FourFourTwo UK - June 2016

FourFourTwo 264 June 2016

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EURO

Traianos Dellas

TIME TO SHOW ’EM WHAT
WE’RE MADE OF, LADS!

ENGLAND

Rooney, Kane, Barkley &
Sterling on why you’re
right to dream big

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Extra time decoded • Gary McAllister • Penalty predictor

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E D I TO R’ S L E T T E R

EDITORIAL

Tel 020 8267 5848 Fax 020 8267 5725
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Editor Hitesh Ratna
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Features editor James Maw
Staff writer Andrew Murray
Staff writer Chris Flanagan
Chief sub editor Gregg Davies
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Performance writer Alec Fenn
Videographer Andre Hoo
Global digital editor Gary Parkinson
Deputy digital editor Gregor MacGregor
Digital features editor Joe Brewin
Social media executive Harriet Drudge
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Editorial secretary Sarah Weetch
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Gareth Maher at the FAI, plus George Stokes, Matt Barker,
Ashley Thornton-Jones, Ben Darvill and Ailsa Cowen
Pictures PA Photos, Action Images/Reuters, Getty, Rex, Twitter

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HUDDLE ROUND...
The last time four nations from the British
Isles qualified for a major tournament was
way back in 1958. Then, it was England,
Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland who
travelled to Sweden to see a 17-year old Pele
and an unstoppable Garrincha lead Brazil to their first
World Cup victory. Fifty-eight years later, Euro 2016 will
see a similar level of British and Irish participation – a fact
we celebrate in this issue.
England head to France full of optimism
according to Wayne Rooney, Harry Kane and
Ross Barkley (p44). And why not? Their recent
Have any
win over world champions Germany has given
thoughts on the
the players and a nation (albeit with some
issue? Feel free
to share with a
trepidation) belief that this could be the one.
follow and tweet
England’s Group B opponents Wales are equally @FourFourTwoEd
upbeat, and as Ashley Williams, Joe Ledley
and Ben Davies point out, anything’s possible
when Gareth Bale is on your side.
Republic of Ireland players James McCarthy, Wes Hoolahan
and Seamus Coleman reveal they are relishing the challenge
presented by this tournament’s Group of Death, while
Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill says his side
are fully embracing their role as fearless underdogs.
All in all, this issue provides four very good reasons to be
excited about Euro 2016 – as if you needed any.
But before you get started, we wanted to congratulate our
readers, who named Kemar Roofe, Bradley Dack and Andre
Gray their FFT Football League players of the year before they
each claimed the official
titles six weeks later.
Pat yourselves on the
back – you clearly
Hitesh Ratna
know what you’re
Editor
talking about.

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FourFourTwo.com June 2016 5

J U N E 20 16

UPFRONT
20
30
32
37

Top 10 footballers-turned-actors

Move over, Vinnie: here comes action star Fitz Hall

Motoball!

Everyone gets a motorbike except the keeper. Oof

Infographic: England’s penalty shootouts

Steel yourself – we’ve charted every spot-kick

Ask A Silly Question: Rob Lee

“I’m no music fan, but I can hum along to 1D”

FEATURES
One-on-One: Gary McAllister

8
42

54

60

66

72

77

Something for the Scots: the former midfielder
opens up about his love for Gordon Strachan, the
cup treble with Liverpool, and “Uri bloody Geller”

Euro 2016 special: England

Wayne Rooney, Harry Kane and Ross Barkley talk
captaincy, goals and Gazza, and FFT reveals how
England can learn from 50 years of failure

Euro 2016 special: Wales

They couldn’t... could they? We ask if Gareth Bale
and friends can ‘do a Greece 2004’, and speak to
Ben Davies, Joe Ledley and skipper Ashley Williams

Euro 2016 special: Northern Ireland

“We didn’t think it was possible,” says Jonny Evans.
Now Gareth McAuley, Chris Baird and history-making
manager Michael O’Neill unveil their Euros blueprint

Euro 2016 special: Republic of Ireland

Good news, Boys in Green: we know how to beat
the Group of Death, and James McCarthy, Seamus
Coleman and Wes Hoolahan say they’re aiming high

Does anybody like extra time?

Ask players, coaches, physios and even journalists
and the answer is ‘no’. With most teams happy to
wait it out for penalties, it may be time to blow the
final whistle early. FFT looks into the possibilities

Battles of Britain (and Ireland)

Over 140 years of inter-Isles games have brought
everything from record beatings to a mud-flinging
George Best, with highs and lows for each of the five
nations. We take you through the best, bloodiest
and bonkers-est matches. Mind yer crossbars!

Alderney take on the giants of Guernsey

88

Inventing a cup competition and then not winning
in it for nigh-on 100 years isn’t much fun. Welcome
to the Channel Islands’ very one-sided derby

Action Replay: “Bobby Gould Must Go!”

94

Believe it or not, Wales used to be a bit crap – no
more so than under Gould in the late ’90s. But from
arguing with the Manics to wrestling with players
and training in a prison, his reign was never dull...

PLANET FOOTBALL
101
102
108
Plus

Tower football! Crossing from a rooftop 240ft up
Arda Turan on waiting months for his Barça debut
Greek tragedy: How the nation’s game collapsed
Referee ultras; a derby where the winner gets
a cannon; Great Goals Retold, Euro 96-style

PERFORMANCE
111
114
118
Plus

Skipping and how it helps your game (yes, really)
Dele Alli’s masterclass on playing without fear
Summer boot camp with Amir Khan. No slacking
Keep focus off-season; tips from Tim Cahill and
Anthony Knockaert; work for FFT Performance!

6 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

p42

EURO
20
16
2016
SPEC L
SPECIAL

FREE OFFICIAL EURO 2016
BACKPACK AND WATER BOTTLE

WHEN YOU SUBSCRIBE
TO FOURFOURTWO
TODAY! p40

ONE-ON-ONE
How mardy was Cantona? Which meant
more: Leeds’ title or Liverpool’s cup treble?
Has he sung his own chant? And did the
ball really move before his Euro 96 penalty?
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY...

Gary McAllister
Interview Leo Moynihan Portrait Stuart Manley/SM2studio

Gary McAllister strolls into the hotel bar,
looking as if he could play a top-flight game
tomorrow. Fit, relaxed, happy and enthusiastic
to talk about his trophy-laden career, he
notices a spoon on the table. “Oh, I know what
that’s for,” he laughs. “Uri bloody Geller!”
He may have won the English league, the
UEFA Cup, the FA Cup, the League Cup and 59
Scotland caps, represented his country at three
major tournaments and collected an MBE,
but McAllister will long be remembered as the
man who missed that penalty at Euro 96 –
allegedly thanks to a self-proclaimed psychic.
The 51-year-old recalls, “Uri texted me once to
say he could help my team win as he felt bad
for what he’d done to me at Wembley. Weird.”
Even putting aside Geller’s telekinetic efforts,
McAllister’s career has been sprinkled with
magic, and without further ado it’s time for FFT
to stop the clocks and ask him your questions.
Set the record straight: who was your
boyhood team, growing up?
Sam Millar, Australia
I was a Motherwell fan – but I did have an
interest in Manchester United. That sounds
strange as I played for their two biggest rivals,
but my aunt married into a family from Bellshill
who were friendly with the Busbys, so I got to
meet Sir Matt and couldn’t help but like him
and his team. United actually rejected me as
a boy for being too small, so I was always
striving to prove them wrong. A lot of my mates
from my schooldays still call me ‘Wee man’, so
United were right, but luckily I shot up in height.

8 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

Who were the best players you played with
and against while you were at Motherwell?
‘Dunks’ via Twitter
There was a player there called Brian
McLaughlin who had a bad leg [injury] at
Celtic as a boy. He had been destined to be
a great. He ended up at Motherwell a couple
of years later and was a fantastic player but
just lacked that half a yard. The best I played
against was Gordon Strachan. That Aberdeen
team was superb. They were skilful and hard –
very hard. We would assign someone to boot
Gordon but he had the skill and he also had

FACT FILE
Full name Gary McAllister
Date of birth 25/12/1964
Height 6ft 1in Position Midfielder
Place of birth Motherwell, Scotland
Clubs 1981-85 Motherwell 70 games
(8 goals); 1985-90 Leicester City 225
(52); 1990-96 Leeds United 294
(45); 1996-00 Coventry City
140 (26); 2000-02 Liverpool 87
(9); 2002-04 Coventry 60 (12)
Clubs managed 2002-03 Coventry; 2008
Leeds; 2011 Aston Villa (caretaker)
International 1990-1999 Scotland 59 (5)
Playing honours Scottish Division One
1985; Football League First Division
1992; FA Cup 2001; League Cup 2001;
UEFA Cup 2001; UEFA Super Cup 2001

Below Helping Leeds
to the title shortly
before the Premier
League era arrived

some bodyguards in Doug Rougvie and
Dougie Bell. They were very hard men.
How fondly do you look back on your
years with Leicester?
Rachel Sullivan, west London
They’d been promoted to the First Division.
Gary Lineker had gone to Everton and Mark
Bright had come in. I’d signed too late to play
the first game of the season but watched us
beat Everton 3-1. Everton were the champions!
I thought: ‘What a team I’ve signed for here’.
There were some struggles and relegations,
but it was perfect for me. There were no
expectations on me – I could just get on with
playing each week and getting plenty of
games under my belt. It was a fantastic time.
Is it true that you weren’t that impressed
with Brian Clough when Nottingham Forest
tried to sign you from Leicester in 1989?
Anthony Doherty, Birmingham
It was bad timing. Looking back, I’d have
loved to play under Clough in his pomp,
but I had options and just felt Leeds were
a better fit. Brian wasn’t impressed when
I said I was going to Leeds. “Leeds?!” he
said, then the phone went down quite abruptly.
You replaced Vinnie Jones at Leeds. Did you
ever feel the need to be hard?
Jesse Hawkins, Somerset
Me? Hard? Don’t be silly. Vinnie was great,
though. He was a big figure at the club and
was there with me for a bit when I signed,

“Uri Geller says
he moved the
ball. It did move
– I have no idea
why, but it did”

ONE-ON-ONE

Left Cloughie wasn’t
happy to be turned
down for ‘dirty Leeds’
Below Le Roi shows
Wednesday what
they could have won
Bottom “What are
you looking at, eh?”

before he left for Sheffield United. I arrived and
was on my own in a hotel room when I got
a call. Outside was Vinnie, in a limo, and he
took me around the town, showing me the
right bars and introducing me to the right
people. That was big of him, as it was known
that I had been brought in to replace him.
You were in the Scotland squad for the 1990
World Cup but didn’t play. How frustrating
was that for you? You were 25, so hardly
going along just to get some experience…
Kevin Taylor, Edinburgh
Yeah, but I was taken as a Second Division
footballer. It was very frustrating, especially
in the last game against Brazil when Murdo
MacLeod got injured. While I was warming
up, thinking that this was my chance, Andy
Roxburgh brought on Gary Gillespie and moved
Roy Aitken into midfield. That was a blow.
Would you have liked to have played for
a club abroad? How close did you come?
Maddison, via Twitter
I came very close. Sven-Goran Eriksson wanted
me at Sampdoria after the World Cup in 1990.
After Leeds won the league, Murdo MacLeod
wanted me at Borussia Dortmund. I spoke to
Sevilla as well. I’d have liked to have played
abroad – it’s a big regret of mine that I didn’t.
Much is made of Manchester United’s
mid-’90s midfield, with Roy Keane, Paul
Scholes, Ryan Giggs and David Beckham.
Do you think that Leeds United foursome of
yourself, Gary Speed, David Batty and
Gordon Strachan was better?
Iain Scott, York
The biggest compliment I could give us is that
I honestly think we would compete today. We
could do most things and could adapt to most
situations. We had a youthful energy, thanks
to Gary Speed and David Batty, but also thanks
to Gordon. He was 35, but bloody hell, what
a player he was. Speed and Batty had come
through the ranks and were loved by the fans,
but Gordon was the catalyst. I thought I was
a decent player until I started to train with him
– then I realised that I was miles behind.
Did Gordon Strachan ever offer you seaweed
as a way of preserving those ageing legs?
Pete Curtis, Bristol
I never got the seaweed, but he advised me
about massage and pressure points to release
energy. Arsene Wenger’s arrival is often cited
as this watershed moment when the game
changed, but at Leeds with Gordon and Howard
Wilkinson, everything we ate was monitored
and tests were run at Leeds University. It was
very new, and often goes unrecognised.
What was Eric Cantona really like when
he arrived in England?
Louis Pilger, Beckenham
Eric had been at Sheffield Wednesday for
a trial, but because of the weather he had only
trained indoors. [Wednesday boss] Trevor
Francis was reluctant to make a decision,
saying he needed to see him on grass. You can
imagine Eric’s reaction to being doubted. He

10 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

came to our training ground and within
10 minutes we knew we had something
special. Having said that, Howard had to sell
him. Eric had become quite disruptive in
training and while it looks like the maddest
sale of all-time, I got why Howard did it.
Did Alex Ferguson’s mind games have any
effect in the run-in to Leeds’ 1992 title win?
Rosie, via Facebook
I can’t remember if he was doing mind games,
but I do remember that we at Leeds sensed
things weren’t right with his team. Mark
Hughes had been left out and we smelt a bit
of a chance. We were well behind but went on
a great run, and suddenly the pressure was
on them. I was judging a karaoke contest one
night in Leeds and it came through that
West Ham had beaten them. That was when
I thought: ‘This could be ours’. And it was a very
good Meat Loaf act that won the karaoke!
Where were you when Manchester United
lost at Anfield to hand Leeds the title?
Gavin Stark, Liverpool
A few of us were at Lee Chapman’s house.
The television cameras were with us as we
watched. The feeling when we won it was

pure elation. Fergie wasn’t happy after the
game and said that Leeds hadn’t won the title,
but that Manchester United had lost it. Despite
not ‘winning it’, we all had a great night in
a restaurant called the Flying Pizza in Leeds.
Where were you when you heard Stuttgart
had fielded an ineligible player [in the first
round of the 1992-93 Champions League]
and the game would be replayed?
Michael Morice, South Carolina
We found out the next day, but they should
have been thrown out. The game shouldn’t
have been replayed. We felt that, because
they were German, there would be another
match. It was weird playing in the Camp Nou
in front of about 50 fans [Leeds won the
2-1]. What I do remember is
replayed match 2-1]
that Howard [Wilkinson] let us have a night out
afterwards, but we couldn’t get in
in Barcelona after
turned up and
anywhere. Steve Archibald turn
suddenly doors were all open for us. Legend.
How big a shock was it to finish 17th the
year after winning the league?
Steven Taylor, Kent
It was weird. We couldn’t win away from
home. Our last away game was the only
one we won. We had the best home record,
but just couldn’t do anything on the road. The
backpass law came in and seemed to have an
effect on our defenders, who had all had the
e
season of their lives the year before. Thank God
for our home form – we’d have been relegated
without it. It was a horrendous title defence.
Is it true that Kenny Dalglish was a big fan?
Paul Minney, Merseyside
Blackburn, but
Kenny did try to sign me for Blackburn
I felt that I had worked so hard to get to

“I thought I was a good player until I started
training with Strachan. I was miles behind”

ON E - ON - ON E

and he was in my ear saying this and that in
Spanish. I didn’t understand him, but I could
tell it wasn’t complimentary. I was very
pleased when that ball hit the net. I think
I caught Stevie G in the chin with a right hook.

a big-city club like Leeds. If
I had gone I would have won
the title, but I felt that to
leave a club as big as Leeds
for Blackburn was a sideways
step. There was also talk of
Liverpool being keen earlier in
my career, in the late ’80s,
but nothing concrete.
Was it weird having to call
your former team-mate Gordon Strachan
‘boss’ when he took charge at Coventry?
Mus Akinjobi, London
I knew him so well, that was never a problem.
Ron Atkinson had signed me and people had
been surprised by [me making] that move.
It was very much a financial decision, as I had
to think about getting a good move towards
the end of my career. Coventry promised me
they would have a go, as well, and they did.
We had good players, and some good
overseas players like Mustapha Hadji and
Youssef Chippo. We hung on at times, but
I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Top Leeds line up at
a near-empty Camp
Nou to face Stuttgart
all over again
Above McAllister and
Puyol – put ’em in a
ring and we’d watch

What was the best ‘Great Escape’ during
your time at Coventry?
Helen, via Twitter
It would have to be the 1996-97 season.
We were lucky that Middlesbrough were
docked points [after failing to field a team
due to illness] but we went to Anfield and won
and then won our last game away at Spurs.
We kicked off late, so we knew the other
results, but I remember a young Stephen Carr
at Tottenham going on an amazing run and
almost ruining it. We all ran over to Stephen
and said: “Pack it in! Your mind should be
on a beach in Spain!”

Do you remember stripping naked
and jumping into the swimming
pool at that Holiday Inn?
Alan Smith, Leicester City
team-mate from 1985-1987
[Laughs] Yes, Alan, I do. I wasn’t totally
naked, though – I kept my boxer shorts on!
If I remember correctly, I dragged your
girlfriend into the pool with me!

PAL’S
POSER

?

How annoying was it that
when England thrashed the
Dutch 4-1 at Euro 96, they
then eased off and Patrick
Kluivert eventually scored
a 78th-minute consolation
that knocked Scotland
out on goals scored?
Paul Grace, London
It was very annoying.
I know David Seaman
and I gave him some stick for getting
beaten at the near post! To be fair, we
battered Switzerland and should have got
another goal. It wasn’t to be. As usual.
Steven Gerrard has admitted he wondered
why Liverpool had bought a 35-year-old
midfielder in the summer of 2000. There
were a lot of negative comments around the
move. Were you aware of these comments?
Keil Hampton, via Facebook
I was very aware of the negativity. The editor
of a local fanzine said that if I played more
than 10 matches, he’d show his bare arse in
Woolworths. I had lots to prove, so I trained
all summer so that I could arrive at Melwood
ready to go. I wanted the lads to see that
I could run. That was key. I got there and
was always in the top group of runners. What
I could do with the ball would look after itself,
but the guys saw that my legs were OK.
When did you realise that the 2000-01
season might be something special?
Kevin O’Rourke, Anfield
I’m not sure, but I was quick to realise this was
a great move and a great young squad. Steven
Gerrard has been nice enough to say I helped
him, but it worked both ways: the energy of
the youngsters, like Michael Owen, Jamie
Carragher, Robbie Fowler and Danny Murphy,
rubbed off on me. We had quality everywhere
in that squad. Barring an amazing Arsenal
team who went on a late run, we would have
won the Premier League the following year.
You looked pumped up when you scored the
penalty against Barcelona in the 2001 UEFA
Cup semi-final. Had something been said?
Jason Jennings, Derby
A lot had been said. It was Carles Puyol. I put
the ball on the spot and started to walk back,

What do you think Gerard Houllier’s
reaction would have been if you’d missed
from that late free-kick against Everton,
when you shot from an insane distance?
Jeff, via Twitter
I was more afraid of what Carra would say
if I missed. Jamie could see I was twitching to
have a go. The Everton goalkeeper was moving
to his left and leaving a gap. “Don’t you f**king
dare, Gary,” he whispered. On my run-up, the
keeper moved again and so I thought: ‘Just go
for it’. That was a nice moment.
I heard that some strange things were
thrown onto the pitch in Dortmund during
the 2001 UEFA Cup Final. Care to elaborate?
Olly Patterson, Norwich
I scored, had a hand in the winner and was
given the man of the match award by one of
my heroes, Johan Cruyff, but what I remember
most about that night was the huge dildo that
landed on the pitch! I was taking a corner in
the second half, Robbie Fowler was warming
up next to me in front of our supporters,
and suddenly there was a thud. Robbie and
I both looked at it and I said: “Is that a…?”
“Yes, Gary,” Robbie said. “That is a dildo.”
Nonchalantly, Robbie walked over to it, flicked
it up with his right foot and volleyed it back
into the crowd with his left. That’s what
I remember about that night!
What do you see as your biggest
achievement: the league championship
with Leeds in 1991-92 or the cup treble
with Liverpool in 2000-01?
David Fleming, via Facebook
That is a big question. There is no doubt that
winning the league is the pinnacle in football –
playing for your country, too, but winning
a domestic league is massive. Howard had
very little in the way of a budget at Leeds. He
paid a million for me, a million for the Wallace
brothers and a quarter of a million for Gordon.
We’d come up from the Second Division and
won the title within two years. I don’t think
Howard or Leeds ever got the recognition they
deserve. But then again, winning three major
cups in a season – who is going to do that
again? That was very special and I find it very,
very hard to separate them. I guess the thing
is that most people at Liverpool would swap
that treble for a Premier League title any day.
What did you make of Uri Geller’s claim he
moved the ball before your penalty against
England at Euro 96? Did you notice it move?
Have you ever met him... or bent a spoon?
Eddie Starrs, via Facebook
I have met him and to this day he is adamant
that he moved the ball. The ball did move.
I couldn’t use that as a lame excuse after the
game, but it did affect me. When I planted my
standing foot and my kicking boot was about to
strike the ball, it moved and I just panicked.

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 11

Coventry “had
a go”, says Gary

“I panicked and so I blasted the ball. I have
never blasted a penalty, before or since”
I didn’t want to fall over, miss the ball
completely or stub it, and so I chose to blast
it. I have never blasted a penalty before or
since. So, I have no idea why it moved, but it
did and it’s something that will never go away.
Liverpool fans still sing your chant and list
your many attributes, including your
“baldy head”. Ever got drunk and joined in?
Phil Santangelli, Liverpool
[Laughs] I haven’t had that pleasure, but
I’m sure it will happen someday very soon.
What went wrong for Brendan Rodgers
during his time in charge at Liverpool?
Claire, Chester
He went so close, but then to lose so many
goals from the side was key. Luis Suarez goes,
Daniel Sturridge gets injured, Raheem Sterling
gets his head turned – those three were
massive players the year they almost won the
league and so to lose that was a massive
blow. Luis Suarez, though... not many players
can go to Barcelona and make them better,
but Luis could. Losing that sort of creativity
and goals was always going to make life hard.
I arrived on the coaching staff in the summer
of 2015 and didn’t realise just how hard the
end of the previous season had hit the place.
Losing 6-1 away at Stoke on the last day of
the season just doesn’t happen to a club like
Liverpool, and you could sense anxiety. The
pressure was on Brendan. Ironically we had
to travel back to Stoke for the first game of
this season, and I have never known so much
pressure on a first game. It isn’t healthy to
start a season looking back on a defeat, but
that’s what had happened. It was always
going to be uphill for Brendan from there.
Will Jurgen Klopp
bring Liverpool the
Premier League title?
Sammy Green, London
Given time, yes. Leicester
have shown how far you
can shift course in just
one year. It will be hard
for Jurgen to win it next

12 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com
FourFourTw
m

it would break down. It was
designed that we would build up
play, eventually get it wide and
then get it in to the box where
Lee would be waiting.

season, but he has the CV and clearly he
has the knack of lifting players. A lot of
people are called ‘winners’ in football
when they haven’t won anything. But
he has, and I think that there have been
enough performances under him that
tell me he could do something here.
They’ve demolished some really good
teams this season. Now they need
consistency – but it looks very hopeful.
So, your old team, Leicester. Wow!
Dylan, via Facebook
I have seen them live a few times
this season and was so impressed.
My eyes are automatically turned to
the middle of the park when I watch
matches and that Leicester midfield is
great to watch. Danny Drinkwater is
a steady 7/10 in every match. N’Golo
Kante’s energy is just scary. But Riyad
Mahrez, when he receives the ball, is simply
a joy to watch. His understanding with Jamie
Vardy is first-class. Vardy is off on his run
before the ball breaks for Mahrez and that is
impossible to defend against. The goal against
Liverpool is the one: Mahrez gets the ball,
Vardy goes, no danger – but with confidence
high, he just hits it. What a goal that was.
Who was the best striker you ever played
alongside in your career?
Duncan, via Facebook
I played with a few: Michael Owen, Robbie
Fowler, Alan Smith at Leicester. I missed
Robbie at his peak before his injury took hold,
but the things that boy did in training – wow!
No backlift, left foot, right foot. And Ally
McCoist was great. The one I struggled to
combine with, but who was the most selfish
nd prolificc, was Lee
and
Chapman at Leeds. He was
a limited player, but get
hat ball in the box and he
that
would score. We worked on
iit. Chappy needed to be the
llast
st touch of any move. If
h
he was involved in the move,

Top David Seaman
saves McAllister’s
penalty at Euro 96
Above Showing off
the 2001 UEFA Cup,
Liverpool’s third
trophy of the season
Below Lee Chapman:
limited but deadly

Why didn’t things work out for
you in the end as Leeds boss?
What was Ken Bates like to
work with? And how painful was
losing at Histon in the FA Cup?
Danny Miller, Leeds
Ken was fine. When he talked
about Chelsea he’d say “we”,
which I found a bit hard, but he
had saved the club, so fair dues.
I took over from Dennis Wise, who
had built a great team. We got to
the play-off final despite the
15-point deduction [for problems
surrounding the club going into
administration] but lost 1-0 to
Doncaster at Wembley, which was tough to
take. We had a bad run. The Histon game
shouldn’t really have been played as the
conditions were awful and the ball wouldn’t
run properly, but it was live on TV so I can
understand why it went ahead. I had positive
moments. We signed Robert Snodgrass from
Livingston for £25,000, gave Fabian Delph
some early games in his career, but Jermaine
Beckford got injured and we lost a run of
matches. Simon Grayson got the job, Beckford
came back into the team and scored 15 goals
in 14 league games. That’s football.
Would you go back into management? If
you could manage any club, who would it be?
Darren White, Portsmouth
Never say never. Life has always been about
me and my career. My family have followed
me around wherever I’ve gone, so right now
I am happy with my work as an ambassador
at Liverpool, but you never, ever know.
Who would you like to see quizzed here?
And what question would you ask them?
Tweet us @FourFourTwo with #1on1

THE
BEAUTIFUL
GAME

YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE

The Europa League quarter-final second leg between Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund had
everything: seven goals, a late comeback and a stirring You’ll Never Walk Alone-off. Pre-match, it
also had Jurgen Klopp sampling the Anfield atmosphere in front of the Dortmund fans, who gave
their former boss a rousing ovation. Home support, away support – everybody loves Kloppo.
Picture Martin Rickett/EMPICS Sport/PA

THE
BEAUTIFUL
GAME

THE
BEAUTIFUL
GAME

GARDNER CAUGHT SHORT

April was a mixed month for Craig Gardner. In the last FourFourTwo, Barcelona and
Spain legend Xavi talked up the West Bromwich Albion man’s “great free-kicks” –
but the bandaged-up midfielder also suffered the ignominy of having to change his
shorts midway through the Baggies’ 0-0 draw at Sunderland. Nice pants, Craig.
Picture Richard Sellers/PA

THE
BEAUTIFUL
GAME

THE
BEAUTIFUL
GAME

AND THE FLARE PLAY
AWARD GOES TO...

Before the Belgian Cup final against Club Brugge, Standard Liege fans
greeted the players by unleashing a volley of pyrotechnics. It worked, too,
as Ivan Santini’s 88th-minute header secured a 2-1 win. Hopefully the
smoke cleared in time for the supporters to actually see it go in.
Picture Virginie Lefour/Belga/PA

UPFRONT

UPFR
PF
FR
“Christopher
Biggins
would do
more harm
than good
– Newcastle
are rubbish
enough”

30

26

37

TOP 10
The

PLAYER-TURNED-THESPS
After Dietmar Hamann called Real Madrid’s
Marcelo an actor, FFT looks at football’s real
screen stars – without a Vinnie Jones in sight

1 In his Element

Upfront editor Andrew Murray; Top 10 words Jon Spurling

Unbelievably, journeyman defender
‘One Size’ Fitz Hall had a minor role in
Luc Besson’s 1997 sci-fi classic, The Fifth
Element. “I try to keep it quiet but
I’m there at the start,” Hall has said.
“You can’t miss me. I still get phone calls
from people, saying: ‘Is that you? There’s
a little kid who looks just like you!’ I was
only 12, but I’ve not changed.” It’s a bit
like discovering Steve Claridge was
in Blade Runner. If only…

2 Reina the Roman
If we were remaking The
Fifth Element with footballers,
then alongside Fitz we’d have
former Liverpool keeper
Pepe Reina in the Bruce
Willis role. In 2013, he
impressed in Invictus –
a comedy short from
award-winning director
Javier Fesser – in which
he plays a bungling
Roman centurion and

20 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

Paul Breitner is
cooler than you

performs a passable Willis
impression. “I’ve never laughed
so much,” said the Napoli keeper.
“We must have done one scene
25 times, because I couldn’t stop.”

3 Trojan’s hoarse

The Arsenal Stadium Mystery
is one of those rarities: a football
Larissa Riquelme’s
drama that isn’t pants. The tightly
influence (possibly)
plotted thriller centres on the
poisoning of a player for
fictitious amateur side Trojans
part Clint Eastwood, Germany’s
during a match against the
legendarily-afroed left-back Paul
Gunners. Outside-left Cliff Bastin
Breitner was always more than your
gets plenty of screen time, while
average footballer. An outspoken
manager George Allison crops
admirer of Chairman Mao, he also
up with some classic lines,
turned his hand to acting on occasion,
including: “It’s 1-0 to the appearing in the curious German
Arsenal and that’s the
Western Potato Fritz (also known as
way we like it.”
Montana Trap) about Teutonic settlers
in 1850s Montana, and looking just
“Go ahead, as natural as grizzled frontiersman
Sergeant Stark as he did on the pitch
punk…”
for Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.
Part Roberto Carlos,
Presumably, it made his day.
part Jeremy Corbyn,

4

love triumph
5 Cuauhtemoc’s

In between becoming his country’s
third-highest goalscorer and the current
mayor of Cuernavaca, Cuauhtemoc
‘bunny hop’ Blanco has acted in the
melodramatic telenovelas loved by
Mexicans. In October 2010, Blanco
played the fireman love interest of
clothing-averse model Larissa Riquelme
– who became Paraguay’s most visible
supporter at that summer’s World Cup
after popping a mobile phone down her
two upfront – in Triumph of Love.. “This iis
a challenge for me,”” said Blanco. “Peo
l
“People
will make fun of me, but I don’t care.”

6 Ally’s Dark Knight

Robert Duvall has won an Oscar.
Michael Keaton was Batman. Both,

UPFRONT

ONT
O
NT
T
25

PLAYING
OFF THE
SHOULDER
OF FOOTBALL

Shearer’s answer to the question:
‘What was your favourite toy as a child?’

LEEDS

£8,000

2014 Backside

2009 Relegation

2006 Record

Shearer’s salary for each of his pundit appearances on Match of the Day

2001 Elbows

French World Cup-winner
Frank Leboeuf has acted in several major
stage plays and alongside Oscar-winning
Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking’s
Swiss doctor in The Theory of Everything,
but he once moaned to FFT: “I do seem
to die a lot in the parts I get. Hopefully
one day I’ll be in a film where I don’t get
killed. I could play a romantic guy. But
the parts George Clooney gets? Maybe
not.” Don’t do yourself down, Frank.

GOALPOST

He told reporters he
celebrated winning
the title in 1995 by
‘creosoting the fence’

He scored
more goals
against them
U N I T E D (22) than any
other team

1998 Lennon

10 Frank’s le beef

World-record transfer
fee when moved from
Blackburn to Newcastle

Calmly 1%
Right arm straight up,
running back to the
halfway line and
laughing like a cat 99%

1996 Germans

“Trust me, I’m a
doctor...
and I won the Wo
rld Cup”

Chelsea, Everton and Millwall forward
Jack Cock was one of those implausibly
heroic early-20th century figures. Cock,
a decorated First World War soldier,
scored 234 goals in 391 games, won two
England caps and was also a renowned
music-hall star with rugged good looks
and a rich tenor voice. And he ran a pub
in south London. And he appeared in
two films: 1920’s The Winning Goal, and
The Great Game a decade later. Phew.

£15M

1994 Machine

however, heavily soiled their copybooks
by appearing alongside former Rangers
forward Ally McCoist in A Shot at Glory,
a 2000 stinker about fictional Scottish
minnows Kilnockie FC. McCoist has
a hefty lead role as Jackie McQuillan,
a troubled ex-Celtic striker (yes, really)
as the team fight American owner
Keaton’s MK Dons-like attempts to move
the club to Dublin. Also featuring Owen
Coyle, it artfully traverses every sports
and Scottish cliche imaginable, while
McCoist’s acting is as demented as
Duvall’s Highlands accent. Och aye!

9

HOW SHEARER
CELEBRATED
HIS GOALS

His favourite singer

1992 Lion

Bruce Willis, Paolo Di
Canio – Pepe Reina can
impersonate them all

“Cock to stage,
please. Cock to stage”

As a freeman of the
city of Newcastle, he
is allowed to graze
his cattle on the
town moors. Handy

LIONEL
RICHIE

1987 Saint

Thunderous Sheffield Wednesday
left-back Mel Sterland upset Owls fans
when he portrayed the captain of city
rivals United in Sean Bean vehicle When
Saturday Comes. “It was hard to pull on
a United top,” he said, “but I wore my
blue and white shirt underneath.” Crafty.

260

Premier
League goals
(a record),
18 per cent
of which were
penalty kicks

1982 Wallsend

8

Blades of glory

THE 60-SECOND DOSSIER

ONE-WORD TIMELINE

Andres Iniesta is quite the budding silver
screen star. The Spanish midfielder has
an excellent cameo in ¿Quien Mato A
Bambi? (Who Killed Bambi?), a farce in
which he gets hit in the face by a car
door, and has done some voiceover
work, including as Albino in the Spanish
cut of animation The Pirates! “He said
overdubbing was harder than playing
football,” cheered director Rafael Luis
Calvo Ribot. We’ll believe that when Joe
Pasquale wins the Champions League.

ALAN SHEARER

1970 Geordie

a doddle.
Reading, however...
7 Football’s

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 21

UPFRONT

“NO, ACTUALLY IT’S
Tranmere forward
James Norwood is
football’s only Lord of
the Manor – all thanks
to Pizza Express

Jimmy Hill delays kick-off
to send Sunderland down

Coventry supremo takes criticism on the
chin as First Division season ends in farce
Long before ‘Fergie Time’, there
was ‘Jimmy Time’. To some, the late
James William Thomas Hill was
football’s very own renaissance
man, but to Sunderland fans he was
a not-so-pantomime villain – the
architect of one of the darkest
moments in the club’s history.
It was a Thursday night, and the last
day of the 1976-77 top-flight season.
Alan Dicks’ Bristol City were being sent
to Coventry for a game so big that one
West Country judge adjourned court
early so that jurors would make it to
the Midlands in time for kick-off.
With Spurs and Stoke already down,
it was between these two teams and
Sunderland, who visited Everton, to
take the final relegation spot. All three
were level on points, but Coventry’s
inferior goal difference meant that
they needed a miracle.
But when kick-off at Highfield Road
was delayed by 10 minutes because of
‘crowd congestion’, Rokerites began to
smell a rat bigger than the Coventry
managing director’s famous chin.
Bristol City had just come back from
two goals down to draw level as news
of Sunderland’s 2-0
defeat at Goodison
Park came through,
at which point,
according to the
next morning’s
Daily Mirror, Hill
“raced to the
announcer’s box
with the result,
screaming: ‘Get it
on the board!’”

22 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

The score duly flashed up on the
electronic screen and, reported
The Guardian, “what had been an
intensely physical contest dissolved
farcically”, with the home side’s back
four just passing the ball among
themselves unchallenged.
Sunderland were going down, and
Hill – who received a mere slap on
the wrist from the FA – was reviled
on Wearside and loved in the red
half of Bristol from that day forth.
Black Cats fans did exact a form of
revenge in 2008, though. Hill, by then
an old man, was at Craven Cottage to
pay his respects to his former Fulham
team-mate Johnny Haynes, when
the away supporters spotted him. He
was showered with boos, chants of
“Cheat!” and other Anglo-Saxon
epithets – “F*** off, you big-chinned
b*****d!” was especially choice – to
which he responded by waving at
them and blowing kisses before
being led away down the tunnel.
Long memories, North-East folk.

Also in this month

1965 Bobby Moore (left)
lifts a famous trophy at
Wembley: the European
Cup Winners’ Cup.
1998 Manchester City
are relegated to the third
tier of English football.
2006 FC Zurich beat Basel
with the last kick of the
game to win the Swiss
title, sparking violent
scenes involving, well,
pretty much everybody.

