Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2017 i FourFourTwo UK

The talk at FFT Towers after Romelu Lukaku signed for Everton in 2014 was all about the transfer fee. The Toffees had brought in the Belgian for a club record £28m, which at the time felt like it might be close to his peak transfer value. Well, how wrong we were! An indication of just how crazy the spending has been this summer is that when Lukaku signed for Manchester United, the question of whether this represented good value wasn’t even a consideration. In a market where an international full-back costs £50m, a fee of £75m for one of the league’s best forwards was a no-brainer. By the time Neymar arrived in Paris, Lukaku had become a £75m bargain. How will he and the other big summer signings get on?…

1 A REAL FOOTBALL BRAIN England Burslem Remember when San Diego’s brand new soccer franchise held a poll to decide their name, and the winner was Footy McFooty Face? Sadly, San Diego later backed out of the idea, but Footy McFooty Face is back – as a real person playing for Port Vale. The wacky photographic evidence was captured during a recent Vale game featuring a man with a ball for a head. We’ve studied it, and can’t explain it. Apparently it was Tyrone Barnett, but we’ll just be calling the striker Mr McFooty Face from now on. 2 DON’T HAVE NIGHTMARES, KIDS Australia Melbourne Marouane Fellaini didn’t transform into a football during the UEFA Super Cup, but he was smashed in the face by one. The image of the…

Answers 1) Mircea Lucescu; 2) Vicente del Bosque; 3) Peter Bosz; 4) Fatih Terim; 5) Carlo Ancelotti; 6) Antonio Conte; 7) David Moyes; 8) Arsene Wenger; 9) Jurgen Klopp; 10) Unai Emery; 11) Guus Hiddink; 12) Joachim Löw; 13) Manuel Pellegrini; 14) Craig Shakespeare; 15) Harry Redknapp; 16) Louis van Gaal OUCH 2017-18 started well for Hamburg’s Nicolai Muller but soon went downhill: scoring after eight minutes, he ruptured his ACL while celebrating and was ruled out for seven months…

“THE MILAN DERBY WAS ALSO GERMANY VS HOLLAND. WHEN WE WON THE WORLD CUP IN 1990, INTER FANS CELEBRATED BECAUSE ‘THEIR’ FOREIGNERS HAD WON” As I stood over the free-kick, it was like the start of a Usain Bolt 100-metre sprint. There were 85,000 inside the San Siro but everything was so quiet. Then, when the ball hit the net, there was an explosion of noise. It was the end of my first season with Inter. We had the chance to win Serie A at home against Diego Maradona’s Napoli, our closest rivals in the table. That free-kick won the title. It was an amazing feeling, something spectacular for everyone in the stadium. The fans had been waiting nine years to win the Serie A title again. Everything went perfectly…

@richardosman Fulham striker Aboubakar Kamara has chosen the shirt number 47, just so that he can be known as AK-47 – you have got to admire his branding skills. @danjewellmedia Trialist arrives in Accrington dressing room at Southport. He’s not expected. Asks kitman: “This is Barrow?” Barrow were at Stockport. @HectorBellerin Album coming soon... @galactickeegan I loved Match Of The Day so much that during my City days, I’d close my eyes mid-match so the result would be a surprise when I watched it. @chigolimw Great article in FourFourTwo re AFC Wimbledon academy wearing coloured sock to improve [their] weaker foot. Working very well for our Under-12 team in Malawi.…

Club: Bournemouth Fee: £20 million Position: Defender It’s no coincidence that the Cherries’ worst spell of last season came in the immediate aftermath of the Dutch central defender’s recall to Chelsea at the start of January. Prior to his return to SW6, Bournemouth had kept clean sheets in their wins against Stoke, Leicester and Swansea (and came back from 3-1 down to beat Liverpool 4-3) from mid-November to the New Year. The south-coast side did not win again until mid-March – a run that included a 3-1 loss against doomed Hull as well as a 6-3 hammering away at Everton – and were in relegation trouble before a revival late on in the campaign. A club-record £20m arrival earlier in the summer, Ake must now build on that initial Dean…

Davy Klaassen could never have imagined how his Everton debut would turn out. He had dreamed of moving to a Premier League club ever since the days when he’d sit in front of the television with his dad, spellbound by Dennis Bergkamp’s performances for Arsenal. Yet on the day of his first outing for the Toffees, he didn’t really want to play at all. Klaassen was in Tanzania. Around 35,000 spectators were in Dar es Salaam to see Everton face Kenyan side Gor Mahia: the first time that a Premier League club had played a game in East Africa. It should have been unforgettable for all the right reasons. However, the 24-year-old had bigger things on his mind. The midfielder had brought 13 years at Ajax to an end just…

