinting for a flight? d, big carrot, and very
I always get there really earl eyes. Jo Nesbo wrote
I’m travelling on my own. I l at book called The
to sit and read. But I’ve been man. They can be quite
married for 27 years and my ary. I remember turning
wife would be happy to leav n the lights in my house
house when the plane is boa ry late one night and
So sometimes for family hol y children had built
we can be a bit more hurried ster snowman that
All Norwegian names seem g into the window.
to make for great anagra he s**t out of me.
Stig Inge Bjornebye, for ur team was allowed
example, is amazing: free’ player, but they
‘jobber ginseng yeti’, n untrained citizen –
‘eery jesting gibbon’, Prime Minister Erna
‘beery ingesting job’, haps – would it make
‘enjoying big berets’... oy them, or would
I quite enjoy berets. I was harm than good?
in the army by the time I wa for sure. I think Erna
19, and we always had to e a good job as
wear berets. I was a driver. got natural authority,
NATO and Norway were a management type
incredibly safe during that t would help.
y, is Kanye West
Interview Nick Moore

year, due to me and my hat

Would either you or Stig e bit of a wally?
a job ingesting beer? n guy? Oh he’s
I don’t really like beer, so it ure he will solve
would be a terrible job for m ’s crises very soon.
For Stig? No comment…
  
 
 
   
 
  
 

   
  

   
 

 
  

 


   
         

  


  
 
      
   
 "  
   
  $ !% #    " " 
  # "   $     #    

  
 

 UPFRONT

LETTERS
email 442letters@haymarket.com

mail FourFourTwo, Haymarket, Bridge House,

69 London Road, Twickenham, TW1 3SP
Twitter @FourFourTwo

Facebook FourFourTwo

TOTTI: THE EGO HAS LANDED fans, my eye was taken by something that seems to has been finding the back of the net. Players go out of
In your fascinating piece on Roma legend Francesco have happened more this season – a referee’s their way to risk a classy finish, often taking too much
Totti [FFT 260], I noticed a recurring problem between advantage leading to the attacking team scoring. time to lose the shooting chance, just so that they can
the great ma he Foxes’ 3-1 look good on Match of the Day.
It’s pretty c would’ve been What’s wrong with a simple toe punt? Short and
doesn’t like it Anthony sharp, it has every chance of ending up in the top
In the 2003- try credit, corner. Surely that’s better than dithering on the
Capello a new . edge of the box, and setting yourself up for an
years later h emier opposition counter-attack.
difficult whe ferees and OK, maybe there’s a divide between Under-14
at the Stadio re of the Sunday league football and the Champions League
out at return est standard. teams, but goals win games at any level.
Totti has cl o often, Edward Hudson, Hong Kong
“purely down anagers and
his injury full s alike unfairly A SAVAGE
much to be a e them out to DISREGARD
“I demand m ide their FOR THE
I’ve done he nadequacies. RULES
his pain, but week after their I recently watched the
does he expe Leicester also Hull vs Arsenal FA Cup
thinks he’s b an advantage Fifth Round replay and
club. He is in oal against got very annoyed
tarnishing hi he officials at Robbie Savage.
Where nex league?! That’s nothing new,
America? The s I hear you say, but
Super Leagu on this occasion I was
Retirement l PPENED furious at his unjust More learning,
the best opti NT? criticism of the less talking, Rob
can’t these o hing that assistant referee.
legends let g nd hours of The home side had
Mark Nolan, ng. a goal disallowed thanks to this
Kerry, Repub n Hong Kong – season’s new rule concerning a player – in this case
of Ireland ricultural the Tigers’ Adama Diomande – making a move
s may be towards the ball while in an offside position.
ADVAN en our strikers The assistant referee made the correct call.
LEICEST they seem to Five minutes later, Savage promptly announced,
While the ou at a striker via a television replay, that the decision was wrong
Leicester’s Fe because Diomande hadn’t made contact with the ball,
victory over M United, and proving he doesn’t know about the rule change. It’s
gripped man this season hard enough for the officials, so when so-called

+STAR LETTER Star letter & Spine Line prizes courtesy of

Talk of football borrowing the better far fewer Imagine if this happened in temporarily take the place of their

WIN!
aspects of rugby, and vice versa, is international football. It would shake up the international counterparts could
nothing new, from the attitude shown players, keep crucial battle to stay in the Premier only benefit from some valuable

Adidas X
towards referees to video replays. settled sides, League, potentially even further up first-team experience.
But while watching the Six Nations, while those ile There wouldn’t be as much fixture
15
I was reminded that English rugby clubs at the top are s congestion, either, meaning the
don’t have an international break. forced to play e to debate about the Christmas schedule
This affects the league drastically, and a second-string could be a thing of the past.
not for the worse. Teams towards the blood some of their Worth thinking about, perhaps?
bottom of the Premiership, who have academy prospects. Jacob, Southend-on-Sea

38 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com

 UPFRONT

TWEETS
OF THE MONTH
THE REAL PLAYER
Mikael Forssell
@MikaelForssell
Tag a 5-star cheater
when team is
supposed to carry
the goal! #cheater

Gary Lineker
@GaryLineker
Caballero resorted to all sorts Have this weird feeling
of antics to deny Liverpool at that Gianni Infantino
Wembley – even levitating will pull off his mask
to reveal Sepp Blatte

Penalty takers are challenged over their Ander Herrera

@AnderHerrera

run-ups; why are keepers any different? Good morning to

everyone, I don’t
know if the snow
will let us train
Wimbledon in 1996] got me thinking about a far
ore recent strike in SE25. THE FAKES
On October 21, 2013, my beloved Crystal Palace Kevin Keegan
were 1-0 up against Fulham when Pajtim Kasami @Galactic Keegan
nleashed what should have been the goal of the You can get too big for your boots – like
eason. Not dissimilar to Marco van Basten’s Banksy. Look: Gordon Banks is an England
egendary strike at Euro 88, Kasami chested the hero, but putting up graffiti everywhere?
all down at full speed on the edge of the penalty No. Not for me.
area, before volleying with his weaker right foot
over Julian Speroni from a ridiculous angle. YOU @FOURFOURTWO
Anything Dele Alli
can do, Kasami It remains the best goal I have ever seen live – Daisy Jo
can do better unfortunately – and Fulham won 4-1. Had Wayne @DaisyJo21
Rooney scored it, the replays would have been Little rearrange
never-ending, but too often we forget about the @HKane @Dele_Alli
experts start denouncing even the correct decisions, smaller clubs. Give Pajtim some credit! @FourFourTwo
it must be very difficult to take. Lee Warner, via email
Please, Mr Savage, learn your trade properly before Danny Matcham
you start trying to highlight the errors. Or, better still, @boymetworld91
leave the officiating to the actual experts.
SPINE LINE Interviews with 3 of m

WINNER
Tim Benson, via email favourite players
@Dele_Alli
WILLY STAY ON HIS LINE? @dimpayet17
I watched and enjoyed the recent Capital One Cup I’m a second-generation reader of FourFourTwo, @Mahrez22 in the
final, mainly thanks to the climactic shootout to cap so it’s taken me 262 issues to finally figure out latest @FourFourTwo
a great game between Manchester City and Liverpool. the answer to the spine line.
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illegal? The rules state that a goalkeeper can move been cheating on their manager” [FFT 262] refers Good interview with
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Tru Lee Hancock, via email Follow us for all the latest and funniest
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 INSIDE THE MIND OF A

GENIUS
In the Middle East and out
of sight, but definitely not
off the radar, Xavi reveals to
FourFourTwo his love of the
English game, his coaching
masterplan and how he
nearly left Barcelona at 19

Words Andrew Murray

Photography Shamil Tanna

avi looks confused. It’s probably

because he’s never seen a rattle
before. “And people actually take
these to games in England?” the
perplexed playmaker asks. Then he
screams, as a ratcheting cacophony
fills the plush confines of the Torch Hotel in
Doha, Qatar. “Bloody hell, that’s loud! It
makes a much better noise than those
damn vuvuzelas in South Africa.”
What you might be thinking, however, is
why. Why the rattle? Why has FourFourTwo
travelled more than 3,000 miles to the Middle
East to interview a player who admits he’s in
semi-retirement in Qatar?
In leaving Camp Nou last May, albeit
as a Champions League-winning captain,
Xavi also left European football behind. So is
he still relevant?
Put simply, yes. Xavi is footballing royalty;
the key to a team that has dominated club
football for a decade (and continues to do
so in his absence) with a philosophy and
style he embodies like nobody else.
And it isn’t just Barcelona: Spain’s
triumphs at three successive
international tournaments
 XAVI

would be unthinkable, even impossible,

without this modest metronome of 5ft 7in.
Yet there’s more to Xavier Hernandez Creus
than 17 seasons with Barcelona, 28 major
honours that include four Champions League
titles, two European Championships and
a World Cup, and being the poster boy for
tiki-taka. Perhaps more than any other player,
he feels football. And we want to find out
what makes football’s deepest thinker and
part-time historian tick.
If you want to know what’s next for
football’s most prodigious brain, and exactly
what he’s thinking, read on – especially if
you’re Adam Lallana. Or Danny Drinkwater. Barça’s New Kids on the
Or, er, Craig Gardner. Block tribute act went
their separate ways
“OUR WHOLE HOUSE WAS OBSESSED WITH
MATT LE TISSIER. HE WAS OUTRAGEOUS”
Playing football has always been part of
Xavi’s life, and you get the impression that
talking about it has been as well. To this
erudite 36-year-old, giving an interview
represents an opportunity to talk about
football, rather than the ordeal it is to many
of today’s more cosseted stars. The lines
between an informal chat over coffee and
actual magazine interview are blurred.
Greeting FFT in the hotel lobby with an almost
embarrassed apology that an overrunning
training session has delayed our meeting by
less than half an hour, the first thing he does
after enquiring about our journey (seat, comfy;
chicken pasty, sweaty) is ask what England
thinks about Leicester City’s title challenge.
“Did you see that volleyed backheel from
Riyad Mahrez last night?” he asks, cooing over “One day all this
the Algerian’s outrageous assist in the will be mine”
Foxes’ 2-2 home draw with West Bromwich

“My dad and brothers said

Albion. “Pffft, outrageous. I flicked over from
La Liga just to watch it. It was an awesome
free-kick from Craig Gardner, too.
“Can you imagine if Leicester won the
league? Let’s hope they don’t blow up and
get ahead of themselves, because it’s easy
for perceptions to change.
“The thing is, Leicester have a good team,”
he continues, after being briefly mobbed by
a Costa Rican youth team hunting autographs.
“They’re very compact, Jamie Vardy is so
quick on the break and Riyad Mahrez has
great quality. N’Golo Kante is a phenomenon
in midfield and Danny Drinkwater and
Christian Fuchs, the left-back, are very solid,
too. Robert Huth is huge at centre-back.”
This fixation on the sport was always
inevitable, ever since his mother Maria Merce
first met his father Joaquim over games
of table football at her parents’ bar in the
early 1970s. “Our house was fanatical
about football,” recalls Xavi. “Me and my
brothers used to collect stickers, especially
around the World Cup.
“My first memory is being taken to Camp
Nou for the first time. I must have been
about five, probably younger. It was an
evening kick-off and everything was lit up.
It was perfect. I went out of my mind seeing
the pitch – totally delirious.”
With older brothers Oscar and Alex as well
as sister Ariadna, Xavi and the family soon
I should go to Milan; only World Cup woe: not
the way Xavi wanted
my mum told me to stay” to bow out of the
international game
settled into life on Carrer de Galileu, a long, team-sheets, saying: ‘Bloody hell, why’s he
straight residential street in Terrassa, some not playing?! He’s great and this guy’s
45 minutes north of downtown Barcelona. average!’ It was our life.”
Not a day went by without little Xavier going That passion extended to the front room’s
out to join his brothers for a kickabout. designated ‘football couch’, from which the
One day, Joaquim went along to keep an family “must have watched thousands of
eye on his five-year-old son. “He came up games”. It was here that Xavi’s love of
to me and said: ‘Why don’t you join in the English football developed, thanks to
attack? You’ll score’,” says Xavi, a smile one man in particular.
enveloping his whole face. “Apparently, “In Catalonia there used to be a half-hour
I responded: ‘But Dad, if I go up there, programme every Monday where they’d
who’s left in defence to protect the show the best goals from the
keeper?’ I was already thinking Premier League,” Xavi recalls,
tactically about football delivering his memory like
before I was at school!” a bedtime story to a child.
Not even Joaquim – “Every week, Matt Le Tissier
himself a professional would be on the show. Every
Drinkwater and
for Terrassa and Sabadell single week. I’m talking
Mahrez have
briefly, and later a coach – was spared the outrageous, sickening goals, too:
impressed Xavi
analytical treatment. “We used to sit in PUM, straight into the top corner;
the crowd at his games, discussing what PAM, left-foot flick and then right
substitutions we’d make,” laughs Xavi. over a defender to score against
“Before each match, we’d analyse the Newcastle; PUM, incredible free-kick.

44 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com

 “We used to say: ‘This guy, Le Tissier, is
outrageous and he never goes to a big team.
He stays at Southampton. It’s incredible.
He could play for anyone!’ Our whole house
was obsessed with him.”
It wasn’t just Le Tissier,
either, but English
football in general.
“I remember watching
John Barnes at Liverpool – wow,
what a player he was – and also
the Manchester United teams with
David Beckham, the Nevilles, Ryan Giggs
and Nicky Butt. In the same way that this
Barcelona team is a reference point for
The reason
Europe, Alex Ferguson’s Man United were
Xavi loves the
worldwide references for years.
Premier League
“Going further back, there was Bryan
Robson, who I admired as a great fighter,
and the legendary Eric Cantona. English
football has always been in Spain’s retina.
England breathes football in a way Spain
doesn’t. In England, a footballer is like a god.
“The English game is an example of how
to act, because you never cheat. You’re noble,
even in defeat. Look at Bobby Robson as
Barcelona coach: a true
gentleman. No one has a bad
word to say about him. You’re an
example of the game’s traditions.”
THE SPANISH PRESS DUBBED XAVI
‘THE WINDSCREEN WIPER’, BECAUSE
ALL HE DID WAS PASS FROM SIDE TO SIDE
Xavi’s parents worried about their young son’s
petite physique, delaying his first Barcelona
trial until July 1991, when he was 11.
“I’ll never forget my dad driving me to
the game,” Xavi recalls, smiling while
tapping the side of his head. “He said: ‘Not
many people get this opportunity, so just
do your best. If it goes well, maybe they
will sign you’. I was so nervous.
“I’d played most often just off
a centre-forward. They played me as
a pure No.9. We won a penalty and
nobody else wanted it, and as I was the
centre-forward I thought I should take it.
I scored a hat-trick that day – the only one
I’ve ever scored, I think. I was so happy.
“Then my dad told me the truth. The deal
was already done for me to sign, but he hadn’t
told me anything. He just wanted me to play.”
On the other team that day was a midfielder
who was transfixed by what he saw. “No one
could get the ball off him,” that lad said years
later, by which point he was a defender. “I just
thought: ‘They’re never going to sign me if
there are kids this good!’”
For the record, Carles Puyol didn’t have
a bad career, either.
Commuting back to Terrassa every evening
for dinner (his mum wouldn’t let him stay as
a boarder at La Masia), Xavi would never wear
his Barcelona tracksuit, so he could avoid the
attention of his peers. While his friends would
stay out late, he’d sit on the football couch
with dad Joaquim or indulge his other
passion of mushroom picking.
FourFourTwo.com May 2016 45
 XAVI
His first purchase with a youth-team pay
packet of 4,000 pesetas (about £20) was
a toaster, bought on Las Ramblas for his mum.
By 1997, he was a Barcelona B regular.
A year later he made his official first-team
debut under Louis van Gaal, against Mallorca
in the Spanish Supercopa, and scored in
a 3-1 aggregate defeat.
Despite a disastrous start, losing four
consecutive games in December, Barcelona
won the league, and Xavi was voted Spain’s
breakthrough player. In April 1999, he
excelled as Spain won the FIFA Under-20
World Cup in Nigeria.
Yet despite being the world’s most promising
19-year-old, Xavi was worried – worried about
the comparisons to his idol Pep Guardiola, and
even taking his hero’s place. Impressed by
what he’d seen in Nigeria, Milan vice-president
Adriano Galliani was prepared to pay Xavi’s
release clause.
“Pep was 27 or 28 and in the best condition
of his life,” Xavi recalls. “My dad said: ‘It’s
better you go, because here they’ve got
a ready-made team’. There didn’t seem to
be a place in the team for me, while Milan said
I’d play with Demetrio Albertini in midfield.”
It feels incongruous to hear Xavi talk about
the mere possibility of playing in another
European team – yet it very nearly happened.
“My brothers said I should go, too,” he adds.
“My mum was the only one who thought
I should stay. Ultimately, it didn’t feel right.
The legend goes that she stopped it, but the
decision was mine.”
However, Xavi’s Camp Nou life would get
worse before it got better. Van Gaal used him
sparingly, and it took Guardiola’s departure for
Brescia in 2001 for his diminutive successor
to cement a first-team place. Yet Xavi was
tacitly blamed for his idol saying goodbye.
From that 1999 Liga title, Barcelona went
six years without a trophy.
“Barcelona weren’t even in the running for
any titles in that spell,” says Xavi, wearing
a disappointed expression for the only time
during our conversation. “The press looked
for a scapegoat, and I was the best target.
I was slow. I was ‘out of date’. I should be put
down. Barcelona couldn’t play at Europe’s top
level with me in midfield and had to look for
taller, stronger players.
“We had a philosophy, but they wanted
a change because of three or four years
without a trophy. I understand criticism, but
they were really strong. Some became
personal, which affected my home life and
hurt me a lot. It was like ‘Xavi has no merit’.”
The Spanish press had even dubbed
Xavi Parabrisas, or ‘the windscreen wiper’,
because supposedly all he ever did was
pass the ball from side to side.
“You have two roads with critics: you get
depressed or you fight,” he says, heartache
replaced by iron-willed conviction. “I’m
stubborn and pig-headed and this hardened
me to prove what I can do. Bit by bit, I reached
the top of the game. I’m very proud of that.”
At one point, Barcelona even sounded out
potential suitors for his sale. What helped keep
Xavi sane were European trips to England.
46 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com
Guardiola’s exit
paved the way
for Xavi
“Clap, lads – it’s
what the English do”
“Foreign coaches took the
English game – long ball,
No.9s – and improved it”
He made his European debut – before his Liga
bow – coming off the bench at Old Trafford in
September 1998, to spark a love of English
fandom that persists to the present day.
“There’s no comparison between the
English football fan and the Spanish
one: the respect there is for the
players, win or lose,” says Xavi.
“I remember winning 3-1 at Anfield in
November 2001, playing incredible
football against Liverpool. The fans
remained for the whole game and never
stopped applauding their team. I mean, we
couldn’t have played better, but in the 90th
minute they were still applauding Liverpool.
Signings such as
I couldn’t believe it. I was speechless.”
Ronaldinho “got
Warming to the theme, he skips
back our dream”
forward to the present day. “I spoke to
Juan Mata and David de Gea at the end
of the season before last. Manchester
United finished seventh, but after the final
game at Old Trafford, the fans applauded the
players off. That’s unthinkable in Spain. You’d
have to flee to the dressing room as quickly as
possible, because otherwise they’ll lynch you.
“It’s a family occasion. Son, father,
grandfather, nephew – they all go together.
It’s a spectacle you don’t get anywhere else;
everyone has the shirt and feels part of the
club. You’re the game’s inventors – the
essence of football.”
It took a change of manager for Xavi to feel
part of Barcelona again.
When Frank Rijkaard (left)
arrived in 2003, along
with new president Joan
Laporta, Barcelona
reconnected with the
past. And the pass.
“It was like we’d
returned to [Johan]
Cruyff: a 4-3-3 with the
focus on possession,”
Xavi admits. “For four
years, we’d bought players that were too
young to make the difference in games. Then
we signed Deco, Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto’o
– players who were already internationals.
We got back our dream. Ilusion.”
League runners-up to Rafa Benitez’s Valencia
in Rijkaard’s first season, Barcelona then won
consecutive domestic titles and the 2006
Champions League with trademark attacking
football. Though Xavi remained on the bench
for the latter through an untimely injury, he
had been freed from his role as the lone
defensive pivote, which had limited his
creativity. Alongside Deco, and backed up by
Edmilson or Thiago Motta, Xavi had licence
to attack. To assist. To make a difference.
“FOR ME, THE ASSIST IS MORE IMPORTANT
THAN THE GOAL. IT’S AS GOOD AS IT GETS”
The Barcelona romance had reignited, but it
was in the summer of 2008 that it was
definitively consummated as, following
Euro 2008, Pep Guardiola returned to Xavi’s
daily life, seven years after his Camp Nou exit
as a player. Rijkaard’s final months had been
defined by an increasingly unmotivated squad
that had too many inflated egos. Not any more.
“Pep wrings you like an orange,” Xavi says,
performing the action as he talks. “It’s
fantastic when your coach does that. He was
a master in every training session, meeting and
team talk. He’s a total perfectionist and a born
leader, who always takes you to the edge.”
It all began with a July chat between the
former team-mates at the squad’s St Andrew’s
training base in Scotland. Bayern Munich
were sniffing around.
The former Barcelona captain recalls:
“I said to Pep: ‘Do you count on me for this
season?’ He replied: ‘Xavi, I can’t imagine
this team without you in it’. I didn’t
need to hear anything else.
“I remember thinking after the
first session in Scotland – always
with the ball, great pressure, intensity from
Pep – ‘things are going to go well for us’.
I wouldn’t say I predicted that we’d go on to
win six trophies in that first season, but he
 excited me. He transmits his ideas perfectly to
you and has an incredible idea of how to play
football – pretty much perfect.”
That 2008-09 season, Xavi scored nine goals
and made 27 assists – the best figures of his
career – as Barcelona swept all before them
to an unprecedented sextuple of La Liga,
Champions League, Copa del Rey, Supercopa,
UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup with
a short, fast passing style that still endures.
“Nothing compares to that season and
I don’t think anything ever will again,” says
Xavi, this Doha hotel meeting room aglow with
pride. “It’s the best football I’ve ever seen
from a team. Incredible.
“We had practically 80 per cent of the ball
in every game. We dominated matches from
the first minute. We had 20-25 chances every
game. We won everything. Six titles! We were
almost unbeatable.
“Four years earlier, that was unthinkable –
I’d been Barcelona’s problem, but now I was
the key. Had my football changed? No chance
– I was playing in the same way as when I was
11. The results had changed. That’s the effect.”
The trophies kept coming (title wins in 2010
and 2011 completed a Spanish league treble),
with Xavi still the poster boy of the Guardiola
revolution. In the 3-1 Champions League final
win over Manchester United in 2011, he gave
nothing short of a recital – later described by
Alex Ferguson as “like being on a carousel” –
in setting up the opening goal for Pedro.
“For me, the assist is more important than
the goal,” begins Xavi. He would say that, of
course, but the dizzying blur of hand signals
that accompanies his mid-air sketch of that
Wembley opener is proof of the difficulty
of that pass.
“I saw the United players running to
pressurise me. Pedro lost his marker brilliantly.
He came inside, stopped, then reversed out
between two defenders to receive the ball.
I’d already seen him, but I had to wait, wait,
wait… then PUM, with the outside of the foot.
“Those three or four seconds between
making the pass and Pedro scoring gave
me goosebumps – pure elation. That
through-ball inside, to cut out an entire
defensive line in a major final, is as good as
it gets. It was thrilling under Pep.”
LUIS ARAGONES WOULD FREQUENTLY
KNOCK ON XAVI’S DOOR AT 2AM
It’s to be expected that Xavi reserves
such praise for Guardiola, his playing
idol and the coach with whom he is
most associated because of those four
gluttonous seasons from 2008-09.
But Guardiola benefited from having
Xavi at the height of his considerable
powers during that campaign. The
reason was simple: Xavi’s other great
coaching inspiration, Luis Aragones.
“Only under Pep and Luis have I ever
come out of every team meeting or talk
with the feeling of... I don’t know…” Xavi
begins, before pausing to buy himself time to
think, then breathing in heavily to puff out his
chest and concluding: “...I suppose being so
emotional and pumped up from what he said.
“I’ve learned a lot under the rest, but the
sensation of taking something from every
word they said? Just those two. Aragones
changed everything for Spain.”
Aragones’ comments on Thierry Henry
should never be airbrushed from history, but
his four-year spell as Spain boss from 2004
laid the foundations for modern football’s
greatest international side. Much like pre-Pep
Barcelona, La Roja were struggling to turn
a talented squad into consistent winners.
Aragones made Xavi his conductor, frequently
knocking on his door at 2am to tell him:
“I want you to touch the ball more than
anyone else”, and Spain won Euro 2008.

LEGENDARY PLAYER, FUTURE COACH?

Xavi isn’t the only legend being tipped to return to his former club as manager

Martin Palermo
Boca Juniors
The Buenos Aires side recently
appointed Guillermo Barros
Schelotto as their new coach,
but their all-time record scorer
Words Louis Massarella
Henrik Larsson
Celtic
What’s Swedish for ‘no-brainer’?
Having already turned down
the Hoops’ hotseat in 2014,
Larsson – who has admitted
Philipp Lahm
Bayern Munich
“The most intelligent player”
Pep Guardiola has ever trained
retired from international
football because he felt leading
John Terry
Chelsea
Liverpool greats Robbie Fowler,
Steven Gerrard and Jamie
Carragher are all doing their
coaching badges, but no English
Dennis Bergkamp
Ajax
Bergkamp has worked his way
up to assistant manager at the
club where he made his name.
But if his path at Ajax becomes

was also in the frame. With
spells in the Argentine top flight
already under his managerial
belt, it’s only a matter of time
before Palermo gets the nod.
he’d like to manage the club
one day – is currently learning
his trade at Helsingborg in the
Allsvenskan, guiding them to
a mid-table finish last season.
Germany to World Cup glory
was as good as it was going to
get. Maybe he’ll do likewise at
club level and take up coaching
once Pep leaves this summer...
club legend is more cut out for
life in the dugout than the
Chelsea captain. Despite being
a ‘sleeves-up’ player, JT says
he’ll be a ‘shirt and tie’ gaffer.
blocked, could he one day fight
it out with former strike partner
Thierry Henry – who has just
completed his A Licence – for
the top job at Arsenal?

