A Sticker's Worth 500 Words

This week Richard Allinson takes a look at a Premier League icon who lit up the Riverside on two separate occasions and well and truly won the hearts and minds of the locals. Sometimes the best things come in smaller packages. Over to Rich. Brazilians in the Premier League are ten-a-penny nowadays, and largely, they sound like the guests at your neighbour’s annual summer BBQ: Alisson, Arthur, Allan , Fred, Antony etc. Back in my day (i.e. the nineties) Brazilian imports were much more exciting and had jazzy names befitting the romanticised lines of “…learnt his skills on the streets of Belo Horizonte” or the more classic “…playing beach football on the Copacabana”. Perhaps the quintessential example of this was the diminutive midfielder Juninho, who shocked the world/caused a few raised eyebrows in North Yorkshire when he signed for Middlesbrough from Sao Paolo for £4.95m back in 1995. Only a number of months before the pint-sized playmaker’s arrival on Teeside, Boro were plying their ...

Mat Jolin-Beech takes a look at man seen by a deity by some and with a left foot capable of producing magic. Not afraid to play close to the line he pushed his luck with hardman Graeme Le Saux , became a little too acquainted with the goal line in the Merseyside Derby and served a ban for showing his support to Liverpool’s striking dockers. Over to Mat for more. Underappreciated. Underrated. Or maybe overrated. Played above his station. Or property magnate? They are the many sides to one Robbie Fowler. To those on the red half of Liverpool, he is still referred to as God. He plundered 183 goals in 369 games for the Reds. And yet, he only managed to get 26 caps for England and a mere seven goals. Now, even though he played at a time when top players in the English Premier ship were on only £50,000 a week (how did they manage?), he is now said to be worth £31m. That wealth, while started through football, has come through investing in property and running courses telling people how to ma...

This weekend always takes on a rather sombre tone as the country reflects on those who have lost their lives serving in the nation’s armed forces. Football fixtures will all start with a minute’s silence and, in some cases, the tones of ‘The Last Post’ which, regardless of your views on the military, has to be one of the most poignant pieces of music in existence. Across the English leagues clubs will wear special edition kits with the iconic poppy to raise funds for the Royal British Legion. As always there will be an unpleasant Twitter storm regarding certain players’ wishes not to wear the logo which has become weaponised beyond recognition in the age of social media. The first Remembrance Day was held in 1919 just a year after the armistice was signed to bring the First World War to an end with the poppy emerging as a symbol of reflection following the poem ‘In Flanders Field’ by Canadian military physician John McCrae. Nearly ten million servicemen lost their lives on both sides w...

It’s Strictly season again if you haven’t noticed and former Arsenal and England captain Tony Adams is the latest former footballer to take his chances on the dancefloor. Adams hasn’t quite forged the same formidable partnership with Katya Jones as he did alongside Steve Bould in the Gunners’ back four but to give him his dues he has noticeably improved as the weeks have gone by. Fellow Gooner Alex Scott impressed in the flagship BBC entertainment show finishing in fifth while, somewhat unsurprisingly, Robbie Savage had a lot of fun donning the sequins and fake tan. Goalkeeping legends Peter Schmeichel and David James weren’t quite so natural under the glitter ball while Peter Shilton was spectacularly dreadful showcasing the sort of agility that saw him out jumped by an Argentinian midget back in 1986. It’s not just in the country’s premier TV dance competition where former footballers have turned up to have a go at something new. David Seaman, Lee Sharpe and Graeme Le Saux have...