Club: Everton Fee: Free Position: Striker Toffees fans will have needed no introduction to their striking recruit this summer, although young supporters might struggle to recall his first spell at Goodison Park, which came to an end 13 years before this second began. After a somewhat underwhelming final few campaigns at Old Trafford – hitting just the five Premier League goals in the last campaign after eight in 2015-16 – the initial signs are that Wazza’s return to Merseyside may give the tail end of his career a shot in the arm. A header 45 minutes into his second league bow for the Blues – as well as a decent display in Everton’s Europa League win over Hajduk Split five days later, and goal at Manchester City – suggests that…

Football was Johan Cruyff’s second favourite game after joining Barcelona in 1973. “Watch now,” he’d say when waiting for the first of eight sets of traffic lights at the top of Diagonal – the wide avenue that cuts the city in two – to go green in a silver Maserati. “I’ll beat all the lights except the last.” In Amsterdam five years earlier, his ride was a custom-made Austin Healey Sprite hardtop – an essential after-market addition to shelter from the elements.…

“Saturday was the time appointed for completion of the first round of the [FA] Cup. Accrington v Rossendale: The home team had two or three points disallowed but won by 11 goals to nil. Blackburn v Bury: Before 2,000 fans, the Rovers won by 10 goals to nil. Preston v Hyde: North End played a very strong team and Hyde never had a chance of getting into their quarter. Goals were rattled through in the most easy manner by the home side – points made by Dewhurst (2), Drummond (2), Ross Jnr (2), Graham, Thomson (2), Gordon (2) and Ross. Score at half-time: North End 12 goals, Hyde nil. In the second half North End penned their opponents and goals were added at regular intervals. The Hyde custodian had a…

Paul Cooper: The snapper helped Luis Garcia get in character before discussing his ghost goal as part of One-on-One. “The Titanic Hotel was perfect for a ghostly image as it had a replica staircase. Luis used Home Alone as inspiration for the shocked face – a real pleasure to work with.” Will Douglas: The lensman went to south London to see AC London in FA Cup action. “I love spending my Saturday afternoons shooting players who are as dedicated and passionate as them. They were all very confident and didn’t shy away from getting close to the camera.” Ben Welch: FFT’s head of video set out to discover the magic formula for team chemistry and found that there is more to it than just boozy nights out. “There’s a…

Man Utd vs Everton September 17 Super Sunday: Wayne Rooney back at Old Trafford; Romelu Lukaku faces his old club PSG vs Lyon September 17 One of the first big Ligue 1 fixtures for Neymar. Will he make the difference against Les Gones? Rangers vs Celtic September 23 The first Old Firm clash of the campaign. Celtic dominated 16-4 on aggregate during 2016-17 Sheff Wed vs Sheff Utd September 24 With the Blades back in the Championship, the Steel City derby returns after a five-year hiatus Sao Paulo vs Corinthians September 24 The Classico Majestoso. Brazil’s league leaders Corinthians take on their fierce city adversaries Chelsea vs Man City September 30 Saturday night crunch match. The champs face the pre-season favourites to take their crown…

Adam Sell Fans group chief, 31 Cody Cropper Goalkeeper, 24 Q: Who is the club’s all-time record scorer? AS: Taylor Twellman –he scored 101, I think. CC: That’s an easy one –it’s Taylor Twellman. 1-1 Q: In which year did the Revolution move to Gillette Stadium? AS: I’ve still got a ticket stub! It was in 2002. CC: I want to say 1996. 2-1 Q: Who scored New England’s goal in the 2014 MLS Cup Final defeat to LA Galaxy? AS: He scored right in front of me – it was Chris Tierney! CC: Definitely CT. 3-2 Q: Who did Jay Heaps join from in 2001? AS: That would be the Miami Fusion. CC: I know he came from a team in Miami – I’ll say Miami FC? 4-2 Fan…

NICKNAME: Turbo Timo – he’s been clocked at 11.1 seconds over 100m . COMPARED TO: Mario Gomez – as he’s also a Stuttgart youth product – and Leicester’s Jamie Vardy due to his relentless energy. THEY THEY S SAID: Fellow German Germany frontman Sandro Wagner: “I’ve never seen such a good striker at that age.’’ THE STORY SO FAR: He scored 21 Bundesliga goals last season after joining RB Leipzig from Stuttgart – only Gerd Muller and Dieter Muller have scored more before the age of 22. Preparing for his first season in the Champions League, having won the Golden Boot at the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia. That has maybe begun to alter opinions of the striker – he was whistled by Germany’s supporters against San Marino a month…

