Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2024 i FourFourTwo UK

X @JamesAndrew_ E james.andrew@futurenet.com A lot of thought goes into deciding who goes on the cover of FourFourTwo each month, and it’s never a straightforward process. One of things we very strongly consider is the story behind a player. Luis Diaz has had a huge impact on the pitch since he made his move to Anfield in 2022, but off the field he has had quite a remarkable journey too – culminating in the frightening episode a year ago when his father was kidnapped in the Colombian town of Barrancas. In this issue, we also chat to Bournemouth gaffer Andoni Iraola about life on the south coast and being one of four Basque managers in the Premier League this season. Ever wondered what it would be like to climb the…

01 Which English boss is famed for his stint at Swedish team Ostersund? 02 How many consecutive World Cup finals did legendary Brazil full-back Cafu (right) feature in? 03 Which Italian rivals face off in the Derby della Lanterna (Derby of the Lighthouse) at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris? 04 What’s the name of Daley Blind’s father, who also played for Ajax? 05 Which current League One outfit won a major trophy and suffered relegation in the 2010-11 season? 06 When Treble-winning Manchester United withdrew from the FA Cup to play in the 2000 Club World Cup, they beat a team managed by a young Ange Postecoglou – true or false? 07 Which European heavyweight did cult hero Ivan Campo join Bolton from in 2002? 08 Tough-tackling centre-back Kepler Laveran de…

ARSENAL 4 MIDDLESBROUGH 1 FA Cup Fourth Round, 2004 “My first goal for Arsenal, at Highbury, down the Clock End where I used to train in the youth team. It was a lovely chip that drew comparisons with Dennis Bergkamp – he was a player I was tipped to maybe emulate at the time. It was a great goal, which always helps, but that feeling of scoring, at a place as iconic as Highbury, was like nothing else. Even though it was late in the game, the fans started singing my name: ‘We’ve got David Bentley!’. It felt like the moment I announced myself as a professional footballer – everything changed from the second that ball landed in the back of Middlesbrough’s net.” BLACKBURN 4 MANCHESTER UNITED 3 Premier League,…

A gaggle of 60-odd Kazakhstani football fans mingling in Shrewsbury town centre on a Thursday afternoon is a rare sight. In fact, it had never happened before and will, in all probability, never occur again. But for one night, a UEFA Conference League night that will be forever remembered by Cymru Premier side The New Saints as an historic one, Astana fans occupied a small Shropshire town a few miles from the Anglo-Welsh border. Even in defeat, the visitors waved their national flag with pride. FOLLOWING IN DIEGO’S FOOTSTEPS On matchday, head coach Craig Harrison is among the first to arrive at Park Hall stadium in Oswestry, the home of TNS. Kick-off in Shrewsbury, just along the A5, is still six hours away. “It’s the worst bit of matchday,” he…

From the age of eight until turning 20, I spent an illogical amount of time worrying about the fitness of Bryan Robson. That’s from the moment Captain Marvel joined Manchester United for a British-record transfer fee in October 1981 to his 1994 departure to become player-manager of Middlesbrough. Captain for both club and country, the Geordie midfielder was the finest footballer in the land, even if he insists it was Paul Gascoigne. Injuries hampered Robson’s progress. Manchester United won the first 10 games in the 1985-86 season and were favourites to collect a first title since 1967, then Robson got injured and the team finished fourth. Now 67, Robson is mightily proud of his 700-plus professional appearances for West Bromwich Albion, United and Boro, plus 90 for England. I know…

Seconds after the final whistle is blown in the play-off final, the south-east corner of Metz’s Stade Saint-Symphorien is awash with green euphoria. As Saint-Etienne’s players and coaching staff flood towards 850 joyous supporters, the nerve-gnawing tension of their long promotion push breaks at last. Chisel-jawed defender Leo Petrot kneels on the pitch, raises both arms into the air and lets out a guttural victory roar. Captain Anthony Briançon gazes towards the jubilant, flare-toting fans and shakes his head in disbelief. Amid the throng, anorak-clad coach Olivier Dall’Oglio animatedly claps his hands and tells his players, “You’ve done it, guys, you’ve done it!” Then there are whoops and roars, hugs and high fives, wide-eyed grins and triumphantly-clenched fists. Several players are wiping away tears. “I feel like weeping,” says homegrown…

