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119: Nani, Portugal, FIFA World Cup Russia 2018, Panini Official Licensed Sticker Album

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Mat Jolin-Beech takes a look at a player equally capable of brilliance and brain fade with little indication of which you’ll be getting on any given day. Then again it must be hard balancing club and international duties with the pressures of being part of one of the noughties’ biggest boy bands alongside Darren Bent . As Mat says below look at the photos. Some players are great. Some players are not. Some have careers better than their potential led them to have any right to have. Some fail to hit that potential and underwhelm massively. Then there is Nani who, somehow, managed to fall into all of the above. Plus, he is seemingly still playing. I thought he’d retired years ago. But alas, he is still playing and currently (at the time of writing at least) back in his homeland of Portugal with Estrela Amadora. As well as various trophies, he also has the accolades of being a founding member of JLS (seriously, look at photos – he’s in there), and being a full-time wind up merchant. Top o
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U8: Paul Dalglish, Newcastle United, Merlin’s Premier League 99 Official Sticker Collection, Transfer Update Edition

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There are many signs you are getting old. It could be the three days of exhaustion you suffer after daring to take part in something resembling social activity. Maybe it’s the insidious emergence of more and more grey hairs everywhere and anywhere. Perhaps it’s the increasing level of effort needed to vacate a chair. Following any form of professional sport is unhelpful too. In this year’s County Championship the children of former England captains Mike Atherton, Michael Vaughan and Andrew Flintoff have all made telling contributions across the various cricketing formats. A few months earlier the progeny of both Neil Danns and Jason Koumas scored for Liverpool in their FA Cup win over Southampton while Ipswich Town celebrated their return to the Premier League by signing Rory Delap ’s son Liam to join David Hirst ’s lad George. Apparently Manchester City’s Norwegian goal robot also had a father who played in the English top flight but that would suggest he was in anyway human. Footba
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230: Tim Wiese, Germany, Panini UEFA Euro 2012 Official Sticker Album

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Our new post sees Emlyn Shepherdson-Jones step off the hallowed turf and into the squared circle. There is a lot of commonality between the two and perhaps both worlds could learn more from each other. Perhaps the road to Wrestlemania 41 could see the WWE’s superstars complaining about fixture congestion or VAR intervening to sort out some steel chair skulduggery. The introduction of the aforementioned folding furniture could add even more to those “scenes no one (literally everyone) wants to see” on the football pitch. Today’s subject might have some pointers. Over to Emlyn. Professional Football and Professional Wrestling have crossed over more often than one might expect. In 1998, the World Wrestling Federation held a live event in London known as Capital Carnage. Keen to generate some buzz around the event, the PR machine decided to try and attract some of those 'soccer' fans to watch some grappling. Which glamorous player would they go for from the available London clubs?
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91: Josh McEachran, Chelsea, Panini Adrenalyn XL Champions League 11/12

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Mat Jolin-Beech steps away from his usual hunting ground of the Old Trafford circus to head south to the, arguably, even more farcical scenes taking place in South West London since the arrival of Todd Boehly. In the past two years the American’s approach to the Premier League has seen six different men in the dugout, a squad the size of a small principality and less than desirable twelfth and sixth placed finishes. Then again he might just be carrying on some Chelsea traditions. Over to Mat. On the back of Chelsea offering England penalty ice man Cole Palmer a new, nine (yes, nine) year, contract the suspicions of the Blues kicking the FFP can down the line began bubbling. Then you consider that this summer they have spent [at the time of writing] £185.4m on ten players – with more expected. Twenty players have left, leaving them with a squad of 43. This is a legitimate 43 as well, not one made up of under 15s who have had a decent twenty minutes in a training game against the over 55
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111: Gary Breen, Coventry City, Merlin’s F.A. Premier League 2001 Official Sticker Collection

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Long before the 1863 Laws of the Game were codified by the newly formed Football Association the various versions of the sport played all had a few things in common. The basic aim of the game, as highlighted by the genius punditry of Michael Owen , was to kick a ball in a certain place more often than your opponent. While some versions were more liberal about how the ball was moved about the general consensus was that it should be kicked. Moreover even the early games of ‘mob football’ involving entire villages, inflated pigs bladders and extreme violence were clearly carried out as team games. The fact that football is about two groups of eleven players trying to get the better of each other seems to be forgotten by some fans who seem more engrossed in the career of individuals rather than the fortunes of their local or familial club. Supporters of Argentina’s most talented tax evader could hide behind a veneer of following Barcelona until his recent moves to Paris Saint-Germain and
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167: Alan Curbishley, Charlton Athletic, Merlin’s F.A. Premier League 05 Official Sticker Album, Autograph Edition

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Mat Jolin-Beech addresses the elephant in the FA’s room at the moment with a look at some of the runners and riders for the vacant England men’s team job. Our subject did great things in South East London once upon a time and, as an aside, his brother has been manager of The Who since the 1970s so clearly has the necessary skills to deal with rockstar attitudes. Over to Mat to plead his case. Now the dust has settled on another England failure, although getting to the Euro 2024 finals and being beaten by a promising and already good Spain team, the Three Lions are looking for a new manager. Gareth Southgate , for all the hate he received, did a decent job with the national team. Two finals, a semi-final and a quarter. Not bad for a national that failed to qualify for the Euros only back in 2008 . Yes, he probably should have been more adventurous with his tactics, style, and substitutions. Yes, the football was the most turgid and stodgy thing I have seen in a long, long time, and rem
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465: Mark Clattenburg, Referee, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, Barclays Premier League 2010/11 Collector Binder

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Football as we know and love it is back. Gone is the unity of major international tournaments in place of nine months of social media beef and screaming obscenities at that bloke you professed your undying love for in the summer. The optimism you may have, briefly, experienced as Ollie Watkins crashed his shot past Bart Verbruggen can now be put aside for the misery of a barren run in the winter months or a humiliating FA Cup exit. Moreover the men in the middle come back under the microscope after a summer of almost frightening levels of competence. Despite spending my formative years suggesting that the nation’s referees enjoyed a bit too much extracurricular self-love there were very few who stood out as individuals. As a Football Italia obsessive I recognised the imperious Pierluigi Collina and enjoyed the flourishes of John Toro Rendon, whom we imaginatively nicknamed ‘The Colombian Ref’ in the primary school playground , at France ’98 but the vast majority of the men in black we
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