“FERGIE WOULD SAY: ‘COME ON, GO TO THE LEFT WING.’ THEN I’D JUST LOOK AT HIM AND HE’D GO: ‘I MEANT RIGHT WING, RAFAEL!’” You left Manchester United two years ago, so how are you finding life at Lyon now? I’m very happy here. It’s a lovely place and it’s been a great experience so far. Things weren’t easy at the beginning – I found it difficult to adapt to the French league and I didn’t play my best in the first few months, but I’m settled now. It’ll soon be 10 years since Lyon won the Ligue 1 title. Is there a feeling that the club should be in contention for the top honour once again? A quick walk around the club and you realise how badly everyone wants…

Club: Southampton Fee: £18 million Position: Midfielder “Welcome to the Premier League!” It’s not impossible to imagine that was what Mark Noble muttered under his breath when the West Ham scrapper steamed shin-high into Southampton’s club-record signing from Juventus on his August debut. Lemina’s maiden appearance in the English top flight came in the Saints’ 3-2 home win over the east Londoners – a solid introduction to a couple of the league’s lesser-hailed hallmarks – namely robust challenges and questionable defending. On the same day Noble was fortunate to avoid a dismissal, Marko Arnautovic saw red for elbowing Jack Stephens. The fact Lemina led with his arm on Arnautovic 30 seconds before getting clattered by Noble suggests the former Marseille midfielder probably won’t be overawed by all the blood and…

Club: Tottenham Fee: £42 million Position: Defender Danny Rose may have to fire up his search engine of choice to get the lowdown on his new team-mate, but he’ll be pretty impressed by what he sees. It’s taken Sanchez just one season with Ajax – having turned down overtures from Barcelona B last summer – to command a £42m transfer fee and become the most expensive player in Tottenham history. True, smashing in overhead kicks against AZ Alkmaar from 12 yards out will alert Europe’s elite clubs, but the Colombian’s game is about more than the raw athleticism he displayed against Manchester United during the Europa League final in May – the 21-year-old can defend a bit as well. “He’s a great player,” says former Ajax colleague and fellow Colombian,…

“I KNEW THERE WAS SOMETHING FUNDAMENTALLY WRONG. LUMPS STARTED APPEARING IN MY NECK” I can still remember the tiny, two-bedroom council flat back in Bath that I used to call home. My brother and I shared one room and my mum was in the other. She would often wake us up at 4am and tell us to put on our school uniform, as she knew she wouldn’t always be able to function in the morning. About three or four hours later we’d wake up again, have our cereal and head out the front door. We didn’t realise it at the time, but she was suffering with a mental illness and has done for her whole life. Mum was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when I was eight years old. She is…

Valeri Karpin Who? Estonian-born Russia midfielder, who won 72 caps and a treble of titles with Spartak Moscow from 1992 before stints in Spain with Real Sociedad (twice), Valencia and Celta Vigo. A classic wind-up merchant, Valeri excelled at the latter and settled in Galicia in retirement, even hosting a chat show on Spanish TV. Very colourful... And that’s just the shirts he wore. After retiring in 2005, he started his own real estate firm (Valeri Karpin Associates) in Vigo with former team-mate Michel Salgado, plus the Vigo rugby team, cycling club Karpin Galicia and Karpin Vigo Volleyball Club. Egotistical much? Things didn’t exactly go to plan, however. No longer associated with the sports teams, his real estate empire also suffered after the housing crash in Spain. He has since…

Puskas on Puskas This is no ordinary autobiography, but Ferenc Puskas was no ordinary player. Team-mates of the Hungarian magician are also interviewed in a revealing tome. Sweden ’92 England fans won’t forget Tomas Brolin and Martin Dahlin tearing them a new one at the Euros, but everyone else is still in love with canary yellow kit perfection. Mizuno Morelia boots Like a flash of the future from the Far East, Mizuno’s swish logo seduced many an ’80s teen. The fact Gianfranco Zola wore them helped for ’90s sales as well. Smart.…

90S FOOTBALL Nostalgia-inducer Football was invented in 1992, right? Follow this account for your fix of old-school kits, GIFS and memes. Twitter: @90sfootball SIMON JORDAN Former Crystal Palace owner His outspoken (bitter) views on players, agents and all things modern football will help to liven up your newsfeed. Twitter: @Sjopinion10 WEST BROM FC S&C Fitness insight Get some tips from the team behind the club with the Premier League’s best injury record in 2016-17. Twitter: @StrengthWBA…

