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PREMIER LEAGUE 100 can’t be player of the year at 32 if you’re not 100 per cent committed to your job.” Ginola won the Football Writers’ Association prize, too. That year, Cruyff also hailed him as the best player in the world. “That was the best award of all,” enthuses Ginola. “When you’re 10 years old and you’re a massive fan of a player, then one day he wants to sign you, that’s some achievement. If you add what he said in 1999, I’m not sure how to explain how I felt, because it wasn’t a question about me. He was just asked, ‘For you, who’s the best player in the world right now?’ and he said David Ginola. Wow, thank you very much.” MR BLOBBY FIGHTS BACK “SOME PEOPLE SAID THAT It feels amazing because you’ve just scored, Just a year later, Ginola was shocked to be DAVID GInOLA WAS An it feels amazing because you know you’ve made surplus to requirements at Tottenham. InDIVIDUAL On THE PITCH. just scored a great goal, and it feels amazing I WAS A TEAM PLAYER” because you win the match 1-0. The whole “I would have loved to end my career at thing put together meant a lot.” Spurs,” he says. “Alan Sugar called me in the magic, as I worked even harder in training Clockwise from top summer and said, ‘I have something to tell under George, just to prove everyone wrong. “I misunderstood In the season when Manchester United you – you’re going to be on the transfer list’. I ended the season with the League Cup and ‘Spurs strip’”; PFA won their famous Treble, 32-year-old Ginola I said, ‘What?! What do you mean?’ He told PFA Player of the Year award. What else was Player of the Year in became the first player of the Premier League me that George Graham didn’t want me any there to say?” 1999; beating the era to win the PFA award without playing for more. I said, ‘You’re going to have to explain bulge at Aston Villa; a top-two team – Spurs finished 11th. Gareth this to the fans, because I’m not saying it’s Arguably the finest moment was Ginola’s doing what he does Bale (twice, also for Tottenham) is the only David Ginola’s decision’.” individual goal at Barnsley in March 1999, best for Tottenham other player to win the award for a side that where he picked the ball up on the left flank, didn’t finish in the top four. After an unexpected meeting with Aston rhythmically darted both right and left like Villa chairman Doug Ellis while on holiday in a slalom skier, then nonchalantly stroked “When I got to Grosvenor House for the Mauritius, a move to the Midlands was sealed. the ball home from inside the penalty area. awards ceremomy, I bumped into [PFA chief “We had a nice lunch and he said, ‘We’d love “It was the perfect illustration of the season,” executive] Gordon Taylor and he said, ‘David, to have you at the club one day’,” remembers he says. “It’s 0-0 in the quarter-finals of the how are you doing?’ with a tiny smile,” recalls Ginola. “I said, ‘Well, funnily enough, I’m on FA Cup. Everyone is watching you, expecting Ginola. “I asked him, ‘Why are you smiling?’ the transfer market…’” you to do something amazing, and then you He said, ‘You’ll see...’ It was a surprise when do your stuff. I can’t really explain how you my name was announced – I went on stage But his 18 months at Villa Park were largely construct a sequence that will end up with and didn’t know what to say. We had a party unhappy. The most notable moment was a goal. Everything was just very fluid, and it afterwards – Nicolas Anelka won the Young a blockbuster strike against Manchester City, turned out perfectly.” Player of the Year award, and he came up to when the Frenchman removed his shirt and me and said, ‘You’re an inspiration’. I wasn’t flexed his muscles to prove a point to gaffer With Tottenham fans delirious behind sure about those moments, because some John Gregory, who had claimed the winger the goal, what did that moment feel people said David Ginola was an individual was out of shape. He looked anything but. like? “Crap, it feels crap…” he replies, mischievously trying to stay deadpan, on the pitch, but I was a team player. I’d “It was a very weird relationship with John before he’s unable to suppress the rather have changed it for the league, Gregory,” explains Ginola. “You arrive in the laughter any more. “It feels amazing! but it was great anyway. morning, there’s a newspaper, and you see “To win it at 32 years old was all the players laughing in the dressing room. an explanation to people who On the back page, it showed my head on the said David is more focused on body of Jimmy Five Bellies, and the headline his modelling or advertising for was John Gregory saying that David Ginola is L’Oreal. That wasn’t true – you Mr Blobby. When you’re trying your best to get into shape, it was a humiliation, so when I scored that goal I wanted to say, ‘Look at me – you’re saying I’m Mr Blobby?’ “I need to like my manager and respect him. If you don’t like me, don’t expect me to like you. I thought, ‘No, I’m making my effort and if that’s not good enough for you, it’s not going to work’.” After seven brief appearances at Everton in 2001-02, Ginola retired at 35. “I lost the little flame – it’s within your soul,” he says. When he looks back on his career, there’s plenty of pride, but also a feeling that he was capable of even more. “That’s what I think, if I look in the mirror,” admits Ginola. “If I’d played for a team like Barcelona, I probably would have played at Euro 96 and the 1998 World Cup. I never got to play at a major tournament, which is a big shame, because playing for France at a World Cup, and winning it, really would have been FourFourTwo February 2021 51

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 something amazing. And I think... well, I don’t want to say it, but I think I deserved to be in that 1998 squad.” His spells at Newcastle and Tottenham may not have earned him a spot at a tournament, but they established a bond that will always remain special to Ginola. In the 18 years since his retirement, the Frenchman has worked as a TV presenter and an actor, as well as briefly standing for FIFA president in 2015. The move was perceived as a gimmick by some, partly because of the backing from Paddy Power, but Ginola insists he had genuine plans. Ashley’s ownership. He turns 54 in January Above “I’ve told you way: you’ve got the money and you buy all before, I don’t want the best players around. But I’d want to bring “It wasn’t taken seriously by most people and remains hopeful of a return to football, any more novelty the academy players to the first team, a bit shower gel holders” like Barcelona under [president] Joan Laporta because you need a certain background – if believing he has something to offer, perhaps with Messi, Busquets, Pique, Xavi and Iniesta. When you’re a foreigner and you arrive at you’re not from that background, you’re not as a sporting director. He would jump at the Barça, you see that most of the players were at the academy, and they’re the soul of the taken seriously,” says Ginola, whose former chance if an opportunity ever presented itself club. You need a soul – that’s what’s going to make you win titles.” PSG team-mate George Weah did move into at Newcastle, to help re-establish the bond Titles eluded Ginola and ‘The Entertainers’ politics and is now the president of Liberia. between club and supporters. in 1996, but they came agonisingly close. The Frenchman was arguably the biggest star of “I wanted to bring football back to the fans “I would love to, because Newcastle was the best Newcastle team in more than half a century, then became one of Tottenham’s and give the money back to the people. For my first club in the Premier League and they greatest players of the Premier League era. example, when you award the World Cup to deserve better,” reveals Ginola, who made “Can you tell us who you are?” journalists asked when he first arrived on English shores. Brazil, you’re not saying to them, ‘Well, if you a quick recovery from a heart attack in 2016. During seven years in the Premier League, he left no one in any doubt. By the time he hung want the World Cup, we’re not going to pay “Geordies deserve one of the biggest clubs in up his boots, everyone knew David Ginola. tax’. No, we’ll pay the tax and make sure the the country, in Europe, in the world. They’ve MORE On FOURFOURTWO.COM money is then used for got the potential, but for • Howay the entertainers: Newcastle’s 95-96 title challenge, relived by the players social work, so that the “I WAnTED TO BRInG many years things have poorest people in the FOOTBALL BACK TO THE been done in very weird • Kevin Keegan on Liverpool 4-3 Newcastle, country get the money FAnS AnD GIVE MOnEY ways that haven’t made 1996: “I still have nightmares about how we from football. The game BACK TO THE PEOPLE” the club better. I want to threw the title away” (by Sam Pilger) is for the people, so the see Newcastle being very money it generates has successful and not only • You Ask The Questions: David Ginola – “I’d to be given back to the in terms of results, but its have been a fantastic lawyer. When I speak people. When you saw stability and how they to people, they listen” (by Sam Pilger) Sepp Blatter and Michel work with the academy. Platini, all those issues, There were Geordies in it’s not acceptable. our side and they gave us something crucial “I called federations in some places around – the heart of the club, the passion. I have so the world and they said, ‘Mr Ginola, we’d love many ideas and I’d love to put something in to have you as president because we know place – the way I see football, with everyone we’re going to be respected, but if I give you aiming for the same thing, like a family. You my vote, I’ll be destroyed by the system, as need to explain to the supporters, ‘We have the system is made by people for themselves’. a project, and I’ll tell you exactly what it is’. Unfortunately it won’t change, unless we all “If I worked for Newcastle, it would be so want to see things change.” easy to say, ‘I’m going to buy a Spanish guy, Ginola has longed for change at Newcastle a French guy, an Italian guy, a German guy too, after years of misery for fans under Mike and I’ll make the team great’. That’s an easy 52 February 2021 FourFourTwo

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 50MICHAEL The Reds finished in the top two spots only once during OWEN Owen’s career on Merseyside, but they did win a brilliant treble of trophies with their ace marksman in 2000-01 – not least thanks to his deadly intervention which earned LIVERPOOL, NEWCASTLE, MANCHESTER UNITED, STOKE them the FA Cup against Arsenal. It also bagged Owen the Ballon d’Or. “I didn’t have a clue how big that was,” he later told FFT. “Gerard Houllier said, ‘You’ve won the LEGACY At one point, there wasn’t a child in Ballon d’Or’ and I thought, ‘That’s good’. I was delighted, Britain who didn’t pretend to be Owen in the but I can guarantee I went to bed having totally forgotten playground. His rise felt scripted by Hollywood about it. It was, ‘Right, that’s in the arse pocket, what’s screenwriters; the Lilleshall graduate scored the next thing I can win?’” a goal on his Liverpool debut aged 17, netted a glorious When Houllier stepped aside in 2004, Owen swapped World Cup goal at 18 and even had his own TV show. For Anfield for Madrid – but something wasn’t right. years, everything he touched turned gold. “You know when you sign something and think there’s Fortunately, he was just in time for no going back?” he reflected. “When Gerard Houllier. Owen had scored 18 HIS RISE SEEMED LIKE you think, ‘Oh my God, what have goals to share the Golden Boot in I done?’ I remember crying my eyes 1997-98, and offered the incoming A H O L LY W O O D S C R I P T out as I went off to the airport.” 49 CLAUDE MAKELELE Frenchman a thrilling partner for His year-long stint in La Liga set off CHELSEA erstwhile boy wonder Robbie Fowler. – EVERYTHING OWEN the downfall. By the time he returned LEGACY A man so good that he Under Houllier, Owen plundered to England, Liverpool had moved on has a position named after him, Makelele was perhaps Chelsea’s another 18 goals in 1998-99 – but TOUCHED TURNED GOLD – his only option was a club-record most important signing of the the high was short-lived. Having £16.8m switch to Newcastle in 2005. early Abramovich era. A defensive midfielder who kept the Galacticos grounded, he played struggled with a troublesome It was always an unhappy marriage the same role at Stamford Bridge, providing the engine for two Premier League crowns. hamstring problem all season, of convenience from the outside, HIGHLIGHT Bundling in the rebound of his own missed penalty against Charlton on the a mid-April clash against Leeds finally took its toll. The made worse by metatarsal and cruciate ligament injuries final day of 2004-05’s title-winning season: his Blues team-mates loved him that much, striker was out for nearly five months and, although he which meant he barely played for two years. they gave him the spot-kick. returned in fine fettle, his bullet-speed game was forever A free transfer to Manchester United all but killed his hampered by the ominous threat of a repeat. Liverpool legacy, although Owen wasn’t quite done: his History tells us that Owen never managed 20 goals in 96th-minute winner against rivals City in September 2009 a Premier League campaign, yet his record at Liverpool sealed a famous 4-3 derby win. Alas, those highs had all stood at an excellent 118 goals in 216 league games by but died out long before. the time he departed for Real Madrid in 2004. In reality, HIGHLIGHT An 18-year-old Owen, floating after France injuries forced him to miss a fifth of every league season 98 and at the peak of his powers, slotted four goals past at Anfield on average. Nottingham Forest four months later. 48 JAMIE VARDY LEICESTER LEGACY He is Leicester’s best ever player. His eye-bulging effort and pantomime hustling lend themselves to cult status, but the former factory worker has backed that up season upon season with a stream of talismanic strikes. Vardy is now chomping into the Premier League’s top 20 scorers of all time, having not played a game in it until the age of 27. HIGHLIGHT Breaking Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record by netting in 11 consecutive Premier League games en route to 2015-16 title glory. 47 TEDDY SHERINGHAM NOTT’M FOREST, TOTTENHAM, MAN UNITED, PORTSMOUTH, WEST HAM LEGACY Sheringham was 31 when he joined Manchester United in 1997, handed the unenviable task of replacing Eric Cantona. The frontman recovered from a slow start to thrive among fierce Old Trafford competition. Teddy scored in Forest’s first Premier League game in 1992, was still going at West Ham by 2006, aged 40, and was loved at Tottenham in between. HIGHLIGHT A superb hat-trick at home to Southampton in October 2000 preceded PFA and FWA Footballer of the Year gongs. FourFourTwo February 2021 53

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 “nOTHInG CAn TOP 1999 have someone to play between the lines – – BUT OUR ’94 SIDE WAS we’d not seen that before. Cantona would do SUCH A JOY TO PLAY In” that; he played in the little holes. He was big, strong, and suited the Premier League. He Seven-time Premier League champion Denis Irwin tells FourFourTwo about life had pace as well, which people don’t always as Fergie’s favourite, toppling Liverpool, and smashing Eric Cantona at chess associate with him, and he could score goals. We had four and a half years with Eric. I wish Interview Andy Mitten it was more, as he was a special player. I’ve not seen a player like that before and neither 46DENIS a big deal, because it gave us the know-how had opponents. He was a catalyst for us and IRWIN of how to do it. It was a tree with branches for United to become the club they are now. getting bigger and stronger. MANCHESTER UNITED How satisfying was scoring that excellent You were famously the subject of Leeds’ free-kick against Liverpool in the famous Alex Ferguson said you were the attention in the episode that took Cantona 3-3 draw of January 1994? only player guaranteed to make to Old Trafford. Would you have gone to Very. Liverpool had been dominant during his best Manchester United XI. Elland Road if Fergie had said yes to them? the ’70s and ’80s. They’d had their time, and Why were you so loved by him?  That’s the first time I’ve ever been asked that. Arsenal had also won the league a couple of I went in and just got about my job. I wasn’t Would I have wanted to leave? No. But when times. But we still needed to win the league, a star player, but Fergie still appreciated me. a manager doesn’t want you any more, you and were well placed when we finally did: the I didn’t cause him too much stress. My peers have a decision to make. Eric gave the team ground was expanded, the merchandise sold. appreciated what I did, too. Maybe to the fan something different. We already had loads When I joined the club, the physio handed us in the street I didn’t make headlines because of runners in the squad, like Giggsy, Sharpey, hats from one of his mate’s firms – Morson – I wasn’t a star player, but I didn’t want the Incey, Brian McClair and Andrei Kanchelskis, for the celebration photos whenever we won limelight. I worked my socks off, trained hard while Sparky [Mark Hughes] could hold the trophies. Imagine that now! and tried to learn from mistakes. Gary Neville ball up extremely well. But we didn’t really was the same as me. Full-backs were pawns Which was the strongest title-winning on a chessboard when I played. They’re more United team you were part of, and why? important now in the game. We had Giggsy The 1994 team was physical, powerful and or Becks in front of our full-backs to cross the difficult to beat. The league was much more ball. Twenty years ago, if one full-back went physical, and football changed between ’94 forward, the other stayed back. Now, both go and ’99. The ’94 side weren’t as easy on the forward in the top teams. eye as the ’99 team, and there weren’t as many options, but we had guts and won the How did you see the team develop from Double. I loved playing with that team, and one that hadn’t won the title in years, to the XI was pretty set. Nothing can top ’99 one that ruled? How did you keep up? – we had drive in abundance, and goalscorers Personally, I was getting better. Being let go all over the pitch. I’m one of the few that by Leeds at 20 [in 1986] was a major turning played in both teams, but that ’94 side was point. It motivated me, and I had a couple of such a joy to play in. great years at Oldham where my confidence lifted back up. I felt ready for a big club when You joined Wolves in the second tier, but I joined United, who’d just won the FA Cup had one last crack at the Premier League but finished 13th [in 1989-90]. We won the with them in 2003-04. Did that final hurrah Cup Winners’ Cup the following year, when in the top flight come as a surprise?   Peter Schmeichel and Paul Parker arrived – I was 36 when I left United in 2002, and felt then the League Cup in 1992, after which like I could get another year out of my body. Eric [Cantona] signed. We had young lads I’d supported Wolves when I was growing up like Ryan Giggs and Lee Sharpe, who were – they weren’t a bad team in the mid-70s. flying. We finally won the league in 1993, A lot of my mates were Liverpool fans, so I’m the year we bought Roy [Keane]. We were glad I didn’t go down that route! I played 52 building confidence all the time, bringing games during my first season at Wolves, and good players in. Winning that first title was thoroughly enjoyed it – we got to the play-off final and beat Sheffield United 3-0 to go up. I contemplated calling it a day, as I was 37, but they convinced me to play for another season. The second year was a difficult one. We didn’t spend a lot of money and our two best players, Joleon Lescott and Matt Murray, were injured, but it was good to be in the Premier League again. I was disappointed to be relegated for the first time in my career. We’ve learned that you were a national chess champion in your youth – what’s the story there?! I wasn’t a national chess champion. I played for my school and we finished second in the national championship. I was a decent chess player, don’t worry about that. I used to play Eric, but games wouldn’t last long. I’ve been watching The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix... 54 February 2021 FourFourTwo

