Number 38 July 10 2017
Quiz of the Week (Answers at the foot of the Blog)
Each question has a Red Rose County club connection
1
Who
scored 16 Premier League goals in 2016-17 but in 2015 scored a hat-trick for
Blackburn Rovers v Stoke City in an FA Cup tie?
2
Which
ex-Manchester United player was top scorer with 6 goals in England’s qualifying
campaign for the 2016 European Championships?
3
Who
in 2015 became the first Everton player to captain England?
4
Paul
McKenna made 417 first team appearances for which club from 1997-2009?
5
Dennis
Stevens won an FA Cup Winners’ medal for Bolton in 1958 before moving on in
1962 and winning a League Championship medal with which club in 1963?
6
Centre
back Tom Aldred has been the rock in Blackpool’s defence making 90 appearances
but he has surprisingly been sold on a free to which Red Rose club?
7
Which
Red Rose club lost to Borussia Dortmund in the 1965-66 European Cup
Winners’ Final?
8
Which
non-league club (ex-Football League) play at Haig Avenue?
9
Willy
Cabellero, the ex-Manchester City goalkeeper, is of which nationality?
10
Burnley
gained promotion to the Premier League in 2009 following victory over which
Kevin Blackwell managed side in the Play-Off at Wembley?
Red
Rose County Footballing Legends
(Number 10)
Colin Bell Manchester City
The most famous race horse of the 60s and 70s was Nijinsky, The Lester Piggott mount swept all before him, winning all the classics in 1970 and was renowned for the ease of its galloping style and limitless stamina. The horse’s career overlapped that of Colin Bell and sports’ journalists of the day were quick to label the Manchester City midfield player with the Nijinsky nick-name, such was the similarity in running styles. Bell was a Geordie, born in County Durham who was signed by Bury in his youth. He captained the then 2nd Division (Tier 2) team whilst still a teenager and was quickly courted by a host of top clubs. Joe Mercer persuaded him to join City in 1966 at the age of 20 and he quickly became the final piece of the Mercer/Allison jigsaw that immediately was crowned 2nd Division champions in 1966, won the Football League in 1968, the FA Cup in 69 and in the following year, the Football League Cup and the European Cup Winners’ Cup double. He had won the first of his 48 England caps against Sweden in 1968 and was a member of the 1970 World Cup squad in Mexico. In the build up to the competition, the players were put through a stringent fitness regime and the City midfield player was deemed to be far and away the fittest of the group. He became a regular in the England side once Bobby Charlton retired from England duty after the World Cup and his stamina, skill, reading of the game and goal scoring ability kept the Sky Blues in the forefront of the chase for honours for the next 5 years before a serious injury picked up in the Manchester derby in 1975 caused him to lose close to 18 months of his career. He never fully recovered and finally retired in 1979 after amassing 475 league appearances and scoring 142 goals, a tremendous number for a box to box midfield player. He is still City’s 3rd highest goal scorer but the memories are all about that stamina and movement. It is a question that is unanswerable but has anyone in the history of English football ever cruised so effortlessly across a pitch at speed? Honours have of course come his way since retirement. An MBE from the Queen, the only stand at the Etihad to be named after a former player and he is a member of various Halls of Fame. In an era dominated by media personalities such as Best, Marsh, and Summerbee in the North West alone, Colin Bell never made headlines beyond the back pages. “The Reluctant Hero” was the apt title of his autobiography and he is still probably regarded as City’s greatest player; a true legend.
Colin Bell; hair flowing and poetry in motion
Review of the Premier
League, 2016-17
Chelsea
first, Tottenham Hotspur second certainly sums up the 2016-17 Premier League season for the Red Rose
clubs. Putting it simply, our top clubs were left in the wake of the two London
giants which meant that the two Manchester and the two Liverpool clubs were
chasing the scraps for the last month of the season. Not that the scraps are
unimportant of course; Champions League places are the passport to untold
wealth, but in terms of honours, it was disappointing. Historically, London
one-twos are rare. In the 117 completed seasons since league football
commenced, it has only occurred 3 times compared to 22 Red Rose County club
doubles. Slightly more ominous however
is that the score is only 6-3 to the North West since the inception of the
Premier League. Manchester City were
just about everyone’s tip for the title when they kicked off last August.