FourFourTwo.com May 2016 47

 XAVI
“Luis was like an English ‘mister’ – actually,
it was all about his mentality,” Xavi recalls.
“He used to say: ‘You’re the best in the world’,
poking us individually in the chest. ‘I’ve seen
them all, and I don’t tell lies’.”
Buoyed by a quarter-final shootout victory
against Italy, Spain dispatched Russia in
the last four, but the nerves returned for the
final against Germany. Aragones (right) had
one more plan up his sleeve.
“He had the ‘quality’ of forgetting people’s
names,” Xavi smiles, trying and failing to stifle
a laugh. “Just before going down the tunnel,
he called us all around.
“He said: ‘Lads, I’ve got some news. Wallace
hasn’t trained’. Er, who the hell’s Wallace,
boss? ‘Wallace, the No.13, their playmaker’.
You mean Ballack. ‘Pah, Wallace, Ballack – it’s
all the same’. We all just fell about laughing
and suddenly we were no longer nervous for
the most important game in our careers.”
A relaxed Spain won 1-0, Xavi setting up
Fernando Torres for the winner. It was at
Euro 2008 that he became christened ‘Maki’,
short for maquina, or ‘machine’.
“That tournament was the trampoline to me
becoming a big name in European football –
people woke up to me, I suppose,” says the
pass master. “It’s understandable. I was 28
and I’d already played a lot of league and
Champions League games, but the trophies
hadn’t quite arrived. We weren’t references for
the world game like we were about to
become. Luis sent us on our orbit.”
The belief continued under Aragones’
successor, Vicente del Bosque, even after
losing the first game of the World Cup two
years later, 1-0 to Switzerland.
“I couldn’t sleep that night, so I watched the
whole game on repeat in my hotel room,”
recalls Xavi. “In the morning I went to see
Del Bosque in his room. He looked at me
and said: ‘Xavi, I’ve watched the game
over and over and I don’t think we
should change a thing’. I was so
happy. ‘Boss’, I said, ‘it’s incredible
we lost that game. It’s pure
f**king chance they won.
Just football. It’s an accident’.
We carried on the same road,
knowing we’d be criticised, but
every game became a final.”
Honduras, Chile, Portugal,
Paraguay, Germany and the
Netherlands all succumbed en route to
La Roja’s first World Cup, before Euro 2012
was won with embarrassing ease.
By the 2014 World Cup, however, something
had changed. All great teams’ spells atop
football’s summit are cyclical,
and by Brazil, Del Bosque’s
side was on its last legs.
“Ultimately, we weren’t good enough,”
admits Xavi, sounding resigned, perhaps
accepting the hand dealt by fate. “It was tough
having the Dutch first up, determined for
revenge from the final four years earlier. We
were poor and didn’t pressure the ball enough,
but losing 5-1 was too much. That affected us.
“I’d never seen us play like that. We were
making errors, both individually and as a team,
that we hadn’t made in three tournaments
together. We’d won practically every game
to qualify, but against Chile in the next game it
was different. Real pressure.
They wanted revenge. And bang –
2-0, and that’s your World Cup.”
That premature exit weighed
heavily on Xavi. He sensed the
changing of the guard for both
Spain (and promptly retired from
international football) and Barcelona.
Carles Puyol had hung up his boots, Victor
Valdes had been discarded and, much like
Guardiola as manager in 2012, Xavi felt tired.
He admits that in July 2014, “the deal to
leave was practically signed”, before an
old friend intervened in the name of
dressing-room harmony.
“I’ll forever be in Luis Enrique’s debt because
he convinced me to stay,” admits Xavi of the
then-incoming Barcelona boss, a team-mate
17 years previously. “He said to me: ‘Xavi,

stay one more season. You can really help us.
We’re going to win everything, I know it’.
Life smiled on me that day.”
In January 2015, however, the dream
was going sour. Barcelona trailed Real
Madrid in the league amid rumours of
squad in-fighting. “I was worried,” Xavi
admits, puffing out his cheeks. “I knew
I’d be leaving at the end of the season.
We were in a bad way, not playing well,
with problems hanging around the club.
I was thinking: ‘Please, just give us one
trophy – just one, to say goodbye to the
fans, lifting a trophy as captain’.”
With Xavi as elder statesman knitting
the squad together, while picking up
minutes as the perfect controlling
substitute to turn
leads into victories,
Barcelona’s season
slid through the gears
and into history.
“The stars aligned
for me in those last
three or four months,”
he smiles, drifting off
slightly as if recalling
each of the 12 victories
in Barcelona’s last 14
league games that
secured his eighth
Copa del Rey
with my BFF:
check
league title, or every match en route to the
Copa del Rey and Champions League finals.
“I couldn’t believe the homage I got from
Camp Nou in the last league match
of the season against Deportivo La
Coruna,” he recalls, his usually deep
voice now crackling with emotion at
the thought of the Catalan football
cathedral’s mosaic that evening.
“I got quite emotional.
“Then the Copa del Rey final was at
home as well, and I lifted the trophy
with my great friend Andres [Iniesta],
the two of us in the presidential box.
“Best of all, though: your last act
in a Barcelona shirt is to lift the
Champions Champions League
League: check trophy as captain? Pffft,
there can be no better
goodbye than that.”
“MY ULTIMATE
OBJECTIVE IS TO
COACH BARCELONA.
I’M NOT HIDING
THAT. I CONSIDER
IT HOME”
Sat some 3,000
miles away in his
new Qatari base,
Xavi smiles broadly
Signing off with a
treble: check mate
XAVI
at the memories, without a trace of regret.
So, what next for the most successful Spanish
footballer of his generation? “Football’s still
a hobby,” he says. “That’s the secret. If I didn’t
have training every day, I’d go and play
five-a-side with my mates.
“Listen: I’m playing in Qatar. It’s
a professional league – you can’t just
coast through games because everyone is
well-prepared physically and the teams are
evenly matched – but it’s not like Europe.
Tactically, it’s not that well developed. But
I love playing football and Al Sadd play
a possession game, so I touch the ball
over 100 times per game.
“I’m here for football and I want to leave
a legacy for the 2022 World Cup.”
Life in the Middle East is good, barring the
traffic (“an absolute nightmare”). After
spending much of the previous two days in
horn-honking taxis that crawl to their
destination, FFT knows how he feels.
In January, Xavi’s wife Nuria gave birth to
daughter Asia. “Being a father has changed
my life in the best way imaginable – she’s
incredible,” says Xavi. The family live on
Doha’s outskirts, in the same house that
Raul inhabited when he played for Al Sadd
between 2012 and 2014.
Just down the road is the Aspire Academy,
where Xavi’s next chapter has already begun.
 XAVI
Working with the Under-23 team, the
36-year-old is determined to put the best
football brain of his generation to good use.
“I have no doubts,” he says, staring straight
and true at FFT. “I want to stay in football,
being close to the pitch. I would hate being
stuck in an office.
“I want to do something properly or not
at all. My ultimate objective is to coach
Barcelona. I’m not hiding that. I want to work
again for that house I consider a home.”
While studying for the necessary coaching
badges to do exactly that, Xavi will retreat to
his natural habitat: studying football.
“Whenever I have 10 minutes to myself,
bang – the football goes on the TV. My wife
knows that, and she hates football,” he laughs.
“For example, tonight at 10pm, I’ll put on
La Liga and keep an eye on the Premier League
games, too. I’ll study the line-ups, and who’s
scored, on my phone.
“The Premier League’s new television rights
deal is great because everyone earns pretty
much the same. In Spain that doesn’t happen.
The difference between Real Madrid, Barcelona
and the rest is too much. No one can match
the big two.
“But in England, it’s not so. For example,
Stoke City, with good players like Ibrahim
Afellay, Bojan, Marko Arnautovic and Xherdan
Shaqiri, are able to beat Chelsea no problem,
because the budget is more or less the same
as England’s big teams.”
Xavi even takes in Championship games:
“I’ve watched Middlesbrough a fair bit because
of the former Espanyol striker, Cristhian Stuani,
and obviously the coach, Aitor Karanka, who
has had them playing great football. I’ve
seen a bit of Brentford, too.
“Lower-league football in England is another
world. The other day, near where I live, a little
English kid came up to me, asking for an
autograph. I asked him who he supported,
expecting to hear Arsenal, Manchester United,
Liverpool, Tottenham... ‘I’m a Sheffield United
fan’, he said. They’re in League One. League
One?! And this kid doesn’t care about any
other team than Sheffield United. Fantastic.”
Nothing, however, stirs the Xavi blood quite
like his beloved Barcelona, who dominate
the new football couch.
“Barcelona are at another level,” he says.
“They don’t let the opposition breathe. And
those three upfront… Wow. They can score
from anywhere. I’ve never seen three players
of such a high level in the same team. Never.
Messi, Suarez and Neymar are spectacular.
“But the whole team is, too. Sergio Busquets
does everything in midfield, and yet he’s never
in the running for the Ballon d’Or. Come on –
that’s scandalous. Do people not watch
football at all? Do you not understand that
football isn’t about dribbling?”
The passion with which Xavi talks about the
game’s minutiae is all-consuming. He cares for
football’s past, present and future, and even
offers up improvements.
“The first thing I’d do is create a set of rules
for the quality of the playing surface,” he spits
at one point, becoming ever more vociferous
by outlining his plan with a thump of his left
hand onto an open palm. “Look, if I played
50 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com
“Foreign coaches going over there has
undoubtedly helped, taking the typically
English game – direct, long ball, second ball,
typical No.9 to bring down the ball, crosses
into the box – and improved it.
“Mauricio Pochettino is doing a brilliant job
at Tottenham with that model. Pep going to
Manchester City will raise the league’s quality
– he’s a game-changer. Jurgen Klopp is
a phenomenon. Jose Mourinho, who they say
is going to Manchester United, is the same.
“I remember when he came to coach us
“You’re thinking of at Barça B as Louis van Gaal’s assistant. You
leaving Barcelona for could see he wanted to be a coach, though
Chelsea? Good one, Cesc” I didn’t think he’d go so far in the game. He’s
a demanding winner, even if I do disagree
with the way he wants to play football –
it’s all about transitions and counter-attacks,
not keeping the ball.”
If the last hour in the company of this most
cerebral of footballers has taught FFT
anything, it’s that this is what Xavi is
determined to leave by way of legacy. All that
matters is the ball. And talent.
“Your physique is important, of course, and
more so in every era, it seems, but it’s the
M-S-N make most talented players who make the
Xavi go W-O-W difference,” he says. “I’m a romantic and
I hope my career, which has been all about
the pass, has shown that.
“I’m a romantic and I hope “What does Cristiano Ronaldo have? Talent
to score. Neymar? Talent to dribble. Messi?
my career shows that. It’s The most talented player in history. The day
that stops, that’s the end of spectacle in
been all about the pass”
football. We should pack up and go to live by
the sea, because what’s the point?”
With that, hands are shaken, but just before
Xavi heads home to enjoy an evening’s La Liga
and Premier League football (tonight
tennis against Novak Djokovic, he’d it will include a man-of-the-match
definitely beat me because Adam Lallana display at home to
he’s better than me. What can Manchester City) there’s just about
I do to stand some chance of time for a FourFourTwo first. We
winning? Go round his side of came to Qatar with a present.
the net and dig up the court. “Bloody hell!” Xavi screams,
“Well, the equivalent is barely able to contain himself as
allowed in football. Teams we present English football’s No.1
intentionally worsen a pitch fan with a signed Matt Le Tissier
against better opposition. shirt we had lying around the
It’s 2016 and that can’t be. It’s office. “Can I really keep this? It’s
bad for your knees and ankles – incredible. Do you know him?!”
and what about the spectacle?”
“I THINK ENGLAND COULD BE
AN OUTSIDE BET AT THE EUROS”
The time creeps towards 10pm and
football-watching and late-night parenting
await him at home, but you get the sense
Xavi could talk all night as our conversation
again sways back to English football.
“The standard is much higher now,”
he says. “In the past, there wasn’t as much
natural talent – just Rooney, Lampard,
Gerrard, and the rest were physical.
“Now you’ve got Raheem Sterling; the
guy [Adam] Lallana, quality; Eric Dier,
quality; [Dele] Alli, quality; [Jack] Wilshere,
quality. Then you have natural goalscorers
– Vardy, [Harry] Kane – plus Rooney and
physical guys at the back. I think England
could be an outside bet at the Euros.
NON-LEAGUE PROGRAMMES

“PROG RA M M ES,
GET YER
PROG RA M M ES …
Matchday magazines may seem to many people like a relic from
the past, but even at
non-league level, clubs still publish them – though not always throu
gh choice
Words Richard Edwards; Photography Jill Jennings

T
hey may not know it, but fans of
non-league teams in the North East,
as well as the clubs themselves,
have a lot to thank Mike Rayner for.
The 59-year-old from Middlesbrough doesn’t
work his thing on a matchday, however.
It was announced that from the start of the
2013-14 Northern League season, any club
failing to produce a matchday programme
would be fined. Those fines begin at £50 and
can potentially reach as much as £200.
Yes, you read correctly. Clubs have to come
up with the goods for each home match, at
least in Step 1 to Step 6 of the non-league
pyramid (the 10th tier of English football). The
rule itself is part of the standards set by all
divisions across England’s non-league system,
which are then approved by the FA.
“The fines are designed to be a big enough
deterrent for clubs to think twice before not
producing one,” says Nick Robinson, chairman
of the Ryman Football League, who oversee
three leagues in London and the south-east.
“There’s no specific standard of programme
that clubs have to adhere to, but it has to be
more than a simple team-sheet.”
And so, armed with little more than an
ageing printer and a work ethic that would
make his hometown club’s midfield wince,
Rayner is now a one-man programme-making
machine – and people love his work.
“I was at a Seaham Red Star reserves match
the other day and I could see people reading
the programme when I was wandering
around at half-time,” he says. “You get a big
kick when you see people actually reading
what you’ve written.”
Situated just south of Sunderland on the
North East coast, Seaham is the very definition
of ‘off the beaten track’. In non-league
football, though, nowhere’s out of bounds, and
programmes are as much a staple of Saturday
afternoon as the pre-match pie and pint.
“You’ll get clubs up here getting calls from
ground-hoppers in London, asking them if they
produce a programme and have a pin badge,”
says Rayner. “If the answer’s ‘no’ then they
won’t come. They’ll go somewhere else.”
For his part, Rayner admits that he has never
thrown away a programme, some 53 years
after he watched his first competitive match.
The week FFT catches up with him, that
collection has increased by five, Rayner having
watched Thornaby, Hebburn Town, Sunderland
Ryhope Community Association, Boldon CA
and Jarrow Roofing over the past six days.
NON-LEAGUE PROGRAMMES
His only brush with the professional game that
week came when he sat down in front of the TV
to watch his beloved Middlesbrough take on
Charlton in the Championship. The match was
notable for the absence of Boro boss Aitor
Karanka after a training ground hissy-fit, and
the presence of a coffin that illustrated the
plight of Charlton under their current owner –
hardly a contest to warm the soul. The chill
wind of a Tuesday night in Seaham had rarely
seemed so appealing.
“The passion for someone who supports
Ramsbottom United is as great as someone
who supports Manchester United,” says
programme dealer John Dee. “The fact that
one plays in the Premier League and the
other in the Evo-Stik doesn’t matter.”
He’s right. In many ways that passion is the
glue that holds the English game together, and
makes non-league programmes almost as
desirable as their Football League equivalent.
A quick glance at eBay shows plenty are up for
sale – some from FA Amateur Cup finals, others
from more obscure matches, such as those
involving a team many people won’t know.
“Headington United programmes sell very
well,” says Dee. “It’s harder to get non-league
programmes from before the pre-war era
 NON-LEAGUE PROGR
simply because of the print run
volumes, but programmes for
Headington United (the forerunner to
Oxford United) are very popular. You only
need two or three collectors of a club to
start competing against each other and the
price can go up pretty quickly, particularly
for scarcer items.” The fact that a huge
number of Headington United programmes
are available on eBay for just shy of £50
illustrates that the club’s appeal has long since
outlasted their name change, which came in
the summer of 1960.
It’s unlikely that Rayner’s homemade
productions will ever raise similar sums, but it
is passion rather than pounds that concerns
those involved in the production of the humble
non-league programme – even if they
represent a valuable marketing tool for the
clubs themselves.
“The programme is really
a 20-page brochure to sell
your club to the people who
are buying them,” says
Mark Carruthers, the editor
of nonleaguedaily.com.
“The people who edit them
generally won’t get paid, but
for the clubs, the programme
is absolutely vital as a source
of revenue and a means of
attracting sponsors. They put
quite a few Football League
and Premier League
programmes to shame.”
Not that this hard work is
always reflected in matchday
sales.  “I was at a game at
Esh Winning (of the Northern
Football League Division Two)
earlier this season and only one
person bought a programme,”
says Mike Amos, chairman of
the Northern League. “It was
me.” Still, at least the club
weren’t fined.
Amos knows a thing or two
about programmes, given he
can sometimes get up to 50
flying through his letterbox
during peak season. “I read
them all,” he says. “The
postman’s always saying he
can’t wait for the summer.”
The quality of those
programmes is as variable as
the North East weather but,
across the country, more and
more non-league clubs are
coming up with publications
that reflect the era in which
they’re forced to compete.
“Every matchday we try to create a theme,”
explains Stuart Fuller, chairman of Lewes,
currently bottom of the Isthmian Premier
League. “We were recently up against the
team that were second from bottom. It was
a six-pointer so we based it around The Doors’
song The End. The match poster is an homage
to the band (middle picture, above) and the
articles in the programme reflected that, too.
54 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com
long gone. That’s what social media
is now used for, after all.  
At Isthmian League outfit
Kingstonian, chasing promotion
to the Conference South via the
play-offs, the club’s programme
strikes a more irreverent tone.
“We really enjoy it because we can
do something a little bit weird,”
says Jamie Cutteridge, a regular
contributor to the Ks’ programme.
“Admittedly that “Earlier in the season, two of
approach can sometimes us wrote a match report for
be a little bit tenuous and a game we hadn’t actually been
difficult, but we always to because we had gone to the
try to be different. This cinema instead to watch Matt
weekend we did a feature on Damon’s The Martian. The report was mainly
how we would be the best team in the about the film and us constantly checking the
league… if we only played midweek. In winter. Kingstonian score on our phone.”
Then we tried to reason that The pair have also created an alternative
economic theory could be career for former Kingstonian midfielder
explained through the prism Steve Butterworth.
of non-league football.”  “We’ve come up with a fictional history for
Lewes’ use of the poster as him,” says Cutteridge. “He was genuinely
a means to publicise the club dismal but the fans really took to him and he
has been a huge success, with pretty much gets a mention in everything
one high-flying Championship we do. We don’t really know what he’s up to
club apparently a more ardent at the moment, but he’s getting some good
admirer than others. air time in the programme.”
“We produced a poster Butterworth’s career may have been
about three seasons ago and given a makeover but such
Burnley replicated it exactly,” is the player turnover in
says Fuller. “We were non-league football that
sponsored by Specsavers at trying to keep tabs on
the time and had started the squads can be
season brilliantly, as had
Burnley. It was done as
one of those eye charts where
you work your way down.
We started with a ‘W’ and
then went ‘DWW’ and so on to
form a pyramid, under which
we wrote: ‘No, you don’t need
to get your eyes tested’. They
just copied it. I’m not sure
how they thought we wouldn’t
see it, as we had already
posted it on Twitter and have
over 6,000 followers.”
Altrincham, Fisher Athletic,
Dulwich Hamlet and Hebburn
Town are just four other clubs
who are using matchday
posters as a means of selling
the club and their forthcoming
fixtures to the locals.
And if you haven’t got the
time, skills or inclination to
come up with a poster, or if
you’re running short of
content for your programme,
just do what Prescot Cables of
the Northern Premier League Division One
North did last month: get a 33-year-old to
walk out hand-in-hand with the club captain
as a mascot after a couple of sherberts as
part of his stag do celebrations, then give it
a double-page spread on matchday.
Even at non-league level, the days when
you picked up the matchday programme to
read a match report of last week’s game are

something of a nightmare, as Matt Riggs, the
programme editor at Blyth Spartans, explains.
“At the start of the season there’s a website
that all the other teams share,” he says.
“You upload your squad information and
club history onto that site. Generally, though,
at least one player leaves and arrives every
week, so it can be impossible to keep tabs
on what’s going on.
“Whenever you look at the squad list on the
back of a programme, it never bears any
resemblance to the team on the pitch.
I guess it’s just one of those quirks of
non-league football.”   weeks down the line.”
Another idiosyncrasy can be seen on the
pages of Isthmian League programmes.
“The strange thing about our division is
that the league itself always place a couple
of adverts in every programme, and one of
them is for this weird women’s lingerie ad,”
says Cutteridge. “I’ve no idea who they’re
marketing it to. There are very few women
at Kingstonian games.”
Rayner is more concerned with the colour
toner working overtime in his somewhat
stretched printer. With all of his programmes
printed in glorious technicolour, printer ink in
this part of Middlesbrough lasts about as long
as a Theo Walcott injury comeback.
Undeterred, Rayner sees little reason to
end one of football’s most worthy cottage
industries, despite the huge amount of work
that goes into them.   there’s no excuse, really.”
“It takes an hour’s research and then three
hours to write them,” he says. “If I can’t find
NON-LEAGUE PROGRAMMES
“The squad list on the back of a programme
bears no resemblance to the side on the pitch”
Below There’s no out everything I need to know about the
fancy media office team then I’ll just write about the town.
for Rayner (and his Wikipedia is my god.
secretary isn’t much “The programmes always go, and even if
of a looker, either) we don’t sell them all, there are always
ground-hoppers who will snap up copies
It’s almost a full-time job for Rayner, with
the only real reward coming in the form of
a grateful ‘thank you’ from the clubs who
receive his programmes. Despite the fine
system being as clear as mud – Amos insists
the penalty for not producing a programme is
“about £10, which goes to charity”, while
message boards citing the Northern League’s
rule book claim it’s substantially higher –
Rayner hopes that his work means no club
will have to put their hands in their pockets
any time soon.
“The league chairman does the fining of
the clubs who don’t make a programme,”
he says. “When they tell him they can’t do one
because there’s no one to do it, he can now
turn round to them and say that he knows
someone who can. I just need a bit of notice –
Although he’s provided with free paper and
replacement toner by the bucket-load, thanks
to some of the North East’s more generous
clubs, Rayner isn’t churning out programmes
for financial reward. He, like the majority
of non-league programme editors, is
a volunteer in every sense.
Matt Riggs is now on an internship with
West Ham United for his final term at
university, but he is still producing the Blyth
Spartans programme on a laptop in his
bedroom in Hertfordshire, with the copy then
emailed to the designers in Derbyshire before
winding its way north.
“I’ve absolutely loved what I’ve done at
Blyth but people do underestimate the
amount of work you have to do to produce
each edition,” Riggs says. “I’ve tried to improve
the programme and make it look as good as it
can do. I’ve probably put in more hours than
I’ve had to – and that’s a lot of hours out of
your week that you don’t get paid for – but it is
rewarding when you turn up at the ground
and see people reading it.”
It’s all a world away from the media
departments and in-house design teams
who produce programmes for the likes of
Arsenal and Manchester United, but there are
pitfalls for those who get their publication
printed the day before a match kicks off.
“I’ve picked up programmes in the Northern
League and they’ve included a list of the
matches called off that night,” says Rayner.
“Some of them weren’t called off until 5pm, so
that means the programme must have been
put together in the hour before kick-off.”
Most clubs work on the premise that
around 20 to 30 per cent of the crowd will
purchase a programme. However, that figure
has gone down in recent years as supporters
continue to digest their content from a variety
of different sources, most of which don’t
involve paper. Those trends are filtering further
down the pyramid, and non-league clubs are
being forced to adapt.
“The programme is still a hugely important
part of what we do,” says Lewes’ Stuart Fuller.
“We’re community-owned and have members
from across the world so we also do an
e-programme, which goes to every member
within a couple of hours of the game. They get
a link and can download the programme and
read it as if they were at the match.”
At Blyth, meanwhile, the club has set up its
own dedicated TV channel, a move that best
demonstrates the changing way non-league
football is interacting with its audience.
“The players love it,” says Riggs. So do the
channel’s 555 subscribers.
Maybe in the years to come, failure to have
a presence on YouTube will result in a hefty
financial penalty. Until that day arrives,
Rayner and hundreds of others will keep
their heads down and their printers on.
FourFourTwo.com May 2016 55
 FOOTBALL & MUSIC

FOOTBALL
AND MUSIC
THE ULTIMATE
SOUND CLASH
But it’s not all novelty singles and goal
music. They can be in perfect harmony...
as long as Cloughie’s not allowed to rap
Words Si Hawkins and Nick Moore

FourFourTwo.com May 2016 57

 ED SHEERAN vs
MARK CLATTENBURG
vs ROD STEWART
You’d think they would be the perfect bedfellows, but football and rock ‘n’ roll
don’t always go together hand in hand, as FourFourTwo explains…
SHEER EMBARRASSMENT FOR CLATTS previous year: clattered by Gabby
When you hear someone has been grounded Agbonlahor, Louis collapsed and
for sneaking off to see Ed Sheeran, you picture vomited (left), while Gabby got
a rebellious teen rather than, say, Britain’s top dog’s abuse. “I will kill you,”
international referee. And yet, to terrace tweeted a 1D fanatic, while
mockery and tabloid joy, Mark Clattenburg another promised they’d “chop
was suspended for a week in October 2014 for your balls off”. Angry Aston Villa
flouting the rule that officials travel together fans are pussycats by comparison.
on matchdays to protect their ‘integrity and
security’. Instead, he drove home solo from POP SCARS
West Bromwich Albion’s match against Crystal Hopefully new Bolton Wanderers CEO Dean
Palace in order to catch Sheeran’s Newcastle Holdsworth has more success in football
show. Mark Clattenburg is 41 years old. administration than he did in the music
business. The documentary Football Wives was
PEE DOHERTY ENTERS THE LIONS’ DEN a much-shared VHS in 1997, chiefly for the
Troubled Libertine Pete Doherty (right) ran Holdsworths’ antics. The compromised striker
a QPR fanzine and wrote angry letters to FFT reluctantly supported wife Samantha’s
“How did I wake
before being seduced by the dark side of rock nascent pop career; unfortunately, however,
up here...?”
and crack cocaine, and the old someone let the film-makers in as she
rivalries remained intact. recorded some raw, unaccompanied vocals.
During a celebrity Soccer Six apparently breaking a fan’s nose in Vegas, Excruciating. But excellent TV, obviously.
tournament at Millwall’s New while a furious Welsh artist claimed that Rod’s
Den in 2008, Doherty dodged “rock-hard” ball broke his finger in 2002. Most E-DISHARMONY
paparazzi by hiding in the intriguing was Michigan couple Stephen In 1992-93, Sky’s new Monday Night Football
chairman’s office – and couldn’t and Patricia Boughton’s mid-’90s suit featured cheerleaders, inflatable sumo
resist spending a sneaky penny. that Patricia’s ball-damaged hand led to wrestlers and, for Arsenal’s hosting of
Security guards thought he was a ‘loss of companionship’, followed by Manchester City, The Shamen,
stealing a trophy; in fact, the divorce. Stewart settled for $17,000. performing their notorious Ecstasy
story goes, he was “filling it up” anthem Ebeneezer Goode. Upfront
with his very own Babyshambles. SPEWEY LOUIS was Mr C, a “staunch Chelsea
Pop’s most recent Mr Football fan”, supported by dancing
ROD’S LOOSE BALLS hasn’t had it easy. One Direction’s A Chelsea fan at girls sporting Spurs colours.
You’ve got to admire Rod Louis Tomlinson tried to buy his Highbury. What Highbury went ballistic,
Stewart’s dedication, still hoofing beloved Doncaster Rovers in 2014, could go wrong? obscenities filled the nation’s
signed footballs into audiences Rod wrecks but the Kickstarter campaign lounges, and C responded with
despite umpteen legal hassles. another marriage stiffed. Even more painful was “suitably rude gestures” as he
In 2014 he was sued for Stiliyan Petrov’s testimonial the left the pitch. So that went well.