Anybody who’s been on the internet at any point in 2024 will have seen daft things regarding Cole Palmer. He’s got a genuine shout for being the world’s first Living Meme Footballer. The assumptions that get made about him have been as predictable as they are misguided; the presence of eloquence is so often mistaken for intelligence, when under the harsh glare of a TV camera. Unless Palmer suddenly starts cutting post-match interviews like Hulk Hogan pulling soliloquies out of King Lear, this is what the narrative around him is likely to be now. But watch him, even just for 90 minutes, and you’ll know it’s wrong. Already, he’s demonstrated a unique understanding of how the game works, and showed his on-pitch intellect to be the equal of more accepted…

XI BEST: Stuart Nelson, Barry Fuller, Adam Barrett, Simon King, Joe Martin, Andy Hessenthaler, Nicky Southall, Bradley Dack, Matt Jarvis, Simeon Jackson, Cody McDonald. WORST: Pontus Dahlberg, Duncan Jupp, Zesh Rehman, Haji Mnoga, Craig Armstrong, Stuart Thurgood, Chris Herd, Matty Willock, Scott Kashket, Mark McCammon, Billy King. PLAYER B: I’m not old enough to enjoy Andy Hessenthaler in his ‘pomp’, but I was certainly around to watch a young Bradley Dack emerge from the youth ranks and light up the division. Had he not picked up an injury towards the end of 2015-16, we’re promoted to the Championship. He was untouchable. W: It would be unfair to include a player whose time in ME7 was savaged with injury issues, but I’ll do it anyway. Scott Kashket – a debut home…

The former Italian shot-stopper tells FourFourTwo about following in his father’s footsteps at Milan and the game that changed Chelsea forever… Your dad, Fabio, must’ve been a tough act to follow at Milan, having been in goal for their 1969 European Cup win… I took the positives of having a father with great knowledge and experience in football. He advised me. When you get closer to professional level, comparisons are made, but it didn’t feel as if I was carrying a weight on my shoulders. My father stopped playing football the year before I was born, so I didn’t have the chance to see him play or to experience the family life of a footballer. When I was a teenager, I’d often be a ball boy at the first-team matches,…

THE BEAUTIFUL GAME MOUNTAIN VIEW ALETSCH, SWITZERLAND There was only one sensible place to launch ticket sales for Women’s Euro 2025 – on top of a giant glacier. Ahead of next year’s Swiss event, Anita Asante faced Johan Djourou & Co in a game on a mountain – luckily, ticket prices aren’t quite as steep. Pic Francesco Scaccianoce/UEFA/Getty Images “WAIT, THAT’S NOT VINICIUS JUNIOR!” PARIS, FRANCE Rodri was a surprise winner of the Ballon d’Or, as Real Madrid’s delegation warmly clapped – no, hang on, they snubbed the event in a huff. We’d say they took their ball home, but that would have required them to be awarded the orb in the first place… Pic Franck Fife/AFP/Getty JUMPING FOR JOY LONDON, ENGLAND Mikel Merino was also part of Spain’s triumphant squad at…

Thomas Tuchel will start life as England manager on January 1. An exciting chapter kicks off in the new year, as England have a man at the helm who has proven he is capable of winning the biggest prizes. An elite coach, Tuchel has been appointed purely because of his exceptional talent and ability to manage the best players on the planet. The 51-year-old commences his 18-month contract on the first day of the year, giving him the perfect timeframe to focus on achieving England’s goal: to win the 2026 World Cup. Gareth Southgate did a great job during his eight years in charge, guiding the Three Lions to two Euros finals, a World Cup semi-final and laying down solid foundations that his replacement can now build on. Southgate came…

MATTHEW KETCHELL DEPUTY EDITOR @ketchell YES On the one hand, wholly unnecessary. On the other: who are we, hopeless football addicts, to snub a competition in which some of the best sides in the world will battle it out in a non-tournament year? Get me a 63-game wallchart! The old Club World Cup was as exciting and meaningful to neutrals as Arsenal’s Emirates Cup. But FIFA’s revamped version has had a serious glow-up – a World Cup format featuring 12 European outfits (including the last four Champions League winners), six sides from South America (including the last four Copa Libertadores kings), four from the North, Central America and Caribbean confederations, four each from Africa and Asia, one from Oceania and, in a hilariously unsubtle touch, a guest entrant from host…