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 44 ROBBIE FOWLER LIVERPOOL, LEEDS, MANCHESTER CITY, BLACKBURN LEGACY Four minutes and 33 seconds was all it took for Liverpool to go 3-0 up against Arsenal in August 1994 thanks to Fowler’s record-breaking Premier League treble, which stood for more than two decades. Dubbed ‘God’ by the Kop for his supreme natural finishing, Fowler’s later spells with Leeds, Manchester City and Blackburn were blighted by injury. HIGHLIGHT Successive PFA Young Player of the Year awards in 1994-95 and 1995-96, after stellar campaigns of 25 and 28 goals. 43 ROBERT PIRES ARSENAL, ASTON VILLA LEGACY “Wow, this football is not for me,” Arsenal’s new £6m signing muttered before coming off the bench for his August 2000 Premier League debut. He couldn’t believe the physicality. Pires grew to love English football, shining during the Gunners’ greatest spell with 14 goals in three seasons running from 2002-03. HIGHLIGHT With Arsenal chasing down Manchester United for the 2002 title, Pires’ gorgeous lob over ex-Red Peter Schmeichel at Villa Park sealed all three points in style. 4 5 YAYA strange answers,” Toure commented after his departure. 42 XABI ALONSO TOURE “He pretty much ignored me until City’s offer came in. If LIVERPOOL he had talked to me, I would have stayed in Barcelona.” LEGACY When Liverpool went If it sounded like Toure didn’t want to be in England, his toe-to-toe with Manchester United for the 2008-09 title, MANCHESTER CITY subsequent performances didn’t show it. Under the more they did it with their greatest midfield of the Premier League appreciative boss Roberto Mancini, Toure gave his all in era. Captain Steven Gerrard rampaged, Javier Mascherano hared and, next to them, Alonso City’s bold new world. The 6ft 2in powerhouse, who had glided. The Spaniard was an instant hit from Real Sociedad in 2004, stunning team-mates LEGACY People often talk of the trophy that resented playing at centre-back in Barcelona, was moved with his pristine passing. Gerrard later called him “my most enjoyable partner”. kick-starts a revolution; that piece of silverware into his natural midfield domain – frequently, as the most HIGHLIGHT Netting twice from inside his own half. The second, in September 2006 against which convinces a team that they are capable advanced man. Alongside Silva’s subtle artistry, Toure’s Newcastle, put Steve Harper on his backside. of something more. Something a bit special. impressive passing range, tackling and box-to-box bursts 41 TONY ADAMS ARSENAL The origin of Manchester City’s current era of excellence helped to take Mancini’s talented team to another level. LEGACY The only player to – a decade in which a conveyor belt’s worth of world-class In his second campaign, the Ivorian was at the heart of captain a title-winning team across three different decades. talent have greedily collected 10 major trophies – can be City’s Premier League title – his sixth assist of the season For all Arsene Wenger’s sexy football, it’s the rugged Adams traced back to an exact day: May 14, 2011. teed up Pablo Zabaleta’s opener during the nail-biting 3-2 who supporters hold among their dearest. His leadership offered Wenger the canvas on With 73 minutes gone of an FA Cup final-day win over QPR. which to create art – not least after returning from rehab to win the league in 1997-98. final seemingly destined for a dull TOURE’S PASSInG The first success always elicits the HIGHLIGHT Latching onto Steve Bould’s denouement, Yaya Toure slammed best memories, but Toure’s displays looping ball to batter home Arsenal’s fourth goal against Everton in May 1998. A third home a close-range winner against AnD BOX-TO-BOX in City’s second title win two years title was his – would you believe it, indeed. Tony Pulis’ stubborn Stoke. later were outstanding. He plundered This was the moment that City BURSTS TOOK CITY 20 league goals in a rampaging free fans had been waiting for; three role, as Manuel Pellegrini’s Sky Blues years and approximately £350m TO AnOTHER LEVEL pipped Liverpool by just two points. into the Abu Dhabi project, a first Free-kicks, howitzers, individual runs, major title since they lifted the penalties, tap-ins, headers: there League Cup in 1976. Yet it was far was no type of goal that City’s most from the Ivorian’s maiden success. After three years at influential player couldn’t score. Barcelona which overlapped with Pep Guardiola’s rise to Toure’s final years at the Etihad Stadium were marred the first team, Toure joined City for £24m in the summer by curious grievances with cake and a second string of of 2010, alongside David Silva. spats with Pep, but those early years are the ones City fans Toure was a pivotal member of Pep’s Treble winners of cherish. Toure struck fear into the opposition whenever he 2008-09, before celebrating another La Liga success in his revved up to imminently destroy them. final season. He hadn’t wanted to leave, but felt betrayed HIGHLIGHT A March 2014 hat-trick against Fulham, with by Guardiola, problems that would resurface later in his a trademark screamer, helped City to a rampant 5-0 win. career. “Whenever I asked him something, he always gave A captain’s display en route to a second league triumph. FourFourTwo February 2021 55

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 39 SADIO MANÉ SOUTHAMPTON, LIVERPOOL LEGACY Mané has evolved from a talented, but erratic winger at Southampton into a world-class forward at Anfield, turning raw talent into consistent numbers. He’s the rhythm section of the fab front three, a creative force that glued the Merseysiders into title-winning titans. HIGHLIGHT A goal and two assists in a 2019 5-2 derby thrashing of Everton set a new Red record of 32 top-tier league games unbeaten – but nothing beats his ludicrous Saints treble against Aston Villa in May 2015: struck in just two minutes and 56 seconds. 38 JAAP STAM MANCHESTER UNITED LEGACY Stam made just 79 Premier League appearances, yet those three title-winning seasons from 1998-99 have loomed large ever since. He set the gold standard of modern defending, making strikers look weak and slow in his considerable shadow. His 2001 sale to Lazio remains Alex Ferguson’s biggest regret. HIGHLIGHT United went unbeaten for the last 20 games of their Treble season. Stam played in 14 of them, leaking only nine goals – with seven clean sheets – to pip Arsenal. 40IAN league goals in the first six of his seven Highbury seasons, 37 N’GOLO KANTE WRIGHT and at least 23 in half of those, thriving alongside Alan LEICESTER, CHELSEA Smith or Kevin Campbell in attack for George Graham’s last few league campaigns. LEGACY How many players arrive in England as genuine ARSENAL, WEST HAM In 1995, Arsenal signed Dennis Bergkamp from Inter. It unknowns? Kante did in 2015 – then enjoyed one of football’s was assumed a 31-year-old Wright would wind down, but most magnificent breakout seasons in the unlikeliest of Premier League the striker hadn’t lost the 18-yard box hustling, quicksilver titles. The 5ft 6in dynamo was in France’s third tier as recently as 2013, but captured LEGACY Wright worked as both a plasterer and pace or desire to dance in front of the North Bank. hearts – and opposition players – to secure successive titles with the Foxes and Chelsea. bricklayer until he was almost 22. Football? He Bergkamp was a more introverted character, but they HIGHLIGHT Ten-man Leicester lost against rivals Arsenal in February 2016, but Kante’s played in a Sunday League side each week. He made a perfect couple; the Non-Flying Dutchman knew one-man show of industry almost earned the champions-in-waiting an unlikely draw. shouldn’t have had a chance of playing in the instinctively where Wright would be and could practically 36 CESC FABREGAS Premier League – not least because it was founded when thread him through-balls with his eyes closed. ARSENAL, CHELSEA he was 29. An injured Wright missed several chunks of Arsenal’s LEGACY Fabregas trained with the Invincibles at 15 and grew But Wright never took no for an answer. Rejected after Double-winning 1997-98 campaign, but still hit 10 goals to become a new revolution’s poster boy, persuading Arsene trials at professional clubs, he settled for a £30-a-week to maintain a run of posting double digits in each Premier Wenger to bend his philosophy. The Spaniard was defter than past midfield gig at Greenwich Borough and was League season. Nicolas Anelka was generals, his gift an ability to kill teams with devastating simplicity. He made 18 assists in swiftly noticed by a Crystal Palace WRIGHT WAS nEARLY now on the scene, and Arsenal were 2014-15, the first of two title wins at Chelsea. scout. Six years later, at the age of devastatingly quick, physical and fit. HIGHLIGHT Four assists – to different players – plus a goal against Blackburn in October 27, he left the Eagles as their record 3 0 W H E n T H E P R E M I E R At nearly 35, Wright kept up with his 2009. Only Ryan Giggs can beat his Premier post-war scorer. team-mates. He left north London at League assist haul of 111. Wright was the very definition of L E A G U E C A M E C A L L I n G , the end of the season on a high, with a late bloomer, but the chance to 185 goals to his name. spend his prime at Arsenal simply B U T H E T H E n L I T I T U P A short stint at West Ham followed couldn’t be missed. He grew up in before Nottingham Forest, Celtic, a Gooner-supporting estate, thanks Burnley and a TV career. to local boy David ‘Rocky’ Rocastle Wright was a lesson that good joining the club as a boy. Wright was glued to his TV when things come to those who work hard, and remains a huge Arsenal became champions at Anfield in 1988-89. When fan favourite more than two decades after exiting Arsenal. Rocky told Wrighty, “It’s all about the fans” at Highbury, He was nearly 30 when the Premier League came calling the goal-getter didn’t think twice about signing. – but wasted no time lighting it up. Keen to make up for lost time, Wright hit 24 goals in 30 HIGHLIGHT With Arsenal’s all-time scoring record on the games during his debut First Division season as a Gunner. line, Wright notched against Bolton in September 1997, Arsenal came 10th in the first Premier League campaign then gleefully revealed his famous T-shirt bragging, “179. but won both the FA Cup and League Cup, with their No.8 Just Done It.” He had only equalled Cliff Bastin’s 60-year tallying 30 in all competitions. Wright bagged at least 15 record, so netted two more before full-time to make sure. 56 February 2021 FourFourTwo

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 35LUIZ firing a brace in a 3-1 victory at Sunderland, then opening 34 EDEN HAZARD SUAREZ the scoring a week later in a home win over Crystal Palace. CHELSEA Liverpool’s smarting forward produced 19 goals in his LEGACY Last year, Juan Mata first 12 games back – including five braces, one hat-trick described the Belgian as the Premier League’s greatest ever LIVERPOOL and even a four-goal haul. Suarez led from the front in player. That may be a stretch, but there was little doubting a feared frontline alongside Daniel Sturridge and Raheem the schemer’s talents or the ease with which he could destroy defences single-handedly. Sterling, harrying and hustling defenders as if his place Hazard, who hit 85 goals in seven seasons, was the standout player of two Chelsea title LEGACY There may never have been a greater on Earth depended on it. Such inspirational determination triumphs in 2015 and 2017. HIGHLIGHT A solo stunner against Arsenal individual performance over a Premier League transformed a young squad into title contenders. in February 2017 was peak Hazard: glorious dribbling from inside his own half, opposition season than Suarez’s in 2013-14; rarely has Successive defeats against Manchester City and Chelsea faintly embarrassed and a finish to match. one player ever shaped a year to their will like in December could have crushed the Reds, but Suarez & 33 ROBIN VAN PERSIE ARSENAL, MANCHESTER UNITED Liverpool’s electric forward throughout that near-miss of Co powered on. From New Year’s Day they won 14 of their LEGACY Van Persie vexed the a title campaign. However, as was so often the case with next 16 games, their Uruguayan talisman scoring another Gunners by swapping north London for Manchester after the Uruguayan, it began with controversy. 11. A maiden Premier League title was so close. eight years and 132 goals at Arsenal but, desperate to bag Suarez scored 31 goals and laid But it wasn’t to be. After slipping a Premier League medal after a sensational 30-goal season in 2011-12, he was proved on 12 more in a devastating season LUIS WAS A OnE-MAn at home to Chelsea, the Red dream right. Another 26 strikes helped Manchester – but he wasn’t even available for ended with Suarez’s tears at Selhurst United to their 13th Premier League crown under Alex Ferguson, in the Scot’s final year. the first five fixtures. It could have WRECKInG BALL – Park and the notion of what might HIGHLIGHT His perfect volley from a raking been worse: after the 10-match have been. “Suarez was banned for Wayne Rooney pass – part of a title-sealing hat-trick against Aston Villa in April 2013. ban he received for biting Chelsea A L E T H A L H I T M A n A n D those five matches and we dropped defender Branislav Ivanovic in April five points,” ex-Liverpool defender 2013, the Reds man wanted out An IDEAL TEAM-MATE Jamie Carragher told Sky Sports in completely. No offer from preferred 2019. “If he’d played in those games suitors Barcelona was forthcoming, it would have been different.” and Suarez was annoyed Liverpool It’s tough to disagree. In 2013-14 didn’t accept a £40m+£1 offer from Premier League rivals Suarez was a one-man wrecking ball; a lethal hitman, Arsenal, who believed they were triggering his release yes, but also the ideal team-mate who facilitated the fine clause. “What do you think they’re smoking over there at individual campaigns of Sturridge and a teenage Sterling. the Emirates?” tweeted Reds owner John Henry. That summer, Barcelona finally made their move. Even at Liverpool held firm. Suarez was promised a 2014 move £65m – somewhat more than £40m+£1 – he looked like and boss Brendan Rodgers advised his star attacker to use a bargain. Suarez departed Anfield with a clean sweep the remaining five games of his sentence to get his head of England’s individual awards, but no winner’s medal. together. In late September, the No.7 entered stage left. HIGHLIGHT Four goals of outstanding class obliterated The Reds sat second in the table following a grim home Norwich as Liverpool won 5-1 in December 2013 – having defeat to Southampton, but Suarez flew out of the blocks, struck a hat-trick past the same opposition a year earlier. 32 SOL CAMPBELL TOTTENHAM, ARSENAL, PORTSMOUTH, NEWCASTLE LEGACY Campbell’s crossing of the north London divide is still the most contentious Bosman deal in English football history, but in his pomp, he was the country’s best centre-back: a towering, brave, fast and intelligent defender who could rule either penalty area. Spurs fans don’t like to hear it, but the move was smart – Campbell won two league titles at Highbury. HIGHLIGHT A pillar of reliability as Arsenal leaked just 26 goals across their Invincibles campaign of 2003-04. 31 RUUD VAN NISTELROOY MANCHESTER UNITED LEGACY Death, taxes and Van Nistelrooy tap-ins. After the Dutchman (eventually) signed from PSV for £19m in 2001, the prime poacher plundered 95 goals in 150 Premier League appearances across five campaigns with the Red Devils – pocketing a Premier League title and Golden Boot combo in 2002-03. HIGHLIGHT OK, so they weren’t all tap-ins. An uncharacteristically mazy run from inside his own half preceded a cool finish against Fulham in March 2003, part of a fine hat-trick. FourFourTwo February 2021 57

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 “WE THOUGHT, the Italian for Napoli, Parma and the national ‘WHY DO WE nEED team. “They had similar characteristics, and THIS GUY – WE Zola gained so many outstanding skills from aLrEaDY HavE Diego’s technical knowledge. JOHn SPEnCEr!’” “They’d spend a very long time together on Long before Roman Abramovich’s billions and Jose Mourinho’s opinions, there the training field, trying different free-kicks. was a tiny Sardinian who transformed the face of Chelsea forever. For seven Gianfranco was a bit shy at the start but he seasons, Gianfranco Zola weaved his magic as English football watched in awe had great qualities. Even though he wasn’t very tall, he was hard to mark and so strong. Words Chris Flanagan Additional reporting Emanuele Giulianelli, Ivan Tomic When Maradona left the club in 1992, Zola was given the No.10 jersey and then played extraordinarily well.” In 1992-93, Zola scored 12 Serie A goals and provided 12 assists, the joint-highest tally in the league. As Napoli began to struggle financially, Parma swooped with a £6m bid. He netted 18 times in his first campaign at the Stadio Ennio Tardini, but disappointment was to follow at USA 94. On July 5, Italy trailed 1-0 to Nigeria in the last 16 when Zola was introduced from the bench for his first tournament appearance. Eager to make an impact, and believing he had been denied a penalty after falling inside the area, he had an uncharacteristic rush of blood – charging after Augustine Eguavoen and chopping a boot across the defender to win possession back. Eguavoen went down and Zola was shown a red card, responding by kneeling on the pitch, arms folded like a crestfallen child. He’s the only player to be sent off on his birthday in World Cup history. It could have cost Italy, had Roberto Baggio not bagged a brace to rescue the 10-men Azzurri. Zola was available from suspension by the time they reached the Rose Bowl final, but he wasn’t called upon. The following season, he hit back with his highest ever goal tally, scoring 28 times as Parma challenged for a first league title and won the UEFA Cup. Hristo Stoichkov’s arrival soon altered Zola’s role, however, before he suffered more tournament misery – missing a decisive penalty against Germany as Italy exited Euro 96 at the group stage. Months later, Zola decided to leave Serie A, after new Parma boss Carlo Ancelotti began to play him on the left of a rigid 4-4-2 system. 30GIANFRANCO A fortnight after Harding’s death, a new ZOLA figure of hope arrived at the crucial moment. Gianfranco Zola was just 5ft 6in tall, but he CHELSEA changed everything. In the 25 years since the Italian’s arrival, Chelsea have never finished It was almost 11pm in Cheshire outside the top 10 and celebrated 20 major when the helicopter fell from trophies. Few players have altered the course the sky. Matthew Harding was of history in such pivotal fashion. making his way back to London, having watched his beloved Chelsea slip to If Zola was special, it was because he learned defeat at second-tier Bolton in the League from the grand master. He was an unpolished Cup. He never made it home. Along with four diamond, still competing in Italy’s third tier in others, the Blues’ vice-chairman died on that his native Sardinia when spotted by Napoli in fateful October night in 1996. 1989, aged 23. He was welcomed to Stadio Harding was a figure of hope, following an San Paolo by one Diego Maradona. “Finally,” awful quarter-century for Chelsea. Between the Argentine told him, “they’ve bought a guy 1971 and 1996, the club won no major titles even shorter than me!” and finished outside English football’s top 10 on 21 occasions. Without their investor, their Zola played only a fringe role as the ‘Little prospects seemed uncertain once more. Donkeys’ secured the 1989-90 Scudetto, but spent as much time with Diego as possible. “‘El Pibe’ was so important for Gianfranco,” says Massimo Crippa, who played alongside 58 February 2021 FourFourTwo

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 “PEOPLE TALK ABOUT MOURInHO’S CHELSEA MInDSET... ZOLA HAD ALREADY STARTED IT”

