A Sticker's Worth 500 Words

Another week and another request post this time for Meadow Memories . In fairness the request itself was only for one of the esteemed gentlemen depicted below but that might make more sense as we get into it. Anyway Shrewsbury Town fans it’s time to reacquaint yourselves with both the man known affectionately as ‘Pointer’ due to his love of giving directions on the pitch and a genuine club legend who “typified Shrewsbury” and “made sure no winger would ever say they had an easy time against him”. Hope this does the trick! When the Premier League launched in 1992 Sky’s “whole new ball game” brought many footballing traditions to an end. Among these was the emergence of Merlin as the provider for the English top flight’s official sticker collection after fifteen years of Italian giant’s Panini leading the market. Undeterred by this significant dent to their prestige the company ploughed on with some questionable collections in collaboration with the Professional Footballers’ Associatio...

Mat Jolin-Beech delves into the toy box for this week’s post on a fantastic footballer whose peak years came before his immortalisation in plastic. The Corinthian figures of the late 1990s were as much a part of football fan culture as the sticker books we owe our blog to so it’s nice to finally commit one to our pages. Thanks to the excellent Premiership Years account for providing today’s visuals and apologies to any figure aficionados for its present state but he’s become one of my son’s favourite things to play with. Over to Mat. This post is going to deviate slightly from the sticker premise you’ve all come to know and love. Well, at least know. This has been a forum for us all to go on nostalgia trips, so indulge me with this one. I have two points to start with. The first is a clue as to who this is about – although the title of the post will probably have informed you. So here we go: English. Manchester United. Fullback. Title winner. Gary Neville ? No. Want another go? And ...

We have another request post today – this time from the excellent LFC Players account . Firstly we’d like to thank them for their patience as this particular request came over a year ago around the time today’s subject was announced as the new manager of Lincoln City. For some of us though he will always be “the most expensive teenager with the dyed blonde hair”. Hope this does the trick mate. The Football Association Challenge Cup is the oldest national football competition and, until the turn of the twenty-first century, served as the centrepiece of the English game. The ‘Magic of the Cup’™ still comes to the fore when a non-league side reaches the Third Round or a lower league club bloodies the nose of a Premier League big boy but sadly the tournament has mainly existed in recent years for those delightful ‘Big Six’ clubs to moan about as a cause of fixture congestion. Sadly this doesn’t seem to stop the buggers making a decent fist of winning it thus denying those of us outside of ...

Today Mat Jolin-Beech brings us the story of an almost mythical Spanish striker who came to South Wales, led his club to glory and then seemingly disappeared. Whilst not quite as much of a hit across Wales as Owain Glyndwr those on the Gower Peninsula would probably be very grateful for a mystical return from his long exile to lead The Jacks back to the Premier League Promised Land. Over to Mat with more. One season wonders. There is something memorable, but ultimately disappointing about them. That thing that appears out of nowhere, surprises everyone, and then as quickly as it came, disappears. Like a sneeze. They make an impression, but rarely have a lasting legacy. So, one of the Premier League’s biggest sneezes is the Spaniard Michu. Now, while it’s not fair in the slightest to compare the hero of Swansea City’s 2012/13 season with a sternutation, it makes the point. Let’s look at the stats. 2012/13 – 43 games, 22 goals Following season, 24 games only 6 goals. Indeed, he only brok...

I’d like to start by expressing my apologies to Tom Moran for the delay with this long overdue request post – see it as a late wedding present mate. Tom’s reasons for putting today’s subject forward come from the ever-fertile ground of Championship Manager where he succeeded where Bryan Robson and Walter Smith failed and “revitalised Gazza” in no small part thanks to this man’s contributions. I hope this post is equally as restorative. Harry Kane ’s winning goal against Manchester City earlier this month saw him become Tottenham Hotspur’s leading goalscorer surpassing Jimmy Greaves’ longstanding record of 266 goals. It was also the England captain’s 200th Premier League goal putting him third in the competition’s all-time list behind only Wayne Rooney and Alan Shearer . Among the various articles that appeared in the aftermath of Kane’s most recent achievement was a BBC Sport piece musing over which other top flight clubs could potentially see their all-time goalscoring records broke...

Today Mat Jolin-Beech takes on a long overdue request post on behalf of long time supporter of the blog Peter van Garderen. Today’s subject achieved a lot in his career on the pitch including twelve red cards, the fastest ever recorded yellow card and international captaincy as well as Hollywood fame and the starring role in a Westlife video after his retirement. The last of those maybe takes away from his overall image but you could also argue it displays his impressive range. Over to Mat with the rest. Now, here is a man of many hats. I would say talents, and I will just in case he reads this and decides to hunt me down like we’re in some Cockney gangster movie. Now, to those my age or older, there will be memories of Jones as a footballer. And no, I do not use the term loosely. Not at all. To those my age or younger, and according to his Wikipedia page, he is an actor. I obviously misremember him as a footballer. I thought he was a centre back, but he was actually a defensive midfi...

A few months ago I set cover work for a Year 7 class while I attended a course. In amongst the tasks set was a short Google Quiz including a multiple choice question about the rough date range of the “medieval era”. When I checked my emails after the course I was informed by one student that I was wrong about when the medieval era had occurred because they had Googled it and it had actually ended in 1450 rather than the c.1500 I had suggested. Thanks for that one Google. The Internet has massively shaped the way we communicate and has given us access to a plethora of information. As a teacher it’s probably preferable to receive polite emails informing me of my incompetence from my students rather than being subjected to a torrent of verbal abuse in the classroom but the trust all of us put in search engines is remarkable. Firstly the definition of the “medieval era” depends massively on the part of the world you are studying at the time. Secondly there is often more than one correct an...