Football’s first great populariser
was Arthur Kinnaird – aka the 11th
Lord Kinnaird, a man who made
nine FA Cup final appearances in
11 years during the late 19th century.
But the blue bloods have largely
steered clear of the national game
in the years since, apart from when
Djibril Cisse buys a house. Now,
though, they walk among us again.
Please be upstanding for Tranmere
Rovers’ leading scorer this season:
Lord Norwood of Hougun Manor.
All is not as it seems, however. Lord
Norwood – better known to the Prenton
Park faithful as mere commoner James
Norwood – isn’t, strictly speaking,
a member of the aristocracy.

While the title runs off the tongue
rather smoothly (“It does sound quite
noble, doesn’t it?” he chuckles) this
is a lordship that has more to do
with splashing the cash than being
to the manor born.
“I was having a meal with my
mates at Pizza Express back home in
Eastbourne,” the former England C
captain explains to FFT, “and one of the
lads said he got upgrades on planes,
trains, anything, because he’s a lord.
I said: ‘You can’t be a lord.’
“He explained that his parents bought
him a lordship. I immediately got on
my phone, Googled it, and before the
starters came out, I had bought myself
one! I said: ‘Right, there are two lords
at this table now!’”
All it took to surge up the social ladder
was a couple of taps on his phone.
“They send documentation through
which explains all the perks that the title
gives you. It’s weird. People believe you
really are a lord. I bought my dad one
for his birthday. Obviously he couldn’t
have his son being a lord and him not.

Wiki says what?
Kenedy

Wiki says:

“Kenedy is named after the
former United States Attorney
General and New York Senator
Robert Francis Kennedy.”

Kenedy says:

“True! It was my mum’s
idea, but I don’t know
why, or even much
about him – just
that he was an
important political
leader in the US. If I gave my
son a politician’s name, I’d go
for Robert Kenedy III!”

Interview Felipe Rocha

IN THIS MONTH MAY 1977

UPFRONT

LORD NORWOOD TO YOU…”
YOU ”

Words Nige Tassell

I kept telling him he was a peasant,
and that lords don’t make cups of tea
for people like him.”
Nestled in the heart of Cumbria,
Hougun Manor certainly sounds like
a proper-job ancestral seat; a grand
estate handed down the family line that
conjures images of gently undulating
hills and salmon-rich streams. However,
the extent of Norwood’s lordly domain is
somewhat more modest.
“I’ve got a patch of land which is
about a metre squared,” he sighs.
“I’m looking to build a high-rise on it.”
Norwood’s instant ascent, secured
for a speedy outlay of just £35, has
unsurprisingly left him wide open to
ridicule in the Tranmere dressing room.
“No one can believe it,” he laughs.
“I got torn apart for it by the rest of the
team.” He did, however, have a sharp
reply for those doubters. “I said: ‘If we
win the league and we go off on holiday
together, you guys can enjoy economy
while I’m being served free margaritas
at the front of the plane.”
Quite right, too, your Lordship.

THE BIG FOUR

The sum of football’s parts, why losing can be good and glory-tinged England memories

2

1

3

Soccermatics

Losing It

Boys of 66

•••••

•••••

•••••

David Sumpter (Bloomsbury, £16.99)
How much of a football match is won
by tactics, and how much by individual
brilliance (not to mention defensive
ineptitude)? Sumpter’s deconstruction
of formations proves why maths and
football can’t live without each other.
It’s every football nerd’s dream.
Best quote “You can dribble like Messi
but if your team lacks structure you will
never be able to show off your skills.”

Simon Barnes (Bloomsbury, £16.99)
Barnes, The Times’ former chief sports
writer, explores how he reconnected with
sport by co-founding a football team in
his twenties and installing himself as
its first-choice keeper. As an intriguing
personal journey into how sporting failure
can inspire people, it’s thought-provoking
stuff for all amateur players.
Best quote “If sport doesn’t hurt, at
some level, you’re not doing it right.”

John Rowlinson (Virgin, £20)
Packed with rare photography, this
exhaustive behind-the-scenes account
of the 1966 World Cup makes for
a fascinating read. Beginning with
Alf Ramsey’s arrival as manager, the
book’s revealing anecdotes bring
England’s crowning moment to life.
Best quote “One James Bond scene
was restarted when Ray Wilson, after
one beer too many, fell off his chair.”

4
When Football
Came Home

Michael Gibbons (Pitch, £12.99)

•••••

Remember the glorious English football
summer of 1996? Beginning three years
earlier in San Marino, Gibbons reminisces
on the Three Lions’ heady exploits up to
and including Euro 96 – a time when
anything seemed possible.
Best quote “Gazza challenged the TV
crew outside his house to a game. Then
he hoofed the ball into a nearby lake.”

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 23

Soccer

Ireland’s
No.1 Youth
Football
Tournament

Ireland is considered one of the best countries for youth
soccer, producing a number of top professional players and
making it an ideal destination for a top quality youth
soccer tournament.
Following the huge success of last year’s tournament, the
Dublin Cup is already looking forward to its fourteenth year
in 2016! Taking place over 3 days, from the 29th to 31st July,
we are ready to welcome an exciting selection of teams
from around Ireland and abroad to the AUL Complex in
Clonshaugh, Co. Dublin.

www.thedublincup.com
The Dublin Cup
29th - 31st July 2016
AUL Complex
Clonshaugh
Co. Dublin
Categories
Boys

Girls

U11 to U17’s

U13 & U15’s

For more information
Call Topflight Soccer on 01 2401738 • Email [email protected] • Web thedublincup.com

UPFRONT

H
S
I
T
T
O
C
S
A

GUIDE TO EUROS SURVIVAL
With most of the British Isles gallivanting around France this summer, it’s going to be
tough to watch north of the border. FourFourTwo hears the Pacific is nice this time of year…

The simple strategy of vigorously
supporting whoever England are playing
will be the average Scot’s central coping
mechanism. Ross will turn Russian,
Stranraer Slovakian and Wick will whoop
for fellow Anglo-loathers Wales. And the
Auld Enemy themselves, with their track
bung
f
n,
record of bungling
self-destruction,
will surely oblige
obli with
h some pleasingly
l
l
meth off elimination.
ination Frankly,
Frankly
comedic method
d as winning
n
h thing.
h .
it’s almost as good
the

as Euro 2016. Proud Scottish foil-wielders
Mike McKay and Sheila Anderson would
surely be delighted to see 35,000
ginger-wigged lunatics turning up to
cheer on their jabbing. En garde!

HEAD TO PAPUA NEW GUINEA
PNG are languishing in 198th place on
’ llatestt ranking
k
llist, their
h r national
FIFA’s
b
b g rugby
r by league.
leag e They
h y
obsession
being
couldn t care a fi
fig
couldn’t
g about the beautiful
h
game or Euro 2016, so there’s
zero

ADOPT ANOTHER
ANOTHE TEAM
M
Rather than simply
si
g g purple with
going
chan
D DIE!” every
rage and chanting
“DIE, DIE,
d o appears on
time poor old Roy Hodgson
s
h
telly, perhaps a more positive
approach
emb
d Either
h throw
h
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your
b h n from
f m the
he
weight behind brethren
No h
la d
Republic or Northern
Ireland,
f
o
or steadfastly follow
whoever
ffice
e
you pluck out in the offi
k
sweepstake. A bowl off skinny
e
d 12
frites, a waffle-maker
and
Leff and you’ll soon
bottles of Leffe
mo Belgian tthan
be feeling more
Poirot. Allez! Or,
O indeed,
d d Gaan!
G
!

The good folk of PNG
care not for the Euros

GO HIPSTER
It’s all about tournament debutants
Albania this summer. You’ll be in good
company if you watch the Eagles and
join the ranks of the Tifozat Kuq e Zi,

some of the most passionate national
team supporters in Europe. Now, what
rhymes with Sokol Cikalleshi?

HAVE A DIGITAL DETOX
The evidence suggests that staring at
screens all day isn’t hugely healthy (so
congrats if you’re reading this in print:
d as doing press-ups).
Instead
it’s as good
press
ed into petty Euro 2016
of getting dragged
hatred Scots should spend four
Twitter hatred,
w k striding
d g through
h
h glens,
l
caling
weeks
scaling
c
n ffrom babbling
ng brooks.
crags
and drinking
d any
y Revenant
R
a t-style
l mishaps
haps and
Avoid
Revenant-style
y can return to reality
you
ly fully
f y refreshed
in July
d none the
h wiser
and
ab
ardy
about
Jamie Vardy
be
k hted.
being
knighted.

HAVE A DIGITAL
D G RETOX
OX
Who needss proper life?
f Abandon
bandon
tthe tedium off opening some gas bills,
g
h toilet
le and
d llistening
g to Clive
going to the
T
Tyldseley by donning an Oculuss Rift
vvirtuall reality
l h
ad
d
he
headset
during the
FFrance-Romania
-R
i curtain
in-raiser. Spend
Romania
curtain-raiser.
th
hw
d
und your
the next month
wandering
around
flat bumping into
o stuff,
ff under the
he
m
g the
mistaken belieff y
you are roaming
M
lk Way as Supreme
p
nder
Milky
Commander
T
h k Release
l
h orcs!
rcs!
Tony Spatchcock.
the

ADOPT ANOTHER
ANOTHE SPORT
SOT
The legendary Tartan Army
m have
e
decomm
fo the
been decommissioned
for
s l they
h can b
summer, but surely
be
e on some
e different
ff
deployed to egg
Braveh
r
nce
sporting Bravehearts?
Forget
France
and head instead
inst d to the
h European
Cham
h in Poland,
l d
Fencing Championships
pla at the
h same
s
which take place
time

chance of a Scot being mistaken for an
Englishman and quizzed about whether
Nathaniel Clyne or Kyle Walker should
play at right-back. Port Moresby is really
quite lovely in June, and a flight from
Glasgow takes a mere 29 hours, with
stopovers in Helsinki and Hong Kong.

i g1
Fencin
F
Football 0

HAVE AN ALCOHOLIC
I RETOXX

X x
Xxxxx
xxxxxxx

A month-long
hl
be d has
bender
h the
h same
eff
a deto
ox: it
it lets
l
effect
as a digital
detox:
you
h dark
d k about
b
h s going
remain in the
what’s
v iff you’re watching
tching it
on in France – even
d is a llot more
o entertaining
g than
– and
l k
m
board.
locking
your Samsung
in a cupboard.
r ffor the opening
ening
Time your first drink
c
he Stade
d d
ce,
ceremony
at the
de France,
a sip a thimble-full
e f off Buckfast
f st every
and
h following
f
g 30
20 minutes ffor the
0 days,
f
n ffor rehab. And
d a liver
before
booking in
l
a
g: this
h is risky
isky.
replacement.
Warning:
Warning

FourFourTwo.com
ou ou T o.com June
Ju e 2016 25

Words Nick Moore

TRUSTY SCHADENFREUDE

UPFRONT

Words Richard Edwards

FROM EUROVISION
TO EURO GLORY

Hannes Halldorsson has Euro 2016 in
his sights, but four years ago it was
an altogether different vision of
continental supremacy that was
occupying his thoughts. In Azerbaijan.
Before his heroics between the posts
helped Strakarnir okkar (or ‘Our boys’ for
you non-Icelandic speakers out there)
to what will be their first ever major
championship finals appearance this
summer, goalkeeper Halldorsson
directed Iceland’s entry for the 2012
Eurovision Song Contest, held in Baku.
The 32-year-old’s video for Greta
Salome & Jonsi’s Never Forget is well
worth a watch, particularly if you’re
a fan of violins. And snow.
“The song finished in 20th place,”
Hannes tells FFT of the ditty’s meagre
46-point haul. “But I saw some
commentary online which said “at
least they have the best music video”,
so it’s wasn’t all doom and gloom.”
Nor was the earnest-if-annoying
effort beating legendary crooner
Engelbert Humperdinck’s UK entry
(12 points) into a Eurovision pulp.
Not bad for a country better known
for its unpronounceable volcanoes
than its video-director footballers.

YOU
ASKING?

In 2012, Iceland’s goalkeeper directed the
music video for his homeland’s Eurovision
Song Contest entry. He’s a bit busier this year…

Hannes hopes Iceland
can finish higher than
Never Forget’s 20th place

“…and next up on
Match of the Day...”

ANDRE GRAY
Goal-hungry
Burnley striker

The ensuing four years, though, have
been a fairytale for Hannes, who
explains: “My career didn’t develop in
the same way as almost every other
footballer in the world – for nine years
my number one job was being
a film-maker
– but that’s the charm of
lm
the Icelandic team.
team We have different

KEMAR ROOFE

Oxford United’s
main man in midfield

stories; we’re a mixed gang of people.
There’s a saying that there’s no elevator
to success – you have to take the stairs.
Everyone in the team knows that.”
Whatever happens in France, FFT is
willing to wager a good few Krona that
none of Hannes’ opponents will own
a CV as eclectic as his – and certainly
won’t have got up close and personal
with Europe’s most poptastic institution.
“I mostly directed commercials, as
they were done in a day and it was the
only way for me to work as a film-maker
alongside playing football,” he says.
“I also did a lot of music videos when
I was young. That’s how I made my
name and how the Eurovision
opportunity came along in 2012.”
All of which begs the question: will
Hannes be tuning in to watch this
month’s song-fest in Sweden?
“You can’t really admit that you’re
a big fan of Eurovision, can you?” he
says. “It’s not the coolest of things.
But I always liked it as a kid. It’s a guilty
pleasure. It was on my to-do list, so it
was too good a chance to turn down.
And we finished way ahead of the
United Kingdom.”
All right, Hannes – no need to rub it in.

JAMES MADDISON
Coventry City’s
teenage talent

BRADLEY DACK
Long-haired
Gillingham star

Interviews Chris Flanagan & James Maw

Where football
folk ponder the
issues of the day
How far do you
think England will
go at Euro 2016?

Hopefully they play the lads
who have done well this
season – Kane, Alli, Vardy –
and get into the last 16.
They deserve their chance.

The semi-finals. They just
have to enjoy themselves
and play with freedom.
I might try to get to one of
the games, actually.

We have a good generation
of players, I really like Ross
Barkley. Hopefully we’ll get
out of the group, and then
anything can happen.

We have a young team
with plenty of talent, so
anything can happen,
really. I think we could
be the dark horses!

What are you going to
do on the first day of
your summer break?

Get on the next flight! If we
get promoted, hopefully
we’ll be in Las Vegas, but
it’s not sorted yet.

Until you get promoted you
can’t really plan anything.
I will be celebrating
somewhere if we do.

Probably go for a game of
golf. Joe Cole plays, and
we’re going for a round
soon. I’m trying to improve.

Hopefully it’s sunny! I’ll go
to the pool with some pals,
have a few drinks, sit back
and do some sunbathing.

26 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

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F O U R F O U RT WO P R O M OT I O N

THE FUTURE
OF 5-A-SIDE
Small-sided football has been given a 21st century makeover –
welcome to the next generation of premium soccer spaces
own in a small corner of West London,
five-a-side football has had a dramatic
transformation following the launch
of a state-of-the-art facility in Shepherd’s Bush.
Pro:Direct Play focuses the relentless innovation
and premium execution Pro:Direct is renowned for on
an elite-level facility at PlayFootball Shepherd’s Bush.
The ambition: to create an extraordinary experience
that adds an extra dimension to the game.
PlayFootball Shepherd’s Bush boasts 10 floodlit
3G all-weather pitches and FA-qualified referees, plus
rebound boards and roof nets so the ball never goes
out of play. It’s all combined with modern changing
facilities and a sports bar showing live games to
deliver the finest possible playing environment.

D

Even better, three pitches are available for
community use – meaning more people can play
five-a-side football than ever. The centre will also host
the successful Pro:Direct Academy programme, and
work to involve local clubs in coaching initiatives.
Pro:Direct will also look to host one-on-one Q&A
sessions with product experts, as well as boot-testing,
seminars, pro-player insights, product launches, and
events to bring the pros’ choices to the community.
Don’t live in London? Don’t worry. PlayFootball is
set to roll out Pro:Direct Play in a host of locations,
so one could be coming to a venue near you real soon.
It’s time to wave goodbye to hard pitches and the
routine of emptying sand from your trainers, and to
say hello to five-a-side football in the 21st century.

F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N O R T O E N T E R YO U R T E A M I N T O A L E A G U E
V I S I T W W W. P L AY F O O T B A L L . N E T/ S H E P H E R D S - B U S H O R C A L L 0 2 0 3 3 7 6 5 0 0 0

“WE

UPFRONT

LO V E YO U E U R O P E , W E D O . . . ”

Boris Johnson didn’t take long to nail
his colours to the Brexit mast. In June,
voters will decide whether the UK
is to remain in the European Union,
and the departing Mayor of London
announced he was happy to pull up
the drawbridge and leave Europe to it.
If only an eight-year-old Boris had
been at Wembley on January 3, 1973.
There, he would have seen Bobby Moore,
Bobby Charlton, Franz Beckenbauer and
plenty of others do more for European
unity than any bureaucrat has managed
in the ensuing 43 years.
To celebrate the UK, the Republic of
Ireland and Denmark entering the
European Common Market (forerunner
to the EU) at the turn of 1973 two days
earlier, a friendly was arranged to foster
better continental relations, taking place
between ‘The Three’ new nations and
‘The Six’ founder countries, represented
by players from France, West Germany,
Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and, er,
Luxembourg. The roll call was impressive,
including Moore, captain Charlton, Colin
Bell, Pat Jennings, Johnny Giles and
Henning Jensen for the newbies, with
Beckenbauer, Dino Zoff, Johan Neeskens
and captain Gunter Netzer for ‘The Six’.
As New Year’s Eve hangovers cleared,
there was no shortage of stars on the
pitch, nor of besuited cheerleaders off
it, readying their political pompoms.
“Tonight’s match is unique in
embracing the whole of the enlarged

community, and we are very glad our
European friends are able to take part,”
wrote Conservative prime minister
Edward Heath in his programme notes.
“I am sure that, with us, they will look
upon this evening as a major landmark
in the history of European football.”
Heath’s message was translated into
French, German and Italian in a match
programme costing a very British 10p,
the cover of which (right) would have
Nigel Farage choking on his warm beer.
The English Channel was no more, with
Britain a mere suburb in northern France.
France
There was even unity in the pre-match
entertainment, as The Grenadier and
Coldstream Guard Bands played music
from European ballets. Latecomers then
took their seats to the strains of Cabaret
before the two sides waltzed onto
the Wembley turf, led by managers
Sir Alf Ramsey and Helmut Schon.
“It was an honour to get the call,”
Scottish forward Colin Stein tells FFT.
“I’ve still got the shirt in my house. There
Ther
was quality everywhere you looked that
night, and it was a great experience to
play under Sir Alf, a true gentleman.”
With Schon’s side representing the
epitome of European football flair,
even the most cynical of hacks were
salivating at the rare prospect of
witnessing them performing together.
“The Dutch and the Germans, so long
regarded as dour, cautious and stolid,
rather than elegant, are now playing in

Denmark’s Jensen shocks
the giants of Europe two
decades before Euro 92

a way that represents a g
gay beaker off
sparkling champagne,” wrote Geoffrey
Green in The Times. “Much of this will
doubtless be given free rein at
Wednesday’s celebration, when men
like [Paul] Van Himst of Belgium, [Luigi]
Riva the Italian, and Netzer from West
Germany let down their collective hair in
the presence of our own Bobby Charlton,
who, dear fellow, has little of his own
these days to boast about.” Harsh.
After an exhibition of continental
one-touch play in the first 45 minutes,
‘The Three’ took an early lead after the
break thanks to a typically perfect cross
from Charlton – “little to boast about”,
indeed – and a header from Danish
striker Henning Jensen. Stein sealed the
win, with a little help from Alan Ball,
who had just come on as a substitute.
“I ran into the box and Bally put it
square on my head,” Stein tells FFT.
“My abiding memory of that match is
Bally patting me on the back and then
saying: ‘Well played, Col’ in that famous
squeaky voice of his. Brilliant.”

h enjoyment
j
s ’t restricted
i d
The
wasn’t
to the players, either.
“Here was an occasion worthy of more
than a 36,500 crowd,” wrote Green.
“Still, those who were at Wembley last
night – most of them, at least, I would
imagine – went away purring.”
In a celebration of unity, a draw would
have been a more fitting result than
Ramsey’s side running out 2-0 winners,
but the evening had provided a ringing
endorsement for an ambitious new
Europe. So were the players equally
enthusiastic at the prospect of an
expanded European community? “I do
not remember too many conversations
about it, you’ll be surprised to know,”
admits Stein. “We had more important
things to worry about.”
The beautiful game may still be just as
broadly indifferent to EU politics, but 43
years after The Three delivered a bloody
nose to the Union’s longest-established
nations, will the British public be about
to strike another? Either way, it won’t be
on the football pitch – more’s the pity.

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 29

Words Richard Edwards; Programme footysphere (via Flickr)

As the UK goes to the polls over ‘Brexit’, FFT looks
lo s
back on how a football match helped to ease its
entry into the Common Market in the first place
pla e

UPFRONT

ON YOUR MARKS...GET SET...

MOTOBALL

Goalkeepers
eepers are regarded as football’s
ost weirdos, leaping face-first
foremost
i
into
a melee without thought for their
t
teeth.
It takes nerves of steel. Motoball
k
rs, then, must be totally mental.
keepers,
“
“It’s
more daring to be a goalie in
all – I know some of our keepers
motoball
g a great
reat rush from it,” says Loek
get
ans, captain of the Dutch national
Looijmans,
t
team.
“It’s a higher adrenaline level. The
k
keeper
doesn’t have a motorcycle, his
a
area
is a half-circle and the motorcycles
c
ome in. But they travel at high
can’t
come
ds, so sometimes they do.” Ah.
speeds,
h year, there’s only one European
This
h pionship that matters in the
Championship

Swap your boots for two (horsepowered) wheels and you’ve
got
Championship
g the fastest European
p
p
p on show thiss summer
su
er

THE 110% FOOTBALL QUIZ
1

What makes
the record nine
goals scored by
Michel Platini (right)
in European
Championship
finals history even
more significant?

Q7: “Do you think this
is tall enough?”

Q10: Come on,
you all know this

2

Name the six
players to
have played in the
Premier League for
both Manchester
United and Spurs.

3
4

10

How many Portugal caps has
former Liverpool and Chelsea
midfielder Raul Meireles won: 56, 66 or 76?

6

Who’s won more Scottish
Cups: Celtic or Rangers?

In which year did
Gianluigi Buffon make
his professional debut for
Parma: 1993, 1995 or 1997?

5

Which is the oldest
professional football
ground in Spain?

30 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

Q4: Yes, Buffon
was actually
young once

Which former
Fulham and
Portsmouth midfielder
scored the opening
goal of the 2002
World Cup?

7

Which Football
League club play
their home games at
the Memorial Stadium?

8

Which two teams
have been in the most
mo
Football League Trophy
(currently Johnstone’s
Paint Trophy) finals
without winning one?

9

Which English
team were the
first to win a league
and FA Cup double?

Q8: The paint
is inside,
we think

11

Which English player
was part of Portland
Timbers’ MLS Cup-winning
side in 2015?

12

Which three nations
have had one of their
l b appear in a European Cup or
clubs
C
pions League final, but never
Champions
a
ll win the tournament?
actually

13

Who is Aston Villa’s all-time
record signing?

UPFRONT

The ball’s in
there somewhere

14

Who is the only player to have
played in the final of three
consecutive European Championships?

15

Name Manchester City’s three
goalscorers in beating QPR
to win the Premier League title on the
final day of the 2011-12 season.

16

Which German club has
reached the most UEFA Cup
and/or Europa League finals?

17

Who scored more goals
for France in their career:
Sylvain Wiltord or Eric Cantona?

defect from
soccer teams,
they are at least
allowed to wear
helmets.
“There are lots
“I’ve got
more goals
this, lads”
in motoball –
sometimes 20 in
a game,” says Moors. “It’s the fastest
team sport in the world. The top speed
is 80kph.” Supercharged total football –
you can see why the Dutch dig it.
It may look like a wacky spin-off of
Mad Max: Fury Road, but motoball goes
back surprisingly far, to the early days
of mass-market motorcycles. Naturally.
If you invent something, people will
invariably try to play football with it.
“It started in about 1930, says Thomas
Staudt of the game’s governing body,
FIM. “The first pictures are from France.
It was played on grass and the bikes
were very heavy. They’re a lot quicker
now – there’s fire under the hood.”
They’re changing with the times,
though, and recently introduced a ruling
allowing electric bikes. Staudt admits:
“Not every driver is happy with that –
99 per cent still drive a gasoline one.”
The sport is popular in that gas-heavy
hotspot, Russia. In 2013, however, after
a seven-year winning streak, the
Russians were sensationally beaten to

18
Name the four
players pictured
whose surname
is a capital city.

You should see the
marks all over the
keeper at full-time

the Euro title by the Germans. Last year,
it happened again. “They really weren’t
happy with that,” says a smiling Staudt.
This tournament could get tasty.
Elsewhere, Staudt is particularly keen
to reignite interest in the UK, which once
had a team, and the Netherlands this
summer. The Dutch are now down to
one club side, which has to compete in
the German league. But playing better
opposition should help the national
team’s chances, nein?
“I think we’ll place between fourth and
seventh,” says Moors, to spluttering from
the two Dutch chaps he’s sitting with.
Well, there are only seven teams in it.

19

Against whom –
pictured right –
did Emile Heskey score his
first international goal for
England: Macedonia,
Moldova or Malta?

Q17: If you want
a clue, this was
not one of them

B

C

D

Motoball’s European Championship
kickstarts in Budel on July 26

Q19: “I know, I’m
surprised too”

20

Three former
Wycombe
Wanderers managers
have gone on to manage
Aston Villa in the Premier
League. Name them.

21

At which
club did
Jurgen Klopp
(right) begin his
managerial career?

22
A

“We’ll aim for third or fourth – ‘the little
final’,” says the other rider, Bart Hompes.
How did Hompes discover motoball?
“My father used to play,” he tells FFT,
“so when I was 12 I got to play with
the youth team.” On tiny motorbikes,
presumably. Captain Looijmans has
a stranger family connection. “My father
was a referee,” he explains. “They don’t
have bikes. They have to walk.”
And you thought regular footballers
surrounding a ref was intimidating –
imagine them all on motorbikes. Yikes.

Barcelona
reached
the most UEFA Cup
Winners’ Cup finals (six)
during the competition’s
existence. Who reached
the second-most?

23

Which current National
League side play their
home games at Sincil Bank?

24

Which
band
released World At
Your Feet, the official
England song for the
2006 World Cup?

25

Name
all five
of the scorers in
normal time of
the 2005 Champions League Final
between Liverpool and AC Milan.
Answers on page 39

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 31

Words Si Hawkins

Netherlands and it’s not the football one,
as the Dutch team inexplicably failed to
qualify. Now we know why: they’re busy.
Europe’s most forward-thinking football
nation have witnessed the game’s
future: players on motorbikes.
“I don’t watch football – it’s just too
slow for me,” sniffs Hein Moors, the
man running the Motoball European
Championship in the Dutch village
of Budel this July. “Personally I don’t
understand why football is so popular
and motoball isn’t.”
Motoball’s field of play looks familiar –
it’s football pitch-sized, with regular
goals – but it’s played with a comically
massive ball, which the players hoof with
comically massive boots, while hurtling
around on customised motocross bikes.
As for the poor keepers, who usually

UPFRONT

“IT’S SOUTHGATE… OHHH NO!”
Euro 96 and other tales of woe, as FourFourTwo maps
out England’s shootout miseries (sorry)

1990
1996
1996
1998
2004
2006
2012

WEST GERMANY (LOST 3-4) SCORED 3/5
Lineker, Beardsley, Platt, Pearce, Waddle

SPAIN (WON 4-2) SCORED 4/4
Shearer, Platt, Pearce, Gascoigne

GERMANY (LOST 5-6) SCORED 5/6

Shearer, Platt, Pearce, Gascoigne, Sheringham, Southgate

ARGENTINA (LOST 3-4) SCORED 3/5
Shearer, Ince, Merson, Owen, Batty

PORTUGAL (LOST 5-6) SCORED 5/7

Beckham, Owen, Lampard, Terry, Hargreaves, A. Cole, Vassell

PORTUGAL (LOST 1-3) SCORED 1/4
Lampard, Hargreaves, Gerrard, Carragher

ITALY (LOST 2-4) SCORED 2/4
Gerrard, Rooney, Young, A. Cole

32 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

UPFRONT

E
I
V
O
M
E
H
T
O
R
MOO

Words Joe Brewin

A new film celebrates
the life, times and
little-known struggles
of English football’s
greatest captain.
Watch and learn
How well do you think you know
Bobby Moore? Beyond the famous
image of England’s greatest ever
skipper perched on his team-mates’
team-mate
shoulders and hoisting aloft the
World Cup trophy in 1966, there’s
plenty more you may not associate
with the West Ham legend.
Bobby, a revealing new film
created by director Ron Scalpello and
journalist-cum-producer Matt Lorenzo
to help mark the 50th anniversary of
England’s World Cup win, attempts to
honour Moore’s memory with a little
help from those who knew him best.
It sheds some light on his horrifying –
and secret – cancer battles two years
before that momentous Wembley final,
and how football shunned the 108-cap
defender after his retirement.
“I was lucky enough to grow up with
Bobby – my dad was a sports journalist
and they were mates,” Lorenzo tells FFT.
“It was nice to impress your friends by
saying England’s World Cup-winning
captain was in your back garden last
week. Actually, it wound them up.
“Years later, my boss at Sky Sports
was looking for someone to preview

Junior Bobby (bottom left);
the music man (top left)
and with first wife Tina

fixtures, so I suggested Bobby. He said:
‘No, he’s a bit old hat’. It infuriated me,
but it was just one example of how he
was treated after his playing career
finished. Nobody would give him a job.
He didn’t get the respect he deserved –
we want to redress the balance.”
Lorenzo recruited Moore’s family
to help – wives Tina and Stephanie
(“the only two people he really opened
up to”) and his daughter Roberta – plus
a host of former team-mates and
friends, including Gordon Banks,
Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters.

However, despite his willing
helpers, film-making – and more
specifically, archive footage – isn’t
cheap. Lorenzo & Co. launched
a Kickstarter page to raise £100,000,
which he admits was “an experiment
that really didn’t work out”, but that
amount was merely a tiny portion
of a £1.3 million project.
“We used a researcher called
Richard Wiseman, who’s a
genius,” Lorenzo says. “He got
coverage of the 1966 World Cup
Final from two angles that
hadn’t been seen before. FIFA
wanted $22,000 per minute,
and there are 20 minutes. That

could have scuppered it – but they
recognised the Bobby Moore Fund angle.
The FA had given us their stuff for free,
so I got it down by two-thirds.”
You’ll certainly learn something new
about Moore – but what’s the big reveal?
“I knew him, but nobody actually
knew him,” says Lorenzo. “He was
a proper hero, but not just for what
happened on the pitch. As Frank
Lampard Snr says in the film, he
was a role model not just for
football, but for life.”
‘Bobby’ will preview in British
cinemas on May 27, and will be
available on DVD from May 30

Interviews Richard Edwards

Fan vs Player Portsmouth

Jake Payne
58-year-old chef, DJ and
painter and decorator
Christian Burgess
Pompey defender, 24

Q: Which team did
Pompey beat to seal an
FA Cup final date with
Chelsea in 2010?
JP: I remember it as if it
happened yesterday!
Spurs! We won 2-0. ✓
CB: I know who they
beat in 2008! I’ll take
a punt on Tottenham. ✓

1-1

34 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

Q: Who were first to
hand Portsmouth a
defeat in League Two
this season?
JP: No one beat us for
ages. Notts County? ✗
CB: I should know this
really – I was probably
playing! It was Exeter.
We lost 2-1 at home. ✓

2-1 Player

Q: Who is the club’s
all-time record
appearance maker?
JP: The legend that was
Jimmy Dickinson. ✓
CB: I only know one
player who was here
forever and that’s Alan
Knight. It must be
him, surely? ✗

2-2

Q: Who scored the
second goal in the 2-2
draw with Milan in the
2008-09 UEFA Cup?
JP: It was Kanu. Younes
Kaboul had put us 1-0
up. What a night! ✓
CB: There were a lot of
strikers at the club then.
I’ll go with Yakubu. ✗

Q: Which Portsmouth
player scored a
hat-trick against
Cambridge United in
successive seasons?
JP: Good question, that.
It was Matt Tubbs. ✓
CB: Matty Tubbs! They
must have been sick of
the sight of him. ✓

3-2 Fan

4-3 Fan wins!

UPFRONT

TRIPPIN’ ON MOUNT NAKATA

Marcilo Agro FC are Simon & Garfunkel for the beautiful game, creating heartfelt songs from
random football miscellany.
miscell y Club
Cl b captain
t i Joao
J o Maravilha talks us through their greatest hits
IN THE BOX

A moody ode to ex-Perugia midfielder
Hidetoshi Nakata. In Japanese. They
have also sung in German, Spanish,
Portuguese, and are trying Dutch – 
“our little gift for Louis van Gaal”.

In the 1999 Champions League Final’s
famous denouement, Peter Schmeichel
(left) makes his way upfield, and Marcilo
Agro FC make sweet music from
Germany’s answer to Clive Tyldesley.

The inspiration
“We found this interview where
Hidetoshi explains clearly what football
means to him – that it’s the best thing
to communicate with people. Acoustic
football is the same for us.”

The inspiration
“I found this three-minute video and
started singing the subtitles. Only
afterwards, I understood they were the
words of the German commentator.”
The video
Their harmonies add yet more drama
to that famous footage – plus you can
hear our own Clive’
h
Clive’s commentary in the
background. Quite the
h aurall soundclash.
d l h.

The video
Psychedelic Japanese anime action,
with Nakata’s head superimposed
onto Mount Fuji. Trippy.
The lyric
“Hidetoshi Nakata, your simplicity,
you are my midfielder!”

DON’T CALL LEICESTER

A few lines from a British
newspaper column about the
Foxes helped create a ballad.
The inspiration
“Everything that I read can
become a song. Our guitarist
Marco read a piece in The
Guardian on a Sunday
morning; that evening

we played the song for the first time.
In Italy we’re very surprised about
Leicester – more so because Claudio
Ranieri [below] is the manager.”
The video
Three laid-back Italians strum guitars on
the floor while watching
a TV show about Leicester
City. As an added bonus,
there’s a clip of Claudio
spouting wisdom.
The lyric
““Don’t
on’t call Leicester
a fairytale, you will miss
what they are doooo-ing.”

The lyric
h box,
b
“Another situation, in the
Schmeeeee h l ”
look at Schmeeeeei-chel!”

17 MINUTI
DI DIEGO CAPEL

A protest song. Marcilo
Mar
Agro mock Genoa’s
signing of Spanish
winger Diego Capel
m
– substituted 17 minutes
into his debut – by singing
En
Genoa president Enrico
h
Preziosi’s quotes at the
Spaniard’s unveiling.

The inspiration
“I’m a Genoa fan. When we signed
Capel, I saw how absurd Preziosi’s words
were, so I just started singing them.”
The video
The Agro trio warble as the game plays
on TV, winding down as Diego’s replaced.
The lyric
“He could go to Saudi Arabia and
earn much more; instead, he chose to
come to Genoa.”

