Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2025 i FourFourTwo UK

X @JamesAndrew_ E james.andrew@futurenet.com Making predictions is a mug’s game – and that is never more true than this term. If anyone claims they predicted back in August that Nottingham Forest would be above Manchester City going into the final stretch of the season, they’re a liar. Just like Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur being in the bottom half of the table, it’s been an unpredictable campaign. So, as we run the rule over the very best players in the Premier League for 2024-25, there are undoubtedly some names who wouldn’t have been in the conversation at all last summer. Players from Brighton, Brentford, Bournemouth, Forest and Fulham make the grade, whereas there’s not much room for Manchester United and Spurs representatives. As with all these sorts of rankings, they’re…

01 Before taking over as Leicester manager earlier this season, Ruud van Nistelrooy (right) had held only one previous permanent role at which Dutch club? 02 With more than 600 showings, who has the most top-flight appearances of any current Premier League player? 03 Which Sunderland player scored the infamous ‘beach ball goal’ past Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina in October 2009? 04 Former Sunderland midfielder Stefan Schwarz famously had a clause in his Black Cats contract banning him from going where? 05 Before the current season, which of the Old Firm had won more Scottish titles: Celtic or Rangers? 06 Which European club plays its home matches at Estadio da Luz? 07 With 365 goals, which legendary thunder-thighed former Bayern Munich striker is the Bundesliga’s all-time top scorer? 08 Which…

Don’t agree with our ranking? Tell us at #FFTPL50 50 LIAM DELAP IPSWICH It was deemed a major gamble last summer when newly-promoted Ipswich Town recruited Delap from Manchester City in a £20 million deal. Nobody could have known for certain whether the striker – then only 21 – was cut out for life in the top flight following just two Premier League appearances, both as a substitute and amounting to 47 minutes in total. Delap’s tireless efforts leading the line have drawn repeated calls for an England cap Kieran McKenna and his staff had been suitably impressed, though, by Delap’s 31 Championship outings for Hull last season. It hadn’t just been Delap’s goals that convinced them, but his all-action style, as a burly striker who could hold the ball…

When Steven Gerrard’s effort found the corner of the net, Liverpool were on the path to glory. Nine months before his famous looping header in Istanbul, it was the Merseysider who’d given the Reds the lead in their first Champions League fixture of the campaign – a third qualifying round tie against Grazer AK. The skipper fired home from 25 yards in Austria, then added another, as Rafael Benitez’s first match as Liverpool boss ended in a 2-0 win. Liverpool’s road to Istanbul was far from straightforward – it needed yet another Stevie G intervention to secure a 3-1 victory over Olympiacos in the final game of the group stage, after the Reds had looked in danger of going out, requiring three second-half goals to save themselves. Sound familiar? Bayer…

You have been at Exeter City since late 2022 – enjoying the challenge? It’s been brilliant. Before me, they’d had two managers in 16 years and that stability, the way the club was run, was really appealing and exciting. From day one, that alignment of a successful club is there between me, the board and fans. It’s challenging. As a supporter-owned club, we have real challenges. Every season, we’ve been in the bottom four for budget – we have to constantly punch above our weight. How proud were you that Nottingham Forest needed a shootout to knock you out of this year’s FA Cup? It was by far the best night I’ve had at the club, and what was really pleasing was that we showed the best version of ourselves.…

Competitions for predicting the results of football matches are older than the Football League. But in 1923, a venture started that would change the face of UK sports betting – three businessmen from the north west began the Littlewoods Football Pools. Their basic game – the first of many variations – required punters to select up to 12 results from across a given weekend. Points were then awarded for various achievements, such as correctly guessing the winning team or getting the score-margin right. Whoever got the most points won the ‘pool’ of entry fees (minus a cut for Littlewoods, of course). Initially, the scheme was a disaster. The trio gave out 4,000 coupons at Old Trafford on their first attempt and got just 35 back – their cut wouldn’t even…

The fun-loving gloveman recounts being spotted by Alex Ferguson, shocking Arsenal at Wembley with Birmingham and why he’s a huge Roy Hodgson fan Is it true that you were studying to be a chef before turning pro in football? That is true! I didn’t have a job lined up after I left school, so I was just playing non-league football, having a nice time and spending evenings playing on my PlayStation. Then, one Friday night, my mate rang to say that the pot-washer at the restaurant where he worked part-time had walked out, mid-shift; I helped them out for a bit of cash and it became a regular thing. I was at that age where I needed money for clothes and stuff, and it was brilliant. After a while, one…

