Table of contents for October 2019 in FourFourTwo UK

IT’S IN THE BLOOD... ...Red or Blue is the title of an exhibition showcasing the work of cartoonist Tony Husband (Private Eye and The Times), with a number of his football-related pieces and merchandise on sale at the Albert Square Chophouse. There is also an Evening with Tony Husband & Friends function on September 12, featuring the man himself, ex-players and special guests, to raise funds for the Forever Manchester charity. You could get your very own Yobs cartoon, a perfect addition to any discerning mantlepiece. For more information, head to www.forevermanchester.com POLITICS AND FOOTBALL DON’T MIX Sure, he may be the greatest African player of all-time, but George Weah’s popularity in his native Liberia is waning since he became the nation’s president last year. A recent profile of him…

01 WHAT TV SHOW DO THESE FOUR PLAYERS HAVE IN COMMON? 02 Which Football League manager, who led his side to the FA Cup last eight in 2017, used to be a PE teacher at the FitzWimarc School in Essex? 03 Which football men own these hotels: La Escondida by Alicante, Yegoala in Kumasi and Pestana in Funchal? 04 Which Premier League team play at the oldest professional football ground in the United Kingdom? 05 In November 2007, crowdfunding website MyFootballClub purchased which Conference outfit? 06 Which team do the Mucklowes support in BBC Three show This Country? 07 WHICH EX-MANCHESTER UNITED PLAYER IS THIS? 08 WHICH GROUND IS THIS? 09 WHICH CURRENT PREMIER LEAGUE MANAGER IS THIS? 10 NAME THESE TEAMS FROM THEIR BADGES 11 WHO AM I? I…

fourfourtwo@futurenet.com FourFourTwoUK FourFourTwo THE FEELING THAT FOOTBALL GIVES YOU I stopped reading FourFourTwo years ago, as at times it felt like a glossy brochure for sports companies rather than a football magazine. Short of something to read on a recent flight home, I picked up issue 302 and it was a complete surprise. If the old FFT felt like a club programme, this had the feel of a passionate and irreverent fanzine, coupled with some quality football journalism. I enjoyed James Horncastle’s piece about Andrea Pirlo. What could have been a slight piece on clothes became an insightful portrait of the man, on and off the pitch, and a short study of the importance of style in Italy. I’ve missed having a mainstream magazine that captures the feeling that football…

One of the many leading lights of south London’s footballing revolution, along with Jadon Sancho, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Reiss Nelson, Ryan Sessegnon is now at the ideal club for his development. In the first half of last season, you got the impression that England’s Under-19 European Championship winner felt the pressure of being Fulham’s main attacking inspiration to keep them in the Premier League. Sessegnon scored 15 goals from mid-November 2017 to get the Cottagers promoted, but then Claudio Ranieri didn’t fully trust the teen in a relegation battle. Make no mistake, Sessegnon is the real deal and Mauricio Pochettino knows it – he has spent £25 million on a player with under a year left to run on his contract. Providing competition to – and learning from – Danny…

1 Les Ferdinand, 1997 The legendary photographer David Bailey was commissioned by FFT to produce “the definitive portrait of the British game”. ‘Sir Les’ was one of eight cover stars, and his goals in the latter part of that season kept Tottenham up. 2 Harry Kane, 2015 Kane was en route to becoming a superstar, future England captain and World Cup Golden Boot winner when FFT put him on the cover and told the tale of how the Tottenham striker hadn’t let his fame affect his form at White Hart Lane. 3 Christian Gross, 1998 If ever a headline told a story. FFT revealed how Tottenham ended up appointing one-cap Switzerland defender Christian Gross as their manager, stating that, “To many fans, his arrival summed up how cack-handed the club…

› Notts fans can always celebrate one of the best footballing memoirs ever written. David McVay’s Steak... Diana Ross: Diary of a Footballing Nobody is a true gem. The 2003 recollection of his time as a young County player in the mid-70s has the right balance of self-effacement, insight, nostalgia and Nick Drake references. Hunt out a copy online. › The 1890-91 Football League season was a corker. The holders, Preston, just lost out on the title to Everton, with County 3rd, their best top-tier finish to date. Better still, Nottingham Forest applied to join the league but were refused with only one vote in their favour. Ouch. › Three years later, a second-tier Notts won the FA Cup, beating Bolton 4-1 win at Goodison Park to become the first…