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 “Ancelotti had other intentions for him – he “THAT GOAL WAS WOnDERFUL, their approach. He was only around 4ft 2in, preferred to use that kind of player as a wide BUT WHEn YOU SAW WHAT HE but was a mammoth of a man – his gravitas, midfielder, but it wasn’t Gianfranco’s role so DID EVERY DAY AT TRAInInG, his warmth. When people ask me to name he decided to consider proposals from other IT WAS JUST nORMAL TO HIM” the best I ever played with, I don’t hesitate – clubs,” Crippa tells FourFourTwo. it was Zola.” arriving in England partway through a season. Above Franco (front “I was really surprised when he moved to Hard work complemented his talent. row, third from right) During his debut Premier League season, England, but Chelsea were quite an Italian learned from Diego the forward struck a winner for Italy against team at that time, with Gianluca Vialli, Ruud “Gianfranco would be one of the first on the (middle row, third England at Wembley, in qualifying for the Gullit who’d played in Serie A, and Roberto Di training field and one of the last off,” recalls from right) at Napoli 1998 World Cup. He began to assist Chelsea Matteo. Seeing what he did at Chelsea, it was Duberry. “There was one time when the boss, in Europe, too. Already League Cup winners the perfect choice.” Ruud Gullit, said to the young English players, in 1997-98, the Blues reached the European ‘You lot aren’t technical enough, so you’re Cup Winners’ Cup final thanks to three Zola It seems implausible in 2021, but there was going out half an hour early to do some skill goals en route. Struggling with injury before scepticism in the Chelsea squad when Zola exercises’. There was Jody Morris, Andy Myers the showpiece against Stuttgart, the Italian joined for £4.5m in November 1996. and myself, and we saw it as a punishment. was named on the bench – then hammered Why were we having to do that when Frank home the only goal of the game within 30 “When he first arrived, John Spencer was Leboeuf and Roberto Di Matteo were in the seconds of his introduction. in the team and playing very well,” ex-Blues changing room sipping espressos, watching defender Michael Duberry tells FFT. “Everyone us from the window and laughing? Season after season, the magic continued. loved Spenny, so Gianfranco came in and we In 1998-99, Zola helped Chelsea come third all wondered, ‘Why do we need this guy?’ He “Zola sensed that. He’d say, ‘Dubes, come and seal Champions League qualification for wasn’t one of the biggest names coming out on, I’ll come and do them with you – it’s not the first time. He was still at his dazzling best of Serie A. When he started training though, punishment. See it the other way, as a way as the west Londoners reached the last eight, I thought, ‘Wow, all is forgiven, he can play... to better yourself’. He and Vialli both came thumping Galatasaray 5-0 at the infamously I love Spenny, but this guy is unbelievable’.” out. When you could see Gianfranco getting intimidating Ali Sami Yen in the group stage something out of it, everyone else changed courtesy of a Gianfranco masterclass. Already 30, Zola was desperate to make an impact. He was handed a debut at Blackburn “Before the game, Galatasaray supporters in November and was Premier League Player smashed the windows on our bus,” Gus Poyet of the Month by the end of December, after told FFT. “But we had Zola. When he came off netting five goals in six games. By February, after 80 minutes, those same fans stood up he had scooped BBC Goal of the Month after and applauded him.” collecting the ball near the byline at home to Manchester United, then bamboozling Denis At the start of that 1999-2000 campaign, Irwin and Gary Pallister to somehow work his Zola had pondered calling time on his career way into a position to fire home. come the season’s end, but thankfully didn’t. He bookended it with an audacious scooped Zola’s long-range stunner helped Chelsea assist for Poyet to score a flying scissor-volley come from 2-0 down to beat Liverpool in the against Sunderland on the opening day, and FA Cup fourth round, then a brilliant piece of a teasing set-piece which produced a David skill outfoxed the Wimbledon backline as he James error in the last FA Cup final at the old scored in the semi-finals at Highbury. By the Wembley against Aston Villa. end of the campaign, Chelsea had secured sixth place in the Premier League – their first The Italian wasn’t exempt from dressing top 10 finish since 1990 – and another clever room banter, though – unsurprisingly, Dennis Zola flick laid on an assist for Eddie Newton Wise was at the heart of it. “Gianfranco was as the Blues beat Middlesbrough 2-0 in the reading a John Grisham book, a cliffhanger FA Cup final. Finally, the 26-year major trophy where it all came together in the very last drought was over. chapter,” remembered Graeme Le Saux. “Our captain decided it would be funny to tear out Before that, Zola had been named Football the last chapter and Gianfranco didn’t realise, Writers’ Association Player of the Year – he’s so we watched him getting closer to what he still the only man to win the award despite thought was the end of the book, until one BETTER THAn ZOLA? Chelsea’s diminutive star was crowned FWA Player of the Year in 1997, but never got selected in a PFA Team of the Year – unlike this more unexpected quartet DAVID BARDSLEY ALAN WRIGHT STIG INGE BJORNEBYE ANDY JOHNSON Named in the PFA Team of the Year for At just 5ft 4in tall, the left-back hardly In the season that scribes named Zola The striker couldn’t stop Crystal Palace the Premier League’s debut 1992-93 terrified wingers and never earned full Player of the Year, Alan Shearer and suffering relegation in 2005, but he did campaign, QPR’s right-back helped the international honours. However, he did Ian Wright kept the Italian out of the score 21 times to seal PFA recognition. Super Hoops finish fifth and won two make the PFA line-up in 1996 at Aston PFA XI. Bjornebye made it at left-back, Johnson failed to maintain that form – caps for England having impressed his Villa, after being understudy to Graeme having improved after a poor start at his next eight seasons in the Premier old Watford manager Graham Taylor. Le Saux in Blackburn’s rise to the title. Liverpool under boss Graeme Souness. League delivered a combined 30 goals. 60 February 2021 FourFourTwo

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 day in the dressing room, he got there. That Above Galatasaray He hit back by reasserting his class at home keep the out-of-contract Italian in England, was the first time I saw him lose the plot – fans applauded the to Norwich, meeting a low corner at the near the incoming owner upped the terms of the he was going around accusing everyone of Italian’s excellence post and flicking a backheel volley into the new deal on offer at Chelsea, but Zola had stealing the pages, demanding them back!” Below “Yeah, but net. Only an artist like Zola could have scored already agreed to join Cagliari. Abramovich John Spencer could a goal like that. was said to be so disappointed, according to Zola turned 34 in the summer of 2000, but do that too, mate” unconfirmed reports, that he swiftly made still he kept producing. His football brain, his “It was a wonderful goal, although it wasn’t an offer to buy the Serie B side. biggest asset, was as sharp as ever. surprising for us as team-mates,” Stanic tells FFT. “It’s understandable that it looked great “Gianfranco was iconic at Chelsea – he was “He was a footballer who wasn’t dominant to everybody else, but when you saw what part of the attraction,” says Duberry. “It’s like physically, but gained his advantage through he did every day at training, that was just an if you’re buying a new house – you think, ‘Oh, intelligence and innovation out on the pitch,” ordinary day for him. What made Gianfranco I thought I was getting that nice lampshade. says Mario Stanic, who played alongside Zola so fantastic was the ease with which he did They took that as well? Why didn’t they leave during the Italian’s final years at Stamford flicks and tricks like that. He was an individual that in there?’ The timing of him going was Bridge. “He saw things before anybody else. who always put the team first, a quality that a shame, because maybe Abramovich would He showed that with a professional attitude is extremely rare for players as good as him. have invested in Gianfranco for a little longer, and the correct mentality, you can continue But he never doubted his own ability.” and we could have seen him lift the Premier to play dominantly in your 30s. We shared League trophy even if he played a supporting a dressing room for three wonderful years – Remarkably, that continued belief allowed role. Ian Wright got to lift the trophy towards he embraced new players and made us feel Zola to regain his spot in 2002-03 and notch the back end of his Arsenal career – it would part of the team. 16 goals – the best haul of his Chelsea career, have been lovely for Gianfranco to have that earning him their Player of the Year award. iconic moment, too. “I’m still in touch with him today. The two In the closing stages of the final game of the of us would play football-tennis all the time season, the 36-year-old schemer tormented “But what he did at Chelsea was great as it at training – he used to arrive an a defender some 11 years his junior, turning was, and the club did win things during that hour and a half early so we could period. It was the influence he had on other play. It was always full of laughs Jamie Carragher inside out and sending Chelsea players like Frank Lampard, too. The and crazy tricks.” the Liverpool stopper tumbling, before attention to detail, to practise and work hard darting past two more bamboozled – it rubbed off on anyone who joined the club. Breathtaking skills were never far away Reds in a sumptuous piece of skill. People talk about Jose Mourinho putting that when Zola was around, his most notable It would prove to be Zola’s final act mindset into Chelsea, but Zola had already coming in Chelsea’s 2001-02 FA Cup run. been doing it. He had such an impact there. That season, the veteran was beginning in blue. His displays at Stamford Bridge He transformed the club.” to face a battle for his starting place, had played a significant role in tempting as Claudio Ranieri tried to lower the Roman Abramovich to purchase the club, Legacies don’t come much better than that. team’s average age by pairing Eidur but days before the Russian billionaire’s Chelsea’s successful era began back on that Gudjohnsen with Jimmy Floyd takeover was completed, Zola decided autumn day in 1996, when Gianfranco Zola Hasselbaink upfront. to return home and play the remainder walked through the door at Stamford Bridge. of his career in Sardinia. Desperate to FourFourTwo February 2021 61

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 29 EDWIN VAN DER SAR FULHAM, MANCHESTER UNITED LEGACY The Dutchman had been a European champion at Ajax and regular at Juventus before joining newly promoted Fulham in a shock 2001 move. Four seasons later, Manchester United came calling, Alex Ferguson ending a six-year wait for the reliable stopper he had been hunting since Peter Schmeichel’s exit. The prototype for the sweeper keeper. HIGHLIGHT A record 14 consecutive clean sheets between November and February led the Red Devils to Premier League title glory in 2008-09. Impregnable. 28 DAVID SILVA MANCHESTER CITY LEGACY Slight, short, foreign: would Silva be able to cope in English football? So pondered the pundits when City coughed up £24m for the Valencia man in 2010. ‘Merlin’ soon dropped jaws with his effortless displays for a side on the ascent, and proved the fulcrum of four league titles under three managers. They all adored him. HIGHLIGHT A masterful performance as City gubbed Manchester United 6-1 at Old Trafford in October 2011. “The best individual display I’ve ever seen,” Micah Richards later told FFT. 2 6 DAVID His corners, too, were beamed in with swerve and pace BECKHAM that wreaked havoc; Beckham is one of only two players in Premier League history to provide 10+ assists in four consecutive seasons (from 1997-98 to 2000-01). MANCHESTER UNITED Eight goals and seven assists over the 1996-97 season earned a 21-year-old Becks the PFA Young Player of the Year gong but, like so many United players, he enjoyed LEGACY A star was born on August 17, 1996. his greatest season in their Treble-winning campaign of David Robert Joseph Beckham may have been 1998-99. He had returned from France 98 a pariah, facing a regular starter at Manchester United for the burning effigies and terrace abuse wherever he travelled, best part of a full season before the opening but the Englishman embraced the support of Old Trafford game of 1996-97, but it was that summer’s day when he to shine. By the end of 1999, he had finished runner-up truly announced himself to the world. to Rivaldo in the Ballon d’Or voting. “It was the season With United two goals up and only minutes remaining when I lived a nightmare and dream at the same time,” at Wimbledon, a floppy-haired Beckham went for the he said “In the end, the dream won.” audacious. But when he sent the ball Beckham would win three more sailing towards Neil Sullivan’s net, “IN 1998-99 I LIVED Premier League crowns after that, he knew what he was capable of: it before off-field issues (and a swift 27 ANDY COLE A N I G H T M A R E A N Dlanded beneath a sun-kissed crossbar boot to the face) with his boss led to NEWCASTLE, MANCHESTER UNITED, him being increasingly marginalised without a bounce. Beckham-mania had officially begun. And he wasn’t A DREAM TOGETHER – throughout the 2002-03 campaign. BLACKBURN, FULHAM, MANCHESTER CITY, even wearing his own boots, donning Fed up with the midfielder’s celebrity PORTSMOU NDERLAND the borrowed Adidas Predators of B U T T H E D R E A M W O N ” status, Ferguson decided to sell him Rangers prodigy Charlie Miller. to Real Madrid for £25m. “The minute LEGACY Cole’s shock £7m switch The Class of ’92 hero had made his a Manchester United player thought to Old Trafford in January 1995 had Newcastle fans seething with Premier League debut against Leeds he was bigger than the manager, he manager Kevin Keegan. The striker had scored for fun at St James’ Park, including in April 1995. He was a winger without obvious pace or had to go,” the Scot explained in his autobiography. Later a stellar 34-goal 1993-94. Predictably, Cole hit 93 more league strikes for the Red Devils, dribbling ability, but carried a wand of a right foot that he reflecting on the departure to FFT, Beckham admitted, bagging five titles over seven full campaigns. HIGHLIGHT Cantona’s 1997 exit helped Cole, worked hard on to improve with every passing campaign. “I was angry – when the club said that they wanted me but Eric’s spirit lived on. Cole’s lesser-heralded chip against Everton that Boxing Day was ace. Has any player before or since boasted such natural ability to leave, I was gutted.” to bend, spin and weigh passes with the effortlessness of Fergie’s mantra served him well over 27 years in charge, United’s former No.7? with perhaps only one exception. No player has ever been so devastating from set-pieces, HIGHLIGHT That halfway line goal at Selhurst Park which either: 18 of Beckham’s 62 Premier League strikes came shot Beckham into the Spice Girl-marrying stratosphere. courtesy of direct free-kicks – six more than anyone else. Sullivan may still have nightmares. 62 February 2021 FourFourTwo

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 24 DIDIER DROGBA CHELSEA LEGACY The Ivorian embodies Abramovich-era Chelsea. Both physically elite and mentally resilient, he was an ace card in the Blues’ biggest games, but a flat-track bully as well. Drogba became the prototypical Mourinho forward who inspired a tactical change to lone frontmen in English football – every Chelsea striker since has had to measure up to his lofty standards. HIGHLIGHT Drogba struck 29 goals in a title and Golden Boot-winning 2009-10, his brace at Arsenal in November featuring a stonking free-kick to wrap up a 3-0 victory. 23 VIRGIL VAN DIJK SOUTHAMPTON, LIVERPOOL LEGACY To quantify Van Dijk’s influence at Liverpool is nigh on impossible. It’s not just the Dutchman’s terrifying 6ft 4in frame and effortless approach to defending which stand out, his leadership spreads calm where others breed chaos. “He has no weakness,” opined Sami Hyypia, who knows a thing or two on the subject. HIGHLIGHT A towering header at home to Manchester United in a January 2020 win. Face to face with Harry Maguire, Van Dijk proved why he’s a different class altogether. 25HARRY Kane found his scoring touch around Christmas, bagging 22 KEVIN DE BRUYNE KANE a New Year’s Day brace in a 5-3 win over Chelsea as the CHELSEA, MANCHESTER CITY Blues conceded four goals in a league game for the first time under Jose Mourinho. From December 14 to March LEGACY City now orbit around De Bruyne. The Belgian is more TOTTENHAM, NORWICH 21, Kane plundered 17 goals in 15 matches – including than Pep Guardiola’s creative hub, he has a midfield role all a double to turn around January’s North London derby, of his own; their multi-talented action hero with a passing range unrivalled. the first of a record-breaking 11 in the fixture. The 29-year-old has won two league titles and equalled Thierry Henry’s long-standing LEGACY Harry Kane found himself among the He ended his maiden full season with 21 league goals, single-season assist record of 20. HIGHLIGHT It’s almost unfair to choose one. substitutes for his first taste of a North London but needed more to shrug off mischievous suggestions De Bruyne’s highlight reel of assists deserve an adult rating, but his inch-perfect pass to derby in March 2014. He stayed there too, as of being a one-season wonder. History now makes them tee up Leroy Sané in a 7-2 thumping of Stoke in October 2017 was next level. an early Tomas Rosicky effort secured a 1-0 look suitably ludicrous, of course: in the intervening years, 21 NEMANJA VIDIC Arsenal win. Manager Tim Sherwood rarely turned to the Kane has never netted fewer than 17 goals in a Premier MANCHESTER UNITED 20-year-old to make the difference – Kane was used to it. League season, and struck at least 25 in each campaign LEGACY Rio Ferdinand’s 2002 arrival at Old Trafford was huge, By then, he had spent four loan spells away from White from 2015-16 to 2017-18. but the picture was incomplete until £7m bargain Vidic rocked Hart Lane with varying success; four years of temporary Top-scoring exploits haven’t yet brought a league title, up at the start of 2006. United uncovered another leader with no significant accommodation and waiting for but in 2020, Kane is more than just weaknesses in the terrace favourite – the Serb is still the only defender to be named Premier a shot. Some had written his Spurs SHEARER’S PREMIER a fine striker: at 27 he is also England League Player of the Season twice. career off already. So, when Kane captain, a World Cup Golden Boot HIGHLIGHT Vidic endured a difficult first six months after moving from Spartak Moscow, finally got a first Tottenham league LEAGUE RECORD OF winner, and now picking off retired but was captain by 2010. It was a measure of start against Sunderland a month rivals in the top 10 scorers of Premier the “uncompromising sod” – Fergie’s words. later, he was determined to do 260 STRIKES IS NO League history. Alan Shearer’s record anything he could to make himself haul of 260 is a lofty, but certainly undroppable from there on. I N S U R M O U N TA B L E A I M not insurmountable target. Talk of Just before the hour mark, with Bayern Munich and Real Madrid may both Gylfi Sigurdsson and Andros persist, but immortality will trump Townsend getting ready on the anything when push comes to shove. touchline, it happened – Kane stuck a toe out at Christian Such is his development under Mourinho now that Kane Eriksen’s cross and got just enough on the ball to turn it has become one of Europe’s unlikely playmakers. In his home. He would have had a second goal, had Emmanuel deeper role, he has struck up a defining partnership with Adebayor not tapped in a netbound shot later on. Son Heung-min while maintaining his own lethal scoring Kane scored in Spurs’ next two matches, but Sherwood record, making a great all-rounder even more complete. didn’t survive the summer. Appearances under Mauricio Not bad for a seven-season wonder. Pochettino were initially restricted to cups and the Europa HIGHLIGHT That brilliant brace against Arsenal in 2015, League, where he was deadly, and it wouldn’t be until as Spurs fans returned Gooners’ taunts that he was “one mid-December when the shackles were released for good. of their own”. Hubris, meet Nemesis. FourFourTwo February 2021 63

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 20 VINCENT KOMPANY 16SERGIO of one roughly every 108 minutes. His dozen hat-tricks are MANCHESTER CITY AGUERO an all-time high. Six times, he has scored 20 league goals in a campaign. LEGACY Captain Kompany was the constant throughout City’s Nobody will talk about anything else because they don’t astonishing ascent. From his raw arrival at a club still finding MANCHESTER CITY need to: Aguero was simply a master in the art of scoring. its way in 2008, to becoming its beating heart across four title triumphs, the For a long time, nobody did it better. Belgian led by example in steering the team to hitherto unscalable heights. Still, a testimony from a trusted former colleague and HIGHLIGHT He was a man for the biggest occasions. First, a bullet derby header swung LEGACY Is it even possible to think of Sergio compatriot can’t hurt… the 2011-12 title race to City. Seven years on, his swerving 30-yard thunderbolt at home to Aguero’s name in the same way ever again? Leicester meant another winner’s medal. An iconic Premier League moment. The most climatic moment of Premier League PABLO ZABALETA (MAN CITY, 2008-17) 19 PETR CECH history in May 2012 is unlikely to be matched “Kun always retained the personality of CHELSEA, ARSENAL for its importance or drama. a kid from the neighbourhood – someone LEGACY Glovemen in England have long had a reputation for When we pore over the Argentine’s career in years to who has fun and has the ability to live with being fiery or eccentric. Not the ice-cool Cech, though. He let in come, analysts will struggle to look beyond that magical a smile on his face every day. He’s an outgoing guy who a poxy 15 goals in his maiden campaign at Chelsea, which set the tone for moment against QPR in his maiden lives with enthusiasm. an outstanding top-flight career in which he won four titles and four Golden Gloves. Etihad Stadium campaign. Without “HE WAS DESTINED TO “I don’t think there’s been another HIGHLIGHT In 2015, just over a decade after having watched Aguero ruthlessly SCORE THAT QPR GOAL. player like Aguero in the history of arriving in England, Cech kept a record 170th put teams to the sword over almost ANYBODY ELSE WOULD Manchester City – maybe David Silva, Premier League clean sheet as Arsenal beat a decade as a Premier League player, HAVE FALLEN OVER” who also left his mark on an era. Both Bournemouth. His final tally of 202 is unlikely it’s hard to do his time at Manchester are players who arrived from other to be topped any time soon. City full justice. What is it to witness important clubs and then stayed for a talisman narrowing towards goal, a long time, even though they could a certain inevitability that the net will have left and signed for other teams. bulge seconds later? For years, City World-class people. They made City fans have been able to rest in that what they are today. Yaya Toure and kind of strange, qualitative comfort. Vincent Kompany are also in that group, but Aguero has It’s easy to forget that Aguero’s Etihad career was cast scored so many goals and that makes him special. into doubt when Pep Guardiola arrived in 2016. Could he “When he popped up against QPR to win us the Premier get away with ‘just’ scoring goals? Actually, he couldn’t – League in 2012, he was the only player who could have so instead, adapted to become an even better player. The been in that situation. Anybody else would have looked Argentine dropped deeper to link play around the box as for a penalty, fallen over or shot over the bar. He was the City shone, but still delivered 20-plus goal seasons in each one – he was destined to be the man of that season. of the Catalan’s first three years in charge. “He’s always been a special player who is ready to score Ultimately, Aguero’s career boils down to big numbers: important goals. For me, he’s the best striker the Premier 180 Premier League goals at the time of writing, at a rate League has had in the last decade.” 18 MOHAMED SALAH CHELSEA, LIVERPOOL LEGACY Salah arrived in the wrong place at the wrong time at Chelsea in 2014. Undeterred, he joined Liverpool three years later, following success with both Fiorentina and Roma, and couldn’t have picked his moment any better. The ‘Egyptian King’ was the catalyst in turning a promising outfit into conquerors. A pair of Golden Boots have come amid domestic, European and world titles in three full seasons at Anfield. HIGHLIGHT Records tumbled in his debut Reds campaign, including an all-time Premier League high 32 goals for a 38-game season. 17 DENNIS BERGKAMP ARSENAL LEGACY It’s apt that his statue at Arsenal depicts him pulling a ball out of the sky. The Dutch maestro celebrated three titles and 87 league goals in north London, but it’s his elegance which endures. Lethal and incisive, Bergkamp’s gift to English football was his artistry. Few are universally loved beyond the clubs they made their name with. The ‘Ice Man’ is, though. HIGHLIGHT Any excuse to watch that 1997 Leicester hat-trick – his third, physics-defying goal the pick of a stunning triple. 64 February 2021 FourFourTwo