PAOLO DI CANIO

Paolo ((below)) invites the boys onto his
ic version of
TV show – cue an operatic
a repetitive Upton Park favourite.
i
i i n
The inspiration
f
ires simplicity.
“Acoustic football
requires
f for Paolo.
This is a personal gift
ful chant.”
This is a beautiful
i o
The video
h croon over
ver Di Canio’s
They
l unchallenged
suspiciously
ff in Mark Noble’s
solo effort
Hammers testimonial.
ic
The lyric
l Di Canio, Paolo Di
“Paolo
aolo Di Canio...
Canio, Paolo
[
fade]”
[repeat
to fade

FourFourTwo.com
FourFourTwo.com
February
June 2016 35

Words Si Hawkins

HIDETOSHI

UPF ONT
UPFRONT

ASK A SILLY QUESTION
football matchess
i
p ctical
pranks and iimpra
sta , p
The former Newcastle midfielder talks pop stars

L e
tiion’ Le
i ect
Rob ‘One Dir
’s dad once
FFT’s
Nicely done. FFT
i arm off,
pretended to saw his
i
i a prosthetiic hand. Is this
using
too far??
i
i things
ttaking
in
l
classic
b l
an absolute
h
N
No, that’s
ff to him..
m
my book. Hats off
i Harry
with
i
Y
You share a birthday
h
k he
d you reckon
h do
l What
S
Styles.
i day?
g
gets up to on the big
has a great time. I’m
he h
II’m sure h
to
h
it quiet. I have
k
50 now, so I keep
booze,
h b
h the
l with
battles
p
pickk my b
wipes me out
hangover wi
b
because a h
ht,
bet Harry’s all right,
days. I b
ffor a ffew d
i
backk quite
bounce b
You can b
h. Y
th
though.
h you’re young.
kl when
q
quickly
If you hadn’t made iit ass a pro
i
ffootballer, would you have liked
i ?
i
tto be iin One Direction
W
Why not? It’s ffunny – you meet pop
stars who want to be ffootballers,
b
but a lot off ffootballers
be pop stars.
k to b
ld llike
w
would
a bit off
he
I guess there’s
h
daughter
a crossover. My d
don’t
dId
and
h
lloves them,
h
i h They’re
either.
h
d them
mi
mind
ccatchy. I’m no music ffan, but
i
Direction.
to One Di
l
hum along
I can h

Having
g made
ade the
t e halfhalf
a f-century,
y
d you reckon
k you’ll
ll live
i to 100?
00?
do
I’d be extremely surprised iff I make
h age. I’m too stressed!
d The
h
it to that
e made
d it to 90, but
b
Queen may h
have
f hasn’t she??
she’s got an easy life,
i League
Indeed. Now, iif a Premier
ll
d one extra
team was allowed
i
player but they were essentially
i citizen
ii
a bungling
– let’s say
i
i i – would it
i
Christopher
Biggins
k sense to deploy
d l them?
h ?
make
h k it’d
dd
h good.
d
I think
do more h
harm than
ld enjoy it, b
db
Biggins would
but h
he’d
be
r bb h And
d Newcastle
l h
rubbish.
have
h rubbish
bb h players
l
l d
enough
already.
h
l b
h
There
are so many celebrities
who
b ll but
b
think they can play fo
ffootball,
h d allll essentially
ll b
d
they’d
be a h
hindrance.
i i
i i –
How many Bigginses
– or ‘Biggi’
i
i take to beat
on the pitch
would it
id do you think?
i ? 50?
0?
Real Madrid,
h k 100 could
ld d
h d
Id
don’t think
do it. They’d
have the weight off numbers, but the
p
pros
would find a way to get some
goals ffrom range. And they’d all start
i iin each
h other’s
h
db
getting
way. It’d
be
f to watch, but it couldn’t be done..
fun

F i enough. Jamie
Fair
i Redknapp
rrecently
l h
hung up on
n FFT during
i
Ask A Silly
i Question
i after we asked
w
whether he’d ever gone red after
f
a nap. Do you think
i he’s taking
i
life
i a bit
it too seriously
i
?
H h my God!
Hah,
d I went very red
d in
B
Barbados
after
f a nap once. You’ve
come from
f
Newcastle, you’ve had
a few
f drinks,
r k you stay out in the
h sun
too long
l g – I’ve never learned.
l
d.
Which
i member off the great
1
1995-96
Newcastle side
i would
f
fare
best living
i i in
i the wild?
i
David
d Batty. He was a strange man
and
d a hard
h d little
l l b*****d.
b*****d He was great
f when he was with the team, but
fun
h didn’t
he
d d really
ll socialise.
l
I can see him
h
covered
d in mud,
d taking
k
d
down
b
bears.
He’d
d survive
e out there,
h e, no problem.
bl
Finally,
i
when was the last time
i
you did
i a vocal impressio
i
i n off
a machine
i gun??
When
h I was about
b
12. I’ve not had
h d
h need
the
d to do
d it
i recently.
l .
A shame.
h e. Thanks for
f chatting!
i !
No problem.
bl .

umbers,
n
e
h
t
e
v
a
h
’d
“They
but I don’t think 100 Christopher d”
at Real Madri
e
b
ld
u
o
w
s
e
s
in
g
Big

Interview Nick Moore
e

on
i
i iinterview
i this
Hii Rob. We’re doing
i anyone try to
i Fools’ Day. Did
April
i g?
i morning?
u this
i you
h
hoodwink
d d rang up
my dad
b l
ld you believe,
Would
and asked iff I would help to
e
earlier
h
h
bl I thought
k table.
h snooker
l his
d
dismantle
b it wasn’t. It
but
d
h was a wind-up,
that
m i e,
’ a massive,
d It’s
us most off the day.
t
took
on it..
l
h slates
with
h
thing
h
bl d heavy
bloody
i ?
So no actual pranking?
b Aprill
k but
d a prank,
mind
d
No. I don’t
day to try
l Day is an amateur d
Fools’
got
f
one. Me and John Beresford
h a great Noell
with
h
l Shearer
Alan
H
ha’ once. He
‘
l ‘Gotcha’
d
d
Edmonds-style
ld
b d would
h nobody
d that
l
h d claimed
had
h out..
h him
bl to catch
b able
ever be
ll…
Do tell…
f dinner, and got
We went out for
sister to start harassing
f
Beresford’s
f
s was asking for
At first she
l
Alan.
f him to speak to
autographs and for
h was
d he
and
h
h phone,
d d on the
h dad
her
i
coming
k
h kept
ld But she
d as gold.
good
d
l and
hi lap
i on his
i to sit
b k trying
back,
h
h r He swore at her,
ki s her.
o kiss
hi to
gett him
sh was
h t she
hi that
ld him
h we told
d then
and
h
ll she
li Eventually
h police.
l i the
i
involving
h Oscar’. He tookk
ll d out a ‘Gotcha
pulled
.
f
it all quite well, in fairness.

UPFRONT

LETTERS
RIP JOHAN

I was sad to hear of the death of Johan Cruyff, one of
the true giants of football. Not only was he one of the
world’s greatest players, he was probably the most
influential person in the history of the game.
Under his leadership for Ajax, Barcelona and the
Dutch national team, football was raised to a true
art form. He captured the game’s attacking spirit
at a time when defensive Italian catenaccio was
threatening to overwhelm the sport.
Diego Maradona and Pele may have been better
players, but Cruyff was more than just the supreme
player of his day – he was the mastermind behind
generations of great Dutch players. Frank Rijkaard,
Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Ronald Koeman
all benefitted from Cruyff’s coaching, and went on to
manage successful teams in their own right, and he
turned limited players such as Jan Wouters and Danny
Blind into world-beaters. He also laid the groundwork
for the 21st century’s outstanding team,
Pep Guardiola’s magnificent Barcelona.
Without Johan Cruyff, football would
not be synonymous with style, skill
and entertainment. Without his
influence, it might just have become
another soulless competitive sport.
Thank you, Johan.
Stephen McCarthy, Glasgow

PAYING THE
PENALTY FOR
EARLY ERRORS
I think there should be
a pre-match penalty shootout
in knockout games at the
European Championship and
the World Cup. Just think
about it for a minute.
First of all, the players
will be less nervous if
they step up before the

Johan Cruyff’s
influence spanned
decades and
countries

STAR LETTER
I really enjoyed the April 2016 edition
[FFT 262] – in particular, the big
interview with arguably the best
player this season: Dele Alli.
Throughout the article, you couldn’t
escape noticing the overriding passion
and drive he has to play football. Unlike
some players over the years, he’s clearly

38 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

game. Then, the team who lost the shootout would
want to do all they can to win the game, and we
would see a much more open game of football.
The team who won the penalty shootout would
also receive a confidence-booster that would inspire
them to go for a win anyway, even if some teams,
I’m sure, would seek to take the 0-0 draw and penalty
win. And, if the scoreline was 0-0 after 90 minutes,
the players of both teams would go into extra time
knowing exactly how they should play.
It is unlikely that this would ever happen, but if it did,
the game would be much different. Why not give it
a go? England might even be good at them.
‘Pele-Lucio Griffith’, Cambridge
It’s an interesting idea – but yes, some teams would
just win the shootout and then play for the draw.

GIVE US BACK OUR
ATMOSPHERE!
On each of the four occasions I have been to the
new Wembley Stadium, I’ve come away noticing
how the music played there gets louder and louder,
and put on more frequently.
Why can’t a team walk onto the pitch or lift a trophy
without the Star Wars theme blurting out or Black Eyed
Peas’ I Gotta Feeling being blasted to the rafters?
At Tottenham this season, they have added four
more promo videos as the players emerge, and
even play recorded Spurs chants. It almost feels
insulting. I notice other clubs have the same
issue. It seems a goal can’t be celebrated
without everybody in the ground hearing
The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army before
the ball has even hit the back of the net.
I’d like to know who thought it would be
a good idea to drown out the crowd. It’s
as if it is done on purpose. Every fan
around me has mentioned it at some
point, yet I never see it crop up in
magazines or TV debates. Why not?
Alex Skinner, via email

email [email protected]
mail FourFourTwo, Haymarket, Bridge House,
69 London Road, Twickenham, TW1 3SP
Twitter @FourFourTwo
Facebook FourFourTwo

NO BIG MAN =
NO PROBLEM
I recently watched
Barcelona play Atletico
Madrid and something
that Steve McManaman
(right) said has stuck
with me. Barcelona, the
best footballing side
of the past 10 years,
apparently need a big
man in the box.
We Brits are so stuck
in the ways of old, and
thinking our approach
is the best way to yield
results. This is absolute
garbage. What right does McManaman
have to say that Barcelona, the silky Barcelona, need
a big man to lump the ball up to in the box?!
To say that discredits the entire philosophy of one of
the biggest clubs in the world. Why is it that we Brits
have this big issue with possession football? Things
need to change, and it begins in the commentary box.
Louis Buxton, Angers, France

STOP GETTING CROSS
The stats suggest otherwise, as you mentioned in your
fine article [FFT 263], but nevertheless, crossing from the
wing has been used frequently by football’s top sides.
Arrigo Sacchi used a 4-4-2 with wide players getting
crosses in, and Pep Guardiola dominated Europe with
his wide players putting the ball into the box – not to
score directly, but for his Barcelona and Bayern Munich
side to win the second ball from a cross.
If it’s done well, crossing can overpower a defence.
It depends on the players you have – just look at the
Andy Carroll effect. Committing players forward makes
you vulnerable to counter-attacks if delivery of the
cross is poor, but the rewards far outweigh the risks.
Nick Jones, via email

Star letter & Spine Line prizes courtesy of

WIN!

not in it for
the money,
Adidas X
which is so
15.1 FG
refreshing.
I got the
same feeling
while watching England’s
recent 3-2 win against Germany.

The whole team looked
so energetic and
passionate, and
like they

actually wanted to play for England.
You could see the joy on their faces
when they won. It’s great to see.
If Roy Hodgson can get his team
selections correct, that victory shows
that the Three Lions could be on to
something big this summer.
Theo Kyriacou, Monikie, Scotland

UPFRONT

TWEETS
OF THE MONTH
THE REAL PLAYERS

Jonathan Walters

@JonWalters19
Apologies for no post op selfie. I had surgery
yesterday and all went well, delighted to
have moved up two cup sizes

Sam Winnall

Leicester poached
Jamie Vardy from
Fleetwood Town

“Why can’t a team lift a trophy without
I Gotta Feeling being blasted over the PA?”
Make football
less like 1984,
says one reader

WHAT PRICE PROGRESS?
After reading Dan Loveless’ letter [FFT 262] about the
use of technology during games, I thought I would
offer an alternative view. I actually love the game as it
is. I don’t want every decision scrutinised and sanitised
by a fifth official. Goal-line technology at the top level
is as far as it should go.
I love the debate that starts at the final whistle.
“That was never a penalty”. “He was miles offside”.
“Did you see [enter villain here] dive for that free-kick?”
“The referee had a nightmare”. You would lose all of
these conversations that are had on car journeys
home from the ground, and in pubs, building sites,
factories, offices and playgrounds around the world.
My son and I follow the same team and we always
have a good chat about the result. And if we’ve lost or
had a lucky decision go our way, then Monday morning
at work is always full of light-hearted banter for me
to face from my colleagues.
Do we really want to lose all of this? I don’t.
Jamie Anderson, Scarborough

VIVA THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE!
In April 2015 [FFT 250], I wrote in to suggest that
exporting our next generation of English stars would
be the solution to stagnating player development.
However, after reading your latest issue [FFT 263],

I have realised the answer has been right in front of us
the whole time – the Football League!
With Dele Alli and Jamie Vardy making headlines
domestically and beyond, let’s not forget that these
hidden gems honed their skills in England’s lower
footballing echelons.
Alli’s pulsating breakthrough campaign helped
MK Dons to win promotion from League One in
2014-15, and he is now repeating that consistency
for Spurs in one of the world’s biggest leagues.
The message for Premier League clubs is clear:
whether you’re loaning out your prospects or trying to
find the next Jamie Vardy, look no further than our
vastly talented Football League.
Charlie Holmes, Reading

SPINE LINE
WINNER
As a long-time reader of your magazine, I am
thrilled to say that I finally have the answer
to the Spine Line.
“Sheffield United, West Brom, West Brom, Wolves,
Newcastle, QPR, Cardiff, Blackpool/Crystal Palace,
Burnley, Bournemouth” [FFT 263] are the clubs
for whom the winners of the FourFourTwo
Football League Top 50 have played, with
Bournemouth’s Matt Ritchie winning it last season.
Unfortunately, as an Aston Villa fan, I will
probably have to experience a lot
he Football League for
more off the
the next few seasons.
Am I right?
Alex Hanna, Birmingham
Y u are indeed right, Alex,
You
about the Spine Line and
a
Trusox
about Villa. Your Trusox
are on the way to
cheer you up.

WIN!

@Winnall19
Big thanks to the readers of
@FourFourTwo for voting
me 13th best player in the
Football league and
3rd in League 1

David Meyler

@DavidMeyler7
Finally finished the @lego
Volkswagen Camper Van

Nacer Chadli (right)

@NChadli
It wasn’t me ;) @INGBelgique
#Ready4France

THE FAKE

James Milner

@BoringMilner
I asked Jurgen if he could be
an interpreter for me in a Dortm
y
Dortmund dry
cleaners. He laughed. I said it’s not funny,
I can’t understand them.

YOU @FOURFOURTWO

Joe Edwards

@joee1703
Love a face swap with
Xavi @FourFourTwo

Ben Tott

@Totty_88
No George Friend and Adam
Clayton and Daniel Ayala not
in the top 10 ? Are you
serious!? @FourFourTwo
#FLTop50 #boro #UTB
#yerjokinarnye

Matt Murphy

@Matt__Murphy
Last month I purchased my first copy of
@FourFourTwo. Can’t believe what I’ve
been missing out on. I’m a new avid fan
@FourFourTwoEd

twitter.com/FourFourTwo

Follow us for all the latest and funniest
tweets on the net… at no extra charge!

110% FOOTBALL QUIZ ANSWERS (p30-31): 1 They were all scored at one tournament (Euro 84) 2 Teddy Sheringham, Michael Carrick, Dimitar Berbatov, Fraizer Campbell, Louis Saha and Zeki Fryers 3 Celtic (36) 4 1995 5 El Molinon (Sporting Gijon)
6 Papa Bouba Diop 7 Bristol Rovers 8 Brentford and Southend United (three) 9 Preston North End (in 1888-89) 10 76 11 Liam Ridgewell 12 Greece (Panathinaikos in 1971), Belgium (Club Brugge in 1978) and Sweden (Malmo in 1979) 13 Darren Bent
14 Rainer Bonhof (for West Germany in 1972, 1976 and 1980) 15 Pablo Zabaleta, Edin Dzeko and Sergio Agueroooooooo 16 Borussia Monchengladbach (four) 17 Sylvain Wiltord (26 to Eric Cantona’s 20) 18 A) Justin Edinburgh; B) Kevin Muscat;
C) Dion Dublin; D) Lima 19 Malta 20 John Gregory, Martin O’Neill and Paul Lambert 21 Mainz 22 Anderlecht (four) 23 Lincoln City 24 Embrace 25 Paolo Maldini, Hernan Crespo (twice), Steven Gerrard, Vladimir Smicer and Xabi Alonso

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EURO
For only the second time in history, four of the five
nations from the British Isles have qualified for
a major tournament. It’s party time!

2016
SPECIAL

EURO
2016

ENGLAND
SPECIAL

“I FEEL I HAVE
A HUGE ROLE
TO PLAY THIS
SUMMER”
For the first time, Wayne Rooney is captain at a
major tournament. With a squad full of promising
rookies, England need him more than ever
Words Chris Flanagan Portraits Shamil Tanna

P

laying for England, I always feel that I’m
going to score goals. My record is there
for all to see.” Wayne Rooney utters
those words with certainty – there isn’t
even the merest hint of doubt in his voice. And
it really is a record: 109 caps, 51 goals.
In the 46 years since Sir Bobby Charlton
hammered home his final international goal in
the Colombian capital of Bogota, millions have
graced England’s football fields. Millions have
dreamed of wearing the Three Lions shirt.
Millions have dreamed of scoring in it.
But only one man has been able to surpass
Charlton’s long-elusive tally of 49 goals for
England – and that man is sitting in front of
FFT, in a studio in Manchester’s Trafford Park.
It’s eight months now since Rooney officially
became England’s standalone all-time record
goalscorer, firing home a penalty against
Switzerland with the same ferocity Charlton
employed from a little further out in Bogota
in 1970. Things move on quickly in football,
achievements swiftly forgotten, but it was
a moment that Rooney still holds dear.

“It was such a huge achievement – I’m very
proud,” he tells FFT. “At the time the feeling
was excitement, pride... and relief, more than
anything. Once I knew I was near to doing it,
I just wanted to do it and get it over with.
Thankfully it’s done now, and I’m looking to
kick on from here. I don’t know how many
goals I can get – I haven’t put any targets
down – but hopefully I can extend that record
with more goals in the next few years.”
Was it the proudest moment of his career?
That the answer isn’t an immediate ‘yes’ tells
you much about what really drives Rooney;
what has driven him to five Premier League
titles and one Champions League triumph
with Manchester United, and what will
drive him with England this summer.
“Obviously England is different to club
football,” he says. “Certainly that was the
proudest moment for me as an England player.
But the best moments you can have as
a player are when you win trophies with your
team-mates. That’s the target. That’s what
we’re all aiming for this summer. Any team

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 45

EURO
2016

ENGLAND
SPECIAL
trophy is far greater than any
individual honour – I think any
player would swap an individual record
for that. As a player, and certainly as
captain, the most important thing is your
team and being successful with them.”
Those chances of team success seemed to
increase significantly in Berlin a few weeks ago,
when England came from 2-0 down to beat
world champions Germany 3-2 with goals from
Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy and Eric Dier. Injury
meant Rooney couldn’t be involved that night.
“I watched it at home,” the 30-year-old says.
“As captain you want your team-mates to do
well and I think that win against Germany was
an important night for England. The best thing
I saw was the reaction from the players after
going 2-0 down, because in recent years we
might not have come back from that.
“But the lads showed great character and
determination. They swarmed Germany, and
Germany didn’t really have any answers to
that. I’m sure a lot of the players who played
that night will get confidence from it.”
It was a victory that had some wondering
who would make way when the fit-again
Rooney returns to the team for Euro 2016 –
and Roy Hodgson made it clear that Rooney
would be returning. “Wayne, I repeat, is our
captain,” the England manager said firmly.
“It doesn’t please me too much when it is
suggested that the moment he gets injured
and doesn’t play, he deserves to be jettisoned
in some way. He doesn’t deserve that.”
Did Hodgson speak to Rooney himself in
the days after Berlin, to deliver personally the
same message he had sent out to the press?
“Not about my position in the team, no,”
Rooney says. “My relationship with Roy is very
good and I don’t feel I need him to reiterate
my position in the team. That’s down to me
continuing doing what I’ve been doing for
England, and helping the team to win games.”
Rooney did plenty of that in qualifying.
England were the only country to reach
Euro 2016 with a 100 per cent record, winning
all 10 qualifiers. Despite missing two of those
games through injury, the Manchester United
man struck seven times – more than any
other England player. His tally matched those
of Gareth Bale and Kyle Lafferty, whose
goalscoring feats in qualifying made them
national heroes in Wales and Northern Ireland.
For Rooney, it was just another campaign.
“I don’t feel like I need to prove anything to
anyone,” he affirms. “If I continue with the
form that I’ve been in with England for recent
Euro 2004 made
an international
star of Rooney

46 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

years, I’ll be happy with that. My role for
England is scoring goals, as we were talking
about with the record. That’s what my job has
been since I first got into the England team,
and I don’t see any change in that.”
Was it a surprise to Rooney that there was
even a debate over his position, so soon after
he surpassed Bobby Charlton’s record?
“I think that’s down to other people to
talk about,” the striker says, after a brief
pause. “For us as a group of players, we know
what we’re aiming for – we know we’re in it
together. I’m sure there will be debates,
or whatever there is, outside of that,
among other people. But we’re all
together as a team, and that’s more
important than anything.”
This is an England team that was
the third-youngest in Europe during
qualifying; Rooney’s presence meant
they were marginally older than
Norway and Germany, who lost twice
in qualification and have found life
tougher since the international
retirements of Philipp Lahm and Miroslav
Klose. Lahm was the skipper and Klose
started upfront when Joachim Löw’s side
overcame Argentina 1-0 in extra time of
the World Cup final two years ago.
“I think that in all great teams there are
some experienced players,” Rooney says.
“You also need the young players in your team
for that bit of rawness; that bit of something
different; that bit of unpredictability which can
take teams by surprise. I think that as long as
we have a good mix in the team, this will be
a good thing for England.”

“I’VE USED A LOT OF WHAT I’VE
LEARNED OVER THE YEARS TO
HELP THE YOUNGER PLAYERS”

Beyond Rooney, there aren’t too many
experienced leaders in the current England
team. Goalkeeper Joe Hart would be one, but
he’s removed from the thick of the action by
the sheer nature of his position on the pitch.
England’s vice-captain is Gary Cahill, who has
only three appearances at a major tournament
to his name. Rooney has 17, spanning five
tournaments, stretching back to that dazzling
first appearance against France at Euro 2004.
This will be his first tournament as captain,
after Steven Gerrard retired from international
football following the 2014 World Cup.
“That will be a huge honour,” Rooney says.
“To captain your country is something I take
real pride in, and I really enjoy doing it. To
do it in a major tournament will mean a lot,
and it’s something I’m looking forward to, but
that also depends on the results, of course.
“I’ve used a lot of what I’ve learned over the
years to help the younger players. I try to pass
on my experiences and any advice that I feel
might benefit the players. I’m a one-on-one
person, really. If I feel someone needs their
arm around them, or that I need to speak to
someone individually, then I do that. It really
depends on the situation: obviously there are
occasions when you have to speak to the
whole squad together, which I do in the hotel
sometimes, but in the main, and especially

“We’ve changed our playing style a bit since
the World Cup in Brazil, and it’s worked for us”
with a group of young players, I feel that it’s
better to do it one-on-one. I think the young
lads feel more comfortable with that.
“You can talk to players off the pitch but
I think it’s even more important that you talk
on the pitch. Communication is a massive
thing. You need to be vocal on the pitch in
terms of keeping everyone on their toes and
talking about which positions to be in.
“I feel that’s a huge role that I will have
to play over the summer.”
Many of his team-mates will be playing in
their first international tournament, but
Rooney has already seen enough to feel
enthused by the talent at England’s disposal.
“It’s an exciting squad,” he says. “Ross
Barkley, Dele Alli, Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy
are getting a lot of attention. Eric Dier has
come into the squad and done really well, and
Danny Drinkwater made his debut in the last
game. You’ve also got young lads with a bit
more experience – the likes of Danny Welbeck,
Daniel Sturridge, Raheem Sterling and Jordan
Henderson. There’s a great group of young
players there, and it’s great that we’ve got
a group who have almost grown up
together. That will only benefit us.
“We’ve got a lot of goals from
midfield and we’ve got strikers who
have come in and scored goals. It’s
great for England, and I’m sure
it’s exciting for the fans to watch
and try to predict how we’re going
to play – and who’s going to play.”
It’s an excitement that has gripped
Rooney’s own son, Kai – so much so,
he recently asked his dad for an
England shirt... with Vardy’s name on

Above Sealing the
England goal record
against the Swiss
Below “Well, at least
it was you who did it
and not Gary Lineker”

the back. Did the request prompt an awkward
chuckle or two in the Rooney household? “No,
I got it for him!” says Rooney Sr. “My son
wears quite a few different football kits. He’s
got different players’ names on the back of
different shirts. Obviously my son likes the way
that Vardy plays. I like the way he plays, too.”
The frontrunner to join Rooney upfront in
France, however, is Kane. The pair have started
together for England only twice so far but
Teddy Sheringham has backed the duo to
link up at the Euros, with Rooney just behind
Kane – a sort of Sheringham and Alan Shearer
de nos jours. Does Rooney see that withdrawn
striker’s role as his best position?
“That’s down to the manager,” he says.
“I’ve played in various positions for England
and for Manchester United, whether as
a striker or playing behind, or – for instance,
in my last game for England – on the right.
“The great thing about this team is that the
manager has options whether he wants to
play one up top or two up top, or whatever
he wants to do. That’s great, because it
means the opposition might not
know how we’re going to play.”

“ROY HODGSON HAS
DONE A FANTASTIC
JOB – HE GETS THE
TEAM GOING”

It remains to be seen how
long England’s young players
will stay as darlings of the media.
International tournaments have
a habit of shifting opinions, and
not always for the better. David
Beckham experienced it, and he

hasn’t been the only one. When Sven-Goran
Eriksson stepped down as manager after
the 2006 World Cup, the Swede departed with
a message to the press: “Wayne Rooney is the
golden boy of English football – don’t kill him.”
Does Rooney have a similar wish regarding
this generation of emerging English talent?
“I think that’s down to what the media feel
like doing, to be honest,” says the Manchester
United man. “I don’t think it’s that important
for the players. The media have their role in
reporting on games, which is fair enough –
I think the players understand that. But the
important analysis from the games
comes from the manager and the
coaches. As players, we know what’s
important and who to listen to.”
England weren’t without their critics at
the World Cup two years ago, when, despite
some decent performances, they collected
one point from three games and were sent
home early. Back then, there was media
debate about whether Hodgson was the right
man to lead the national team. Rooney,
though, is glad that the former Switzerland
and Liverpool boss has remained at the helm.
“I think he’s done a fantastic job,” he says.
“It was difficult for him and difficult for the
team after the World Cup, but he has shown
his character and he got the team going in
this qualifying campaign. I’m sure he’ll do
the same come the tournament.
“To go out at the group stage of the World
Cup was disappointing – we all know that. The
important thing was how we’d react, and we’ve
reacted in a positive way. There’s probably
been a bit of a change in the style of how
we’ve played since then, and it’s worked for us.
“Will the World Cup [performance] make us
more determined this time? Not really. When
you go into a World Cup you’re as determined
as you can be to do well. Unfortunately that
didn’t happen, but it wasn’t through a lack of
attitude from the players. We always go in
wanting to do well, and giving everything we
can to do that. It didn’t happen in 2014;
hopefully it can this time.”
So how far can this young England team go
in France? Can they win Euro 2016?
“It’s very difficult to win a tournament, and
you need a bit of luck as well,” Rooney says.
“We just need to take into the tournament
the form that we showed in the qualifying
campaign, and in some of our friendly
matches during and since qualifying. If we
can do that, then we’ll do well.
“It was well documented that some of our
qualifiers were games that we were expected
to win, but to win 10 on the run was great –
that hasn’t happened for a long time with
England, and the players took a lot of
confidence from that.
“We’ve got exciting times ahead of us,
whether that’s at this tournament or the next
World Cup in Russia. We’re building the base of
a very good team. Hopefully this summer can
be the start of exciting things for England.”
Wayne Rooney wears the new England home kit,
built for speed with revolutionary Nike Aeroswift
innovation. Visit nike.com for more information

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 47

EURO
2016

ENGLAND

“ I’VE WATCHED
CLIPS OF GAZZA
PLAYING AT EURO 96.
HE WAS UNBELIEVABLE”
SPECIAL

England’s squad
is full of exciting
youngsters – few
more exciting
than the Everton
p
playmaker,
who
has been busy
r
researching
i the
m he
man
e calls a
f
football
legend....
Interview Chris Flanagan
Portraits Shamil Tanna

You
Y
u helped England come from behind to
win 3-2 in Germany – how did that feel?
I was unbelievable. When Eric Dier scored
It
tthat
at header in the last few minutes, it felt like
w
’d won something. Even though it was
we’d
a friendly we can take a lot from it, like belief –
fo
ffor the last 20 minutes we outplayed the world
hampions, away. We’ve got young lads who
champions,
n be world-class
in the future, so playing
can
world
ffrom
m an early age and beating the world
hampions gives us a lot of hope.
champions
e hear you’ve been watching clips of
We
ul Gascoigne at Euro 96 – is that true?
Paul
II’ve
e watched clips of him playing against the
therlands and Scotland, because I like the
Netherlands
w
y he played.
way
play He was unbelievable in that
ttournament.
rnament. He was the complete player
player: he
d no fear, he made everything tick, he ran
had
w
h the ball, he tackled players, he created
with
hances. Against the Dutch, it was the all-round
chances
p
rformance. I want to get to the best level I
performance
n, and I’m focused on being the best I can be.
can,
be
I watch
atch other players to see what I can add to
my game, and I watch my games back as well.
Is itt an honour to be compared to Gazza?
Y , of course – it means a lot that people say
Yes,
t at. Gazza is a legend of English football
that.
cause of the type of player he was. He liked
because
b ng on the ball, he liked dribbling
dribbling, and he
being
scored some unbelievable goals – it’s similar
scor
t what I like to do. I don’t deliberately look to
to
pl y like anyone else
else, though; I play the way
play
f el I should play. Hopefully someone will be
I feel
mpared to me in the future!
compared
w much would you love to have a big
How
i pact in France this summer?
impact
It d be unbelievable. That’s what I’m aiming to
It’d
d It would be a dream to do really well there.
do.

doing when we get there. He told me last
season to think about getting more goals,
and this season I have scored more goals than
I’ve scored in my career up to now. I have
been doing more finishing every day at
training, trying to think like a striker more than
a midfielder. We have also talked together
about the defensive side of my game.

You’d made only three England appearances
as a sub before being named in the World
Cup squad. How different do things feel now?
I feel more important to the squad now, and
more confident when I go into England camps
because I’ve played over 20 games. I think I’ve
matured as a player since the World Cup: I have
added more goals and assists to my game and
I understand the defensive side of the game
more as well. International football is different
to Premier League football. It’s more tactical.
I have realised you need to keep possession of
the ball, and I understand that you’re playing
against quality opposition all of the time.
It has been suggested that you’re fighting
with Dele Alli for a place in the team. Do you
think you can play together, instead?
I definitely believe we can play together if
asked, in this tournament and in the future.
It’s up to Roy what he sees in each game:
whether he needs both of us, or one attacking
midfielder with a bit of balance. Dele’s done
really well. He is a great lad and has settled
into the squad easily. He scored a great goal
against France and that allowed him to go into
all of the other games with a lot more belief.

“I believe Dele and I can
play together at Euro 2016
and in the future as well”
What do you think you bring to the squad
that other players perhaps don’t?
I bring a no-fear approach of trying to create
something; trying to get a shot away. If we
are under the cosh in a game, then creating
something out of nothing and getting a goal,
or taking someone on and creating a chance,
can help build momentum for the team.
What is Roy Hodgson like as a manager?
He’s really good. He brings young players into
the squad – in the past, people had played
a lot of games before they got selected for the
first time. I hadn’t played that many games
when he called me up. He believed that
I was good enough to be in the squad,
so that gave me the confidence, and
you’ve seen that with Dele Alli, too.
He hadn’t played that many games
after coming into the Premier
League, but he came into the
England squad and the manager
has shown a lot of confidence
in him. It’s the same with Raheem
[Sterling] and John Stones. He puts
a lot of belief and trust in us younger
lads, and we go out and perform for
him. He helps us a lot on the training
pitch, too. He talks to us around the
place and gives us an understanding
of what he expects of us during the
internationals, so we know what we’re

Above Gazza at Euro
96: inspirational stuff
Above right We can
see the resemblence...
Below left Partners,
not competitors

Your Everton team-mate John Stones has
been tipped to become a future England
captain. Do you agree with that?
Yes. At a young age he’s a leader at club
level: he talks a lot and he leads by example.
He’s not your typical English defender; he’s
more of a ball-playing centre-half, and at
international level that’s what you need from
your central defenders, as well as being solid
at the back. He’s the type of player you’d
normally see in a Spanish side. He’s an
unbelievable player – he’ll probably play for
England for the next 10 or 15 years and
reach over 100 caps.
Raheem Sterling has told us that you’re the
worst table tennis player in the England
camp. Any response to that?
[Laughs] All I can say is he’s not great at FIFA!
I’ve three-nilled him loads of times – I don’t
think he’s beaten me yet! The young lads in
the squad are all close – myself, Stonesy,
Dele, Raheem, Luke Shaw and Eric Dier.
The funniest player in the squad? Danny
Welbeck. He’s always happy and messing
around. He’s a really funny man.
Are you a fan of French food?
I went to Paris recently and I liked the food
then, but they eat things like frogs’ legs, don’t
they?! I haven’t tried them...
Can England win Euro 2016?
We are capable of winning it, and we’ve got
the quality to win it, as we showed in the
qualifiers. We won every game, and we’ve
had a few friendlies against top nations and
played really well. But we know there’s still
room for improvement.
Ross Barkley wears England’s new
2016 home kit, built for speed with
revolutionary Nike Aeroswift innovation.
Visit nike.com for more information

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 49

EURO
2016

ENGLAND
SPECIAL

“HOPEFULLY
ONE DAY I’LL
BE A LEGEND
FOR MY CLUB
AND COUNTRY ”
In two years, Harry Kane has risen
from Spurs reserve to one of the most
prolific strikers in Europe. Now he is
ready to take Euro 2016 by storm...
Interview Chris Flanagan Portraits Shamil Tanna

What are your first memories of watching
England growing up as a child?
I remember Michael Owen’s goal against
Argentina. It was amazing – I watched it,
dreaming of doing that kind of thing one day.
That’s one of the earliest memories that sticks
out. I was very young at the time, but I’ve been
watching England with my brother and my
family for as long as I can remember, cheering
when we scored. I’ve always been a big fan.
Two years ago, when you were still trying to
break into the Spurs team, did you expect
to be going to this tournament?
It’s always been a goal of mine to get into
the England senior team and play at major
tournaments. It seemed quite a long way away
back then, but that’s why you work hard. That’s
what football’s about: you have to put in the
work to get the rewards. I’ve seen that over the
past 18 months or so. It’s really exciting now –
I’m looking forward to it. To be part of it will be
special, and I’m looking to do the best I can.
Is it incredible to think about how far you’ve
come since 2013, when you and Jamie Vardy
were unused substitutes for Leicester in a
2-0 Championship defeat at Barnsley?
Yes, time has gone so quickly for me since
then. It seems like it wasn’t too long ago that
I was sitting on that bench – and Jamie was

Who’s the king of the games room?
I’m not sure – I don’t really spend a lot of time
in the games room! If I do go down there I’ll
maybe play a bit of darts, but often I like to
watch box sets or films on my laptop.

there as well. I haven’t really spoken to him
about that so far, but we’ll probably have a sit
down in the summer and have a little talk
about it, and how much things have changed.
He’s done fantastically well this season – it
shows you how quickly football can change.
It’s about keeping on believing in yourself.
Myself and Jamie have proven that hard work
can pay off; that we can play at the top.
How much will the experience of playing
at the European Under-21 Championship in
the Czech Republic last summer help you?
That was a great experience for me, despite
the result – just to go there, witness the
environment and get into that tournament
mentality of being away in a hotel, with
matches every three or four days. I think that’s
important. I wanted to get that experience so
that if I was picked for Euro 2016, I could use it
to my advantage. You got little insights into
what it’s going to be like – the officials, the
hotel life. It’s all part of the tournament
experience. I wanted to get that and I did –
hopefully I can use that in this tournament.
Last season you were considered by many
to be a surprise package, for both club and
country. How have things changed for you
this season, now that there’s a lot of
expectation on your shoulders?
It’s been different. You’re going from one end
of the scale to the other – being a surprise last
year, with not many people knowing about
me, to this season when everyone knows me.
I’m probably getting marked tighter than
usual – double marked – and I have to deal
with that. But the top players always find
a way to carry on scoring and creating goals.
Expectation is always
massive for England at
tournaments. Do you
feel you’re well-placed
to handle that now?
Definitely. That’s part of
being a professional
footballer: you have to deal
with high-pressure situations.