HIGH SOCIETY JAKARTA, INDONESIA Hopes of reaching the 2026 World Cup remain alive for Indonesia – just a few weeks after 70,000 saw Oxford’s Ole Romeny score the winner against Bahrain, amateurs headed to a rooftop pitch to recreate such moments. Not a bad view either, to be fair. Pic Arie Yudhistira/NurPhoto/Shutterstock DECLAN TWICE LONDON, ENGLAND Declan Rice’s transformation into David Beckham was as completely unexpected as it was incredible – Real Madrid didn’t see it coming. “Nah, it’ll be fine to leave a huge gap on one side of the wall, it’s only Declan Ri… oh, FFS!” Foot like a traction engine. Pic Marc Atkins/Getty SUNDAY BEST SOLIHULL, ENGLAND The FA Sunday Cup may not be England’s most famous competition, but that didn’t stop Highgate Albion giving it plenty as they…

BEST PLAYER Mo Salah has been this season’s most outstanding player. One of the Premier League’s most consistent attackers for many years, somehow the Egyptian raised his game to extraordinary levels. He has rewritten the record books on several occasions. Salah’s impressive goals-and-assists output has helped Liverpool on their way to a 20th top flight title – a remarkable achievement in manager Arne Slot’s first season in England. Salah operates at the highest standards, and, at 32, he is in the best physical condition of his life, allowing him to perform at the peak of his powers this term. He’s delivered time and time again this campaign, as provider or goalscorer, and even on a rare off day, he still has that ability to be able to pull something special…

As you first arrive through the narrow, brick-terraced streets off County Road, Goodison Park looms above. A majestic yet anachronistic throwback to the great grounds of the pre-Premier League age, it is football nostalgia, a Grand Old Lady whose very structure still shakes when the crowd gives it reason to. This is a venue rooted in its community, the pubs, cafes and chippies that form an indelible piece of the experience – a bevvie in the Winslow, a bacon butty in the Goodison Cafe, salt ‘n’ pepper chicken from the Blue Dragon. But it’s about to be no more. The ground that has hosted an FA Cup final, that saw such luminaries as Franz Beckenbauer, Pele and Eusebio grace its turf at the 1966 World Cup, and whose brickwork continues…

On a breezy Friday at the University of Warwick, three match officials stride into the centre of the pitch, ready to take charge of an under-19s fixture. Running one line today, Liam Trotter has 300-plus Football League outings to his name, the majority in the Championship for Ipswich, Millwall, Bolton and Nottingham Forest. Holding the other assistant referee’s flag in his hand, Peter Vincenti turned out for Aldershot, Rochdale and Stevenage. Grasping the whistle is ex-Barnsley and Gateshead defender George Smith. FourFourTwo is in the Midlands to witness the trio take the next step towards what they hope will be a future officiating games at the highest level. No former professional footballer has ever refereed in the Premier League, but these three are among 10 ex-pros hoping to change that,…

All eyes have been on Falkirk in recent seasons in Scotland’s lower leagues, as the Bairns have chased down back-to-back titles and a top-flight return. But four miles up the road, another of the Central Belt sides north of the border have been quietly following in their near-neighbour’s slipstream. Before 2023-24, Stenhousemuir had gone their 140-year history without a single league title to their name; 1995’s Challenge Cup their only trophy success. But with former Hearts, Everton and Scotland left-back Gary Naysmith installed as manager in January 2023, the Warriors’ long wait ended with last term’s League Two crown. The upward trajectory has continued in League One. As squeaky-bum time has neared, Stenny have been seeking a play-off place and promotion to the second tier – heady heights they haven’t…

Twenty-two years as a top-flight team ended in an instant, and without anyone even kicking a ball. Rather, it was an FA announcement that tolled the death knell for Doncaster Belles. The FA statement in 2013 almost glossed over the news, instead focusing on an extended WSL complete with a second tier for the first time. That expansion included the ascension of Manchester City to the highest rung of the women’s game for the first time, with the Belles making room for them by dropping down a level despite having never finished in the relegation zone. The demotion was the beginning of a tumble down the leagues that has resulted in the two-time English champions and six-time FA Cup winners dropping from perennial challengers to relegation battlers in the fourth…

The Argentine defender opens up on winning the Scudetto with Sven, losing an Olympic final to Nigeria and the nightmare of marking Marco van Basten What did you know of Udinese before going to Italy from Argentina in 1989? Almost nothing! There was no Google back then. I read up a bit on the history and I knew that Zico had played there and been an icon. I also talked to a lot of people – there are countless of Italian descent in Argentina. They voiced their opinions of the club, but I pretty much had to go there to discover it for myself. Udinese were consistently battling the drop during that era, even taking on Brescia in a relegation play-off at the end of the 1992-93 campaign. Did you…