That shirt. That god-awful shirt. There have been plenty of terrible football strips down the years. Manchester United’s grey effort which seemingly rendered the wearer invisible; Hull’s tiger stripes; Cameroon’s sleeveless number at the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations – each new season brings a new shirt that could be improved by vomit. If the Caribous of Colorado’s case is unusual, it’s because the shirt colours weren’t really the issue. A white-and-tan affair with black sleeves, it was inoffensive albeit deathly dull. A symphony in beige. The problem here wasn’t the scheme, it was the band of tasseled leather trim across the chest. Had Kenny Rogers been called on to design a jersey, he couldn’t have come up with anything more countrified than the uniform the Caribous sported during their…

HARRY KANE The future World Cup Golden Boot winner joined Arsenal’s academy at the age of eight, only to be released after just a year. “We made a mistake,” Liam Brady – the Gunners’ then-academy director – later admitted, adding that Kane “wasn’t very athletic” back then but was “a bit chubby”. Kane was even rejected at his first trial with Spurs, eventually signing aged 11. MICHEL PLATINI A three-time Ballon d’Or winner in the making, Platini was rejected by his local club, Metz, after he fainted during a breathing test on a spirometer and the club doctor raised concerns over “a weak heart and poor respiratory capacity”. Platini went down the road to play for Nancy instead. PETER BEARDSLEY As a teen, Beardsley had a litany of disappointments –…

CLUBS 1995-97 Vejle Boldklub 1997-2000 Hamburg 2000-05 Everton 2005-06 Real Madrid 2006-08 Celtic 2007-08 Everton (loan) COUNTRY 1998-2006 Denmark We’re a mile or so from Goodison Park when cars on both sides of Breck Road screech to a halt. Around here, Thomas Gravesen literally stops traffic. Not that he gave traffic much choice. While FourFourTwo remembered the Green Cross Code and waited cautiously for a safe moment to cross, the Dane just ambled confidently into the road. He knew full well that drivers wouldn’t dare to knock down a 6ft skinhead, let alone when the thought struck them, ‘Hang on, isn’t that Tommy Gravesen?’ The former Everton midfielder laughs as he looks back at FFT, still rooted to the pavement. “You haven’t been to Liverpool before, have you?” he jokes.…

CLUB MANCHESTER UNITED POSITION FORWARD Value £15m Age 17 Foot Both Height 1.81m Nation England THE STORY SO FAR: Greenwood’s road to stardom started early: aged four, he scooped a £50 shopping voucher in his hometown of Wibsey, near Bradford, for winning a child modelling competition. Two years later, he was at Manchester United’s Halifax development centre. He graduated to the Red Devils’ academy and established himself as a prospect – he’d arrive half an hour early for every training session and kick a ball against a bin outside the complex to improve his technique and natural two-footedness (even now, he regularly takes penalties with his non-dominant right peg). Originally a midfielder, Greenwood has played further forward since his early teens, bamboozling defenders with his pace, trickery and unerring eye…

Can Chris Wilder finally solve the conundrum that is Ravel Morrison? David Preece was the midfielder’s coach at Ostersund last season, and reveals what it’s like to watch a special talent at close quarters... Alex Ferguson once described him as the greatest talent he had ever seen, and in my 26 years in football I certainly haven’t seen a player with such finesse and technical mastery. If you dropped Ravel Morrison into a training session at any club in the world, and I mean any club, fully fit, he’d have the manager making the same face to their staff as I was to the other coaches at Ostersund during his first training session with us earlier this year. It’s the way his feet caress the ball, opening up angles for…

It’s hard to believe that just three years ago, Tanguy Ndombele sat at a career crossroads. French-born to Congolese parents, the then 19-year-old had just finished another disappointing season for Amiens reserves in France’s fifth tier. Ndombele was over a stone overweight, with first-team coach Christophe Pelissier refusing to consider the midfielder unless he managed to shift some timber. That summer, Ndombele resolved to get fit and forced his way into Pelissier’s plans. The driving talent from central midfield was always there, but now there was a will. “In his mind, something changed,” said director of football John Williams. “At this moment, I knew he’d be a good player.” Ndombele hasn’t looked back since. So impressive was he as Amiens secured promotion to Ligue 1 in 2016-17, he was loaned…

GOLASO SHIRT £40 golaso.com Streetwear is a major part of football culture, so there’s still space for new, original creative companies to exist and thrive – such as Golaso. This tee, lovingly named ‘INTERNAZIONALE’, celebrates football’s inclusivity and universal reach; five translations of the word ‘international’ can be found across the long-sleeve number, in Arabic, Italian, Hindu, Russian and Japanese. Why? Because football is for everyone, everywhere – and, right now, some people need reminding of that message. KAIZER CHIEFS 2019-20 HOME KIT £69.95 nike.com We don’t put just any old kit in The Mixer. It has to be interesting. It has to be vibrant. It has to look a bit like a Hull City kit designed by Jackson Pollock. The Kaizer Chiefs 2019-20 home kit ticks all of those…