Do you have anything set aside to watch
while you’re in France this summer?
Not yet! I’ve watched quite a few lately
– I’ve been racing through them. I’ve been
watching House of Cards. I’ll have to have
a good look and save one for the Euros!

Above Beginning the
fightback against
Germany in Berlin
Right “Whenever
I’ve trained or played
with Wayne, he has
been outstanding”
Below Pumped up for
the England-Wales
‘derby’ on June 16

The whole country is rooting for us to do well
and we understand that. There will always be
pressures playing for your country, especially
a big country like England. It’s about coping
with that as part of representing your country.
You haven’t played much with Wayne
Rooney so far, but do you feel you could
form an effective partnership?
Obviously those decisions are down to the
boss, but if called upon I’m sure we’ll work
well together. Wayne’s a fantastic player:
he’s our captain, our leader. Whenever
I’ve trained with him or played with him,
he has been outstanding.
How much will it help to go into the
tournament knowing you’ll have quite a few
Spurs team-mates with you in the squad?
It could help. We spend every day with
each other, so we know each other’s
habits when we go away with England.
If you’re in a hotel with them, you’re
used to being around them. We have
great togetherness with England.
Everyone gets on very well.

MAKING THE NEW ENGLAND KIT
What new technology
has been used in
creating the shirt?
These are the first
England kits to
incorporate Nike
Aeroswift technology.
There are two key
ingredients: a brand new
yarn and a brand new
knitting process. The
new yarn allows us to
deliver a lighter garment,
while the new knit

Can England win Euro 2016?
We’re a great young side and we’ve got a lot of
talent – we’ve just got to see where it takes us.
We’ve got a mixture in this squad of youth and
experience, which always helps. We have a lot
of young, energetic players who play in free
roles and can express themselves, and the
experienced players who have been there
and done it, have the tournament experience,
know what it’s going to be like and are there
to help. We are in a tough group but we’re
looking forward to it and are full of confidence.
You have a good record in derby games at
club level. Do you hope you’ll have the same
success for England against Wales?
Yes, hopefully I can take that into the game.
It’s a game that’s going to be hyped up and
talked about a lot until the day we play it.
We’re all really looking forward to it.
In the past there have been a number of
Tottenham players who have made an
impact at tournaments for England:
Gary Lineker, Teddy Sheringham and
Paul Gascoigne, to name a few. Do you
dream of having the same impact?
Definitely. They’re great players – legends for
club and country. That is something I want to
try to achieve. If I keep working hard, hopefully
one day I’ll be on that list as another player
who has done great things for my country.
Harry Kane wears the new England home kit,
built for speed with revolutionary Nike Aeroswift
innovation. Visit nike.com for more information

Scott Munson, Nike Football’s
Vice-President for Apparel, tells all

allows us to enhance
breathability where it is
needed most.
What was the thinking
behind the blue sleeves
and red socks?
We set out to integrate
red, white and blue, the
three colours that are
associated with English
football. The blue sleeves
on the home jersey
are produced by

cross-dyeing white with
the darker blue used
elsewhere in the kit, and
for the red socks we
looked back to the 1980s
– specifically England’s
win over Brazil at the
Maracana in 1984.
How did the players
react to the new kit
when they first saw it?
We consulted with
England players

throughout the design
process. Many members
of the team tested the
kits for us and provided
detailed input to help us
perfect the design. The
players’ reactions to the
final product have been
extremely positive. It has
been a two-year project
for us, so it was a special
moment when the team
took to the field in the
kit for the first time.

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 51

EURO
2016

ENGLAND
SPECIAL

LET’S MAKE
SURE THIS
DOESN’T
HAPPEN
AGAIN, YEAH?

It’s been 50 years
and 24 major
tournaments
since England’s
last success, and
we’ve identified
a lesson to learn
from each one of
them. Roy: fetch
your notepad
Words Louis Massarella

52 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

RETALIATE AT YOUR PERIL
1968 EUROS, ITALY

Alan Mullery earned England’s first ever red card
in their 1-0 semi-final defeat to Yugoslavia, but
it wouldn’t be the last time they had a player
sent off for lashing out at the opposition (David
Beckham in 1998, Wayne Rooney in 2006) or
the referee (Ray Wilkins in 1986). Silly boys.

IT AIN’T OVER ’TIL IT’S OVER
1970 WORLD CUP, MEXICO

With England leading their quarter-final 2-1,
Bobby Charlton giving Franz Beckenbauer the
runaround and the Fat Lady clearing her throat,
Alf Ramsey chose to give his ageing playmaker
a rest with 20 minutes to go, even though his
side had just conceded. Der Kaiser was freed
and West Germany won 3-2 in extra time. Oops.

DON’T GET LEFT BEHIND
1972 EUROS, BELGIUM

The game had moved on by the time England’s
next meeting with Beckenbauer & Co. rolled
around. A Gunter Netzer-inspired masterclass
at Wembley during qualifying – the 3-1 win is
regarded by many Germans as their greatest
ever performance – showed just how much.

DON’T MOTIVATE THE OPPOSITION
1974 WORLD CUP, WEST GERMANY

There’s no doubt that being called a ‘clown’
by Brian Clough inspired goalkeeper Jan
Tomaszewski’s heroics in 1973, as Poland
qualified for the finals instead of England after
holding on for a memorable draw at Wembley.

STICK WITH A SETTLED SIDE

last 16. Ten men or not, it was always going
to be a tough ask. Win your group and
chances are that your second-round draw
will be more favourable.

1976 EUROS, YUGOSLAVIA

Don Revie was single-minded at Leeds but
indecisive with England: for instance, Alan Ball
was made captain for six games in the spring
of 1975, then dropped without explanation,
never to play again. Don’t chop and change.

BE TACTICALLY FLEXIBLE

2000 EUROS, NETHERLANDS & BELGIUM

As Bobby Robson illustrated at Italia 90, you
often need different formations if you’re to go
deep into a tournament. England’s rigid 4-4-2
under Kevin Keegan was painfully exposed.

GOALS WIN GROUPS

1978 WORLD CUP, ARGENTINA

England missed out on the 1978 World Cup by
scoring three goals fewer than Italy. They were
playing catch-up after their first two qualifiers
against unfancied Finland, winning 4-1 away
but only 2-1 at home. Italy beat the Finns 3-0
and 6-1 – and there are your three extra goals.

BEWARE FATIGUE
1980 EUROS, ITALY

With a staggering 21 European Cup winners’
medals shared between a squad led by double
Ballon d’Or winner Kevin Keegan, England
were hotly fancied at Euro 80. But all that club
success had taken its toll, Keegan carrying
a knock and Trevor Francis ruled out while
a young, fit Bryan Robson was left at home.

PEAK AT THE RIGHT TIME
1982 WORLD CUP, SPAIN

A 3-1 win over France, 2-0 over Czechoslovakia,
1-0 over Kuwait… you see where this is going.
By the second group stage, Ron Greenwood’s
side had run out of inspiration – and goals.
goals
Two 0-0s and it was ‘adios’ to Spain 82.

DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE
1984 EUROS, FRANCE

IF YOU CAN’T STAND THE HEAT…

2002 WORLD CUP, SOUTH KOREA & JAPAN

Above Juan Sebastian
Veron points England
to the airport in ’98
Below Steve McClaren
is vilified, but dry
Clockwise from below
left Ramsey fluffs it
in 1970; Gazza misses
England’s best chance
in ’96; the Euro 2012
side hope Ashley Cole
practised penalties

DON’T LOSE YOUR OPENING GAME
1988 EUROS, WEST GERMANY

STRENGTH IN DEPTH IS CRUCIAL

PRACTISE PENALTIES

When Wayne Rooney hobbled off against the
hosts in the quarter-final, England’s hopes
went with him. Plan B must be better than
Darius Vassell. Sorry, Darius.

See also: 1996, 1998, 2004, 2006, 2012.

PUT SQUARE PEGS IN SQUARE HOLES

With games against the Dutch and the Soviet
Union to come (the two eventual finalists),
defeat to the Republic of Ireland proved fatal.

1990 WORLD CUP, ITALY

PICK IN-FORM PLAYERS
1992 EUROS, SWEDEN

How to avoid being called a turnip in Britain’s
biggest tabloid: don’t leave Ian Wright and
Chris Waddle at home after their best seasons.

DON’T STAR IN A DOCUMENTARY
1994 WORLD CUP, USA

That said, An Impossible Job was the best thing
to come out of the USA 94 qualifying campaign.

“England on easy street,” cried the Express ass
they were drawn with Luxembourg, Hungary,
Hung
Greece and Denmark. England didn’t qualify.
qua f .

TAKE YOUR CHANCES

BE PREPARED TO GO FOR BROKE

England’s most avoidable shootout defeat saw
opportunities wasted in normal and extra time.
If you don’t like penalties, don’t let it get to that.

1986 WORLD CUP, MEXICO

With key men out of form, banned or injured
injur d for
o
the do-or-die final group game,, Bobby Robson
Rob
made four changes and stumbed across his
h
best team, progressing to the last 16, then
the the
h
quarters.
Marado .
s. Lesson #2: nobble Diego Maradona.

...or, for that matter, the humidity (admittedly
less of a problem in France than in the Far East),
put more stress on fitness and acclimatisation.

1996 EUROS, ENGLAND

TOP YOUR GROUP

1998 WORLD CUP, FRANCE

A careless last-minute defeat to Romania in
Group G left England facing Argentina in the

2004 EUROS, PORTUGAL

2006 WORLD CUP, GERMANY

What England, with Rooney not fully fit, would
have done for a top playmaker – somebody like
Paul Scholes. If only he hadn’t retired already
because he’d been stuck out on the left wing.

DON’T PANIC

2008 EUROS, AUSTRIA & SWITZERLAND

For example, don’t give a young keeper – in
this case Scott Carson – his competitive debut
in a crucial qualifier just because your regular
No.1 has made a couple of mistakes. Oh, and if
somebody offers you an umbrella, don’t take it.

ENJOY YOURSELVES

2010 WORLD CUP, SOUTH AFRICA

England’s training base in South Africa, run like
a boot camp by Fabio Capello, left them cut off
from the outside world, bored and frankly sick
of the sight of each other – and their manager.
Amid such misery, team spirit fell apart, they
were humiliated by Germany in the second
round and went home without even being able
to say they saw some of the country.

BE FRIENDS WITH THE BALL
2012 EUROS, POLAND & UKRAINE

Losing on penalties was understandable this
time, because it’s a miracle England were able
to stand for the shootout after giving Italy 63
per cent of possession over 120 minutes. The
most common pass combination by England
was Joe Hart to Andy Carroll, who only came
on after an hour. If you can’t keep the ball, you
can’t expect to win. Unless you’re Greece.

NOBODY IS UNDROPPABLE – NOBODY
2014 WORLD CUP, BRAZIL

Among others, Steven Gerrard and Phil Jagielka
were poor in Brazil, while Adam Lallana was
bang in form yet given only two brief
cameos before England were out of the
tournament. Rooney was excellent in
qualifying for Euro 2016 and is still the team’s
captain, but if he’s not fully fit and firing, well…

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 53

EURO
2016

WALES
SPECIAL

CAN BALE WIN IT
FOR WALES?
Six years ago, the Dragons were ranked 112th in the world –
now they’ve got a dynamic young team aiming to make
history. They could possibly even go all the way. Here’s why...

1 THEY HAVE GARETH BALE…

Well, let’s start with the obvious. Wales’
frontline boasts one of the world’s best
players; a forward who makes opposition
defenders nervous, knowing they can’t switch
off for a second. Bale can create something
from nothing. Remember his ridiculous solo
goal in the 2014 Copa del Rey Final, when he
took a detour through Barcelona’s technical
area? He’d done the exact same thing for
Wales against Iceland six weeks earlier.
Moreover, he’s at the right age, loves playing
for his country and is in decent form: despite
Real Madrid’s inconsistent La Liga campaign,
the 26-year-old directly contributed to 26
goals in 20 games up to April 19. That’s
a better ratio than Cristiano Ronaldo. But
don’t tell Ronaldo that, for God’s sake.

THEY DON’T
RELY ON GARETH BALE
2 …BUT

Speaking of Ronaldo, Portugal basing their
entire game around him is one reason they’ve
not reached a final in the decade they have
had Europe’s best player. Doing that puts
pressure on your star – although it’s unlikely
Ronaldo feels daunted – and limits the team
tactically. Wales, though, don’t revolve around
Bale. While Chris Coleman recognises his star’s
suitability to the counter-attack, and has used
that against quality opposition, he prefers
a patient possession game. Wales register
creditable results without Bale because he
is essentially another cog in a well-oiled
machine. He just happens to be a big cog.
At the same time, Bale is most dangerous in
a free role. His finest qualifying performance
came when he and Aaron Ramsey created
goals for each other in the 3-0 win in Israel,
Bale drifting behind the striker. He is given
space by Hal Robson-Kanu’s speed, strength
and hard running, while reserve striker
Simon Church offers good movement
off the ball (and arguably little else).

played there only once since then, in 1982,
when they arc-de-triumphed 1-0 over a team
led by Michel Platini. It was in Toulouse, too,
where Wales face Russia in their final Euro 2016
group game. The stars are aligning… possibly.

6 THERE’S THAT DEFIANT DEFENCE
George Williams:
the man on
nobody’s lips

HAVE THE ELEMENT
OF SURPRISE
3 WALES

It’s a fair guess that Russia and Slovakia know
little about Fulham’s George Williams – to be
honest, not many in the England setup will,
either, unless they’ve been following the
20-year-old winger’s loan spell at Gillingham –
and being an unknown quantity is why he has
looked dangerous against teams as good as
the Netherlands, on debut, and Belgium. He
and the similarly off-radar Jonny Williams, 22,
are skilful dribblers who can win free-kicks in
dangerous areas, which is helpful when Wales
have you-know-who around to take them.

4 THEY’VE NOTHING TO FEAR

Nobody knows how Wales’ players will
handle tournament football, least of all
themselves. This is new territory, so there’s no
fear factor from past mistakes; in fact, most of
the squad is too young to remember the pain
of Wales narrowly missing out on USA 94.
Don’t underestimate the confidence of youth.

RECENT RECORD
FRANCE IS 100 PER CENT
5 INWALES’

You have to go back 63 years for Wales’ last
defeat in France. Admittedly they’ve
Of course, Aaron
Ramsey isn’t a bad
player to have, either...

Clean sheets win tournaments. Wales
don’t score many but then neither did
Greece at Euro 2004, winning each knockout
game 1-0, as did Spain at the 2010 World Cup.
Coleman’s European Championship debutants
are actually set up perfectly for tournament
football: they keep things tight and have
a match-winner at the other end. And he isn’t
a one-dimensional threat, either – of Bale’s
seven goals in qualifying, two were headers,
two free-kicks, two smart left-footed finishes
and one a right-footed poacher’s effort.
Meanwhile, the Ashley Williams-led defence
conceded only four goals, keeping two clean
sheets against a Belgium side that scored 24 in
their eight other games, including 17 at home.
Indeed, Belgium have drawn a blank in just five
of their 40 matches in the four years leading up
to Euro 2016; their opponents were France,
Colombia, Argentina, Wales and Wales again.
Former defender Coleman has established an
organised backline that repeatedly plays above
its natural level. If you want to know why Eden
Hazard has gone missing this season, he’s been
in Jazz Richards’ pocket since June last year.

7 THE EGOS HAVEN’T LANDED

Coleman doesn’t pick troublemakers, so
gone are the days of big names sniping behind
the manager’s back, or the star player turning
up for his first friendly nine years after his debut
(not that we have anyone specific in mind).
These guys have been playing together for
years; every international break is virtually
a family reunion, with less arguing over the
inheritance. The squad is young, its average
age 25.9, but very experienced. Chris Gunter is
now one of the 10 most capped players in
Welsh football history and is likely to be in the
top five by the end of 2016. He’s 26 years old.

8 ROCK GODS ARE ON THEIR SIDE

Words Huw Davies

Welsh music loves its sport – the Super
Furry Animals (below) are pausing their
summer tour to watch Euro 2016 – so Wales
weren’t lacking options for their tournament
anthem. If anything, FFT is disappointed it isn’t
a Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey duet backed
by Catatonia and a Welsh male voice choir.

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 55

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EURO
2016

WALES
SPECIAL
Instead it’s the next best thing. The Manic
Street Preachers are kings of the anthemic
chorus and they’re proper Wales supporters,
too, having promised in 1999 to pay a hefty
chunk of Terry Venables’ wages if the FAW
hired him as manager. The Manics also sung
“Bobby Gould Must Go” at Cardiff Castle when
he was in charge of the nation (read more
about that on p94). They even have a song
called Underdogs, for goodness’ sake.
Squad-featuring anthem Together Stronger,
named after the team motto, is released on
May 20, with proceeds going to the Princes
Gate Trust and Tenovus Cancer Care. No news
yet on whether the B-side will be called If You
Tolerate This James Chester Will Be Next.

COLEMAN IS
TACTICALLY FLEXIBLE
9 CHRIS

This team is comfortable switching systems
between and within games, playing everything
from 5-3-2 to 3-4-2-1 to 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 with
left-back Neil Taylor in the frontline. They’ve
options on the bench, too, which is a relatively
new phenomenon – Welsh squads usually
have as much depth as a Michael Bay flick.

BEN DAVIES
Gary Speed’s influence on Wales’
resurgence cannot be underestimated. More
than once, players and staff have attributed
part of this team’s success to their former
manager, who died in November 2011 aged 42.

TURN IT ON
AGAINST BIG TEAMS
11 WALES

Coleman’s men fare better against football’s
big guns than they do against defensive
minnows. They’re natural underdogs, and
should embrace the role. It’ll help that they
play England in Lens’ Stade Bollaert-Delelis,
which isn’t much bigger than the Cardiff City
Stadium that Wales often call home, while
the Three Lions are accustomed to playing in
front of 80,000-plus crowds at Wembley.

12 THEY’RE FIT AND THEY KNOW IT
Wales press to the final whistle and
suffer few injuries, whatever Arsene Wenger

Will no longer being underdogs change
how other teams look at Wales?
Yeah, I think people will definitely look at us
differently. It’s a big statement when you get
two results against the best team in the
world, Belgium, as we did in qualifying by
drawing away and winning at home. I’m
sure there are probably a few teams in the
tournament who don’t want to play us.
What are Wales’ aims for the tournament?
Do you have any particular targets?
Not really. We haven’t discussed it yet. We’ll
have objectives in our head of how well we
can do, but I think we have to take each
game as it comes and see how things go.
What did you make of the draw?
I think it was pretty inevitable that we would
get England [laughs]. We can’t wait to play
that game in Lens and it is going to be an
unbelievable day, for sure. These are the sort

of matches you want to be involved in –
matches that you are going to remember
for the rest of your life. Hopefully we can
make June 16 memorable for all the right
reasons as far as Wales are concerned.
Dele Alli recently told FourFourTwo that
you’re the most intelligent player at Spurs,
because you’re always reading books.
What sort of books do you read, and will
you be taking any with you to France?
[Laughs] I wouldn’t say I’m always reading!
I like sports biographies, but I’ll read a bit of
anything, really. I can pick up anything and
get into it. I’m not sure if I’ll take any books
to France; it depends if we’re sharing rooms.
If we are, I won’t get too much peace!

“Getting two
results against
the best team
in the world, as
we did, is a big
statement”
FourFourTwo.com June 2016 57

Interview James Maw

10 THEY’RE DOING IT FOR SPEEDO

How does it feel, knowing you’ve helped
Wales to qualify for their first ever Euros?
We said for a while before this campaign
that it was probably our best chance, with at
least two teams qualifying per group. We’re
a good bunch of players and have picked up
some good results. It was a bit strange to be
backing ourselves for a change, rather than
being underdogs, so hopefully we can do
ourselves justice at the tournament.

might think. Just look at Ashley Williams.
His debuts for Wales and League One
Swansea City came two weeks apart in the
spring of 2008. In the eight years since, he has
missed just nine league games for Swansea,
playing 90 minutes in virtually every other
match and dropped only for an occasional rest.

13 THIS IS OSIAN’S 11

Anglesey-born assistant manager
Osian Roberts has been the unsung driving
force behind Welsh football since 2007, when
he was made technical director with the team
ranked 117th in the world. Patrick Vieira and
Thierry Henry are among those to have
taken their coaching badges through
Roberts’ FAW scheme, with Henry saying:
“I could have had an easier path with the
French FA but I spoke to Osian Roberts
and knew that this was the right place.”

14 WHO NEEDS BALE ANYWAY?

Wales’ clutch of cult heroes includes
Robson-Kanu, of course, but also bearded
dancer Joe Ledley, the ever-present Gunter
and the ever-patient reserve keeper – and
part-time painter – Owain Fon Williams.
A small pocket of fans sing, to the tune of
Blowin’ In The Wind by Bob Dylan (right):

“Quick, somebody
take that jacket off
him and burn it”

“How many times must a man turn up before
you give him a game?” The answer’s 30. That’s
how many of Wales’ matchday squads he
made, over seven years, before getting 15
minutes against the Dutch last autumn aged
28. Arjen Robben ruined the party by scoring.

LUCK MAY FINALLY
BE A WALES SUPPORTER
15 LADY

Over the years, Wales have been thwarted by
referees, floodlights, the crossbar and a failed
Russian doping test going unpunished, but
their luck may be changing at last. Don’t forget:

Bale’s 81st-minute goal to beat Andorra
in their first qualifier came from a retaken
free-kick. If Wales had drawn that match,
their campaign may never have taken off.

THERE’S ALWAYS
COOKIE’S LUCKY JACKET
16 …AND

Since watching Wales lose 6-1 to Serbia in his
shirtsleeves back in September 2012, Coleman
has superstitiously worn his jacket for every
game, even in the roasting heat of Cyprus.
He hasn’t even washed it. On matchday he’s
a smelly, sweaty mess – but a lucky one.

JOE LEDLEY
How much have the Welsh supporters
contributed to your success?
They’ve been fantastic. The atmosphere in
that Belgium game was the best I’ve ever
played in. I used to go and watch Wales with
my parents when I was younger – I remember
us beating Italy – and the Millennium Stadium
was packed with 70,000 fans every time.
The atmosphere at games died down when
I came into the team, but now it’s getting
bigger and bigger again. It’s great to see.
How far can Wales go at Euro 2016?
We need to get out of the group – that’s the
main aim. You don’t want to get all the credit
in qualifying, but then go into the tournament
and not really perform. That would be a real
let-down. We’ve got a very tough group but
hopefully we’ll do ourselves proud.

58 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

Your beard has been voted the most
magnificent in all of Wales, beating Tom
Jones’ facial hair in a poll. A proud moment?
[Laughs] Yes, I’ll take that! It’s probably the
first time and the last time I’ll beat Tom Jones
in a vote! I think I look better with the beard –
I’ve got to give my barber credit for it.
What about an Abel Xavier beard in France?
No, I don’t think so! But the beard’s staying for
the tournament. The aim was to keep it until
we qualified – everyone in the camp said it was
good luck. We’ll see how lucky it is in France!

“We had mixed
emotions out in
Bosnia. We lost,
but it’s the best
defeat I’ve ever
been involved in”

Interview Chris Flanagan

For you, what were the most special
moments in the qualifying campaign?
Belgium, home and away. We drew 0-0 away,
and after that we believed in ourselves and
went from strength to strength. When we beat
them 1-0 in Cardiff, the whole place was
rocking. There were mixed emotions when we
qualified in Bosnia: we lost 2-0 but it’s probably
the best defeat I’ve ever been involved in!

EURO
2016

WALES
SPECIAL

“YES, I USED TO FOLLOW
ENGLAND – BUT MY
LOYALTIES AREN’T DIVIDED”
Wales’ Wolverhampton-born skipper, Ashley Williams, tells FFT that he’ll
have only one thing on his mind when the rival nations meet in Lens

What will it mean to you to be captaining
Wales at a major tournament?
Leading the team out in that first game of the
tournament we’ve longed for, the tournament
we’ve worked so hard to get to, will be the
proudest moment of my career. Wales have
had really good teams in the past with quality
players who haven’t had the chance we’ve got
in front of us – we don’t want to be on the first
plane home. We’re a good team and we
shouldn’t be fearful going into the tournament.
What did you think when you were drawn
in the same group as England?
As players, we had a feeling we’d draw them.
There’ll be a little bit more riding on that game
than just three points, but as professionals we
need to remember that it’s just a game. We
played England in the qualifying campaign for
Euro 2012 and lost both times, but we did OK.
We feel it will be a more even game now.

Interview Chris Flanagan

Having been born and raised in England, will
it be strange for you to play against them?
No, I don’t think it will be at all. It doesn’t feel
like my loyalties are divided. I’ve played for –
and lived in – Wales for eight years, and I’ve
been captain for a lot of that time. Yes, I used
to follow England games growing up, but
I don’t look out for them any more. I’m proud
of playing for Wales, and winning over the fans
was a big thing for me. That’s why I learned
to sing the anthem in Welsh, and even if
I’m injured, I’m at every game. I try to
show my commitment and what it
means to me to play for Wales.
You were playing for Stockport
when you were first called up.
Is it true John Toshack came to
watch you but left at half-time?
Yes! [Laughs] When I was at
Stockport, Brian Flynn was

Right Starting with
his debut, Williams
has played in 58 of
Wales’ last 66 games
Below “There’s no
special treatment” for
Bale, says his skipper

there’s no getting away from that. But he’s just
another one of the fellas – there’s no special
treatment at all. He just gets on with it. We’re
all a big group of mates now; when you’re
not on international duty you miss the fellas,
and we speak a lot on the phone.

watching Wayne Hennessey and he saw the
name Williams and followed it up. My dad’s
from Jamaica and that’s where Williams
comes from, but I was in fact eligible to play
for Wales. Peter Ward, the assistant manager
at Stockport, said to me: ‘You might actually
get a cap here’. John Toshack came to
watch me play in a match at Hereford
and he told me that he left at half-time
because it was such a crap game! I got
called into the squad a few weeks later,
and because of injuries I managed to
start the game. I’ve started virtually
every game since. I could never have
imagined this, coming from Stockport
in League Two. I’m on 58 caps now
and it’s just unbelievable.
As captain, do you ever have to
boss Gareth Bale around?
[Laughs] No, he’s such a good pro that
I don’t need to say anything to him,
ever. He’s been a massive part
of what we have achieved: he
scores or assists most
of the goals, and

What is Wales’ aim for the tournament?
Personally, I’d like to get out of the group and
see what draw we get. Sometimes you see
smaller sides progress through the tournament
– we’ve seen that before with a few teams.
Why can’t that be us this time?

EURO
2016

NORTHERN
IRELAND
SPECIAL

WHO ARE YOU
CALLING
UNDERDOGS?

Michael O’Neill has led Northern Ireland to their first ever European Championship,
making him a national hero already – but he and his team won’t settle for just turning up
Interview Richard Edwards Portrait Garrod Kirkwood

What has been your over-riding emotion
in the build-up to the tournament?
There’s obviously excitement, but also a bit of
nervousness and fear. But that’s good, because
it means you’re in the right frame of mind to
prepare. You can’t allow this wave of positivity
to detract from the main objective: making
sure we perform and give ourselves as much
chance as possible to progress from the group.
You’ll face Poland, Ukraine and Germany in
Group C. What’s your view of the draw?
It is a tough one. When I look at the other
groups, there are one or two we’d probably
have opted to be in rather than the one we
got. But we just have to deal with that, and
I believe we have played teams of the
standard of Poland and Ukraine in qualifying.
Is getting out of that group a realistic
possibility for Northern Ireland?
Four points, possibly even three, could be
enough to get us through. Poland and Ukraine
present us with a better opportunity to get
those points than Germany – you can’t argue
with that. Poland are a very strong team but
we don’t think it’s impossible to get something
from that game, and it’s the same with Ukraine.
Will Northern Ireland thrive in the role of
underdogs at Euro 2016?
We’ve raised expectations, but the main thing
is to continue to be competitive. We are in

a situation that none of us – not me as coach,
nor any of our players – have ever been
in before. This tournament is uncharted
territory, and I hope that will work in our
favour. There will be an enthusiasm and
a freshness about it all. Some of the players
with the bigger nations play in these
tournaments every two years, after playing
massive games for their clubs right up until
the end of May. You sometimes see those
bigger teams suffer a bit, which probably
comes down to mental fatigue as much as
anything else. For us, I think we will have
a freshness. And, as I’ve said to the players,
the expectation that will come is a good thing,
because for too long we’ve played without
any. We want to make sure we go there and
give a good account of ourselves and try
and find a way out of the group.

Below All smiles, but
O’Neill says positivity
won’t distract the
team from their goal

Are even you surprised at how far you
have managed to take Northern Ireland
in such a short space of time?
When I took on the job in 2012, the draw for
the World Cup 2014 qualifiers had already
been made, the fixtures had already been
decided and the friendlies had already been
organised. It wasn’t an ideal situation for me,
in all honesty. The players had just come off
a difficult campaign [the Euro 2012 qualifiers,
when Northern Ireland took nine points from
their 10 games and finished above only the
Faroe Islands in Group C], we had to track
down some new blood and we had to do it
quickly. Even when Euro 2016 qualifying came
around, I didn’t think we were in that great
a shape. The one thing we clung on to was
the option of the third-place spot, which
obviously offered us an additional opportunity
to reach the finals. As things turned out, we
far exceeded that by winning our group.
Can we expect to see Northern Ireland in
more major tournaments, moving forward?
When you’re a smaller football nation there
are always going to be peaks and troughs, and
getting yourself out of those troughs is always
going to be your biggest challenge. This group
have achieved something huge already,
and although we’re not going to qualify
continuously for tournaments, what we
want is for our younger players to feed
off the achievements of this team.

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 61

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EURO
2016

NORTHERN
IRELAND

CHRIS BAIRD

What was it like being banned, so
having to watch the match against
Greece that clinched qualification?
Pretty nervous – I’m not one for
watching games. I couldn’t play
because of my red card against
Hungary – what I call my seven-second
head loss [laughs]. It was two tackles
in seven seconds: I made one tackle,
span around, made another tackle and
that was it – the referee went: ‘Yellow,
yellow, red, get off!’ He’d played
advantage after the first one, but if
I’d known I had a yellow card for that,
I wouldn’t have made the second one!

How do you see your own role
at this summer’s tournament?
The nine games I played in qualifying
were as a defensive midfielder.
Whatever the manager decides,
I’ll respect, but of course I want to
play because I think I deserve it. I’ve
been playing throughout my career,
I have got 75 caps, and I played nine
games out of 10 in the qualifying
campaign and did really well.
You’re in the same group as
Germany at Euro 2016. How do
you view your chances against
such a formidable side?
They’re the world champions and we
have a lot of respect for them. But
we’ve got good fixtures to start with –
Poland and Ukraine – so if we can get
results from them, we might not even
need a result against Germany. If we
can keep doing the things we have
been doing over the last couple of
years, we can cause an upset against
at least a couple of these teams, and
maybe get through to the next round.
We’ve got nothing to lose.

GARETH McAULEY
So you’re going into Northern Ireland’s
first major tournament since 1986...
I think the gap will make it extra special.
There are generations of people who
haven’t seen us play at a tournament.
We’re going there to surprise people.
How has this team been so successful?
With Northern Ireland, it used to be that
you just turned up and ran your heart
out. Now, the manager has a plan for
every game and shows us ways we can
win. Once we could see that working, it
gave everyone the confidence we could
turn teams over. His preparation and
planning is incredible – probably the best
and most detailed that I’ve come across.
Are his team-talks as long as the epic
speech he gave at the BBC Sports
Personality of the Year awards?
[Laughs] It was brilliant for him to win
Coach of the Year. You saw his passion
there. The atmosphere in the arena in
Belfast was incredible – if they’d cut him
short there might have been problems!

You scored three times from defence
in qualifying. Do you fancy yourself
to get a goal at the tournament?
I would love to get one. I’ve got seven
goals at the minute and I need another
one to beat Gerry Taggart, who was
someone I watched when I was growing
up. I managed to get a couple during
qualifying, and again that’s down to the
work that Michael does on set-pieces.
We see it as a good way to get goals.
Why do you think Kyle Lafferty does
so well for Northern Ireland?
He’s got a special relationship with the
manager. Kyle can be boisterous and
unfocused sometimes – he’d probably
say that himself – but Michael has got
hold of him. The World Cup qualifier at
home to Portugal three years ago, when
Kyle came on and got sent off, was
a real low and I think it was a turning
point for him. He had to look at himself,
and he sat down with Michael and
sorted a lot of things out. Big Laffs has
been the talisman of our campaign.

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 63

Interviews Chris Flanagan

You’ve been playing for Northern
Ireland for 13 years, so how special
is it to finally reach a tournament?
We’ve been through tough times but it
looks like we’ve turned the corner and
left all that behind us. There have been
times when we’ve been pretty close
to a tournament, but we struggled to
back up a big win with another in the
next game. Our mentality has changed
now, though – we’re unbeaten in 10
games, which isn’t like us at all!

SPECIAL

EURO
2016

NORTHERN
IRELAND
SPECIAL

Jonny Evans’ European
experience will be vital
in France; he tells FFT
he’s feeling confident

What were the best moments in qualifying?
The Greece game, when we qualified. I got
a little tear in my hamstring six days before,
which was devastating personally, but the
lads showed incredible composure to win.
They were so relaxed, and that comes from
the manager. The Hungary game at home
was a big result; winning in the Faroes, too.
The expectation was on us to achieve, which
put us in a different position mentally.

Your debut was in a win over Spain – will
Euro 2016 be even more special than that?
Without a doubt. The Spain game was a bonus
– they were on a run and would win the World
Cup and European Championship. I was on
loan at Royal Antwerp and still to make my
Manchester United debut, so it was a big
moment, but this feels bigger. Excitement is
building among players and fans. We’ll go not
just to be part of it, but to properly compete.

You’ve been involved with the Northern
Ireland team for a long time. How does this
period compare to previous years?
When I first joined, we were getting some
good away results at big teams, but then
results started to dip. Even in Michael O’Neill’s
first year the results weren’t good, but he still
encouraged us to do the right things. He gave
us professionalism and belief, and we could see
that things were going in the right direction. He
examined our disciplinary record, for example.
We were giving away fewer fouls yet picking up
more bookings. He uses stats to work on how
we can improve and be more consistent.

What will it mean to you to represent
Northern Ireland at a major tournament?
I didn’t think it would be possible – none of us
did – to be in a major tournament, until a third
of the way through the campaign. We’d won
in Greece and Hungary, and the lads started
saying we could qualify. The winning start
helped, because past campaigns had been
killed by poor starts. It means so much.

What is Michael O’Neill like as a manager?
How has he achieved such success, and how
pleased were you when he recently agreed
a new long-term contact to stay on as boss?
He gives the players a lift. We know we’re
fortunate to have him and we know clubs are
looking at him. He keeps game plans simple but
effective. He’s a relaxed person and doesn’t get
carried away emotionally during matches.

How will Euro 2016 matches compare to
Champions League nights with Manchester
United? Just as big? Or even bigger, perhaps?
The expectation will be different. Northern
Ireland will be underdogs in all the games.
You very rarely got that with United, who
were usually favourites. Being underdogs
presents a different challenge. But we
are used to it, we relish it and
we’re not bad at it.

What do you think of the group you’re in?
How tough will it be to progress?
Germany and Poland were both in the
Republic of Ireland’s group in qualifying, and
we know a lot of their players and have spoken
to them. They will be tough games against
physically strong, organised and technically
excellent teams. The challenge will be to
impose ourselves against those opponents.
Do you almost hope that at the tournament
itself, people write you off again, so that
you can carry on proving them wrong?
I honestly believe we’ll achieve something;
that we can cause an upset. We want
people talking about us – talking
about how good Northern Ireland
are. We won our group so we
have the belief. We can get
through to the next stage
of the tournament.

Interview Andy Mitten

“ NONE OF
US THOUGHT
WE’D QUALIFY”

,
THE WORLD S FIRST
FOOTBALL TRANSFER
PREDICTOR
WE USE
SCIENCE
TO SORT THE
DEAD CERTS
FROM THE
LONG SHOTS

www.FOOTBALLWHISPERS.com

EURO
2016

REPUBLIC
OF IRELAND
SPECIAL

BEWARE

THE GROUP OF DEATH
Sweden, Belgium and Italy represent a brutal challenge –
but Ireland have a track record of performing underdog
heroics. Here’s how they can progress from Group E

Whatever shape Ireland adopt against
Sweden, Walters’ versatility will be crucial.
Equally industrious centrally or wide right,
their version of Dirk Kuyt was Ireland’s most
valuable player in qualifying, finishing as their
joint-top scorer with five goals.