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 12JOHN of 500 for the Blues – only 15 men have featured in more TERRY since the division’s 1992 launch. Nor was it just Mourinho who loved him. “John Terry is the captain of all team captains – he was CHELSEA born with the armband on his arm,” said Carlo Ancelotti, another former manager. “Even without the band, it’s as if he wears it anyway, and that’s how it ought to be. He’s LEGACY ‘Captain, Leader, Legend’ adorns the different from all the others.” famous banner at Stamford Bridge. Tautology aside, it’s a neat summary of Terry’s career at MICHAEL BALLACK (CHELSEA, 2006-10) Chelsea. Two years after making his league “Throughout my career, I thought it was so debut on Boxing Day 1998, the lion-hearted stopper had important to the success of a team – in the assumed the first-team spot that he wouldn’t relinquish short term and long-term – to have a core of for another decade and a half. domestic players. Manchester United 15 PETER SCHMEICHEL Playing alongside Marcel Desailly “TERRY PLAYED SO were successful under Alex Ferguson MANCHESTER UNITED, ASTON VILLA, helped iron out early immaturity and WELL IN EVERY GAME, with a group of English players, and MANCHESTER CITY it wasn’t long before the Barking boy HIS PERFORMANCES when I was at Bayern Munich there was replacing his World Cup-winning BECAME THE NORM” were several influential German guys LEGACY “Bargain of the century,” colleague as captain. Terry was still at the club. was Alex Ferguson’s assessment only 23 when Jose Mourinho arrived of the great Dane, plucked from from Porto in 2004, but served as the “John Terry was a massive figure at Brondy for £505,000 in July 1991. Portuguese’s perfect general to lead Chelsea – he kept the team together. Schmeichel was United’s finest goalkeeper, a new era – even if he didn’t strike It’s important at a club that you have his leadership, bravery and reflexes essential a captain who leads by example, and in five title wins, before bowing out on a high after the 1999 Treble. everyone as skipper material at first. we had that in John. Even if he was HIGHLIGHT A sensational display against rivals Newcastle in March 1996 – pulling off “In my very first training session, I saw this guy from injured, he always travelled with the team. He looked after save after save in a 1-0 win – proved pivotal in the title race. Stunning. the academy with us – he had this baby face,” explained the other players, the staff – he embodied everything that Didier Drogba. “Then they told me, ‘This is the captain...’” a captain should be. The Chelsea players recognised and But Terry was named PFA Players’ Player of the Year as respected that a lot. Chelsea broke the Premier League record for fewest goals “On the pitch, he was a typical English defender: strong, conceded in Mourinho’s first campaign, then honed their good in the air, fearless and a great tackler. He read the menacing brand of bastardry to enjoy the three greatest game superbly. To be honest, I can’t think of a particular defensive campaigns of their history. match where John stood out for Chelsea – but that’s just Terry was at the heart of it all, with his fearless style and because he was such a consistent performer. He played vocal leadership steering five Chelsea teams to Premier so well in every match that his exceptional performances League crowns. He finished just eight league games short just became the norm.” 14 ASHLEY COLE ARSENAL, CHELSEA LEGACY Having Ashley Cole in your team was like having two players in one on the left. The defender melded intelligence with athleticism to become an Invincible at 23, then swapped north London for west to win every other trophy going at Stamford Bridge. Probably the most complete full-back in football history. HIGHLIGHT Cole bested Cristiano Ronaldo in a draw against Manchester United in 2006. “He kind of put his hand up and said, ‘I want to go off’ – I think that was a good time to say I had him in my pocket,” winked Cole. 13 RIO FERDINAND WEST HAM, LEEDS, MANCHESTER UNITED, QPR LEGACY As a lad, the Peckham native famously turned down a five-year scholarship at the Central School of Ballet to focus more on football. His career was no less on pointe. Tall, strong, graceful and effortlessly calm in possession, there was something gloriously cultured to Ferdinand, twice the world’s most expensive defender. HIGHLIGHT Rio was key to a United defence which conceded just 22 goals as they won the 2007-08 Premier League, his third of six.

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 “HE WASn’T JUST THE BEST I PLAYED WITH… HE WAS aLSO MY FAVOURITE” The unknown teenager Brian Clough called ‘Irishman’ was something special, a fearless and unforgiving leader who epitomised a glorious era at the Theatre of Dreams. There really was no one like Keano Words Andy Mitten Additional reporting Chris Flanagan 11ROY KEANE NOTT’M FOREST, MANCHESTER UNITED “Roy Keane is the best player that I’ve ever played with,” Denis Irwin, fellow Corkonian, Republic of Ireland international and Manchester United stalwart, admits to FourFourTwo. “My two favourite players who I played with were Robbo [Bryan Robson] and Roy. They were really similar, but I had a lot of time with Roy for United and Ireland. I saw him develop from being a box-to-box player to a holding midfielder. “Our midfield in 1999 complemented each other. Scholesy was a magnificent footballer, partly because whenever he played alongside Roy it was the perfect partnership. Wide of them were Giggsy and Becks, but the driving force was always Roy.” Keane made 480 outings for United, putting him 12th in their all-time appearance chart, above George Best. Before that, the Irishman 66 February 2021 FourFourTwo

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 “MAYBE SOMETIMES I’M A BIT HARSH, BUT IF SOMETHInG HAS TO BE SAID, I’LL SAY IT”

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 turned out 154 times for Nottingham Forest, start], so we were a decade apart, but you Clockwise from league and FA Cup Double for the first time in scoring a surprisingly high 33 goals in three always knew that he had an edge to him. He right Keane joined 1993-94, playing 54 games in all. seasons at the City Ground. It was more than backed his ability on and off the pitch. He’d United for a record enough to show why Blackburn and United have his say, even as a young man. We had fee in ’93; having “I saw myself as a goalscoring midfielder, were prepared to smash the British transfer a couple of years together – very successful led the charge at working box-to-box, tackling, closing people record to sign him in 1993. years, as well. Forest; with early down and grafting to win the ball back,” was mentor Cloughie Keane’s self-assessment of his first season Keane was a latecomer to the professional “It was just the variation of positions that at Old Trafford. “Offensively, I think I was at game, and an unknown teenager when he he’d play and still be the best player on the my most effective running onto the ball to travelled across the Irish Sea to Nottingham pitch. Cloughie dropped him into the backline finish moves, like the one which produced in the summer of 1990. and he was the best centre-half at the club. the winner at Maine Road [a 3-2 victory over He could do a multitude of things and went Manchester City in 1993]. This left Paul Ince “When he signed, I didn’t really know him,” on to become one of the greatest players the or Bryan Robson to drop deep and receive Forest captain Stuart Pearce explains to FFT. Premier League has ever seen.” the ball from the back four, which I wasn’t “I was injured, and he ended up playing at confident enough to do. But Robson insisted Anfield against Liverpool [in Forest’s second Keane was actually heading to Ewood Park that it was something I had to do. Trust your league game of the 1990-91 season]. I came before United got involved, though: the Red own ability was the message.” in the next day and said to the physio, ‘How Devils dispatched their ticket office manager was the game? Who played on the right side to Manchester Airport, to pick up Keane in His manager trusted him. Keane won seven of midfield?’ I was talking about Liverpool, a battered old Ford Orion. A contact let the Premier League titles at United, four FA Cups, expecting him to say Ray Houghton, but he Irishman out of a back gate at the airport to the Champions League and Intercontinental said Roy Keane. I said, ‘Who? I’ve never heard avoid the press, and the midfielder looked for Cup. He became their most important player of him’. He said, ‘No, he was playing for us’.” a double headlight flash. after Eric Cantona retired in 1997 – the year Keane was handed the captaincy, by which Keane, freshly signed from Cobh Ramblers “I met Brian Kidd and Alex Ferguson, played time he had all but given up drinking alcohol. in a deal worth up to £47,000, had awoken a game of snooker with them and had the on the morning of the Liverpool game upset usual small talk – they told me how brilliant not to have started for Forest’s reserves at I was and I believed them,” revealed Keane. Rotherham. He had spent most of the game A British record £3.75m transfer was agreed, sat on the bench and played only 10 minutes. outraging Blackburn manager Kenny Dalglish. As he wondered why, Keane was called to “I told Kenny that I was going to Cyprus on Anfield in a car. There he was joined by boss holiday with a few mates, and when I came Brian Clough, who handed him a pint of milk back I was going to sign for United,” added and said, “Here, Irishman, get this down you.” Keane. “He replied, ‘I’m going to find you’. Keane hated milk. He drank the lot. At every bar in Ayia Napa, I looked over my shoulder expecting to see Kenny Dalglish.” On Merseyside, he tried to help the kitman, thinking he was just going for the experience. In his first campaign for champions United, Except he wasn’t: Keane was starting against Keane showed why he was the replacement the First Division champions, wearing No.7. for the player he’s so often compared with: His Forest team-mates didn’t even know his Bryan Robson. He was key as United won the name, merely ‘Irishman’. “I WALKED InTO THE DRESSInG In Keane’s own words, he played “OK”. But ROOM AnD CLOUGH HIT ME In when you consider that he said he had done THE FACE. I JUST nODDED. MY “all right” after his greatest ever performance HOnEYMOOn PERIOD WAS OVER” for United in Turin, “OK” was just fine. Clough summoned him to his office a day later. He asked him to clean his shoes and for his name. “Roy,” he replied. Their relationship would be unconventional but productive. “When I walked into the dressing room after the game, Clough punched me straight in the face,” recalled Keane, after an underhit backpass meant Forest’s FA Cup third round tie with Crystal Palace was going to a second replay. “I was hurt and shocked – too shocked to do anything in response but nod my head in agreement. My honeymoon with Clough and professional football was over.” Yet Clough respected his best player deeply. In another match, after admonishing his entire squad by accusing them of being lazy and complacent, he turned towards Keane and said, “I love you, Irishman.” “Brian loved good players – managers tend to!” Pearce tells FFT. “Roy came over and had an instant impact – he was in the first team before you could believe it and he drove us. He helped get the team to the FA Cup final in 1991 and had a fantastic impact at the club. By the time he left for Man United, he was our standout player, without a doubt. He played in midfield, he played in defence – wherever he played he was outstanding. “Roy always had a very strong personality – obviously he was 18 and I was 28 [at the 68 February 2021 FourFourTwo

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 That summer, media duties were added to was Andy Cole’s view of a pair he still gets on “His Irish fire was fundamental to his value his responsibilities. Keane gave fascinating very well with. Ferguson and Keane don’t see as a footballer, but his tendency to go beyond interviews – and he could get straight to the eye-to-eye after an acrimonious 2005 exit the bounds of acceptability would have to be point. On the 1997 pre-season tour to Hong from United. Keane feels he gave everything curbed,” said Ferguson of the 1995 Keane – Kong, this writer was at the press conference. for his manager and played even when he but he was crucial to his team. When Keane I’d interviewed him several times on the tour was injured. Ferguson believes he was the missed much of the 1997-98 season due to and didn’t ask him anything that day. Keane boss and needed to discipline his midfielder a knee injury, United failed to retain the title, saw me later and wasn’t impressed. like any other player. win a cup and went backwards in Europe by losing to Monaco. When he returned, he was “Why didn’t you ask any questions?” integral to United’s Treble-winning success, “Erm...” making 55 appearances in all competitions. “What’s the point of you coming if you don’t No outfielder featured more. ask any questions? I’m there for you to ask me questions.” “I didn’t think I could have a higher opinion I was in a Manchester bar with friends in of any footballer than I had of the Irishman, the ’90s when Keane entered. He came over but he rose even further in my estimation at and said hello, which was nice, but there was the Stadio delle Alpi,” beamed Ferguson after a sting in his presence. “You’re not following Keane’s greatest United performance, when me are you?” he asked, a verbal jab which led he helped them come from 2-0 down to beat to a defensive, “I was here already.” He just Juventus 3-2 in the Champions League semis. winked and went on his way. A yellow card in Turin meant he had to miss the 1999 final against Bayern Munich. Again: Keane’s relationship with Ferguson was – and Keane felt he had done “all right”. remains – trying. “Two bulls in the same pen,” Unlike a number of old team-mates, Keane challenged, and regularly disagreed with, his master’s voice. He even criticised United fans for a poor atmosphere at Old Trafford during a Champions League game against Dynamo Kiev in 2000. He was arguably absolutely right to do so – adding ‘prawn sandwiches’ to the football menu – and defended his right to be honest, compared to the bland, safe, plaudits given by other players. “Some footballers nowadays are like robots when they speak to the press, because they have people working for them, and PR and all

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 that,” said Keane. “They want to know what “ROY COULD SMELL DAnGER AnD history who divides opinion so much. Keane questions they’re going to be asked and all BREAK FORWARD. HE WAS A HUGE is an Old Trafford legend, and his stock in the that crap. Ultimately, my comments were for DRIVInG FORCE In TRAInInG AnD city, where he has mostly lived since moving the team. A week later, the atmosphere was In BEInG MAnCHESTER UnITED” to England, is high. different class.” Above Keano led thing I would want to think when I retire is But there’s more than one side to him. In It was Keane’s team-mates who incurred his team-mates to that I hadn’t been focused at a certain point 2018, Keane led a group of ex-United players such wrath on a daily basis. new heights in ’99 in my career. To me, that’s the biggest crime.” to organise a 40,000 sell-out match for Liam Below “Hey, hun, Miller, his fellow Corkonian who had tragically “All the time, especially those who think it’ll still hate you, too” Irwin was a close friend. “Roy will contest passed away from cancer. be easy for them,” he insisted. “I do it in every this, but he wasn’t the best footballer in the game and training session. I can be a pretty world – he left that to Scholesy,” he tells FFT. “Liam was a very good player who played critical guy, critical of myself and especially “He was a combative player who could smell for United, Celtic and his country,” said Keane. of the young lads who I can see have talent. “A really nice guy, a quiet guy, very humble. Maybe sometimes I’m harsh, and I’ve left the danger, read situations and tell But don’t get me wrong, he was very strong. training field feeling like I’ve been a bit out of where the ball was dropping. He You don’t get to the top in any sport unless order, particularly with the younger players. was defensive-minded but could you’ve got good confidence behind you and But if I wasn’t trying to make a point, I’d feel also break forward. He was a huge a lot of determination. Liam was no angel, like I was cheating them. If something needs driving force in training and in being but he knew how to play the game and he to be said, then I’ll say it. Manchester United.” was a good guy.” Keane is now an outspoken pundit. His “I think I have positive stuff I can pass onto brutal honesty is a virtue, yet that may go He could have been talking about himself. the players from my own experiences. All against him in his hopes of managing I ask is that they are focused on what they a top club again. He found success at MORE On FOURFOURTWO.COM are trying to do – that’s part of my job. Sunderland, winning the Championship I’m not the only one who does it. Gary in 2006-07, but then failed with Ipswich. • Year Zero: Roy Keane’s 1992-93 season at [Neville] does it. Giggsy does it.” Either way, he often has a point – although Nottingham Forest (by Nick Miller) there’s not one person in Manchester United That attitude was not without a price. • Keane has a point about Ferguson, but the “It has cost me certain friendships over feud proves why he’ll never be a great gaffer the years with players, and some can (by Richard Jolly) be standoffish with me for United or Ireland,” he revealed. “It’s just part • Manchester United’s 1999 trip to Australia: of my make-up and, in the long run, all-nighters and dirty Dwight Down Under I think that’s a positive thing. It’s (by Andy Mitten) a short career and you have to be focused on what you do. The last 70 February 2021 FourFourTwo



