A Sticker's Worth 500 Words

We are very pleased to present our first ever, but hopefully not last, guest post from Rob Spooner who many of you will know from the excellent Shooting Stars account on Twitter. Rob has provided us all with some great nostalgic imagery over the last few years and has given us plenty of inspiration . It’s great to have him on board and, by diving in with an international goalkeeper with cult hero status in two countries, he’s certainly hit the brief. Thanks for getting involved mate. Enjoy! A privilege to do a guest spot for this amazing blog. The topic could not be wasted. In the modern game there are so many foreigners in the top tier of English football but back in August 1992 foreign players were more of a rarity. On the opening weekend of Sky’s Whole New Ball Game only thirteen non-British or Irish players appeared. Four of those were goalkeepers: Manchester United’s Peter Schmeichel, Ipswich Town’s Craig Forrest, Wimbledon’s Hans Segers, the only foreign player in Sky’s launch

The first weekend of January can only mean the Third Round of the oldest club football competition and time to raid the kitchen drawers for as much tin foil as you can find to fashion yourself a piece of silverware for a freezing Saturday afternoon of potential drama. This being 2024, however, the first fixture took place on Thursday and saw two lower mid-table Premier League sides play out an uninspiring draw with notable absentees from their starting elevens which only gained any passing interest due to a contentious VAR decision. Crystal Palace and Everton, no doubt both hoping to forego the magic of the cup to focus on the league, will meet again in a replay which will probably produce another draw and go to penalties. Worst still are the managers in the upper echelons of the top flight who use this special time of year to complain about fixture congestion and suggest ways in which the competition can be further dismissed. It will be music to their ears, therefore, that the Footba