BELGIUM
HEED HAZARD WARNING
AND DEFEND LIKE DRAGONS

Words Paul Kelly

SWEDEN
STOP IBRA, CREATE HISTORY
To make the flying start they need in Group E,
the Republic of Ireland must do something
they’ve never managed before: beat Sweden in
a competitive match. Two draws and four
defeats since 1949 is a dismal record. And the
latest loss, in Dublin three years ago, came
courtesy of one Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
But supporters of Martin O’Neill’s team
believe that, Ibra apart, Sweden are nothing
special. As former player and assistant
manager Liam Brady recently claimed: “Take
Ibrahimovic out of the equation and I don’t see
the Swedes as anything to write home about.”
In Paris, however, Sweden’s superstar – who
scored 11 goals in qualifying – will be hugely
motivated to make his mark on the finals.
Curb the captain’s influence and Ireland will
be half-way to smashing their Swedish jinx.
O’Neill is full of surprises – his squad only
learn who’s playing and in what system just
before kick-off – and events at Wembley 19
years ago may point the way to zapping
Zlatan. For Leicester City’s 1997 League Cup
Final clash with Middlesbrough, O’Neill used
Pontus Kaamark to man-mark Juninho out of
the 1-1 draw. Ireland’s boss knows it’s vital to
avoid defeat in the opening match at the Stade
de France, and a 4-2-3-1 formation would
allow Glenn Whelan or James McCarthy to
engage Ibrahimovic whenever he drops deep.
That shape would be a departure from the
diamond favoured by O’Neill for the 1-0 home
wins over Georgia and Germany last year. It
worked particularly well against the
Germans. Whelan was suspended, so
McCarthy dropped anchor behind Jeff
Hendrick (centre-right) and Robbie Brady
(centre-left), with Wes Hoolahan
(“Ireland’s David Silva,” according
to Didi Hamann) at the tip to assist
strikers Jon Walters and Daryl Murphy
(whose replacement, Shane Long, scored
within five minutes of joining the action).
Unlike his predecessor, Giovanni
Trapattoni, O’Neill is not wedded to one
system. After the diamond downed
Germany, he went 4-1-4-1 in Poland
and 4-2-3-1 for the play-off against
Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Above Zlatan or not,
Sweden have never
lost to Ireland in
a competitive fixture
Below Kevin De Bruyne
is even more of
a Hazard than Eden

An afternoon clash with Belgium in the heat
of Bordeaux is the most daunting task Ireland
could face for their second fixture. The Belgians’
golden generation is full of talent and
attacking menace. Great things are expected.
What’s more, Ireland have no competitive
wins against the Red Devils – only five draws
and two defeats.
But Wales took four points off the Belgians
in qualifying, keeping clean sheets in both
games, while Ireland snatched four points
from world champions Germany so we know
that O’Neill’s men carry no sense of inferiority
into meetings with superior forces.
When it comes to accentuating the positive,
O’Neill and Roy Keane will remind their players
that, like Ireland this year, Greece were among
the fourth seeds in 2004. And after reaching
the knockout stages, the Greeks beat three
Pot 1 teams – the Czech Republic, holders
France and hosts Portugal – to record the
biggest upset triumph in Euros history.
Still, the Irish defence will be severely tested
by Belgium’s possession-based play. Switching
easily from 4-3-3 to a diamond and 4-2-3-1,
Marc Wilmots’ charges averaged 62 per cent
ball retention during the qualifiers.
Whether cutting in from the left or playing
at the point of a diamond, Eden Hazard poses
a threat with his creativity and sharp finishing.
In qualifying, he scored five goals and set up
one more. Kevin De Bruyne was even more
productive, with five goals and three assists.
Non-stop concentration and covering will
be key to the Boys in Green holding Belgium at
bay. West Ham benchwarmer Darren
Randolph has performed impressively
between the sticks since replacing the injured
Shay Given against Germany in Dublin.
Seamus Coleman, regarded by O’Neill as one
the best full-backs in Europe, adds pace and
energy to Ireland’s attacking play when he
overlaps down the right. In central
defence, where suspension and
injury obliged O’Neill to field four
different partnerships in qualifying,
John O’Shea and Ciaran Clark are
likely to be tasked with containing
Romelu Lukaku. The choice of
left-back depends on who plays in
midfield: when both Whelan and
McCarthy start, Brady usually drops in,
but he’s prone to error. Stephen Ward
is sounder defensively, and Brady
performs better in midfield.
Wales beat Belgium 1-0 in Cardiff
with 39 per cent possession,
blocking 12 of Belgium’s 21
attempts on goal. Ireland
need similar heroics.

ITALY
KEEP THE BALL TO BRIDGE THE GAP
First, the good news. Italy’s scorers against
Ireland at Euro 2012 four years ago, Antonio
Cassano and Mario Balotelli, aren’t expected
to make Antonio Conte’s squad this time.
And nine days before tackling Ireland in Lille,
Italy will face Belgium, who beat them 3-1 in
November. And the Italians have won just
once in five friendlies since qualifying. And
veteran Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini has
been hampered by a series of injuries this year.
And Chelsea-bound Conte recently lamented:
“The number of Italian players I can call up
from Serie A has been halved in 10 years.”
So there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful.
But Ireland face a huge technical challenge
against Italy, whether the Azzurri line up in
a 3-5-2, 3-4-3 or 4-3-3. Some of the names are
less familiar than those of Baresi and Baggio
(part of the team beaten by Ireland at USA 94),
but a spine of Gianluigi Buffon, Leonardo
Bonucci, Daniele De Rossi, Marco Verratti and
Claudio Marchisio is a useful starting point.
Throw in the talented Antonio Candreva and
Alessandro Florenzi, and it’s a decent unit.
To bridge the gulf in technique, Ireland must
make better use of possession than usual.
Losing the ball cheaply is fatal against a speedy
counter-attacking opponent. Hoolahan’s craft
is the best hope of Irish continuity, as he
proved at Craven Cottage two years ago when
O’Neill’s canny setup secured a draw against
an Italian side bound for the World Cup.
However, Hoolahan is turning 34 and finds it
hard to play top-level matches in quick
succession. Aiden McGeady could fill the No.10
role at some point against Italy, having scored
the Republic’s last-minute winner in their
opening qualifier against Georgia in Tbilisi with
a superb turn and finish from a central position.
Late goals and smart switches were a key
feature of Ireland’s qualifying campaign, in
fact. Tactical and personnel changes made
by O’Neill earned his team no fewer than six
vital points on the road to France.
Long’s status as super-sub, which began
with a last-gasp equaliser against Poland in
Dublin, was cemented by his winner off the
bench against Germany. But now that the
Southampton striker seems to have nailed
down a starting spot, Ireland need some
new impact substitutes to add punch to
a goal-shy attack. Step forward, record
marksman Robbie Keane...

Candreva is
among Italy’s many
midfield technicians

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 67

EURO
2016

REPUBLIC
OF IRELAND
SPECIAL

“WE DON’T WANT LUKAKU AND
MIRALLAS BEATING US”
With the experience of victory over Germany, past FA Cup glory and inside info on the
Belgians to call upon, Everton’s James McCarthy fears no one – not even Roy Keane

What will it mean to you, representing the
Republic of Ireland at a major tournament?
It will be a dream come true. You grow up
watching these tournaments, and to be going
there is a huge achievement for every one
of us. Obviously, the memory that sticks out
from when I was a kid is watching Robbie
Keane score against Germany at the 2002
World Cup in Japan and South Korea. I was
a youngster at the time, and it’s those sort of
things that you dream about being a part of
in the future – playing in competitions like this.
You reached the play-offs from a group that
included Poland and world champions
Germany. What was the highlight?
That night we won against Germany at home.
Obviously, that was a really big deal. We had
defended well and didn’t give them many
opportunities to score. They only had a couple
of half-chances. And then Shane Long scored
the winner – and what a finish it was as well.
It was some night – definitely the best that
I have been involved with in the national
team. The atmosphere was epic all game.
How much confidence does the team
take from managing to beat the world
champions in a competitive qualifier?
We got a point over in Germany, too, which
was a good sign. We want to do as well as we
can in this competition. Of course we will be
underdogs in the group, as expected, but
everyone in the squad knows that we have to
go over there and achieve something.

Interview James Maw

You mention that you’ll be underdogs in
France – what was your reaction to being
drawn in the so-called Group of Death?
The teams we have in our group make for
a very tough task, but I am excited and I think
each and every member of the squad is, too.
It’s going to be a tough group but we aren’t
worrying, or overthinking it – we’ll go there
and give it our best shot.
You’ll face a couple of your Everton
team-mates when you play Belgium. Have
you spoken to them about it?
We said a couple of things when the
draw was made – there were a few

68 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

jokes between myself, Seamus [Coleman],
Rom [Romelu Lukaku] and Kev [Kevin Mirallas].
We were just winding each other up, but we
don’t want them getting one over on us when
we meet in Bordeaux.
What’s the atmosphere among the Ireland
squad like, going into the tournament?
It’s a good squad to be involved in. We have
a good group and everyone is really close.
Then you’ve got the manager [Martin O’Neill],
his assistant [Roy Keane] and his backroom
staff. It’s a chilled group away from training,
but when we train, we work hard.
Does Roy Keane ever relax, or is he always
as intense as he appears from the outside?
Yeah, he gets involved when we’re
having fun. Obviously, for us midfielders,
it’s good to learn from someone like Roy;
he’ll drill you before the game and in
training, which is great.
How much of a difference does it make
to know you will have thousands of Ireland
fans in France who have travelled there to
give you such great backing?
It makes a huge difference. All of our matches
will be on neutral ground, so it gives you that
extra boost seeing the Ireland supporters and
hearing the atmosphere before the game.
You won the FA Cup with Wigan Athletic
in 2013, defying the odds to beat
Manchester City 1-0 at Wembley. What one
thing do you need to succeed as underdogs?
You always need to believe that you can win.
We’ll go into the group as the underdogs, but
we need to believe that we can go to the Euros
and make a big impact on the tournament.

Rom, James and
Kev: BFFs no more

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EURO
2016

REPUBLIC
OF IRELAND

WES HOOLAHAN

What were the most memorable moments
for you during the qualifying campaign?
Winning the first game in Georgia in the last
minute, plus the two games against Germany,
with a late draw in Gelsenkirchen and a win at
home. And the play-off game in the fog in
Bosnia was crazy! You couldn’t see the other
end of the pitch, the back four or the keeper.
That was tough, but we got a great result.

What are your earliest memories of
watching the Republic of Ireland?
The 1990 World Cup in Italy, when we reached
the quarter-finals, and then Ray Houghton
scoring against the Italians four years later.
I was a mad Irish supporter and you dream of
scoring a goal at a tournament. The day before
a match, I like to visualise the game: what
positions I’m going to be in on the pitch, what
I would do if I get the ball, and dreaming of
scoring. Before the first match against Sweden
I will visualise going out there, making a good
impression and hopefully helping us win.
With 24 teams for the first time, the
tournament is quite convoluted, isn’t it?
Yes! The top two and four of the six third-best
teams go through, is that right? It’s a bit
complicated. But we won’t be thinking that
far ahead – we’ll just be concentrating on
Sweden, seeing if we can get a result, and
then moving on to Belgium and Italy. We’ll be
the underdogs but we came out of a hard
qualifying group and beat Germany, so they’ll
probably fear us more than we fear them.

SEAMUS COLEMAN
What does qualifying mean to you?
I was close to tears when Jonny Walters
scored the second goal against the Bosnians.
You realise what it means to the fans, and that
you’re going to represent your country at
a major tournament. It was something that
I’d always wanted as a kid, and everything
fell into place when Jonny scored that goal.
You just missed out on the final squad for
Euro 2012. Does that make it even more
special to be involved this time?
Definitely. I never really thought I’d make that
squad – my form wasn’t great – but you still
have that disappointment of getting the phone
call to say you’re not going. The tournament
was a bit difficult to watch, as I’d been in and
around the squad for a year beforehand but
I didn’t play in qualifying. This time it’s more
special because I’ve played a part in helping
the team get there. I’ve got a lot of games
under my belt now, for Ireland and for Everton
in the Premier League, so that can only help
me on the big occasion. I won’t be in awe of it.
When did you first dream of representing the
Republic of Ireland at a major tournament?
During the 2002 World Cup, when Robbie Keane
scored against Germany. If you ask anyone of

my age which goal they remember, it will
always be that one. Now I could be the one
on that pitch, with everyone back in Ireland
watching. That’s the mad bit:
bit you wish you
could split yourself in two for the summer, so
you could be back home watching it all, to get
hat feeling
for what it’s like, and also in France.
that
feel
FFrom
om watching Robbie’s goal back home in
K
llybegs to being his team-mate has been
Killybegs
a bit surreal. When he speaks to the players
and gives us a few words to spur us on, it gives
you goosebumps, because he’s that important.
What do you think of Group E? Is there
anyone you’re looking forward to facing?
m not one of those players who looks
I’m
fforward
rward to playing against someone. There’s
o point in that.
no
that If you don’t win the game,
it’ss not like you can say:
say “Oh well, at least
I played against him or him.”
him. I just want to
win. But obviously I know Romelu Lukaku and
arouane Fellaini in the Belgium team.
Marouane
team They’re
great lads – and I know what Lukaku can do.
He’s going to be very dangerous, so please God
we can keep him quiet,
quiet because he’s a top
goalscorer. It’s a hard group but you don’t
want to just enjoy the occasion – you want
o get out of the group. Anything other than
to
hat and I’ll be really disappointed.
that

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 71

Interview Chris Flanagan

Interview Chris Flanagan

You’ll be 34 by the time Ireland’s first game
at Euro 2016 comes around. Does that make
you appreciate this tournament more?
Yes, probably. If I’m included in the squad it
will be my first tournament, and the chance to
play for your country in a major tournament
doesn’t come around often. Going back 10
years I was playing in the League of Ireland,
which was brilliant for me, but playing in the
Euros was always a dream of mine. I don’t
know why I’ve reached my best form now.
Maybe it’s finding the right position, getting
game time and more experience. I’m able to
cope with the big games now. Playing in the
hole in a 4-4-1-1 or a 4-3-1-2 has suited me.

SPECIAL

EXTRA TIME

A BRIEF
HISTORY OF

EXTRA
TIME

With an extra round of knockout matches in this year’s European Championship, you can bet
a few games will have an additional half-hour. But is the format right for the modern game?
Words Andrew Murray Additional reporting Alec Fenn, Karel Haring, Samindra Kunti Illustrations Gary Neill

I 

f you watched England play Italy in
the Euro 2012 quarter-finals and
remained conscious throughout, then
give yourself a pat on the back. You
should also, however, consider using
your insomnia to fight crime, instead of sitting
on a sofa watching 120 minutes of goalless
tedium between two teams intent on settling
their differences from the penalty spot.
That evening, Roy Hodgson’s men managed
no shots and 176 fewer passes than their
opponents in the 30 minutes added on.
At least Mario Balotelli produced the odd
satellite-bothering effort, and Andrea Pirlo
a delicious Panenka penalty in the shootout.
Four years on, the England team that arrives
in France for Euro 2016 is thankfully much
changed, yet extra time’s stodgy trudge
towards an inexorable shootout is constant.
Ten of the last 15 World Cup or European
Championship matches to go to extra time
were ultimately decided from the spot.
The situation isn’t the exclusive preserve of
international tournaments, either. Of the last
12 European Cup or Champions League finals
to go the distance, 10 ended without so much
as a goal – cue penalties. A procession of
players shooting from 12 yards has replaced
actually trying to win a game of football.
What’s happened to extra time? Are players
even capable of playing it, having been wrung
for 90 minutes in an era of pressing? Are they
scared to lose, beset by golden goal’s hangover?

72 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

To find out, we sought the opinions of
players, managers, fans, journalists and
sports scientists. FourFourTwo has definitively
saved knockout tournament football. Kind of...
Adding minutes onto the end of a tied
football match, in order to determine
a winner, is nothing new. The FA had written
extra time, and how much of it to play, into its
rulebook as early as 1897. But it took time for
the innovation to spread around the world.
In the 1922 German championship final, for
instance, Hamburg and Nuremburg played 99
minutes of ‘next goal wins’ after drawing 2-2
at the end of 90 minutes. Nobody scored. The
game only ended when it got dark. The replay
seven weeks later was also abandoned, this
time at half-time in extra time when injuries
and red cards reduced Nuremburg to seven
players. Hamburg refused to accept the trophy.
Extra time has even caused diplomatic
incidents. At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Peru
beat Austria 4-2 in a pulsating contest, but
when fans invaded the pitch – one carrying
a revolver, allegedly – Austria filed a complaint.
Stuck in a German military parade, Peru missed
the hearing and were thrown out of the
tournament. The Peruvian Olympic Committee
removed all athletes from the Games in protest,
Colombia following suit in South American
solidarity, while stone-throwing Peruvians
marched the German consulate in Lima and
dockmen refused to load two German vessels.

Gradually, 30 minutes’ extra time became
the accepted norm, followed by a replay and
a coin toss if the two teams still couldn’t be
separated. Giacinto Facchetti correctly called
heads as Italy beat the Soviet Union in the
Euro 68 semi-finals, the only time a European
Championship or World Cup game has ever
been settled by flipping currency.
By 1970 the International Football Association
Board (IFAB), which ratifies changes to FIFA’s
laws of the games, had replaced the coin toss
with a penalty shootout after extra time.
Teething problems remained, however.
In the 1971-72 European Cup Winners’ Cup
second round, Willie Henderson’s extra-time
strike gave Rangers what should have been
a win on away goals against Sporting Lisbon,
with the score 6-6 on aggregate. Yet referee
Laurens van Ravens unfathomably ordered
a shootout, which Sporting won 3-0. “We sat
in the dressing room, heads down,” recalled
winger Willie Johnston. “Then the journalist
John Fairgrieve came in and told us we were
through.” Notebook in hand, manager Willie
Waddell marched to the nearest UEFA official.
The result was overturned, and Rangers went
on to win their first and only European trophy.
Extra time and penalties at international
tournaments began altogether better. At
Euro 76, Antonin Panenka unleashed the
scooped penalty on an unsuspecting football
world, while the see-sawing 3-3 draw between
West Germany and France in the 1982 World

EXTRA TIME

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 73

EXTRA TIME

Cup semi-finals
is generally
regarded as
the best
game in
tournament
history, not because
of maniacal keeper
Harald Schumacher’s
near-decapitation of
Les Bleus’ Patrick Battiston, but due
to an impossibly thrilling four-goal extra time
period in which Die Mannschaft recovered
from a 3-1 deficit to win on penalties.
By the early ’90s, however, the additional 30
minutes had become just an hors d’oeuvre for
the shootout’s main course, and changes were
afoot. In 1993, hoping to encourage attacking
play, FIFA approved the ‘golden goal’ rule to
apply in extra time – as opposed to ‘sudden
death’, which “has too negative a connotation”
– whereby the first team to score would win.
The first major tournament decided in this
way was Euro 96, as Czech keeper Petr Kouba
made a hash of Oliver Bierhoff’s 95th-minute
deflected shot to give Germany their third title.
“I know that it looked like a silly goal,” Kouba
tells FFT. Psychologically, that mistake has
stayed with him. “Afterwards, I was so down.
I didn’t want to do anything for seven days.

74 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

Even though we were welcomed as heroes
back in Prague, I had such pain inside. It will
stay with me for the rest of my life, no matter
how much I’ve tried to forget it. It’s all anyone
ever asks me. I suppose it was fate.”
For golden goal victors, though, the sense of
elation at victory could scarcely be topped.
Gerard Houllier led Liverpool to UEFA Cup
glory in 2001 with a 5-4 win in the final
against Alaves, thanks to a golden goal
(a golden own goal, in fact, courtesy of the
unfortunate Delfi Geli). Houllier tells FFT: “The
joy was greater, because it was more difficult.
I always thought we would score because
I thought we were the better team, but I still
think you should give a team the chance to
compete until the end of the game. You need
to play until the end of extra time. The golden
goal looked good, perhaps, but it was a bad
idea in terms of football and fair play.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Kouba agrees. “The
rule was unjust and cruel,” he says. “Usually
you know that even if you’re one goal down,
you still have a time for another attack. With
a golden goal, you daren’t take any risks.”
Therein lay the problem. The rule was meant
to increase the attacking play, but it did the
opposite. Teams were scared to attack because
of the risk of instant defeat. Also, an extra-time
period that was just getting interesting could
be cut abruptly short. Remember: if the
golden goal rule had been in force for that
1982 World Cup semi-final, France and not
West Germany would have reached the final.
Following a brief experiment with a ‘silver
goal’, where the game would end at half-time
in extra time if a team was leading, 2004
brought a return to a straight 30-minute
additional period. Freed from golden goal’s
psychological shackles, the Euro 2008
quarter-final in which Croatia and Turkey
traded extra-time goals in injury time provided
proof that its abolition was for the best.
Teams are now safe in the knowledge that
a guaranteed 30 minutes awaits in the event
of a draw. So, in an era of unparalleled access
to sports science and psychology, is it possible
for sides to prepare players for extra time?
“Not really, because it doesn’t happen very
often,” says Nick Grantham, a strength and
conditioning coach who has worked for
a number of Premier League clubs. “With the
right refuelling and rehydration, there’s no
reason why players can’t go on beyond 90
minutes with their standard training regime,
because they’re elite athletes. You just have to
accept that they’re right on the limit of their
physical capacity and weigh up the benefits of
either training specifically for extra time or
getting the job done in 90 minutes.”
What you can do is prepare the mind.
“In high-pressure situations such as extra
time, the athlete becomes overwhelmed with
emotion and fatigue,” explains Dr John
Sullivan, a sports psychologist who has worked
as a consultant for England and a handful of
Premier League clubs. “In a lot of sports, people
think you can’t improve that, but you can.
“I’ll have them run on a treadmill and cycle
at a high speed to get their heart rate up, and

EXTRA TIME

“In extra time, players become overwhelmed
with fatigue, so they make poorer decisions”
then make them solve a problem while they’re
fatigued. You increase the tension so it mimics
what the athlete will face out on the pitch.”
During a match, players’ minds can turn to
extra time before 90 minutes are even up.
“It comes into your mind with 10 minutes to
go,” says Kouba. “Players and coaches know
there are a lot of goals in the last few minutes,
so you have to avoid mistakes. Instead of
attempting the goalscoring passes you might
try in the first half, you tend to kick long balls
even though you concede possession easily.
It’s about risk management.
“In my playing days, I preferred to keep
a clean sheet in extra time, go to penalties and
hope for the best. Now, as a goalkeeping coach
with Czech national youth teams, I prefer that
we decide matches during extra time.”
That’s easier said than done, however. As
extreme fatigue sets in, not everyone can
replicate what they managed in normal time.
“You have to take into account what’s gone
on in the 90 minutes before,” says Grantham.
“Typically, it’s a really important game,
because there’s a need for a winner. You’ve
got two of the best teams playing each other,
and by the end of 90 minutes they have
already given everything to win the game.
“If you’re tired, you’ll make poorer decisions
– a badly-timed tackle that may lead to an
impact injury, either on you or the opponent.
Your muscles are more likely to break down.”
There’s much, then, for a manager to think
about at the start of extra time. Famously, after
seeing West German players lying down
at the break in play during the 1966
World Cup Final, Sir Alf Ramsey
told his team: “Look at them.
They’re finished. You’ve won it
once – now go and win it again.”
England did just that.
“What comes to my
mind,” explains Houllier,
“is that I hope that we
have enough energy
to perform and to
keep our discipline
within the game.

Above They think it’s
all over... but first,
another 30 minutes
Below Extra time
wreaks havoc on tired
limbs, as Stevie G
found at Euro 2012

“You have to find the right balance. Scoring
goals wins you games, but you have to weigh
that up with the fact that, by attacking, you
are losing your shape temporarily.”
Just as important to extra-time success
as physical preparation and in-game
management are recovery strategies, which
should begin before the 120 minutes are up.
“If you start your recovery at the end of
the extra time period, it’s already too late,”
explains Sullivan. “You can teach an athlete
to manage their energy and recover during
a match. Then they have an advantage,
which we call cognitive dominance.
“If we teach them how to immediately drop
their heart rate in two breaths, they become
more resilient, energised and stronger
throughout that game. Breathing properly
also helps in clearing the brain: rather than
beating themselves up on the pitch, it clears
their mind and stops the brain reacting
negatively to stress.”
In a knockout international tournament
such as the World Cup or the European
Championship, when it’s possible to play four
successive games from the last 16 that go to
extra time, a team’s physical recovery is vital.
Ice baths, high-protein foods and fluids with
added nutrients have become the norm.
“The day after, you can do a swimming pool
recovery session or a bit of light bike work,”
says Grantham. “It’s part of knockout football.
It all adds up – especially late kick-offs, where
you don’t finish until gone 10pm and you have
to travel and rest. It compounds the issues.
“If your opponents didn’t go to extra time,
you’re already at a slight disadvantage
because of the residual fatigue in
your body. Maybe stopping and
going straight to penalties is the
sensible thing to do.”
That’s what happens in the
Football League Trophy – just
90 minutes, then penalties –
and Grantham’s point is an
interesting one. How
fair is it for one team
to begin a game not

only having potentially had an extra few days’
rest, but also having not played extra time?
“For one match, players can cope,” says
Kouba. “But a top-level tournament played
at the end of a long season, full of pressure,
increases the demands. When you have to
play a second or even third period of extra
time in such a short period, there’s a bigger
threat of tiredness and injuries.”
It isn’t just the players who struggle with
extra time, either.
“Most newspaper journalists resent any game
that goes into extra time, really,” The Times’
Rory Smith tells FFT. “Our first edition goes at
10.30pm and extra time ruins that, so instead
we get everything else done and wait before
filing an intro. It’s not ideal – you can get really
disjointed match reports in first editions – but
it’s the only way of making it work.
“You know you’re the last thing in the paper,
that everything else is done, and that you’ll get
a fairly uncompromising bollocking if you don’t
have something ready instantaneously.”
So, what does the future hold for extra time?
It’s interesting to note that in the Copa America
and Copa Libertadores, only the final features
extra time, with other games that are level
after 90 minutes going straight to a shootout.
One possibility is to be trialled in this
summer’s Olympics, the Club World Cup and
the Under-20 Women’s World Cup: giving each
team the option of bringing on a fourth
substitute at the beginning of extra time.
“I think that’s a very sensible idea,” says
Grantham. “You can manage the game a bit
better, especially if you know you can bring
someone off who’s creaking a bit, but who you
left on to win the game in 90 minutes. It’s
dangerous to leave them on beyond that, but
you might already have used your three subs
trying to be attacking and win the game.”
Another idea offered is to copy ice hockey,
where each team loses a player in order to
create more space for attacking play.
“I can’t imagine that working in football,”
says former Czech keeper Kouba. “Who would
you replace? I’m a traditionalist and I think
extra time is a good system, but maybe it
should be shortened to 20 minutes.”
Houllier is of a similar opinion, laughing:
“If you find a better system, let me know.”
Well, Gerard, thanks for asking. Why not
replace the shootout with a coin toss?
We know what you’re thinking, but the
statistics bear us out.
Before the shootout’s introduction to World
Cup and European Championship matches still
level after extra time, 94 per cent of all ties were
finished in 120 minutes, the others going to
replays or, in one instance, a coin toss. Since the
advent of penalties (from Euro 76 and the 1978
World Cup), that figure has dropped sharply to
78 per cent, with only 42 per cent of games that
go to extra time decided inside 120 minutes.
Get rid of the carrot of penalties – effectively
the right of the weak – and teams will try to win
knockout games in extra time again, because
the coin toss alternative is far less attractive.
An end to the penalty shootout. Wouldn’t
every England supporter just love that?

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 75

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ENGLAND
SCOTLAND
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
WALES
NORTHERN IRELAND
vs

vs

vs

vs

There are few rivalries older than those between the five sides from the British Isles. With
four of them heading to France in June, FFT recounts their best and most bonkers clashes
Words Louis Massarella, Nick Moore, Andy Greeves, Paul Simpson, Paul Brown

TARTAN INVASION ENDS IN CROSSBAR CHALLENGE
ENGLAND 1-2 SCOTLAND, 1977
“It was the best day of my life,” says
Gordon McQueen of Scotland’s win.
Unfortunately for the big defender,
nobody remembers his towering header

that put Scotland 1-0 up, because the
game itself was overshadowed by
events after it. The pitch-invading
Tartan Army, who reportedly made up

some 70 per cent of the 100,000-strong
Wembley crowd (“We could smell the
whisky as we came out of the tunnel,”
says McQueen) ripped up the turf and,

most memorably, tore down the
goalposts. Bay City Rollers lookalike
Alex Torrance scaling and then snapping
the bar (below) remains an iconic image.

ENGLAND PEAK EARLY
IRELAND 0-13 ENGLAND, 1882
The Three Lions already had a decade of
international experience. The Irish novices
didn’t know what was about to hit them.
With 2,500 fans looking on, England won
the toss, electing to play with a strong
wind at their backs. They were 5-0 up at
half-time and completed the rout (still
a record for both sides, 134 years later)
in the second half with Howard Vaughton,
described in one report as having “dribbled
like an angel and shot like a demon”,
scoring five. He later became a silversmith
and made a new FA Cup after the original
was stolen in 1895.

“LET’S HAVE A LOOK FROM ANOTHER ANGLE…”
WALES 4-4 IRELAND, 1906
On April 2, 1906, film pioneers Mitchell &
Kenyon Co. turned up at The Racecourse
in Wrexham with a camera and captured
international football on celluloid for the
first time. The jittery, silent, black-and-white
film – which still survives and runs for two
minutes and 10 seconds – shows a crowd
of 6,000 enjoying the action. It ended 4-4:
Arthur W Green and Harold Sloan scored
three for Wales and Ireland respectively,
and in 2006 a plaque was erected in
Wrexham to mark the event’s centenary.

NORTHERN IRELAND’S FIRST IS THE HOME CHAMPIONSHIP’S LAST
WALES 1-1 NORTHERN IRELAND, 1984
In 1984 the British Home Championship was
scrapped, exactly 100 years after its formation
as the first proper international football
tournament. England and Scotland initiated
the abolition, withdrawing from the mooted
1985 edition due to busy fixture lists, so it’s
appropriate that Northern Ireland won it for

the first and last time. Sammy McIlroy and
Norman Whiteside engineered a 2-0 win over
Scotland at Windsor Park and then lost 1-0 to
England at Wembley, before Gerry Armstrong’s
goal earned them a 1-1 draw with Wales at
the Vetch. The IFA took possession of the
trophy permanently, which seems fair enough.

IRELAND UNITED FOR THE FINAL TIME
IRELAND 1-1 ENGLAND, 1919

Of all the home nations, England and
Ireland’s relationship has always been the
most complex and closely tied to politics.
The two outfits lined up in Belfast for
a football match in 1919 just as their
countries were lining up for the Irish War of
Independence. Ireland at that time still
included the North; on the next occasion
they’d meet, the Irish side’s options would
be reduced to picking men from just 21
of the 32 counties. England took an early
lead, but a James Ferris equaliser in the
second half earned the Irish a 1-1 draw.

78 June 2013 FourFourTwo.com

BATTLES OF BRITAIN & IRELAND

WALES LOSE TO THE WEATHER
ENGLAND 2-1 WALES, 1879

“ANYONE KNOW HOW TO CUT A TROPHY INTO FOUR?”
SCOTLAND 1-1 ENGLAND, 1956

The very first England-Wales international was
played in January 1879 in blizzard conditions
during one of the coldest winters on record.
Fewer than 100 fans braved the weather to
watch the match at the snowbound Oval.
England’s goalkeeper didn’t make it through
the storm, and was replaced by teenage
bystander Rupert Anderson, who usually
played as a forward for his club side. With
three inches of snow on the pitch, and play
constantly halted to dust off the ball, referee
Segar Bastard (real name) cut the match short
after an hour. Nevertheless, England’s 2-1
victory was allowed to stand in the official
record books, which the Welsh presumably
took with plenty of good grace and humour.

In the 1955-56 British Home Championship,
England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales
all won one match, drew one and lost one.
In the days of two points for a win – and
some 23 years before goal difference was
introduced – this left the quartet all on three
points and joint-champions, for the only time
in the competition’s 100-year-history.
Wales, graced by Ivor Allchurch, Cliff Jones
and John Charles, had enjoyed the perfect
start with a 2-1 victory over England, and even
after losing 2-0 to Scotland should probably
have claimed the title in the final game. They
went in front against Northern Ireland at
a fervent Ninian Park and then attacked
relentlessly, but a penalty save by the visitors’
keeper, Norman Uprichard, proved the turning
point. Jimmy Jones equalised to make it 1-1.
At Hampden Park three days later, keeper
Reg Matthews of third-tier Coventry City made
his England debut and almost fainted when
he heard the roar of 134,000 Scots. After
being given smelling salts, Matthews was
magnificent, and only beaten by Graham
Leggat’s mishit shot. Scotland were just 10
seconds from the title when the ball fell to
Johnny Haynes near Scotland’s goal. In his
own words, England’s pass master “hit it,
half-volley, as sweet as a nut” to give all
four countries a share of the spoils.

JAMES GIVES ENGLAND THE RUNAROUND
WALES 4-1 ENGLAND, 1980
Wales hadn’t defeated England at home
for 25 years and Ron Greenwood’s Three Lions
had just beaten reigning world champions
Argentina, so the Welsh public were pessimistic
when this match kicked off at Wrexham’s
Racecourse Ground on May 17, 1980. And yet,
under their unfortunately-named new
manager Mike England, Wales triumphed 4-1
thanks to strikes from Mickey Thomas, Ian
Walsh and Leighton James, plus an own goal
from Phil Thompson. Wales’ simple but
devastating tactical plan was to give James
the ball and let him run at England’s central
defender Larry Lloyd, who, in the words of the
hosts’ goalkeeper Dai Davies, “turned slower
than the Queen Mary”.

JACK SENDS
ENGLAND
PACKIE-ING
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND 1-0 ENGLAND, 1988

The scriptwriters were working overtime
for the Euro 88 group opener between
Bobby Robson’s England and the Republic
of Ireland in Stuttgart. Managed by an
England World Cup winner in their first ever
major tournament, Jack Charlton’s Boys in
Green took a sixth-minute lead against the
favourites through Ray Houghton’s looping
header. Then they defended for their lives,
goalkeeper Packie Bonner denying Gary
Lineker – later discovered to have been
suffering from hepatitis – several times
among a host of other saves. “England
were probably a bit unlucky,” admitted Big
Jack after the 1-0 win. The Republic’s army
of tearful, green-clad fans cared not a jot.

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 79

NORTH MEETS SOUTH
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND 0-0
NORTHERN IRELAND, 1978

SODDEN SASSENACHS SUCCUMB
TO SCOTTISH SORCERY
ENGLAND 1-5 SCOTLAND, 1928
As team talks go, Scotland skipper Jimmy
McMullan’s was quite simple: “Go to your
bed, put your head on your pillow and pray
for rain.” McMullan’s prayers were duly
answered, a downpour making for a heavy
Wembley pitch which would suit his
diminutive Scottish side. Their tallest
striker, 5ft 7in Alex Jackson, hit a hat-trick,
with Preston string-puller Alex James, later
a star for Arsenal, bagging the other two
as England were humbled 5-1, with their
cumbersome defence left wondering
which of Scotland’s fluid forward line to
mark. “We could have had 10,” grinned
James, as the ‘Wembley Wizards’ were
applauded off the pitch. Respect.

In 1953, FIFA decreed that neither the Irish
Football Association (IFA), founded in 1880,
nor the Football Association of Ireland (FAI),
formed in 1921, could call their international
team ‘Ireland’. As a result, the FAI team was
officially designated as the Republic of Ireland
while the IFA side became Northern Ireland.
The first match between the Republic of
Ireland and Northern Ireland since the 1921
partition of Ireland took place in Dublin
in September 1978. Over 46,000 spectators
packed into Lansdowne Road for the historic
meeting of two neighbouring sides, which
ultimately proved a rather dour encounter.
Goalkeepers Pat Jennings of Northern
Ireland and Mick Kearns of the Republic were
both on top form in the goalless draw that did
neither nation’s hopes of qualification for the
1980 European Championship much good.
England would end up topping Group One,
with Northern Ireland and the Republic of
Ireland both missing out on qualification,
finishing second and third respectively.