PREMIER LEAGUE 100 Paul Scholes, Patrick Vieira, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard all bestrode the Premier League, but the debate over who did it best still rages on. FFT has made its difficult call – but first, we asked the fans to state their cases 10PAUL his playing career. You get the idea: Scholes SCHOLES was a true players’ player. MANCHESTER UNITED Liverpool and Chelsea supporters will say he was shoved over on the left for England JAMIE WARD, UNITED STAND because Gerrard and Lampard were better. Scholes was not only the best Sven-Goran Eriksson will say it was because player – he was the best English he was the only one of the three who could player of a generation. A raw, adapt to the positional change. once-in-a-lifetime talent. Thierry Henry names him as the one player His England team-mates plundered more he wishes he could have played alongside – goals, yes, but remove Gerrard’s 32 Premier as did Pep Guardiola. Barcelona legend Xavi League penalties and his tally (88) drops well claims Scholes would have been rated even below Scholes’ 106. Remove Lampard’s 43 higher had he been Spanish. Andrea Pirlo calls spot-kicks and his goal average moves in line the Class of ’92 graduate the “truly great with the United man’s. English midfielder of his generation”. Zinedine Zidane, one of the game’s legends, cites not Arsenal supporters will bring Patrick Vieira playing with Scholes as the biggest regret of into the debate. The Frenchman was indeed phenomenal for the Gunners, but even he concedes that Scholes was the player “who could do everything”. The only answer is Scholes… and I haven’t even mentioned his trophies. 0 9 PATRICK Vieira was a warrior who had the feet of VIEIRA a ballerina. His countless disputes with Roy Keane and “occasional” fits of temper had ARSENAL, MANCHESTER CITY him portrayed as a hard man; the enforcer around whom Arsenal’s team of sprinters TIM STILLMAN, ARSEBLOG and talented dancers orbited. However, to Although Thierry Henry’s name remember him that way is to unfairly reduce rebounded from the North Bank his repertoire of skills. so often, it was Vieira who drew the real choral affection of Arsenal’s crowd. Vieira had a silken touch, his feet as soft as The towering skipper’s song, to the tune of pillows as he cradled the ball on the end of Italian Eurovision ditty Nel Blu, Dipinto Di Blu his boot shortly after chapeau-ing another (Volare), was top of the Highbury hit parade. hapless opponent. He could slalom past you Supporters recognised Vieira as the symbol or just bulldoze beyond you: ultimately, the of one of the Gunners’ greatest ever teams. painful choice was yours. The midfield icon once described himself as having “French feet and an African heart” – There’s a good reason why new midfield exactly what he gave Arsene Wenger’s side. starlets are still labelled ‘the new Vieira’ after all these years. The truth is, there hasn’t been a player with his blend of qualities since – at Arsenal, nor any other team. Vieira was, and continues to be, unique. 08FRANK what we’ve come to expect from a raiding LAMPARD central midfielder. These players are treated like strikers now. WEST HAM, CHELSEA, MANCHESTER CITY It’s not enough to do ‘the things we don’t GARRY HAYES see’. Fans, pundits and – most importantly – Roman Abramovich’s arrival at managers, expect their No.8 to fire home in Chelsea in 2003 changed English the high teens each season. End product isn’t football. The inflated wages and desired – it’s demanded. transfer fees have reshaped the landscape of the Premier League ever since. While Vieira was inspiring an exodus from For all the Russian billionaire shook things Arsenal, and Scholes and Gerrard were both up, Lampard did the same for his position in playing catch-up to Chelsea, Lampard was midfield. We can get lost in the conversation setting the agenda. about Vieira, Scholes and Gerrard’s individual brilliance, but what did they truly accomplish It’s why people speak of Diego Maradona outside of winning silverware? in such glowing terms. He may not have won Lampard’s legacy, after those trophies won all of Lionel Messi’s trophies, but without him and 177 Premier League goals, was to alter there wouldn’t be a Messi. That’s right, I did just compare Lampard to Maradona: because without Lampard, the role of a midfielder in 2021 would be very different. So, Vieira, Scholes, Gerrard or Lampard? It’s not even a debate. 72 February 2021 FourFourTwo

07STEVEN face, with a furrowed brow. The frustration he PREMIER GERRARD felt with underperforming team-mates would LEAGUE show, but it was pretty easy to misinterpret. 100 LIVERPOOL As a local boy, he just felt the pressure more keenly than the majority of his colleagues. He “GERRARD IS A SCOUSE The best player never to win experienced the same exasperation as the COLOSSUS, REMEMBERED the league title chose Anfield Kop when things went wrong. Some would AS A HERO FOR AS LONG immortality over glory. Author have buckled under the expectation. Instead, AS FOOTBALL IS PLAYED” Tony Evans recalls the Stevie Gerrard rose to the challenge. G who stood tallest when the icon for a city that cherishes football above Reds really needed him most Of Liverpool’s many legends, he stands out almost everything else. for his composure in a crisis. When the clock TONY EVANS was ticking down and there was one final There were disappointments, though. He Everybody forgets one thing opportunity to save the day, he was the man should have been part of a team that broke about Steven Gerrard: it took you wanted with the ball at his feet. Gerrard the title drought long before Jurgen Klopp’s a long time for the midfielder soaked up responsibility. He could play in any side achieved the feat last year. In 2008-09, to win Liverpool’s unconditional love. position, too. If you were building a prototype with Gerrard playing in an adventurous role For the first part of his career, the ‘Stevie Premier League player of the late-90s, they behind Fernando Torres, Liverpool finished Me’ nickname clung to the Huyton youngster. would have looked like the Liverpool captain. second to a Manchester United side they had He was perceived as self-centred by some at He was strong, quick and had a remarkable routed 4-1 at Old Trafford. Five years on, with Anfield, although the criticism was harsh. If passing range. His technique was majestic, a Premier League winner’s medal almost in anybody had a right to be egotistical it was and all the more impressive because he did his grasp, Gerrard slipped against Chelsea – Gerrard, but he was no big-time Charlie. He everything slightly quicker than everyone else in that moment, the league was gone. The just understood that he was the one man on on the pitch. incident may haunt him, but it shouldn’t: that the pitch capable of transforming games that failure in 2014 was one of tactics rather than were slipping away from the Reds. The turning point for Gerrard came in the individual errors. Poor management cost the Gerrard’s body language definitely didn’t summer of 2005, starting with what seemed Reds that title, not the stumble. help – he often wore a concerned look on his like a stunning act of betrayal just six weeks after lifting the Champions League trophy. He In turn, the Kop agonised for the captain; agreed to join Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea but, a man they knew personified the crowd. His over an emotionally draining sleepless night greatness goes beyond his ability, even if he of panic attacks, realised he couldn’t walk was the most talented English player of his away from his boyhood club. It was a painful generation. He symbolised Liverpool, the club time, but the reaffirmation of his relationship and the city. with Liverpool began a process that swept away any doubters. He would have won more Gerrard is a Scouse colossus, remembered medals at Chelsea, but instead became an as a hero for as long as football is played. FourFourTwo February 2021 73

PREMIER When did you start turning your collar up? I didn’t punch him strong enough, though – LEAGUE Were you copying somebody else? I should have punched him even harder. 100 I put my shirt on. It was a cold day. The collar stayed up, so I kept it like that. We won, so it What did you feel the first time you saw 06ERIC became a habit to play with my collar up. TV footage of you jumping into the crowd CANTONA at Selhurst Park? How much of the Mancunian culture did I didn’t watch it, because I knew. All I had LEEDS, MANCHESTER UNITED you absorb? Did you ever watch Corrie and was journalists around my house. That’s all listen to The Smiths, Stone Roses or Oasis? I could see. My house was quite small. They King Eric scratched the Red No, I didn’t watch this programme. But I liked blocked the light. But I played that moment, Devils’ 26-year title itch in Oasis and the others... the Stone Roses. I liked at Selhurst Park. It was a drama and I was 1992-93, then won three of The Smiths before I moved to Manchester. an actor. I do things seriously without taking the next four before retiring I do miss Manchester, a lot. There’s so much myself seriously. Even when I kicked the fan, at 30. In 2008, he spoke to energy in Manchester in football, music and it’s because I don’t take myself seriously. FFT about Manchester and culture. Maybe it’s because of the rain. Some I didn’t think that I had a responsibility not that night at Selhurst Park cities have beautiful things to see and visit; to do it because of who I was. No, I was just in Manchester, they have energy. I could feel a footballer and a man. I don’t care about Why did you leave Leeds? Were the energy from the history of the city. being some sort of superior person. I wanted you looking for a move before to do whatever I wanted to do. If I want to the fabled phone call between What was going through your mind when kick a fan, then I do it. I’m not a role model. Fergie and Howard Wilkinson? you kung-fu kicked that Crystal Palace fan? I’m not a superior teacher, telling you how to I had a bad relationship with Wilkinson – we If you’d landed on your feet instead of your behave. I think the more you see, the more didn’t have the same views on football. I am backside, what would you have done next? you realise that life is a circus. more like a Manchester footballer. At Leeds, [Long pause] I did land on my feet, not where football was played the old way – kick and you said. That’s why I went to hit him again. Did you see the billboard at Old Trafford rush. It was important to play for Leeds at on your return, saying: ‘We’ll never forget first, because I learned a lot. But if I don’t “I HIT HIM AGAIN, BUT that night at Selhurst… when you buried feel the environment is good, I don’t want to DIDN’T PUNCH STRONG that 30-yard screamer’? be there. It’s like with a woman. Sometimes ENOUGH. I SHOULD HAVE Of course. And I remember the goal – it was you can’t find love. Sometimes you can, but PUNCHED HIM HARDER” against Wimbledon. I liked the words on the it’s still not right. It’s good to be in love, but poster, and I liked it when I was in court and you want more; you want to give, you want the fans supported me. They travelled from to receive. Sometimes that doesn’t happen. Manchester, in the middle of the week, down to Croydon. I could feel that support, and the club also supported me, so I stayed.

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 0 5 RYAN It feels like an impossible 0 4 WAYNE GIGGS task to separate two Reds ROONEY legends – but FFT had to MANCHESTER UNITED do it. Old Trafford was just EVERTON, MANCHESTER UNITED lucky to have them both “I remember the first time I ever saw him,” recalled Alex Few players have made their English football entrance in Ferguson of Giggs in his 2013 autobiography. “He was 13 IMPACT more barnstorming fashion. Rooney’s thunderous winner years old, and just floated over the ground like a cocker for Everton against Arsenal in 2002, aged 16, announced spaniel chasing a piece of silver paper in the wind.” The his arrival as an exceptional Premier League talent; later, Scot gave a 17-year-old Giggs his debut in March 1991, his Manchester United debut featured a hat-trick in the the Welshman becoming a regular the following season Champions League. A boy who lived for the big stage, the and repaying his manager’s faith with back-to-back PFA ‘assassin-faced baby’ was a thrilling firebrand who feared Young Player of the Year campaigns. The pin-up boy’s nothing and nobody, but only added to his game as years searing pace and dribbling paved the way for Fergie’s passed by. He replaced Ruud van Nistelrooy as a superior other fledglings to make their debuts over the following all-round striker to help United continue their dominance years – he showed the Class of ’92 what was possible. in the face of new Premier League forces. Watching Giggs knock the ball past hapless opponents ENTERTAINMENT His spirited temperament was never better encapsulated never got tiring – unless you were on the receiving end. than that thunderbolt volley against Newcastle in 2005, His acceleration and close control kept the Old Trafford moments after sulking at the referee. Wazza could score crowds on the edge of their seats for more than 23 years. any goal at any moment. The most decorated footballer in British history, with 13 TROPHIES Rooney’s mantelpiece is busy, too, featuring five Premier Premier League crowns, four FA Cups, three League Cups League winner’s medals, one FA Cup, three League Cups and two Champions League titles. He can’t be touched. and a Champions League crown. His 1999 FA Cup semi-final replay goal against Arsenal is BEST MOMENT Rooney’s glorious overhead kick (above), which clinched unbeatable, but in terms of Premier League high points, a 2-1 derby victory over Manchester City in February 2011, look no further than Giggs’ sidewinding stunner at QPR in goes down as perhaps United’s best goal of the Premier February 1994. As United powered to the title, their boy League era. Forget the dash of shin, because the technical wonder fuelled his hype machine with a sumptuous solo execution is sublime. It sent United eight points clear of strike which showcased his bursting talent. their city rivals en route to a dominant title win. Although he developed a teacher’s pet reputation in his FERGIE AGGRO Gary Neville once said that Rooney was such a handful on later years at Old Trafford, the Welshman didn’t escape a night out, the then-United skipper would assign security his manager’s wrath. He and fellow United winger Lee guards to “man mark” him until bedtime. Rooney’s love Sharpe famously had their pre-drinks party interrupted of a beer and boogie irritated Ferguson on more than one by an irate Fergie as youngsters – tirade highlight: “Get occasion. So did the forward’s agent Paul Stretford, who these c**ts out of this house” – and Giggs was reportedly a seething Fergie blamed for a 2013 transfer request just quick to answer back in the dressing room. before the Scot’s departure that May. Giggs might be a contender for the greatest Manchester LEGACY That Rooney became the Premier League’s second-top United player of all time – the midfielder racked up 963 goalscorer with 208 strikes is notable. Arguably more so, appearances for the Red Devils, more than anyone else. though, is the fact that he’s also its third-highest assister. He wasn’t just a solid squad player, but consistently ace Versatile and unselfish, England’s record marksman was for the world’s biggest club over two decades. Others may particularly monstrous from 2009-11 for United, when he have had marginally more impact, but Giggs tore them stepped up after Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Real Madrid. apart. Again and again. A special player taking great responsibility. FourFourTwo February 2021 75

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 HOW TO SCORE 260 GOALS – AnD STILL BE UnDERRATED Wor Al’s all-time Premier League record may not be touched for decades – yet there’s a sense it should be celebrated even more Words Richard Jolly A REBRAnDED LEAGUE ALSO GOT A REInVEnTED 03ALAN PLAYER. PRODUCTIVITY SHEARER REPLACED THE PROMISE BLACKBURN, NEWCASTLE Two factors make the bare statistics even more remarkable. Two cruciate ligament Eras do not always begin and for Rovers; without a cruciate ligament injury, injuries forced him to evolve from an eager end when they are supposed to. he probably would have bagged the division’s channel-runner who liked playing alongside The ’60s arguably only came to inaugural Golden Boot. a targetman, to the physical focal point who, life in 1962, when The Beatles aided by Sir Bobby Robson’s advice, remained released their debut single Love Me Do and Instead, he became its record scorer in its potent. Second: he turned down Manchester Mary Quant unleashed the mini skirt on an second campaign. More than a quarter of United in 1996 for the siren call of his native unsuspecting establishment. a century later, he has never relinquished Tyneside. With the Red Devils’ supply line, his Liverpool are remembered for dominating that status. Harry Kane could threaten it, but 260 efforts might have surpassed 300. the 1970s and 1980s, but their 18th league he’s still more than 100 behind Shearer’s tally title actually came in the 1990s. The dawn of of 260 at the time of writing. If Kane doesn’t Instead, after leading Blackburn to a first the Premier League, however, marked a clean pass Shearer, then it’s almost certain that no top-flight title in 81 years, he endured five break with the past; Manchester United, 26 one will in the 2020s. lower-half finishes with his hometown club. years without a title, were champions in 13 Yet, as Kenny Dalglish – his manager at both of the first 21 seasons. Shearer’s relentlessness and ruthlessness Blackburn and Newcastle – informed Shearer On the opening day of a new age, Blackburn brought him accolades. He’s still by far the inelegantly last year, “It didn’t matter who drew 3-3 at Crystal Palace. Their 22-year-old fastest to a Premier League century (in 124 you played for, you always battered them in.” debutant, the costliest ever signing made by games, 17 fewer than anyone else); still the a British club, netted twice. Viewed with 2020 only Englishman to scoop the Golden Boot Brute force was often allied with finesse. hindsight, it’s obvious Alan Shearer scored. three years in a row; still alone in scoring 30 Shearer’s favourite goal, his cannonball volley Back then, though, it wasn’t so inevitable that in three consecutive campaigns; still alone in against Everton in 2002, is a case in point. He he would define a division. Shearer had made hitting 20 in seven Premier League seasons. was a wonderfully clean striker of the ball, but 118 First Division outings for Southampton, He plundered 31 for a Blackburn team that was also brilliant in the air: only Peter Crouch scoring 23 times. His return of 13 in 41 games came seventh and 23 for a Newcastle outfit has notched more Premier League headers, of 1991-92 was perfectly respectable, but far that finished in the bottom half of the table. and he has a seven-inch height advantage. from remarkable. He smashed five goals in a fixture when the Only Jimmy Greaves, Steve Bloomer, Dixie A rebranded league got a reinvented player Magpies started the day in 19th place. No Dean and Gordon Hodgson have struck more – productivity replaced the promise. Shearer one else with a ton of Premier League goals goals in England’s top flight. was a Premier League phenomenon. He was for one team comes close to his ratio of 0.81 injured on Boxing Day after netting 16 goals per game for Blackburn. Shearer retired with 283 league goals – and one celebration. Throw in his 64 assists, and no one else has been involved in 324 Premier League goals. 76 February 2021 FourFourTwo

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 “THE GROUnD RESPOnDED AS IF A MESSIAH HAD MATERIALISED” FFT’s Chris Flanagan was at Old Trafford for the Portuguese forward’s first game in the Premier League. CR7’s talent was blindingly obvious from the very beginning: a mesmerising 29-minute cameo against poor Bolton... 02CRISTIANO These days, Ronaldo would seize the ball his mind were just too quick for Wanderers. RONALDO and stick the penalty into the net himself – Discombobulated by the whirlwind sweeping back then, Ruud van Nistelrooy had spot-kick the field, Bolton lost 4-0. “Ronaldo changed MANCHESTER UNITED duties and was denied by Jussi Jaaskelainen. the game,” sighed Sam Allardyce. It didn’t matter: Ronaldo soon grabbed hold On August 16, 2003, a pair of of possession again and whipped in a cross Ferguson hailed it as “a marvellous debut, substitutes made their debuts that eventually led to Ryan Giggs making it almost unbelievable”. “Undoubtedly the most for Manchester United. The first 2-0 from close range. exciting debut performance I’ve ever seen,” went on to become one of the was George Best’s assessment, himself an greatest players of all time; the second Still the prodigy wasn’t done. “Of his own iconic United No.7. By the time Ronaldo left went on to become Eric Djemba-Djemba. volition, Ronaldo moved out to the right wing the field at the final whistle, the Old Trafford Djemba-Djemba’s Old Trafford career was and put two superb crosses in,” continued his faithful were chanting his name. For six years, doomed before he had stepped on the field. gaffer. “The crowd on that side of the ground they rarely stopped. Introduced only six minutes after Cristiano responded as if a Messiah had materialised Ronaldo, he had already been left with an before their eyes.” Everyone present that afternoon knew that impossible act to follow. a star had been born. Only one man has ever Manchester United were labouring against Every stepover was met with another cheer. been named FIFA World Player of the Year Bolton in their league season opener, leading Ronaldo was operating at a tempo higher while playing in the Premier League – and it 1-0 after an hour, when Ronaldo replaced than anybody else on the pitch. His feet and wasn’t Eric Djemba-Djemba. Nicky Butt. Aged 18, with blond streaks in his hair that hinted at a certain confidence, the EVERYOnE AT OLD wonderkid had arrived from Portuguese side TRAFFORD THAT Sporting for £12.5m days earlier, taking the AFTERnOOn KnEW No.7 shirt vacated by David Beckham. The A STAR WAS BORn crowd greeted CR7’s introduction so loudly, and with such elation, that you wondered whether the new boy could possibly match their sky-high expectations. In fact, he more than exceeded them. Receiving the ball for the very first time in a red shirt, he skipped past Nicky Hunt before being upended. “With one of his first touches, I put him on the deck,” the full-back proudly proclaimed years afterwards. “The right-back rattled him straight away,” Alex Ferguson later wrote. “But Cristiano got back up and demanded another pass, right away. I thought, ‘He’s got the balls’.” Not only did he have the balls, he frequently had the ball in the final half-hour, becoming United’s go-to man as it became obvious how devastatingly effective he could be. “He did about 100 stepovers and earned a penalty,” Kevin Davies later told FFT. Playing on the left wing, first Ronaldo got his own back on Hunt with a Cruyff turn, then performed some mesmerising stepovers to surge past the defender. He was causing such mayhem that just 10 minutes after his entrance, uncertainty in the Trotters’ penalty area led to the starlet being hauled down by Kevin Nolan.

