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285: Denis Irwin, Manchester United, Merlin’s Premier League 97 Official Sticker Collection

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Mat Jolin-Beech takes a look back at happier times at Old Trafford when the Manchester United faithful could rely on players to turn up for big occasions and put themselves about to pick up important results. Luckily they have had good reminders of this from Scott McTominay’s Serie A victory with Napoli, Dean Henderson’s FA Cup final heroics for Crystal Palace and Jadon Sancho providing a goal and an assist to help Chelsea win the Europa Vauxhall Conference League. Over to Mat to get all misty-eyed. Under appreciated footballers. Cult Heroes. The tireless workers. That is the backbone of who we write about here at A Sticker’s Worth 500 Words. No player more so than today’s subject epitomises that. One Joseph (who knew?) Denis Irwin. Mr Reliable. He comes to mind off the back of a YouTube (or possibly Facebook) poll to Manchester United fans: if your life depended on it, who would you want to take, and score, a penalty? Many votes went the ways of messrs Ronaldo, Rooney , Fernandes, et...
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467: Gifton Noel-Williams, Watford, Merlin’s F.A. Premier League 2000, Millennium Edition Sticker Collection

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In 1892 the Football League introduced its Second Division and the first two clubs to experience promotion to the top flight were Darwen and Sheffield United. While the Blades enjoyed a relatively comfortable 1893/94 campaign, finishing in tenth, Darwen finished second bottom and, having lost their “test match” against Small Heath, began a footballing tradition of suffering an instant return to the second tier. At the end of the 1898/99 season Darwen finished bottom of the Second Division with just nine points having conceded 141 goals and decided not to stand for re-election to the competition. They spent the entirety of the twentieth century playing in regional leagues and were dissolved in 2009 having fallen into financial difficulties. Darwen were one of the founding members of the Football League and were also the first club to be officially relegated after finishing bottom of the pile in the season prior to the birth of the Second Division. Yo-yo clubs were clearly a thing before...
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179: Danny Simpson, Leicester City, Merlin’s Premier League 2015 Official Sticker Collection

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Mat Jolin-Beech brings us something resembling a season review of what has been an interesting campaign for a number of reasons. Newcastle United won the Carabao/Worthington/Coca-Cola/Rumbelows Cup to end a trophy drought stretching back to their Intertoto Cup triumph in 2006 (and their first domestic success since 1955). Crystal Palace won the FA Cup to register a first major trophy in their history because apparently the Zenith Data Systems Cup doesn’t count. Tottenham Hotspur managed to finish one place above the relegation zone and win the Europa League to take the term “Spursy” to strange new places. Over to Mat to take a closer look at the top flight. Leicester City have had an awful season. Relegated. Many, many home games with straight defeats without scoring. Only Southampton being even more terrible has saved some of their blushes. It wasn’t too long ago that they won the league.  Now, Danny Simpson is not a bad player. True, he’ll never top many Ballon d’Or lists or ...
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140: Chris Armstrong, Crystal Palace, Merlin’s Premier League 95 Sticker Collection

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It’s FA Cup final day and Crystal Palace take on Manchester City at Wembley in what should be the showpiece finale to the English football season. As the Zenith Data Systems Cup apparently doesn’t count as a major trophy this presents the Eagles with a chance to win the first piece of significant silverware in their history while City will be competing in their third consecutive FA Cup final aiming to win the world’s oldest cup competition for the ninth time. At the time of writing Palace are in their now traditional twelfth position in the Premier League while City are contemplating a devastating campaign battling for a Champions League spot having surrendered their league title to Liverpool. All neutrals are obviously deeply concerned for their plight and have definitely not been basking in their misery. There are a number of reasons why I want Palace to win today. 36 years of following the Eagles is clearly the most important of these and I am so happy that we’ve taken the cup c...
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44: Oscar, Brasil, Panini 2014 FIFA World Cup Brasil Official Licensed Sticker Album

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Mat Jolin-Beech takes a look at a player who seemingly sacrificed his prime years as a professional to chase the big bucks in an upstart league. While this epithet could easily apply to Sadio Mane or Ivan Toney the focus is slightly further east and on a Chelsea team which almost acted as a feeder club for the Chinese Super League in the 2010s. Someone probably ended up at Vitesse Arnhem too for good measure. Over to Mat. The Saudi league is the current residence for ageing, over the hill footballers, and those seeking refuge from Europe and a huge pay check. And Ronaldo. But it is not he first foreign league from a non-footballing land – at least not one where it traditionally has a foothold. There was the US in the 70s with the North American Soccer League (I still feel dirty writing soccer and not football). We’re riding the Saudi and middle eastern wave right now – with the oil money attracting many who are seeking financial security for them and their families. But a decade ago ...
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56: Chris Coleman, Blackburn Rovers, Panini Football Sticker Album, The Official PFA Collection, A-Z of ALL the Top Players from All the Top Teams in ‘97

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Emlyn Shepherdson-Jones takes us on a journey through the career of a national icon today who took the Welsh men’s national football team to the brink of continental glory. His commitment to his country was evident in the accompanying quote for today’s sticker where he stated “I have my heart set on a place in France in 1998 with Wales”. These words obviously came off the back of back-to-back thrashings of San Marino in the summer of 1996 rather than the subsequent drubbing at the hands of the Netherlands and a ten goal thriller with Turkey. Eighteen years later, however, he was in France with the Red Dragons. Over to Emlyn with the rest. I grew up speaking Welsh with my father, and still retain a level of fluency in the language, but have to take steps to try and retain the skill. One useful technique for this is utilising the Welsh language channel S4C, with the coverage of the Welsh football and rugby teams' fixtures with Welsh commentary a great option. In addition to this, so...
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591: Kylian Mbappé, France, Panini UEFA Euro 2020 Official Licensed Sticker Album, Tournament Edition, 444: Steven Gerrard, Liverpool, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, 2009/10 and 21: Roberto Carlos, Brasil, Panini World Cup France 98

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We celebrate five years of our blog in this post and we would like to start by saying thank you to anyone who has read, shared, commented, contributed or suggested content. It’s insane to think that the Covid-19 lockdowns which inspired this were so long ago and the fact that anyone is still engaging with it now that they have the ability to have actual friends or lives is incredibly flattering. When we started suggesting ideas for this collaborative effort we thought it might be time to be a bit braver than our usual tributes to genuine global icons , club heroes and substitute goalkeepers . Today we come for three players we believe to be overrated. They are clearly all excellent footballers (and we really can’t talk ) and some of them might be really nice blokes (see above) but there’s just something not quite right for us. We’ll start across the Channel with Emlyn Shepherdson-Jones and someone who might prove us all even more wrong than we probably are. When the call came through...
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