A Sticker's Worth 500 Words

Mat Jolin-Beech continues our trend of looking at underrated players playing in underappreciated positions for under the radar sides today with a look at a fine Finnish glovesman. Today’s subject reached the limelight with the kind of Premier League side that sadly seems to have been sidelined for slick, high energy attacking teams in recent years. We might pretend we care about gegenpressing but deep down we all long for an uncompromising centre-half , ageing continental midfielders and a prick in the mixer . Over to Mat for the all important heroic keeper. If asked to name where great goalkeepers emerge, you may respond with Italy (Zoff, Buffon, Peruzzi), Spain (Casillas, De Gea, Canizares), France (Barthez, Lloris) or even England if you’re feeling brave (Shilton, Banks, Seaman). As for glamorous clubs of England – Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and for those of an older vintage Leeds United, Everton, and Aston Villa. None of the above are in line for today’s post. But hang...

Happy Boxing Day! We hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and got a suitably questionable array of presents. Today Richard Allinson is taking a look at a German striker who came from the other side of the Iron Curtain to the blue side of Manchester leading the Citizens to celebrate their signing with some culturally insensitive references to the Luftwaffe. At least they didn’t force-feed him some Asda bratwurst I guess. Over to Rich. This blog was originally meant to be about ex-Blackburn Rovers and England winger Stuart Ripley, but unfortunately for Stuart as I was researching his life and career Uwe Rösler’s name cropped up and his story is genuinely incredible. So off to communist East Germany we go.  Like most people from these shores, Uwe first came to my attention when he was signed by Brian Horton for Manchester City in 1994. However, a look through the archives delivers a story that started way before he landed slap bang in the middle of a city soundtracked by Definitely Ma...

Social media is an ever-evolving behemoth. New platforms seem to emerge on a weekly basis and it’s no surprise that is has become such an all consuming part of most people’s lives. During the various stages of lockdown it has allowed us all to keep in touch with friends and relatives and it would be intensely hypocritical of me to start criticising its many shortcomings when I spend so much time spamming former footballers and podcasts with shameless plugs for this blog. Please accept this as a form of apology guys. On the other hand the speed of change make things like child protection and tackling online abuse a logistical nightmare. A double-edged sword if ever there was one. The speed of change has also rendered so many platforms, and features of said platforms, obsolete. Remember Facebook groups? Of course you do. But when did you last pay any attention to one? With WhatsApp providing the perfect home for our varying levels of shit chat now they really are a bit pointless. Again t...

In case it had escaped your notice Richard Allinson is slightly older than the rest of us at A Sticker’s Worth 500 Words. With great age comes great wisdom and Rich is often my ‘go-to’ when Jose Mourinho is at it again or situations like when I came to the realisation that RB Leipzig had replaced the highly rated TImo Werner with Alexander Sorloth who famously struggled to pose a threat against a Grimsby Town side which had been reduced to ten men after five minutes. Then again at other times great age reminds people of the time they had an onion on their belt – which was the style at the time. Over to Rich for a look at a player reminiscent of a bygone era. If I’m being honest, my interest in football peaked between 1988 and 1998. This period was bookended at the start by the first match I ever saw live (a Grimsby Town away trip to York City) and at the end by England’s brave, but very English exit from France 98. I still love Grimsby Town, the FA Cup and World Cup but after recently ...

When Gareth Southgate orchestrated England’s run to the semi-finals of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia he achieved much more than matching the nation’s best performance in a major tournament since the halcyon days of Euro 96. As well as ensuring record sales of M&S waistcoats and winning a penalty shootout Southgate’s crowning achievement in this tournament has to be that he actually made the England team likeable for the first time in years. They may have lacked the big characters of Italia 90 or the individual talents of the so-called ‘ Golden Generation ’ but they actually appeared to be a nice group of lads who were genuinely enjoying themselves on the biggest stage in the beautiful game. Until Domagoj Vida and his mates made it clear that football wasn’t actually coming home after all. Nevertheless, many of Southgate’s charges have carried on the good work they started in Russia with their ongoing commitment to various worthy causes. Raheem Sterling and Danny Rose have co...

Richard Allinson delves once again into the close relationship between the beautiful game and music with today’s post. It was pretty cool when Olof Mellberg got the lads from In Flames round to visit his Aston Villa team-mates and the multi-talented TV presenter/percussionist/striker Dion Dublin famously joined Ocean Colour Scene on stage with his Dube but neither of them can claim to have fronted their own Britpop ensemble. Over to Rich with a man who did. Recently, whilst taking a break between hand-sanitising and blog writing, I completed a quiz on the BBC website called ‘which footballer shares your taste in music?’ I have often wondered if there are any footballers out there who also had a taste for emo tinged punk rock played by bearded American men in their thirties and so I was intrigued to see the results of the quiz. Was Raheem Sterling actually a massive Spanish Love Songs fan? Was Jesse Lingard secretly doing his woeful dancing to I Just Want to Sell Out My Funeral by The...

In many ways the late Brian Clough was a man ahead of his time. A manager who built his teams around the concept of playing entertaining attacking football while his rivals looked to grind out results. An outspoken, media savvy wordsmith in an era of stiff upper lipped grey blurs. A committed socialist who even took to the picket lines with striking miners when the majority of his peers stuck to the age old view that football and politics don’t mix.  Above all else ‘old Big ‘ead’ was renowned for his astute man management which allowed him to get the very best out of his players and fly in the face of criticism, underestimation and, in some cases, deeply entrenched prejudice.. When Viv Anderson was subjected to racist abuse during an away game at Carlisle United Clough was quick to put an arm round the fledgling right-back telling him “I think you can play. Don’t let them influence you in any way.” This being Brian Clough though he also told Anderson to go back and warm up despite...

Mat Jolin-Beech explores the phenomenon of the substitute keeper with a look at one who was bloody good at his job but not quite as good as Peter Schmeichel and, apparently, Massimo Taibi . That being said today’s subject didn’t suffer the indignity of being mugged off by Matt Le Tissier (unlike Schmeichel and Taibi) or gifting Barnsley their highlight of the 1997/98 season (Schmeichel again) but he did have a pretty good view of all of the above. Over to Mat. There are many unsung heroes in the world. The front-line workers in recent months immediately spring to mind. The doctors, nurses, anyone in the NHS, refuse collectors, supermarket staff, the emergency services, and anyone who has been performing a vital service in keeping the world going with some semblance of normality. Whilst not in the realm of importance or significance as those, football has its own gaggle of under appreciated players. Every club will have them, some gaining cult status, some quietly going about their wo...

Richard Allinson takes us on a globetrotting journey today with more intriguing stops than Eric Djemba-Djemba ’s extended gap year. Today’s subject had it all: excellent hair , turning out for teams with fantastic names and a memorable stint at Coventry City in their peak years for exceptional kits. What’s not to love? Over to Rich. Phil Neville, Anton Ferdinand, Bradley Wright-Phillips, Sammy Ameobi, Tesfaye Bram... actually I best leave it there. Football is littered with players that aren’t quite as good as their siblings. However, one man who has a respectable claim to be the biggest success of his family’s footballing dynasty is Roy Wegerle. His brothers Steve and Geoff both had decent careers in the USA, but it was Roy who really hit the big time/Coventry. Where Geoff and Steve did excel though was in being the coolest looking f***ers to ever play the game. Seriously, check them out. They might as well have been called Geoff and Stevie Ramone.  Now, pretty much everyone tha...