EUROPE UNITED Matt Walker (riverrun, £16.99) ●●●●● Walker’s quest to watch a match in each of UEFA’s 55 nations, all in one season, is at its best when he explores European football’s less fashionable outposts. In the Faroes and Iceland, the £240,000 that clubs receive for Europa League qualification – a week’s pay for one player at some top clubs – really is make-or-break. Walker paints an informative, quirky, fascinating picture of matchday culture across Europe. In Norway, as Arctic terns swoop overhead, Brann supporters sing, “Niagara Falls, London and Paris, what are these compared to Bergen, the Nordic paradise?” In Albania, supporters sip 65p beer and bask in the afterglow of a surprise Euro 2016 appearance. In Armenia, 80 fans attend a ghostly top-flight fixture. While on his travels,…

Hi, Emile. You’ve got the greatest middle name of all time: Ivanhoe. How do you feel about your parents’ unusual choice? They were looking at those knights of the round table, and they must have decided that Ivanhoe was the right one for me. I don’t mind it. It’s your middle name, so nobody really uses it. My younger brother got called Revelino [sic], after the Brazilian footballer, so mine was OK. Do you enjoy embarrassing your own kids? No, I don’t like embarrassing people, because it’s not something I like to experience myself. I leave all that to my wife, who seems to find it funny. She’s that person. But we have given them very normal names – traditional parents’ and grandparents’ names. You’re a good man. Now, have…

XI BEST: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier [right], Steve Davis, Michael Keane, Ben Mee, Glen Little, Steven Defour, Martin Dobson, Jimmy McIlroy, Robbie Blake, Billy Hamilton. WORST: The 1986-87 team which finished third-bottom of Division Four – with the honourable exceptions of Neil Grewcock and Ian Britton, who scored the most important goals in the club’s history (their goals in a 2-1 win over Orient saved Burnley from relegation on the final day). PLAYER B: The greatest player to grace the club was undoubtedly Jimmy McIlroy. But I never got to see him play so I’m going to plump for the brilliant Glen Little, who dazzled and beguiled as an old-fashioned winger during a long spell when the club were also-rans in the Championship. W: So many, it’s hard to know…

Alfreton Town Northern Counties East Football League, Premier Division winners 2001-02 Northern Counties East Football League, League Cup winners 2001-02 Northern Counties East Football League, President’s Cup winners 2001-02 Derbyshire Senior Cup winners 2001-02 Halifax Town Conference Premier play-off finalists 2005-06 Oxford United Conference Premier play-off winners 2009-10 Northampton Town League Two winners 2015-16 Sheffield United League One winners 2016-17 Championship runners-up 2018-19…

ERIC: How important is Tottenham Hotspur in Tottenham? DAVID: The club is really good at partnering with charities, the local authority and others that can bring a lot of money and other things into the constituency. I’m glad that the club didn’t move to the Olympic Park. I was clear in my mind that whatever people feel about football and the huge amount of money, it represents excellence for my constituents. Football is an elite sport, and that is precious. We don’t have a university or big international company in Tottenham. What we do have is Tottenham Hotspur. ERIC: Are you excited about the new stadium? DAVID: Very. It’s amazing and state of the art. It’s absolutely a destination. It’s a catalyst for regeneration. I don’t want it to be…

When Christian Eriksen announced his intention to try new scenery earlier this summer, it was no surprise that Spurs made their move for Giovani Lo Celso. The 23-year-old Argentine is a technically gifted midfielder who plays between the lines, oozes creativity and takes a mean set-piece – everything Tottenham would lose if Eriksen chose to leave London. It was no great surprise that compatriot Mauricio Pochettino liked Lo Celso, either. Arriving initially on loan (with an option to purchase for £55 million next summer), he is a classic Argentine playmaker from Rosario and played more than 50 games for Rosario Central, the bitter crosstown rivals of ex-Newell’s Old Boy Pochettino. “Just playing with a ball in the garden, you could see he had so much quality,” recalled the schemer’s father,…

1977 LIVERPOOL 3-1 BORUSSIA MONCHENGLADBACH ROME The Merseyside club’s first European Cup victory, and Kevin Keegan’s finest hour. 1978 LIVERPOOL 1-0 CLUB BRUGGE WEMBLEY Kenny Dalglish completed his first season at Anfield with the goal to seal consecutive wins. 1981 LIVERPOOL 1-0 REAL MADRID PARIS The Reds were big favourites against a Blancos team playing in their first final since 1966. 1984 LIVERPOOL 1-1 ROMA (4-2 PENS) ROME Bruce Grobbelaar distracted the hosts with his wobbly-leg antics during the shootout. 2005 LIVERPOOL 3-3 MILAN (3-2 PENS) ISTANBUL The Steven Gerrard-inspired comeback from 3-0 down to the Rossoneri at half-time.…

