A Sticker's Worth 500 Words

Mat Jolin-Beech is back with another Fantasy Premier League favourite today and a man of many talents.  While Simon Rodger and Neville Southall had to settle for just having pop star good looks and Chris Waddle and Paul McGregor had a tilt at the music charts today’s subject managed to marry both talents when he fronted ‘The Players’ back in 2006. How many Premier League stars can claim to have sung the lead vocals on a Scandinavian hit single? Over to Mat for the answer. A club sacking their manager as they flounder in the relegation zone approaching Christmas is nothing new. In fact, its par for the course these days, as top tier money is sanctum. Sod trophies. So, when the news broke that Slaven Bilic had been given the boot, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise. However, off the back of West Bromwich Albion’s 1-1 draw at Manchester City, and that the Baggies were only three points off safety, it seemed a bit harsh. The default move here for chairmen with itchy trigger finge...

The creation of the Premier League, for better or for worse, undoubtedly changed football forever. From Sky’s slick live coverage to the globalisation of squads, England’s top tier was transformed and the undeniable success of the project meant that everyone has wanted a piece of the lucrative markets that have sprung up in its wake. Before an era of sleeve sponsors , endlessly updated FIFA games and in play betting one of these markets was children’s toys. Some, like Pro Star Soccer (the magnetic cousin of Subbuteo), fell by the way side . Others carved out a place in the hearts of 90s football lovers that could only be filled with plastic figurines with disproportionately large heads. That’s right people, it’s a Corinthian figure retrospective. With my Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket and a growing obsession with the beautiful game it was in the Penge branch of Woolworth’s (RIP) that I bought my first Corinthian figure. With Crystal Palace cruelly denied a place in the 199...

Mat Jolin-Beech takes a look today at a man who has taken the phrase “express yourself” very literally during his time representing Blackburn Rovers, Manchester United and England. Football is a sport after all and the looks of its players are pretty irrelevant. For every David Beckham there’s a Steve Ogrizovic . But then again there’s also Phil Jones. Over to Mat. More than ten years on from his debut, Chris Samba said the hype around his former teammate was fully justified. After less than 50 games for Blackburn Rovers, a £16.5 million deal saw one Philip Anthony Jones swap Ewood Park for Old Trafford. Touted as the new Duncan Edwards, there was certainly a lot of chat around the centre back with even thoughts he had the technique and temperament to play as a deep lying midfielder. That promise seems to have been lost. Stuck on a miserly £75,000 a week (how does he cope?), blighted by injuries, frozen out of Solskjaer’s first team plans, and with a face that has spawned a million m...

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while will maybe have spotted a few trends in terms of our subject matter. I have written one or two (ok, eight ) posts about former Crystal Palace stars and these have been interspersed with a few ( ten ) stories about Rich Allinson’s torrid love affair with Grimsby Town. There might have been a couple of things about Welsh goalkeepers from Emlyn and some ( several ) references to Mat Jolin-Beech’s fantasy teams in there too. Amidst these there have been some Football Manager heroes , a few mentions of how good Coventry City ’s kits were in the 90s and, every now and then, a genuine legend of the beautiful game . It’s fair to say that today’s subject fits more into the latter category. Shame he didn’t have a short spell on loan with Reading or Palace for good measure. David Robert Joseph Beckham OBE. 115 England caps. Champions League winner. Galactico. MLS pioneer. Free kick maestro. Global brand. Goldenballs. So much has been...

Emlyn Jones takes a look today at a character so big it seemed acceptable to stretch the definition of “sticker” to decidedly questionable levels. I too was at the Glastonbury festival that Emlyn mentions below and, based on the fact that he snuck me into the staff campsite for the last night, I would suggest that any prospective employers should not hire him to work security again anytime soon. Over to Mr Jones. Fellow @Sticker500 blogger Rich's article on Paul McGregor has inspired me to get all NME with the cover star of one of 1996's sweariest singles. As a student at Exeter University in 2007, a fellow resident in the distinctly penal Lafrowda halls sorted out Glastonbury tickets in exchange for us working as 'security'. Making sure nobody tried to scale an 18-foot fence and ensuring the security credentials of Chas and Dave's van aside, there were many highlights over the weekend, despite it being one of the wettest in history. One of my favourite performan...

