A Sticker's Worth 500 Words

Today Emlyn Jones takes a look at a man who proves that the beauty of football often rests in the stories it creates and that the majority of the game’s fans would much rather read about a man who ate nine dinners on one coach trip than one who doesn’t like films . Additionally if there are any publicists out there looking for a salesman I think Emlyn might do a good job. Over to Mr Jones. Hundreds of football autobiographies are released each year, particularly following any strong showings in international tournaments; leading to hastily arranged tomes cashing in on the footballing Zeitgeist. Wayne Rooney released the first of, to date, three autobiographies at the age of 20, capitalising on England’s narrow World Cup wins over the mighty Paraguay and Ecuador. The bulk of these are transparently ghost-written, with little insight beyond ‘Born, trained, was good at the football, scored some goals’. However, every once in a while, a genuinely fascinating book is released that gives in...

You might have noticed from some of our earlier posts that all of us here at A Sticker’s Worth 500 Words have a soft spot for a player with exceptional hair. Clearly some of you have as, no doubt influenced by our ramblings about the likes of Jason Lee , Domagoj Vida and Simon Rodger , our good friend Chris sent us a message the other day urging us to check out a timeline of today’s subject’s hairstyles. I would strongly recommend you do the same by clicking here . Even the font of all knowledge, Wikipedia, acknowledges the importance of Abel Xavier’s appearance describing him as one of the key figures of Euro 2000 “not only due to playing some of his best football but also due to a distinctly bleached-blonde hairstyle with a matching beard”. Xavier was undoubtedly pivotal in Portugal’s progress to the tournament’s semi-finals as part of a defence that recovered from conceding twice in the first twenty minutes against England (courtesy of Paul Scholes and Steve McManaman) to keep cle...

In the world of work the phrase “never go back” is often bandied about. After all, if you left a job (or got asked to leave a job), why would you want to return to your former employers? In football returning to a former club can be portrayed by some as an admittance of failure or a lack of ambition but the game is full of players who have made such moves for a range of reasons. For some, like Kevin Davies , it was due to a struggle to hit the expected heights but there are plenty of others who returned to an old flame to reignite a career or, like Brian Deane , finish their careers where they first hit the headlines. And then there’s Neil Shipperley. Neil Shipperley first arrived at Selhurst Park following a spell at Southampton where his first-team opportunities were limited by the arrival of Egil Ostenstad and the continuing excellence of Matt Le Tissier . Oh, and Graeme Souness signing ‘George Weah’s cousin’ Ali Dia (rather than George Weah’s actual cousin Christopher Wreh ) due to...

Today Emlyn Jones is taking a closer look at a larger than life character from the world of 90s football. Neil Ruddock’s brief spell at Crystal Palace was interesting to say the least but my main memory comes from an FA Cup clash where ‘Razor’ was brought on for the injured Fan Zhiyi and given the unenviable task of marking Kevin Phillips in the middle of his 30-goal season. I won’t go into too much detail but let’s just say that Ruddock spent a lot of time on his arse. Over to Emlyn. The subject of today's article is an example of the small Venn diagram intersection of players to have played for both Millwall and West Ham United and, befitting such a combination, has doubtless been described on a couple of occasions as being 'pwopa nawty'. Neil Ruddock began his career with Millwall, but didn't play a league game for the club before transferring to Tottenham Hotspur. Unfortunately, he broke his leg on his debut and played only a handful of games before returning to Mi...

I saw my parents for the first time in nearly six months the other day – the first time since the Covid-19 lockdown and therefore the first time since I started this blog. Whenever I see my folks I’m presented with a bag of stuff ranging from post that I probably should change my address on (it has been nearly eight years) to suggested reading or listening. This time though I was presented with a tin of random football cards from some of the less established series that graced the 1990s including a wad of Pro Match cards and a deck of the questionable attempt by the table football legends at Subbuteo to enter the trading card market: Subbuteo Squads. I have some distinct memories related to these cards. First of all getting in trouble in Year 3 for knocking a wad of them out the hands of a kid in the year above (it was in self defence I promise) and secondly my Dad and I trying to get our heads round the game during a three hour train journey between Westport and Dublin. Dad fell aslee...

Emlyn Jones is at the helm for today’s post. A few weeks ago Emlyn’s post on David Hirst highlighted some of football’s funniest injuries and, when I first read it, genuinely made me laugh out loud in a hospital corridor. Today’s subject didn’t feature in that post as his decision to get in the way of a powerful free kick was anything but amusing. Over to Emlyn. The phrase ‘one of our own’ is a favourite among modern football fans, the explosion in global transfers of the early 90s and increased propensity for agents garnishing signing on fees making genuine local players an increasingly noteworthy rarity; something to be recognised and celebrated. Alan Smith was born in Rothwell, Yorkshire, and having come through Leeds United’s youth teams marked his senior debut with a goal against Liverpool. The 1998/99 season was a breakthrough one for Smith (and the appalling curtains depicted in his sticker). As a local boy, he was hugely popular with fans, and a title challenge and foray into ...

During one of my recent forays into actual social contact (we’ll see how long that lasts) my friend Stu asked me “if you were to have any player’s career, whose would you have?” Treating the question as if I were Matt Hancock responding to questions about the availability of PPE or the due date for a world-beating Track and Trace app I provided Stu with a list of players I wouldn’t want to have emulated rather than an actual answer to the question. However, unlike Matt Hancock, I now have an actual answer for Stu and that answer is Gareth Barry. Stu’s answer was fairly straightforward: David Beckham. Beckham won everything on offer with Manchester United, won, lost and won back the hearts of the English public, became a Galactico at Real Madrid and then hit the glamour clubs of AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain during his winter holidays from LA Galaxy. He also looked bloody good doing it. It’s very hard, and frankly quite stupid, to argue with Stu’s decision and supporting evidence but...