FROM TRIUMPH TO DESPAIR WITHIN MINUTES
WALES 1-1 SCOTLAND, 1985
The stakes couldn’t have been higher at
Ninian Park. If Wales won, they’d qualify for
the 1986 World Cup finals; anything less and
Scotland would go through. The former were
favourites, having won at Hampden Park earlier
in the campaign, while injury and suspension
had left the Scots under strength. But a late
penalty from Davie Cooper sent the Tartan
Army – who had seen goalkeeper Jim Leighton
replaced at half-time because of a contact
lens shortage – into dreamland. Or so they
thought. Moments before the final whistle,
manager Jock Stein collapsed and later died
from complications relating to heart disease.
Never has joy turned so quickly to tragedy.

BATTLES OF BRITAIN & IRELAND

RAMSEY’S SIDE TAKES SHAPE
ENGLAND 8-3 NORTHERN IRELAND, 1963

THE BIGGEST EVER HAMPDEN HOWL
SCOTLAND 3-1 ENGLAND, 1937

BESTIE THROWS IN THE… MUD
NORTHERN IRELAND 0-1 SCOTLAND, 1970

Walter Winterbottom resigned following
England’s quarter-final exit at the 1962 World
Cup, and in came Ipswich Town gaffer Alf
Ramsey with some bold new ideas and
a declaration that his side would “win the
World Cup” four years later. This dismantling
of a decent Northern Ireland team showed
this wasn’t just big talk: Spurs’ Jimmy Greaves
got four goals and Southampton’s Terry Paine
three. The Home Championship, meanwhile,
was shared three ways: England, Scotland and
Northern Ireland each clocked up four points.

A bumper crowd watched Scotland beat
England in the first all-ticket international.
The official attendance, given after the game,
of 149,407 (some later sources say 149,547)
was a world record at the time and remains
a British and European record today. The
clamorous noise produced by such an immense
crowd was labelled the ‘Hampden Howl’
and it terrified the visiting players. “It shook
me and my colleagues in the England team,”
said Stanley Matthews. “If ever a match was
won and lost by a roar, it was this one.”

April 18, 1970 was the last time Scotland beat
Northern Ireland in Belfast – and the first time
George Best was sent off. At a rainy, muddy
Windsor Park, John O’Hare scored the only
goal but his abiding memory is that, “George
was in a bad mood all game, getting wound up
at the least wee thing.” After English referee
Eric Jennings got on his wrong side one time
too many, a disgusted Best hurled a lump of
mud at him. If anything, the dismissal seemed
to cheer the genius up – after the match he
happily signed autographs for adoring fans.

SCOTLAND’S
PAINFUL DATE
WITH THE DE
ST
DENTIST
SCOTLAND 0-2 ENGLAND, 1996

The much-hyped Euro 96 clash
clas between
England and Scotland – a game
gam that
h
kickstarted
sum
f
tarted a memorable summer
for
the hosts, following a drab 1-1 draw
initi ll on
with Switzerland – turned initially
J
the half-time introduction of Jamie
add bite
Redknapp. The midfielder added
starti a
to Terry Venables’ team, starting
h
move which ended with Alan Shearer
cross But
heading in Gary Neville’s cross.
sh ld
Scotland held their own and should
minute left,
f
have equalised with 15 minutes
only for David Seaman to save Gary
l
McAllister’s penalty. Seconds later,
Paul Gascoigne scored that goal,
go l
prompting that dentist’s chair
celebration – unforgettable,
even if Scots wish it wasn’t.

FourFourTwo.com June 2013 81

BATTLES OF BRITAIN & IRELAND

THE BATTLE
FOR BRAZIL
SCOTLAND 0-1 ENGLAND, 1950

Having refused to play any part in the first
three World Cups, the British sides finally
engaged with FIFA in 1949, agreeing that
the Home Championship could double as
a World Cup 1950 qualifying group. The top
two would qualify, but a proud George
Graham, SFA chairman, declared that
Scotland would only go along if they won
the group. Both England and Scotland won
their first two games, setting up a decider
at Hampden in front of 134,000 supporters.
Chelsea’s Roy Bentley scored the only goal
of the game for England, who duly headed
out to Rio. Scotland captain George Young
begged the SFA to allow his side to attend
anyway, but they stubbornly refused.

MATCH ABANDONDED AFTER TERRACE TROUBLE
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND A-A ENGLAND, 1995

SLIM JIM PUTS SCOTLAND ON TOP OF THE WORLD
ENGLAND 2-3 SCOTLAND, 1967

“When you see a bunch of guys doing a Nazi
salute, you know it’s not going to be a normal
game.” Indeed, there was nothing friendly
about England’s exhibition match at
Lansdowne Road in 1995. These sickening
scenes, reported here by English photographer
Neil Fraser (who was knocked unconscious),
were at first accompanied by vile chanting, but
when David Kelly – one of eight England-born
players in the Ireland line-up – gave the hosts
the lead in the 18th minute, a full-blown riot
broke out, with missiles raining down from
English thugs in the upper tier. That the Irish
police decided not to act on British intelligence
warning of pre-planned violence only adds to
the shame of a match that was abandoned
after 27 minutes, never to be replayed.
England didn’t return to Dublin for 20 years.

Sadly for Scotland, ‘winner stays on’ was never
a rule given much credence by FIFA, so
their 3-2 win over world champions England
in 1967 saw the men from north of the border
crowned ‘unofficial world champions’
(by themselves). The star of the show was
undoubtedly Jim Baxter, whose performance
“could have been set to music”, according to
Alex Ferguson, the highlight of which was
a bout of showboating keepie-uppies. Although
huge underdogs, this was a stellar Scotland
line-up, with the Rangers genius joined by four
would-be Lisbon Lions and two other greats in
Denis Law, who opened the scoring, and Billy
Bremner, who did much of Baxter’s dirty work
against an England side boasting just one
change from the 1966 final (and Jimmy
Greaves hardly weakened them). Impressive.

RECORD DEFEAT
PROMPTS FRANK
ASSESSMENT
ENGLAND 9-3 SCOTLAND, 1961

According to popular myth, Scotland
goalkeeper Frank Haffey emigrated to
Australia after being blamed for his
nation’s humiliating 9-3 defeat in front
of more than 97,000 fans at Wembley.
He was at fault for three of England’s nine
goals, in the process giving rise to the
English stereotype of butter-fingered
Scottish stoppers. In fact, ‘Hapless Haffey’
was playing only because of injuries to
three other custodians, and his move away
from football – he became a cabaret singer
while Down Under – was precipitated by
a serious injury two years later. In truth,
Haffey was largely powerless to prevent
a rampant English side that included
Bobbys Robson, Charlton and Smith, plus
Johnny Haynes, Jimmy Armfield and
Jimmy Greaves, who scored a hat-trick.

Developing the
next generation of
Sport Scientists
and Coaches.

Sam Lawson, UCS Sport Science Graduate.
Now Director of Performance Analysis in the US.
Be bold. Be brave. Go far.

www.ucs.ac.uk/football

#UCSgofar

BATTLES OF BRITAIN & IRELAND

GROUNDS FOR DIVORCE
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND 1-0 WALES, 2007

EURO 2000 PLAY-OFF, PART 1
SCOTLAND 0-2 ENGLAND, 1999

With Lansdowne Road in the process of being
demolished to make way for the Aviva Stadium,
the Republic of Ireland played four of their six
home qualifying matches for Euro 2008 at
Croke Park. The qualifier with Wales was the
first-ever ‘soccer’ match to be played since the
venue was purchased by the Gaelic Athletic
Association (GAA) in 1908. In the run-up to the
March encounter, there had been great debate
in Ireland over the playing of a non-Gaelic
sport at the venue, and it was left to the
appropriately-named Stephen Ireland to
net the only goal in front of a crowd of 72,539.

Three years on from England’s famous
victory at Euro 96, the auld enemies met
again in a two-legged play-off, with a place
at the Euro 2000 finals at stake.
In just his eighth match as manager,
Kevin Keegan saw his England team race
into a two-goal lead by half-time thanks
to a brace from Paul Scholes. Scotland
responded with a Billy Dodds shot rattling
David Seaman’s crossbar. There were few
chances in the second period, meaning it
was advantage England ahead of the
Wembley meeting four days later.

EURO 2000 PLAY-OFF, PART 2
ENGLAND 0-1 SCOTLAND, 1999
Don Hutchinson’s 39th-minute header gave
Scotland hope of overturning their first-leg
deficit in front of 75,848 people at Wembley.
Craig Brown’s men were by far the better
side on the night, while England failed to
muster a shot on goal. David Seaman made
a magnificent save from Christian Dailly’s
header with 10 minutes to go, to prevent the
match going into extra-time. When the final
whistle went, the Three Lions claimed the
big prize with qualification for Euro 2000, but
the moral victory belonged to Scotland.

LINEKER LEAVES
HIS MARK
ENGLAND 1-1 REPUBLIC OF IRELAND, 1990

The opening Group F match at the 1990
World Cup saw England looking to gain
revenge for their defeat to the Republic
of Ireland at the European Championship
in Germany just two years earlier.
Gary Lineker gave Bobby Robson’s men
the perfect start on a rainy night, netting
after just eight minutes of play on the
usually sun-kissed island of Sardinia.
Lineker wore the No.10 shirt during the
tournament but is best remembered
for doing a No.2 on the pitch during
that game. Cue a host of ‘s**t’ comments
every time the Match of the Day presenter
dares to look at Twitter.
Kevin Sheedy’s equaliser 17 minutes
from time ensured the points were shared.
England would famously go on to reach
the semi-finals of the World Cup that
year, while the Republic were eventually
knocked out by hosts Italy in the quarters.

FourFourTwo.com June 2013 84

IRELAND WIN IN
FRONT OF ‘HOME’
CROWD IN ENGLAND

“WHO’S THE NO.7?”
WALES 2-3 NORTHERN IRELAND, 1964
There was a strange conclusion to the 1963-64
Home Championship, with England, Scotland
and Northern Ireland all sharing the trophy.
Each finished with four points – two points for
a win, remember – and the reason for that
was simple: everybody beat Wales.
As Wales were the only side not able to lift
the title going into the final round of fixtures,
a crowd of just 10,343 went to watch them
host Northern Ireland in Swansea. Those who
stayed away missed a great game, with Ron
Davies and Brian Godfrey scoring for the home
side and Martin Harvey, Sammy Wilson and
James McLaughlin responding for Norn Iron.
The visitors’ team selection caught the eye
that afternoon. Goalkeeper Pat Jennings
was handed the first of his 119 caps, while
El Beatle also made his international debut.
“I hadn’t seen him play before that game,”
recalled Jennings on the mercurial George
Best, “but it was obvious after seeing him in
action against Wales what a player he was.”
Absent Welsh supporters missed a treat.

THE HAND OF JOE
WALES 0-2 SCOTLAND, 1977

Crowd trouble in Cardiff during Wales’
match with Yugoslavia the previous year
meant the Dragons had to stage their
World Cup qualifier at home to Scotland
away from Ninian Park. England’s Anfield
was preferred to Wrexham, to bag more
money from a 50,000-plus crowd. The
turning point came on 78 minutes when
Dragons defender David Jones challenged
Joe Jordan to get on the end of Asa
Hartford’s long throw. French referee Robert
Wurtz awarded a penalty but TV replays
showed it was Jordan, not Jones, who had
handled in the box. Don Masson slotted the
resulting spot-kick past Dai Davies and
Kenny Dalglish made it 2-0 late on to
confirm Wales’ elimination and Scotland’s
place at the 1978 finals in Argentina.

85 June 2013 FourFourTwo.com

ENGLAND 0-2 REPUBLIC OF IRELAND, 1949

SANCH MAKES A MOCKERY OF SVEN’S TINKERING
NORTHERN IRELAND 1-0 ENGLAND, 2005
David Healy’s angled half-volley had both
Windsor Park and England’s 2006 World Cup
qualification hopes rocking. Northern Ireland’s
first victory against England since 1972 was
deserved, after Sven-Goran Eriksson’s decision
to play Wayne Rooney wide left and David
Beckham as a holding midfielder backfired.
It was made all the more remarkable by the
fact that Lawrie Sanchez’s team had lost 4-0
at Old Trafford less than six months earlier and
could no longer qualify. “I can’t really sum up
in words what this victory means to everyone,”
said captain Aaron Hughes. He didn’t need to.

As any Irishman will tell you, Hungary were
not the first foreign team to beat England
on home soil. Formerly the Irish Free State
following partition, Ireland declared itself
a Republic in 1948, and headed over to
Goodison Park a year later, where they
became the first team from outside the
UK to defeat England on their own patch.
Liverpool was already widely known as
the ‘real capital of Ireland’ thanks to its
influx of migrants, and the 51,487
spectators included many rooting for the
Republic, which was a surprise for an
England side containing Billy Wright and
Tom Finney. Central defender, striker and
occasional goalkeeper Con Martin blasted
the Irish into the lead with a penalty and,
five minutes from time, Everton’s Peter
Farrell lofted the ball over onrushing
gloveman Bert Williams to make it 2-0.
Ireland’s other hero was goalkeeper
Tommy Godwin. “There have been two
World Wars since Ireland last won,” gushed
the Irish Independent. “What a shock. Take
t piece ffrom an English paper: ‘Anybody
this
wh thinks
hi k Eire
i will
ill
who
d
f
defeat
England
d to have
h
hi
needs
his
b i tested’.”
d ”
brain

FOURFOURTWO

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I
P

P R O M OT I O N

TO
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T

W

e can’t all get out to France to watch this summer’s action in the flesh,
but that doesn’t mean missing out on the match day atmosphere.
Home football viewing is now better than ever: BenQ’s projectors will
bring the big screen experience to your living room, so there’s no longer any
need to crowd in front of a tiny telly squinting at minuscule stick men. But setting
up the perfect game requires more than just sorting the perfect viewing apparatus
– stick to the following five tips and you’ll be celebrating every goal as if you were in
the stands yourself…

TU

OUR
FOOT

RO
TUR

TOR
OD

G

Feel like you’re pitch-side without leaving the comfort of your
living room by switching on Football Picture Mode, available
on BenQ’s new W1110s and TH670s projectors. Via a winning
one-two pass of colour tuning and digital enhancement,
augmenting their crisp 1080p image quality, it makes skin
tones more realistic and grass look more lush and vivid.
Who needs to go all the way to France anyway?

L
A
A
O
O

O
O
OO

T

L

OUR

R

T

T T

T TOR T
T
FU
WO

Has the knowledge
to provide a constant
commentary on the match,
some of it even interesting.
ikely to say things like,
That was always going
to happen. He’s had
seven assists and 1
goals in his last five
appearances.

T

he’ll be deadpanning
through the match. n
e ample utterance
t’s not like ngland
to snatch defeat
from the jaws of
victory against
all conceivable
odds, is it.

FOOT
UDD T

D F
T
OUR O

Will say things like Why is
that one allowed to pick it
up? sn’t that handball? , so
you can guffaw at them
and put them right .

R

limitless supply of crisps,
pies or pi a if you’re feeling
e otic. omplemented by
themed tipples for the
match. For e ample, a
fine iebfraumilch
for ermany and
some cream soda for
ngland.

OT

T
T

U

OUR OU D

T

nsure you haven’t by
some horrific turn of fate
invited the big cheese, or
prepare to feel
awkward and
inhibited for the
entire match.

A
A
ALLLL
A

A
A

R
U T

ORT

T O T

Prepare for pontification, then recreate how the
game should have gone on the big screen with
your games console.

T

Football is a game of two halves, and so is watching it at home you
need great pictures, yes but don’t forget about sound. To truly get
the best atmosphere, flick on the BenQ W1110s’ Football ound
Mode, which tunes the speaker to boost commentary clarity. ou’ll
never miss lan hearer’s insightful observations again

W

S

FOR MORE DETAILS VISIT

96 YEARS
ALDERNEY

If you think that England fans have had it tough, think again. For the small Channel Island of
Words Paul Watson Photography Leon Csernohlavek

T

he scene is a beautiful, sunny evening on
the sleepy Channel Island of Alderney.
Framed by the deep blue of the ocean on
the horizon and the imposing Fort Albert
above, a group of footballers are running
drills under the watchful eye of their coach,

who stands, arms folded, surveying the scene.
“We could have done with a bit of snow,
maybe even a blizzard, but it doesn’t look like
we’re going to get one,” he smirks.
Alan Adamson is a dental technician by
trade but also Alderney’s coach for more than

a decade, and looking at the task facing his
side, he has every right to crave force majeure.
As they prepare for the visit of Guernsey in
48 hours’ time, the Ridunians are on a 96-year
losing streak in the Muratti Vase, the Channel
Islands’ annual football competition.

OF HURT

ALDERNEY

Alderney, the pain has lingered much longer, as they close in on a century of derby defeats
The Muratti is an annual fixture between
Jersey and Guernsey, but what many
people don’t realise is that there’s actually
a semi-final, too. Every year one of Jersey and
Guernsey must see off Alderney to book their
place in the final. The last – and only – time
Alderney upset the odds was in 1920, a result
attributed to the large number of servicemen
on the island after the First World War.
Since then, Alderney’s players have suffered
a bruising time at the hands of their bigger
neighbours. An 18-0 reverse in Jersey in 1994
still haunts those involved. Alderney’s team

were grounded for hours by fog and had to get
changed on the bus en route to the game.
After that shellacking the rules changed, so
Alderney always host one of Jersey or
Guernsey, rather than making the 20-minute
plane journey to one of the larger islands.
But there have also been a few near misses,
which Alderney’s football lovers remember with
great pride. In 2002, Jersey arrived under the
management of Chelsea legend Ron ‘Chopper’
Harris. The iconic hard man obviously expected
very little from the opposition, so when the
sides went in at half-time with the score 1-1,

his expletive-ridden team talk was heard by
everyone in the ground. Jersey eventually
grabbed a winner, but Alderney’s 2,000-odd
residents still recall Harris’ disgust with glee.
Last year, Jersey left with a 5-0 win.
Guernsey won 4-0 in 2014; in 2013 the
scoreline was a crushing 9-2 defeat for the
hosts; and before that, 7-0. The history books
are far from encouraging (they also record
10-0 defeats to Jersey in 1987 and 2000, and
a 12-0 hammering by Guernsey in 1978) and
the task for Alderney has become even more
fearsome in recent years. Guernsey FC have

ALDERNEY

entered the English League system and
currently play in its eighth tier, in the Ryman
South. While Guernsey play semi-professional
football week in, week out, Alderney haven’t
played a game of any kind in months.
Guernsey’s decision marks a schism in
Channel Islands football. While Jersey, now led
by former Aston Villa boss Brian Little, have
put their efforts into achieving international
recognition and following Gibraltar into UEFA,
Guernsey have opted to try to develop players
on the island by taking a place within the FA
pyramid. There’s still fierce debate about
which route will yield the best long-term gains.

FOOTBALL PROGRESS IS HAMPERED BY
LOW BIRTH RATES ON THE ISLAND

For Alderney, the bi-annual Island Games is
a major source of international competition,
and it provided a rare taste of success in 2003
when they triumphed 1-0 over Estonian island
Saaremaa. In Jersey last year they suffered
defeats to Jersey (6-0), the Isle of Man (7-0)
and the Western Isles, AKA the Outer Hebrides
(3-2). Alderney have also dabbled in non-FIFA
competitions organised by the Confederation
of Independent Football Associations (CONIFA)
and on their clubhouse wall is a pennant for
a clash against Sealand, an offshore fort
micronation who beat them 2-1 back in 2013
with The Royle Family actor and ringer Ralf
Little featuring for them in attack.
In an Indian restaurant on the eve of the
game, coach Adamson, Alderney FA President
James ‘Maxi’ Maxwell and long-standing fan
and sponsor Reg Atkins explain why hopes are
especially low for this year’s visit of Guernsey.

90 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

“There was this short spell when suddenly
loads of boys were born on the island,”
Adamson explains. “I had three boys, two of
them twins; Maxi had a son, Ross; and Pete had
Josh. [Pete Concanen used to play for Alderney;
Josh is now the team’s playmaker.] So we
wanted to give them a chance to play. Our lads
all know each other and it doesn’t matter if
they can’t train together, but there’s barely
anyone else on the island to make up a team.”
Birth rates in Alderney are low. In fact, last
year’s total of eight babies is being touted as
a high. Due to the lack of midwives on the
island, pregnant women generally fly to
Guernsey to give birth, chartering a plane
when the moment of labour arrives.
As well as the national team, Alderney’s
players have a club team, the Alderney
Nomads, who compete in the Guernsey
leagues. Last year they pulled off a remarkable
achievement, winning the Jackson League,
Guernsey’s second division. It was no small
feat given that just to enter they had to raise
the airfares to fly a team over for each game,
which can amount to around £7,000. The
trophy win meant a lot to the young squad
and even more to Adamson and Maxwell,
whose young sons were both on the field,
replicating a league win that their fathers had
achieved decades earlier.
“I’m not sure I’m allowed to say it was the
greatest night of my life, but it was,” Maxi
grins. “Our boys were taking that trophy back
to Alderney. It doesn’t get better than that.”
This season, however, the Nomads were
forced to pull out of the league after just one
game. Money wasn’t the issue – they simply

didn’t have enough players. Alderney’s
population is not just shrinking; it’s ageing, too.
The island’s schools have shrunk from having
around 450 pupils to nearer 100, and as
a result there’s not a lot of fresh talent to step
forward on the Muratti stage. When several
key players went abroad, the Nomads were
left without 11 men on a weekly basis.
For the Guernsey game, players came back
from the UK mainland and from Guernsey,
several of them paying over £200 for return
flights just for the chance to wear the colours.
Maxi’s son, Ross, had been travelling in
New Zealand and Thailand before being
called back for the game at 36 hours’ notice.
The rising number of injury problems meant
that his selection in the team had gone from
being unlikely to being essential.
“It’s a shame that you’re here this year,”
president Maxi sighs to FFT. “This is probably
the least chance we’ve had of winning in 20
years. Everyone’s injured. I may just have to
bring my boots at this rate!”
However, the underdog tag is one that
Alderney’s players wear with pride. In fact,
they seem to revel in it. Almost every game
in the team’s recent history seems to be
prefaced with a tale of post-match and often
pre-match drunkenness.
“At the Island Games in Jersey, we were
playing on an artificial pitch that had cost
something like £1 million to install – not quite
our rabbit-eaten pitch,” Maxi recalls with
a chuckle. “Guernsey brought their own chef,
while our boys went and queued up for
fish and chips. Then they had a few drinks.
That’s the Alderney way.”

ALDERNEY

“People ask me: ‘Can we win?’ I say: ‘It’s been
90-odd years so it’s not bloody likely, is it?’”
The Alderney spirit seems to come to the
fore in moments of adversity. The team
never takes things too seriously – a refreshing
and, frankly, necessary trait given their
position in world football. “I remember that
day in Jersey [the 18-0 defeat] – Maxi
nutmegged their captain and then showed
him the finger,” Adamson laughs. “I had to
yell to remind him we were 17-0 down!”
While the Alderney camp is happy to
downplay their hopes of an upset, they do
not seem too delighted at being dismissed
prematurely by their neighbours.
“Just one time, I want them to have to
re-print the programme,” Reg says. “Every
year, they print the programme for the final
before the semi-final has even been played.
Some years, they’ve booked their flight home
so early that there wouldn’t even be time for
extra time. It’s been 96 years of hurt, but one
day we’ll have the last laugh.”

“NO TEAM HAS A DIVINE RIGHT
TO WIN A FOOTBALL MATCH”

The morning of the game is
glorious, and in a pub on Victoria
Street, Alderney’s busiest road,
unofficial bets are changing hands
on the result. The most popular predicted
scoreline is 12-0 to Guernsey.

In a small café sits captain Andy Lawrence,
31, sipping a cappuccino with his wife Lauren
and baby son Oliver, mentally readying
himself to plough a very lonely furrow as
Alderney’s sole striker. Andy, known as
‘Blondie’ by team-mates, informs FFT that
while the majority of the Alderney players
were tucked up in bed early the night before,
a few had made no secret of their intention to
partake in a beer or four to loosen them up.
As Andy talks, Guernsey’s squad files in,
track-suited and looking every bit the semi-pro
side. There don’t appear to be any hangovers
here. Andy points out the dangerman, Ross
Allen, who is widely believed to be Guernsey’s
best ever player – a lethal striker who is just
one hat-trick against Alderney short of
breaking Muratti Vase records.
“I’d like us to keep it below 10,” Andy says
thoughtfully. “Something like 5-0 would be
great. But a goal would be fantastic – I’ve
played in about 10 Murattis now, and
I don’t think I’ve really had a chance.
“I think I’ve got a fair few Murattis
left in me, but after that I like the
thought of helping to coach school
football. Maybe Oliver will score
a Muratti goal one day.”
There had been hopes in the
Alderney camp that Guernsey

would bring a weakened team, but seeing their
chances of making the Ryman South play-offs
fade seems to have left them free to bring their
strongest line-up, even though several players
will be in league action the next day.
An old London Underground railway carriage
makes the short trip along the sea front on the
only rail track in the Channel Islands, carrying
fans in the blue and white of Alderney to the
Arsenal Ground. Some fans have painted
their faces, there’s a handful of replica shirts
on show, and well in advance of the 1.30pm
kick-off a few show signs of having ingested
a heroic amount of alcohol.
At the ground, Pete Concanen is filling in
holes on the field that have been made by
rabbits. The pitch has been taken in to its
minimum legal size. Adamson has been giving
interviews to the local press, gamely deflecting
the usual questions. “I’m not sure what they
expect me to say,” he shrugs. “They always
ask: ‘Do you think we can do it?’ I say to them:
‘Well, it’s been 90-odd years of getting beat,
so it’s not that bloody likely, is it?!’
“Still, it’s a beautiful day for football. It’s just
a shame we’re not going to be playing any of
it. I could probably play in goal for Guernsey
today and it wouldn’t make any difference.”
As the Alderney players warm up, looking
encouragingly hangover-free, Guernsey
players in green and white kits eye the pitch
with suspicion. Some of the 200 or so Alderney
fans pore over a newspaper article in the
Guernsey Press. There are raised voices.
“It seems that the game of football, as far as
Alderney is concerned, is on its last legs,” an
op-ed reads. “All the signs are of an island

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 91

ALDERNEY

going through ever-slower and less
enthusiastic motions in terms of playing
representative football. The question is:
just how long can it carry on for? And at
Muratti level, should it?”
The locals are understandably livid, not least
because the Muratti actually originated in
Alderney, back in 1905. Suggestions start to do
the rounds among spectators that Guernsey
have brought their strongest team in order to
deliver a humiliation so harsh it can be used
to justify Alderney’s exclusion in future years.
The mood becomes tense as the officials
from Jersey get the game underway.
A hush falls over the ground. The Alderney
fans await the inevitable – the first goal to
open the floodgates. Ross Allen gets into
space and connects with a well-hit volley,
but it flashes wide. A header comes in from
a cross; however, Alderney goalkeeper Jamie
Laband makes a smart diving save.
The clock creeps on and the volume
increases. Alderney’s shape is excellent and
Guernsey struggle to find any space. Josh
Concanen rallies the troops again and again,
debutant Dante Walker is everywhere and
Ross Benfield looks very authoritative
considering he was on a beach in Thailand
three days ago. Andy Lawrence chases
tirelessly and competes for every header, even
though he’s a good 50 yards from the nearest
team-mate when he wins a flick-on.
Every player is closed down quickly, and
Guernsey start shooting from distance. Each
time a shot goes high and wide there are
cheers of delight from the home fans. “You
should’ve gone to Specsavers!” chirps one

92 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

“I’d like us to keep it below
10-0. 5-0 would be great”
wag after a wayward effort, name-checking
one of Guernsey’s biggest businesses.
It takes until the stroke of half-time for
the spell, and the deadlock, to be broken.
A mistimed challenge results in a penalty
to Guernsey, which Allen coolly converts.
Disappointment is in the air, but with the
hosts trailing just 1-0, the Alderney players
are applauded off the pitch at the interval.
In the dressing room at the break, the
Alderney players are clearly trying not to get
carried away, knowing it could still end up
being a rugby score. When Adamson asks how
his men are feeling, very few believe they can
make it through the entire game.
The second half starts in much the same
vein. The hosts are well organised. Laband
makes another fantastic reflex save to tip an
effort over the bar and Guernsey begin to take
potshots from distance again, but Alderney
bodies are routinely sacrificed for the cause.
Players begin to go down with cramp at every
turn, but the score remains 1-0 and the fans
get louder and louder, knowing their men are
potentially one moment of magic away from
history. In the crowd, some fans even begin to
discuss whether they could make the Muratti
Final as they haven’t booked their holiday yet.
Every now and again Alderney break with
the ball, causing giddy excitement, but

counter-attacks sputter out quickly. Then,
with just two minutes left, Alderney win a
free-kick. Everyone is waved forward – even
goalkeeper Laband ventures up. The kick is
cleared, forcing Laband to scramble back to his
goal, but as the final whistle goes you’d have
been forgiven for thinking Alderney had won.
After the game, winning manager Steve
Sherman diffuses any tensions caused by the
Guernsey Press by visiting the Alderney
dressing room to congratulate the team on
their effort. In the clubhouse, Sherman
addresses the gathered players of both teams,
fans and officials and insists: “No team has
a divine right to win a football match. We have
always had a tough game here and we look
forward to many more to come. See you in
a couple of years.” Just like that, any discord is
gone, and the Alderney players begin to enjoy
a hard-earned drink or 10, having battled to
one of the best results in the island’s history.
After the celebrations die down, captain
Lawrence pens a triumphant response to the
Guernsey Press, insisting: “Alderney football is
in good hands and going nowhere. We know
we are expected to suffer a heavy defeat year
after year, but, as Saturday proved, we can
match Guernsey and Jersey from time to time.”
The most unlikely of successes – albeit still
a defeat – will have only served to strengthen
Alderney’s resolve to make sure that a team
enters the Jackson League for next season,
giving them a better shot than ever of ending
one of football’s longest losing streaks when
Jersey come to town in April 2017. And as
everyone in football knows, you’re only as
good as your last result.

“WHERE
DID IT
ALL GO
WRONG,
GIGGSY?”
Wales have finally got their act together, qualifying
for Euro 2016, but 20 years ago they were a joke.
FFT recalls Bobby Gould’s managerial reign – a reign
of good intentions, bad results and ugly incidents
Words Huw Davies

ACTION REPLAY

N

aturally, Bobby Gould had Vinnie
Jones to thank. Seven years after he
helped Gould’s Wimbledon win the
1988 FA Cup Final, and 27 minutes
into Wales’ home match against
Georgia, Jones earned his ninth
career red card by not so much
leaving his foot in as stapling it to Mikheil
Kavelashvili’s crotch. Jones’ adopted nation
lost the Euro 96 qualifier 1-0, Mike Smith
was fired and Wales needed a new coach.
Step forward, the Gouldfather.
Gould was a pundit then, out of management
for nearly two years. But if Welsh supporters
thought his appointment was odd, they could
not predict what would follow. Wrestling with
John Hartson, training in a prison, bashing the
Manic Street Preachers, bringing himself on as
a substitute – Gould did it all, and more.
The end of the millennium brought the four
most surreal years in Welsh football history.
Two decades later, some scars are still healing.

“IF I’M INTERVIEWED, I GET THE JOB”

Gould’s charm offensive began in earnest,
starting with attempts to persuade Matt
Le Tissier and a young Michael Owen to
represent Wales, as well as paying attention
to the oft-forgotten domestic game.
“You’d see him at League of Wales games,”
recalls Phil Stead, author of Red Dragons: The
Story of Welsh Football. “It’s not all about the
national side. Gould saw his role as developing
the game.” Veteran Wales fan Gary Pritchard
adds: “He did travel the length and breadth of
the country with ‘Learn Welsh’ tapes in his car.”
Welsh isn’t the easiest language to wrap your
tongue around, so the new man’s commitment
was never in doubt – even from his application.
“If I’m interviewed, I get the job,” Gould tells
FFT matter-of-factly. “I’ve got passion, honesty
– everything they want. I told them: ‘I have
a dream’.” Gould: the man who would be King.
King, or Joker? Gould produced a leek from
his desk drawer during an early interview and,
when asked what he’d learned from his first
match as Wales beat Moldova 1-0, quipped:
“Our socks are too long.” (In fact, he’d stayed
up all night taking notes.) Fans weren’t party
to his sense of mischief, however.
“You never get a second chance to make
a first impression,” says supporter Mark
Ainsbury, recalling Gould’s
first away match, against
Albania in 1995. “When he
walked into our hotel in
downtown Tirana, we
serenaded him with
a loving rendition of ‘Gould’
to Spandau Ballet’s Gold.
He bounded over and said:
‘Hey lads, no singing in the

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 95

ACTION REPLAY

Left Vinnie Jones
inadvertently ushers
in a new Welsh era
Right Giggs and
Wales lose to the
mighty Leyton Orient
Below and bottom It
couldn’t be said that
Gould wasn’t friendly

hotel, eh?’ We made it quite clear to him
what he could do with his advice.”
If that response seems disproportionate,
remember where they were. “We’d spent
two days getting to Europe’s most closed
country, via ferry from Italy,” explains
Ainsbury, a home-and-away fan since 1981.
“For years we’ve made friends across the
continent, and here was a buffoon from
Coventry telling us how to behave.”
The tie ended 1-1. In Gould’s first dozen
matches, the opening win over Moldova and
a San Marino double were Wales’ only
victories. In truth, that wasn’t surprising.
“The rot had set in before him,” sighs
Russell Todd of Podcast Pel-droed, which
focuses on Welsh football. “We’d already
lost to Moldova and been shellacked 5-0 in
Georgia. Then after Euro 96 England fans
were euphoric, but it got worse and worse
for Wales. After a while, even the piss-taking
stopped being fun for my non-Welsh friends.”
They weren’t exactly lacking material.
Gould’s eccentricities were on show from
the start. Some 48 hours before Wales
faced Germany in his second fixture, Gould
arranged a match against a press XI and

fielded a full-strength side captained by Ryan
Giggs, then changed his line-up to face the
Germans based on the performance.
The bizarre fixtures didn’t end there. In 1996
Wales played Leyton Orient, who’d just finished
21st in the fourth tier (one place above Cardiff),
and lost 2-1 to a goal scored by trialist Peter
Garland. Gould left at full-time to watch his son
in Bradford’s play-off final at Wembley, leaving
Neville Southall to tell journalists: “We’re quite
happy. It wouldn’t have mattered if we’d
lost 10-1.” The Mirror gleefully proclaimed:
‘Os stuff the tragic dragon’. Then Wales beat
Cwmbran Town 6-1 with 50-year-old Gould
scoring a header after bringing himself on for
Gary Speed. “It was a lovely feeling,” he tells
FFT. “Giggsy crossed the ball and I got in
the six-yard box. I tried to play it cool.”
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Gould wasn’t
getting on with senior players. The
important word, though, is ‘senior’.
Wales were at the end of a generation:

Ian Rush was 34 and Southall 37, with Mark
Hughes, Dean Saunders, Barry Horne and
David Phillips all the wrong side of 30 as well.
“Bobby Gould had to end some careers,”
concedes Elis James, comedian and Welsh
football obsessive. “But he did it in an
unfortunate way. He picked arguments with
sacred cows. He didn’t understand there are
some fights you don’t pick, especially in
a small footballing community.”
“The worst thing is the way Rush retired,”
says Pritchard. “A legend like Rush didn’t
deserve his international career ending in
that fashion.” Substituted with Wales trailing
3-0 in Italy, Rush stormed off the pitch and
never played for his country again.
At least Rush avoided what was to come.
That infamous match: Netherlands 7, Wales 1.

“IF BIG NEV HADN’T PLAYED LIKE
SOME SORT OF SUPERHUMAN,
WE’D HAVE CONCEDED 15”

Wales’ preparations weren’t ideal. Their
under-21s had won in Breda the previous
night, but in Eindhoven, Gould couldn’t settle
on a team, or even a captain. A players’ secret
ballot revealed his former Wimbledon charge
Vinnie Jones as the surprise choice as skipper
– doubly surprising, in fact, as seemingly
nobody had voted for the Londoner.
“In the tunnel before the game, Vinnie was
screaming in the faces of Clarence Seedorf and
Marc Overmars, trying to psych them out,”
recalls Manchester City U16s coach Gareth
Taylor, a young striker back then. “The Dutch
players looked at him as if to say: ‘Who’s this?’
Then we went out and got smashed.”