MATCH  
“Like the FBI and the CIA, and
1
A B C D E F G H the BBC, BB King and Doris Day,
______, dig it, dig it, dig it, dig it…”

THE PLAYE
The Beatles – Dig It

2  
“Then I bid

TO THE
you ______
/ Prodigal child,
you’re not ready

SONG LYRI
for the future”
Jay Z – American
Gangster

58 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com

 FOOTBALL & MUSIC

LOUGH
HOP
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ng
biz career, deali
eventful music- wi e and
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with Elton John t
ong others, bu
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it wa s Ba rri e’s idea for
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rd it,” Langley
Clough to reco int en ded.
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try ing to ge
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rest, and he pr standing for , but
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e top of the Langley. “It wa and ITN.”
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er J.J . Ba rri e suggested Sadly, Cloughie failed to
ing is an d th e sin gle
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, back
m ira bly bo nk ers: regular chart – a rare come a cult
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bu t wi th
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track
ba ll co m m en tary. reckons it’s th ng over the
foot at Clo ug h ta lki
The unlikely ta
le begins ever. “Brian bly
dio in Soho. is simply a terri
ng wr itin g stu top of a song – a major
a so ca lls: m us ica l ide a
rry Langley re conceived
Songwriter Ge out every celeb
rity
air man of trait of just ab
One da y th e ch
wi th m ad e,” he says. “Which
rest came in record ever every
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Clo ug h, wh o looked at me makes it just ab
rian net.” ask me.”
a different pla respect, if you
s if I was from ed an
ley has en joy
Now 76, Lang

“Don’t get me “This is my life and this is “Here’s a little lesson: Li’l Kim
3 wrong – violence
5 how it reads / A documentary
7 don’t stress them / Kick them all
is not our forte / I just that nobody believes / Albert Steptoe straight to the curb like ______”
like to rhyme, kick the in Gone With The Breeze / Mother played Keyshia Cole feat.
lyric skills like ______” by ______, father by John Cleese” Li’l Kim – Let It Go
A Tribe Called Quest – Steve Biko The Beautiful South – My Book
“People laugh,
“Gonna manage my time, just “Him a float like a butterfly, the
8 they will call
4 like ______ / If we do it together, 6 hurdling man / Yes, me a chat it folly / But we
we’ve got meaning of life / But I just about Colin Jackson / The crowd is connected like
wanna smoke it, I just wanna smoke it...” roaring, ______ scoring” a ______ volley”
Super Furry Animals – Smokin’ Aswad – Shine Los Campesinos – Glue Me

Answers: 1. Matt Busby (F); 2. Freddy Adu (H); 3. Pele (B); 4. Johan Cruyff (G); 5. Peter Beardsley (C); 6. Ian Wright (D) ; 7. David Beckham (A); 8. Tony Yeboah (E)
FourFourTwo.com May 2016 59
 FOOTBALL & MUSIC
U ’ R E N O T S I N G I N G
O
Y
H E O R I G I N A L LY R I C S )
“
T
( where the o d if
A NY O R E ! ”
LA DONNA E MOBILE
The standout aria of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera
Rigoletto, La Donna is a catchy ditty beloved
of Venetian gondoliers and Luciano Pavarotti.
It deals with flighty women and devious
assassins, but 165 years later, it has the
perfect syllable count to celebrate Jose
Mourinho, Philippe Coutinho, or indeed:
“We’ve got Fabrizio, you’ve got f**k all-io”.
THE JOHN B. SAILS
This century-old Bahamian lament about
a man and his drunken granddad having
a brawl in Nassau and longing to escape
on their boat is oddly fitting for the
purpose of insulting rival hometowns.
Popularised by the Beach Boys as
Sloop John B, it provides the perfect
end-of-a-long-day anthem: “Carlisle’s
a s**thole, I want to go home”.
SON OF MY FATHER
With music by Italian Giorgio Moroder
(who later penned singles for Kylie
Minogue and David Bowie), Son of My
Father was released in German before
being turned into an indestructible
earworm by mulleted glam rockers
Chicory Tip. Most closely associated
with Teddy Sheringham (“Woah, Teddy
Teddy…”), it’s still in circulation for
Andys, Garys and Bobbys everywhere.
THE FIRST EVER
FA CUP FINAL RECORD
60 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com
s of
The melodie ave
sh
most chant o long
ds
been aroun
forgotten
that we’ve
riginal
came from
. An
ers knew
the compos es
tun
what their
used for,
were being ified
orr
they’d be h
TOM HARK It’s rarely heard on modern TV, but lives on
When South African Jack Lerole in some of the most juvenile chants around,
tootled a melody on his penny whistle from East Fife’s Cowdenbeath-baiting (“They
in 1958, he probably couldn’t have come from near Lochgelly / They haven’t got
foreseen it being used to mock moderately a telly”) to the ubiquitous “Your sister is your
successful English teams for being mother…” nonsense favoured by fans
on Channel Five on a Thursday visiting rural clubs.
night. It’s also regularly heard as
an irritating PA-blaster following CWM RHONDDA
Lukaku: in white,
many a lower-league goal. How many viewers, while
like most kitchen
listening to John Hughes’
appliances
VOLARE 1905 hymn being sung at Prince
Co-written and performed by William’s wedding, joined in with
Domenico Modugno, Volare a chorus of “You’re not singing
came third in the 1958 Eurovision any more?”. Also known as
song contest and was later popularised by Bread of Heaven, this pilgrim’s plea for
Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra (above right) and, guidance probably reached its zenith when
, Cliff Richard. Patrick Vieira Bradford City fans crooned “Did you bring us
ad the definitive version any drugs?” during a friendly with Ajax.
ut it’s now used to convey
e fact that Romelu Lukaku GUANTANAMERA
ame from Stamford Bridge Cuba’s patriot song was adapted from the
nd is, indeed, bigger poetry of philosopher Jose Marti and the
han a fridge. music of Joseito Fernandez. It deals with
unrequited love, and was a haunting hit for US
HE ADDAMS FAMILY vocal trio The Sandpipers in 1966. So it’s fair to
he theme to the 1960s say that the myriad chanted versions, from
Altogether now: “They monster romp was “sheep-shagging bastards” to a “small town in
lly”
come from near Lochge composed by Vic Mizzy. Bradford”, don’t quite do the original justice.
Just when you thought you’d Hill being something of whose team duly recorded
figured out everything the a ‘doer’, he set a competition Good Old Arsenal (left), which
late Jimmy Hill achieved – for viewers to write a Gunners went on to reach No.17 in
from linesman to chairman, song, set to the tune of the charts and become an
wage revolutionary to Land of Hope and Glory. The enduring classic. Kelly helped
radical pundit – along comes anchorman was unimpressed commission a new version
‘writer of the first cup final with the entries. “He decided before last year’s final,
single’, for a team he wasn’t to write the words himself in support of 1971
even connected to. and changed the tune to keeper Bob Wilson’s
“Good Old Arsenal was the Rule Britannia,” says Willow Foundation.
first song recorded by a club Kelly. “My dad was one Meanwhile Hill was
specifically for an FA Cup of those that entered still getting annual
final,” explains Andy Kelly of and, to this day, songwriting
TheArsenalHistory.com. he says that royalties
In 1971 Hill (right), at that his version – “about
time host of ITV’s The Big was better.” £57.20,” he
Match highlights show, Still, Hill’s admitted in
decided Arsenal needed their effort pleased 2005. Almost
own You’ll Never Walk Alone, manager enough for
the anthem of their Wembley Bertie a ticket at
opponents, Liverpool. Mee, the Emirates.

THE CITY GROUND
OR ROCK CITY?
With his long locks and musical side project,
Nottingham Forest forward Paul McGregor
was the epitome of the football/Britpop
crossover in the 1990s – and since quitting
the game at 29, he’s enjoyed critical acclaim
with post-punk noise-makers Ulterior...
W H I C H C A M E F I R S T F O R YO U :
FOOTBALL OR MUSIC?
Football. I was a typical footy-mad kid. Aged
12, I knew I was joining Brian Clough’s Forest,
so I pretty much sacked off school – it was
hard to think about anything else. Luckily
there was a cool kid in my class and he got me
into bands I saw Suede live, and I lost my
mind. Then I got into Bowie, the
Manics, early Verve... I was in this
macho football culture, but had
o restrain myself from going in
wearing eyeliner! I had the long
air, so I got enough stick.
O U G O T AT T E N T I O N F O R
EING IN A BAND WHILE
TA R R I N G F O R F O R E S T …
retrospect it was a bit
mbarrassing being in Merc – they
Gigging: better ere just a school band, really.
than Sixfields got the wrong kind of attention.
me people brand you as lazy if
u’re into music, but that was far
from the case. My team-mates at Forest would
be getting smashed in terrible nightclubs, but
I’d be at a gig, sober. I was always committed.
W H E N D I D YO U D E C I D E T O
D O M U S I C ‘ P R O P E R LY ’ ?
When I was at Northampton. I hated it there.
It was a pit, and I’d lost my love of football.
I could’ve signed for Grimsby, but I thought:
FOOTBALL & MUSIC
THE 2016
PLAYERS’
LAYLIST
rs ago it was all Simply
n footballers’ stereos;
he music on their
s a lot more eclectic
ABI ALONSO
pitch, even cooler off it, the
o loves his super-credible
erican rock, from
ential ’60s janglers
elvet Underground to
90s geeks Pavement.
GE
hitman’s tweets,
beats. Fans thought
est in football when he was
w spotted in LA “partying” with
in U Drake while “rehabbing”.
well me Bet his hotline blinged when
on th g loads of that hit the papers.
mad g maniacs in the
crowd. I astic. MOD-ROCK LEIGHTO N BAINES
Baines’ music tastes – Miles Kane, Paul
H O W D I D YO U M A N A G E T O B E C R E D I B L E Weller – are so predictably mod that you
IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY WITHOUT wonder if he’s really just into
P L AY I N G O N T H E FA M E FA C T O R ? the haircuts. But the left-back
I never mentioned being an ex-footballer also lauded psych-rockers
when I was doing music. We supported the Tame Impala in the NME.
Sisters of Mercy, we did huge shows around
Europe and in Japan, we released two albums, NU METAL DAVID DE GEA
and occasionally someone would realise who You’d never guess the goalkeeper is
I was and say: “F**king hell, it’s you! You a headbanger, especially as he’s dating
scored in Europe!”, or whatever. Spain’s entry at 2015’s Eurovision. De Gea
recently tweeted a snap of
C A N YO U C O M PA R E T H E H I G H S Slipknot, having previously
OF FOOTBALL AND GIGGING? bigged up Californian goths
They both leave you wrecked. I had some Avenged Sevenfold. Clang!
great moments in football – playing at Anfield
as a Liverpool fan. But I’d take playing in front POP-ROCK WAYNE ROONEY
of 4,000 people with the band in Japan ahead Wazza’s taste isn’t that bad – he just gets a
of playing in front of 4,000 fans at Sixfields. bit fanboy. There’s the Stereophonics tattoo
(Just Enough Education to Perform) and
WHY DON’T MORE FOOTBALLERS more recently he got big into
G E T I N V O LV E D I N M U S I C ? Jake Bugg, only for Bugg to
Football is too all-consuming now. And if I’d blame England’s defeats on
been a really big name, it would have blocked Rooney playing his stuff. Bah!
me from having the music taken seriously.
STADIUM POP ANDY CARROLL,
W H AT A R E YO U D O I N G N O W ? KENNY DALGLISH & ROBERTO MARTINEZ
Ulterior are still going and we’ve got plans In 2011 the odd couple of then-Liverpool
to record more. But I’ve now got a four-year boss and player Dalglish and Carroll were
old daughter, so touring isn’t something that snapped looking awkward at a Boyzone
I want to do often. I’ve got a T-shirt business show (Ronan Keating sorted
called With The Gods, which I run with Shaun tickets). This year, a video of
Barker, the ex-Derby skipper. Well, nearing 40, Martinez getting jiggy to
I had to get a proper job eventually… Jason Derulo went viral.
FourFourTwo.com May 2016 61
VITESSE ARNHEM

Since Chelsea and Vitesse Arnhem formed a ‘special relationship’ six years ago, 19 players
have left London on loan to the Dutch club. No wonder the fans are having an identity crisis
Words Joe Brewin
“I
t was an absolute nightmare – the
worst experience of my life... but it
probably saved my career.”
Sam Hutchinson isn’t mincing his
words when he tells FourFourTwo of
the paradox that was his time on loan at
Vitesse Arnhem in 2013. The versatile
enforcer, now 26 and playing for Sheffield
Wednesday, was one of six Chelsea players
to swap London for Arnhem that summer as
part of the controversial loan arrangement
between the two clubs, now in its sixth season.
“I was pretty much forced to go,” Hutchinson
sighs. “My agent rang on the day my daughter
was born and said that Chelsea thought it was
best for me. I didn’t want to go. I was
injured. But I didn’t realise that
I wasn’t going out there to
play – I was going out
there to see
a physio. Luckily he was amazing and got me fit
in six weeks, but they still didn’t play me. It was
frustrating. I came home after four months.”
Hutchinson is one of 19 players to have
joined Vitesse since the club’s 2010 takeover
by Georgian businessman Merab Jordania, an
associate of Roman Abramovich who passed
over control in October 2013 to the Russian
Alexander Chigirinsky, another pal of the
Chelsea chief. With it, Vitesse became the first
ever Dutch club with foreign ownership.
Naturally it has irked some opposition fans,
who have labelled the Eredivisie’s oldest club
‘Chelsea B’ and suggested they do some
soul-searching. They’re not alone, either.
“It seems to me that people have lost
a connection with the club since this
agreement has been in place,” suggested
Ronald Koeman, Vitesse boss in 2000-01,
before Southampton’s Europa League qualifier
against his old club back in July. “Every season
they have a different team. It’s difficult to
really have the spirit in the team, because all
of the young players come to play but still like
to go back to Chelsea afterwards.
“In my time, we played in front of 25,000 or
26,000 people every home game. Now if they
play against Ajax, PSV or Feyenoord, there
are 20,000 or 22,000 maximum.”
It’s a view some Vitesse fans share at times.
“You have your moments,” says Olaf, a fan
of 27 years’ standing. “There are times I wish
we wouldn’t take their players any more, and
use only our youth. It depends on who they
send us. Every trainer says ‘I make my own
decisions’ but I really don’t know if that’s true.
“What has it brought Chelsea? They have
bought one player from us, Marco van Ginkel
[in 2013], but I don’t know how it helps them,
sending their players to Vitesse.”
Another supporter, Willem, adds: “We don’t
really mind Chelsea; it’s just the uncertainty
of having an owner who is never here and
doesn’t show his face. In the past we had
an owner who people could relate to.”
VITESSE ARNHEM
But is the partnership – investigated and
cleared by the Dutch FA – just as it seems on
the surface? Are Vitesse really losing their
identity, acting as a controlled dumping
ground for Chelsea’s gain?
It’s a chilly Saturday night when FFT visits
the GelreDome for a home game against
Willem II, to find out the truth from those
who should know a thing or two.
Vitesse fans have suffered more than most.
They’ve never seen their side win major
domestic silverware; in fact, the team has
broken the monopoly of the Dutch top three
only once since 1915. Vitesse spent almost all
of the 1980s in the second division, earning
the unwanted moniker ‘FC Hollywood-upon-
Rhine’ (“because every day was like a soap
opera,” grumbles one supporter). Fortunes
improved the following decade when the likes
of Dejan Curovic, Sander Westerveld and
academy star Roy Makaay helped secure them
qualification for the UEFA Cup on a regular basis.
But then came the spending. Vitesse had
lived fairly prudently during their success, but
in a bid to crack the top three in 2000-01, they
handed a greenhorn manager a £10 million
transfer kitty: one R. Koeman. The results
weren’t good. Vitesse finished sixth and posted
only one top-half finish from 2003-11, all while
there were books to be balanced. By the time
Jordania came along in 2010, there were few
alternatives. The club was on its knees.
“Vitesse is one of the old ladies of the
Eredivisie, but for 15 years it was in a very bad
mood and there was no money left,” says
Niels, almost 40 years a Vitesse fan. “So when
a foreign owner arrived and said ‘I have
a solution: a lot of money and a connection
with Chelsea’... well, it was the only option.”
Arnhem is not a large city. Its population of
around 150,000 is smaller than that of
Swindon, and the fans of its football club are
a notoriously fickle bunch, as Niels attests.
“In the ’70s and ’80s we were a club with
a maximum of 10,000 fans – sometimes as
FourFourTwo.com May 2016 63
 VITESSE ARNHEM
English teens Dominic Solanke
(right) and Izzy Brown get stuck
in after winning last season’s
FA Youth Cup (below right)
“See you next year!
Well, er, maybe”
“Other fans have no right to criticise. Every
club in the country has financial problems”
few as 6,000,” he tells FFT. “Then we built a big
stadium, and during the time Koeman was our
manager it was very good – 20,000 people
came. So that’s his idea of Vitesse. But it was
an exception. Now we have maybe 16,000
fans and that’s normal. We have a stadium
of 25,000 so it looks empty, which makes
people think there’s no link with the region.”
“They don’t even come here when it’s good,”
chuckles 51-year-old fan Stef, once chairman of
the supporters’ club. “The years between 2002
and 2010 had been bad – really hard. We had
seen the club going down. It was almost gone.”
FFT is here to gauge feelings towards Chelsea
in this quiet part of the eastern Netherlands,
but to understand them it’s important to
remember where Vitesse have come from
– and, importantly, who they are today.
Upon arrival we’re ushered into the
GelreDome’s brand new supporters’
home, the stadium’s on-site
clubhouse owned by the fans with
a mortgage from owner Chigirinsky.
It’s immediately clear that Vitesse’s core
group of fans are a fiercely loyal bunch who
64 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com
take questions of their club’s integrity with the
utmost seriousness. When it’s put to them
that their partnership with the west Londoners
is slowly chipping away at the club’s identity,
they are unequivocal in their rebuttal.
“Vitesse is still Vitesse,” insists Stef. “There
is still a golden share which is owned by the
club and not by Chigirinsky, so the city is
secured, the colours are secured and even the
shirt is secured – a few years ago they tried to
Class of 2015-16:
from left to right,
Solanke, Brown, Pantic,
Nathan and Baker
change it and take the stripes off, but that
wasn’t going to happen without permission.
“I think it’s OK to have a co-operation with
Chelsea so long as you are still the boss in your
own house. I have the impression we are.”
Anwar, a 28-year-old Vitesse nut, adds:
“Of course we get some Chelsea players
here every year, but the manager can make
his own choice about who is playing in the
team. In the past few years we had some
players who played only a couple of matches,
like Ulises Davila [in 2011-12] who got subbed
off at half-time in one game and was terrible.”
This year Vitesse have five Chelsea hopefuls:
2015 FA Youth Cup winners Dominic Solanke
and Izzy Brown, 20-year-old midfielder Lewis
Baker (the only one not in his teens), Brazilian
Nathan and Serbian Danilo Pantic. Baker and
Solanke have been regular starters – before
the latter’s Achilles injury in January – while
Brown and Nathan often appear off the bench.
Vitesse fans have grown used to opposition
supporters mocking their influx of young Blues
each year, although there’s a strong suspicion
that those following their fellow Eredivisie
sides might simply be jealous.
“Sure, they moan that we’re Chelsea 2.0,”
admits Anwar. “So we just sing back: ‘We’re
Chelsea II, but who the f**k are you?’”
“Nijmegen [Vitesse’s fierce rivals] are the
worst, but there’s a Chelsea player there
as well,” notes Stef, referring to right-back
Todd Kane. “They have no right to criticise. So
many people say ‘We would never do that’,
but every club in the Netherlands has financial
problems except Ajax. But even for them, if a
big investor suddenly comes and says he will
invest more than €100m, the club will say yes
– and every supporter will be happy.
“Then again, you can look at [ADO] Den Haag,
who were taken over by a Chinese guy in June
2014. He promised them €2.9m and nothing
happened. But still the club spent that money
and now they have problems.”
When one-time Georgian national team
coach Jordania swooped to save Vitesse
in 2010, the fans were divided. Sure, the club
was being hauled out of its dire financial
situation and a threadbare squad would be
bolstered, but they’d need some help from
elsewhere. Jordania completed his takeover
10 days into the new season, and within
a fortnight Vitesse had eight new players –
including the first three Chelsea imports, one
of them Nemanja Matic – as part of the deal.
“Some people thought top players would
come over, but in a few years it became clear
that it would just be a lot of youth players,”
says fan Niels. “There was a different feeling.
At first we didn’t have many players and
had to wait for Chelsea to send us some.
It’s more balanced now.”
Over time, Vitesse fans’ fears of being
controlled by the west Londoners have
alleviated, even amid claims made by
Jordania in 2014 that suggested
Chelsea ‘would not allow’ Vitesse to
qualify for the Champions League in case
their linked ownership became an issue with
UEFA. “Jordania also said he would cut off the
fingers of our general manager,” smiles Stef.
 VITESSE ARNHEM

Vitesse have certainly progressed on the

pitch – but what of the future? One thing on
which everyone agrees is the need for their
short-term stars to stick around longer. Luckily
for them, those conversations have begun.
“It would be better for the players who come
from Chelsea to stay for two years,” says
29-year-old supporter Saunne, whose point is
quickly validated by her partner Anwar. “Look
at Traore, who was here for one and a half
seasons,” he says. “In the first half-year he
really wasn’t good, and in the summer they
said he would come back. We weren’t happy –
but then he became our star player.”
Vitesse’s own academy is improving. They hit
a rough patch when the money dried up, but
now boast an international development centre
ranked among the best six in the Netherlands.
Last season, teenage right-back Kevin Diks
was able to force his way into the first team by
ousting Brazilian Chelsea loanee Wallace.
Long-term, the club is also protected
against owner Chigirinsky getting bored and
withdrawing his wallet. “If he wants to pull
the plug he has to sell,” says supporter Stef.
“But the contract guarantees he has to pay
the players’ salaries for 18 months. We would
be lower than we are now, but we would still
Bertrand Traore was a hit be Vitesse. It wouldn’t be the end.”  
second time around Farewells bid, FFT braves the breezy chill to
see the on-pitch plan in action. Five minutes
before kick-off, Vitesse’s eagle flies a lap of the
pitch as Willem’s rowdy gaggle of fans make
a racket in the corner. Heavy drums build up
to the players’ introduction, which changes
quickly and awkwardly to Status Quo’s
Whatever You Want (no, we’re not sure
why either) as they trudge out.
Vitesse fans do Tonight only one of Chelsea’s five temps are
n’t give
“He was a pleasant man to a hoot what ot It’s not as if the young starting, as central midfielder Baker is forced
hers (top
talk to, but he was full of s**t.” and above rig Blues don’t care about to play upfront in the absence of a fit striker.
ht) think
At first the Eredivisie club had their temporary It’s quickly clear that he is technically superior
little say in which players came employers, either. Before to his team-mates, but his influence is soon
their way, but things have Christmas, Brown and limited. Chances are few and far between.
changed over time thanks to Baker turned up at Five minutes before half-time, the Willem fans
communication between a supporters-run break into a chant of “This is the worst trip
Chelsea technical director volunteers’ night to lend I’ve ever been on” in perfect English. Even
Michael Emenalo, their a hand, Brown offering Vitesse’s mascot can’t be bothered, spending
dedicated loan department champagne on the door five minutes talking to a steward.
and Vitesse’s head honchos. (in Dutch) while Baker Disaster strikes after half-time. Around 60
Peter Bosz, Vitesse manager from the cooked in the kitchen. seconds after Chelsea’s Nathan comes on,
summer of 2013 until his departure to Chelsea’s youngsters are more often than Willem score when 5ft 7in winger Terell
Maccabi Tel Aviv in January this year, tells FFT: not a welcome sight. “We couldn’t afford Ondaan heads home what proves to be the
“I was really positive about it – I saw the link these players ourselves,” says Niels. winner, sending the jubilant travelling
developing. I really didn’t know what to expect But even he admits the situation has its contingent scurrying like excitable macaques
at first. In the beginning, they had some downsides: “We’ve made a lot of progress and up the perspex walls that pen them in.
players they wanted to see with us. After that qualified for the Europa League, but then the Vitesse toil, but an equaliser never looks
we told them which positions we needed players are thrown back to London and we likely despite Brown’s introduction with 15
players for, and our scouting department went have to start the season early in Europe.” minutes remaining. As white handkerchiefs of
to London to watch them. Then we said to For Bosz, however, the high turnover of protest flutter, the biggest cheer of the entire
Chelsea: ‘OK, if we can get that player for that players simply comes with managing in Dutch night is reserved for Willem sub Frank van der
position it would be wonderful’.” football. “A lot of people told me: ‘Oh, you Struijk – the former Vitesse defender who once
Contrary to assumptions, Bosz wasn’t afraid have to change those players every year’,” he saluted rival Nijmegen fans with two fingers.
to bench his borrowed Blues when necessary. says. “But hey, if you look at the Dutch players In a way, though, it’s a fitting demonstration
“There was no pressure on me whatsoever,” there, some were also only there for a year. of what Vitesse are really about. “The fans
he reveals. “I spoke with Michael [Emenalo] “It’s part of modern football, especially in follow Vitesse because it’s Vitesse,” concludes
maybe once a week to give him updates. Holland. We don’t have so much money and Stef. “It’s not about the players; it’s not about
Sometimes I told Chelsea that I wasn’t the really good players will move to the top the manager; it’s not about the management.
satisfied with a certain player, and then they clubs either here or abroad. We could never It’s about the club, the colours and meeting
would have a serious conversation with them. have signed a player like Bertrand Traore if your friends. It’s in your heart, not on the pitch.”
All they asked for was an explanation.” we weren’t working with Chelsea.” And that’s something Chelsea can’t lend them.

FourFourTwo.com May 2016 65

AS VOTED BY
THE FANS

It’s that time of year again. We’ve picked supporters’ brains from the
Championship to League Two, to identify the very best the 72 has to offer

Words and interviews Mike Holden, Richard Edwards, Chris Flanagan, Joe Brewin, James Maw

HOW DID
WE DO IT?
When it comes to our Football League Top 50, FourFourTwo
owes it all to you, the fans. We listened to supporters across
all three divisions, from Middlesbrough to Mansfield, in order
to create this list. You named the five best players in your
league (not at your own club, of course) based on this season,
with a nod to overall class. Points were allocated according to
every fan’s vote – five points for 1st, down to one point for 5th
– and then we used a sliding scale based on division and fed
the numbers into FFT’s super-computer... by which we mean,
pocket calculator. Enjoy the top 50 and tell us why you agree
or, more likely, disagree with it on Twitter, using the hashtag:
#FLTOP50
GRAHAM
CAREY
PLYMOUTH ARGYLE
POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 26
The former Celtic, St Mirren and Ross County
man has been a revelation at Home Park this
season, with his early League Two form
providing the Pilgrims with the platform they
needed to launch a concerted promotion push.
He missed almost two months of the campaign following a knee injury
in Plymouth’s clash against Dagenham & Redbridge at the end of
November, but has returned to help Derek Adams’ side as they close in
on a return to the third tier. Carey scored in four of his first five league
appearances back in August and is clearly hoping his stay in the
bottom division is a brief one. “I would like to get promoted with
Argyle,” he said. “It’s a shame that a football club this size is in
League Two. Now we’re going in the right direction.”
DAVID
MARSHALL
CARDIFF CITY
POSITION GOALKEEPER AGE 31
Now in his seventh season with the Welsh
club, having turned 31 in March, Marshall is
approaching the point where a testimonial
looks like a distinct possibility. Speculation
linking the custodian with a move back to the
Premier League has been non-stop since the Bluebirds lost their
top-flight status two years ago, but his value to Cardiff is far greater
than what most clubs are willing to pay for his services. The Scotland
international’s importance can be summed up in one word: presence.
It’s not just about what he does, the shots he stops and the way he
commands his box – it’s what happens to everyone else. By Marshall
just being there, the crowd is calm and defenders relax. At Cardiff,
the Glasgow gloveman will never be taken for granted.
FOOTBALL
LEAGUE
LIAM
SERCOMBE
OXFORD UNITED
POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 25
Sometimes, you don’t know quite how good
you are until you play alongside better players.
Towards the end of his eight-year education as
a professional at Exeter City, Sercombe was
a highly-respected central midfielder on the
League Two circuit. Now he’s widely considered to be one of the best.
Upon his arrival at the Kassam Stadium last summer, Sercombe set
himself a target of nine goals for the season, his previous best being
seven. By November, he already had to think of a grander aim.
By adding goals to his game, the ceiling of potential has risen
significantly. The games are coming thick and fast for the high-flying
U’s but Sercombe couldn’t be happier – he’s intelligent rather than
marauding, so injuries and fatigue are rarely a problem.
JOE
COLE
COVENTRY CITY
POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 34
He may be in the twilight of his career
but the 56-cap England international is
back enjoying his football again – and
could end the season with a promotion
on his CV. Signed on loan from Aston
Villa back in October, and then on
a permanent deal in January, Cole wasted
little time in reminding disbelieving Ricoh
regulars what he was capable of, scoring
his first goal for the club with a trademark
free-kick in a 4-3 home win against Barnsley in
early November. Cole is far more interested
in the football than the money, having taken
a considerable pay cut, saying: “I’ve been
playing in an era where we are very lucky and
we appreciate that as professional footballers.
Finances are not going to be a problem for
me.” Still, Cole must have hoped Coventry
fans don’t have long memories: he was part
of the famous West Ham youth team that
walloped the Sky Blues 9-0 on aggregate
in the 1999 FA Youth Cup Final.
FourFourTwo.com May 2016 67
 FOOTBALL
LEAGUE

CHRIS GARY
WOOD ROBERTS
LEEDS UNITED PORTSMOUTH
POSITION FORWARD AGE 24 POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 32

There’s barely a club in the second Pompey’s summer signing from

tier that hasn’t fantasised about
adding Chris Wood to their ranks over
the past couple of years. When he’s on song, the big
Kiwi is the No.9 of your wildest dreams – a rarity
in that a strapping 6ft 3in centre-forward can also be
so mobile. But to focus purely on the striker’s physical
attributes is to sell short his skill set: Wood is more of
a marksman than a targetman, and a true finisher at
heart who prides himself on his technique and
movement, even if he is capable of carrying out the
lone striker’s role with burly hold-up play. Luckily, at
Leeds he found a manager in Steve Evans who
understands this implicitly and plays to his strengths.
Chesterfield made an immediate
impression, netting an 86th-minute
penalty in his second appearance to seal victory in
the ‘Dockyard Derby’ at Plymouth. His experience
has been invaluable for Paul Cook’s men, providing
a steadying influence in a young side. Roberts and
Cook clearly have chemistry, having shared a pitch
at Accrington and worked together as player and
manager at Chesterfield when the Spireites won
League Two in 2013-14. Roberts bagged 12 goals in
that campaign and, at 32, still poses a threat from MASSIMO
midfield. Described by Cook as a “no-risk transfer”,
he has proved to be exactly that. LUONGO
QPR POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 23

The Australian had enjoyed mixed

NELSON OLIVEIRA *on loan from Benfica

NOTTINGHAM FOREST* POSITION FORWARD AGE 24
Arguably the best piece of
business in the Championship this
season, at least as far as strikers
are concerned – that’s how
then-Forest boss Dougie
Freedman described the capture
of Nelson Oliveira on a year-long
deal from Benfica, the sixth loan
of his short senior career. He only
popped up on Forest’s radar
because a transfer embargo
limited them to signings who
didn’t command a fee. The 16-cap
Portugal international was
encouraged by Cristiano Ronaldo
to head for the Premier League,
but his Swansea move never
worked out, with Garry Monk
preferring first Wilfried Bony and
then Bafetimbi Gomis to lead the
line. However, Oliveira has fitted
in well at the City Ground and has
shown, in various formations, the
intelligence required to combine
the spirit of English forward play
with continental nous.
fortunes since leaving Sydney to join
Tottenham in 2011, but in the past
three seasons his career has been on
fast-forward after his exit from White
Hart Lane. He signed permanently for
League One Swindon in September
2013 after impressing on loan, and
played in the Robins’ 2015 play-off final
against Preston. Swindon lost that
match and lost Luongo soon after, QPR
snapping him up just days after the
final. Now he’s relishing life working
with Rs boss Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
and shining in central midfield, saying:
“It’s where I believe I’m most effective.”
And his displays for the Socceroos mean
he’s the only player in FFT’s Football
League Top 50 to be nominated for
the Ballon d’Or this year...

