37: Ben Foster, Birmingham City, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, Barclays Premier League 2010/11 Collector Binder

Managerial rivalries have always added a little extra spice to the beautiful game. Back in 1974 the legendary Brian Clough and Don Revie’s acrimonious relationship came to a head in a live television interview following the former’s premature exit from the latter’s beloved Leeds United. The competition between Crystal Palace’s Terry Venables and Brighton and Hove Albion’s Alan Mullery in the late 1970s grew into one of the most farcical yet fierce rivalries in the M23 corridor with ‘El Gatwicko’ a season highlight for both sets of fans. Sir Alex Ferguson’s infamous mind games with an emotional Kevin Keegan led to one of the most famous meltdowns in 90s pop culture let alone football and it wasn’t long before the wily Scot set his sights on Arsenal’s intellectual Arsene Wenger.

While Manchester United’s clashes with the Gunners after the turn of the century led to tussles in the tunnel, flying pizzas and Wenger standing on top of the Old Trafford dugout it wasn’t just Ferguson trading barbs with the Frenchman. Shortly after his arrival in England, Chelsea’s self-proclaimed ‘Special One’, Jose Mourinho, described Wenger as “a voyeur” following his criticism of their London rivals’ transfer policy. Not content with accusing the Frenchman of “having a big telescope to see what happens in other families”, Mourinho was quick to attack Wenger again during his second spell at Chelsea when he labelled the Arsenal boss a “specialist in failure” following the Gunners’ eight years without a trophy. “If I do that in Chelsea…I leave and don’t come back.”

Failure in football is a relative concept. Within a few months of Mourinho’s comments Arsenal had won the FA Cup to end their barren run and retained the trophy the following year. Despite winning the Premier League in the 2014/15 season an abject defence of their title saw Mourinho packing his bags before Christmas. For those of us not so used to the top of the table such achievements hardly seem like failures especially when the game can be so much crueller than not winning a major trophy for a few years. Spare a thought for fans of the Highland League’s Fort William who endured a 73-match winless steak across four seasons between 2016 and 2019. On an individual level there are a handful of players who have endured relegation from the Premier League on multiple occasions. Welsh striker Nathan Blake suffered the drop once with Sheffield United, Blackburn Rovers and Wolverhampton Wanderers and twice with Bolton Wanderers while Icelandic defender Hermann Hreidarsson went down with all five clubs he represented in the English top flight (Crystal Palace, Wimbledon, Ipswich Town, Charlton Athletic and Portsmouth).

In May 2022 Ben Foster joined this unenviable club following his third Premier League relegation with Watford to go with his drops to the Championship with Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion. On this occasion the veteran goalkeeper did not hold back in his assessment of the Hornets’ season stating “you just don't really know what you're going to get from us, to be perfectly honest…We've got too many players who are happy to put it in for an hour, seventy minutes, but then probably fall off and happily let it go in the last twenty minutes.” Anyone who saw the Hertfordshire side play this season would struggle to disagree as Watford ran through three managers and a host of unremarkable players in their attempt to remain in the top flight. What is certain is that Foster did his utmost to keep them there with impressive saves in key matches belying both his age and the quality of the defence in front of him.

Foster started his career at Stoke City but left the club after five years, a series of loan spells and no first team appearances for £1m to Manchester United. He was instantly sent out on loan to Watford ahead of the 2005/06 season and helped the Hornets to Championship promotion via the play-offs. His manager at Vicarage Road, Aidy Boothroyd, boldly claimed that Foster was “better than…Edwin van der Sar” and would soon become “the best goalkeeper in the world”. The first of these bold proclamations was undermined somewhat by Watford shipping thirty more goals than United and finishing at the opposite end of the table in the following campaign but Foster’s performances hinted at significant promise despite his relegation. Across the next three years Foster made just 23 appearances for the Red Devils but picked up two League Cup winners’ medals by virtue of his penalty shootout heroics against Tottenham Hotspur in 2009 and a substitute bench berth the following year. His man of the match performance in the former earned him a second England cap but indifferent form and a strained relationship with Fabio Capello saw him miss out on the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. In the same summer he departed Old Trafford for Birmingham City for a fee in the region of £4m.

At St Andrew’s Foster made an instant impact with a save from a Morten Gamst Pedersen penalty on home debut in a 2-1 victory over Blackburn. His heroics saw Birmingham secure a 1-0 win over reigning champions Chelsea despite the Blues’ 32 shots on goal but, with only six other victories in the league, they suffered relegation to the Championship at the end of the 2010/11 season. Nevertheless, buoyed by a man of the match performance from Foster, they shocked the football world with a League Cup final victory over Arsenal and the keeper was unsurprisingly named the club’s Player of the Season. He joined West Bromwich Albion on loan for the 2011/12 campaign where his ten clean sheets helped the Baggies to a top-half Premier League finish and once again secured him a Player of the Season award. He helped the club to an even better eighth-place the following season and was once again named Player of the Year in 2013/14 earning him a return to the England squad for the 2014 World Cup. Despite West Brom’s poor end to the 2016/17 campaign Foster was nominated for the Football Writers Association’s Player of the Year award. Unfortunately for the Baggies their poor form continued into the 2017/18 season, compounded by some bizarre antics off the pitch involving Gareth Barry and a stolen Spanish taxi, and the club were relegated to the Championship despite Foster’s best efforts between the sticks.

Although his four seasons at Watford saw two further relegations from the top flight Ben Foster was a near constant presence in a Hornets’ side that went through eight managers and countless playing staff in that time. In one sense demotion to the league below is the ultimate footballing failure and therefore Foster could be seen as a true specialist to borrow Jose Mourinho’s term. However, this would ignore the countless saves to keep his sides in games where they punched above their weight and the positive light in which he has been viewed by the supporters of the teams he has represented. He may be nearing forty but since when has that stopped a good goalkeeper? Any club looking for an experienced head and safe pair of hands could do a lot worse than snapping the currently unattached Foster up even if they do find themselves in a relegation battle.