No Scotsman has more Premier League goals than Duncan Ferguson’s 68 for Everton and Newcastle. Nobody has more red cards, either, though Richard Dunne and Patrick Vieira tie with Ferguson’s eight. It’s believed by some – not least Ferguson himself – that the combative 6ft 4in forward could have broken Denis Law and Kenny Dalglish’s joint record of 30 goals for Scotland, had he not refused international selection from 1997 onwards. He did so in protest at treatment by the Scottish FA over his conviction for assault in 1995; Ferguson had headbutted Raith Rovers’ John McStay in April 1994, which led to the 23-year-old serving a 44-day sentence in Glasgow’s notorious Barlinnie prison. Upon his release, Ferguson returned down south to Everton – they had made his loan move from…

LIVERPOOL 2 BLACKBURN 1 Premier League, 1995 “Winning the Premier League on the last day of the season was special. It was in our hands, we’d had a big lead that season, but there was a Manchester United juggernaut coming up behind us – for it to have been ripped away was unthinkable. We lost the game but it didn’t matter – when we knew United had drawn at West Ham, it was just relief. We deserved it. It still gives me goosebumps talking about lifting the trophy, though my barnet was a regret! When I work as a pundit now and see ‘Premier League champion’ below my name, nobody can take that away.” ENGLAND 3 POLAND 1 Friendly, 1999 “I had to wait a long time for my first…

“I DRAGGED MY BAND AND CREW TO A BAR IN NASHVILLE TO WATCH NEWCASTLE, AND GOT EVERYONE HAMMERED” What was the first match that you ever attended? I went to games when I was knee-high, but anyone who says they remember those is a liar. The first one I remember was a 2-2 draw with Stoke in December 2008. Newcastle were 2-0 up at half-time and Michael Owen had scored both goals. I remember thinking how good it was to go to the match when Newcastle were winning. Then Stoke scored twice, with one in the last minute. But I remember walking from our estate with my dad, jumping on the bus, then seeing the pitch and hearing Blaydon Races and Local Hero for the first time, and after the…

On the beaches of Dunkirk in northern France, more than 330,000 Allied troops were evacuated as part of a Second World War operation codenamed ‘Dynamo’. Those fraught scenes in late May and early June 1940 have inspired countless books and films over the decades since. Operation Dynamo remains the port town’s primary association – the word ‘Dunkirk’ evoking images of desperate soldiers awaiting salvation on windswept shores, and of a makeshift flotilla of fishing boats, yachts and other civilian craft joining forces to help rescue them from the encircling Nazi war machine. Now, a second-tier football club is hoping to make new memories. Almost exactly 85 years after that turmoil, FFT has traversed the English Channel in the opposite direction to northern France. This David versus Goliath showdown is in…

There’s a look of mild horror on the face of Gary Pallister, as FourFourTwo informs him of David Beckham’s looming milestone. “He’s 50, is he?” grins Pallister. “Dear God, that shows how old I am!” Nine years Beckham’s senior, Pallister was in the Manchester United side when Beckham made his first-team debut at Brighton’s Goldstone Ground in 1992, but anyone who watched the midfielder from the start of his professional career is probably experiencing a similar level of despair right now. Back in the 1990s, Beckham was the epitome of youthful genius, dominating the second half of the decade with the classic curtains hairdo of the era. Before you know it, 30 years have passed, albeit those years have been kind to Beckham – so kind that his birthday has…

XI BEST: Neil Edwards, Scott Wiseman, Craig Dawson, Eoghan O’Connell, Tom Kennedy, Gary Jones, Jason Peake, Paddy McCourt, Ian Henderson, Grant Holt, Rickie Lambert. WORST: Jake Eastwood, Reece Brown, Neal Trotman, Jon Boardman, Michael Simpkins, James Ball, Ian Craney, Michael Afuye, Rayhaan Tulloch, Paul Tait, Rekeil Pyke. PLAYER B: Ian Henderson. Our all-time highest goalscorer who has produced some moments of pure genius over the years. Still doing the business at 40. W: Michael Simpkins was hilariously rubbish. More accurate throwing shirts at supporters… MOMENT B: Joe Thompson’s goal against Charlton to keep us in League One in 2018 after his inspirational comeback. An incredible, emotionally charged moment I won’t forget as long as I live. W: Probably the 2-0 away defeat to Hartlepool in 2022-23. We knew then our…

On February 24, 2025, San Diego FC won 2-0 away at reigning MLS champions LA Galaxy in their first ever competitive match. The victory was a significant marker in the history of soccer in San Diego, a city that has struggled to sustain a professional club over the past 55-plus years. On the kit and branding front, San Diego fall in the ‘middling’ category. There’s an element of interest in the unorthodox red-to-blue gradient border around the crest, replicated in the side panels of the navy and silver home shirt, but there’s very little else to write home about. It’s a fate suffered by many MLS sides today, due in part to Adidas’ monopolisation of the league. Yet soccer in San Diego didn’t always look average. Though they never graced…