“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” The more things change, the more they stay the same. When a 2007 study by Littlewoods Pools revealed Notts County to be the most stressful club in England to support, FourFourTwo hit the road with Magpies fans to Wycombe, to find out why their team had them so frequently reaching for the defibrillator. A managerial revolving door, financial woes, play-off near misses and endless yo-yoing between the top four divisions – more than any other club in history – had taken its toll on the Football League’s longest-suffering supporters. A storied club, if not one steeped in trophy-laden success, Notts County had a past to be proud of and a present to give them palpitations of the worst kind. But, having cheated…

FAUSTINO ASPRILLA Somehow those great Parma sides of the ’90s captured the hearts of neutrals in Italy and elsewhere, despite being wealthy arrivistes. Mad, bad and dangerous to know, Tino Asprilla was typical of the Gialloblu’s attacking flair. Sadly we never got to witness the Colombian winning the league. That would have been some celebration. DANIELE DE ROSSI The midfielder began his 18 years of service with hometown team Roma back in 2001, the season after the Giallorossi’s last Serie A title. Linked with a succession of big clubs, ‘Capitan Futuro’ finally left the Stadio Olimpico in the summer, heading to Argentina with Boca Juniors. Time to stick a tenner on Roma for the Scudetto this term? JURGEN KLINSMANN Part of Inter’s triumvirate of Germans, Klinsmann arrived late to the…

Sliding Doors was released eight months before his birth, but Declan Rice still knows what it’s like to be Gwyneth Paltrow. OK, not entirely. He’s yet to win an Oscar or marry someone from Coldplay. But, like Paltrow’s character in the 1998 film, Rice has had his own sliding doors moments – some more recent than you might expect. Just 12 months ago, Rice’s career could have taken one of two very different directions. His fate wasn’t decided by a mad dash to catch a Tube train, however; it was determined by a single conversation with West Ham United manager Manuel Pellegrini. By May, Rice had become a fans’ favourite with the Hammers, a full England international and a nominee for the PFA Young Player of the Year award, alongside…

You’re an agent now – was that a natural decision after retiring as a player in 2013? When you retire, it takes time to understand you’ll have a completely different life. I always liked to be involved in club management, and I had offers as soon as I retired. I had offers to become a director of a club, too, but I would have had a similar lifestyle to the one I had as a player. The other option was working as an agent, something I’d also thought about. This is better, as I can enjoy time with my family. Early in your career, you went to Benfica, then Graeme Souness arrived as manager and signed Scott Minto, Mark Pembridge and Brian Deane. What are your memories? I was on…

You started out at Mansfield but played one game before being joining Manchester City, a big club in turmoil… I played a reserve game against City and must have done all right. They sent Alex Stepney to watch me and made an offer. It came out of nowhere because I’d only played one match. I’d been a YTS lad on £37.50 a week. It was an unbelievable feeling, but very daunting. I was suddenly in a dressing room with people I’d watched on television. But City went down to the third division in my first year. They’d been through a few managers and there were more than 50 pros on the books. What was it like seeing Jamie Pollock score that crazy own goal that pretty much sent City down…

› Journalist Robert Thomson trying to fight off a seagull with a chair, after it inadvertently flew into the enclosed press box at Aberdeen. One colleague shouted, “It’s a seagull, no’ a lion!” As reported on Twitter by @jonnythegreek › More seagulls: watching them cruise effortlessly above the pitch from the mile-high press box at Bristol City’s Ashton Gate. › Oxford United giving EVERY player at the club a squad number, from their first team to their under-9s – a total of 171 players, to be precise. › Peaky Blinders (top, left) returning to our TV screens. Unai Emery will be relieved. › Stephanie Frappart (above, right) becoming the first woman to referee a major European men’s match. › Everton director of football Marcel Brands presenting Moise Kean’s mum with…

DAVID SEAMAN “Dave had a big physical presence and calmness. People talk about the back four, but to say he had nothing to do would be completely wrong. He made plenty of saves, don’t worry about that. We had a decent defence, but without him we would have been nothing.” LEE DIXON “He was my eyes and ears. I hardly ever had to look right for danger, because he was in my ear the whole time. It made my job easier. You could rely on him. He was underrated and should have played more times for England than he did.” TONY ADAMS “I first met him aged 13: a Cockney lad who came swinging into the room. We formed a formidable partnership in the youth team and played together in…