Just missing out...

CHAMPIONSHIP

Jacques Ryan Fraser Michael Hector Paul Gallagher Jonathan Kodjia Johann Berg Zach Clough
Maghoma Ipswich Town Reading Preston North End Bristol City Gudmundsson Bolton Wanderers
Birmingham City Midfielder Age 22 Defender Age 23 Midfielder Age 31 Forward Age 26 Charlton Athletic Forward Age 21
Midfielder Age 28 Midfielder Age 25
He won promotion Back on loan at The Scot has Kodjia has been Clough’s form for
Maghoma has stood with Bournemouth Reading after inking dropped back into a regular scorer for Despite Charlton’s the Trotters drew a
out at St Andrew’s last term and has a £4m deal with a deeper role as his the Robins after struggles, the £3m bid from Bristol
since his arrival on a helped the Tractor Chelsea last year, career progresses. netting 15 goals in winger has topped City in January, with
free, especially since Boys into play-off the centre-half has His set-piece skills Ligue 2 for surprise the second-tier Swansea also keen.
starlet Demarai Gray contention during also operated in a are a real asset for package Angers as assists charts on There’ll be another
left for Leicester. a season-long loan. sitting midfield role. the Lancastrians. they won promotion. occasions this term. scramble in June.

68 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com

 FOOTBALL
LEAGUE

PADDY ABDENASSER
MADDEN EL KHAYATI
SCUNTHORPE UNITED QPR
POSITION FORWARD AGE 26 POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 27

Back in the centre and back among the goals.
Playing your best player in his best position
might seem like an obvious tactic, but
Madden’s honesty and willingness to do a job
for the team can make a manager’s life confusing
as well as convenient: shove him out on the wing, as Mark Robins did,
and you still get goals. Madden had 14 for the season when new boss
Nick Daws arrived in January and restored him to a No.9 role, but only
one strike in the preceding 10 outings, leading to Robins’ dismissal. DID YOU
That suggested an expiry date had been passed – only for Madden to KNOW?
then score twice in Daws’ first match. The Irishman has graced all
Max Power
three divisions of the Football League but his League One record of 53
wasn’t named
goals in 126 starts marks him out as a Category A striker at this level.
after a motoring
magazine or
Homer Simpson’s
El Khayati’s career hasn’t taken the traditional
route – the Dutchman was playing amateur
football in his homeland as recently as January
2015, before joining Burton Albion – but QPR boss
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink wasted no time in bringing
the former PSV trainee with him as he swapped Burton upon Trent for
west London. The striker said upon signing for QPR that Hasselbaink
“has been a big help for me on and off the pitch, and I have developed
as a player”; now he, like his manager, is tackling the challenge of
adapting to a higher level. Still, El Khayati didn’t take long to settle into
the English game, scoring three times in his first 10 Burton appearances
and playing a key role in the Brewers’ League Two promotion, before
looking the part in League One – so don’t bet against him learning fast.

MAX alter ego – but he

SAM
POWER CLUCAS
was named after
a dog, the family
labrador Max
WIGAN ATHLETIC HULL CITY
POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 22 POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 25

Power was part of the Tranmere side that
suffered the ignominy of relegation to the
Conference at the end of last season – now
he’s eyeing promotion to the Championship
with Wigan. The Birkenhead-born midfielder
enjoyed four fruitful seasons at his local club, and despite their
fortunes taking a nose-drive, Power’s own career has been on an
upward trajectory since he made his Prenton Park bow at the age
of 18. As well as contributing goals to the Latics’ League One
campaign, following a protracted move, the wonderfully-named
youngster has provided a cutting edge in midfield for Gary Caldwell’s
high-fliers. “We knew he had real talent and we knew he had an eye
for goal – that was never in doubt,” said the Scot. No arguments here.
The one-time Debenhams cafe worker describes
himself on Twitter as a “former BLT-maker turned
ball-chaser”, and he has been bringing home the
bacon since moving to Hull last summer. Clucas’
capture by Steve Bruce followed three impressive
seasons at three different levels of football with Hereford, Mansfield and
Chesterfield, and the £1.3 million fee looks like money well spent, with
the winger providing both creativity and goals on Humberside. “It has
been a great season for me,” said Clucas. “I am just thankful to be here
and grateful for the opportunity. We have quality players here: if I make
that run, I know nine times out of 10 that the ball will come to me.”
Bruce, meanwhile, has said that Clucas is already the first name on his
team-sheet. He won’t be making another sandwich for a while.

LEAGUE ONE

Mark Duffy Tony McMahon Leon Clarke Lee Gregory Ben Coker Sylvan Andy Williams
Burton Albion Bradford City Bury Millwall Southend United Ebanks-Blake Doncaster Rovers
Midfielder Age 30 Defender Age 30 Forward Age 31 Forward Age 27 Defender Age 26 Chesterfield Forward Age 29
Forward Age 30
Once in non-league Ex-Middlesbrough Still best known for Having made the The left-back has It seemed too good
but now on loan full-back McMahon a public spat with step up from Halifax not let diabetes get A former top-flight to be true when
from Birmingham, has flourished since Paolo Di Canio at in non-league two in the way of his forward and No.1 in Donny took Williams
Duffy is playing a leaving Blackpool – Swindon, the former years ago, Gregory progress, faring well this list, he’s back off Swindon’s hands
key role in Burton’s he was the first to Wolves man has has proved that he in League One after in the goals after and now defenders
bid for back-to-back hit double figures in been a regular can cut it at Football play-off success at scoring just once for can’t take their
title wins. assists this season. scorer at Gigg Lane. League level, too. Wembley last year. Preston in 2014-15. eyes off him.

FourFourTwo.com May 2016 69

 NICKY
JOSH AJOSE
WINDASS DID YOU
KNOW?
SWINDON TOWN
POSITION FORWARD AGE 24

Nicky Ajose
ACCRINGTON STANLEY POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 22
represented The former Manchester United trainee looks to
have found the perfect home at Swindon’s
England at U16
County Ground. He joined the club from Leeds in
Are the Stanley starlet and and U17 level but September and wasted little time in announcing
his famous father cut from is also eligible to his arrival in Wiltshire, scoring a debut goal for the
the same cloth? FFT finds out play for Nigeria,
Robins in a 3-1 away win at Crewe, where he’d ended the previous
campaign on loan. He hasn’t stopped scoring since, netting his first
How do you compare as players, and having been hat-trick for Swindon in their 3-2 win against Blackpool in February
who’s better: father or son? called up for their before bagging his 20th goal of the season the following week at
DEAN: Hah! There’s no comparison. He’s U20s in 2008 Peterborough. “I get a lot of stick from the lads saying I’m only getting
much better – and taller, and better-looking! tap-ins but no one scored 20 goals a season just scoring from outside
JOSH: Dad was good technically and I think the box,” he said after his Tangerines treble, possibly forgetting about
I am, too. He scored loads of goals, but that’s Frank Lampard. Swindon supporters aren’t complaining, anyway.
not really the main part of my game.

What was it like when Accrington lost to

Hull in the League Cup? Mixed emotions?
JASON
SHACKELL
DEAN: I’m an ambassador for Hull but family
comes first. I would’ve taken a Josh hat-trick
in a 3-3 draw, then Hull winning on penalties.
JOSH: We should have won and gone through. DERBY COUNTY
It was great to see what the step up was like. POSITION DEFENDER AGE 32

How big an opportunity is Josh’s impending

summer transfer to Rangers? The experienced centre-back has brought solidity
DEAN: It’s a great chance, and I know what to Derby’s promotion challenge. Shackell’s return
it’s like to play at Ibrox. He’ll do brilliantly. to the club, after three seasons with Burnley and
JOSH: It’s an amazing opportunity with a huge featuring in all 38 of their Premier League matches
club. I turned down quite a few English teams last season, almost went unnoticed amid a dozen
but this move was really a no-brainer. Derby signings in 2015-16 that totalled some £25m spent in transfer
fees, but he has been a reassuring presence in the Rams’ rearguard.
How far can Josh go in the game? Shackell, an ever-present for County in 2011-12 before moving to Turf
DEAN: As far as he wants. He’ll be playing in Moor, is particularly enjoying life under new gaffer Darren Wassall: “He
the Premier League by the time he’s 25. wants the lads to play their football and express themselves on the pitch
JOSH: I’ve got a lot of self-belief and I’m – it has been very positive.” However, he had a shocker on his return to
confident that I can go on and play at Burnley in January as Derby lost 4-1, and his former boss Sean Dyche
the highest level. I have a lot to offer. offered no sympathy: “He knows the script. He’s a man, not a boy.”

LEAGUE TWO

Matt Taylor Cameron Joe Jacobson Jamie Devitt Jabo Ibehre Barry Corr John Akinde
Bristol Rovers McGeehan Wycombe Morecambe Carlisle United Cambridge United Barnet
Forward Age 26 Luton Town Wanderers Midfielder Age 25 Forward Age 33 Forward Age 31 Forward Age 26
Midfielder Age 21 Defender Age 29
No relation to his The Irishman had The London-born The ex-Southend The striker bagged
ex-Portsmouth Having made his His play-off final notched 14 assists striker was sent off man hit five goals 31 goals in the
namesake, he has move from Norwich free-kick ultimately by early March to in the first minute in his first three U’s Conference last
been labelled ‘the permanent, the counted for nothing top the League Two away at Accrington, games and had term and by March
next Jamie Vardy’ Northern Irishman last season, but the charts, and offers but has used all his a dozen by January this year had scored
after stepping up to scored against Stoke Welshman’s fine Morecambe a threat experience to lead before needing 14 for the Bees and
the Football League. in the League Cup. form has continued. from set-pieces. the line well. knee surgery. assisted eight more.

70 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com

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 FOOTBALL
LEAGUE
MOUSSA
DEMBELE
FULHAM
POSITION FORWARD AGE 19
The French teenager has a big future
– one that Fulham fans hope unfolds
at Craven Cottage. He has called the
London club home since the age of 16, when he was
signed from PSG, and made his Premier League debut
at 17. Now, with the Championship’s spotlight
providing less of a glare, his development continues
apace. Five goals in three October games illustrated
his value, leading Cottagers boss Slavisa Jokanovic to
cool speculation linking Dembele and Ross McCormack
with moves away, saying, “They are our key players
and very important to us.” Nevertheless, Spurs
remain interested in reuniting the Fulham youngster
with his near-namesake at White Hart Lane.
ERHUN
OZTUMER
PETERBOROUGH UNITED
POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 24
Born in Greenwich, Oztumer has
taken a circuitous route to London
Road, taking in spells at Charlton and
Turkey’s Sivasspor before joining Peterborough in
June 2014. The diminutive midfielder was prolific for
well-respected non-leaguers Dulwich and it was his
form for the Hamlet that alerted then-Posh boss
Darren Ferguson to his potential. Oztumer has been
a hit at Peterborough this season – not bad for
a player apparently going nowhere before the Aspire
Academy in south London turned his career around.
“I found my love for football again after being let go
by Charlton,” he said, “and I started to believe I could
have a football career.” He hasn’t looked back since.
72 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com
MARC
RICHARDS
NORTHAMPTON TOWN
POSITION FORWARD AGE 33
One of the Football League’s most
consistent scorers, Richards has
once again proved himself to be
lethal in his second spell with Northampton.
The former Blackburn trainee has played a vital role
in the Cobblers’ rise under Chris Wilder: he netted
18 times in 2014-15 and has continued to be
a constant menace in 2015-16, as Town’s promotion
charge gathers pace in spite of their financial issues.
He has scored more goals in each of the past two
seasons than he did in both years of his first stint at
Sixfields, between 2003 and 2005. “There’s a real
connection for me with this club,” Richards has said.
The feeling is entirely mutual.
The Norwegian wonderkid is the youngest
member of FFT’s Football League Top 50,
but deserves his billing as one of domestic
league football’s brightest talents. Signed
by West Ham from Manchester City’s
academy last summer, the Norway youth
international arrived at Peterborough,
initially on a month’s loan, in November.
Now, as the League One season draws to
GRANT
LEADBITTER
MIDDLESBROUGH
POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 30
The experienced ex-Sunderland
midfielder joined Boro on a free in
May 2012 and has proved to be one
of the second tier’s best pieces of business in recent
times. As well as contributing the odd goal in
Middlesbrough’s title tilt, the tigerish club captain
provides the kind of defensive solidity that allows
those further up the pitch to flourish. He clearly
enjoys playing under Aitor Karanka, saying: “Since he
came in, I’ve felt that he’s shrewd with his ideas.”
Leadbitter penned a new deal in January despite
interest from top-flight clubs. “It’s not a decision
I took lightly and you never know what happens in
football,” he said, “but I believe in this club.”
GEORGE
THORNE
DERBY COUNTY
POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 23
The former West Bromwich Albion
midfielder has been exemplary for
the Rams this term. Thorne was never
handed an extended run with the Baggies but has
been a key figure for Derby since signing in the
summer of 2014 after a successful loan spell. Yet it
took Thorne over a year to play his first 90 minutes
for his new club: arriving in July 2014, Thorne had
to wait until a pre-season friendly against Villarreal
12 months later to complete a full match following
a knee ligament injury. Since then he has been a key
fixture under Paul Clement and then Darren Wassall.
“I like to dictate games and be at the forefront of
our play,” he said. Derby will hope that continues.
SEN
DFIELDER AGE 18
a close, he’s firmly established as a Posh
favourite and is unarguably one of the most
exciting players to have graced London
Road in recent years. Even Alan Shearer has
*on loan from West Ham
been impressed. “He looks as if he belongs
on this stage,” said the former striker after
Peterborough came within a penalty
shootout of beating West Bromwich Albion
in the FA Cup fourth round in February.
LEWIS
DUNK
BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION
POSITION DEFENDER AGE 24
The classy centre-back – his hero,
fittingly, is Fabio Cannavaro - has
been a crucial presence in Brighton’s
unexpected push for the Premier League. Shortlisted
for the Football League’s Young Player of the Year
prize in 2012, Dunk has come all the way through
the Seagulls’ youth system and has caught the eye
of suitors since breaking into the Brighton first team
in the penultimate game of 2009-10. Despite the
odd howler this campaign, Dunk remains Brighton’s
prized asset. “Lewis has been fantastic for me from
the first moment I came to the club,” manager Chris
Hughton said of the defender, who has previously
been linked with Spurs and West Ham.

JA
M
COVENTRY CITY POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 19
You’re back at Coventry on loan after
signing for Norwich in January for
a reported £2.5m. Is it true that
Liverpool and Spurs were interested?
There were a lot of rumours and interest,
but I decided Norwich was going to be
the best place for my development, to
hopefully take my game to the next
level. When I spoke to Alex Neil he was
portraying all of the right messages, so
I’m really looking forward to working
with him – plus I’m good friends with
Jacob Murphy, who’s on loan at
Coventry from Norwich, and he has only
good things to say about the place.
Of course I want Norwich to stay up
now but I can’t control that – I’m just
focusing on playing for Coventry.
Dele Alli signed for Tottenham midway
through last season before returning to
MK Dons on loan and signing off with
promotion from League One. Are you
aiming to achieve something similar
with Coventry this term?
Yes, Dele Alli’s the perfect example for
me. He came through the MK Dons
youth team, signed for Spurs, then went
back out on loan and gained promotion
with his hometown club. That would be
the ideal scenario for me; to secure
promotion with my hometown club
would be the perfect send-off.
What does it mean to you to have come
through the ranks at your home club?
It’s a massive deal. I’m living the
dream. I’ve always been a Coventry City
fan. I grew up watching us in the
Championship – I’m too young to
remember the Premier League days.
The highlight of my career so far is
scoring my first goal at the Ricoh Arena
on Boxing Day, a late winner against
Port Vale not long after coming back
from breaking my ankle.
FOOTBALL
LEAGUE
ROMAINE
SAWYERS
DID YOU
WALSALL
KNOW? POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 24
James Maddison
was handed his Sawyers has been a revelation at
the Banks’s Stadium as the Saddlers’
first England
fortunes have been transformed.
call-up in March, After failing to break into West Bromwich Albion’s
being named in first team, he has become one of Walsall’s most
the U20s’ squad consistent and dangerous performers following his
move in 2013. Now playing in a side full of
for a friendly at
confidence, there’s only one way he wants the
home to Canada season to end: “Everyone here is pushing in the
same direction – everyone wants promotion.”
Sawyers is a Saint Kitts and Nevis international and
while his team-mates were enjoying themselves on
the beach last summer, he was battling it out
against El Salvador in 2018 World Cup qualifying.
How much have you learned from
playing with Joe Cole? BERAM
Joe’s a top man and he plays in
a similar position to me. I see myself
KAYAL
as a creative playmaker; the No.10 role
is my preferred position. I’ve had loads BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION
POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 27
of conversations with him about
both tactical and technical
things, even off-the-field The Israeli international has been
things. He’s always a pivotal figure in Brighton’s rise,
helping me. I benefit a lot alongside compatriot Tomer Hemed.
from him being here. The versatile Kayal joined from Celtic in January 2015
and scored on his Seagulls debut – he’s been an
What do you like to Amex Stadium favourite ever since. With Champions
do to relax away League experience under his belt, the 27-year-old
from football? has been the anchor for Brighton in this campaign,
I like having a game performing consistently throughout their promotion
of snooker with the challenge. Kayal comes from a proud football family
lads. I’m pretty good – “Two uncles played football, one in the top league
– I’ve only got five in Israel and the other in the second league, and my
147s so far! OK, dad was a footballer as well” – and is determined to
my biggest break continue it, even naming his young son Pirlo.
is about 40...
FFT noticed you
tweeting about CONOR
how you have been
depicted on FIFA 16.
WASHINGTON
What’s the story there?
I’ve started wearing an Alice band QPR
POSITION FORWARD AGE 23
this season and they’ve given me
a pretty horrific trim to go with it!
But what can you do? Hopefully it Whether he likes it or not,
will look a lot better next year. Washington must get used to
comparisons with Charlie Austin,
The other James Madison – the fourth having become QPR’s No.9 just three days after the old
president of the USA – has a famous one left the building. His rise from non-league, having
avenue named after him in New York. started out at St Neots Town, only fuels the narrative.
Do you hope there’ll be something Yet such comparisons were far from Jimmy Floyd
named after you one day? Hasselbaink’s thinking: he’d encountered the player
Hopefully! When I first came on the on several scouting missions over two years. The
football scene my brother would type Dutchman was an admiring onlooker as Washington
my name into Google and he’d just adjusted to League Two with Newport County, then
get that US president. I hope in League One with Peterborough, where he scored 15
the future that if he types the goals in the first half of this season. Hasselbaink saw
name in, it’ll come up with me! plenty to suggest he can handle the second tier.
FourFourTwo.com May 2016 73
 FOOTBALL
LEAGUE
NAHKI
WELLS
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN
POSITION FORWARD AGE 25
Crossing paths with David Wagner might be the
career-defining event that Nahki Wells has been
waiting for. The Bermuda international has never
been short on tenacity and needs only a brief
glimpse of goal to showcase his ruthless streak, and
yet it’s incredible how few managers can bring the best out of those two
key ingredients. Under Chris Powell, Wells had lost touch with his inner
predator – so much so, Kenny Jackett tried to tempt him to Wolves in
January. But the transfer window arrived a month or so too late for
Jackett. Wagner’s gegenpressing philosophy is tailor-made for Wells,
and who knows: his suitability to a playing style made famous at
Borussia Dortmund could soon have the likes of Liverpool and Spurs
making enquiries about the former Ajax trialist.
Season award in
RICKY
HOLMES
NORTHAMPTON TOWN POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 28
A late developer who spent four years at
Chelmsford City in the Isthmian League
and Conference South, Holmes endured
three seasons of perpetual relegation
battles at Barnet and then a forgettable
18 months at Portsmouth, where he
struggled to leave his mark. Now, as
he approaches his 29th birthday,
Holmes’ career has finally taken flight. He’s
a roaming left winger who craves the ball at
every opportunity and isn’t afraid to drift
across to the opposite flank in order to get it.
Northampton’s breathtaking promotion push
has been turbo-charged since he returned
from injury: the Cobblers were already third
when Holmes came back in December, then
quickly opened up a big lead at the top of the
table. Free to express himself, and surrounded
by better players than before, Holmes’ career
is blossoming thanks in no small part to boss
Chris Wilder, of whom Holmes said: “He has
always been an admirer and I have always
admired the way he plays – high-tempo,
high-intensity football. I seem to benefit
from it; hopefully we can go on in future.”
74 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com
JAMES
TARKOWSKI
BURNLEY
POSITION DEFENDER AGE 23
A ball-playing Mancunian centre-back in the
mould of Rio Ferdinand, Tarkowski departed
Brentford in acrimonious circumstances in
February after refusing to play in a televised
fixture against Burnley as the Clarets had tabled
a bid for his services. The 23-year-old later cited his mother’s illness for
his desire to move back to the North West, but the fury of the Griffin
Park faithful was understandable: they’d lost six of their previous seven
DID YOU games when Tarkowski wasn’t available for selection. At 6ft 3in, the
KNOW? former Oldham defender can look after himself in the rough and tumble
of the second tier, but there’s no suppressing his eagerness to showcase
Ricky Holmes his more creative talents at Premier League level. It’s a dream that
picked up looks increasingly likely to be fulfilled next term.
Portsmouth’s
Player of the
2013-14 – but BILLY
was released
a season later
SHARP
SHEFFIELD UNITED
POSITION FORWARD AGE 30
There are still few more reliable goalscorers in
English football than Sharp, the Blades’ striker
once again proving his worth for Nigel Adkins’
side in League One this season. Sharp is clearly
a man who likes familiarity: now in his third spell
with Sheffield United, he is also enjoying a third spell under Adkins, his
former manager at both Scunthorpe and Southampton, for whom he
netted a combined 63 goals in 99 Football League appearances. Sharp
returned to Bramall Lane from Leeds in July and age hasn’t dimmed his
predatory instincts – this is already his best scoring season since 2011-12,
with 16 goals by mid-March. The key to his success? “When I score in
one game, I think I’m going to score in the next and then, when I do,
I know I’m going to score in the one after.” Simple but effective.
ANDREW
ROBERTSON
HULL CITY
POSITION DEFENDER AGE 22
Celtic have been left ruing the one that got away,
having let Robertson leave at the age of 15 for
being too small (“That was the reason they gave
me, anyway”). The young full-back has been
magnificent for Steve Bruce’s side this season –
a constant menace going forward on the left flank as well as
being a reassuring presence in the Tigers’ rearguard. Robertson
relocated to Humberside from Dundee United in July 2014 and soon
shot to prominence when, four months later, he scored a consolation
goal for Scotland against England in a 3-1 defeat at Celtic Park. Bruce
has spent most of the season batting off questions over Robertson’s
future – hardly surprising given the interest levels in a player whose
purchase price of £2.85m already looks an absolute bargain.
   
 



     


 




 
 


  
 


 

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 FOOTBALL
LEAGUE
NICK
BLACKMAN
DERBY COUNTY
POSITION FORWARD AGE 26
It hasn’t been the easiest of entries to life at
Derby but it has already been a season to
remember for the 26-year-old striker. Signed in
early January by the soon-to-depart Paul Clement,
Blackman arrived for £2.5m after a goal-strewn start
to the campaign with Reading. The former Macclesfield trainee, also
once of Blackburn and Sheffield United, scored 10 goals in 10 league
and cup matches for the Royals between August and October – a run
which caught the attention of the promotion-chasing Rams. “We are
delighted to bring one of the Championship’s leading goalscorers to the
club,” said Clement after the signing was concluded. That investment is
yet to pay off, 13 appearances passing without the net being rippled
once, but Blackman undoubtedly has plenty more goals in him.
READ MORE
from the players
ADAM
CLAYTON
FourFourTwo.com
MIDDLESBROUGH
POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 27
The former Manchester City midfielder didn’t get
much of a look-in during his time at the Etihad
but could be lining up against his boyhood club
for his new one, Middlesbrough, in the top flight
next season. Clayton arrived at the Riverside Stadium
in the summer of 2014 after two successful years with Huddersfield
brought admiring glances and 11 league goals from midfield. Thriving
under the leadership of Boro boss Aitor Karanka, Clayton even
caught the eye of Jose Mourinho shortly before Christmas when the
newly-unemployed Portuguese manager travelled to watch the
Teessiders take on Brighton at the Amex. “It’s always nice that people
like that are taking an interest in what you’re doing,” Clayton said of his
newest fan. It seems he’s grabbing the attention of everyone.
TOM
BRADSHAW
WALSALL
POSITION FORWARD AGE 23
The Walsall striker has been a sensation this
season, with a League Cup hat-trick away at
Nottingham Forest in early August providing him
with an impetus that has yet to fade. Along with
Romaine Sawyers and Rico Henry, Bradshaw has been
key to the Saddlers’ League One promotion charge. He’d given ample
notice of his potential in the previous campaign: having joined Walsall
from Shrewsbury, he scored 20 goals in an otherwise unremarkable
season for the club. “He’s in a good place at the minute despite the
rumours and conjecture about his future – he has shown fantastic
maturity,” said his then-manager Sean O’Driscoll in February. Bradshaw
has attracted the attention of Rangers, Bristol City and Sheffield United,
and having received his first Wales call-up, he could be at Euro 2016.
76 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com
JOEY
BARTON
BURNLEY
POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 33
Barton and Burnley seemed like such an unlikely
alliance, not least because of remarks the former
QPR man made about the town many moons
ago. But when the Scouse midfielder eventually
hangs up his boots, he might just look back on his
time at Turf Moor as his most settled. Nowadays, the 33-year-old
radiates maturity on the field: fishing on Twitter might remain a guilty
pleasure, but there’s nothing overly confrontational about Barton’s
displays in the Clarets’ engine room. Once a kid who took exception to
any contact, he now shows opponents enough of the ball to invite
WANT TO over-zealous tackles, and isn’t shy to throw in a bit of theatrics for
good measure. It’s all part of his new game-management repertoire.
Nobody in the Championship does it better.
in our Football
League Top 50?
Read extended STEWART
interviews at
DOWNING
MIDDLESBROUGH
POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 31
Middlesbrough knew exactly what they were
getting when coughing up a cool £5.5m to
bring their prodigal son home from West Ham,
the summer after he had returned (albeit briefly)
to the England setup. Not only is Downing the most
decorated player produced by the club’s academy at Rockliffe Park, he
returned with an extra six years of Premier League experience on top
of the six he gained as an upstart in the Boro ranks. Now 31, the
35-cap international’s re-invention as a ‘central winger’ has helped to
keep him fresh – and when he makes an impact, it’s decisive. On the
six occasions he has contributed either a goal, an assist or both, it has
tipped the match balance in Boro’s favour every time, the cumulative
value of which has been a very handy 18 points out of a possible 18.
JAY
SIMPSON
LEYTON ORIENT
POSITION FORWARD AGE 27
It has been an up-and-down campaign at
Brisbane Road, but Simpson’s levels have
remained consistently high. The former Arsenal
striker spent 2013-14 in Thailand after leaving
Hull, and after a slow start under multiple O’s
managers, he has flourished following the club’s relegation from
League One. Simpson scored eight goals in Orient’s miserable 2014-15
season but had passed that tally before mid-October this time around.
As a member of the Gunners’ youth-team vintage that included Kieran
Gibbs and Jack Wilshere, Simpson hails Emmanuel Adebayor as a major
influence, saying: “He always said to hit the target no matter what.
If you miss the target, it’s 100 per cent you won’t score. If you hit the
target 10 times the keeper might make a mistake and it’s a goal.”
 FOOTBALL
LEAGUE

SAM DANIEL
WINNALL AYALA
BARNSLEY MIDDLESBROUGH
POSITION FORWARD AGE 25 POSITION DEFENDER AGE 25

Some questioned whether Winnall was just
a one-season wonder when he failed to set the
world alight during his first year at Oakwell.
A 23-goal haul for Scunthorpe in 2013-14 had
persuaded the Tykes to part with a six-figure sum
for his services, but the striker was compromised after a poor start,
shunted out to the left in a more defensive formation as the season
became a damage limitation exercise for the South Yorkshire side.
However, the Tykes have thrown off the shackles this term and
Winnall has been in blistering form as a result, winning the League
One Player of the Month award for January after seven goals in five
games. A natural finisher, the former Wolves trainee’s greatest skill
is adjusting his body position to make any delivery look a good one.
It’s easy to typecast this leggy centre-back on
appearance alone, but Ayala’s greatest strength
lies in what you don’t see. Positional sense is
unquestionably his greatest asset, perhaps best
illustrated by one quirk in his performance data: he
makes nearly twice as many interceptions as tackles. As such, Ayala’s
fitness will go a long way towards deciding whether Middlesbrough
finally end their seven-year wait for a return to the Premier League.
Last season, the Spaniard missed chunks of the run-in with a thigh
injury that saw three separate comebacks aborted midway through
his return game. Of the 13 matches he missed altogether in that
period, Boro lost on five occasions. Needless to say, an ankle problem
picked up in early February triggered a flood of worry on Teesside.