30 THOMAS FRANK Brentford’s one-time assistant to Dean Smith in the Championship is now the second-longest serving Premier League manager and one of the most versatile. Oscillating between 4-3-3 and 3-5-2 systems, the Dane has established the relative minnows as top-flight regulars. DID YOU KNOW? Frank resigned as Brondby boss in 2016 after the chairman criticised him with an online pseudonym. 29 PETER BOSZ The first of several consecutive bald men to manage Ajax, Bosz bossed them to the 2017 Europa League Final against Manchester United. He then joined Bayer Leverkusen and Lyon before steering PSV to the Eredivisie in emphatic style last term, amassing a record 91 points. DID YOU KNOW? PSV won their first 17 league games in 2023-24, scoring four or more 14 times, with 7-1 and…

FFT HEAD OF VIDEO @AdamClery We hope you’re sitting down for this, but Thomas Tuchel is German. He’s also a boss considered to be at the very cutting edge of football progression, a meticulous forward-planner complete with a jaw-dropping tournament record, and a tactical innovator that even Pep Guardiola admits learning from. But the German thing is what matters, it seems. Maybe international managers should be subject to the same eligibility criteria as the players. Maybe! But since they’re not, the FA have opted to slam a door in the face of Eddie Howe (didn’t want the job), Graham Potter (said he preferred club football), Lee Carsley (thought he wanted the job but then he didn’t) and Harry Redknapp (too pricey to buy out of his Soccer Aid contract). So,…

You arrived at Sunderland alone, to little fanfare with a recent relegation on your CV. Three years ago, you couldn’t speak English and most of your career has been spent in youth football, yet you have enjoyed a wonderful start on Wearside? Why? My previous job was interesting. In the end, it was not the best result but that doesn’t mean I felt I was a bad coach. In fact, it was quite the opposite. You always learn from both good and bad experiences. In those two seasons, at Lorient, we had four very different periods. The first one was amazing, then we sold three players so the second half of 2022-23 was much more difficult. The first part of the second season was very tough. Not just the results…

The lifelong Magpie opens up about earning Sir Bobby’s trust, his new career in the Middle East, and how Ruud van Nistelrooy “knew I wanted to kick him” How did you manage to become the head coach of a new professional club in Dubai that has been set up only in the past year? It all started a couple of years ago when owner Soheil Varahram was playing for Gulf United, my club at the time. We won the league title and got promoted. He later experienced the heartache of being released and decided to build his own club. With his social media network, he’s massive. He tapped into that and asked his followers what the club should be called. The team is named Al Qabila FC, which means ‘tribe’…

The opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics was still two days away when Steph Houghton began to change everything for women’s football in the UK. The very first event of the Games pitched the Great Britain women’s team against New Zealand in Cardiff, live on BBC One. Just past the hour mark, left-back Houghton thundered in the only goal of the game from a free-kick, to become an unexpected hero. Three days later she scored again, against Cameroon. Three days after that, she bagged another: the winner against Brazil in front of 70,584 at Wembley, a record for a women’s game in England. The team captured the hearts of a nation – from that summer, women’s football on these shores hasn’t looked back. Houghton herself went on to captain England…

Luis Diaz’s father looked on the verge of collapse. Up in the stands of the Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Melendez in Barranquilla, Colombia’s fourth city, emotion poured out of him. Just a week earlier, he had been released from a terrifying 13-day kidnapping ordeal. Captured by gunmen at a petrol station in his home town, he’d been taken to the mountains, with no clue when or if he’d find freedom. Now, on a sweltering November night almost exactly 12 months ago, Diaz Snr was wearing a bright yellow Colombia shirt, unable to contain tears of joy. His son had just scored twice in the space of four minutes, past Liverpool team-mate Alisson, to turn a World Cup qualifier against Brazil on its head and give Los Cafeteros victory in front of…

Time stands still when you’re not winning. Andoni Iraola held his breath for his first 15 hours of English football. The Basque landed in England as an enigma in June 2023, unwanted in some circles before he’d even posed with a red-and-black scarf as Bournemouth’s shiny dugout upgrade. Popular predecessor Gary O’Neil had dragged the Cherries away from the Premier League’s trapdoor the previous campaign and, mere months into the job, Iraola had already encountered scepticism, expectations and a devil of a fixture list, all without assistant Inigo Perez due to visa issues that would ultimately never resolve themselves. It was late October, his 10th league game, before Iraola tasted victory. “I was never worried about the club’s confidence in me – it was more about my own doubts,” he…