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 THE JOY OF SIX Could it be anyone else? The glorious Frenchman made football fun for eight magnificent seasons in his first north London spell: nobody has done it better Words Mark White 01THIERRY was still mid-flight; it was arguably the most “selfish” to describe the Dutchman, he meant HENRY sumptuous goal in Highbury history. it as the highest compliment. ARSENAL “You can’t really do anything about a goal In 2002-03, Van Nistelrooy went toe-to-toe like that,” a baffled Alex Ferguson shrugged with Henry for the Golden Boot: two talismen, 1. RAMS RAID FOR AILING TITI (1999) at full-time. He wasn’t wrong. bullish in self-assurance. But when it came down to it, spearhead vs spearhead, Henry According to legend, Arsenal vice-chairman 3. GET THE BLOKE A STATUE (2002) simply did what he usually did. He stepped David Dein gave Thierry Henry a videotape out of the box altogether. when he walked in the door. It featured clips It’s November 2002, around 3.12pm on derby of Ian Wright, with a note reading, “This is day, and Henry is about to do something On the final day of the season, the strikers what you have to do.” As if it were that easy. brilliant. When the ball lands at his feet, the one goal apart, Van Nistelrooy netted a 25th score goalless, he’s well inside Arsenal’s half. at Everton to snatch the individual award. In November 1999, after a tough initiation, It bounces, so he pirouettes 180 degrees and Henry, meanwhile, scored but also assisted the Frenchman moved Highbury to its feet for spins past Tottenham’s Matthew Etherington. Ljungberg three times against Sunderland the very first time. Arsene Wenger was yet Now in the opposite direction, Henry cushions – twice, when he could have taken a shot to start Henry and Dennis Bergkamp together the ball down and slides into gear, leaning himself. “To me, the most beautiful thing is at home, but did against Derby; fire and ice, back and leaping away like a gazelle while making the pass when you are in a position youth and experience in delicate harmony. prancing over the halfway line. As he hares to score,” he once said. towards the Tottenham penalty area, the The Gunners went one down before Henry Frenchman sidesteps three defenders as if In a time before most people even looked shuffled into the spotlight. Before this game, they’re not there. at who had set up the goal, Henry finished there had been just two goals in 16 matches with a record 20 assists that campaign – 18 for a player bereft of confidence on the wing. This box-to-box explosion was the defining of them from open play. Manchester City’s image of Wenger’s early Arsenal sides. They Kevin De Bruyne only matched it in 2019-20. But Arsene always had his plan in mind. played with such arrogance and elegance, Two coolly taken goals snatched the narrative power and balance: all encapsulated in their For Van Nistelrooy, football was about the on a night where Henry displayed Wright’s No.14’s exquisite one-man counter-attack goals and nothing else. But for Arsenal and pace and poise from those crackly clips. On that afternoon. No one could get within five Henry, the game was about more than that. 72 minutes, he left the stage to a standing yards; the defence backed off like someone In a trophyless season, he may have lost the ovation. This was the moment Henry first had unleashed a caged animal upon them. battle but carved out his own unique piece of held his adoring audience in the palm of his And yet, watching all of Henry’s 6ft 1in frame glory in one of the English top-flight’s finest hand. He would keep them there for another skate across the Highbury grass, there was individual campaigns. “None of the greatest seven exhilarating years. such grace and beauty to his movement. The goalscorers in history can compare with his greatest goals during Wenger’s tenure felt assist record,” declared Wenger. 2. FERGIE LEFT FLABBERGASTED (2000) choreographed like this. By October 2000, Henry wasn’t only pouncing To finish, Henry hammered home into the on opportunities – he was creating them from bottom corner, then legged the length of the scratch. Thirty minutes into Arsenal’s titanic pitch back again – shrugging off yet another tussle with defending champions Manchester defender en route, as Sol Campbell tried to United, David Beckham brought down Freddie embrace him. He slid on his knees in front of Ljungberg. Sylvinho squared a simple pass to the travelling Spurs supporters, an enduring Gilles Grimandi, who found Henry lurking near moment later immortalised in statue form the right edge of the penalty area, his back outside the Emirates Stadium. The Tottenham to Denis Irwin. United’s four defenders were faithful cursed, cussed and clamoured – but flat in front of Fabien Barthez: the drawbridge none of them could get near Arsenal’s star was firmly closed. man, either. Everybody else was more than used to the feeling. But where there was Henry, there was often a way. In a fluid movement, the Frenchman 4. PASS IT ON: 20’S PLENTY (2003) flicked the ball up and volleyed it over his left shoulder, like he had just pulled a pin out of Ruud van Nistelrooy would sulk like a PS5-less a grenade and lobbed it at the castle walls. kid at Christmas if Manchester United won He peeled away in celebration while the ball a game without his name on the scoresheet. However, when boss Ferguson used the word 78 February 2021 FourFourTwo

PREMIER LEAGUE 100 IT WAS AS IF SOMEOnE HAD UnLEASHED A CAGED AnIMAL On THE SPURS DEFEnCE, YET THERE WAS SUCH GRACE TO HEnRY A minute later, it was all over. Henry picked up the ball by the centre circle, then strode beyond Didi Hamann, bamboozled Jamie Carragher, folded Liverpool inside-out and buried home in the bottom corner. Henry had immense power but made football look weightless. He put Arsenal on his back and, even with Steven Gerrard dictating play like a swinging pickaxe, possessed the ability to take away everyone’s breath – including that of the Merseysiders’ defence. 6. THE GOODBYE KISS (2006) How do you defend against someone who less nervously placed – a first-time, left-foot Highbury was modest. A garden of a ground, provides as willingly as he finishes himself? strike. By now, however, such lethal finishing with a well-kept lawn, traffic and train sounds felt like vintage Thierry, rather than an Ian overhead. It made the Invincibles look giant 5. THIS GUY LOOKS INVINCIBLE (2004) Wright tribute act. – like they could stretch into the clouds at their brilliant best – and certainly helped to In truth, Henry’s hat-trick clincher at home to Arsenal trailed 2-1 to the Reds at half-time, fuel Henry’s story. Liverpool in April 2004 was quite fluky. It was, their Invincibles status in jeopardy, but Henry though, the only moment all afternoon that seemed to slow down time by the touchline Arsenal were losing 2-1 to mid-table Wigan he wasn’t in abundant control. after the break; jogging, his right leg hovering when the Frenchman dug out a hat-trick for like a magician’s handkerchief over a dove, Highbury’s final sign-off; the final goal at the Arsenal’s equaliser was a mirror to Henry’s before passing to Ljungberg who looped Pires beautiful old ground a penalty in front of the first Highbury league goal against Derby, only in to level proceedings. North Bank. When the ball struck the back of the net, Henry – Gunners captain and record goalscorer – dropped to his knees, kissed the turf and saluted the crowd. It had to be him. No one else could close that chapter. We’re all just stories in the end – but Henry’s was one hell of a tale. FourFourTwo February 2021 79

FA CUP THIEF

FA CUP THIEF THE STO The mysterious theft of the original FA Cup went unsolved for 63 years – until a confession from a kleptomaniac pensioner... Words Paul Brown I t was just past midnight on the morning this wasn’t just any old trophy: this was the of Thursday September 12, 1895, and original Football Association Challenge Cup. rumbles of thunder disturbed the skies above Birmingham. Three men stood in The miscreant grabbed it, carried it up onto darkness on the flat roof of a boot and the roof and away into the night, never to be shoe shop in New Town Row, to the north seen again. It would be more than 60 years of the city centre. before the mystery of what happened to the They stripped back the zinc cladding from original FA Cup was solved. Sort of... the roof before smashing a hole through the ceiling. Then, two of the men slowly lowered Aston Villa had lifted the trophy five months the other into the deserted shop. Inside, the earlier, against Midland rivals West Bromwich thief opened the till and pilfered small change Albion at Crystal Palace. The 24th FA Cup final amounting to two or three shillings. His real was settled by a single goal scored after only target was elsewhere, sitting behind a sliding 30 seconds, when a shot from inside forward partition in the shop window. Bob Chatt was deflected into the net by Villa skipper Jack Devey. There, mounted on a stand and surrounded by football boots, was a shiny silver trophy – Villa may have been defending First Division around 16 inches tall with handles, a lid and champions in the 1894-95 campaign, but the tiny bearded figure with a ball at his feet. But FA Cup was football’s biggest prize. They took it back to Birmingham and were met at the

FA CUP THIEF train station by a huge crowd of supporters, “SOME VILLA PLAYERS MAY admitted was “no easy task” and could o who cheered as captain Devey proudly held HAVE HAnDLED DUD COInS have been achieved by someone young and the trophy aloft. At a club reception, the cup MADE FROM THE STOLEn CUP” fit. On the roof, the detectives found an old was filled with champagne and toasts were chisel and putty knife, which had been used made to the team and officials. Afterwards, On the evening of the robbery, the elderly to strip away the zinc and create a hole about the cup was stored inside Villa’s safe at their Shillcock locked his shop as usual at around 12 inches wide. Wooden beams and plaster Perry Barr ground. It wouldn’t remain safe 9.15pm. When he returned at 8am the next ceiling had then been kicked through using for very long. morning, he soon saw the till’s cash drawer stamped boots. The tight size of the hole and lying empty on the counter. There was some presence of small boot prints confirmed the William Shillcock was a local boot and shoe broken plaster on the floor and a small hole detective’s suspicions that the thieves were manufacturer, who supplied football boots to in the roof, but the shop’s two safes and other “slightly developed” youths. the victorious Villa side “and 16 international valuables were untouched. Shillcock thought players”. He also sold jerseys, knickerbockers it was a curious burglary – until he checked Shillcock’s shop was insured, but this didn’t and eight different types of balls, including the display window and discovered that the cover the cup beyond its natural value. The a “best cowhide” version used by Villa as well FA Cup was gone. beleaguered owner distributed handbills (left) as the senior England team. The 73-year-old across Birmingham offering a £10 reward was considered a first-rate Villa supporter, so Detectives Brown and Davis of Birmingham (worth around £1,200 today) for its recovery. when he asked for permission to exhibit the City Police inspected the crime scene. Entry As holders of the trophy, though, Aston Villa FA Cup in the display window of his shop, the was clearly gained through the roof, and the were ultimately responsible for its safety and club’s committee agreed. detectives assumed the thieves had climbed had agreed a guarantee with the FA to the the shop’s 12ft exterior wall, which they both value of £200, payable in the event of its loss. Shillcock’s football works factory was based “Aston Villa will, I am sure, make every effort in a converted row of terraced houses, with to discover and regain possession of the c ” his shop in a single-storey extension erected snarled the FA’s secretary, Frederick Joseph over the front yards. Its big plate glass display Wall, in a statement. “I am sanguine that it windows were packed with footwear, sports will be recovered.” equipment and other trophies – several of which, it was noted, had higher intrinsic value Such optimism was sadly misp ced. than the FA Cup. Sixty-three years later, in February 1958, an This, however, was a trophy worth far more 80-year-old resident of an old people’s home than its pawn shop price. made an “astonishing confession”. The competition had been established in “I STOLE THE FA CUP,” yelled the headline 1871 by FA secretary CW Alcock. The FA had on the cover of the Sunday Pictorial, soon to struggled to establish itself outside London, be renamed the Sunday Mirror. Harry Burge, and it was thought that a national knockout a teenager in 1895, and two now deceased tournament could solidify the organisation as companions had committed the crime. Burge football’s leading authority. A modest trophy went back to Shillcock’s – by then a grocery was commissioned at the cost of £20 (about shop – along with a Pictorial photographer £1,900 today) from the Sheffield silversmiths and explained how he had broken in. Rather Martin, Hall & Co, and 15 teams entered. The than making the difficult climb up the shop’s final was won by Wanderers – captained by exterior wall as originally believed, however, Alcock, obviously – who beat Royal Engineers the thieves had simply accessed the roof via 1-0 at Kennington Oval. the empty works building. According to the authoritative early tome “It was just turned midnight when the three Association Football & the Men Who Made It, of us forced a lock on the door at the back of the competition proved an “epoch-making” the building with a jemmy,” recalled Burge. event of “vast importance”. Dubbed the ‘little “Once inside, we were able to climb through tin idol’, the trophy represented the glamour an upstairs window onto the flat roof – open and sentiment of football and was also “the to the street – over the shop’s front windows.” inspiration for the Association game”. The thieves smashed through the roof and The little tin idol was popped in Shillcock’s snatched the trophy. “Then we all went back window near the end of August, and for two to my home in Hospital Street, a few minutes’ weeks drew large crowds of viewers and no walk away. That night, we broke up the cup doubt a decent amount of extra trade. STOLEn SILVERWARE The FA Cup isn’t the only trophy to have been trousered. Indeed, it’s in prestigious company... IN A PICKLES SAMBA SNATCH OH NO, OSLO LIPTON LARCENY DARTS VILLAINS Four months before the 1966 Brazil were permitted to keep Two years after Norway won County Durham amateur side Aston Villa became European World Cup, the Jules Rimet the Jules Rimet Trophy after the 1995 Women’s World Cup, West Auckland were unlikely champions in 1982, and stars Trophy was snatched from winning a third World Cup in the original trophy vanished two-time champions of the Gordon Cowans and Colin a display case at Central 1970, but the tormented prize from the country’s FA HQ at Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, an Gibson decided to take Ol’ Big Hall Westminster. Oslo’s Ullevaal Stadion during early event staged in Turin in Ears down the pub. Halfway Pickles the dog was then pinched from the ground renovations. The cup 1909 and 1911. Dubbed “the through a game of darts, they (right) eventually Brazilian FA’s headquarters was quietly replaced in 1999 First World Cup”, the historic realised it had been pilfered. found it wrapped in in a 1983 heist. Four robbers and the theft not made public prize was purloined from West Thankfully, this trophy soon newspaper under were tried and convicted in until 2013. Sadly, a campaign Auckland Working Men’s Club turned up safely after being a hedge. Woof! absentia, while the famous to have it handed back failed. in 1994 and not seen again. passed to police in Sheffield. cup was never recovered.

FA CUP THIEF before melting it down inside an iron pot. My Top Shillcock’s shop but the records they held of the burglary were and didn’t want to die in prison – but pals had several moulds for making a ‘snide’ – scene of the crime “slender” and no action was taken. the magistrate was familiar with his of half-crowns, so we used the silver to turn Above Villa’s heroes many indiscretions. out a number of these coins.” couldn’t show off the The confession meant catharsis for Burge. ‘little tin idol’ for long “I’m an old man now, and I want to get the “I told you that if you did this sort Burge & Co proceeded to pass these fake thing off my mind,” he said. “It has troubled of thing again instead of retiring from half-crowns (worth two shillings and sixpence my conscience for a long time.” a life of crime, I’d send you to prison or about £15 each now) in a Birmingham pub for a long time,” he finger-wagged. called the Salutation, which was owned by Henry James Burge was a career criminal, Burge was sentenced to seven years, legendary Villa forward Dennis Hodgetts and who had 42 past convictions dating back to serving just over two and a half. He frequented by many of his Lions team-mates. 1897 and had spent 46 years and 11 months had spent almost half a century at Her “Villa players often used it,” smirked Burge, behind bars. Reports covering his misdeeds Majesty’s pleasure, and passed away at “and some of them may have handled the refer to him as a “chronic thief” and “danger Summerfield Hospital in 1964. dud coins not knowing the silver came from to the community”. Even in May 1958, three The story didn’t die with him, though. the stolen cup.” months after his FA Cup admission, he was Eleven years later, a man named Edwin charged with snatching three coats from an Tranter told the Birmingham Evening Mail Birmingham police initially said they might unattended van. Burge’s solicitor requested that his grandfather, Joseph Piecewright, reopen the case and consider charging Burge, leniency, as he was an old man in ill health had pinched the FA Cup. While the claim couldn’t be proved, Piecewright may well have been one of Burge’s two associates. Another two decades after that, an elderly woman named Violet Stait suggested her father-in-law, John ‘Stosher’ Stait, had also nicked the trophy from Shillcock’s window. Stosher could have been another accessory, albeit Violet’s story had him walking straight out the front door with the cup, which didn’t match the evidence. Back in autumn 1895, the new season’s competition kicked off, according to Sporting Life, as a “struggle for a cup not in existence”. By February 1896, with the semi-finals fast approaching, it was accepted that the trophy was gone and a replacement was needed. Initially, the FA proposed that the substitute should be a grand gold trophy worth up to £250 (£30,000 today), but RP Gregson of the Lancashire FA successfully argued that the replacement should be “as nearly as possible like the old one”, because what was crucial was “not so much the value of the trophy as the honour of winning”. Luckily, after Wolves had claimed the cup in 1893, their president ordered replicas for the team and a silversmith made mouldings from the first trophy. The new one – created by Birmingham business Vaughtons, where former Villa and England forward Howard Vaughton was a partner – was an exact copy of the lost prize bar a couple of minor details. The trophy was formed using 100 ounces of silver instead of 40, while the small figure on top was altered from a bearded ‘Methuselah’ to a youthful athlete. The second version was even sat on the original ebony stand, which had been left behind by the thieves. The Wednesday defeated Wolves 2-1 to lift the replacement tin idol in 1896, followed by Double-winning Villa a year later, Nottingham Forest and Sheffield United. After Newcastle won it in 1910, the trophy was retired and presented to FA president (and five-time FA Cup winner) Arthur Kinnaird, partly because the design was not copyrighted and unofficial duplicates were being produced and sold. A new, larger FA Cup in the current design was produced by Fattorini & Sons of Bradford – just in time for Bradford to win it in 1911 – with two copies subsequently generated due to wear and tear. The replacement tin idol – the oldest surviving FA Cup – was auctioned by Bonhams in September 2020 for £760,000. Apparently, you can put a price on history. FourFourTwo February 2021 83

TERRY SMITH “HE DIDn’T KnOW AnYTHInG. IT WAS AS IF HE WOKE UP OnE MORnInG AnD DECIDED TO BUY A FOOTBALL CLUB”

TERRY SMITH CITY Screen stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney may be leading Wrexham to a bright new M era, but not all Stateside takeovers carry such hope. When one-time NFL player Terry Smith rescued struggling Chester in 1999, he also installed himself as manager, with painful results Words Steve Hill

TERRY SMITH A n eccentric American coach arrives OUR FATHER IN HELL “YOU’D PICK UP MORE TACTICAL as the manager of a professional INFORMATION FROM VIZ THAN English football club, despite having Preparations for the forthcoming 1999-2000 READING ONE OF HIS DOSSIERS” no experience of the game and only campaign were anything but straightforward the slenderest grip of the basics. – they started badly and quickly got worse. Below “Good coming just three days after Christmas when Chaos ensues. It could be the plot job lads, you the second-bottom Seals were bludgeoned for a comedy show. In fact, it is the “Leading up to the first game of the season, were all s**t” 5-1 at home by Leyton Orient – the only side plot for a comedy show: Ted Lasso, Terry went away on holiday,” recalls Ratcliffe. below them in the Football League. “I want currently streaming on Apple TV. “Not one player was signed on and he wasn’t to thank you guys… that’s the most pitiful around to do anything. When he did appear effort I’ve ever damn seen!” Smith wailed to Truth is often stranger than fiction, and on the Friday before our opening game, we his players at full-time. back in July 1999 such an occurrence was couldn’t train or get ready for the match as both very real and not all that funny. Terry the players needed to sort out their contract At that point, he finally succumbed to fan Smith – a former defensive back for the New situations and lives. pressure and brought in the experienced Ian England Patriots and respected one-time Atkins as director of football, while retaining coach of Great Britain’s American football “We lost at home to Barnet, and as I was the nominal title of manager himself. team – liked the city of Chester so much he walking down the corridor, his father – the bought its football club. A North Carolina backer – appeared. He’d flown over from the “Unfortunately we haven’t had anyone step native who had lived in England since 1988 US, passed me and asked where ‘Keith’ was. up to the plate, leadership-wise,” sighed the when he took charge of the Manchester I said, ‘Keith who?’ and he replied, ‘Keith, the American obliviously. Spartans, Smith counted aborted attempts manager’. I said, ‘He’s in the dressing room’ to purchase ice hockey’s Sheffield Steelers and carried on walking. I was more or less Mercifully, Atkins appeared to be in charge and setting up a world indoor soccer league preparing my own exit.” on the pitch and signed a slew of players in on his CV, and was allegedly lured to Chester an attempt to stop the rot. Among them was by regular visits to its zoo. Kevin/Keith – City’s manager since 1995 – hard-tackling midfielder Paul Carden, now in departed after four matches. Smith promptly charge of Warrington Town, who remembers “He should have been in it,” snarls Kevin installed himself in the Deva Stadium dugout, Smith’s persistent tampering and distinctive Ratcliffe, the incumbent manager when boldly proclaiming that “all coaching is 90 methodology. The owner’s input into training Smith rescued then-Division Three Chester per cent the same, regardless of the sport”. City from administration and duly targeted second-tier football in three years. It’s safe He immediately set about disproving this to say the ex-Wales and Everton defender theory by leading his team towards disaster didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye with the Seals’ – captured on film for all to see in Granada incoming owner – he later successfully sued programme Chester City: An American Dream the club for £200,000. (still available for your pleasure on YouTube). Smith oversaw a wretched run of four league “From minute one he wasn’t open about wins before the new millennium, the nadir anything,” Ratcliffe explains to FourFourTwo. “It was clear that he wanted the manager’s job – he wanted to take over. It was a fiasco. He didn’t know anything about football. It was as if he just woke up one morning and decided to buy a football club. “He was bringing players in from all sorts of different countries, but how they got here I don’t know. We had a lad turn up one day for training, but he didn’t even have a pair of boots. If you’re a joiner, you don’t turn up for work without a saw.”