KEMAR ROOFE
OXFORD UNITED POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 23

Congratulations, Kemar: League Two fans
have voted you the division’s best player!
Thanks! That’s brought a massive smile to my
face – it shows I must be doing something
right. I’ve been really happy with how things
have been going this season; I’ve been able to
help Oxford to a high position in the league
table and I’m feeling so comfortable here.
This season you’ve scored from 45 yards,
bagged two against Swansea in the FA Cup
and reached Wembley in the Johnstone’s
Paint Trophy. What’s been your
personal highlight?
So far it’s been getting to
Wembley, but it will be promotion
if we can achieve that. Beating
Swansea in the FA Cup was special –
to score two against a Premier League
team was unreal. I don’t think I realised
what I’d done until a few days afterwards,
seeing myself in the papers and getting loads
of texts. It was a crazy week!
PPEARAN
42 A
Was it hard to not be given
here in the summer to pursue first-team
football. It was a no-brainer. The best option
was to drop down a few levels and work my
way back up. I believe that I’ve got the ability
to play in the Premier League; I just need to be
given the opportunity to show what I can do.
Do you like the fact that Oxford supporters
sing ‘the Roofe is on fire’ in your honour? FFT
presumes you’ve never literally been on fire...
No, I haven’t, and I wouldn’t want to be! But
the chant’s nice. They’d be missing a trick if
they didn’t sing that, though, wouldn’t they?
Dele Alli was on the front cover of last
month’s FFT making the ‘A’ symbol with his
hands, but we noticed you celebrating your
goals like that quite a while ago. So who
started doing it first: you or Dele?
I’m not sure! I first did it when I scored my
first goal for Oxford [away against Wycombe
in April 2015]. It’s for my daughter, Alarnie.
What’s your fascination with
CE collecting trainers?
24
S

a first-team appearance G I don’t have many hobbies

after coming through but searching for trainers
OA
LS

is one of them. I have

the system at West
Bromwich Albion?
APPEARANCES probably got about 65
PER GOAL
BEST IN It was frustrating, because
= 1.75 pairs. I have a clothing

LEAGUE
I thought I was doing good line with my brother, too.
stuff but wasn’t getting It’s going pretty well. Do
TWO rewarded with minutes. I was I have any plans for the
on loan at Oxford at the end of Oxford kit? No, I think they’ve
last season and decided to move got all of that under control!

FourFourTwo.com May 2016 77

 FOOTBALL
LEAGUE
ANTHONY
KNOCKAERT
2012 League Cup
BRIGHTON POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 24
a Steven Gerrard
penalty in Cardiff’s
What have you made of Brighton so far?
It’s very good – both the club and the city,
which is really nice. I’ve been welcomed by
the lads very nicely and I feel very happy
here. We’ve had some good results as well –
hopefully we can get some more between
now and the end of the season.
Why are the Seagulls doing so well this
season, after being tipped to struggle?
We’ve got great quality throughout the
squad, and the team spirit is very good.
For me this is key in the Championship:
if you have a great team spirit and
good players, you can fight for
promotion to the Premier League.
What’s the hardest thing about
playing in Championship?
You have to stay focused because
you play a match every three days, and
mentally that’s not easy. But I love the
intensity of the games and the atmosphere
in the stadiums. Things can change so
quickly one way or another in this division,
so we have to remain confident. The key
thing is taking it one game at a time.
What have you made of your old club
Leicester’s form this season?
[Grins] It’s unbelievable. I’m so happy for
them. There are still a few games left to go,
so they need to work very hard, but I think
now they are in a good position to win the
league title. It would be something
incredible for them, but they deserve it.
Riyad Mahrez is flying. You taught him
everything he knows, right...?
[Laughs] No! Riyad has obviously got great
quality. He could bring magic to any team.
Some of the goals he’s scored this season
have been unbelievable. He had a good
season last year, but now he is used to
the level of the Premier League, he has
shown his quality every week.
78 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com
TOM
HEATON
BURNLEY
POSITION GOALKEEPER AGE 29
Heaton was Sean Dyche’s first permanent signing
as Burnley manager back in May 2013, and he
hasn’t missed a league game for the Clarets since.
The bond between the two men was evident last
DID YOU summer when Dyche made the keeper his captain,
KNOW?
ahead of several likely candidates. The shot-stopper’s performances
in 2015-16 have been steady rather than spectacular but he was
Tom Heaton never going to get the same opportunity to shine, compared to last
year when Premier League strikers were stretching him to the limit
played in the
week in, week out. Nevertheless, Heaton’s solid form has helped
Burnley forge a promising push for an immediate return to the top
Final, saving flight, and call-ups for the Three Lions in 2015 were his just reward.
He has come a long way from sitting in Manchester United’s reserves.
shootout defeat
to Liverpool ADAM
ARMSTRONG
COVENTRY CITY*
POSITION FORWARD AGE 19
It will be galling for Newcastle supporters to see
that the club’s leading goalscorer this season is
playing at the Ricoh Arena rather than St James’
Park. Armstrong has been one of the major
reasons behind Coventry’s relative success during
their League One campaign, with five goals in his opening three
matches setting the tone for the teenager’s prolific campaign.
Armstrong had been a peripheral presence at Newcastle since making
*on loan from Newcastle
his Premier League debut at only 17, against Fulham in March 2014.
The Magpies’ loss has been Coventry’s gain, and even though the
Sky Blues have to give back their gift at the end of the season,
both they and Armstrong can report a huge net gain from their
time spent together in the third tier.
FERNANDO
FORESTIERI
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY
POSITION FORWARD AGE 26
The Italy Under-21 international, born in Argentina,
has been one of the standout performers at
Hillsborough this season. Watford were reluctant to
see the attacker go, but decided his intermittent
threat in front of goal made him expendable as they
brought in a raft of newcomers upon promotion to the Premier League.
Since then, though, Forestieri has been far more consistent, thriving as
a creative force for Wednesday. He enjoyed a fruitful festive season,
bagging two braces as Carlos Carvalhal’s men recorded back-to-back
maulings of Birmingham and Wolves. February brought a less welcome
double: two red cards in two games. Even so, with the Owls eyeing
a long-awaited return to the top flight, Forestieri will be hoping to
renew acquaintances with Watford next term.
BRADLEY
DACK BEST IN
LEAGUE
ONE
GILLINGHAM POSITION MIDFIELDER AGE 22

Congratulations, Bradley: you’ve been named minute and normally I would keep the ball
our League One Player of the Season. What’s in the corner, but we were 3-0 up so I opted
been the key to your success in 2015-16? to have a go. I cut inside from the left and
My success is down to the staff and the other managed to bend it into the top corner.
players at Gillingham. Without them, what
I’ve been able to do this season wouldn’t You’ve been labelled ‘the League One Frank
have been possible. We’ve had a good season, Lampard’ by some Gillingham supporters.
and have been in the top four since our first What do you make of that comparison?
game against Sheffield United. It’s lovely to hear that. I like to half-base
my game on Frank Lampard’s – what he
You’ve scored more goals this season than has done in his career has just been
any other – what’s made the difference? unbelievable. To get 20-plus goals
The gaffer [Justin Edinburgh] has given me every season in the Premier
a lot more freedom than I had last year and League for years is unbelievable
that has definitely helped me. He has played for a midfielder. If I can have
me in that No.10 role; this is the first season half the career he’s had, then
I’ve had that much freedom. In the past I’ve I’ll have done all right.
been moved out to the left or the right to
accommodate the formation. The manager is Is it true you had the chance
putting a lot of faith in me and is playing me in to play cricket for Kent
my best position, and I think everyone can see when you were younger?
the benefits of that. I’ve also got a lot fitter Yeah, it was when I was 13
this year, which has allowed me to get into the or 14. They saw me playing
penalty area, create and score more goals. The in a school game and
gaffer said he wanted me to get into the box invited me for a trial. I was
more; he thought I could have got a few more enjoying cricket and at the
goals last season so he said he wanted me to time things weren’t going
build on it. That’s what I’ve done. well at my football club, so
I didn’t know what to do.
Which of your goals has been your But I decided not to go,
favourite so far in this campaign? and put my head down
It’d have to be one against Sheffield United in and concentrated on
the first game of the season. We won 4-0 and football. I sometimes play
probably put a marker down. It was the last cricket in the summer – not
to a competitive standard;
just for fun on a sunny day.

Around the same time, you

HE TARGET W
ITS T
were released by Charlton.
R H ITH Was that something that
DE has helped to drive you on?
59
EL

%
T H E G I L L S M I DF I

Absolutely. To get that bad news

OF H IS SHOTS

when I was only a kid knocked

59%
my confidence back quite a lot.
I returned to playing Sunday
League football with my pals,
because I just wanted to start
enjoying my football again. That’s
when Gillingham saw me and picked
me up. After that, I made it my goal
to prove people wrong at Charlton, and
I’m well on my way to doing that now.
 FOOTBALL
LEAGUE

JORDAN ROSS
RHODES McCORMACK
MIDDLESBROUGH FULHAM
POSITION FORWARD AGE 26 POSITION FORWARD AGE 29

A debut goal as a second-half substitute at
MK Dons – in injury time – was a subtle but unerring
demonstration of what £9m gets you at this level.
Middlesbrough had been behind for an hour with no
sign of a leveller. Since the start of 2014-15, they had
spent almost 18 hours trailing and mustered just six equalisers – one
every three hours. Rhodes: 22 minutes. It came out of nothing but then,
with Rhodes it nearly always does. And that’s why Aitor Karanka was so
keen to capture him from Blackburn in the winter transfer window. With
a rigid, safety-first tactical approach that’s not conducive to chasing
matches, you need an ultra-clinical marksman upfront. Boasting
a better than one-in-two ratio over 300-plus appearances, there’s no
Disagree with
finer way to describe the 26-year-old Scotland international.
our final 50?
Who should
have been in?
Nobody in the Football League deserves the label
‘talisman’ more than Ross McCormack. Between
August 2013 and February 2016, the Scottish
striker scored or created a combined total of 89
goals in 126 league appearances – and they haven’t
been just any goals, either. This season, for example, he scored in all of
Fulham’s first seven league victories, while his first seven assists all
arrived in games where points were gained for the west Londoners.
In contrast, in the 18 league games where he didn’t score, the Cottagers
were able to collect only 11 points from a possible 54. Unable to play as
a lone striker, the 29-year-old can leave you compromised tactically,
but if you find him a willing partner, such as emerging French forward
Moussa Dembele, then McCormack will undoubtedly deliver results.

ABEL
And who should
have been left

HERNANDEZ
out? Join the
debate on
Twitter using
#FLtop50

ALAN
HULL CITY POSITION FORWARD AGE 25

Sometimes you Branded a £10m misfit by most

JUDGE
It’s time for Judge to be the
judge. So, who was better: the
Alan Judge of last season or
the Alan Judge of this season?
Probably this season. Goals get
you noticed. I’m playing in a more
attacking role and I can’t believe
how well it’s been going. It must
be a dream. When I got to seven,
eight, nine goals, I was thinking:
‘Jesus, everything’s going in!’
Which felt better: winning
player of the month, or Burnley
and Sheffield Wednesday
bidding for you in January?
Getting linked with other clubs
was brilliant, but I’ll say player of
the month. My son was born on
the day I was given the award.
Which meant more to you:
promotion with the Bees two
years ago, or your first Republic
of Ireland call-up this season?
Promotion. I didn’t play on my
need only to last seasons, the former Palermo
look at the man has shown the cojones to
videprinter to stick it out at the KC Stadium,
understand improve his English and justify his
the importance price tag by trying to shoot Hull
of one player to a particular team. back into the Premier League.
And no goal update has been “He cost a lot of money but he’s
more recurring during 2015-16 put that to the back of his mind
first call-up for than ‘Hull 1-0, Hernandez’. now,” added Bruce. “He’s starting
Ireland back When the Uruguayan to get a grip of the language and
in October, international rounded Jason feel settled. He’s 18 or 19 months
but it gave Steele to slot home the opener at into his time in England and that’s
me the extra Blackburn in February, it was the helped him.”
confidence eighth time this season he had
to go on and broken a deadlock, while his eight
realise I’m other league goals up to that
a good player. point included three equalisers
and four times putting the
Who has the best Tigers two goals in front.
name: Engelbert The coolness of his finishing
Humperdinck or your in the heat of a frenetic battle for
team-mate Konstantin the Championship title has been
Kerschbaumer? remarkable to see, and the
[Laughs] Kerschinkau... significance isn’t lost on Steve
I can’t even say his Bruce. “A finisher is a finisher,”
second name, so I’ll said the Hull manager. “A good
go for him! We just goalscorer goes cold when they’re
call him Kersch! through and you just think: ‘Goal’.
He’s got that confidence about
him at the moment – you can see
it in him. Since the first day this
season, he has been scoring goals
for us: six-yard tap-ins, penalties,
outside the box... good for him.”

80 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com


TOP 50
WINNER
ANDRE GRAY
BURNLEY POSITION FORWARD AGE 24
Fans have voted you the Football League’s
best player. Congratulations!
Thanks very much. I’m buzzing about that.
It’s a great honour, and I didn’t expect it.
You’ve scored goals consistently ever since
you joined Burnley from Brentford back in
August. How have you rated your season?
I’ve been pleased so far – it’s been going great
for me and the team. I knew I could score
goals in this league because I did it last year
with Brentford, but this has been my best
season so far. I scored 30 at Luton but that
was in the Conference. To score more than 20
goals in the Championship has been brilliant.
But the main aim is still to get promoted.
Before Burnley made their move for you,
Brentford rejected a bid from Hull and then
Bristol City had an offer accepted. That
must have been a crazy month for you...
It was quite difficult – I’d never been in that
situation before. I felt it was the right time to
leave Brentford but I wasn’t going to leave
unless it was to progress and fight for the
title. It was a choice between a team
who had just been promoted
[Bristol City] and a team who
had just been relegated from
the Premier League [Burnley]
– it was easy in the end. Two
years ago I was fighting at
the top of the Conference
with Luton; now I’m here
fighting to go into the Premier
League. It’s been a whirlwind.
In joining Burnley you had to
follow in the footsteps of
Danny Ings, while the club
had doubled their previous
transfer record to sign you.
Did you feel any pressure?
No, I didn’t see the fee as
pressure. Ings’ boots were pretty
big ones to fill but I didn’t come
here thinking that I had to replace
Danny. I’m a different player to him.
At the very start of your career you were
released by Wolves and then Shrewsbury.
How tough was that as a youngster?
The Wolves one was tough. Shrewsbury was
expected and I took the blame for it. That
was me not being in the right mindset.
FOOTBALL
LEAGUE
I didn’t work hard enough there – I’ll openly
admit that. I lost my grandad just after I left
Wolves and I lost my focus for a while.
What was it like dropping into non-league
football with Hinckley United?
I was on more money at Hinckley than as
a first-year professional at Shrewsbury, so in
my mind at the time it was progression, even
though it actually wasn’t. In the second year
there I was on the substitutes’ bench and
reality started to kick in. I wasn’t having to get
up in the morning because we were part-time,
and everyone wants to get up in the morning
and do something. It was then that I started
to realise what I wanted to do with my life.
I got my head down and started doing well.
How much did being stabbed outside
a nightclub in 2011 influence you as well,
given the scar it left on your face?
I don’t really notice the scar any more. But
looking back at how my life used to be, that’s
what drives me on today, so that I don’t have
to be in that situation ever again. Things could
have gone one way or the other after that
happened, but I realised I couldn’t do anything
about it. I was just in the wrong place at the
wrong time. But it made me stronger as
a person. I had to get my act together.
Jamie Vardy and Charlie Austin have both
progressed from non-league to the top
flight in recent years, with Vardy earning
England honours as well. Do you think you
could do well in the Premier League, too?
I don’t see why not. I believe I can step up and
compete in that league, but only time will tell.
It helps everyone to see how well people like
Vardy and Austin have done. They’ve set the
bar high for the boys in non-league now.
£6m
GRAY MOVED TO BURNLEY IN
AUGUST FOR A CLUB RECORD FEE
FourFourTwo.com May 2016 81
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JAY RODRIGUEZ

Two years ago, Jay Rodriguez was on top of the world. Then on April 5, 2014, the Saints
forward suffered every footballer’s nightmare: a ruptured ACL. This is what happened next
Words Chris Flanagan
Portraits Leon Csernohlavek
JAY RODRIGUEZ
 JAY RODRIGUEZ

U
ntouchable. That’s the word Jay Rodriguez
uses to describe just how he felt in
April 2014, before his world turned
upside down in one split-second.
Up until then, it had seemed as if nothing
could stop the Southampton forward, the
darling of Mauricio Pochettino long before
Harry Kane came along. He’d scored five goals
in his last four games, and a seat on the plane
to Brazil was virtually his. Of the players
competing for places in England’s World Cup
squad, only Wayne Rooney and Daniel
Sturridge could boast better tallies than
Rodriguez’s 17-goal haul that season.
Then in a 12.45pm kick-off at Manchester
City, it happened. The three letters that no
footballer ever wants to hear. ACL.
“I’ve brought the ball down in the same way
100 times and landed perfectly every time,”
Rodriguez tells FourFourTwo. “But that time
I didn’t. I knew straightaway that I’d done
something pretty serious.”
One simple leap had ended in a ruptured
anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, as
Roy Hodgson watched on from the stands.
Rodriguez had been completely unchallenged
as he stretched out his right leg to control the
ball in mid-air, but the pain shot through his
body as he returned to terra firma.
“I’d felt really good that day,” he remembers.
“I lost everything I’d worked for in rehab. You
“We were playing really well and that season
had been great for me. The game comes start to think: ‘How will I get back from this?’”
naturally to you when you’re scoring goals,
and I still felt like I could improve even more.
Then when I got injured, I couldn’t. Five months before Rodriguez’s wn,” Rodriguez reveals. “He said
“There were all sorts of things going landing at the Etihad Stadium went was gutted for me; that I’d been
through my mind when it happened. Pure fear so badly wrong, he had been making aying well and could come back
– I’d never had a serious injury like that. There his England debut at Wembley, on ronger. I had a few texts from
was real pain at first, then it disappeared. the left of a front three in a friendly ayne Rooney, too.”
I said to Southampton’s physio at the time, against Chile. His Southampton A long road lay ahead; a road of
Matt Radcliffe: ‘There’s no pain now – I feel team-mate Adam Lallana won his first covery, rather than progression
all right.’ But I think he knew what I’d done. cap on the same evening. Within two n the pitch. “The surgery was
“I didn’t know it was the cruciate ligament years he had another 18. Rodriguez bout a week after the injury –
at first. Before the injury I had no knowledge has been restricted to that debut. wanted to get it done
of anything like that. I didn’t want to know “I couldn’t believe it when I was traightaway but the surgeon
about it. You think it won’t happen to you – but called up,” says Rodriguez. “It didn’t xplained that the swelling had
it can happen to anyone. You see it happen really sink in until I actually got there. to go down first. They take a piece
so many times in football now.” I was so nervous, because I’d grown up out of the patellar tendon in your
More frequently than ever before, according watching the top players who were knee and use that as the ACL.
to former Burnley and Bolton Wanderers there. They made me feel really They screw it in place and then
physio Andy Mitchell, who now works at the welcome. The manager did, too.” in time it fuses together.
Abu Dhabi Knee and Sports Medicine Centre. However, his international debut “My old Burnley team-mate
“ACL injuries gain more publicity now – the left him unfulfilled and desperate for Sam Vokes had done his ACL the
injury became famous when Gazza did it in the another chance with the Three Lions. week before me, and watching
1991 FA Cup Final – but there are definitely “I came off [after an hour] feeling that, I hadn’t been sure how it had
more occurring than there used to,” Mitchell disappointed, even though it was the happened. Then when I did mine,
tells FFT. “The harder pitches are a contributing proudest night of my career,” Rodriguez just thought: ‘Bloody hell’. I spoke
factor. Years ago, when the pitches were so recalls. “Alexis Sanchez played really well o Vokesy a lot about it, and Theo
soft, there was a lot of give in the surface and and we lost 2-0. I’d really wanted my first alcott as well, because he was
the speed of players’ movements was slower. game to end with a win. I felt like I’d tried ecovering from the same injury.
“The anterior cruciate ligament is about to get into the game as much as I could, but Top to bottom “I left the hospital on crutches and my knee
10 centimetres long and one centimetre thick. it was hard. It was a very tough game. Rodriguez ran teams was in a brace for six weeks, but I could still get
You can’t touch it, because it’s in the middle of “I knew that was where I wanted to be, ragged in 2013-14; around – my leg was partial weight-bearing.
the knee, but the job it does relates to rotation. though. I wanted another shot at it.” That fateful landing, The physio gave me a rehab plan and I was
When you’ve seen it happen to people like Rodriguez would be an unused substitute for two years ago; FA Cup doing upper-body work almost immediately,
Michael Owen, their knee buckles inside them England’s next two games, before a string of final agony for Gazza just to get that release. If I was just sitting
and that’s when the ligament snaps. goals for Southampton seemed certain to put ACLs on the map around, it would have driven me crazy.”
“There are fewer broken legs in football now earn him a second cap and maybe plenty Staying positive was the new goal. Rodriguez
because the type of contact has changed, but more, only for fate to get in the way. is a big Smiths fan – his cockapoo dog is named
most ACL injuries happen when players are “Roy Hodgson spoke to me after my injury, Morrissey – but Heaven Knows I’m Miserable
on their own, landing or sidestepping.” which gave me a massive lift when I was Now was off the playlist for a few months.

86 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com

 “The Smiths weren’t a good one to listen to
then!” he laughs. “Me and my wife would go
and spend time with family and friends as
much as we could – that was the best thing at
that point. They’re really important to me.
“I could start doing rehab work in the pool
once the scar from the operation had healed,
then when the brace came off it was about
trying to build up the muscle again by doing
bodyweight exercises. Recovery could be boring
because you were doing longer days than the
lads who were fit. It was hard work, but without
the buzz of the game at the weekend.
“It was about four months in when I could
start running again. A lot of people helped me
with my rehab and I have to thank them all.
We were at each other’s throats at times,
but we all wanted the same outcome. One of
the hardest things was that I just wanted to
work, work, work, but the physios told me
I had to give myself a break.
“I did a lot of work with a sports psychologist,
too. He taught me techniques to help deal
with the disappointment of being injured;
how to channel my energy into a positive.
“In my mind I’d targeted the game against
Burnley on December 13 for my return. I’d
always wanted to play back at Turf Moor.”
A return within eight months of the injury
was always going to be a big ask, however.
“Nine months is the average recovery time for
an ACL injury now,” Mitchell explains. “Ten
years ago it was six or seven, but maybe
players were being pushed back a bit and
weren’t fully rehabbed. Now they’re tested to
the Nth degree. They return in a better state.”
As it turned out, Rodriguez discovered late
in 2014 that he wouldn’t even be close to
making that Turf Moor fixture.
“I went back into hospital for an operation
to get a cyclops lesion taken out,” he explains,
referring to a condition where the scar tissue
bunches up inside the knee, which can
occasionally happen after ACL surgery. “That
was only a small thing, but after that there
was an infection and it set me back.
“That was the darkest moment. I’d put so
much into that first rehab and lost everything
I’d worked for. I had to start again. You begin
feeling angry about it because it shouldn’t
happen. It does cross your mind: ‘How will
I get back from
“I looked at t
Burnley at hom
going to be bac
said I should s
In Rodriguez’
Pochettino had
Spurs, while La
Shaw, Calum C
Rickie Lambert
Lovren had all
T e for
moves – somet
have come Ro
for the injury. I
manager Rona
plan without h
finished sevent
despite the ove
but Rodriguez
play a single m
“I’m not a very good watcher a
dying to be part of it last season,”
“But the manager was very suppo
explained that he’d had injuries a
knew how frustrating it was, and
young and still had a lot of time a
“I was ready before the end of l
but they didn’t want to risk it just
of games. To be fit at the start of
felt so good. I came on as a subst
Vitesse Arnhem in the Europa Lea
first game back, then scored a pe
Midtjylland a few weeks later. Jus
there playing was the best feeling
Not that his return lasted as lon
hoped: just 12 league and cup ap
five from the start – before a foot
sidelined him for another five mo
“I don’t think that injury was re
knee because when I came back
sure I was running as normally as
he says. “I just started to feel a sh
pain in the bottom of my foot an
‘That’s weird’. We tried different t
take the load off it, but eventually
to go down the surgery route – a
procedure to take part of the nerv
“It was so annoying, because I
I’d been getting into the flow of it
knee wasn’t creeping into my min
Rodriguez is just desperate to fo
playing football again. It’s two yea
since his initial injury, but he adm
anniversary hadn’t even crossed h
FFT points it out. “Because it’s be
it’s been and gone now,” the 26-y
“It’s just about looking forward an
brand new memories. Hopefully I
to my best form as quickly as pos
Alan Shearer and Ruud van Nist
two examples of forwards who n
a complete recovery, but experien
moments of their careers after re
percentage of professional player
a full recovery from an ACL injury
expert Mitchell says. “Almost all o
Rodriguez adds: “When I did m
first thing I looked for was people
the same injury. I found out abou
players [whose injuries] I didn’t kn
who have had successful careers
long has ju
ungry. I wa
who have s
got a book o
on fans tha
jury. I’ll alw
things like
016 looks o
ut the 2018
a? “My aim i
ularly now
uez. “You ha
lso
r the top an
ow
playing for
onal team, s
ant to try to
back to tha
ut I’ve got
re hard
t.”
 O S S I N G
C R

