A Sticker's Worth 500 Words

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 tradin...

Today Mat Jolin-Beech brings us a look at a stalwart centre-half who, perhaps unfairly, became a byword for defensive frailties. Over twelve years as a top-flight footballer suggests otherwise but why let that get in the way of a good story? After all, prior to THAT day in 1992, Ronny Rosenthal was regarded as a top quality striker. Over to Mat for more. In case you didn’t know yet dear reader, I am a Manchester United fan. That means this year I became used to some comedy defending. Both Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw seem to have caught a case of the Pickfords insofar as they are good for England but hopeless for their club. So much so that both have probably been superseded in the starting XI by their understudies Telles and Lindelof. Some of the defending at times has been laughably bad with many basic errors. This got me thinking about who is the king of comedy defending. Enter one half of the infamous Toon Army Chuckle Brothers. One Titus Malachi Bramble. Now, I know he never got a...

Today Richard Aliinson brings us a tribute to one of the greatest arts in football and one of its most able exponents. The caption to go with today’s deliberately niche card even starts with the line “specialising in spectacular volleyed goals” which gives you an idea of how little respect this man had for a football in flight. Over to Rich. When I was cleaning out my old bedroom recently, I came across a load of football memorabilia that had been gathering dust for decades. Amongst the pile of almost everything that was produced to do with Italia ‘90 was a 1989 Tonka figurine of Mark Hughes. Naturally ‘Sparky’ was executing a volley.  Hughes hitting the ball on the full was such a noteworthy image from his era, that it is no surprise that he was immortalised in cheap plastic in this pose. It is probably still the same nowadays, where I expect kids will be collecting figures of the iconic poses of their generation too: Paul Pogba raising a hand to apologise for a mishit pass; Dele...

When Budweiser landed the sponsorship deal for the Premier League in 2005 their advertising team were quick to look to assuage football fans’ concerns with a campaign stating that the American beverage giants would stick to beer rather than looking to interfere with the beautiful game. Based on their product it could be argued that they might want to reconsider even that but thankfully the top flight was not subjected to “added time multi-ball” to avoid 0-0 draws. The rules of the game, however, are constantly evolving as shown by the various interpretations of handball in the first Premier League season to enjoy VAR or the addition of everyone’s favourite footballing thing to moan about in the first place.  This has led to various conversations about what rules would we the public change. For example I would make it a bookable offence for any goalkeeper who didn’t go up for a corner or advantageous free kick in any minute of added time when their side was either drawing or trailin...

Today Richard Allinson gives us a trip down memory lane through the 2006 World Cup and trials and tribulations of England’s supposed ‘Golden Generation’. Perhaps the best way to sum this particular team up is that as all those around them tied themselves in knots trying to work out how Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard would gel together in the centre of midfield Owen Hargreaves ended up as the Three Lions’ player of the tournament. Over to Rich with the details. “Don’t shoot from there you stupid cun… OH WHAT A GOAL!” Joe Cole’s shot against Sweden in the 2006 World Cup was speculative, and as you may be able to tell from the above, I thought he shouldn’t have hit it. However, his strike convinced me and my mate Tom that England were going to win the tournament, much to the amusement and bemusement of the other folk around us at the Brandenburg Gate fan park that balmy June evening.  I’ve never followed a World Cup around a country, but Germany 2006 was the closest I got. Basicall...

Whatever field you work in you’ll find that you now use so many acronyms that you might have even forgotten what they stand for. When, for example, did you last hear NATO referred to as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation? When you were last promising someone you’d complete an urgent task for them did you bother typing out, or saying for that matter, it would be done as soon as possible or did you just go for ASAP? Similarly I think we’ve no doubt all had the unpleasant experience where someone has actually said “LOL” and you’ve had to pretend that’s now socially acceptable. In recent years sport has been infiltrated by one particular acronym which, prior to the mid-2010s, was synonymous only with irritating barnyard animals. It’s just about bearable in the endless Ronaldo v Messi debate where both players are clearly abnormally talented but a half-decent performance in the League Cup or anything to do with American Football should never lead to anyone being referred to as the ‘Grea...

Today Richard Allinson takes us back to a brief moment when a product of the Arsenal youth system was believed to be the future of English football. All football fans are guilty of trying to predict the future (bet in play, NOW!) and we’ve even had a go at it on these very pages . That being said if any of us really had a clue we would have already made our millions by now. It’s also unlikely that any of us would have called today’s subject being snapped in a swimming pool snogging Joe Hart. Over to Rich with the rest. England’s run to the Euro 2020/21 final already seems like a distant memory. Although tactically astute, the sides that Gareth Southgate picked throughout the tournament were often hard to predict, but they were more logical than those selected by the journalists that went all Mystic Meg in the years running up to the tournament.  Take, for example, the BBC who in 2015 named their predicted side which was quite accurate, but randomly included the uncapped Nathan ...