TERRY SMITH was unorthodox to say the least, owing to his Top A final-day loss explains. “Terry would get drawn in by it – he promotion-chasing Peterborough on the final background in American football. Chanting to the Posh spelled didn’t understand what it was about.” day. At full-time, Chester marketing director the Lord’s Prayer before matches and team doom for the Seals Dan Brooks gave a heartfelt speech from the meals was certainly not part of the prep prior Above “The view’s Amid the January changeover from Smith stands to furious Seals fans who had stayed to Smith’s arrival. great from up here” to Atkins, Chester lost eight of 10 matches in behind to berate the regime. all competitions. In late February, they were “Terry tried to be hands-on, but Ian Atkins, spanked 7-1 at home by Brighton – a team “I understand you’re emotionally attached Roof picture Rick Matthews being as experienced as he was, would just they had beaten 3-2 earlier in the campaign to this club, far more than I can ever be,” he laugh it off and downgrade everything that – with teenage loanee Bobby Zamora hitting said. “Don’t talk about pay. You know nothing he did in front of the lads,” Carden tells FFT. a hat-trick for the Seagulls. about my structure. I’m here because I want “I’m pretty certain it would have been a big to be here, not because of the money.” hassle behind the scenes – the way Terry was, Despite four victories in the space of six the way he conducted himself, the things he games taking them off the bottom with two It was a desperate conclusion to an equally came up with. He was round the bend. I’ve matches to go, Atkins’ men were relegated desperate campaign, which ended Chester’s never come across anyone like him before or to the Conference on goal difference, after 69-year spell in the Football League. Staying since. I don’t think you ever would. leaking a decisive 64th-minute goal against up were Shrewsbury, led by the Blues’ former gaffer Ratcliffe. His replacement Atkins duly “He had patterns all over the pitch, various left for the surviving Carlisle, but Smith went formations, and would get us playing without some way towards appeasing an apoplectic a ball, too, pretending to kick one that wasn’t fanbase by hiring ex-City player and manager there. It was laughable at first, but when you Graham Barrow. So, how much did Barrow know the person directing it is serious about know about Smith? what you’re doing, it starts to wind you up. You know it’s a total shambles. It frustrates “Not a lot,” says the avuncular Lancastrian. you, because you’re there to work hard and “Obviously I knew their demise was pretty do things right. In his mind that was right, strange, but I didn’t really consult Ian Atkins. but it was far from being what you need to You know what it’s like in football – you just do to win football matches.” want to get back in. I’d had successful times at Chester in the past, so it was always an Smith, obsessed with statistics and analysis, easy decision to return, no matter what the was renowned for producing dossiers of up circumstances were. to 100 pages. “I’d met Smith, who expressed that maybe “You would have probably got more tactical he’d over-interfered and was going to focus information out of the Daily Sport or Viz than on the business side of things and be what he reading one of those,” scoffs Carden. “He’d was – the owner and the chairman.” give it to you, and then you’d just stare at the pages rather than read what was on them. It UP ON THE ROOF was embarrassing. He clearly had a thought process behind what he was doing, because Barrow stabilised things on the pitch as City he was actually being quite thorough, but it got to grips with non-league football, even if was so misdirected. Smith struggled to off it. “You couldn’t speak to him – you couldn’t There were yet more regrettable scenes in say, ‘Terry, this isn’t how things get done for September 2000 when Chester’s chief safety the better’. He simply wouldn’t have it. It was officer, Eddie Riley, resigned after an alleged his way or no way, which is probably why we assault from the American. Police eventually ended up where we were – because his way dropped the charges against Smith, but not certainly wasn’t the right way.” before a mass walkout of the club’s stewards left the Seals unable to fulfil a fixture against Carden goes on to reveal City’s apparent Hayes on time and earned them a £1,000 open-door policy for players, many of whom fine. Amid the madness, Smith also banned had spun Smith a yarn. some local journalists and even the chairman of Chester’s official supporters’ club from “You’d be getting changed for training, and attending matches. blokes would stroll through the door having taken a day off from working in a bar to nick However, City did embark on a memorable a day with Chester – 25-year-olds who were FA Cup run. After beating Easington Colliery at Manchester United when they were 12,” he in the fourth qualifying round (a game Smith observed from a rooftop, left), further wins over Plymouth and Oxford secured a trip to Premiership Blackburn. With kick-off delayed due to the sheer number of travelling fans, Chester had a perfectly good goal disallowed before succumbing 2-0. Smith was livid. “I thought it was an excellent performance by the lads,” recalls Barrow. “I think anybody who’s been around English football knows it was a tough tie – [Rovers manager] Graeme Souness brought on people like Mark Hughes to get them over the line. “I was fairly satisfied afterwards, but Terry wasn’t. Nobody’s happy when you get beat, but sometimes you’ve got to hold your hands up and accept that Blackburn had guys who were being paid fortunes. Terry expressed his disappointment almost straight away in the FourFourTwo February 2021 87

TERRY SMITH dressing room. I was proud of the display and Smith briefly went AWOL during the summer SMITH’S RIGHT-HAND MAN QUIT thought he would have been likewise. I think of 2001 and promised a sale of the club that TO CONCENTRATE ON MANAGING the money was more important, though: he didn’t materialise – a spell in which secretary KANSAS GIRL BAND PERFECT TEN probably had his eyes on a replay and getting Mike Fair found himself “totally in the dark” through to the next round.” and “punch-drunk” with uncertainty. Smith’s Below Anne “It was about his ego,” says former player Canadian right-hand man, Brooks – a former Robinson had Carden. “He loved talking to the press and he A respectable eighth-placed league finish marketing manager of Blackpool Pleasure seen enough loved announcing signings. Once, he was on wasn’t enough for the despotic Smith. Beach – attempted to take over the club, but Bottom City’s the telly doing an interview while the players then quit to focus his attention on managing 69-year stay trained. Because the cameras were there, he “I thought we’d probably set ourselves up Kansas-based girl band Perfect Ten. in the Football joined in our keep-ball circle. He had a pair of to be stronger the next season,” says Barrow. League ends shoes on, trousers and a suit jacket – he had “But it wasn’t to be – he sacked me, basically. Smith finally got his buyer that September. some horrendous gear – then slipped over. He didn’t tell me himself, and instead some Boxing promoter Stephen Vaughan coughed He had mud all up his sleeves, on the thigh other strange fella that he knew rang me up up a reported £500,000 for Chester, opening of his trousers, and his shoes were covered. and said, ‘You’re sacked, so don’t come back’. another eventful (and arguably even bleaker) He was on TV wearing the same gear soaked And that was it.” chapter in club history. By March 2010, after in mud, like a tramp.” a depressing slide towards insolvency, they That ‘strange fella’ turned out to be City’s were wound up at the High Court. Two decades on, the American’s tenure is incoming managing director, Gareth Evans looked back on with a combination of horror – previously the Stone Roses’ controversial It’s hard to know what was in the Chester and comedy. To quote another controversial manager, who later sued the band and was experience for Smith, having lost the respect Smith in Morrissey, “I can smile about it now, once described by notorious wallflower Noel of both players and supporters from the start. but at the time it was terrible.” Gallagher as being “off his tits”. Evans, an ex-hairdresser, subsequently tried to rope in “I think he loved his sport,” admits Barrow. Carden agrees. “You’d get a story off all the former Everton boss Joe Royle and Liverpool “He had a chance to put into action a dream lads from that time,” he continues. “Once, we legend John Barnes for consultation roles “to where he could take charge of a club – even played Canvey Island in the semi-finals of the take us through the first few months”. Oddly in a sport he wasn’t that familiar with.” FA Trophy and had a carvery the night before enough, neither arrived. – that was probably the cheapest meal Terry could get from the hotel. He had to go and Barrow wasn’t the only one to receive his sort something out, but had this roast dinner P45: Smith also sacked Chester’s top three on the table, so Carl Ruffer swapped all of his in the Player of the Year voting – Paul Beesley, roasties for Brussels sprouts. Carl Ruffer and Wayne Brown – after the trio spoke out against his regime. Beesley, who “Terry sat back down and we were howling was the club’s assistant manager too, had – he was so confused, looking under slices of been dropped for the final six games of the beef and turkey for his roast potatoes with season for (according to Smith) “standing in just a plateful of sprouts.” the wrong positions at free-kicks”. All three had their contracts reinstated after a tribunal, Smith had the last laugh. Dave Powell, until only for Beesley to get the boot for a second recently of the Chester Chronicle, picks up the time the following month. story. “I really loved that season, minus the relegation,” recalls Powell, then a young fan. Chester’s managerial hot seat was briefly “Random players, loads of drama, loads of filled by ex-Manchester United and England signings, national interest. It was exciting, at midfielder Gordon Hill, with minimal success. least. He’s living the life now, Terry – he went back home to North Carolina, but I think he’s in Florida these days. He made $21.3 million in 2017 when his hokey TV channel [Mountain Television Network] sold its airwaves.” How hokey was it? Pop over to YouTube and search for ‘Appalachian Roller Girls 2015’. It’s a wonder they didn’t arrive at the Deva, too. Steve Hill is a Chester fan and author of ‘The Card: Every Match, Every Mile’, available now MORE ON FOURFOURTWO.COM • Major Indoor Soccer: the hype of America’s one-time big league recalled (by Nick Moore) • Derby County’s shocking 2007-08 revisited: the Premier League’s worst campaign, told by those who were there (by Chris Flanagan) • The 26 maddest managerial sackings ever in football history



FFT GRABS A WORD WITH... JAMIE REDKNAPP • DENILSON • DANNY DICHIO • ROY MAKAAY TEAMS Bournemouth Liverpool Tottenham Southampton England

JAMIE REDKnAPP We hear you didn’t get a particularly warm welcome when you went to watch Everton “I MADE THE ERROR at Goodison Park... OF GOInG TO WATCH When I was a Bournemouth player, I’d gone EVERTOn – SOMEOnE to see Southampton without any issues. So, HIT ME On THE HEAD I thought as a young Liverpool player I could WITH A MEAT PIE!” go and see Everton, too. Big mistake! I wore a baseball cap and hoped no one would spot When he wasn’t being soaked in gravy me in the Goodison Road stand, but after 10 at Goodison, the Liverpool pass master minutes I was hit on the head with a meat was discovering his future via seance pie and someone yelled, “F**k off Redknapp.” To be honest, it was a fantastic shot – what Interview Sam Pilger precision, right on the side of the head! I got hit by another pie a few minutes later, so just Is it true you found out you of everyone. He also yelled at us, “You’re not had to sit there drenched in gravy and meat. would make it in football from getting any f**king fish and chips on the way We left at half-time. a Ouija board? home either.” I was gutted, because Grimsby It is! That was when I was about 16, is famous for it, but he changed his mind and In 2002, you played at Goodison Park for at Bournemouth, and hadn’t yet played the bus stopped. My dad loves fish and chips! Tottenham when Wayne Rooney made his a game. There were eight youth-teamers Everton debut. How was that? around a table and we asked, “Who’s going Which manager got the best out of you? He was wide-eyed, but you could tell he was to make it as a footballer?” I don’t like those Roy Evans at Liverpool. I reckon he deserved pretty special. I knew how he’d be feeling, so sorts of things, but the glass moved towards better, and think we let him down as players. talked him through the game. I didn’t go easy me – I’ve never known such fear and elation He got some stick, a lot of it unfair. I would on him, but just let him know he was doing at the same time! After that it moved to Keith have loved to play for him when I was older all right. I said things like, “Nice touch”, and Rowland, who ended up having a career with and more grown up. He was a really nice guy. if he did a good bit of skill, “Stop that!” When Bournemouth, West Ham and QPR. We were I made my debut, Ian Bishop was playing for both scared stiff, but it didn’t move to anyone What was it like joining Liverpool in 1991 West Ham and did the same for me. else, so you can imagine all the other players as a 17-year-old? were absolutely devastated. I’ve never done Exciting and a bit scary. The first time I got on Do you have any regrets from your career? anything like that since. the team bus to go to training, all the players I came back from knee surgery far too soon blanked me – cold stares from Alan Hansen, when I was at Liverpool. My knee locked in an What were the best and worst parts about Ronnie Whelan and Steve McMahon. No one FA Cup tie against Bristol City and I couldn’t playing for your own dad? offered me a seat, but I realised what was move it – it turned out I’d torn the meniscus. The best thing was the sheer honesty. Some happening – you had to earn their respect. At half-time, we were 1-0 down and Graeme managers and agents tell players what they As the kid, you can’t say, ‘Oh f**k off, let me Souness asked, “Can you play?” I was gutted want to hear. The worst was maybe how the sit down’. I was dying inside, but you had to to have to say no, and he lost his job within other players saw you – trust me, I could kill put on a brave face and show you deserved a few days of that defeat. I had an operation, conversations by simply walking into a room. to be there. You had to fight your corner. then played as a substitute at Southampton Obviously players would be talking about my John Barnes rescued me on that coach. 13 days later. Someone should have told me, dad, and quickly stopped when they saw me. “Don’t do it.” I should have taken about three What was missing from the Liverpool months to recover but I rushed back, which After making your debut for Bournemouth, side of the mid-90s that had so many didn’t help me in the long run. was there a moment when he saw you as great players including yourself, Steve a player, and not his son? McManaman and Robbie Fowler? Your dad once said, “The injuries stopped It was after we lost 5-0 on a miserable night We made mistakes. Manchester United him getting anywhere near what he could at Grimsby. He absolutely tore into the team, were the top team, and there wasn’t a lot have been.” Do you agree? shouting, “You’ve got no bottle. None of you. in it when we met each other. The 1996 FA I know what he means, but I still did it. I still You’re all a disgrace.” Then he says, “Only one Cup Final was only settled by a late mistake. played for Liverpool and my country. I should player tried or cared. Him! A kid.” He points to People said we socialised too much, but let have won about 70 England caps, not 17, but me. I was cringing and a bit embarrassed, but me tell you, every time I went out I saw Ryan I was hampered by injuries. There are players I also understood that he saw me as a player Giggs! United loved a night out. I think it was who have won loads more caps than me who and didn’t care if he had to praise me in front just Gary and Phil Neville who stayed home. weren’t in my league. I know that may sound flash, but it’s how I feel. Why didn’t you become a manager? I never wanted to be one. I know the pitfalls, I’ve lived it and it simply wasn’t for me. Being a manager is much more than just football – you have to be a psychologist, too. Do you never look at Frank Lampard, your cousin, and fancy a go at it? Sometimes, briefly. There’s nothing better than having just won a game and sitting there on the plane or bus home surrounded by your mates, basking in that feeling of victory. Frank has that, and it must be great. But overall, it’s not for me. ‘Me, Family and the Making of a Footballer’ is published by Headline and available now FourFourTwo February 2021 91