N
ot everything in football makes sense.
The rivalry between Crystal Palace and
Brighton, for instance. FIFA’s accounts.
Steve McClaren’s hair. And near the top
of the puzzlers pile: how everyone
came to the conclusion that the easies
way to score is by plonking the ball onto the
head of a striker from 50 yards away, so that
he can generate the power and direction to
deflect a pass he might not receive towards
a goal he isn’t facing.
And yet, crossing is to football what drug
scandals are to cycling: inseparable. Every
single team in the world does it, even if it isn’t
their preferred route to the goal. Remote
Amazonian tribes are able to recognise the
fabled words ‘get it in the mixer’.
On average in the Premier League, one in
every 92 crosses from open play produces
a goal. That means if every club in England’s
professional divisions each put in a cross,
only one team would score (and Aston Villa
would probably concede it). Of those 92
balls lobbed, chipped or blasted into the
penalty area, 73 don’t find a team-mate, so
four out of five centres instantly hand over
possession to the other team.
Why do teams persist with this footballing
roll of the dice? How did crossing become
so commonplace throughout the game?
And even if it is now in decline, should the
cross be consigned to history?
O T H E R ?
W H Y B
CROSSING
“TO HAVE TWO PLAYERS STUCK OUT ON
THE FLANKS IS A LUXURY WHICH CAN
VIRTUALLY LEAVE A SIDE WITH NINE MEN”
The origins of crossing, like the art itself, aren’t
easy to pinpoint. The most prevailing tactic in
football’s long history wasn’t invented by
a ’tache-twiddling Victorian to win a wager.
No, crossing’s entrance and entrenchment
appears to have been more organic.
At first players could pass only backwards or
sideways, like knickerbockered Tom Cleverleys,
but even as that changed, 19th-century
football was all about dribbling towards and
even into the goal. With defenders rushing
towards the man with the ball, a crossfield
pass allowed the receiver time to control it and
get up a head of steam with his dribble.
Nowadays we’d call that switching the play –
and when you’re in a 2-3-5 formation with two
wingers on each side, what you don’t lack is
width. Back then, it was akin to playing fetch
Words Huw Davies; Photograph Tim Goode
with an annoyingly persistent dog: thwack the
ball very far away and watch the defender
chase after it. Andrew Wilson, a Scottish
international and inside-left during the early
20th century, not to mention Sheffield
Wednesday’s record appearance-holder and
goalscorer, explained: “If you put the ball
about like this, defenders don’t know where to
have you. They can smother forwards who
stick to the ball, but when it is turned this way
and that, they are in a quandary.”
 CROSSING
Crossing into the box was essentially part of
the same tactic. When wideman W. I. Bassett
starred as West Bromwich Albion surprised
favourites Preston in the 1888 FA Cup Final
with their “long passing game” (Tony Pulis may
have been involved), it was noted that while
his contemporaries “would make for the
corner flags before lobbing their centres into
the goalmouth”, Bassett “believed in making
up ground rapidly and releasing the ball
accurately and quickly before the defence had
time to recover.” Today, it’s a common ploy to
sprint down the wing and cross as defenders
race back towards their own goal.
Not everyone was enamoured with crossing.
Some Victorians wanted a ban on heading;
when Sheffield began “butting the ball with
their heads” in 1875 it caused “amusement
rather than admiration”. Fifty years later,
revolutionary manager Herbert Chapman
brought success to Huddersfield and Arsenal
by largely ditching the cross, though it helped
that he had football’s first great playmaker in
Alex James (the Scottish inside forward, not
the cheesemongering Britpop fop).
But crossing became an English obsession,
even as football developed overseas. Wingers
defined England in the 1940s and ’50s,
providing stars in Stanley Matthews and Tom
Finney, and as their popularity dictated team
selection, a strength became a weakness. Not
that Matthews saw it that way: looking back
on England’s 1950 World Cup humiliation and
the pair of pastings dished out by Hungary, he
wrote: “I blame this on the pre-match talks on
tactics that had been introduced by our team
manager [...] you just cannot tell star players
how they must play.” It’s not me, it’s you.
92 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com
“Graham Taylor demanded
a dozen crosses per game
from each of his wingers”
Alf Ramsey won the World Cup with his
‘wingless wonders’, having commented as
early as February 1965 that “to have two
players stuck out wide on the flanks is a luxury
which can virtually leave a side with nine
men”, but it didn’t last. Football’s love affair
with crossing continued into the new
millennium – recall England 10 years ago,
reluctant to try an alternative tactic for long,
desperately scrambling for a left-footed
winger. Even now, in a world of false nines and
inverted wingers, children learn to cross into
areas they can barely reach, next to goals the
size of railway tunnels, while all of England’s
last nine goals in major tournaments have
been the result of a cross into the box.
Is there anything shameful in that, though?
Crossing can be effective, at least sometimes
(more on that later), but also a thing of balletic
beauty. There was an equine grace about
Andy Carroll’s leap to power a Steven Gerrard
cross into Sweden’s net at Euro 2012, and
Wayne Rooney’s equalising tap-in from
a Glen Johnson centre against Uruguay two
years later finished off a brilliant team move
that Johnson himself had started. Crossing
isn’t just about lumping the ball into the box;
indeed, Rooney’s leveller in Sao Paulo showed
that the ball needn’t leave the floor.
“It’s not always about heading the ball,” says
Jason Wilcox. Now managing Manchester
City’s Under-18s, the former winger was an
instrumental part of Blackburn’s Premier
League triumph in 1994-95, supplying
opportunities for Alan Shearer and Chris
Sutton opposite fellow wideman Stuart Ripley.
“If you look at the strikers’ goals in that
season,” Wilcox continues, “there were an
awful lot of finishes on the floor. We were
taught that you don’t always have to travel
to the byline to get a cross in.
“Stuart was more direct than me. I was more
of a passer, whereas he was an out-and-out
winger. But that’s not to say my job wasn’t to
get crosses in, because it was.”
Blackburn scored 80 league goals that
season, and 34 of them came directly or
indirectly from a cross of some kind. Include
domestic cups and that figure’s 40 of 88 –
nearly half, according to the FFT abacus.
“We had two top-quality strikers so it was
a case of feeding them,” Ripley recalls. “We
were the supply line, getting crosses into the
box. It wasn’t rocket science, to be honest! As
much as the strikers had the burden of putting
the ball in the back of the net, Jason, myself
and whoever else was playing out wide had the
burden of creating chances. And believe me, if
Above Carroll towers we didn’t create them, we got told about it.”
above the Swedish Delivering and converting crosses became
defence in Kiev second nature to Blackburn’s players. “It was
Above right Matthews instinctive,” says Wilcox. “I knew that once I’d
was happy to play got half a yard, the strikers would be in there,
the blame game and they knew that once I’d got half a yard,
the ball was coming in.” Dipping outswingers,
dangerous diagonals, cutbacks from the byline
– defenders fell in thrall to them all.
But that was then and this is now; as Ripley
himself admits, “Football’s moved on in the
last 20 years.” So, is delivering the ball in from
wide areas still a worthwhile tactic in 2016?
It’s time for some cross examination.
ONE STUDY CLAIMS ELECTING TO CROSS
COSTS TEAMS AND THEY’D SCORE MORE
GOALS BY ELIMINATING IT ALTOGETHER
Those who distrust data’s place in modern
football will be distraught to hear of ‘Zone 14’.
Despite sounding like an Ed Wood B-movie, it’s
increasingly popular in coaching circles.
If you split a pitch into 18 zones – and why
wouldn’t you? – Zone 14 is the central sector
outside the opposition area. Basically it’s
‘the hole’, with less potential for bawdy jokes.
Coaches encourage players to get into the zone
and look for a specific opportunity, instead of
passing the ball wide to invite a cross.

The methodology for Zone 14 is flimsy. The
studies establishing it are 15 years old, and
drew their conclusions from France winning
the 1998 World Cup by attacking through the
centre – France, who weren’t blessed with
great wingers but did have Zinedine Zidane.
As Stuart Ripley said: it’s not rocket science.
But statistics do support a narrow approach.
Between 2006-07 and 2013-14, Premier
League teams averaged 18 open-play crosses
per match, of which only four hit a team-mate
and even fewer prompted a shot on target.
You’ll remember that one in every 92 crosses
actually leads to a goal (pay attention, there’ll
be a test later), meaning sides score from
a cross in open play every five games or so.
It’s not a great ratio, is it? Bundesliga matches
average just nine crosses and, coincidentally,
more goals. One study claimed that electing
to cross actually costs teams and eliminating
it altogether would create 300 extra goals per
season. That may be a stretch, admittedly.
Even so, crossing is less effective than it
used to be. Twelve years ago, around a third
of crosses in the Premier League found
a team-mate. Now, it’s nearer to a fifth. And
David Beckham absconded before 2003-04, so
no, that’s not the reason.
Blame the proliferation of the lone striker.
Frontmen have always been outmanned in the
penalty area, but one is the loneliest number.
Their isolated existence also means that
today’s widemen must score more goals
themselves, and are less likely to be classical
wingers than centre-forwards pushed out
wide – think Danny Welbeck, Anthony Martial
or, if you insist, Arouna Kone.
Then there are inverted wingers, who having
drifted infield will generally shoot or pass
before they’ll unleash an inswinging cross.
Cutting inside is encouraged. Compare that
to Jason Wilcox’s experience 30 years ago.
“As a 16-year-old I was coming inside far too
often,” he tells FFT. “My youth team manager
at Blackburn, Jim Furnell, was obsessed with
getting me on the outside.
“But if a full-back knows you’re just going to
keep hugging the touchline, you make it a lot
easier for him. You become too predictable.”
Today’s wingers can’t just cross. Why pick
a one-trick pony in the hope his outswinger
picks out one man in five, when you could
have a player who links play, creates space,
threads through-balls and scores goals?
Ripley happily admits that wingers “are
much better now tha
playing – they’re more
players, and more tec
Old-school wingers
as if they wear smoki
and puff on a pipe – h
a shelf life. That’s why
Antonio Valencia beca
a full-back and Aaron
Lennon has evolved h
game at Everton; six g
in 10 games between
January and March th
represented his best
ever tally across an
entire season.
Still, if wingers must adapt or die, so must
defenders. Many of them fail to stop crosses
despite their numerical advantage, says Martin
Keown, who was part of Arsenal’s defence
when they last won the title in 2003-04.
“Now that we play mostly with one striker,
not two, the first centre-half tends to be
detached from the second,” Keown explains
to FFT. “He’s not marking anybody. He’s almost
a mannequin: get the ball over him and he’s
out of the game.
“It’s part of a goalkeeper’s routine to face
a number of crosses before the game starts.
Central defenders don’t get that opportunity.
I can’t remember many times when we
practised defending crosses.”
If Keown’s right, and teams can nullify the
threat with a bit of pre-match practice while
the mascots take penalties blindfolded, it
doesn’t say much for crossing’s efficacy.
MANAGERS ARE LEARNING THAT TO
CROSS IS TO SURRENDER CONTROL
Sunday, February 9, 2014 was a bad PR day for
crossing. Manchester United made 82
arguments for it while supporters looked on,
mouths agape, as each centre was cleared
and bottom-of-the-table visitors Fulham
earned a 2-2 draw. “I hadn’t headed that
many balls since the Conference,” reflected
Fulham’s 6ft 7in centre-back, the aptly-named
Dan Burn. It was the nadir of David Moyes’
10-month tenure at Old Trafford, and he took
crossing’s reputation down with him.
Without a plan, deliveries from wide areas
amount to hoping for the best with no reason
to be hopeful. It’s buying a ticket to a lottery
that doesn’t exist. Defenders aren’t worried.
CROSSING
Below left Moyes’ “You lick your lips and go in ready for it,” says
over-reliance on Rio Ferdinand, an unused substitute in that
crossing contributed infamous game. “I enjoyed battles where you
to his downfall had to defend high balls and deep crosses.”
Below Twenty years Keown concurs: “You never get complacent, but
earlier, Jason Wilcox I was always comfortable dealing with crosses.”
and his tricky wing Moyes conceded his team “could’ve taken
play proved key to a bit more care with some deliveries” (Ashley
Blackburn’s title win Young, Wayne Rooney and Rafael completed
one cross each from a combined 38 attempts)
but said they “deserved to win by a hundred
miles”, choosing a unique way to measure
a winning margin in football, and emphasised
that “Manchester United play with width and
cross the ball – that’s in the genes here”.
Just like his wingers, Moyes was wide of the
mark. Yes, Alex Ferguson once said, “We like
wingers at Manchester United” and yes, he
had Beckham and Giggs, Kanchelskis and
Sharpe, but he could adapt. Ferguson’s last
truly great team saw Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos
Tevez and Rooney rotating upfront in a 4-3-3.
Most revealingly, Moyes lamented: “We need
the fortune to change.” Precisely. Crossing
makes luck a factor, levelling the playing field
when you’re the better team. Both of United’s
goals came from the ball bouncing around the
box like a drunk in a giant pinball machine.
Many old-school thinkers like that element of
chaos. Earlier this season, ex-Manchester City
winger David White took issue with Jesus Navas
“trying to pick out the perfect cross every time.”
“He over-thinks everything,” declared White.
“Just drill it into the box and see what happens.
I was sometimes criticised by managers but
never for putting in a great cross when no one
was there.” You suspect incoming City coach
Pep Guardiola might see things a bit differently.
Keown says times have changed. “In the old
days,” he explains, “more teams put the ball
into that corridor of uncertainty. There wasn’t
a player there, but they put it into an area and
asked questions. Graham Taylor [Keown’s
manager at Aston Villa] would ask wingers:
‘How many crosses have you made in the
first half?’ He’d be looking for at least a dozen
per game from each winger.
“But you’re not necessarily picking someone
out. Sometimes you see the ball go across the
box and say, ‘Somebody should be getting on
the end of it’ – but how are they going to do
that? You have to say: ‘That wasn’t a good ball’.”
Football is learning, and fast, that to cross is
to surrender control. Spain won Euro 2008 with
a tournament-high 450 passes per game; by
Euro 2012, 15 of 16 teams averaged more than
that, while Spain triumphed not just without
a striker but without a forward of any kind.
Crossing in the Bundesliga has dropped 25 per
cent in the last seven years, and the Premier
League is following its lead, albeit slowly.
Control possession; control the game; control
your destiny. More and more managers are
deciding that crossing leaves too much to
chance. As one put it: “[Passing] is more
deadly, if less spectacular, than the senseless
policy of running along the lines and centring
just in front of the goalmouth, where the odds
are nine to one on the defenders.”
Who said it? Herbert Chapman, 90 years ago.
Maybe football isn’t so quick to learn after all.
FourFourTwo.com May 2016 93

Islington Corinthians may
not be an iconic name,
but they left their mark on
history with a global jaunt
involving cocaine, leopards
and a very real shootout
Words Paul Brown
he Islington Corinthians were
travelling through the Khyber Pass
when their bus slammed to a halt
and their guide yelled: “Did
anyone hear a shot?” The year was 1937, and
the team of amateur footballers were partway
through an eccentric and unprecedented
35,000-mile, 95-game round-the-world tour.
They had survived car crashes, tropical illnesses
and encounters with cobras and crocodiles, but
none of their exotic adventures had been as
buttock-clenchingly terrifying as this drive
through the notorious mountain gorge.
The Khyber Pass, between modern-day
Pakistan and Afghanistan, was a dangerous
no man’s land patrolled by warring tribesmen.
The safari-suited footballers anxiously scanned
the mountain ridges, spotting glints of sunlight
ACTION REPLAY
on metal, then glimpses of turbaned heads.
Suddenly, they were surrounded by a swarm of
gun-toting warriors, who dispatched “a terrific
fusillade of rifle shots”. The players dived for
cover, climbing under the bus and sheltering
behind rocks. Was this the end of the road for
these footballing Phileas Foggs?
This globetrotting story began some 5,000
miles away, in the less exotic setting of
north London. Islington Corinthians FC had
been formed in 1932 by masseur and
electrotherapist Tom Smith. The genial,
bespectacled Smith was the secretary
and chairman of Tufnell Park FC,
a prominent Rotary Club member,
and a keen supporter of good causes.
It was his belief that an all-star
 ACTION REPLAY
amateur team, playing midweek games
against prominent non-league teams and
league reserve sides, could raise funds for
the community and promote ‘corinthian’
values of fair play and honour, just as the
original Corinthian FC had done.
‘The ICs’, as they were known, were a decent
side: they went unbeaten against amateur
opposition in their first season, and gave
good accounts of themselves against reserve
teams from Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and
Chelsea. They also toured the Netherlands,
where they managed to overcome Dutch
champions Ajax. But their Thursday night
kickabouts were hardly high-profile and it was
something of a shock when, in 1936, the
amateurs were invited to play the Chinese
Olympic team at Highbury, in what the match
programme described as “very nearly an
amateur international”. The ICs impressed
with a 3-2 victory, and it was suggested to
Tom Smith that his team should visit China.
Smith initially thought this was a joke, but
the suggestion triggered his curiosity. The
Chinese team had effectively played their way
to England, covering their costs via a series of
friendly matches. Could an English team play
their way in the opposition direction? And
with the next Olympic football tournament
scheduled to be held in Tokyo, could they
then make it that one step further east?
It was a crazy idea.
The estimated cost of the
our was a huge £12,000 –
around £800,000 in today’s
money – and it was a
massive gamble to assume
t would be covered by a
hare of the gate revenue
om matches against
nknown opposition at
nfamiliar venues.
The logistics of travelling
uch long distances in the
930s were incredibly
omplicated; air travel was
Within a week, Smith had asked the FA to Above The ICs prohibitively expensive, meaning the entire
consider and approve “one of the most take on All-India (as journey would have to be taken by land and
ambitious schemes ever attempted by a soccer opposed to all India) sea. A single delay or missed connection could
club” – football’s first round-the-world tour. Below left A number screw up the whole itinerary. To complicate
It was, to misquote Jules Verne, a case of of opposition teams matters further, the threat of Nazi Germany
‘Around the World in Eight Months’. The tour played barefoot loomed large over Europe, while in China and
would begin in the Netherlands and stop off in Below “Y’know, this Japan, two of the tour’s key destinations were
Switzerland, before continuing to Egypt. Then gives me an idea for already at war with each other. “You have got
came a six-week circuit around India and the a new formation...” to be a super-optimist before going on such
countries now known as Bangladesh, Pakistan a trip,” Smith admitted.
and Myanmar. Next, Malaysia and Singapore for Nevertheless, within a year he had obtained
a month-long stay, then on to Vietnam, Hong FA approval, arranged fixtures with overseas
Kong and the Philippines, then China, then bodies, made travel and accommodation
Japan. A stopover in Hawaii would be followed arrangements and selected a playing squad,
by 10 days in California, before the team worked somehow finding 19 amateur players who
their way across Canada and sailed home. could temporarily abandon their jobs and their
A chasing leopard easily caught up with the
heavy team bus and leapt onto the bonnet

families for an eight-month trip into
the unknown. Smith also recruited an
experienced coach in the former Spurs player
and Real Sociedad manager Harry Lowe.
The squad contained a familiar amateur
football mix of tradesmen, office workers and
students, drawn from leading non-league
teams such as Dulwich Hamlet, then-amateur
Barnet and now-defunct Moor Park. The
captain was Pat Clark, a Scottish full-back who
had played professionally for Hibernian and
Brentford before becoming a schoolteacher.
His regular amateur club was Leyton FC, in
the Athenian League. The team’s
midfield anchor was Bill
Whittaker, a ukulele-strumming
office clerk who played for
Kingstonian. The forwards, in
a team that lined up in the 2-3-5
formation of the time, included
20-year-old Johnny Sherwood, who
played as an amateur for Reading
reserves, and Sutton United’s Irish
railway worker Dick Tarrant.
The ICs departed on October 4,
1937 from Liverpool Street station,
where they were photographed in
matching club blazers, holding aloft
their stuffed lion mascot. “This departure was
different from any other I had experienced as
a footballer,” wrote Clark in his account of
the tour, which was published in the book
Football All Around the World in 1948. “When
the train moved out, a very quiet, subdued and
reflective atmosphere prevailed. This was it.
After months of anticipation the day had at
last come. To bring what? No one knew.”
The tour began with three games in the
Netherlands, then two in Switzerland, in
which the ICs were unbeaten. Then they
made the long journey to Egypt, surviving
a stormy Mediterranean crossing to arrive in
Alexandria on October 20. There, the play
were greeted by a mob of such remarkab
size they had to be held back by stick-wav
police, as they cheered while the ICs wer
presented with garlands and greeted by l
dignitaries. The team visited the pyramid
met King Farouk, and played four matche
in Egypt, losing only one.
Smith put that loss down to injuries and
illness. Six of his players were taken ill
with “gippy tummy”; two more
contracted dengue fever. Forward
Lloyd Stone was so sick, he was sent
home to recuperate. Then Clark was almo
killed in a Cairo taxi crash that wrote off t
vehicle in which he was travelling. Clark
disliked Egypt, with its unfamiliar food,
irritating mosquitoes and bad driving, as
as “the whole juxtaposition of filth, stenc
dust and disease alongside the opulence
and high living of the hotels and clubs.”
He was no doubt relieved to leave.
India, during the latter years of the Briti
Raj, encompassed a huge area, including
present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Having left Egypt through the Suez Canal,
the ICs travelled by train across ‘British
India’, playing 32 matches in 22 locations
Above Nothing to see They arrived in Bombay (now Mumbai) on
here; it’s just a player November 11 and, swapping their club blazers
riding an elephant for safari suits, set off on a 1,200-mile railway
Inset King Farouk journey to Calcutta (now Kolkata). The journey
watches the ICs play took two days and nights to complete, and the
in Alexandria, Egypt team were greeted at every station by crowds
Below ‘Lucky Johnny’ of flower-bearing well-wishers. When the train
Sherwood would later eventually arrived in Calcutta, it was rushed by
survive a POW camp another crowd bearing yet more floral gifts. By
Below right Taking now, the tired players were rather fed up of
a break in Hong Kong them. “It was roses, roses all the way,” wrote
Clark, “with at least a half a dozen biting, nasty
little beasties on every petal.”
Within hours of their arrival in Calcutta, the
ICs lined up against reigning Indian champions
M h mmedan Sporting Club. For the first time,
st in the visiting side drew a massive
ance, with 50,000 people packed into
adium. Almost inevitably, in front of such
e and expectant crowd, the match ended
ut the visitors soon began chalking up
ries, with Dick Tarrant in particularly good
lscoring form. Of the 32 games played in
ndia, the ICs won 27 and lost only one.
Several opposition teams played
barefoot, and the Sikh teams played in
urbans and uncut beards – an exotic sight
ACTION REPLAY
for the ICs. “Our lads were a bit disconcerted
at first,” said Smith, “for they were not used
to playing strapping men with long flowing
beards and head-dresses held on by pins that
looked more like small daggers.”
The Indian spectators were “mad on the
game”, travelling for hundreds of miles. Those
who could not afford the entrance fee to the
stadiums would watch from surrounding trees
and hills. Many followed the action through
homemade mirror-on-stick periscopes,
and celebrated the goals by hurling
newspaper confetti into the air.
A match in Calcutta against an All-India XI
attracted an official attendance of 55,000,
although Clark reckoned there were 100,000
watching in and around the stadium,
representing a “mass of white linen” emitting
a “mad satanic roar” that left the players
“utterly speechless”. The biggest official
attendance of the tour was 77,000 at
Chittagong, in what is now Bangladesh.
However, the ICs would not receive their
fair share of the takings from these huge
gates. Although the visitors had been
promised 50 per cent of the revenue, the
Indian police declared that, as the stadiums
were public places, the money must go to
charity. According to Smith’s estimate,
the ICs lost out on around £1,000 – nearly
£70,000 in today’s currency.
While in India, the players rode on the backs
of elephants and slept in jungle camps
surrounded by tigers. On one occasion, after
their bus broke down, they swam across
a crocodile-infested river in their football kits.
One night, Bill Whittaker found a cobra in
his bed. Luckily for him, it was dead. Yet the
biggest danger came from the mosquitoes.
The players slept under mosquito nets and
managed to avoid illness, but their manager
was not so fortunate. “After warning the
players to take great care, I went and caught
malaria myself,” Smith recalled.
Then came the carry-on up the Khyber.
Captured by rifle-toting tribesmen, the
terrified team were marched to a nearby fort –
where they were greeted by laughing British
officers. The bullet-strewn ambush had merely
been a joke, arranged by the British Army.
In fact, the warring tribesmen had declared
a truce in order to come together and watch
the ICs play football.
Understandably, the players were somewhat
shaken by the prank. Despite their next game
being scheduled for the same afternoon, Clark
insisted “a reviving drink was essential”.
In January 1938, after two games in Burma
(now Myanmar), the ICs headed to Malaysia
and Singapore. Here, young Johnny Sherwood
became the star of the team, scoring 20 goals
in 16 matches, including all five in a 5-0 win
over a Singapore Chinese team. The ICs
enjoyed Malaysia much more than Egypt or
India, with fewer “diseases, trials and
troubles”, though there were still exotic
encounters. During one road journey the
team’s bus was chased by a leopard, which
easily caught up with the heavily laden vehicle,
nipped at its tyres, and then leapt onto the
bonnet, terrifying its sporting passengers.
FourFourTwo.com May 2016 97
 ACTION REPLAY
Ahead of their last match in Malaysia,
against Johore, the ICs were invited to have
tea and cigars with the Sultan. Unbeknownst
to the players, the cigars had been dipped in
cocaine. “The drug paralysed the lips and
jawbones of the players like those of a dental
patient after a multiple extraction,” recalled
Smith. “It was quite amusing.”
Undeterred, the doped-up ICs powered
through and thrashed Johore 7-1.
Three games in Vietnam were followed by
six in Hong Kong, resulting in seven wins
and two draws. One of the games was
played in Macau, where the team’s
“gruesome” hotel was part-casino,
part-brothel, part-opium den. Shortly before
they were due to leave for the match, Smith
found Tarrant and team-mate Eddie Martin
lying in their room dressed in kimonos and
sucking on opium pipes, with “inane grin[s] of
blissful contentment” on their faces. This
time, Smith was less amused. Both players
were promptly dropped.
More drug-related shenanigans occurred
when the ICs were invited to accompany the
Hong Kong police on an opium den raid.
Arriving at what appeared to be a Chinese
restaurant, the players were asked to cover
the back of the building while the police
entered from the front. As the raid began,
a “lecherous-looking scoundrel”, clad only
in his pants,
leapt from
a rear window
straight into the
arms of Bill
Whittaker, who
bundled him into
a waiting police
van. Inside the
den, the players
were shown
passed-out
98 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com
“The cocaine paralysed
players’lipsandjawbones.
It was quite amusing”
Above Mixing it with “dope fiends” and boxes of opium and cocaine.
young Hollywood Clark wrote: “We had all agreed that the
star Joan Woodbury evening had been worthwhile – a new yarn to
Above right “We’re retail when we returned home.”
training; what of it?” It was now March 1938, five months into the
Below The recent tour, and the next stop was the Philippines,
Battle of Shanghai where the ICs began a run of eight matches in
made for a slightly Manila with a 9-0 win. Then, in April, the ICs
tense atmosphere sailed for China, and Shanghai. It seems
remarkable that the team would visit
Shanghai, a city that had been bombed into
submission, then occupied by Japan, and
where there was much “anti-British feeling”.
“As we disembarked, we felt not a little
apprehensive at the sight of tough-looking
Japanese militia bearing fixed bayonets,”
recalled Clark. Despite the tense circumstances,
the match went ahead as arranged, in front of
10,000 spectators. Perhaps distracted, the ICs
were beaten 3-0 by a Shanghai All-Star team.
Although Shanghai was under curfew, and
they were due to leave for Japan in the early
hours of the morning, some of the team
headed to a nightclub, where they were
entertained by an “international selection of
beautiful girls”. On leaving, at around 2am, the
players were arrested for breaking said curfew.
Luckily, after it was explained they were on
their way to play football in Japan, they were
escorted to their ship in time for departure. In
Tokyo, the exhausted and “stale” ICs lost 4-0
on a slippery pitch to an All-Kanto XI. And
there was more woe to come – returning to
the ship, they found it had been placed into
quarantine due to an outbreak of cholera.
After a 24-hour delay, the team sailed to
Hawaii, where Clark – having apparently
overcome his hatred of flowers – said they were
disappointed not to be greeted by “bevies of
hula-hula girls with carnations in their hair”. The
ICs took their dismay out on their opponents,
thrashing the Oahu Allstars 10-0. Then it was
on to California, where the ICs toured the
movie studios and were photographed with
Hollywood stars including David Niven, Charles
Farrell and Joan Woodbury. The team played
two matches in Los Angeles and two in San
Francisco, before heading to Canada, where
they played 12 games in 20 days.
The final match of the tour was in Montreal
on May 27, 1938. The ICs won 7-2, Sherwood
scoring five. They left Canada the following day
and arrived back in Southampton on June 5,
their luggage almost completely covered with
colourful labels from their various exotic
destinations. They were greeted at the dock by
an FA delegation led by president William
Pickford. “You have put association football on
the map of the world,” Pickford explained to
them. “We were not sure about you when you
left, but now you have memories which will live
with you all your days.”
The Islington Corinthians officially played 95
matches on the tour, winning 65, drawing 22
and losing just eight. Author Rob Cavallini has
written a book about the ICs called Around the
World in 95 Matches, although his research
shows the team actually played 96 games.
“The 95 comes from the club’s publicity at the
time, but this was probably a counting error,”
he tells FFT. “They also played a 97th game,
but the two sides swapped players, so that
can’t be considered an official tour match.”
However many matches they played, the ICs
succeeded in their aim to take football and
corinthian values around the world – but the
tour was not a financial success. The club
made a loss of £750 (some £50,000 now),
which Smith said would be covered from his
own pocket. He remained keen to arrange
a follow-up, although the Second World War
would make this impossible, and eventually
cause the club to fold.
“If I was a businessman I would never have
undertaken this tour,” Smith reflected. “But
with it all, I consider it was worth it. It has been
a marvellous experience, and I am proud to
have been the first man to have taken an
English soccer side around the world.”
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 PLANET FOOTBALL

PLANET
PORT TO THE GLOBAL GAME

Boca totem Tevez has his own Bombonera table football set, though he’s only just tall enough to use it
g

They say there s nothing worse than working floodlights and even audio clips u l ll u I l lly
Words Martin Mazur; Planet Football editor Ch

bringing the job home with you.
Unless you’re Carlos Tevez, that is.
The Boca Juniors star’s workplace, the
49,000-capacity Bombonera, is a little
more exciting than most office spaces,
and Tevez loves it so much, he has
recreated it in his own living room.
The table football set includes replicas
of the stands at Boca’s famous old
amphitheatre, advertising boards, actual
of crowd noises to give Carlitos that true
matchday feel as he spins the bars.
Table football, as it turns out, is
a particular passion in Argentina. The
most expensive Argentine film of all
time was a movie released three years
ago about a table football winger who
comes to life, later translated into
English as The Unbeatables starring Rob
Brydon and Harry Potter’s Rupert Grint.
are now available in the South American
country for up to £2,000 and Tevez’s
Bombonera was designed by Martin
Setula, who has also created replicas of
the home grounds of River Plate, Racing
and Huracan, as well as one of San
Lorenzo’s classic Gasometro stadium, sat
in the office of the club’s vice-president.
“The only condition I attached when
I heard that Tevez wanted a Bombonera
him.” Setula tells FFT. “I wanted to offer
something really authentic – a way to
combine two Argentine passions.
“The table is not for kids, since they
wouldn’t be able to see the ball. But if
you’re 5ft 7in, you won’t have problems.”
Luckily, Tevez, standing at 5ft 8in, is just
about tall enough to use his own table.
Probably best to stand on your tiptoes,
though, Carlos – just to make sure.