Initially Pep Guardiola’s side did not disappoint. They made a flying start and
led the table for the first 10 games but following a defeat at Tottenham, they
rarely looked likely to add to their tally of 4 League Titles. In spite of having
the manager who had never known the meaning of failure, somewhere down the line
it became clear that he did not understand what is necessary to win in, if not
the best league in the world quality wise, certainly the most competitive. Few
could believe his requirements for a footballing goalkeeper. Surely the number
one priority for the custodian of the goal is to make saves a la Joe Hart, but
apparently not. His ageing defence at times looked unfit for purpose and
although he spent £160million during the season, the only defender amongst them
was John Stones, still to totally convince. An FA Cup victory seemed possible
but they lost out to Arsenal at the semi-final stage and they failed to hold on
to a 5-3 first leg lead in the Champions League against Monaco, going down 3-1
in the second leg of their last 16 tie on the French Riviera. Sky Blue fans
will be disappointed with the 3rd place achieved in the Catalan’s
first season in charge. The jury was out on Liverpool pre-season. Jürgen Klopp bought frugally, in fact he made
a £17million profit on the year in net transfers and they too made an excellent
start. Apart from a shock 2-0 defeat at newly promoted Burnley in their second game, they stayed unbeaten until the end of
November, winning away at Chelsea and briefly topping the league. The bizarre
4-3 defeat at Bournemouth signalled the start of an inexplicable run of results
to the end of the season where they lost to sides from the lower reaches of the
league but remained unbeaten against the high-flyers. There were question marks
about the defence from time to time and they had to win at West Ham and beat
Middlesbrough at home in their two final games in order to keep Arsenal at bay
and clinch the final Champion’s League spot. This they managed comfortably with
4-0 and 3-0 wins respectively. With lengthy injuries to Coutinho and Sturridge,
the modern day “sick note”, the Reds probably performed as well as could be
expected. Sadio Mane was an inspired signing but his stint with the African
Nations Cup robbed the Merseysiders of a month of his services mid-season and
the Senegalese was injured for the final month. Their cup exploits were
similarly difficult to fathom. A shock defeat to Southampton in the semi-final
of the League Cup, losing 1-0 both home and away was followed by a 4th
Round home loss to a poor Wolverhampton side in the FA Cup.
Years when
an area of the country achieved 1st and 2nd in Tier 1 (Red
= Red Rose County, Blue = London, Green =
West Midlands)
|
Year
|
Champions
|
Runners-up
|
|
1889-90
|
Preston North End
|
Everton
|
|
1890-91
|
Everton
|
Preston North End
|
|
1905-06
|
Liverpool
|
Preston North End
|
|
1911-12
|
Blackburn Rovers
|
Everton
|
|
1914-15
|
Everton
|
Oldham Athletic
|
|
1920-21
|
Burnley
|
Manchester City
|
|
1946-47
|
Liverpool
|
Manchester United
|
|
1953-54
|
Wolverhampton Wanderers
|
West Bromwich Albion
|
|
1955-56
|
Manchester United
|
Blackpool
|
|
1963-64
|
Liverpool
|
Manchester United
|
|
1967-68
|
Manchester City
|
Manchester United
|
|
1976-77
|
Liverpool
|
Manchester City
|
|
1979-80
|
Liverpool
|
Manchester United
|
|
1984-85
|
Everton
|
Liverpool
|
|
1985-86
|
Liverpool
|
Everton
|
|
1986-87
|
Everton
|
Liverpool
|
|
1987-88
|
Liverpool
|
Manchester United
|
|
1993-94
|
Manchester United
|
Blackburn Rovers
|
|
1994-95
|
Blackburn Rovers
|
Manchester United
|
|
2003-04
|
Arsenal
|
Chelsea
|
|
2004-05
|
Chelsea
|
Arsenal
|
|
2008-09
|
Manchester United
|
Liverpool
|
|
2011-12
|
Manchester City
|
Manchester United
|
|
2012-13
|
Manchester United
|
Manchester City
|
|
2013-14
|
Manchester City
|
Liverpool
|
|
2016-17
|
Chelsea
|
Tottenham Hotspur
|
Manchester City; Champions in 2014,
the last great Red Rose season
The
heady scent of success was in the air across the city in Manchester when Jose
Mourinho took up residence at the Midland Hotel in July. After indifferent campaigns
(by Sir Alec’s standards) with Moyes and then van Gall at the helm, this was
surely the time for Manchester United
to be restored to their default position at the top of the Premier League. Was it an outstanding season or not? Two trophies
and Champions’ League qualification (even by the back door route) would say yes
but a 6th place in the Premier League and a 6th Round FA
Cup defeat to Chelsea at the Theatre of Dreams tell a different story. Mourinho
bought just 4 players on arrival, but two of them were marquee signings. Zlatan
Ibrahimovic came from Paris St Germain on a free transfer but his wages, the
signing on fee and allegedly his £100.000 plus per goal would have broken the
bank at the majority of Premier League clubs. Paul Pogba arrived from Juventus
with the label of the World’s most expensive player; so much was expected of
him. The Old Trafford club also started with gusto but once they lost the home
Manchester derby, they never looked like becoming Champions and the search was
on for alternative silverware. To be fair to the team, they did not fail in
this area and although progress was far from smooth, they qualified for the
knockout stages of the Europa League. Likewise they gained some revenge in the
League Cup for their loss in the derby and edged their way to Wembley with a
less than decisive two legged win over Hull City in the semi-finals. The final,
against Southampton, was a classic with the Reds surrendering a two goal lead
before Ibrahimovic notched his second to take the trophy back to the
North-West. In the Europa Cup, the absence of big clubs gave them a fairly easy
ride to the final where Ajax of Amsterdam were expected to give them a close
game. By this stage, Ibrahimovic was out injured and Mourinho literally gave up
on 3rd/4th spot in the Premier League, knowing that
victory over their Dutch opponents would guarantee a Champions’ League spot. As
it was they finished 6th but comfortably defeated a talented but
inexperienced Ajax team in the final. Everton
had obviously splashed out a large chunk of cash to secure the contract of
Ronald Koeman, prising him away from Southampton. Everton played some
attractive football throughout, the manager was never afraid to blood young
players and if Harry Kane had not scored seven times in his last two league
games, the Toffees would have had the country’s leading scorer in Romelu
Lukaku. The Merseyside Blues finished 7th, qualifying for the Europa
League but those fans who expected big things from a side recently taken over
by the eminently wealthy Farhad Mashiri must have been quite disappointed. Burnley were the bookies favourites for
the drop. Sean Dyche had brought them up two seasons before only for them to
fall back at the first time of asking. After immediately winning the
Championship, this was the manager’s second stab at trying to guarantee
survival. It was always going to be a tough ask but they grabbed 3 points on 10
occasions at Turf Moor with a solitary away win at Crystal Palace. They drew
with Manchester United and Chelsea,
cobbled together enough points to reach the magical 40 with 2 games to spare and
finished 16th, 6 points clear of relegation. A 5th Round
shock home defeat to non-league Lincoln City dashed any hopes of a trip to
Wembley, but they will once more join the “big four” as the Red Rose County’s participants
in the Premier League next season. Hopefully the spoils will this time head
back up the M6.