DEnILSOn How did your move to Arsenal come about? were playing Spurs, and the Arsenal players The first time I heard about their interest was spent the previous night at Sopwell – for me “GILBERTO SILVA at the 2005 Under-17 World Cup. I couldn’t that was OK, as I just had to go to my room! InVITED ME OVER have been happier, as I’d just been promoted The struggles really started when I moved to FOR CHRISTMAS, to Sao Paulo’s senior team, too. Arsenal were my own house. BUT I DIDn’T GO. actually after another Brazilian player called I LOCKED MYSELF Ramon, who was at Atletico Mineiro. They’d Why was it tough? AT HOME, ALOnE” got him flight tickets to London, but dropped If I’d had my father or my brothers with me out because of his off-pitch antics, I believe. in London, it might have been different. But The Arsenal prodigy became Arsene Wenger used to say that if you didn’t my father was working at a football school consumed by loneliness in have discipline, you wouldn’t play for him. He and decided to stay in Brazil. I missed them London – eventually, he had watched Brazil’s games [the Selecao reached a lot. Going home after training was fine, but to leave England altogether the final in Peru] and then picked me. Bayer after a game, I’d just played in front of 60,000 Leverkusen also spoke to my entourage, but fans cheering for me, applauding if I moved Interview Marcus Alves once they’d told me Arsenal were interested, the ball quickly from one side to another. I’d I had no doubts. It was a dream come true. have a shower at the stadium and go home, but once I got there I found myself alone. I’d What was it like when you first arrived? log on to MSN Messenger hoping to speak to I spent my first few months in England living someone, to see if anyone had watched my at the Sopwell House hotel in St Albans. The game, but there was no one online. That sort club paid for my whole stay, then I managed of thing started to affect me, as you think to to rent a place and later bought one, also in yourself, ‘The match is over, I want to talk to St Albans. People usually don’t like spending someone, but there’s no one around’. People too long in a hotel, but my memories of that only see us as professionals, but they forget period are great. I was a kid and everything we’re also human beings. In time, it began to was new to me – the spa, sauna, swimming undermine Denilson the footballer, because pool, jacuzzi. There was always something to I wasn’t doing well physically any more and do. When I went out I tried to play it safe, so was psychologically worn out. That led to the if I was at a restaurant I ordered something moment when I spoke to Wenger and asked I was familiar with like spaghetti. I basically to return to Brazil. ate spaghetti for three months! One time we Was there anything someone could have TEAMS done to help you? Sao Paulo I can’t blame anyone or anything. It was the Arsenal context, one thing leading to another. Some Al-Wahda days, I was feeling all right and wanted to go Cruzeiro (loan) for a walk in the afternoon. But then you see Botafogo-SP the weather – it was depressing and you give Sliema Wanderers up. I thought, ‘Dear God, is this my life?’ You don’t have anyone to talk to, no one online to chat to and discuss stuff other than football. I struggled a lot with that, but didn’t mention it to anyone. I kept it all to myself. I never told Gilberto Silva, for example. He often invited me to his house, but I never felt comfortable. I thought, ‘He has his own life, his wife and his kids. I don’t want to keep bothering him’. One Christmas, he invited me and I didn’t go. I stayed locked up at home, alone, as I didn’t want to inconvenience him. How did you tell Wenger that you wanted to leave Arsenal? I told him that I needed to talk, that I wasn’t doing well and wanted to return to Brazil. He suggested that I should give it some thought. But from that moment, I began to get offers. Shakhtar Donetsk enquired about a loan, and Sevilla’s director of football, Monchi, came to my house and explained their project. I was in no mental condition to move to a different country, however. What I really wanted was to go to Brazil. At first, I expected to move to Fluminense – they had investors who could afford my salary – but all of a sudden, I heard that I was actually going back to Sao Paulo. You played under Wenger for five years – what was he like? The best manager I’ve ever had, along with Paulo Autuori at Sao Paulo. I can only thank Arsene, because he went above and beyond

to help me. Sometimes he’d call me into his TEAMS office before training to ask if everything was QPR all right, if my family was doing well and how Welling (loan) I was mentally. He showed such interest that Barnet (loan) you can’t help but think, ‘Damn, this coach is Sampdoria different, not only on the pitch but off it, too. Lecce (loan) What an incredible human being’. Sunderland West Brom Did you enjoy playing for Arsenal? Derby (loan) Sometimes, I refused to believe that I had so Millwall many geniuses by my side. I’d watched them Preston in the 2006 Champions League Final months Toronto before arriving, then there I was with Thierry Henry as a locker neighbour – he was No.14 DAnnY DICHIO and I was No.15. I often thought, ‘What am I doing here?’ The best season I had, when “QPR GAVE ME THEIR GOAL OF THE I did well both physically and mentally, was SEASOn PRIZE In AUGUST – THEn 2008-09. I made about 50 appearances and SInCLAIR DID HIS OVERHEAD KICK” felt fantastic. I also played my best game in an Arsenal shirt that season, against Roma The targetman was asked to hand back his hard-earned dough, in the Champions League last 16. I managed before rubbing shoulders with Jurgen Klinsmann at Sampdoria to nullify Daniele De Rossi in the first leg, then I was so confident in the second that I asked Interview Ryan Baldi to take one of the penalties in the shootout. Wenger asked, “Are you sure?” I just nodded Having supported QPR as a kid, how special Myself and Kevin Gallen were both QPR fans, my head, and I scored. I didn’t feel pressure was your Premier League debut for them in and we simply wanted to play. Les had been that year. I played as if I were in the streets. October 1994? a great mentor – he used to give us loads of I grew up through the QPR system from nine pep talks and pass on his knowledge. We’d Despite playing in both legs against Roma years old. To make my debut against Aston try to play like Les, but he was a striker in his – and both legs of the quarter-final with Villa and score was what dreams were made own breed – such a big, powerful menace of Villarreal – you were left out for the semis of. Paul McGrath was a brilliant defender, and a forward. We knew it was difficult replacing against Manchester United. Did that hurt? I thought I might face him and not get a sniff, him, not only because of his goals and link I was disappointed, but Wenger took me to but he was approaching the end of his career. play, but because of his persona at the club. one side before the first leg and said he felt Scoring my first goal was amazing, in front of I was below my best physically, so would be my friends and family. You were the club’s top scorer in 1995-96, on the bench. A few players were surprised to but QPR still suffered relegation. Was that see me there, but I’ve always respected his Les Ferdinand joined Newcastle in 1995, so a bittersweet moment? decision and am grateful to him. He gave me you became QPR’s first-choice striker aged For me, being top scorer wasn’t important. It freedom at Arsenal and I managed to score 20 – did you feel any pressure? was more about relegation and the emotions goals. When I went back to Brazil, I missed it When you’re young, you don’t really feel the we felt that day. It was devastating. Me and a lot – most of the coaches asked me to play pressure – you play with a lot more freedom. Kevin took it pretty hard, because we thought as a holding midfielder, so I couldn’t attack. In England, it was different. I played more as a box-to-box player. Do you have any other regrets? I had some wonderful moments during my five years at Arsenal, but also some sad ones – among them was leaving without a trophy. We reached two League Cup finals, but lost both and that frustrates me. I insist that our team was very good, though. We didn’t buy stars, we made them. Unfortunately, teams like Manchester United and Chelsea could go and get any player they wanted. Despite that, we played against them as if we were facing any other team. In my opinion, we were the side that played the most beautiful football. You returned to Europe last summer with Maltese outfit Sliema Wanderers, having struggled with injuries in recent years... Our priority was to live abroad, especially with everything that has been happening in Brazil. I hadn’t played for about a year [after making only one appearance for Botafogo in 2019], and what I really wanted was to resume my career. I would have even considered playing in the Chinese second tier because I needed to start playing again, taking a first step and seeing what happens. I’m 32 now and want to play for at least five more years. FourFourTwo February 2021 93

we were the strikers that were there to score In all honesty, I probably should have stayed ROY MAKAAY goals, and we didn’t keep our boyhood club in England longer, but that’s just the way your in the Premier League. We lost a lot of players career goes sometimes. You have to take the “FELIX MAGATH who wanted to stay in the top tier, and didn’t chance, and grasp it. Sometimes it works out, nEVER ASKED ME recover from that. sometimes it doesn’t. TO USE CHEESE TO HEAL InJURIES – You scored a stunning 35-yarder at Wolves Which world-class players did you get to I OnLY PUT IT On in 1996. Was that your greatest ever goal? work with in Italy? mY SAnDWICHES!” Yeah, that was the best goal I ever scored. It Sampdoria had an incredible team that had was early on in the season, in August. On the challenged for a Champions League spot the The Dutchman still holds the bus home, the players decided to settle up for previous season [1996-97]. We had a young record for the fastest goal in goal of the season, because we always had Juan Sebastian Veron, and Jurgen Klinsmann Champions League history – a whip-round for that. They said, “You usually came in. Sven-Goran Eriksson signed me, but and has evidence to prove it hit balls out of the training ground, you won’t then went to Lazio and took Roberto Mancini score a goal like that again, and no one will with him. The great Argentine manager Cesar Interview Ed McCambridge better that this season.” I took the cash and Luis Menotti, the chain-smoker, took charge had a nice night out with Trevor Sinclair. Then and wasn’t too interested in English players. We read that your real name is Rudolphus we played Barnsley in the FA Cup five months But we had some really good ones including Antonius Makaay. Why are you called Roy? later, and Trevor scored his amazing bicycle Christian Karembeu, Vincenzo Montella and Actually, that’s not true. My real name is Roy kick! The players said, “Danny, we’re going to Sinisa Mihajlovic, who was a superb free-kick and those are middle names. You can check have to take that money back – Trevor’s goal taker. It was a fantastic experience for me to my passport! [Laughs] I don’t know how that was better.” I had to admit that I’d spent all see how these players trained and prepared. became a fact. I was baptised Roy Rudolphus of it. The lads weren’t too pleased, but Trevor Antonius – Rudolphus and Antonius were the let me off. He said, “Treat me to a night out.” When you returned to England in 1998, you names of my grandfathers. The night out actually cost me more than the became part of a successful Sunderland money I’d got for the goal! squad that won promotion to the Premier In your early days at Vitesse, you turned League. What made that team so good? down the chance to join Louis van Gaal at You became an accomplished DJ in the ’90s The camaraderie and team spirit that Peter Ajax, the reigning European champions... under the name ‘DJ Mellow D’. Is that still Reid developed. He brought together a bunch People said I was crazy – I was only 20 and a passion of yours? of players that just clicked, in every position. had played two seasons as a professional. Unfortunately, all the turntables had to stay You look at the front four we had: Niall Quinn, Van Gaal came over to my house to discuss at home when I moved to Toronto FC. I grew Kevin Phillips, Michael Bridges and myself. We the offer – it’s a little intimidating having him up in a dance scene that was just starting to complemented each other. I joined for half as a guest in your home, but we had a really develop in London – my friend’s brother was a season when we lost that famous play-off nice chat. In the end, my instinct told me it a DJ on the house circuit. When he went out final to Charlton, but we reacted and stormed was better to stay and play at Vitesse. I have at night to do his sets, we used to sneak into the First Division in 1998-99. We carried that no regrets. Van Gaal wasn’t expecting me to his room and muck around on his turntables. into the Premier League and came seventh. say no, though! I called him a few days later A love grew for it from there. Most footballers – he didn’t like it and said I might never get go and play golf after training, but I’d head to You were at Millwall when they got to the the opportunity again. Other people said that, various record shops, get the best new song 2004 FA Cup Final, but missed the match too, but Van Gaal later became my manager that week and include it in my set or the radio through suspension. Was it hard to take? with the national team. shows I played on. It was arguably the lowest point of my career, and made me question whether I still wanted You were part of a Dutch generation that You joined Sampdoria in 1997. What was it to play football. The gaffer, Dennis Wise, and boasted a ridiculous number of incredible like being in Serie A during its peak years? his No.2 Ray Wilkins were brilliant. They knew strikers – Bergkamp, Kluivert, Hasselbaink, My dad is Italian and I watched lots of Serie A where my head was at and gave me a bit of Van Hooijdonk, Van Nistelrooy. Was that on television. We were huge Milan fans, and time off. But then they pulled me back in and frustrating sometimes? it was always my dad’s dream for me to play said they wanted me to travel to the final, as Sometimes it could be frustrating. We had all in Italy. The opportunity possibly arose a bit I’d played a big part in getting the club there. those guys, but Holland played with only one too quickly for me, at quite a young age [22]. striker. I won 43 caps but played on the right After joining Toronto in 2007, you scored wing for half of them. Nowadays, the national their first ever MLS goal and received their team doesn’t have enough top-class strikers first red card in the same game... – it’s just one of those things. It was their grand opening day – they’d sold all the tickets and given seat cushions away as gifts for fans. My goal wasn’t the prettiest, but it was among the most important strikes of my whole career. The amount of cushions that rained down on the pitch was a sight to see, and it took 10 minutes to clear the field. My red card came 20 minutes later, following a scuffle involving at least 15 players. I went head-to-head with Chicago’s goalkeeper and the referee thought I’d headbutted him. The ref was a Canadian guy who I now see locally. I still ask him why he sent me off and he says, “Just to add to the occasion, Danny – you’re a superstar because of that!” Listen to ‘Footy Prime The Podcast’, featuring Dichio and former Ipswich goalkeeper Craig Forrest, on all major podcast platforms now 94 February 2021 FourFourTwo

Who was the best of the bunch in your era? TEAMS Dennis Bergkamp wasn’t a classic No.9, but Vitesse he was fantastic. It’s hard to explain just how Tenerife good he was – he’d control an impossible ball Deportivo La Coruna in training like it was nothing. Bayern Munich Feyenoord Netherlands Why did you join Tenerife in 1997? They’d reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup and seemed like a club going in the right direction. But things didn’t work out, and we barely stayed up in my first season. We went down a year later, although I scored 14 goals and earned my move to Deportivo La Coruna. Deportivo had just finished sixth in La Liga. Did anyone seriously think you were going to win the title in 1999-00? The target was to qualify for the Champions League – we had a good feeling, but no one thought we’d win the league. All the pieces fell together. We didn’t have a lot of injuries and were unbeatable at home. We were also lucky that both Barcelona and Real Madrid had awful seasons. When that happens, you need to be ready. We were deserved winners. You formed an effective partnership with You scored the fastest Champions League You played for some top coaches: Hiddink, Djalminha, who once headbutted manager goal in 2007, after 10.12 seconds at home Hitzfeld, Van Gaal, Rijkaard, Advocaat and Javier Irureta. What was he like? to Real Madrid. How did you manage that? others. Who was the best? He could be an absolute genius on the pitch It was a massive game with a lot riding on it, Ottmar Hitzfeld. I never lifted a trophy with – finding passes at any moment and scoring in the last 16. Real were 3-2 up from the first him at Bayern, but he was a great coach and terrific goals, including free-kicks. He picked leg in Spain and had kick-off, so we wanted I loved the way he treated players. He’d give up a few cards, but that was Djalminha. What to pile the pressure on them straight away. you a kick up the backside if it was necessary, happened with Irureta wasn’t good – all the Roberto Carlos took a bad touch and Hasan or put an arm around your shoulder if it was players were present and witnessed it. Words Salihamidzic stole the ball. Then I got myself needed instead. He just understood people. were said, but when you’re part of a team, between Sergio Ramos and Ivan Helguera, so you have to move on from those things fast. I was ready if Hasan put the ball across goal. You scored 102 Bayern goals. Why leave? He did, and I tucked it in the corner. At that We finished fourth in my final year, so I knew You won the European Golden Shoe in your moment, I didn’t even realise how fast it was! the club were going to buy new players. Luca final season at Depor. Was that the perfect In 2011, Valencia also scored a very fast goal Toni and Miroslav Klose arrived, and we also way to say goodbye? [10.96 seconds]. My son and daughter texted had Lukas Podolski. The club never asked me I think so. I started every La Liga game that me saying, “Jonas has broken your record.” to leave, but I knew the new lads would play. season and scored 29 goals. It was incredible I came home and we played both on a split Returning to Holland appealed to me after 10 and something I never expected to achieve in screen to see who was quicker – mine hit the years away, and Bayern were brilliant. There my career. It was very special to be the fourth net a fraction faster, so the kids were happy. were higher offers from other clubs, but they Dutchman to win it – after Marco van Basten, I hope no one breaks it for a long, long time! facilitated my move to Feyenoord. Wim Kieft and Kees Kist – and I’m still the last Dutchman to win it. I then felt ready to make Felix Magath was your boss for three years You scored a hat-trick against Heerenveen the next step to one of Europe’s bigger clubs. at Bayern. Did he ever suggest treating an in your final match as a pro. Was that the injury with cheese, like he did at Fulham? ideal way to bow out? You were Bayern Munich’s record signing, No, there was nothing unusual like that with I’d already revealed that it would be my final at €18.75 million, and soon started scoring. Felix – the only thing I put cheese on was my game at a press conference. My coach [Mario Why were you at ease in the Bundesliga? sandwiches! His training sessions were much Been] asked how many minutes I wanted to Bayern did their homework and felt I was the harder than we were used to, but I still had play, because a retiring player often goes off type of striker who would do well – someone a good relationship with him. Under Magath, near the end so they can say goodbye to the who could score but also attack space behind we became the first ever Bayern team to win fans. I chose to be replaced once I’d chipped the opposition defence. The press questioned back-to-back Doubles. He later showed just my third goal after 75 minutes. That way, the if I was worth the money, but the club never how good he was at Wolfsburg, making them last kick of my career was a goal. I was really pressured me – I paid them back with goals. champions as well. thrilled to go out that way. You were a big hit with fans, who called you FourFourTwo February 2021 95 ‘The Phantom’ and ‘The Goal Machine’... [Laughs] The press would sometimes flip the Phantom nickname on its head and wonder if I was even playing in games at all! I loved the fans, but the most important thing was what my coach and fellow players thought of me.



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MY PERFECT XI JULIAnO BELLETTI After three years at Barcelona, three more at Chelsea and a role in Brazil’s 2002 World Cup triumph, it’s fair to say that the former right-back has some options... GK DIDA perfect combination of flawless positioning, “I was a goalkeeper myself until I turned 15, tough tackling and excellent teamwork. Very DIDA then took keeper classes in order to be well rarely would he leave his area unprotected.” prepared to work as a pundit, so I know this RB CB CB LB position too. Dida possessed all the required ANDRES INIESTA elements of a world-class No.1: he showed “I was lucky to see his development at Barça. GIANLUCA JOHN CARLES ROBERTO up in the big games and played a key role in It was beautiful to watch when he changed ZAMBROTTA TERRY PUYOL CARLOS his teams’ titles.” his mind in the middle of a movement, and how he could still execute it to perfection. He CM CM GIANLUCA ZAMBROTTA would have been just as decisive had he left “Zambora had the ideal balance between his to join another European club. He’s among CLAUDE ANDRES offensive and defensive duties. It wasn’t easy the best players of all time and probably the MAKELELE INIESTA to fight with him for a place in the Barcelona greatest Spanish footballer ever.” team – he was superb at marking and knew RF aM LF the precise moment to attack. Whenever he RONALDINHO went upfield, he produced something useful.” “I played with him throughout his two most LIONEL RONALDINHO THIERRY magical Barça seasons. No other athlete did MESSI HENRY JOHN TERRY what he did: the best in the world, winning CF “My centre-backs are capable of stopping the games for us… and always smiling! He wasn’t world’s best strikers. Terry’s technical ability even disrespecting opponents, which is vital. RONALDO was amazing. Bearing in mind that he faced Even though he dribbled past a whole team, great opponents every week, his consistency no one kicked him. He was respected.” THE GAFFER was outstanding. He could take on any player because he was ready for anything.” LIONEL MESSI CARLO ANCELOTTI “It was a privilege to play with him during his “I look up to Jose Mourinho, Guus Hiddink and CARLES PUYOL beginning at Barcelona, and no one in sport Ancelotti the most, but worked under Carlo the “Puyol shared several traits with Terry: speed, has been able to maintain such a high level longest at Chelsea. He takes advantage of his top tackling and being exceptional in the air, for 14 consecutive years. Leo is still doing it, huge experience to handle superstars perfectly.” with a high level of competitiveness. Above too, taking responsibility whenever needed.” all, though, he had an astonishing capability THE SUBS to recover the ball.” RONALDO “We were team-mates at a very young age in 01 02FRANK DECO 0 3 DIDIER ROBERTO CARLOS the Cruzeiro academy, and later at the 2002 LAMPARD DROGBA “One of the most complete athletes sport has World Cup. Without all the injuries, Ronaldo ever seen. As well as being so strong, he was [below] could have been the greatest ever. To incredibly efficient. He’d sprint up and down, do what he did, darting past opponents from provide assists, score and was accurate from the halfway line in every game, against elite dead-balls. It was difficult facing him in the many Clasicos that we played defenders and the strongest sides… wow. against each other – he demanded What else can I say about someone who a lot from me. My main strength to scored two goals in a World Cup final?” try to beat him was power.” THIERRY HENRY CLAUDE MAKELELE “I tell my kids to watch videos of him “Claude transformed as much as possible. His technical the holding midfielder ability was out of this world, and position. I played it he was so competitive. Thierry during my academy could play well in any position days and for a period upfront because he adapted of time as a professional, quite easily anywhere. Rarely so I’m well aware of what do you witness someone like Makelele means. He had the him at any time in history.” Caio Carrieri YOUR nEXT FOURFOURTWO IS On SALE FEBrUarY 10



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