Turkey After Trabzonspor’s Salih Dursun was sent off for knocking a card out of a referee’s hand and brandishing it at him, fans took to the streets with red cards in protest

FourFourTwo.com May 2016 101

 P L A N E T FO OT B A L L
[ INTERVIEW ]
“I wouldn’t have left Chelsea
for any other side – only Atletico”
Filipe Luis lasted just one season at Stamford Bridge, but the Brazilian full-back has picked
up right where he left off at the Vicente Calderon. The traffic’s a lot better in Madrid, too…
You returned to Atletico Madrid
after one season at Chelsea. Why
is the club so special to you?
It’s my fifth season now at Atletico
and they have been the best years
of my life. I feel at home in Madrid.
I have always felt important, wanted
and trusted by everyone here. When
I left for Chelsea, I wanted to prove
that I could play in the Premier
League, but it didn’t happen the way
I dreamed. When Atletico tried to
buy me back, I did everything I could
to make it possible. I had offers from
clubs in France and Italy but I would
not have left Chelsea for any other
side – only for Atletico Madrid.
Were there things you missed in
your year away from Madrid?
No doubt about it, although it’s hard
to say what. Maybe the dressing
room – I had true friends – and the
climate in Madrid is much better.
London is a really chaotic place:
I used to live in the city centre and
faced traffic jams every day. Besides
that, the fans and the media in
Madrid make you feel more like
a footballer. In London, it doesn’t
matter if you win or lose – it’s always
OK. We’ve got more pressure here.
Atletico weren’t used to fighting
for titles in the 1990s and 2000s
but now you’re always among the
favourites. Are you there to stay?
It’s difficult to say. Real Madrid have
always been among the best teams
in the world and they have not done
FILIPE LUIS IN NUMBERS
The 30-year-old has played all around Europe and in its biggest cup’s main event
19
Interview Marcus Alves
Filipe Luis’ age when he
first arrived in Europe,
joining Ajax in 2004
Uruguay Penarol’s back-up keeper Damian Frascarelli was left embarrassed when his mother went on radio to call first choice Gaston Guruceaga ‘past it’. Mum, he’s 21...
102 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com
well this season, so a bad year can
always happen. More important is
to have a solid side. In our case, we
also depend on getting a place in
the Champions League for the prize
money. It’s hard to emulate what
we achieved in 2013-14. We won
La Liga, reached the Champions
League final and had so much talent
on the bench. But something we’ve
improved since then is that we can
play different styles. We play it fast
or hold the ball when we need to.
In your first
29 games of the
La Liga campaign,
you conceded only
12 goals. How can
you explain such
a strong defensive
record this season
“The Fergie
The only change at
of Madrid?
the back from a few
Steady on”
years ago is Mirand
out [to Inter], Jose
Gimenez in. The
secret is that all the players are ready
to die for the team. Our work starts
from the front. Everyone knows that
with Diego Simeone, if you don’t run
you won’t play. Diego Costa, Adrian,
Diego and David Villa always ran.
When everyone helps, it is easier.
Do you worry that Atletico might
lose Simeone? How vital is he to all
the success the club have had?
I’m sure Simeone is the main part of
this Atletico – the most important
1-0
Atletico’s lead when he was
subbed late on in the 2014
Champions League Final
piece and the man who changed
our recent history. But football is
like that: a coach leaves and another
comes in. When I moved to Chelsea,
Atletico signed a new left-back. The
same happened with Costa and
Miranda. But of course it’s easier to
work with Simeone. I hope we never
lose him, and that he can become
the Alex Ferguson of Madrid.
How good is Antoine Griezmann?
Can he become one of the best
yers in the world?
way that we play,
r strikers can always
ore a lot of goals.
fore him, Villa, Costa,
adamel Falcao, Sergio
guero and Diego
orlan all did well.
tletico is the best
place for a footballer
ike Griezmann, but
how far he can get
depends on him.
player who doesn’t
create as many opportunities on his
own as Diego Costa did, but he never
misses a chance in front of goal.
You were recently shown a straight
red card for a foul on Lionel Messi
at Camp Nou. How did you cope
with the criticism?
[Laughs] There’s nothing really to
say about the foul. I can’t deny
I deserved a red card, and I accept
it, but I didn’t intend to hurt him. It
was a normal tackle that happened
15
League outings for Chelsea
– six from the subs’ bench –
after arriving for £15.8m
in a game against Barcelona that
was very intense. Everyone was
talking about it because it involved
Messi. He’s protected by the media
and nobody can touch him in Spain.
It is like this in every game we play
against Barça and it always will be.
Did you have any differences with
Jose Mourinho during your
frustrating spell at Chelsea?
Speaking about Mourinho is always
controversial and there’s always
some intrigue surrounding him, but
he is an awesome coach who tries
to take the maximum from each and
every one of his players. I think that’s
one of the reasons why he loses the
dressing room sometimes. He asks
so much of his players that some
can’t handle it for too long. In my
case, we got along very well and he
helped me when I wanted to rejoin
Atletico. He’s a very good coach. It’s
just a pity I wasn’t able to convince
him that I should start for Chelsea.
Are you still in touch with Diego
Costa since leaving Chelsea?
He is like a brother to me. We’re
always in touch and I’m always
laughing with him. He’s the man
who made it possible for me to win
La Liga, beating Barcelona and Real
Madrid. I’ll be grateful to him for the
rest of my life. He’s the kind of
team-mate who will give blood to
defend you if necessary. But I’ll be
honest: I don’t see him moving back
to Madrid any time soon.
37
Appearances he made for
Real Madrid’s B team in the
second tier during 2005-06
 P L A N E T FO OT B A L L

I WANT TO
GO HOME...
Filipe Luis returned to Atletico just
one year after leaving for Chelsea,
but he’s not the only one to make a
swift move back to his previous club

ASIER
ILLARRAMENDI
The €32.5m fee that Real
Madrid paid for Illarramendi remains
the highest they’ve ever spent on
a Spaniard, but two years later Real
Sociedad re-signed him for €16m.

SHINJI
KAGAWA
“I am proud they have
never forgotten me,” said Kagawa on
rejoining Borussia Dortmund from
Manchester United after 26 months,
as if he’d been lost at sea for 26 years.

DMYTRO
CHYGRYNSKIY
We can only presume
Barça signed the defender because
they needed entrants for a Carles
Puyol lookalike competition. The
Ukrainian was sold back to Shakhtar
Donetsk to solve a cash shortage.

CHRIS
SAMBA
The centre-back took
a ‘massive pay cut’ to join QPR from
Anzhi Makhachkala for £12.5m,
reportedly earning a mere £100,000
a week. He returned five months later
for £12m after the R’s went down.

KEVIN-PRINCE
BOATENG
Schalke paid Milan more
than £7m for Boateng but they lived
to regret it. The Ghana international’s
deal was cut short in December 2015
for disciplinary reasons, allowing him
to hotfoot it back to the San Siro.

JUAN
AGUDELO
Your transfer target’s been
refused a work permit? Just sign him
Words Chris Flanagan

anyway! Stoke loaned the American

to Utrecht while they waited for one,
but it never arrived and he returned
to New England Revolution. Oh well.

Denmark Brondby gaffer Thomas Frank handed in his resignation after chairman Jan Bech Andersen admitted criticising him under a pseudonym on an online fans’ forum

FourFourTwo.com May 2016 103

 P L A N E T FO OT B A L L
“OBJECTIO
YOUR HONOU
Shooting a bow and arrow, giving birth to a football and scor
when he was only meant to bag three – FFT defends the ultim
Ohio high school student Brian
Garruto lists two sports on his
Facebook page: football and ‘raging’.
He did both for the dirty-sounding
Cleveland Steamers this season, and
a stern email was soon winging its way
to him, detailing his suspension from the
recreational North Side Co-Ed Soccer
League and the reasons why. Posting
the email online, he was taken to the
hearts of non-conformists everywhere.
So naturally, FFT has decided to
present the case for Garruto’s defence
as he’s accused of a litany of offences*.
CHANGING JERSEYS AFTER
RECEIVING A RED CARD AND
ATTEMPTING TO PLAY THE
REMAINDER OF THE MATCH
It’s clear what happened: a team-mate
was wearing his jersey, so it was he who
actually got sent off. Our client merely
rectified that clerical error and regained
his rightful place on the field Hone t
Words Leander Schaerlaeckens
REFUSING TO
WEAR SHINPADS
It’s this kind of non-violent
anti-establishment
gesture against the political
correctness brigade that will
make America great again.
KICKED OUT OF THE LEAGUE, BUT PUSHING FOR EUROPE
Litex Lovech have had no fixtures for a full four months – now they’re in a cup semi-final...
Litex Lovech can’t blame a fixture
pile-up if they don’t succeed in
winning the Bulgarian Cup this season.
When they reached the last four of the
competition in early December, the club
probably didn’t anticipate how the
build-up to April’s semis would pan out.
A fortnight later they were divisionless,
kicked out of the league after the
abandonment of a match at title rivals
Words Metodi Shumanov
Levski Sofia, when Litex technical director
Stoycho Stoilov ordered the team to
leave the field in protest at two red cards.
Stoilov, unrepentant, tells FFT: “We were
genuine title contenders, but we weren’t
allowed to compete for the title.”
Germany Someone’s watched too much Ocean’s Eleven – Bundesliga club Hannover had to suspend three youth-team players when they admitted plotting to rob a casino
104 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com
PRETENDING TO FIRE A BOW
AND ARROW AT OPPOSING
PLAYERS AFTER SCORING
Mr Garruto was just warming up for his
upcoming appearance in the archery
competition at the Olympics. He also
showed his commitment to gun control
by not copying Edinson Cavani and
pretending to shoot a rifle.
RUNNING INTO THE
GOAL WHILE HIDING
THE BALL IN HIS SHIRT
Mr Garruto was merely bringing
attention to the plight of the expectant
American women in the developed
country with the world’s worst
maternity leave standards.
PRETENDING TO GIVE BIRTH
TO A BALL AFTER SCORING
Simply reinforcing the aforementioned
point about maternity leave. Mr Garruto
will stop at nothing to highlight this
important issue. Bravo, Brian.
SITTING ON THE OPPOSING
TEAM’S BENCH
This is an easy mistake to make – all
benches look exactly the same. Ron
Atkinson never got banned for doing
it at Nottingham Forest, did he?
The decision left the Bulgarian top
flight with only nine teams and without
three of last season’s top five, CSKA
Sofia and Lokomotiv Sofia having been
demoted bec
There has
Litex, CSKA a
conveniently
back next se
part of a new
Bulgarian Pre
N u
League. Ther
eag
was even
Lite
speculation o
a merger bet
Litex and CSK
WEARING A COWBOY HAT MAKING A PHONE CALL
DURING PLAY WHILE PLAYING
Come on, guys. Cowboy hats are Obviously he was lawyering up for his
awesome. Strike this accusation upcoming suspension proceedings, as
from the record immediately. was his legal right. Naturally we offer
a no win, no fee policy, so we won’t be
EATING A BANANA ON-FIELD charging you a penny, Brian. Have
Ever heard of potassium?! a beer and a banana on us.
SCORING 14 GOALS
DESPITE THREE-GOAL
LIMIT PER PLAYER
This kind of communist construct
needs to be rooted out once and for
all. Goals are the epitome of
capitalism, and the market for them
must remain unregulated. The one
per cent shall have its goals, damn it.
ALTERING THE
MATCH SCOREBOARD
He had reached his goal limit, yet
hadn’t quenched his insatiable thirst
for goals. What choice did he have?
*We promise we didn’t make these up
WEARING A TANK TOP
DISPLAYING THE LOGO OF
A NATURAL LIGHT BEER
AS HIS UNIFORM Just out of shot are
If high school students can’t drink the ‘T’ and the ‘F’
and perpetuate the branding of
beer companies, then who can?
“Being kicked out of the first division for the cup games,” Stoilov explains.
has not been easy to deal with,” says “They’ve been playing for our reserve
Litex supporter Vladimir Nedelchev. “But team in the second division.”
the rumours about merging with CSKA Indeed, while Litex Lovech as a club
ptable.” are banned from league action, their
ddling players are not. So, naturally, their entire
am line-up has been turning out for
heir relegation-threatened Litex II in front
ainst of mere handfuls of spectators.
an Cup, Should Litex win the cup and qualify
for the Europa League, it will provide the
o final twist to a frankly bonkers season.
t, Litex “We are ready to play European
prepare? football next season,” Stoilov assures
ave kept FFT. Let’s just hope the referees in
shape Europe are ready, too.
 ALL

BLACK MAGIC
RUINED MY CAREER
A Ghanaian player has swapped football for the church,
saying mysterious forces halted his international hopes

Meet your
new favourite
quiz question
Which player has scored in each of
Italy’s top five divisions? This guy!

Step aside, Robert Earnshaw: Pasciuti admits to FFT: “If

Akaminko’s injury
At his peak, ft), there’s a new man in town someone had told me in the
has been blamed
Charles ‘The ) ho is for the quiz connoisseur. winter of 2009, when I came
on Sumaila (below
Terror’ Taylor w 34 Earnshaw is a football trivia to Carpi in Serie D, that six
was unplayable. d staple for netting a hat-trick years later I’d be scoring in
A key figure in o in the FA Cup, League Cup and Serie A in the same red and
the Hearts of Oak ly each of the top four divisions white jersey, I would have
attack as they ordained as a in English football (for West thought they were a fool.”
won three pastor, turning Bromwich Albion in The midfielder’s only Serie D
successive league to the church the Premier League goal came against
titles, he seemed after recurring and the rest all for the mighty Virtus
destined to knee problems. Cardiff City) as well Castelfranco. He
become one of Most players as internationally ays the superb
Ghana’s biggest j y ring tend not for Wales, but did trike into the top
stars for years to low defender to succeed in football because he ever score in orner was “maybe
come, only for ry Akaminko, they don’t use black magic.” the Conference? he best goal I’ve
mysterious forces to suring he made Apparently, even players No, he did not. “I know cored for Carpi.”
get in the way. squad for the overseas aren’t safe. Ahead of Earnshaw never this one!” Five followed in
Persistent injuries 4 World Cup. Ghana’s World Cup meeting played in the ga Pro’s Seconda
slowed his ascent, hat followed with Portugal two years ago, Conference, to be visione, four in the
and the man himself ements made a witchdoctor claimed he had fair, but nonetheless his Prima Divisione and
claims to know the reason why. by former Ghana coach enlisted the help of four dogs record is topped by Lorenzo five in Serie B, then the goal
“People still don’t believe me, Goran Stevanovic, who to inflict a mystical injury on Pasciuti. The 26-year-old’s that completed the set: a rare
but the moment I started complained in an official report Cristiano Ronaldo. recent goal in Serie A ensured header against Udinese, in
getting close to the national to the country’s FA in 2012 that “This injury can never be cured he has now scored in each of Carpi’s first ever Serie A term.
team, people used juju on me,” some players in the country by any medic; today it’s his knee, Italy’s top five divisions. And “I care about this record,” he
he tells FourFourTwo, citing the were using black magic, and tomorrow it’s his thigh, next day he’s not even a striker. says, “but it wouldn’t have
witchcraft practice most closely that accusations among it’s something else,” explained Just as incredibly, Pasciuti had the same taste if it hadn’t
Words Emanuele Giulianelli

associated with west Africa. team-mates had created a rift Nana Kwaku Bonsam, whose has achieved the feat without given us a crucial victory.”
It’s a subject that’s back in in the national squad. name is said to translate as even moving club: Carpi took Indeed, Carpi still have much
Words Gary Al-Smith

the public eye in Ghana after
centre-back Rashid Sumaila
had to strenuously deny bizarre
accusations from a spiritualist
that he had used juju to inflict
“Footballers use black magic
to hurt each other or to
generally influence team
dynamics so that they can
get ahead,” adds Taylor
‘Devil of Wednesday’. Sadly for
him, the game was played on
a Thursday, not a Wednesday,
Ronaldo scored and Ghana lost.
Well, it was worth a try.
only six seasons to secure four work to do if they’re to avoid
promotions to the top flight relegation. Pasciuti might
from Serie D, at that point the have to wait for his first goal
fifth tier of Italian football. in the Champions League.

Sweden Degerfors defender Boris Lumbana’s bid to sing at Eurovision proved unsuccessful, as a child star famous for Zlatan-inspired hit Who’s Da Man got the ticket instead

FourFourTwo.com May 2016 105

 P L A N E T FO OT B A L L

“I FELT LOST AT
WORK OUT WHAT I
WAS DOING THERE”
Some people still wonder the same. But Bebe has no regrets about his time in Manchester,
and as he gets back on track at Rayo Vallecano, he tells FFT he’s aiming for the top once more
There was a shuffle of the Whether he was ever worth That was a feeling he did calm. The people there treated the Red Devils, before returning
hips, then a thunderbolt into the £7.4m that Manchester not always get early on at me with a lot of care.” to his homeland with Benfica.
the far corner of the Espanyol United curiously paid to sign Old Trafford, where the nature The former Estrela da He is still contracted to the
net. Even if Bebe is still him from Vitoria de Guimaraes of his transfer left him as Amadora you fi too, he has
remembered on British shores in 2010, just weeks after Vitoria bewildered as everyone else. himself at Ra appearances.
for his part in one of the most themselves had t k hi “It’ t sy for a another Old T a fan so to
perplexing transfers in up on a free tran to make that misfit, Manu was a dream,”
English football history, the still in doubt. Fo p,” Bebe says. the Angolan s. “People say
man himself is busy trying to at United broug st for a few who made ’t want to be
get on with his career. seven appearan , trying to work four fewer ere, but I was
The Portuguese forward’s and no league g xactly what appearances ven only 10
A rare
strike against Espanyol in early But are we st s doing there. for United r 15 minutes
Fergie took appearance
March, arguably the most to see the real B ut soon I loved than even show my
a punt on a for United
impressive moment of an – who, rememb ex Ferguson Bebe manag ty. That’s not
Interview Alvaro Calleja

teenage Bebe Bebe would

encouraging season-long loan still only 25? me a lot of h. Since then
in La Liga with Rayo Vallecano, “I think so,” he nce. The first loan spells w at Cordoba
was an illustration of exactly tells FFT. “I’m ve went to his Besiktas, Rio Vallecano on
what Bebe has always been happy at Rayo. I he told me Pacos de Ferr love La Liga.
capable of doing. part of the squa lm and to play during his tim style.”

[ Museum piece ]
KLOPP’S BROKEN GLASSES
Museum Borussia Dortmund Weirdness rating

Long before Jurgen Klopp’s
glasses were smashed to
pieces at Carrow Road in
January this year, Borussia
Dortmund were displaying
a wonky set of his specs.
The pile-on that followed
Liverpool’s winner in a 5-4
victory at Norwich left the
Words Rajen Bagri
But it wasn’t the first time
Klopp had seen his spectacles
obliterated, the first coming in
Dortmund’s 2011 win at Bayern
Munich as goalscorer Nuri Sahin
leapt to celebrate with his boss.
There’s a lesson here, Jurgen:
goals and glasses don’t mix.
Despite being placed in the
compensation requests for
smashed specs, with images
that looked suspiciously
like the ones on display.
Klopp, who never claimed
compensation himself, found
the news typically hilarious,
laughing: “It’s amazing how
inventive people become when

German gaffer poking around Borusseum, the busted bifocals they need some new glasses.
for his spare set and jesting: managed to spark an odd wave “For me, victory compensated
“It’s really difficult looking for of insurance claims in Germany. for everything – even the
glasses without glasses.” For 18 months, people filed painful area under my eye.”

Brazil Sent to the stands, Guarani de Palhoca boss Sergio Ramirez promptly climbed onto the roof and starting shouting instructions through a traffic cone

106 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com

 P L A N E T FO OT B A L L

Club Libertad
Things are going
Paraguay
better than Rayo’s
badge suggests Why should I care?
The Asuncion club hail from the Las Mercedes neighbourhood
but their badge is a doppelganger of the Bentley logo.

preferred to stay in Guimaraes
six years ago, rather than join
Manchester United?
“I don’t regret anything from
that move,” he insists. “I wasn’t
ready, like I would be now.
“I was a bit wary about it
at first. But that feeling left me
pretty quickly. You can’t turn
down Manchester United.”
Bebe has never sought
sympathy either, despite being
abandoned by his parents as
a child before his grandmother
took the difficult decision to
put him into a care home.
“I never want people to say:
‘Aww, Bebe, poor kid’,” he tells
FFT emphatically. “I want to
keep learning, play for another
top team and do something
different in the football world.
I want to leave my own little
mark. I think there’s still time.”
So they’ll be signing
Keisuke Honda soon?
Probably not, as Horacio Cartes stepped
down as club president to concentrate on
being the president of the whole country.
Cartes [right] is the Paraguayan answer to
Donald Trump – minus the daft hair, sadly –
and the entrepreneur helped Libertad to eight
domestic titles between 2001 and 2012.

Impressive. They’re a decent side, then?

"PARLEZ VOUS
Poetically put. They’re better than Everton, in fact – or at least,
they were when they beat the Chilean incarnation of the
Toffees on their run to the semi-finals of the Copa Libertadores

FOOTBALL?"
in 1977. It’s still Libertad’s best performance in the competition.

So what should I say down the pub?

Moses words Felix Keith; Libertad words Raphael Barnett-Ward

Tell people that ‘Libertad’ translates to Freedom, which makes

them Club Freedom. Admittedly that sounds like a bar in Ibiza
We translate that baffling foreign lingo attracting punters with loose morals, but there you go.

Moses Isn’t Freedom a Pharrell Williams song?

It is, and it’s also one of the very many things wrong with
Braveheart, but the Libertad name is more to do with a ship
In England, doing a Moses generally involves signing for that sailed into Asuncion in 1905, packed with revolutionaries.
Chelsea and then spending the next 17 years on loan. In Libertad do have a club song of their own, though.

Denmark it’s a bit different: the phrase is used to describe Oh yes? How does it go?
a dribble between two defenders and into the area, as if “Freedom, team of champions, they are like lions, know how
to fight. Freedom, Freedom, always brave and determined to
they’ve parted the Red Sea like that Biblical chappie did. succeed.” Maybe they should have gone with the Pharrell song.

Italy Giuseppe Iachini has been sacked by Palermo owner Maurizio Zamparini for the second time this season – the sixth managerial change at the club in just four months

FourFourTwo.com May 2016 107

 P L A N E T FO OT B A L L
retold ]
[ Great goals
ZICO
vs Tohoku, E
mperor’s Cu
p, 1993
Words Felipe Rocha; Illustration German Aczel
It may not have been scored
for Brazil at the World Cup,
but Zico is in no doubt about
which one of his 826 career
goals was the finest.
Two years before Rene
Higuita’s famous scorpion kick
save at Wembley, Zico was
[ Derbies Deconstructed: CSKA Moscow vs Spartak Moscow ]
HORSE MEAT HATRED IN RUSSIA
The insults are flying in Moscow’s fiercest fixture – and keep a close eye on your banners
Why all the fuss?
There are four Moscow sides in
the Russian Premier League,
but Dynamo’s post-Soviet
malaise means that CSKA
against Spartak is officially
entitled the ‘Main Moscow
Words Felix Keith
Derby’. A police presence of
4,000 was called in to keep
order when the pair met earlier
this season. No chances taken.
Zimbabwe Dynamos FC tried to recreate Lionel Messi’s clever passed penalty to Luis Suarez, but it didn’t go so well: a defender got back in time to tackle Valentine Ndaba
108 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com
sing the skill in sublime
ashion at the other end of
he field for Kashima Antlers.
Sure, the opponents were
nly lowly Tohoku and the
ompetition Japan’s
Emperor’s Cup, but even the
finest defence in the world
would have struggled to stop
the Brazilian’s swish finish.
‘’It’s a rare goal, and the
difficulty of the movement
makes it the most beautiful
one of my life,” Zico tells FFT.
Reasons for aggro
While CSKA were the club of
the Soviet army, Spartak sprung
up as the people’s team. Their
fans belittled CSKA as ‘horses’,
because their first ground was
built on an old hippodrome, and
were in turn labelled ‘meat’, as
their founding players worked
in a meat-processing plant. It’s
a name they’ve since embraced.
“I passed the ball to Alcindo
on the left and he gave it back
to me, but I dummied and ran
into the penalty area. Carlos
Alberto provided the assist
I was waiting for, but I realised
the ball was just behind me.
I had no option but to try this
acrobatic movement.”
Acrobatic it certainly was, as
Zico flicked the ball over his
head and over the stunned
goalkeeper using the heel of
his right foot. Not bad for
“I heard there
was meat?”
a man who had hit 40 years of
age just a few months earlier.
“Franco Baresi was also in
Japan with Milan for the
Intercontinental Cup and he
called me to congratulate me
on the goal,” says the Brazilian.
‘’I’d tried something similar in
a friendly against Uruguay at
the Maracana in 1979, and
only missed the target by
a few inches. I also scored
a scorpion kick while playing
beach soccer after I’d retired.”
Maddest moments
Spartak fans snuck into the
CSKA end during a 2007 derby,
stealing a banner and burning
it, but CSKA exacted revenge in
2009 by tracking down a giant
banner Spartak were preparing
and setting it alight. Spartak
fans eventually restored it and
made another sign that read:
‘Masterpieces don’t burn’.
FourFourTwo.com
Get online to see this and other
great goals from FFT’s archives
Zico was a trailblazer in
Japan, arriving in 1991 – two
years before the formation of
the J-League. He filmed
tutorials for aspiring players,
featuring a range of tricks,
including the scorpion kick.
Does he mind that it’s a skill
now more associated with
Higuita than himself?
“Higuita’s scorpion kick was
a brilliant save,” Zico recalls,
magnanimously. “But I’m
proud of my scorpion, too.”
Cult figures
Blue-dreadlocked Brazilian
favourite Vagner Love is the
fixture’s top goalscorer with
nine strikes for CSKA, including
a first-half hat-trick in 2008.
Roman Pavlyuchenko was
a popular figure at Spartak,
netting 89 times in 189
appearances before moving
to Tottenham in 2008.