ACTION REPLAY

The Oranje had just lost 4-1 to England but
still had a fine team, featuring six of Ajax’s
Champions League winners from 18 months
previously, as well as Seedorf, Dennis
Bergkamp, Phillip Cocu and Jaap Stam. But
nine of Wales’ own XI played in the Premier
League, so they’d be competitive... right?
Wrong. The enduring image is Neville
Southall, in an extraordinary goalkeeper kit,
throwing up his hands in despair at 2-0, having
parried two shots only for the third to fly in.
Bergkamp bagged a hat-trick in a 7-1 rout.
Yet it could have been even worse.
“Neville Southall put in probably the best
goalkeeping display I’ve ever seen in my life,”
reflects Taylor. “Southall had a stormer,”
confirms Pritchard. “If Big Nev hadn’t played
like some sort of superhuman, we’d have
conceded 15,” says Elis James. “Jesus Christ.”
“The Dutch fans were passing us glasses of
wine,” Pritchard continues. “They took pity on
us before 15 minutes were up. It was still 0-0.”
Wales actually scored the game’s best goal,
John Hartson turning Frank de Boer with
Saunders converting his sumptuous cross,
but even now fans unite over one crumb of
comfort: the stadium’s overhead heaters.
“That was the best part of the night,” Pritchard
enthuses. “Everyone was in their shirt sleeves.”
Also keeping warm in the stands were Welsh
music royalty: the Manic Street Preachers,
whose album Everything Must Go had just
charted at No.2, and supporting them on tour,
the Super Furry Animals. “There’s this great
footage of the Furries sat in the away end with
their heads in their hands,” says James.
It wouldn’t be Gould’s last run-in with the
Manics. In 1998, they sung “Bobby Gould
Must Go” during a Cardiff Castle performance
of Everything Must Go.. “That remains a high
water mark in Welsh hist
l culture
l
history off popular
reflecting popular opinio
b
opinion,” says Ainsbury.
“Margaret Thatcher had more friends
f
d in
Wales than he did.” Gould responded
d d by
b calling
lli
the Manics’ Richey Edwa
d ab
d role
l model.
d l
Edwards
bad
Edwards, a troubled man,
man had
h d been
b
f
missing for
three years by that point – h
he’s never b
been
found – and Gould’s com
d
comments prompted
his bandmate and friend Nicky
k Wire to
say: “I don’t think it’s ver
d bl to
very llaudable
have a go at somebody wh
who can’t
defend themselves.”
But back in the Wales ccamp, John
h
Hartson could defend him
lf – and
d
himself
Gould knew it. That’s wh
f
why, h
hearing after
the Dutch debacle that Hartson
H
was
angry with him, Gould ch
ll
d the
h b
l
challenged
burly
young Arsenal striker to a fight...
h sort of.
f.

“After just 15 minutes the
Dutch fans took pity on us
and passed us some wine”
Above and left Don’t
mess with the Manics
– or Dennis Bergkamp
Below Big Nev played
a blinder, while his
shirt blinded a player
Below right Gould
celebrates drawing
San Marino in the
France 98 qualifiers

“It’s called a circle,” Gould explains. “If there
is a problem, players form a circle and you get
in the middle and sort it out, then everybody
shakes hands. I took it everywhere I went.
“I said: ‘You want me, Hartson? You can
have me. No punching, no biting – just a good
old grapple’. All of a sudden, I found myself
on my back with him on top of me!”
What happened next is, like Hartson, hard to
pin down. Gould says that after the 21-year-old
wrestled him to the floor, they “shook hands
and walked away” to much laughter. Hartson’s
account is of an awkward, “undignified” scrap.
Southall thought Gould cracked a rib; Craig
Bellamy, who was 17 and at his first Wales
training camp, said Hartson “flung him across
the circle onto the floor”, giving Gould a bloody
nose. And Taylor tells FFT: “I always remember
Bob, his face turning purple, slamming the
d saying
i g: ‘I submit! I submit!’ The lads
floor and
h d a joke.
j k That
h t was Bob’s way.”
had
h
he autopsy, this wasn’t a one-off
Whatever
the
bbl During
ing his reign, Gould tussled with
squabble.
f
l managers Mark Hughes, Gary
future
Wales
d and
d Chris Coleman, alienated
Speed

Nathan Blake with alleged racially insensitive
comments (something denied by Gould) and
failed to convince Ryan Giggs to make regular
commitments, even as captain. Gould was
hardly alone in that, of course: Giggs’ first
friendly appearance came eight and a half
years after his Wales debut, and in total he
played in just 64 of 119 Wales matches before
his international retirement in 2007, seven
years before he hung up his boots for good.
Most famously, a young Robbie Savage was
humiliated for attempting a joke, an event that
surely helped to make him the man he is today.
Wales were due to face Italy in their first Euro
2000 qualifier. Spirits were low, and to make
matters worse they’d be playing at Anfield: the
Millennium Stadium was under construction
and despite players voting for Cardiff City’s
Ninian Park when Gould, to his credit, asked for
their opinion, the FAW sought the financial
security of playing in a bigger stadium. Looking
to lighten the mood and play down the
Azzurri’s threat, Savage crumpled up a Paolo
Maldini shirt on camera and tossed it away.
Gould didn’t find it amusing. He called Savage
at 5am and told him to leave the team hotel
before the police were called. In the chaos that
followed, Savage was dropped, reinstated, put
on the bench and booed in Wales’ 2-0 loss. His
champion was Speed, who’d told his manager:
“Go and get him back.” That night, Gould woke
a BBC executive to make him alter a Ceefax
report that called his team “lacklustre”.
Wales were a laughing stock.

“PICKING A BARRY TOWN PLAYER DREW
ATTENTION TO THE LEAGUE OF WALES”
Gould’s side had already been the butt of
many a joke on the pitch. They’d lost 6-4 in
Turkey and, shortly before that Italy
encounter, 4-0 in Tunisia. To add insult to
injury, Tunisia manager Henryk Kasperczak
complained it wasn’t even useful to them as
a warm-up for France 98, lamenting: “I regret
that the match turned out easier than we
expected. The Welsh should have provided

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 97

ACTION REPLAY

a good rehearsal for facing England, but they
were far worse than we had hoped.”
Wales’ trip to Tunis was a farce from the
moment they landed in Africa. Former striker
Simon Haworth recalls: “We moved hotels as
the first one was a total shambles, and had
to train without balls. That kind of thing
happened on Wales trips back then.” Ryan
Green, who at 17 years of age had just
become Wales’ youngest ever player, tells
FFT: “Tunisia tried to disturb our preparation
and it worked. They gave us a hiding.”
Wales were quite capable of disturbing their
own preparation. When Gould announced
he’d pick the same side that had beaten
Malta two days earlier, the unused Savage
complained that he had sacrificed a holiday
only to watch from the bench. Gould changed
his mind and the team, accommodating
Savage awkwardly at wing-back.
It all came to a head at full-time. Speed
went postal, accusing Gould of setting the
team back years. Wales had been agonisingly
close to reaching Euro 92 and USA 94, but
by France 98 they’d slipped to 103rd in the
FIFA rankings. “Speedo was totally right:
it was about standards,” says Haworth.
“Words were exchanged between senior pros
and Gould. Sat there as a young lad, I was
shocked and embarrassed at it all.
“Gould was good with me, but he lacked
the correct manner to get the best out of big
players. He wanted that Wimbledon siege
mentality but he had some of the best Welsh
players of their generation. He named
set-pieces after Wimbledon players and
asked Speed and Saunders if they could do
what Lawrie Sanchez or Vinnie Jones could.”
“There was a stark contrast,” says Podcast
Pel-droed’s Leon Barton, “between Bobby
Gould and the professionalism that was
coming into play in the English Premier
League. We were heading towards the
millennium with a 1980s relic in charge.
We were in the dark ages.”

Right “It’s all right,
Paul, walk it off”
Below Barry Town’s
Gary Lloyd gave the
League of Wales its
first and last call-up
Bottom A rare shot of
Giggs in a Wales top
Bottom right “Well,
at least we scored
one to their seven”

rang to tell me. I don’t think I ever did get
a call; just a letter saying where to meet.”
Green won his second and final Wales cap in
that fateful Tunisia game. Exactly a year later,
Gould would have his last involvement, too.

Yet several players spoke well of Gould years
later – even Southall, whose record-breaking
Wales career ended at half-time in that 6-4
defeat to Turkey with, he claims, Gould telling
him: “We’ve got a f**king problem here and it’s
f**king you.” Giggs conceded he “liked Bobby
personally”; Savage said he “loved him”.
Furthermore, Gould did some good for Welsh
football. He worked tirelessly to promote the
domestic game, even calling up Barry Town’s
Gary Lloyd to the national squad. “He gets
ridiculed for that but I respected him for it,”
says Gary Pritchard. “He understood,” adds
Phil Stead, “that calling up Lloyd would draw
attention to the League of Wales.”
Gould promoted youth, making Ryan Green
the youngest Welsh international in history.
Asked if he agrees with Giggs’ opinion that
Green’s call-up was “a typical Gould stunt” (it
broke Giggs’ age record), Stead says it probably
was, “but with good intentions”. Even Green
agrees. “I hadn’t played a game at the time,
so you could say it was a stunt,” muses the
defender, now at Hereford. “I hadn’t played for
Wolves; I’d only played once for Wales U21s.
“My dad rang me. He’d read there was
a chance I’d be called up. I couldn’t wait for
the squad to be announced, because nobody

Gould did promote youth
and the domestic game –
he even learned Welsh

“YOU DON’T WANT YOUR MANAGER
TO BE A QUIRKY CHARACTER WHEN
YOU’RE LOSING 4-0 TO TUNISIA”

The end came quickly – though there was still
time for Gould to get his players locked up.
Just visiting, of course. “We were having
difficulties with training grounds,” Gould
explains to FFT, “and somebody said there
was a prison with fantastic facilities. They were
brilliant, so we trained there.” And, yes, the
inmates were present. “We were crapping
ourselves!” says Gareth Taylor. “I don’t think
we had Vinnie, either, which didn’t help.”
In 1999 Wales travelled to Switzerland.
An unexpected 2-1 win in Denmark, which
prompted Saunders to tell Bellamy: “You do
realise you’ve saved this guy’s job” when the
teenager had just scored his first international
goal, presented an outside chance of reaching
Euro 2000. But it didn’t last. Goalkeeper Paul
Jones (above) slipped a disc in the warm-up
but Wales were refused a line-up change.
Instead of substituting Jones for Mark Crossley
from the first whistle, Gould persisted with the
Southampton man and the crocked keeper
conceded a goal after four minutes, went off
after 26, and left the stadium in a wheelchair.
Italy provided the final curtain. By this point
Gould’s position was untenable; he even let
the players pick the starting XI. Bellamy recalls
that in his team talk, Gould listed each of the
Italian players and everything they had won,
saying: “Fabio Cannavaro can jump as high
as this ceiling” and “Paolo Maldini: need
I say more?” Wales lost 4-0 in Bologna.
Gould quit – which was handy, as the FAW
reportedly couldn’t afford a payoff – and said,
generously, he’d take a different flight home.
In fact, there were no other flights and he was
reunited with his former players at the airport.
It summed up Gould’s reign: well-intentioned
bungling. “His heart was in the right place,”
says Stead. “He was like a little boy.”
Few Welsh fans share that view. “Now that
20 years have passed and we’ve qualified, I’ve
come to peace with it, but I absolutely detested
him at the time,” says Elis James. “You don’t
want your manager to be a quirky character
when you’re losing 4-0 to f**king Tunisia.
“I think it’s fair to say he had a personality
clash with an enti
t ”
entire country.”

PLANET FOOTBALL

PLANET
FOOTBALL

YOUR PASSPORT TO THE GLOBAL GAME

HE’S NOT
SHOOTING
FROM THERE,
IS HE...?
As it turns out, scoring a goal from
the top of a tower block is more
difficult than you might think.
That was what Rosenborg discovered
when they agreed to take part in one of
the greatest sponsor days in history.
No, chaps, you don’t have to spend
hours doing product placement pictures
today. Just get yourself to the top of
that 240ft hotel overlooking the stadium
and see if you can put the ball in the net.

“We have to carry out a lot of sponsor
assignments during the season, but this
one was fun and different,” Rosenborg
winger Pal Andre Helland tells FFT.
It was all the idea of Scandic, the
owners of the hotel located next to
the Norwegian champions’ Lerkendal
Stadion. Helland made his way up to the
rooftop – tethered to a rope for safety, of
course – before firing crosses down to
his team-mates on the pitch below.

“You can imagine that, being on a hotel
rooftop in a T-shirt, it was freezing cold!”
the Norway international laughs. “We
thought getting the passes into the box
would be the hardest part. We were
wrong – the hardest part was scoring.
“The players down on the ground
described the ball as like a meteorite as
it came flying towards them. Nobody
wanted to put their head on it. A couple
of the crosses landed half a metre away

from the goal-line, but even then
they didn’t manage to score!”
Eventually, after 43 unsuccessful
attempts, 28-year-old midfielder and
Rosenborg captain Mike Jensen
managed to get on the end of a cross,
somehow putting both legs together
and volleying the ball home in a very
original way, leaving Helland celebrating
enthusiastically at the top of the tower.
Just watch your step, Pal…

France Ex-Liverpool keeper-turned-insurance broker Pegguy Arphexad angrily denied rumours he’d become a porn star, saying: “I don’t do porn films – just insurance, OK?”

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 101

Words Lars Hulleberg; Planet Football editor Chris Flanagan

Well, no – it’s actually a cross into the box, rather than a shot. But good luck getting your head on it

P L A N E T FO OT B A L L

[ INTERVIEW ]

“Barça’s embargo wasn’t all bad.
I had a couple of books to read”

Turkey captain Arda Turan had to wait months before he could finally make his debut after
arriving at Camp Nou. Thankfully, team-mate Luis Suarez knows a bit about lengthy layoffs...
You joined Barcelona last summer
but couldn’t play during your first
seven months at the club because
of their transfer embargo. How did
you deal with that disruption?
When I felt any doubt, I just thought
about my childhood, because Barça
is my dream club. To wear this shirt,
to become friends with Andres
Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez,
Neymar… I had good motivation to
wait and to be patient. I have been
playing 40 to 50 games every season
for a long time, so I spared some
time just for myself. There were
a couple of books I’d been meaning
to read, and Luis Enrique sometimes
gave me three or four days off to get
out and learn the city. There were a
couple of downsides to my situation
but I turned them into positives.

Did you feel like an outsider during
the long wait for your Barcelona
debut, or did it help that Aleix
Vidal, who had arrived from
Sevilla, was in the same boat?
Aleix is a bit younger than me so
I needed to help him overcome the
situation, and we became very good
friends. We trained together when
the team had
a game. I didn’t
feel like an
outsider, as Luis
Suarez [right]
went through
a similar thing
with his ban so
he shared his
experience with
me. Every player
helped out.

Why didn’t you go out on loan?
Barcelona made a huge investment
in me and I didn’t want to disrespect
that. If I had gone to another team
on loan I could have got injured, and
that wouldn’t have been fair to the
club. I wanted to show my gratitude.

You finally played
i
in January, then in
March you scored
your first goal for the club, against
Rayo Vallecano. How did that feel?
It was our fifth goal in that game but
it meant so much to me. I had been
dreaming of playing for Barça and it
was a great feeling after six months
without a single game. Barcelona
are the biggest club in the world and
their style is perfect for me. At
Galatasaray and Atletico Madrid
there were fewer spotlights on me;
Barcelona is the world’s best club so
there are millions of spotlights here,
but I’m experienced enough not
to feel any pressure. I used to be

You also had the strange situation
that the deal was dependent on
Barça’s presidential election. You
could have gone back to Atletico
Madrid if Josep Maria Bartomeu
had lost. Were you concerned?
No, because Luis Enrique wanted
me and that was all that mattered.
Josep Maria Bartomeu was also very
nice, so I had no hesitation or doubt.

a good player but after coming to
Barcelona I started to see myself as
more of a complete footballer.
How does the training compare
between Luis Enrique and your
former coach Diego Simeone?
I learned so much from Simeone.
I used to think defending was all
about chasing the other
tteam’s
m’s full-back for 90
minutes, but he taught
me the importance of
the core, and helped
me to improve the
positional aspect of
my game. His style
was more defensive
and strict, so training
was much heavier.
Luis Enrique has
a different
approach. We
lways use the ball at
always
training, even when we’re working
on conditioning. He wants us to
always be comfortable with the ball
at our feet. It’s much more fun!
Are Messi, Suarez and Neymar the
greatest front three in history?
I don’t know if they are the best but
I can say they are one of the best.
You give the ball to them and they
change the scoreboard in the blink
of an eye! It’s almost impossible to
take the ball away from their feet.
They have no complexes and they
are constantly making jokes in the
dressing room. We’re like a family.

As captain of Turkey, are you
looking forward to facing some
of that family at Euro 2016, with
Spain and Croatia in your group?
We’ve been making lots of jokes
about it at Barcelona since the draw.
I’ll swap shirts with Sergio Busquets
after the Spain game. But they know
that we’re a tough team and that we
won’t step back, no matter how
strong they are. Ivan Rakitic and
Mario Mandzukic, my former Atletico
Madrid team-mate, are also very
excited. I think it’s an entertaining
group as well as a tough one.
Turkey reached Euro 2016 as the
best third-placed team. Was it
complicated trying to work out
whether you’d qualified or not?
Before the final game, [coach] Fatih
Terim’s daughter texted him about
our possible play-off opponents, but
he replied: “No need – we will qualify
directly!” Everybody said we did it by
luck but we won all of our last three
games without conceding. We all
believed in ourselves. Qualifying
ahead of the Dutch gave us huge
confidence. There are inexperienced
players in our squad, so they needed
that. We may not have many names
known worldwide, but football is not
an individual sport. Messi is the best
player in the world, but even he’s not
strong enough to help Argentina win
something. If we realise that we’re
much stronger as a team, you might
see some surprises at the Euros.
We’re not afraid of anyone.

ARDA TURAN IN NUMBERS

Interview Recep Ozerin

Turkey’s most expensive player is key for the national team’s hopes in France

184

Days between Turan signing
for Barcelona and making
his debut for the club

24.1

Millions of pounds paid by
Barça to sign him – a record
fee for a Turkish player

22

Age at which Turan was
given the captaincy at his
first club, Galatasaray

8

Goals he has either scored
or assisted in his previous
10 appearances for Turkey

Saudi Arabia A top-flight game was briefly halted so goalkeeper Waleed Abdullah could have a pitchside haircut, after the ref decided his Mohawk contravened Sharia law

102 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

P L A N E T FO OT B A L L

LOOK OUT,
BECKS!
Move over, Fergie –
nobody slings boots
bo s
Tu n
like Arda Turan

Unlike Alex Ferguson, Turan didn’t
wait for the privacy of the dressing
room before lobbing Nike’s finest in
a fit of rage. No, he decided to do it
in front of an audience of millions
while playing for Atletico Madrid
against future employers Barcelona
last season, hurling his boot over the
head of a linesman, and whiskers
away from a startled Gianni Infantino
lookalike, after the referee stubbornly
refused to award a free-kick for
a challenge by Dani Alves.
Turan’s punishment? A yellow card.
Throw the other boot and you’re off.
The Turkish midfielder’s Rojiblancos
team-mates naturally thought the
whole incident was hilarious,
presenting him with a specially
designed cake in the shape of
a football boot when he celebrated
his birthday two days later. That’s
some swift cake-making.
“I felt like the referee was unfair
to us,” Turan explains. “It might be
wrong for me to do that but it was
normal, because when you feel any
injustice it’s human to show some
kind of reaction. Of course, after
a couple of days it became a joke,
but I have no regrets about doing it.”
Turan spent four years with Atletico,
winning the Europa League in 2012
and the Copa del Rey a year later
before helping them to the league
title and 2014 Champions League
Final. “It was very tough to leave,” he
says. “We were the greatest team in
the club’s history. But I’d completed
my mission there and sometimes it’s
best to leave when you are at the top.
Atletico will always be in my heart.”
A recent Champions League defeat
to his old club meant the boot was on
the other foot for Turan this season.
Well, as long as he hadn’t chucked
it at someone first...

Italy Former Azzurri defender Alessandro ‘Billy’ Costacurta was accidentally kicked in the head while working as a pundit on live TV, as a tactics demonstration went wrong

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 103

P L A N E T FO OT B A L L

FourFourTwo.com
Get online to see this and other
great goals from FFT’s archives

[ Great goals

retold ]

KAREL KY
S
R
O
B
O
P

Words Karel Haring; Illustration German Aczel

Euro 96
vs Portugal,

God bless Aston Villa’s
bobbly pitch. Karel Poborsky
produced one of the iconic
moments of Euro 96, but he
couldn’t have done it without
a handy bump in the Villa
Park playing surface.
Poborsky was a little-known,
scruffy-haired midfielder from
Slavia Prague when he turned
up at the tournament and
mesmerised Europe with an
unorthodox but sublime goal
in the Czech Republic’s win
over Portugal in the last eight.

goal so it came to my mind
that the easiest thing to do
would be to chip the ball.”
Except that wasn’t quite
how it turned out. Chipped
goals were nothing new –
Poborsky had scored one of
those for Viktoria Zizkov two
years earlier. This effort was
different, as he somehow
scooped the ball high into
the air and over a befuddled
Baia – aided by that bobble.
“Not many people saw it
but the ball jumped,”
jumped he says,

The grin on the face of the
Czechs’ typically stern coach
Dusan Uhrin said it all. Like
everyone else, he couldn’t
believe what he had just seen.
“I got a pass from Jiri Nemec
in the middle of Portugal’s
half,” Poborsky tells FFT.
“There were three opponents
around me but the ball
bounced back to me with
a piece of luck and I was
suddenly running towards
goalkeeper Vítor Baia, almost
alone. I saw him far out of his

“so it was ‘thrown’, rather than
kicked in the usual way.”
That goal and his displays in
the Czechs’ run to the final
earned Poborsky a transfer
to Manchester United that
summer. He later moved to
Portugal to join Benfica.
“Paradoxically, that goal
helped me when I went over
to Portugal,” the 44-year-old
says. “The supporters didn’t
forget it, but they appreciated
the goal in more of a positive
way than a negative one.”

[ Derbies Deconstructed: Germany vs Poland ]

JUST DON’T MENTION THE WAR

Words George Stokes

How do you ease historical tension? Probably not with a picture of Jogi Löw’s severed head
Why all the fuss?

Reasons for aggro

The neighbours face each other
in the group stage at Euro 2016,
clashing at the Stade de France
on June 16. Germany won
when the two countries met
at the 2006 World Cup and at
Euro 2008, but in qualifying for
this tournament Poland
recorded their first ever win over
them after 18 failed attempts.

Really? Well, in case you weren’t
aware, Germany’s invasion of
Poland in 1939 sparked the
beginning of the Second World
War, and the countries haven’t
exactly been the best of friends
ever since. Poland responded
after the war’s conclusion by
expelling German citizens
from their territory.

“We’re winning!
...I think”

Maddest moment

Cult figures

Prior to the Euro 2008 tussle,
a Polish newspaper mocked up
a photo of national team boss
Leo Beenhakker clutching the
severed heads of Joachim Löw
and Michael Ballack. It caused
widespread anger in Germany
and even Beenhakker was
appalled by the prank, calling it
“mad, dirty and sick”.

Miroslav Klose is Germany’s
leading scorer and Lukas
Podolski is third in the scoring
and appearance charts. Both
were born in Poland. Sebastian
Mila and Arkadiusz Milik were
the heroes for Poland when
they scored the goals that
sealed a maiden victory over
Germany in October last year.

Spain It’s the interview every Spanish journalist wanted: Luis Suarez on his toilet habits. “I pee sitting down,” he said. “I don’t want to squirt on the ground. I’m a clean man”

104 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

P L A N E T FO OT B A L L

AND YOU
THOUGHT
VINCENT TAN
WAS BAD…

Words John Duerden; Pictures Kamarul Akhir / www.asiana.my

If Cardiff City fans
think they had
things tough with
their Malaysian
investor, it could
easily have been
“Red seats?
a whole lot worse.
Not for long”
At least he didn’t
want to paint the
stadium pink.
skin tone. So when she bailed
We’re not sure what it is
about football supremos from out the club in a £3.5m deal at
the start of the year, one of the
that part of the world, but
first things she did was bring in
they like a colour change.
a new tight-fitting kit made of
Vincent Tan famously put
special thread that whitens the
himself at loggerheads with
Bluebirds fans by changing the skin and even helps players get
slimmer. Supposedly that’s
home shirt from blue to red,
achieved by ‘offering an
but then he was the owner.
anti-perspirant function’ and
At Kelantan, Datuk Seri
‘promoting blood circulation’.
Hasmiza Othman is merely
We’ll take her word for it.
a sponsor, but that hasn’t
There’s only one problem.
stopped her from making
One of the kits is pink and so is
changes to add a more
the ground, after Datuk Vida
feminine touch to pretty
gave the Sultan Muhammad IV
much everything at the
Stadium a new look (below).
Malaysian top-flight club.
To push another arm of her
Datuk Vida, as she’s known,
business, she also changed the
owns a company selling
club’s nickname from The Red
beauty products that lighten

Warriors to the
Pamoga Qu
Puteh The Red
Warriors, since
abbreviated to
PQPTRWFC.
Catchy, eh?
“We needed
investment,”
Kelantan fan
Firdaus Hashim
tells FFT. “We got that, but we
seem to have sold our soul.”
And there was more, as
Vida introduced pre-match
spas for players and insisted
on sitting in the dugout. “It’s
unusual,” says Australian
defender Jon McKain. “We
thought it was a joke at first.”
It was only when Vida started
taking selfies that the league
authorities felt they had to
step in, reminding her that
mobile phones are not
allowed on the sidelines.
Any more rule-breaking and
she’ll be shown the red card –
although she’ll probably find
a way to turn that pink, too.

“You all right,
Claudio?”

Jesus! Nope –
it’s Atalanta’s
head ultra
This Italian superfan is not the
messiah; he’s a very naughty boy
Monks, eh? They’re always
stirring up trouble.
There didn’t seem anything
remotely controversial when
an image of Christ was
unveiled in a new church in
the Italian city of Bergamo.
That was until a
habit-wearing
gossip-monger
let slip that the
image might
actually have
been based
not on Jesus
himself, but
on the head
ultra of local
Serie A club Atalanta.
“No one’s supposed to
know,” the smiling monk
whispered, but the claims
soon reached the local press.
Known as Il Bocia, or ‘The
Kid’, Claudio Galimberti is one
of Italy’s most notorious fans,
having been placed under a
strict curfew and surveillance
for a year and a half following
a run-in with the police.
Soon, Andrea Mastrovito,
the artist who created the
work, found himself at the
centre of a national media

storm. So is that really
Galimberti on the cross?
Mastrovito’s not saying.
“Mystery is a basic part of
art,” he explains to FFT. “So,
that face is the face of Christ.
That’s it. It’s merely a detail in
a big composition. Think what
you want.”
That’s fine,
but Mastrovito
is a huge
Atalanta fan
with close links
to the club’s
ultras – and
Galimberti (left).
“The ultras
are misunderstood; they are
ostracised from society,” adds
Mastrovito, in support of
Atalanta’s hardcore backing.
“I am glad if someone sees
Claudio’s face in the face of
Christ. Claudio is a great guy
and maybe one day people
will start to recognise Christ’s
face in Claudio’s.”
Galimberti would love that
idea, and it turns out he’s
a good Catholic boy, declaring
to a judge last year that
“the greatest ultra today is
the Pope”. Amen to that.

Romania Once a Champions League club, Otelul Galati were forced to put everything they own up for auction to raise cash. Trophies, cars and the team bus were all on offer

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 105

Words Matt Barker

Pink stadium, pink shirt, selfies on the bench and
a new club acronym of PQPTRWFC. Well, Kelantan’s
new sponsor didn’t invest £3.5 million for nothing

P L A N E T FO OT B A L L

“WE’RE ONLY
HERE TO SEE
THE REFEREE”
Whistle happy ultras turned up at a Belgian top
Whistle-happy
top-fl
flight match just to cheer on the man in
the middle. When we said officials needed more support, we weren’t quite expecting this…
As it turned out, the 400 fans decked
out in green behind one of the
goals hadn’t turned up at the
wrong stadium by mistake.
Instead, they had arrived purely
to support the man with the
whistle, Joeri Van de Velde.
Even referees have ultras following
them these days.

Words
o ds Bart Cop
C

When KV Mechelen took on
Kortrijk in a Belgian Pro
League game, something
didn’t seem quite right.
Home fans on one side,
away supporters on
the other – but wait,
who are the other
guys?

This ref kop was the brainchild of Babett
Manalo and the appropriately-named
TV production company Bonka Circus,
partly owned by Manchester City’s
Vincent Kompany. Manalo contacted
the Belgian FA
with the idea,
and Van de
Velde agreed
to play along.
“For once, we
wanted to support the third
party involved in every football game,”
explains Manalo, a TV presenter on
Belgian football show Fanatico. “Referees
mainly get heckled and criticised by
supporters of both teams on the pitch.
We decided that they deserved their
own moment of glory.
“We put the word out and were greeted
by many enthusiasts willing to join us.
Oddly enough, a lot of the one-off
referee fans turned out to be amateur
officials themselves, or closely related to
one. They embraced the idea that at
least one man in the middle finally
got his 90 minutes of fame.”

And 90 minutes of fame they were, as
the ultras turned up with scarves, shirts
and hats in the same green hue as the
ref’s jersey, while unveiling a banner that
read: ‘You’ll never whistle alone’.
They even launched into chants, such
as “There’s only one Joeri”, “He’s one of
our own” and “Viva referee”, all carefully
devised before the match had started,
with allotted timeslots for each song.
“We didn’t want to offend the other
fans, so obviously we wouldn’t cheer for
yellow or red cards,” Manalo explains.
“But we did put a smile on everyone’s
face when we counted down the 10
yards for the defensive wall before
a free-kick was taken, and cheered
the ref for using his vanishing spray.
“The fans of the two teams didn’t mind
too much, apart from a few friendly jibes
at our green attire, since it’s the colour of
KV Mechelen’s rivals, KRC Mechelen.”
And what did Joeri, the hero of the
evening, make of it all? “After the
match had finished he came to greet his
own kop, just like winning teams do,”
Manalo says. “He had a blast.”

RUNAWAY CHAMPIONS, BUT STILL NO FANS

Words Gyorgy Szollosi; Pictures Viktor Veres & Kristof Lajos

Ferencvaros supporters boycott title party – to watch the reserves
When Ferencvaros
coasted to their
first Hungarian
title in 12 years,
they’d hoped for
a bit of a party
atmosphere in
the next match at
their shiny new home.
Instead their 23,700-capacity stadium
was less than a third full, thanks to
a two-year stand-off with the club’s
most ardent supporters. The reason?
Ferencvaros want to scan their veins
when they enter the ground, of course.
Fans refused to set foot inside the

Groupama Arena, opened in 2014, when
plans were unveiled for an innovative
new biometric turnstile system.
The scanning system identifies each
supporter by recording five million data
points on the veins in the palm of their
hand. It left a lot of fans claiming an
infringement of privacy rights, with

Ferencvaros’ ultras
opting to boycott
until further notice.
“I’m sometimes invited
to the VIP tribune but
a lot of my friends
boycott, so I stay in
solidarity with them,”
says supporter Balazs Tolnay.
Bizarrely, it hasn’t stopped the Green
Eagles’ fans from cheering on Hungary
at the same venue, as the vein scanner
is turned off for internationals.
When Ferencvaros are at home, fans
watch the matches on big screens, and
recently they turned up en masse to

cheer on the reserves.
A total of 10,000 fans watched the B
team, on the same day that fewer than
5,000 were inside the Groupama Arena.
“The supporters created a fantastic
atmosphere, something that is very
much missing from the arena,” says
former Ferencvaros star Janos Hrutka.
The palm-scanning system is now set
to be assessed by the Hungarian courts.
Unable to persuade their club to scrap it,
supporters felt they had to – ahem –
take the law into their own hands.

Germany Everybody’s favourite hipster club St Pauli are trend-setting again: they’ve decided to produce their own honey, installing two beehives at their Millerntor home

106 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com

P L A N E T FO OT B A L L

BOOM!

THE BOY’S
A BIT

How do you spice up a local rivalry? By awarding the
the winning team ownership of a cannon, obviously

Owen Coyle experienced
a few feisty derbies during his
time in England, but was he
ever rewarded with an actual
working cannon? Thought not.
They’re way ahead in MLS,
where Coyle’s Houston Dynamo
and FC Dallas lock horns for the
chance to own ownership of
‘El Capitan’, a Howitzer from
the American Civil War.
The tradition started in 2006,
with the trophy of sorts given to
the team who tops the regular
season head-to-head record.

FC Dallas have owned the
cannon for the past three years
but it could be about to change
hands, Houston having won 5-0
in the first derby of 2016.
“I wasn’t aware of the intense
rivalry until I came over here,”
former Burnley and Bolton boss
Coyle tells FFT. “El Capitan adds
a bit of spice to it. If we collect
it at the end of the season
I’ll be pleased, as it means
we’ve beaten a good team.”
“El Capitan is a symbol and
a source of price for fans,” says

"PARLEZ VOUS
FOOTBALL?"
We translate that baffling foreign lingo

Dauphin de la poule

There’s much animal confusion as the French attempt
to describe the team who will finish second in a group
at Euro 2016. The word for runner-up translates as
dolphin, while ‘poule’ means ‘group’ and also ‘hen’, so the
group runners-up are the dolphin of the hen. OK then...

THE EURO 2016-BOUND
MAGNET FOR GUN CRIME
Gokhan Tore

Position Winger Age 24
Nationality Turkish Club Besiktas

Nutter credentials

The last three years have been quite the firearm-plagued
whirlwind for the Besiktas man, a contender for Turkey’s
Euro 2016 squad and reported West Ham target. The former
Chelsea youth prospect has been on both ends of gun crime,
most recently when he was shot – yes, shot. On that occasion
in 2014, Tore was an innocent bystander when he took a slug
to the shoulder in a Turkish nightclub, after a nearby row
between a man and his girlfriend. Ah, romance.

Maddest moment

In 2013, Tore and an armed accomplice were alleged to have
gained access to the hotel room of Turkish team-mates Omer
Toprak and Hakan Calhanoglu. “Gokhan’s friend walked over to
Omer, pulled out a gun and told him he would be shot if he
didn’t lay flat on the floor,” Calhanoglu revealed. “Then he
came up to me and said: ‘Don’t move or I will shoot you’. I was
scared for my life.” The reason for the whole thing? A reported
affair between Tore’s ex and a friend of Toprak. Ah, romance.

They said

“If we got rid of everyone who made a mistake we wouldn’t be
able to pick a team. If it’s a crime to stick up for a 21-year-old
kid, then I am guilty.” The words of Turkey boss Fatih Terim
when he recalled Tore in 2014, while leaving out Calhanoglu
and Toprak. Tore has since made up with Calhanoglu but Toprak
hasn’t played for Turkey since, citing trust issues. No kidding.

Colombia Renowned nutter Gerardo Bedoya earned 46 red cards as a player, so what happened in his first match as a coach? He was sent off, of course, after 19 minutes

FourFourTwo.com June 2016 107

Words Rajen Bagri

Words Kristan Heneage; Picture Houston Dynamo

“We’re using
blanks, right?”

Dynamo supporter and writer
Alicia Tolar. “It’s not something
that just sits in the corner of
the stadium collecting dust. It’s
a reminder of who won the
Texas Derby the year before.”
Even better, the owners of
the cannon can actually fire it
at matches, although Dallas
can only do so with
permission from the
local fire department.
“Funnily enough, at
Houston’s previous
Stad
ground, Robertson Stadium,
you couldn’t fire it – but
bu at the
h
new one you can,” adds Coyle.
El Capitan’s potential
relocation 250 miles south at
the end of the season begs one
important question: how do
you transport a cannon?
“It’s not too difficult,”
FC Dallas spokesman Dan
Robertson assures FFT. “We took
it down to Houston two years
in a row when we played them
only once a year. Now that
there are three games a year,
we keep it at our stadium. We
hope it doesn’t need to go
south for a long time.”
At 5-0 down though, nearby
residents can probably look
forward to a quieter 2017.