Today Mat Jolin-Beech delves into the world of transfer rumours and how the desire for strength in depth at the bigger clubs can lead to some intriguing transactions. We also get some peak Harry Redknapp for good measure so time to wind down the Range Rover window and see what Mat has to say. As a Manchester United fan, I am used to transfer rumours flying around. Saga after saga, strange rumours, surprise deals and whispers that seem made up. The recent transfer window saw all of these. Saga = Sancho Strange rumour = Brooks Surprise deal = Cavani. Made up = A Ronaldo return (this is bubbling under now). But go back a few years, a few too many as it goes, back to the Ferguson era and a time where we were not a ridiculous outfit run by a banker and a PE teacher – to 2011/12. Ferdinand and Vidic were still in their pomp. Trophies a regular occurrence at Old Trafford. That defensive wall in front of De Gea was going great guns. But then that wall was cracked. Vidic suffered a knee injury...

In October 2020 Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon made his 650th appearance in Serie A during a 1-1 draw against Crotone. He followed this record up with a clean sheet in the Old Lady’s impressive 3-0 win against Barcelona which made him the first player to keep a Champions League clean sheet in four different decades. Furthermore, by making a first team appearance, Buffon continued a frankly ridiculous sequence dating back to the 1931/32 season where one of Sir Stanley Matthews, Peter Shilton or the Italian shot stopper have turned out between then and now. It’s as impressive as it is mildly disturbing. Such longevity has almost come to be expected of goalkeepers and today’s subject, Steve Ogrizovic, enjoyed a 23-year career taking in spells at Chesterfield, Liverpool, Shrewsbury Town and Coventry City . It was at Highfield Road that Ogrizovic spent the majority of his lengthy career, racking up over 500 appearances and even managing to score one goal in a 2-2 draw against Sheffiel...

Mat Jolin-Beech at the helm for today’s post. There’s not much more to add to that other than it’s important that we all take the time to look out for each other. And let’s not forget Gary Speed. He was really f***ing geeze. We here at A Sticker’s Worth 500 Words love diving into the trivial, amusing and often ridiculous nature of football, those who played the game, and its cult heroes. This is not going to be one of those pieces. If you want completely nonchalant, frivolous, and light-hearted, this is not one for you. Not to say this is going to be an 100% serious post – but it will touch on some serious points that need to be talked about, much like those on Dean Windass and Gary Charles . The player in question is one Gary Speed. I’ll be honest, being neither Welsh nor a Leeds United, Everton, Newcastle United, Bolton Wanderers or Sheffield United fan, I can’t say I had a soft spot for him as a player. If anything, he was often that annoying prick who could quite often ruin games ...

Richard Allinson channels his inner music critic today with a look at when the worlds of football and pop music collide. Yes, we may have touched on this once or twice before but when has that stopped us? It’s also worth your time to read this purely to justify Rich’s research to the long suffering Mrs Allinson who I’m quite frankly amazed hasn’t channelled her inner Geordie wing wizard and told Rich “It’s Goodbye”. Over to Rich. The other week I wrote about how Paul McGregor (the Kula Shaker looking bloke that used to play up front for Nottingham Forest) had twinned his career as a mildly successful mid-nineties footballer with being a slightly less than successful mid-nineties indie front man. At the time this dual shot at glory seemed absolutely normal, but on reflection it has to be said that Britpop and the nineties in general were completely batshit. Of course it wasn’t logical that someone would be simultaneously trying to impress those peas from the same pod Frank Clarke and...

Happy New Year! Let’s be honest 2021 can’t be worse than the absolute shitshow that has gone before but if we have learnt anything from it it’s that tempting fate isn’t a particularly bright idea. So rather than dwelling on the whole host of negatives that 2020 dredged up I’m going to take an opportunity to focus on some of the nicer things of a year that gave very little and took a lot. My wife and I became parents to a lovely baby boy back in October and it’s been an absolute joy getting to know him. I also started this blog with three of my best mates and it’s been a right laugh looking back at some of our footballing heroes. Both of these things have made it clear that there are some decent people out there – including the lads behind Chelsea’s ‘At The Bridge’ podcast. This one’s for you. As well as a love of the beautiful game, and the associated turbulent relationship with Crystal Palace Football Club, my Dad has passed on his obsession with music and books to me. Such an obsessi...