ARMA, THE CLUB WHO
AD TO START AGAIN
Crespo, Buffon and Veron once made them one of the best sides in European football,
but now Parma are playing in front of 2,000 people in Serie D. Still, at least they’re winning
“After one match we played,
their head coach asked me if
we could take a picture
together,” Alessandro
Lucarelli chuckles, as he
tells FFT about life at Parma
in Italy’s fourth tier.
Only a season ago, Lucarelli
(right) was captaining
a Gialloblu side containing
the likes of Antonio Cassano
in Serie A. Then, they were a
club with so many players that
they loaned out an incredible
87 of them during the course of
the 2014-15 campaign. Now,
Lucarelli is the last man
standing – the last remaining
player from a first-team squad
ripped apart when the club
were declared bankrupt in
June 2015, following a season
of unpaid wages, threatened
strike action and relegation.
Everything has changed since
then, right down to the name.
Hastily reformed as SSD Parma
Calcio 1913 – a nod to the year
in which the club were originally
founded – they were forced to
start all over again with a new
squad in Serie D, a regionalised
league filled with amateurs.
Spain Struggling for a baby name? Hot on the heels of Egyptian defender Manga calling his kid Ozil, Granada midfielder Javi Marquez opted to name his newborn son Modric
still here?!”
Last season Parma were
facing the might of Milan, Roma from what happened last
and Juventus in the top flight;
this term their opponents have
included Lentigione, San Marino Parma start again, I felt that
and the grandly named but
rather less talented Fortis
Juventus, a club whose Stadio
Romanelli home has a capacity
of just under 2,000.
“If you start to see the little
stadiums where you are
playing, see the pitch without
grass and think about where
you came from, it’s better to
stop playing and retire,”
explains 38-year-old defender
Lucarelli. “When I decided to
stay, I knew that I had to deal
with this new situation.
P L A N E T FO OT B A L L
“Regardless Serie D is the division from every match we play,” says
of the division, which Parma emerged in 1970, Apolloni, who represented Italy
what was climbing to UEFA Cup Winners’ in the 1994 World Cup Final
important to Cup glory at Wembley 23 years and took over as boss at the
me was to play later. Luigi Apolloni was in start of this season. “That’s not
for Parma – to Nevio Scala’s team that day usual for a Serie D player, of
wear that and helped the club to two course! It’s an additional
ersey. I owe UEFA Cup victories, too, in an incentive for them to show
t to all the era when Gianliugi Buffon, everyone what they can do.”
“Are you eople, to Fabio Cannavaro, Hernan Despite that, Parma have
place that Crespo and Juan Sebastian made light work of Serie D
oves me. I’d Veron all graced the Stadio and after 31 matches, they
ave ended my Ennio Tardini. Now Apolloni and remained unbeaten. Top of
career at Parma independently Scala have returned, as coach the table, they look set to be
and president, to help a club playing their football next
season. But after the battle we who have suddenly become season in the Lega Pro, the
fought, the suffering to make a big fish in a very small pond. lowest level of professional
“When our opponents come football in Italy.
I had to rdini, they’re That’s to the disappointment
to be par -to-face of amateurs who have relished
“I’ve d big history of playing at Il Tardini, where
and for t hey have the season ticket sales surpassed
I have be y to play 10,000 this term - double the
their only because division’s previous record.
in a guid broadcasts The 2,000 fans Parma
panoram ke to every away
a club in ame have brought
It wasn’t nancial benefits, too.
but now “Let’s do a quick
adapted Apolloni’s assessment,” says
myself to leading the Raphael Odogwu of
this new resurgence... Altovicentino, Parma’s
situation ...after two title rivals, with a wry
UEFA Cup wins smile. “Two thousand
supporters are in the
stadium when Parma
play in another city. Multiply
that by an average ticket price
of €15 and that’s €30,000 for
Parma’s opponent. So for the
good of amateur football, it’s
better that we are promoted to
Serie C instead of Parma.”
For Parma, though, their
sights are set higher than just
the third tier. Even if they do
not know exactly how long it
will take, some day they want
to be back among Italy’s elite.
“Our aim now is to grow up,
Words Emanuele Giulianelli
to rise, to climb divisions,”
Apolloni says. “Maybe now we
can plan to reach Serie B.
“Division three, “But the important thing for
here we come!” us is not to stop. We have to
keep on ascending.”
FourFourTwo.com May 2016 109
 NEW SITE! VISIT US ONLINE
fourfourtwo.com/performance

WHERE PROS REVEAL THE SECRETS OF THEIR GAME

PLAY AT
THE SPEE
OF LIGHT
Legendary schemer Paul Scholes barely broke
into a jog, but he was always a step ahead of
the opposition. How? He had a secret weapon

“You’ve got a kid who is smaller Scholes might have struggled to

than most, he’s got asthma, he’s
not the quickest, but he’s the best
player I’ve ever played with – work
that out!” Gary Neville couldn’t
explain Paul Scholes’ genius, but
we think we can. Brace yourself:
eight flashing lights.
Instead of loading up the squat
rack, the pint-sized
playmaker went
head-to-head
with the FitLight
training device.
Eight discs,
which can be
keep up with Cristiano Ronaldo’s
walking pace, but his reaction speed
was off the charts, says power
development coach Mick Clegg, who
introduced FitLight during his time
with Manchester United. “With
FitLight you’re able to train things
that are directly related to what’s
appening on
he pitch,” he
xplains. “Paul
choles wasn’t
he biggest or the
uickest but his
eaction times

Words Alec Fenn; Performance editor Ben Welch

mounted to any
surface, flash
at intervals,
challenging the athlete to react at
speed and deactivate them with
a swipe of either their hands, feet,
head or even a football.
Reaction times are captured by
a tablet, ready for analysis. Using
the data, coaches can measure
speed, agility and co-ordination.
were incredible –
he was able to
see everything.
His brain was always ticking away.”
Training like an 11-time Premier
League winner is going to cost you,
mind. A standard eight-disc package Scholes spots
will set you back $3,500 (around another flashing
£2,450), with a cheaper four-disc light in the distan
ce
option available for $2,500 (£1,750)
from fitlighttraining.com. Get saving.

THE FOURFOURTWO PERFORMANCE PANEL

Meet the experts available to answer your questions about every aspect of the game

MASTERCLASS FITNESS TRAINING NUTRITION

Benik Afobe
Rapidly rising
Bournemouth star
The Premier League striker has advice
on how to make a step up in class
and continue banging in the goals.
Scott Moody
Founder of SoccerFIT
Academy in the US
Develop your game in the rain with a
full-throttle workout from Dom Dwyer
and Sydney Leroux’s fitness coach.
Ze Roberto
Veteran Palmeiras and
ex-Bayern midfielder
Old hands, prepare to reinvent your
game: the evergreen Brazilian reveals
his blueprint to playing beyond 40.
Tim De’Ath
West Ham United and
England’s food boss
Take your unappetising leftovers from
the fridge and turn them into Premier
League nosh with the renowned chef.
 PERFORMANCE

FOOTBALL FIXING
BAD BEHAVIOUR
A US scheme running soccer games
during school break times has cut the
number of kids being punished for
poor behaviour by 79 per cent. The
programme, featuring playground
coaches running kickabouts at
Californian schools, has led to
a massive cut in misdemeanors.

INJURY CAN BE OHHHH, YOU’RE

MOUTHWASH
AND GO
Trials on amateur players show
that rinsing with a carb-based
drink can help boost energy for
short sprints as effectively as
ingesting carb drinks and gels,
improving 15-metre sprint times
when compared to water.
A BEACH FIT – AHHHH... IF IN DOUBT,
The first in-depth study into football A weight loss programme among SIT IT OUT
injuries sustained during beach football fans is paying off, researchers New rules regarding head
matches has been carried out by have found. In a review of the 374 collisions have been issued for
researchers during the Japanese men who have taken part in the youngsters. US scientists say
National Championships. They found Football Fans in Training (FFIT) weight concussed players should stop
that when compared with regular management and healthy living playing until examined by
football and futsal, beach players programme, 95 per cent have lost a doctor and, if needs be, having
suffer fewer ankle injuries. up to 6kg over 12 months. recuperated for 10 days.

10 THINGS
WE’VE LEARNED THIS MONTH

BRAND BOOST STRONG ARM CRUYFF ESCAPE TO VICTORY

Big-brand football boots can TACTICS TURM Free football sessions for
improve your game. In tests Elite players who took part in European champions Barcelona are migrants escaping war can
comparing branded and resistance training sessions three among a number of clubs providing their speed up integration skills. An
non-branded gear, researchers times per week over three months did players with a curry spice to help speed up Australian project featuring 263
found that if an athlete knows better in fitness tests, and had lower muscle repair. Turmeric, which is part of young people – of whom half
the footwear is ‘high end’, injury rates over a season, than those the ginger root family, has also been were refugees – found football
they have greater self-esteem in a group who didn’t include strength shown to support joint function – good can aid in resettling displaced
and less anxiety. training in their workouts. news for your creaking limbs. kids where other schemes failed.

ACCELERATING
WEIGHT LOSS
Boys wearing accelerometers – a
device that measures how much
running they do when playing – are
spearheading a project designed to
cut obesity. By recording how much
physical activity the children are
doing, researchers can record the
impact football has on their weight.

Studies and authors: Coast 2 Coast (‘Bad behaviour’); International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism (‘Mouthwash and go’); Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine (‘Injury can be a beach’); Journal of Public Health (‘You’re fit’);
American Academy of Neurology (‘If in doubt...’); University of Notre Dame / University of Kentucky / Penn State University, USA (‘Brand boost’); University of Rennes, France (‘Strong arm tactics’);
Olympic Research Centre in Barcelona (‘Cruyff turm’); Health Promotion Journal of Australia (‘Escape to victory’); University of Texas, USA (‘Accelerating weight loss’)
 PERFORMANCE

[ You ask, we answer ]

Outlast the opposition

Ensure you have enough gas in the tank for the full 90 minutes with tips from the tireless Pole
“I’m a winger and often
run out of steam about
an hour into the game.
How do you maintain
your energy levels from
start to finish?”
Did you
Steven Moore, via Twitter Althoug
know?
h he’s c
F iorentin u rrently
a, Blasz on loan
Dortmu czykow at
nd’s se ski is Bo
cond-lo russia
Jakub player a
fter Rom ngest se
rving
having an Weid
Blaszczykowski Februa
joined d
ie Schw enfelle
r,
ry 2007 arzgelb
Two-time Bundesliga , more en in
before tha n a yea
winner with Dortmund Jurgen r
Klopp a
rrived

“Playing out on the wing is very

demanding – you have to sprint
up and down, attacking and
defending, for 90 minutes.
Work on your conditioning once
or twice a week. I prefer to go to
the weights room and build up
strength in my legs – that gives you
both power and speed. I leave
cardio for training sessions, but I do
like to run during the off-season.
The best way to build fitness for
football is HIIT, high intensity
interval training: repeated sprints
with short rest periods in between.
If you have two or three games in
a week, you need to give your body
a little break, otherwise you’ll either
pick up an injury or feel extremely
exhausted during a game.
Build the foundations of your
fitness during pre-season, then
monitor your performance
Interview Martin Harasimowicz

during the campaign.

Keep track of the
ground you cover using
a GPS device and also You need to hit
maintain a wellness diary to the weights to build
record how you are feeling, power, says Kuba
mentally and physically.”

“I play for a successful amateur team who win your toes because you
everything every season. I like winning, but I’m knew that every summer
starting to lose motivation. How did you stay he would sign one or two
hungry for success at Manchester United?” players to improve the team.
Christos Liasades, via Facebook We drove each other on as
players, too. Roy Keane is
mentioned a lot, but everyone
Andy Cole That’s the only way to go about it, wanted the best from each other.
Former Red Devils otherwise you get people thinking It was never difficult to maintain
Interview Chris Flanagan

and England striker
“When we won something, Sir
Alex Ferguson made sure it was
quickly forgotten about. You
had to do it again the year after.
that what they did last season was focus and drive. What do you
fantastic and you never move on. want to do in football? You want
The manager wouldn’t have any to win things. I just wanted to win.”
slackers. If your form was dropping Cole savours
off a little bit, he’d soon bring Andy Cole is an ambassador a fourth league
somebody else in. He kept you on for Manchester United title in five seasons

FourFourTwo.com/Performance May 2016 113

PERFORMANCE

[ Mastercla

Did you
Afobe m
know?
ight ha
list of pla ve joined th
yers to e long
Barcelo leave A
na rsenal fo
to pape before he’d eve r
r on a p n put pen
the Cata rofessio
la n al contrac
up while ns reportedly t;
he was eyed him
37 gam scoring
es for th 32 goals in
e Gunn
ers’ U1
8s

AFOBE
BENIK

BOSS IT
NY AT A
The Bo urn em ou th hotshot has b
Langed
ions; he
go als across three divis
in ng
to keep scori
explains how

Benik Afobe wears the

new Solar Gold X15
Primeknit boots. Grab
a pair and add chaos
to your game #X15
#BeTheDifference
adidas.co.uk/football

1 Do your homework
Out-think the opposition
“Defenders are quicker and more intelligent the higher
you play. You have to tailor your game depending on
their qualities. If the defender is slow but clever, you
have to outrun them – but if they’re smart they’ll drop
off to stop you getting in behind and using your pace.
If they’re fast, you have to think of ways you can steal
a yard on them in dangerous positions. You have to
out-think your opponents at the top level.”
4 Be ready for anything
Train for every situation
“You need to be able to score goals with your head,
your left foot and your right foot, and be comfortable
striking volleys and free-kicks. Whatever the situation,
you have to be confident. If you miss a chance during
a game, you can’t use the excuse, ‘It was on my left
foot’ or ‘That was on my right foot’. To be a top striker,
whatever your level, you’ve got to be a clinical finisher
no matter what opportunity you’re presented with.”
PRO
TIP ALLAN
RUSSELL
The former pro and
Interviews Ben Welch
specialist striker
coach tells you
how to make
the most of
every chance
2 Play on the edge
Stay out of sight
“Standing offside isn’t always a bad thing. The more
a defender can see of you, the easier you’re making
their job. If you play on the shoulder, they don’t know
where you are. They don’t know whether you’re going
to come to feet or go long. You have to play on the edge
so you can beat the offside trap. Timing your run is
crucial – get it wrong and you’ll be offside. Keep getting
caught and you’ll lose the trust of your team-mates.”
5 Don’t take the bait
Ignore the wind-up merchants
“Some defenders kick your ankles off the ball or go
over the top in a challenge to try to get a reaction out
of you, but it doesn’t affect me. It just shows that
they’re thinking about me. They wouldn’t be doing it
if they weren’t worried about the threat that I pose. It’s
the aim of the game to get into your opponent’s head.
They can do what they want to me, but if I’m getting
into good positions and scoring goals, then I’m happy.”
“You must have an awareness of where you are
and the pass that you’re about to receive. These
factors influence the timing of your run.
Then your movement has to be clever. Ask yourself:
‘Can I pull the defender one way, to go the other?’
When you make the move, what situation will
your final position put you in? Can you take
a touch, or will you need to shoot first time?
When you get into that situation you need
to have your mind made up. Make sure you
PERFORMANCE
3 Think like a finisher
See your success
“Don’t shoot and think: ‘This is never going to go in’ –
believe your shot is going to beat the goalkeeper.
Sometimes it isn’t about hitting the perfect strike, as
scruffy shots can go in; it’s more about having the
confidence and composure to finish. How often do you
see a player get a chance and panic? It happens to the
best players. They snatch at a chance and think: ‘How
did I miss that?’ You must think clearly in front of goal.”
6 Keep moving forward
Don’t dwell on mistakes
“If you miss a chance, you have to forget it and move
on. You’ve got a job to do. If you get distracted by
negative thoughts, you’ll miss your next chance and
lose confidence. In my first game for Bournemouth
I missed two first-half chances and West Ham
punished those misses in the second half. But I picked
myself up and scored in my next three games. Strikers
will miss chances; what matters is how you respond.”
have a clear vision of what you are going to do with
the ball as it is being played towards you.
Then, as you receive the pass, your first touch is key.
If it’s a first-time finish you need control and accuracy.
If it’s a touch and finish, your first touch has to be
perfect as that’s the catalyst for your next action.
If your first touch isn’t great it will cost you a split
second, which will cost you the opportunity to score.”
Follow @SuperiorStriker and visit superiorstriker.com
FourFourTwo.com/Performance May 2016 115
 PERFORMANCE

[ Fitness ]

Think it’s too wet to sharpen your

game? Pah! Science says you gain
more from working out in stormy
weather, and we’ve got the drills
to make the most of the drizzle

1 SUPER LEGS

Build powerful thighs to

improve your speed, power
and jumping ability. “Perform
20 squats, 20 lunges, 20
scissor squats and 10 jump
2 AGILITY HOPS

squats,” explains Scott Moody, You probably haven’t tried

founder of athletefit.com. “Go hopping since you were 12,
immediately from one to the but the motion is a great way
next with no break. The set to improve balance strength
should take a minute. Take and stability. “Do a mixture of
a minute’s rest between each forwards and sideways hops,
set, and repeat three times.” first on the right leg, then the
left,” says Scott. “Do as many
as you can for 15 seconds –
two sets. Mix these with
five-yard dashes, focusing on
quick steps, 90-degree cuts
and changes of direction.”

GET DRENCHED DOING DRILLS – IT WORKS!

Mankind’s desire to avoid freezing to
death can stop us from heading
outside. But once you overcome that
mental obstacle, the same instinct will
actually help you work harder.
A study by Japanese researchers
published in the International Journal
of Sports Medicine found that people
who trained in low temperatures and
rain unsurprisingly worked harder, and
burned off more energy, than those
who enjoyed pleasant conditions.
Why? Because you’re hoodwinking
your brain. A cooler environment leads
to the perception of less exertion,
while the fact that you’re staying cool
means there’s less chance of getting
overheated and exhausted.
Like a besuited businessman legging
it for a bus in a downpour, there’s also
the psychological motivation of getting
back to nicer conditions, which can
push you to complete your exercise
faster. And once you’re back inside,
you can feel the smug glow of a
hardcore trainer who is putting in the
time when others are huddled indoors.
Have a pat on the back. And a bath.

116 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com/Performance

 PERFORMANCE

WET WEATHER
TRAINING KIT
STRIKE WOVEN
TE JACKET
de from water-repellent
lon fabric, this Nike jacket will
ep you dry. A mock neck zips

4 WALL PASS
AND TURN
p to your chin for optimum
verage, keeping you warm in
ltic conditions. A breathable
ing prevents overheating,
Many a top pro chiselled their ping sweat to a minimum.
close control with just bricks and £100 store.nike.com
mortar. “Do three minutes of work
against a wall,” says Scott. “Play
the ball off the surface and focus
on your first touch. When you E PRO HYPERWARM
receive the ball, turn and perform IELD FITTED
a three-to-five-touch move, as if OCK NECK 2.0
creating space. Move into the is base layer – also available in
space and play the ball off the ool grey – offers warmth and
wall again.” Take a three-minute eather protection: 3D thermal
break, then start the drills again. it fabric locks in heat and
Go round three or four times. ntrast panels repel wind and rain.
eat will just run off you thanks
e stretchy Dri-FIT Max fabric.
60 store.nike.com

NIKE PRO
WARM LEGGINGS
With a locked-in fit and lightweight
fabric that stops sweat collecting on
the body, these will help to keep you
warm and comfortable during your
toughest cold-weather workouts.
5yds
y The tights’ compression design
provides a snug fit, allowing you to
move freely and securely.
3 BALL CONTROL RRP £38 store.nike.com

To get quicker feet you need

only a ball and five square yards
ADIDAS ACE 16.1 PRIMEKNIT
Words Nick Moore; Illustrations Jason Pickersgill

of grass. “Burst forwards and

backwards with the ball,” advises
SOFT GROUND BOOTS
Scott, “facing the same way and This boot is designed to give players complete control in
getting creative with your touch. all conditions. A thin layer of raised dots applied to the
Do four 30-second sets, resting upper will keep the ball glued to your feet even when
for 15 seconds in between. Focus the rain is pouring. Don’t worry about
on quickness. You can also do staying on your feet, as aluminium
this drill laterally, from side to studs will stop you from
side. The smaller the space, hitting the deck.
the more demanding the drill.” RRP £190
adidas.com

FourFourTwo.com/Performance May 2016 117

 PER E

[ Pro tips ]

PLAY
Stay hungry
KNOW WHEN “Most players retire when
TO SCORE they lose their motivation
to compete. I always
“I don’t have much sex with have a goal: I want to win
my wife in the lead-up to a titles and enjoy the job
I love. That’s what
game or directly after. Sex
Palmeiras midfielder Ze Roberto keeps me going.”
must not interfere with an
is getting better with age. athlete’s routine. You must
The 41-year-old shares know the right time to have
the secrets to his sex. With experience, you’ll 8 HOURS
match-winning discover the perfect timing.” The amount of
longevity, and sleep the former
includes a few Bayern Munich
tips in the midfielder gets
every night
bedroom

Prevent
to prolong
“Injuries can shorten a player’s
career. To reduce my risk of injury
I work on my abdominal and
lower back muscles, because they
INTO Stretch and strengthen
play a key role in acceleration
and deceleration.” “I’ve always started training an hour
early to stretch and do my strengthening
exercises. My professionalism has
enabled me to play at the top level for

400
The number of
22 years – I had to give up partying and
drinking to become a complete athlete,
but I’m reaping the rewards now.”
sit-ups Ze Roberto
does each
day

YOUR
71 KG
Ze Roberto’s
optimal weight
EAT CLEAN,
TRAIN RIGHT

FORTIES
“I follow a strict diet – no junk
Interview Breiller Pires

food, soda or alcohol. It’s part

of the life of a truly professional
player. When you get into
your 30s, tailor your training
programme to suit your body.”

FourFourTwo.com/Performance May 2016 119

 PERFORMANCE
[ Psychology ]
Win when it
matters most
H GA
NC
U asked them if there was anything
M
CR
E
CUP
FINAL
Play the game, not the occasion, insists
Champions League winner Rio Ferdinand
Shut out the noise
Take away the importance of the
game by detaching yourself from all
the extra attention a cup final gets.
Interviews Richard Edwards, Gregor MacGregor
The sooner you do this, the better.
If you get distracted by the enormity
of the occasion it will get too big for
you and the game will pass you by.
Stick to your routine
Don’t change your training regime.
Stick to what you know – this will help
settle your nerves. When I was a kid
I used to get nervous for trials, but
120 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com/Performance
Make sure you’re popping champagne corks and not
your sorrows with this guide to winning
games, by FFT and the men who w
would filter through to those other
Wycombe manager games and to the players on the pitch
and the fans in the stands. We could
Gareth Ainsworth create tension by going out there
and scoring as quickly as possible –
shares the secrets
which we did. That’s the key: getting
to giving a rousing on the front foot and dictating, not
just to the opposition but also to the
team talk when other teams involved.
Above all, you need to stay super
the pressure’s on positive and believe that safety is
only 90 minutes away. Take some
“I remember that before Wycombe’s deep breaths, remember the fans
last-day decider against Torquay who have followed you through thick
back in May 2014, I turned to the and thin throughout the season, and
players in the changing room and think about the people you’re closest
to. Go out there and do it for them.
we could do about the other results These matches can define your career,
we needed to go our way.
Most players thought I was asking
but embrace them.
They can only make
a generic question and knew the
response I wanted. They said: ‘No,
you a stronger
manager
we can only influence our game’. and a
I told them that wasn’t the better
case. I said that an early goal player.”
I quickly realised I had to get out of
that mindset. Once I did that I felt
at home in the big games.
H GA
Positive vibes only NC
U
M
I tried to ease everyone’s nerves by
CR
saying: ‘Listen: just play your normal
game and do what comes naturally’.
RELEGATION
You have to trust each other and
DECIDER
believe that you’re going to win no
matter who you’re playing, no matter
what’s at stake. It doesn’t matter
whether it’s a friendly or a cup final –
the game is still the same.
 PERFORMANCE

Entertain players before a season-defining

contest and you’ll come out on top, advises
Southend and former Hull boss Phil Brown
need to shake things up and surprise
the players. At Bolton we once had
two comedians come in and give
a team talk. At the time you’re
thinking: ‘What’s this all about?’, but
it had a fantastic impact because
the tension and nerves completely
disappeared. Laughter is a great way
You really need to balance the time of getting the players relaxed and
you’re spending on the pitch with ready for a big game.
H GA
NC the time you’ve got the players in
U to discuss tactics and the approach When should you deliver
M
CR

you’re going to take on matchday. As your final message?

E

a manager you need to mix things up
PLAY-OFF to keep the players interested.
FINAL
Did you try anything out
of the ordinary?
The norm can become boring because
you get used to people’s reactions
and characters – sometimes you
It would probably be two hours before
the start of the match that I’d give the
players their last piece of information.
Players can retain only two or three
instructions at a time, so I think the
hours before the match are theirs to
go through their own routines and
feel as comfortable as they can.

Burnley and Wales striker Sam Vokes won

H GA
the Championship title with Wolves in 2009 NC
U

M
CR

E
– he reveals how to get over the winning line
TITLE
“You obviously don’t want to get DECIDER
ahead of yourself, but remember how
hard you’ve worked to get to this
position in the first place.
In the build-up to the match you’ll get
a sense of just how important the game
is, not only to you and your team-mates
but also to the fans and the club you’re
representing. Yes, you need to take that
on board, but you also need to focus on
your own game and what has got
the team to this point.
Try to keep a clear head and
give yourself a chance to think
about what you need to do as
an individual. I always like to
go out for a morning walk on
a big matchday and then, when
kick-off arrives, take everything
in and don’t force things by
wandering out of position in
Welsh pair
search of an early touch. s
David Edward
Above all, enjoy it, because lebrate
and Vokes ce
these matches don’t come
around very often.”

FourFourTwo.com/Performance May 2016 121

 SUNDAY
LEAGUEL
SURVIVA
GUIDE
Turn leftovers into
match fuel with
this pair of recipes
from West Ham
United and England
chef Tim De’Ath
PRE-MATCH
+ Energy-boosting stir-fry
In the fridge and cupboard
1-2 lean chicken breasts,
sliced into strips
A handful of spinach leaves
1 pepper, sliced into strips
A handful of mushrooms, sliced
1 pack of instant noodles
½ lemon or lime (or 1 tablespoon
of lemon juice)
1-inch piece of ginger
What to do with it
Stir-fry the chicken for five minutes,
then add in the spinach, mushrooms
and peppers with the lemon juice and
ginger, if you have any. Cook for an
additional two or three minutes.
Cook the noodles. Keep them plain,
so that your stomach isn’t overworked
trying to digest strong flavours, and
add them to the stir-fry at the end.
Pad out the meal with a small
tossed salad. Cucumber, lettuce and
plain yoghurt will do the job, seasoned
with salt and pepper for flavour.
Words Huw Davies
Why it’ll help
They’re not called super noodles
for nothing: get carb-loading and
122 May 2016 FourFourTwo.com/Performance
MUM...
IS THIS
ALL WE’VE
GOT?
EN
A
TO E T
H
3 hours
W
before
kick-off
come kick-off time you will be ripe
and ready for the 90 minutes ahead.
Putting the chicken and mushrooms
in there gets vital protein into your
system, while the peppers have
anti-oxidant properties and the iron
in spinach improves cardiovascular
endurance, so you can go the full
90 minutes or more without dying.
The lemon and ginger provide taste,
mostly, but also vitamin C (lemon)
and better circulation of the blood
(ginger), which will help to settle your
stomach should you start to suffer
from any pre-match nerves.
POST-MATCH
+ Eggs à la recovery
A
TO E T
EN
In the fridge
H
W
1-2 hours
and cupboard after the
3-4 eggs, beaten game
1 rasher of lean bacon, sliced
1 sausage, sliced
1 small onion, chopped
1 pepper, sliced into strips
A handful of mushrooms, sliced
A sprinkle of cheese
What to do with it Why it’ll help
Fry the bacon, sausage and onion until The protein in the eggs make them
browned, then add the pepper and great for post-match recovery, and
mushrooms. Cook for a few minutes. they’re easy to digest, too. Bacon,
Add the eggs, and season with salt and sausage and cheese all get a bad
pepper. Scramble together and mix in reputation, but if you have decent
the cheese, but not too much of it. The lean meats in the fridge and don’t go
result won’t look pretty, but it’ll taste overboard on quantity, the protein
good and repair your aching body. within will justify the great taste.
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 MY PERFECT XI

Marc Overmars
The former Ajax, Arsenal and Barça winger picks a classic Dutch 4-3-3,
eight countrymen and a player-manager – but there’s English grit, too

GK  EDWIN VAN DER SAR LB FRANK DE BOER AM RONALDINHO

I was fortunate enough to have played
with many great goalkeepers, but
Edwin deserves this spot because he
managed to play at a world-class level
for basically the whole of his career.
If you want to collect trophies, you need
a true winner in your team. He was good
at setting up the passing game from
the back, and also managed to score
regularly. We still work together at Ajax.
He was, without any doubt, one of the
best I’ve ever played with. At Barcelona
he could win games for us on his own. SUBSTITUTES
I’d allow him to move freely across the
pitch, as that’s when he’s at his best.

RB MARTIN KEOWN CM EDGAR DAVIDS RW THIERRY HENRY

He was hard as nails and feared by many
a striker. I couldn’t leave him out of my
team so I’ve moved him to the right –
with Thierry Henry in front of him, we’d
need some defensive power there.
CB FRANK RIJKAARD
Our leader at Ajax when we won the
Champions League under Louis van
Gaal, he made sure the team’s balance
was right and could play in midfield, too,
as he proved in that glorious Milan team.
CB JAAP STAM
He was strong as a horse, faster than
most people thought and very, very
difficult to get past. I always preferred
having him on my team than having to
confront him with Manchester United.
RB
MARTIN
KEOWN
Just like Frank de Boer, he was a winner
who’d take the rest of the team in tow
whenever necessary. But because of his
fighting attitude, people forget he was
technically outstanding as well.
CM PHILLIP COCU
I always thought highly of him: he was
smart, had a great left foot, made the
perfect connection between defence
and attack, and never let his team
down. His great vision as a player serves
him well these days as a coach at PSV.
GK
EDWIN
VAN DER SAR
CB
FRANK
RIJKAARD
CM
What can I say? He’s a living legend.
I enjoyed my time with him at Highbury.
We had a very strong team in those
days, but the Frenchman was the one
who stood out as a world-class player.
1
CF DENNIS BERGKAMP DAVID SEAMAN
A true genius, he could destroy any An Arsenal and England
defence with his splendid touch – but legend, he conceded just 17
he’s also a wonderful, modest guy and goals the year after we won
a team player who made us all better. He the Double – a club record.
deserved that statue at the Emirates!
LW MARC OVERMARS
I can pick myself in this line-up, right?
I wouldn’t miss the chance to play in this
dream team if I could! I’d have the time
of my life on the left wing of this – very
attacking, granted – 4-3-3 formation.
2
CB LB JARI LITMANEN
He was an impressive
playmaker who, like me,
was at Ajax and Barcelona.
JAAP FRANK
STAM DE BOER
CM

AM
EDGAR PHILLIP
DAVIDS COCU
3
PATRICK KLUIVERT
RW LW
Patrick was a killer striker
RONALDINHO with a great technique.

PLAYER-MANAGER
IJKAARD
THIERRY CF MARC great year in
HENRY OVERMARS of the Dutch
and helped
a become one
the best sides
the world. He
DENNIS s always very
Interview Bart Cop

BERGKAMP pen with his

ayers. Frank’s
better coach
han he thinks.

YOUR NEXT FOURFOURTWO IS ON SALE MAY 4