Post Weekend
Musings
Even
with the success of the British Lions in New Zealand, the exploits of Andy
Murray and Johanna Konta at Wimbledon and Joe Root’s sensational start to his
captaincy of the English cricket team, the gossip and speculation surrounding
the football transfer market has had its share of this summer’s back page
press headlines. To add to that there was the triumph of the
England U/19 World Cup winning side and the brave failures of the U/21 side
which went down on penalties to Germany in the semi-final of the European
Nations Cup. The draw for this coming season’s FA Cup was published during the
week, barely 40 days after Arsenal’s Wembley victory in the 2016-17 Final and
lo and behold, Blackburn
Rovers played their first friendly of the season on Saturday. You do
therefore have to ask yourself the question……”is there a close season for
football in this day and age?”
Five
of our league clubs commemorate noteworthy anniversaries in the fast
approaching season.. When you discover that Manchester City are only in 4th place in the list of our
clubs (see below) to have resided in Tier 1 and that Oldham Athletic are the 11th to
reach a century of seasons, you can understand the magnitude of the history,
tradition and longevity of football in the Red Rose county which, along with
the West Midlands, was the cradle of league football the world over. The
determination of the officials and the loyalty of supporters who have made this
possible since 1888 should never be forgotten. Thankfully it continues to this
day.
|
Club
|
Anniversary
|
|
Manchester City
|
90th
season in Tier 1
|
|
Blackpool
|
110th
season in the Football League
|
|
Oldham Athletic
|
100th
season in the Football League
|
|
Rochdale
|
90th
season in the Football League
|
|
Wigan Athletic
|
40th
season in the Football League
|
Wembley 1990; arguably the greatest period in
the history of Oldham Athletic
Alex
Neil rarely hit the heights in a professional career with Airdrieonians,
Barnsley, Mansfield Town and Hamilton Academicals. Towards the end of his
career he was appointed player-manager for the South Lanarkshire side and
immediately led the unheralded “Accies” into the Scottish Premier League. After
an excellent start, Neil was lured away to Norwich City and the Scotsman just
as quickly catapulted the Canaries from the Championship to the Premier League.
They fell back after one season and when they struggled to keep track with the
leaders, he was sacked. After a short break, he has replaced the Sunderland
bound Simon Grayson at Preston North End and although he knows that the
club is one of the poor relations (financially) of the Championship, his pedigree suggests
that North End will at minimum be tough opposition, particular at
Deepdale.
Burnley have played in the Premier League in 3
separate seasons, 2009-10, 2014-15 and 2016-17. On each of these occasions, the
title has been won by Chelsea so if you are looking for omens and you have some
spare cash, back the Londoners for 2017-18.
There
will be time to consider the achievements of Wayne Rooney. I believe that once
his career comes to an end, history will rank him amongst the greats of English
football. For the moment the media, being what the media is, suggests something
below legendary status but records are not erased (except in athletics) and not
easily broken. Rooney’s CV stands comparison with almost all of the greats, but
for the moment he has a new job; leader of the pack at Goodison Park where it
all began in 2002 at the age of 16. He has arrived for free although his wages
will “cost a bonny penny” as they once said in Lancashire. He seemed to lose
his sparkle last season but the former England captain needs to play regularly.
He is neither an “off the bench” merchant nor a “super sub”. His experience
will help Koeman’s talented youngsters and Pickford and Keane will shore up the
back, making the Toffees more difficult opposition
as they look to improve on 7th place. But with Lukaku off to Manchester United, where are the goals
coming from? Last season he led with 25 and Ross Barkley was 2nd
with 5. Is there a genuine number 9 on his way to join Wayne at Everton?
Quiz
Answers
1 Josh King, 2 Danny
Wellbeck, 3 Phil Jagielka, 4 Preston North End, 5 Everton, 6 Bury, 7 Liverpool,
8 Southport, 9 Argentinian, 10 Sheffield United.
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