No one knows football north of the border better than Ally McCoist. In a playing career spanning 23 years, the talismanic striker scored more than 400 goals for club and country, won 20 major honours and became one of the finest footballers Scotland has produced. Since retiring in 2001, the 62-year-old has remained as close to the game as ever, as a coach, manager, radio host, pundit and co-commentator – in total, he’s amassed more than four decades’ worth of experiences and anecdotes, which he’s rarely shy in sharing. Dear Scotland is his first book – though not an actual autobiography, it does celebrate some of his best memories and stories from his time in the game. It’s quite the ride. “I’m now at a stage where I’m really enjoying…

The greater the legacy that is left behind by one manager, the more painful life can often be for the person who replaces them. Arsenal endured four years out of the top four following the departure of Arsene Wenger, even if they hadn’t qualified for the Champions League during his final two campaigns either. Manchester United have not had as much as a sniff of the league since Sir Alex Ferguson stepped down. While it’s still been early days for Arne Slot, the handover from Jurgen Klopp started smoother than anyone could have expected. A new-found defensive solidity, improvements in supposedly declining superstars, whatever the hell he did to Ryan Gravenberch… initial results fuelled the possibility that this campaign could be progress, rather than just spinning plates. By late October,…

“As a minimum, this club belongs back in the National League,” declares Kettering Town’s ambitious owner George Akhtar. Most teams in English football’s seventh tier – two leagues below Akhtar’s minimum – would settle for signing their division’s top-scorer, but Kettering have gone way beyond adding prolific Southern Premier League Central striker Jonny Edwards to their ranks. They’ve also boosted their frontline with a trio that would, say five years ago, have passed as a decent gaggle of Championship forwards. First came Nile Ranger (bottom), the troubled teenage wonderkid who landed at Newcastle in the late noughties. Just how far Ranger’s not-insignificant talent could have carried him will forever remain unknown. Instead, Ranger’s off-field exploits have dominated his narrative. “I don’t care about someone’s past,” Akhtar explains to FFT. “It’s…

Success on the football pitch can do wonders for a city. Alex McLeish, a mainstay during Aberdeen’s glittering 1980s heydey before becoming a well-respected manager, remembers the feeling well. “As a city, Aberdeen was buzzing at that time,” the former centre-back tells FourFourTwo now. “The football club was winning games, the pubs and restaurants were full, the nightlife was vibrant, even the oil industry was booming. It was an incredible time.” Football fans certainly had plenty to celebrate, as a young, pre-knighthood Alex Ferguson led the Dons to three Scottish Premier Division titles, four Scottish Cups, the Scottish League Cup, the European Cup Winners’ Cup and the European Super Cup in his eight-year stewardship between 1978 and 1986. “It wasn’t like there was a precedent for winning before he arrived,”…

The Welsh international striker recalls growing up in Africa, humiliation at Derby and air strikes in Israel, not to mention a certain hat-tricks record… Having been born in Zambia, before living in Malawi, how long did it take you to adapt to life in Wales? It took me years. We moved over when I was nine, after my dad passed away. Wales was very new and different – in the first weeks, it was freezing cold and a huge eye-opener for me. It was really hard to adjust because we didn’t know many people aside from my auntie and her kids, who we lived with at first. My mum fought hard to give us a better life. It was tough to make friends and I didn’t have too many at…

For many, football shirt sponsors are a necessary evil. An otherwise immaculate garment may find itself tainted by the presence of a corporate logo, even if said crest has been faithfully colour-matched to the kit’s aesthetic (a clashing badge doesn’t bear thinking about). Though this reputation is in many ways well-founded, I’m on a mission to unearth football shirts both old and new where the sponsor is actually the star of the show rather than an unfortunate byproduct. From the dramatically-oversized sponsors of the late 1970s to the contemporary kits whose designs are shaped around the branding of their benefactors, the football shirt world may look cleaner without sponsors but, in my mind, it wouldn’t be better. In 2018, the shirt stratosphere was turned upside down with the release of…