P L A N E T FO OT B A L L

GREXIT!
FROM EUROPEAN
CHAMPIONS TO

S
O
A
H
C
L
A
T
O
T
Words Vasilis Sambrakos

i e ago
g tim
iin turmoiil – Euro 2004 seems a lon
m
tea
l
na
tio
na
a
ce,
len
vio
fan
Financial disarray,
Traianos Dellas sounds rueful
as he ponders where it all
went wrong. Twelve years ago,
Dellas was part of a Greece
team that won the European
Championship against all odds,
the defender scoring the
decisive ‘silver goal’ in the
semi-finals against the Czech
Republic. This summer, the

national side will not be in
France for Euro 2016.
With 24 countries involved it’s
the biggest Euros ever, but
Greece weren’t even close to
joining the party. Instead they
became the first country in
history to be top seeds in their
qualifying group and end up
finishing at the bottom of it.

“Those in the current team
will understand better, but for
us it became obvious from the
very beginning of qualifying,”
Dellas tells FFT. “The trademark
of our Euro 2004 team, and our
main asset since then, had
been wiped out: the team spirit.
“The main reason was the
absence of Giorgos Karagounis
and Kostas Katsouranis. They

were the last of the champions
from Portugal. They knew the
way to maintain team spirit.”
Greece had qualified for
the previous four major
tournaments, and as recently
as two years ago they were just
a couple of penalty kicks away
from the quarter-finals of the
World Cup. But then Karagounis
retired and Katsouranis was

discarded. The final link to
that 2004 miracle was broken.
Claudio Ranieri replaced
Fernando Santos as boss after
the World Cup, and it’s fair to
say that didn’t go too well. He
lasted only four months, after
Greece lost their first three
home matches in qualifying to
Romania, Northern Ireland and,
most ignominiously, the Faroe
Islands. “I take full responsibility

PLANET

for the most unfortunate
choice of coach,” Hellenic
Football Federation president
Giorgos Sarris said when
Ranieri was removed. What
happened to him, anyway?
At 35, Katsouranis was briefly
recalled by the Italian gaffer’s
successor Sergio Markarian, but
by then it was already too late.
Markarian lasted just another
six months himself, as Greece
lost to the Faroe Islands again.
Dellas & Co.
Caretaker Kostas Tsanas
conquer Europe
guided the Ethniki to their one
and only win in qualifying,
beating Hungary 4-3 in their
Europe by UEFA.
Right now, it is ranked 14th.
final match. In that game,
The country’s well-documented
they scored more goals than in
financial woes haven’t exactly
their previous nine qualifiers
helped matters.
combined. Former Borussia
“The economic crisis made
Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen
things worse, but it’s not the
and Galatasaray boss Michael
main reason,” explains Dellas,
Skibbe has since been installed,
now 40 and the manager of
but his first game was a 1-0
Atromitos. “We had the same
defeat in Luxembourg.
huge problems before the crisis
The national team’s miseries
– corruption, violence, unreliable
are merely a fraction of the
football administration... The
problems that Greek football is
economic crisis just inflated
currently facing, though. Not by
the existing problems.”
coincidence, Greece
That crisis
have struggled
means fans
at international
simply cannot
level just as club
afford to go
football in the
to matches
country has
as often now.
collapsed.
In six years
In 2003,
Panathinaikos’
Greece’s
“Ciao, losers –
average gate
domestic
Leicester’s
has plummeted
league was
calling”
from 26,000 to
ranked sixth in

l
h
less
than
6,000, and ticket revenue in the
Superleague is down 42 per
cent. Since 2002, the value of
the league’s TV rights deal has
dropped by 35 per cent, too, so
expenditure has been scaled
back. The number of foreign
players attracted to the league
has dwindled from 255 to 140
in the space of seven seasons.
“The decrease in revenues is
evident since 2009,” says Zois
Sotiropoulos of the company
that certifies the league’s
annual financial data,
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Accounting SA. “The drop in
tickets, TV rights, sponsorship
and advertising revenues –
combined with a 20 per cent
increase in the tax rates of
sports staff – has compressed
already marginal budgets.”
Those marginal budgets have
resulted in players’ salaries
going unpaid, and numerous

clubs have had huge financial
problems, most notably Aris
and AEK Athens, who have
both dropped as low as the
third tier (though AEK have
since returned). With others hit
hard as well, the top flight has
been reduced to 16 teams.
“I couldn’t imagine how bad
things would become in Greek
football when I chose to invest
back in 2005,” says Fotis
Kostoulas, major shareholder
and president of Panetolikos.
“The biggest problem is the
lack of competition. Before
every season starts we know
who’s going to win the title.
People stop caring.”
Indeed, 18 of the last 20 titles
have been won by Olympiakos,
champions this season for the
sixth time in a row. But their
attempts to win the Greek Cup
for a fourth time in five years
were halted by hooliganism,
Greek football’s other blight,

as their semi-final against
PAOK was abandoned when
home fans invaded the pitch
and clashed with riot police.
Determined to take a stand,
Greece’s deputy minister for
sport took the extraordinary
decision of cancelling the cup
altogether. Only in mid-April,
a full month later, did they
back down and agree to let
the competition run to its
conclusion, after Greece was
threatened with expulsion
from FIFA, who frown on
government interference.
The scenes in Thessaloniki
were just the latest in a string
of unsavoury incidents, with
the Superleague suspended on
three occasions last season.
“We’ve reached rock bottom
and the problem starts from
those who run football,” says
Lampros Athinaiou, leader of
a Panathinaikos ultras group.
“Olympiakos have won the
league for so many years, and
revenue from the Champions
League has fed that system.
“This whole situation is just
a gangrene which must be
eradicated. Fans’ interest has
waned and there are fewer
investors. Greek football should
start again from scratch.”
Perhaps interest in the
domestic game could be
revived by an unfancied club
upsetting the big boys. A recall
for Claudio Ranieri, then? On
second thoughts, perhaps not.

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT
THIS SUMMER

GET YOUR OFFICIAL
ENGLAND KIT ONLINE AT
englandstore.com

VISIT US ONLINE
fourfourtwo.com/performance

PERFO
PERFORMANCE
ORMANCE
W
WHERE
E PROS
OS REVEA
REVEAL THE SECRETS
S C
S OF
O THEIR GAME
G

GETTING FIT IS CHILD’S PLAY

Co-ordination, balance and speed –
they’re all elements of your game that
will improve if you’re willing to spend
hours whipping yourself in the face
with a piece of old rope.
OK, we admit that’s not much fun, but
once you’ve got the hang of it, skipping
can transform your game. Don’t just take
it from us – scientists have the proof.

A study from the University of Milan
found that youth team players who
started their training sessions with
a skipping workout scored much higher
in tests for co-ordination and balance,
and were able to complete the circuits
faster, than those players who didn’t.
Paul Clements, Huddersfield Town’s
head academy goalkeeping coach,

introduced this training to his scholars
and they’ve reaped the benefits. “It’s a
low-risk exercise that gives the keepers
an extra plyometric workout,” he purrs.
Clements, who used skip rope
sessions at Middlesbrough and Wolves,
has also noticed improvements in the
body composition of developing
academy players. “It doesn’t just aid

a goalkeeper’s agility,” says Clements.
“Using a jumping rope is a low-impact
exercise for all players, making it
a great way to condition frequently
without putting undue stress on your
joints and nervous system.” So
‘skipping’ a few training sessions could
help stretch your career a whole lot
further – just ask Iker Casillas, above.

THE FOURFOURTWO PERFORMANCE PANEL
Meet the experts available to answer your questions about every aspect of the game
MASTERCLASS

 

Dele Alli
Spurs and England’s
midfield dynamo

The 20-year-old prodigy shares his
secrets on how to be brave on the ball
and express yourself without fear.

FITNESS

 

Amir Khan
Two-time world
champion boxer

Unleash your killer instinct and get
fighting fit with a little help from the
fist-thrower’s summer boot camp.

PRO TIPS

 

Tim Cahill
Australia’s all-time
leading scorer

Outlast the opposition and find the
net in the final 10 minutes thanks to
the ex-Everton hotshot’s sage advice.

PSYCHOLOGY

 

Dario Gradi
Crewe Alexandra
Director of Football

The coaching guru explains how to
bounce back from a poor season and
take the right steps towards success.

Words Rob Kemp; Performance editor Ben Welch

Skipping isn’t just for schoolgirls with pigtails – it’s also for footballers who want fancy
footwork and a tireless engine. Interested? Grab yourself some rope and jump this way

PERFORMANCE

REPEAT OFFENDERS
Amateur players are more likely to
suffer recurrent injury problems than
professionals. A study featuring
43 top-level European teams, 19
Swedish first division outfits and 10
Swedish amateur sides found that 35
per cent of amateur players couldn’t
shake off a recurring knock, while 16
per cent of pros had repeat injuries.

BE FIRST ON
THE SPOT
Finding that sides who go first in
a shootout win 60 per cent of
the time, two researchers say it
would be fairer to alternate the
order of kicks after each round,
and also allow a team that
misses to take first next time.

KANGAROO
BOOTS!

Football boots made of kangaroo
leather are perceived as being a
better fit when compared to leather
and synthetic footwear. A study of
20 players found that kangaroo
leather ‘felt’ tighter, while synthetic
leather boots were deemed to be
the loosest of the three materials.

TURN OFF THE
HAIRDRYER

Managers and coaches run a higher
risk of suffering from voice problems
and throat ailments because of
their constant bellowing from the
touchline. In total, 28 per cent of the
500 coaches examined for a Finnish
study had two or more frequently
occurring vocal symptoms.

STAND UP,
SCAN RIGHT
Injury recovery times could
be cut thanks to new upright
MRI scanners, which can assess
an injured player under their
natural load and see the spinal
discs when they are exposed to
the weight-bearing pressure.

10 THINGS

WE’VE LEARNED THIS MONTH
RIGHT KNEE,
WRONG RESULT
One in three football injuries
are knee-related, according to
a new study. The report also
discovered that the right knee
is more vulnerable: a third as
many injuries are suffered by
that limb compared to the left.

A GAME FOR
THE AGED

Playing football every week helps to
build and maintain muscle mass in
those most likely to lose it. A new
Danish study shows that men aged
between 60 and 75 who took part in
five-a-side games every week lost
weight, but not vital bulk.

FOOTBALL 1
FUNNY BUSINESS 0

Some 56 per cent of Brits have, perhaps
unsurprisingly, admitted that “watching
football is the moment or activity that
gets them excited week-to-week or
month-to-month”. The poll also revealed
they spend more time each week
watching football than having sex.

COLD RECEPTION
TO WARM-UPS
Only 54 per cent of amateur
players warm up before a game.
The study of 1,000 players also
found that 18- to 25-year-olds
are most likely to get an injury:
50 per cent, compared to 32
per cent of 41- to 50-year-olds.

DIRTY PLAY CAN
DISRUPT YOUR GAME
After reviewing the atmospheric
conditions at 3,000 football matches
between 1999 and 2011, German
researchers found that air pollution
significantly affects the performance
of professional players. Poor-quality
air was found to hinder the running
ability of midfielders in particular.

Studies and authors: British Journal of Sports Medicine (‘Repeat offenders’); New York University, USA / Maastricht University, Netherlands (‘Be first on the spot’); University of Valencia, Spain (‘Kangaroo boots!’); Abo Akademi University, Finland
(‘Turn off the hairdryer’); Medserena Upright MRI Centre (‘Standing up for scanning’); Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India (‘Right knee, wrong result); Copenhagen Centre for Team Sport and Health, Denmark
(‘A game for the aged’); Nissan / Loughborough University (‘Football 1, Funny business 0’); DeepHeat.co.uk (‘Cold reception to warm-ups’); IZA Institute, Germany (‘Dirty play can disrupt your game’)

PERFORMANCE

[ You ask, we answer ]

Score from midfield
Australia’s record marksman on how to time your runs from deep and hit the back of the net
“You have the knack
of scoring plenty of
goals from midfield.
What’s your secret?”

Did you
know?
Cahill b
roke th
eS

Ryan Smith, via Twitter

Tim
Cahill

occero
scoring
ooss’ alll
record
-ttime
at the h
of his fo
ome of
f rmer
one
c
lubs, M
36-yea
il
lwall. T
r-old
he
31st inte netted his 30
th
h and
rnation
al goals
a March
l durin
2014 fr
g
f
ie
n
dly defe
to Ecua
f at
dor at T
he Den

Interview Sam Pilger

Hangzhou Greentown
and Socceroos hotshot
“You need to have two things:
desire and a good engine. So
many of my goals came from
sheer desire – wanting to get into
the box and put my head where
others were afraid to go. It didn’t
have to be the perfect cross; if the
ball was in the box I’d always do
everything to get to it.
You have to be really fit as well.
You need that engine, so that in
the 80th minute when the defender
marking you is tiring, you are still
running and can go past them
and convert a chance.
Make sure you have more stamina
than them. On the pitch you always
need to be smart and think about
how you use your energy.
One other important factor is
preparation. Understand the back
four you will be coming up against.
Locate weakness in the defence you
are facing and then try to exploit it.
For instance, Vincent Kompany
doesn’t like the ball on his left foot,
so I’d put him under pressure in this
area. Even the best defenders can
have lapses in concentration.”

Put your head iin
P
where it hurts,,
says
y Cahilll

Tim Cahill’s autobiography Legacy is
out now, published by Harper Collins

“My team recently missed out on promotion
after I missed a penalty. How can I rebuild my
confidence and move on next season?”
Gary Davies, via Twitter

Anthony
Knockaert

Interview Joe Brewin

Brighton winger

“I missed a penalty for Leicester
against Watford in the 2013
Championship play-offs. They
then scored straight from the
counter-attack and reached the
final at Wembley instead of us.

It was a bad moment for me and
my family, but I also felt really bad
for the supporters and the club.
It was important to move on
quickly. I felt bad on the day and for
a few days afterwards, but I could
have scored and then we might
have ended up losing in the final
against Crystal Palace anyway, so
that would have been much worse.

A week later, I was thinking about
the new season. I don’t live in the
past. It’s only football, and you have
to put things in perspective. My life
could have been a lot worse at that
point. Mentally I’m someone who is
very strong. You have to move on.
I received some messages from
Watford fans that weren’t very nice.
The following season we beat them
3-0 and I scored. That was revenge
for me. We also got promoted at the
end of the season, which was an
incredible feeling. You never know
what will happen in the future.”

Knockaert has
moved on and is
flying at Brighton

FourFourTwo.com/Performance June 2016 113

P
PERFORMANCE
O M N E

[ Masterclass ]
Did you
know?
Alli’s firs
t touch
fo
in

otball w
profess
as a ba
ional
ckheele
16-yea
r-old su
d pass
as a
b
st
in an FA
itute fo
r
Cup tie
MK Don
at Cam
s
he told
bridge
FFT: “[T
City;
he man
to go o
ager] to
ut and
ld me
that’s h express myse
lf, and
ow I ch
ose to d
o it”

I
L
L
A
E
DEL

Y
A
L
P
T
U
O
H
WIT
R
A
E
F
ental
Smash your m ke to the
d ta
roadblock an
sto, thanks to
pitch with gu
guide from
this six-step
midfielder
Spurs’ daring

PERFORMANCE

1

Relish the challenge
Have faith in your game

“When I made my debut for Spurs and for England
I just felt excitement. I’d never played in huge, packed
stadiums like that before so I didn’t know what to
expect, but as soon as I crossed the white line and the
referee blew his whistle, I focused on the game. It’s
strange to think all those people are there to watch you
play football, but you just have to relax and play your
own game. Enjoy the challenge and you’ll play well.”

Interview Ben Welch

4

Stand up for yourself
Show that you’re ready to fight

Showcase your skills
Do what comes naturally to you

“Dan Micciche was my manager as I came up through
the MK Dons academy system and he was big on me
expressing myself as much as possible. He wanted me
to go out there and enjoy myself, and this helped me
relax. Dan played a huge role in my development, as
did [MK Dons manager] Karl Robinson, who gave me
my debut. He didn’t try to change me for first-team
football; he wanted me to play my own game.”

5

Ignore the hype
Let your feet do the talking

3

Demand the ball
Be brave in possession

“You can’t go out onto the pitch and hide. You need to
get on the ball and enjoy it. If you don’t have it, you
want to be looking for it and helping your team as
much as you can. To do this, you must be confident
and believe in your ability. I don’t think about the
pressure to make something happen – I believe in my
ability. So when things aren’t going my way, I just keep
going, keep asking for the ball, and keep trying things.”

6

Master tactics

Be ready to adapt during a game

“When I trained with the senior team at MK Dons for
the first time, I was flying into tackles straightaway.
Captain Dean Lewington told me that he loved it, and
that I needed to keep doing it. He told me not to shy
away from it and to keep it in my game. Then when
I arrived at Spurs, my new skipper Hugo Lloris said the
exact same thing to me, and added that he liked my
aggression. It’s not something I’m looking to change.”

“I take no notice of all of the attention. I’m only 20
and I still have a lot to learn. Everyone likes getting
compliments, and it gives you confidence, but you
can’t get carried away – you have to keep your feet on
the ground. Just as quickly as you can be in form and
getting lots of praise, you can make mistakes and
attract negative comments. You have to focus on
playing football and trying to improve as a player.”

“There are different set-piece routines and tactical
plans to remember when you’re out on the pitch.
You need to be able to adapt to different situations.
At Spurs we spend the week preparing for each match
tactically so it’s ingrained in our heads. Two days
before a game we’ll work on set-pieces, and then we’ll
watch the opposition. We’re prepared. But when I’m on
the ball I don’t have anything planned – it’s all natural.”

CHARLIE
UNWIN

“Footballers are always required to solve tactical
problems and make decisions under pressure. This
requires significant amounts of brainpower, which
w only have limited
i i
sources of – like a battery.
we
resources
U
f
n interprets the heart beating
Unfortunately
the brain
kl as potentiall d
er. Under pressure it doesn’t
quickly
danger.
h k or problem-solve
bl
l in meticulous detail; it just
think
reacts to the moment, which is bad for performance.
Players need to become comfortable with being
f
le, so that they can perform in
uncomfortable,

high states of arousal. A lot of people go through the
motions in training and then crumble under pressure
in a match situation. You need to recreate the pressure
of competition in training.
Imagining yourself being involved in a high-pressure
situation is an effective way of getting better at this.
Staging a practice penalty shootout at the end of an
exhausting training session can provide a worthwhile
test of how good a player really is at controlling their
emotions when suffering from fatigue.”

PRO
TIP

Interview Alec Fenn

2

The performance
psychologist
provides expert
advice on learning
how to perform
under pressure

FourFourTwo.com/Performance June 2016 115

PERFORMANCE

[ Psychology ]

Raise the bar
next season

Whether you’ve lifted the title, picked up the wooden spoon or ended the season muddled
in mid-table, make sure you start the next campaign on the front foot using this handy guide
CHAMPIONS

MID-TABLE MEDIOCRITY

RELEGATION

Don’t spend the summer basking in your success –
set new targets and aim to improve by 10 per cent

Drag yourself out of your comfort zone and return
for pre-season in tip-top condition so you can kick on

Dwelling on it won’t help you bounce back – focus
on short-term improvements and results will follow

EXPERT

EXPERT

Bill Beswick

Dario Gradi

Brett Ormerod

The sports psychologist worked
with Manchester United during
Alex Ferguson’s trophy-laden reign.

After finishing 10th in League Two in
2010-11, Gradi put Crewe on the path
to play-off success the next season.

The striker helped Blackpool into the
2011-12 Championship play-offs after
relegation from the Premier League.

Demand more

Get a head start on the oppo

Arrange a team talk

“Alex Ferguson would let his players know
that they had to work extra hard to stay at
the very top – you must do the same.”

“Fitness breeds confidence, so knuckle down
during the off-season and return to pre-season
in good shape and ahead of schedule.”

“The whole team must try to raise spirits – everyone
needs to make an effort to boost morale. Speak to
your team-mates and address the disappointment.”

Never stand still

Have a word with the gaffer

One step at a time

“Ryan Giggs, Roy Keane, Paul Scholes – the best
players reinvent themselves. Ask yourself:
‘How can I improve next season?’”

“If complacency is creeping into your game, ask
your manager for a one-on-one to evaluate your
performance and identify areas for improvement.”

“It’s a cliché, but if you’ve had a bad season
then you need to take each game as it comes.
Short-term improvements lead to long-term results.”

Find that little bit extra

Rouse your team-mates

Look forward, not back

“Set yourself small, achievable targets. You can
always find an extra 10 per cent, even if
you have had a great season.”

“If a team-mate has slipped into his comfort zone,
then challenge him to raise his game – but try not
to criticise, as it could affect his confidence.”

“Relegation means you have to prove yourself the
following season, but don’t torture yourself over
performances that you can no longer change.”

CHECKLIST TO GLORY

Words Alec Fenn

EXPERT

CHECKLIST TO GLORY

CHECKLIST TO GLORY

Identify an area of your game
you want to improve

Devise a fitness plan for
the off-season

Arrange a squad night
out to boost morale

List the things you can do
in order to reach this goal

Discuss your strengths and
weaknesses with the manager

Think of ways to improve
your pre-match preparation

Set a (realistic) deadline for
achieving your target

Get together as a team
and set clear objectives

Forget the past and visualise
positive performances

116 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com/Performance

PERFORMANCE

[ Fitness ]

AMIR KHAN’S
SUMMER BOOT CAMP
As one season ends, the next begins. Get a headstart on the competition with
this pad-thumping workout from Britain’s two-time world boxing champion

“Hi guys! When FFT got in touch to tell
me you wanted some help staying in
shape this summer, I just couldn’t
wait to share my training secrets.
You’re probably wondering: ‘What can
a boxer teach a footballer?’ Well, just ask
the Bolton players how hard I pushed
them at my gym during pre-season.

And Mauricio Pochettino has been using
boxing to condition his super-fit Spurs
players. Harry Kane has been hitting the
pads as well as the back of the net.
You need to have a great engine for
both sports. Fighters duke it out for 12
three-minute rounds. Footballers sprint
up and down a pitch for 90 minutes.

Both need to be switched on tactically
even when they’re getting fatigued.
I’ve got a lot of respect for athletes in
all sports, especially footballers. They
play in front of packed stadiums and
handling that pressure isn’t easy.
However, boxing is tougher physically.
Curtis Woodhouse and Leon McKenzie

have both
swapped
football for boxing
in recent years and they’ll tell you that
missing a chance is easier to recover
from than a punch in the face!
Anyway, enough of all the chitchat.
It’s time to get started…”

ROUND 1 FUEL YOUR FIGHT

Before you step into the ring or onto the pitch, you need to fire up the furnace with King Khan’s essential diet tips

DON’T TAKE SHORTCUTS
“If you fill your petrol car with diesel
then it won’t work, and it’s the same if
you eat the wrong foods. I used to cut
some corners earlier in my boxing
career, but these days I leave nothing
to chance. Make sure you don’t, either.”

STOCK UP ON PROTEIN

KEEP YOUR ENGINE OILED

“Shakes are a great way of getting
protein in your system quickly before
and after training. I have one before and
after my first session of the day at
7am, and a third at 1pm. They’re light
and don’t bloat your stomach.”

“My diet is very strict during the training
camp. I make sure I eat lots of fish,
which contains Omega-3, to help keep
my joints in good shape. I’ll also have
steak a couple of times a week and eat
fruit and vegetables with every meal.”

ROUND 2 HIT THE GYM
Upgrade your strength, power and stamina with a muscle-burning circuit from the 2004 Olympic silver medalist

BAR JUMPS

“As soon as you’ve completed one
minute on the bar, go straight to the
bag and punch it as hard as you can
for 60 seconds. This is great for keeping
your heart rate high, building stamina
and improving upper-body strength.”

Interview Alec Fenn

“This is a classic boxing exercise. Place
two hands on a bar and then jump over
it side-to-side, without pausing between
jumps. Do this as many times as
possible in one minute. I aim for 45,
which isn’t easy. See if you can beat it.”

HEAVY BAG

118 June 2016 FourFourTwo.com/Performance

PRESS-UPS
“Your arms and shoulders will be really hurting now, after those first two intense
exercises, but you’ve got to dig deep, so see how many press-ups you can get
through over the course of a minute. Place both of your hands on the floor in
front of you, just over shoulder-width apart,
and push yourself up and down at speed
for 60 seconds. You’re almost done...”

ROUND 3
PRE-FIGHT TUNE-UP
UN -UP
Congratulations – you’ve got
g this far
f with the right diet
and training programme.. But
B before
f
ou go to war on
o the
h
you
pitch, Khan has
wor off advice…
…
as some words

REVIVE YOUR GAME
“Training hard is crucial during the
build-up to a fight or a new season, but
b
prope
it’s wasted if you don’t recover properly.
12p
I have a nap between 10am and 12pm
every day before my second session.
u
It feels like a new day when I wake up.
Try it before your next match or practi
.”
practice.”

CLARITY BREEDS
CONFIDENCE
“You
You can lose a fight or a match befo
before
it even starts if you’re not 100 per cent
cen
clear about what your game plan is.
Make sure you know your tactics
inside out – it will give you confidence.
dence
Speak to your team-mates and make
sure that you’re all on the same page.”

GET IN THE ZONE
“My life away from the training camp
can be pretty crazy. At home in
Engla d
n England
I can get pulled left, right and centre
doing different things, so I go off to
the US to get away from it all. It can be
a lonely existence at times,, but there
are no distractions. Before a game or
training session,, create your own quiet
quie
space to help you get focused.”

MEDICINE BALL
“Lie on your back and get a team-mate
team-m
b ll
to hit your stomach with a medicine ball
befo
for one minute. Tense your abs before
each hit to help absorb the impact. Too
hard? Try 60 seconds
of sit-ups instead.”

MaxiNutrition are offering two people the chance to win a VIP trip to Ibiza. Their experts have
devised a 30-day programme to follow for the ultimate summer body transformation. To enter
and stand a chance of winning the holiday, go to www.maxinutrition.com/ibizachallenge

FourFourTwo.com/Performance
ou ou
o.co
e fo a ce May
y 2016
6 117

PERFORMANCE

THIS COULD
BE YOU!
FFT and Pro:Direct are on the lookout for a presenter to try out the latest gear and interview
the world’s best footballers. If that sounds like your dream job, show us what you’ve got...

Everyone dreams of becoming a pro
footballer, but if the scouts have been
foolishly ignoring your skills, it’s OK –
there’s another route to superstardom.
FourFourTwo have joined forces with
Pro:Direct Soccer to find a presenter
for #ProDirectFC, an 11-man team that
will report on the beautiful game,

covering news, player interviews and the
very latest in boot and kit innovations.
As the FourFourTwo representative of
#ProDirectFC, you will be the face of
our YouTube channel, attending boot
launches, putting yourself to the test
in training videos and spreading
the word on social media.

But if you’re already preparing your
resignation letter, hold your horses,
champ – you need to stand out from the
crowd first. We want you to send us a
60-second video of you unboxing a pair
of boots, putting them to the test and
showing us your tricks. Don’t worry, we
don’t expect you to buy a new pair of

bobby dazzlers – you can use any boots,
old or new. Then tag @prodirectsoccer
and @fourfourtwoperformance on
Instagram and post your video with
#ProDirectFCxFFT – and don’t forget to
shout about it on social media.
Think you’ve got what it takes? Take
a look at our checklist below. Good luck.

WHAT YOU NEED
This is no ordinary job, so ordinary Joes need not apply – make sure you tick these boxes
SKILLS TO PAY THE BILLS

FOOTBALL GEAR GEEK

SMOOTH OPERATOR

We can’t have you hanging out with some of football’s
silkiest players without being a little bit handy on the
pitch. We want someone who can pull off a few tricks
and flicks while wearing the very latest gear. Elastico,
air akka, panna – you should be able to do the lot.

We’re not just looking for any normal football fan, but
someone who also knows their Hypervenom from their
PrimeKnit. You need to be confident that you will be
able to talk about uppers, soleplates and stud
configurations without sending someone to sleep.

Are you as slick on Snapchat and YouTube as you
are on the football pitch? Well, that’s great to hear.
The ideal #ProDirectFCxFFT candidate will be bursting
with charisma and personality to keep all of our
viewers entertained. Don’t go fluffing your lines, now...

Terms and conditions: 1 To enter, submit video on Instagram via @prodirectsoccer and @fourfourtwoperformance using the hashtag #ProDirectFCxFFT 2 Entries close 11.59pm on May 31, 2016 3 Opportunity is: a paid 12-month
fixed-term contract with FourFourTwo Performance 4 Entrants must be aged 16 or over 5 Only one application per person 6 For full terms and conditions go to www.fourfourtwo.com/prodirectfcxfft

CHOOSE TO PLAY THE GAME YOUR WAY
#CHOOSETRICKS
WWW.PRODIRECTSOCCER.COM

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BEST OF
BOTH WORLDS
As we approach the business end of the season, make sure you end it in style with
the Radiant Reveal Pack from Nike or the ACE16 and X15 boots from adidas.
1. Nike Mercurial Superfly - FG: 130029 - £230
2. X 15.1 - FG/AG: 118733 - £150
3. Nike Tiempo Legend VI - FG: 130024 - £160
4. ACE 16.1 PRIMEKNIT - FG/AG: 118714 - £185
5. Nike Hypervenom Phantom II - FG: 130027 - £230
6. X 15.1 Leather - FG/AG: 118734 - £150
7. Nike Magista Obra - FG: 130042 - £230
8. ACE16+ PURECONTROL - FG/AG: 130624 - £230

FROM ONLY £10

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NEW TO THE GAME
CLASSIC ITALIAN STYLING AND EXPERT CRAFTSMANSHIP

Emidio Italia Vitello - FG: 134045 - £120
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With a reputation for excellence and quality, the latest range of
Pantofola d’Oro boots are handmade in Italy using the finest materials
to provide outstanding comfort and reliable performance.

Impulso Croc - FG: 134368 - £160
Impulso Python - FG: 134367 - £160
Impulso Python - FG: 134369 - £160

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GET THE EURO
2016 LOOK
With the 2016 UEFA European Championships
nearly here, the wide range of kits released
especially for this summer’s tournament are now
available online at Pro:Direct Soccer.

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adidas Germany 15/16 Away Shirt - QR: 119349 - £90
adidas Spain 15/16 Away Shirt - QR: 119370 - £90
PUMA Austria 2016 Away Shirt - QR: 121610 - £65
Nike England 16/17 Home SS Vapor Shirt - QR: 129692 - £90
PUMA Italy 2015 SS Away Shirt - QR: 116456 - £70
Nike France 16/17 Home SS Vapor Shirt - QR: 129776 - £100
Nike Poland 16/17 Home SS Stadium Shirt - QR: 129901 - £65
Nike Portugal 16/17 Home SS Vapor Shirt - QR: 129920 - £100
adidas Belgium 15/16 Away Shirt - QR: 116402 - £60

PRO DIRECT SOCCER

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NEXT DAY DELIVERY - ORDER BY 4PM. SEE ONLINE FOR DETAILS

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PLAY YOUR
WAY ANYWHERE
Take your game onto the street, court and cage, and dominate the
opposition as you showcase the tricks and skills that set you apart from
the rest in the latest range from Nike, adidas, PUMA and Joma.
1. Puma evoSTREET 1 TF - QR: 121518 - £52
2. adidas X 15.1 Cage - QR: 118695 - £75
3. Nike HypervenomX Proximo TF - QR: 130084 - £125
4. adidas ACE 16.1 Cage - QR: 118679 - £75
5. Nike MagistaX Proximo TF - QR: 130072 - £125
6. Joma Super Regate Indoor - QR: 126068 - £51

FROM ONLY £10

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FREE
FOOTBALL PROGRAMMES
To receive a FREE programme plus a copy
of our latest catalogue (listing several
thousand different mint condition Big
Match, League, Scottish, Irish, Foreign
and Non-League teams programmes etc.)
please send your name and address to:

STEVE EARL FOOTBALL PROGRAMMES (DEPT.FFT)
BROAD STREET, BUNGAY, SUFFOLK, NR35 1AH, ENGLAND
or phone 01986

892621 or visit www.footballprogs.co.uk

2016 England v Holland £8 (inc.p&p) 2015 England v France £8 (inc.p&p)

(Credit/Debit Cards & PayPal accepted)

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CUSTOM FOOTBALL FLAGS
Visit our new website the home of the fully stitched flag- accept no printed imitations

01457 810 007 www.barmyflags.com
[email protected]

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www.lovellsoccer.co.uk

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FREE Football Boot Personalisation

Orderline: 0800 804 8521

Available at Lovell Soccer

FREE delivery on orders over £100

MY PERFECT XI

Adrian Mutu
The Romanian striker played at Euro 2000 and 2008, and with the very
best in Europe during spells with Parma, Chelsea, Juve and Fiorentina
GK  GIANLUIGI BUFFON

He’s one of the best goalkeepers in the
world, ever. It shows just how good he is
that not only he is still going at the age
of 38, but people still believe him to be
one of the best in his position.

RB CHRISTIAN PANUCCI

LB GIANLUCA ZAMBROTTA

The best man to complete this back
four. He was part of a very successful
Juventus team and played his part in
attack and defence. He never stopped
working on the training pitch, either.

CM GHEORGHE HAGI

CM PAVEL NEDVED

He was a big part of everything we were
able to achieve at Juventus. I played the
best football of my career with him, and
the only disappointing thing is that
I could not play with him for longer.

CF ROBERTO BAGGIO

He rarely, if ever, got the praise his
performances deserved. His approach
was to not do anything for himself, but
work hard for his team-mates. He was
tough to beat and strong in the tackle.

I am lucky enough to call him my friend,
and the godfather to my son. He’s a hero
to the whole of Romania. Equalling his
goalscoring record was a huge honour,
and a moment I will always cherish.

At Inter Milan I was young and had just
come from Romania – then suddenly
I came face to face with my childhood
hero. Learning from the best natural
striker around was an absolute privilege.

CB LILIAN THURAM

CM PATRICK VIEIRA

CF RONALDO

He was one of the best in the world, and
a really nice guy with it – he deserves
everything he has won. They all talked
about him when I was at Parma, and
then I got to play with him at Juventus.

Vieira may not have been at the highest
point of his career when he joined
Juventus, but he had so much natural
ability that it didn’t matter. He never let
you stop for a moment on the pitch.

CB FABIO CANNAVARO

SUBSTITUTES

He was only a little bit older than me
when we were together at Inter, but
I saw what he was doing and thought
I could reach that level. He was so quick,
and the best finisher I have ever seen.

1

IVAN ZAMORANO
The experience he passed
on to me when I was young
and he was near the end of
his career was very useful.

CF ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC

Nobody is getting through this defence,
not even me! His awards speak for
themselves. His intelligence was the
main strength of his game. He knew
what would happen before anyone else.

GK

RB

CB

CHRISTIAN
PANUCCI

LILIAN
THURAM

GIANLUIGI
BUFFON

It didn’t really work out for him at
Juventus, but that wasn’t his fault:
his skill level wasn’t appreciated by
everyone. I think that was what made
him want to be the best in the world.
CB

LB

FABIO
CANNAVARO

GIANLUCA
ZAMBROTTA

2

CHRISTIAN VIERI
He had such a presence at
Inter, and wanted to score
goals at every opportunity.

CM
CM

CM

PATRICK
VIEIRA
GHEORGHE
HAGI

3

PAVEL
NEDVED

CF

CF
CF

Interview Pete Hall

ROBERTO
BAGGIO
RONALDO

ZLATAN
IBRAHIMOVIC

ALESSANDRO DEL PIERO
Where would Juventus be
without Del Piero? My strikers
must be good if he’s not in!
COACHES
FABIO CAPELLO AND
MARCELLO LIPPI
It’s impossible to pick
between these two, so
I have to go for both.
I’m not sure
they’d want to
work together,
but we would
win everything
if they could!

YOUR NEXT FOURFOURTWO IS ON SALE JUNE 1

CELEBRATING THE
50 ANNIVERSARY OF ENGLAND’S WORLD CUP VICTORY
TH

HHHH
TOTAL FILM

“A MUST FOR
ALL SPORTS FANS”
TALKSPORT

“MOVING
AND REVEALING”
THE TIMES

“A FILM FIT
FOR A HERO”
THE SUN

IN SELECT CINEMAS MAY 27
ON BLU-RAY, DVD
& DIGITAL DOWNLOAD MAY 30
AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW

Available at

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Bobby Moore Movie Ltd. © 2016. All Rights Reserved. Packaging © Entertainment One UK Limited 2016. All Rights Reserved.