Morning, noon and night. In the stadium. On the streets. In the park. Whenever and wherever you go, you need to let them know. It’s not just any team – it’s your team. The one that that can be the difference between looking forward to starting the new week or dreading it! It’s all change this season as Tottenham and Chelsea join Manchester City and sport the Swoosh for the very first time with clean designs and classic colour palettes. Arsenal and Liverpool’s shirts both feature deeper shades of red that nod to iconic kits of the past while the Manchester United jersey includes a grandad collar and contrast collar cuffs inspired by the terraces.…

“I HAD TO WORK WITH A SPORTS I PSYCHOLOGISTTOHELPMEFOCUS U ATLIVERPOOL.ONEOFTHETHINGS O WE WORKED ON A LOT WAS TRYING FA TO BLOCK OUT CARRAGHER’S VOICE!” H CLUBS 1997-2002 Barcelona B 1999-2000 Valladolid (loan) 2000 Toledo (loan) 2000-01 Tenerife (loan) 2001-02 Valladolid (loan) 2002-03 Atletico Madrid 2003-04 Barcelona 2004-07 Liverpool 2007-09 Atletico Madrid 2009-10 Racing Santander 2010-11 Panathinaikos 2011-12 Puebla 2012-13 UNAM 2014 Atletico Kolkata 2016 Central Coast Mariners COUNTRY 2005-08 Spain They certainly enjoy a late night out in Spain. Head to any plaza at 10pm and you’ll see families stepping over already paralytic English tourists for an evening of food and merriment. So FFT thought little of it when Luis Garcia asked to meet in a Liverpool hotel at 10.30pm. After all, this was a man who not only…

“I MIGHT EAT A TOUCAN - I HAVE HAD SOME OSTRICH BEFORE AND IT’S VERY GOOD” Hi Geoff. Howard Webb recently told us he used to steal toilet rolls. Have you ever committed a petty crime? Hi. When I was a teenager I worked in an aquatics centre, and people used to buy fish. Often they would get an extra Shubunkin or Black Moor in their bag. Defrauding an aquarium is quite an exotic wrongdoing, don’t you think? Well, some people in a pub might slip someone a ‘Mickey Finn’ [spiked drink], whereas I’d just slip in a few extra fins. How was life as an aquarium worker? I loved it. I was 14. Me and a mate had a running gag, which was trying to get the word ‘toga’…

The Billionaires Club James Montague (Bloomsbury, £16.99) In 2003, with Chelsea almost £23m in debt, Roman Abramovich rocked up. Over the following 14 years he transformed the Blues and changed football. As Montague says: “If anybody wanted to compete they had to find a comparable source of income, so clubs had to get rich or die trying.” A raft of wealthy men have purchased controlling stakes in clubs from all around the world, affording themselves some ‘international visibility’ as Montague points out. At its best, The Billionaires Club is both surprising and insightful – especially sections on Thaksin Shinawatra and Wang Hui, whose reign at Dutch side Den Haag has proved alarming as well as cartoonish. The book does a fine job of examining just why rich men choose to…

Well, who knew that following a football club could pave the way for opera fame? That’s what’s going on at Man City, where fans are taking their singing skills from the Etihad to the stage as part of We’re Not Really Here: A Football Opera. It’s been done previously with Gent in Belgium and Celtic in Dublin, and over in Manchester the man tasked with recruiting fans was Kyle Walker (not that one). “They said they’d love 100 and I thought, ‘That’s quite a big number,’” he tells FFT. “And yet within two weeks we had 100 interested.” Fans don’t have to be the next Andrea Bocelli – they simply need to sing some Man City songs with gusto, acting out the emotions of watching a game. Walker adds: “What’s…

SIGN OF THE TIMES Marko Arnautovic reader is a good player but it’s not taken worth £25m, surely figure ? That sort of fee line is the . norm now, though. George Knight be a top ITALY’S GLORY DAYS Thanks for , so your article 262 on Serie issues A in to the finally 1990s [ answer FFT 278] to . Memories the spine of my Sunday afternoons came flooding back. Robert . They Mitchell ’re not. They’re LAST MONTH’S SPINE LINE: “I’ve finally got one! ‘M23, M25, M26, M20’ refers to the four motorways that Brighton fans had to endure to play their ‘home’ games in Gillingham,” says Kevin Mollaghan, emailing from Longford in Ireland. Well done Kevin, have some Trusox. Entering Spine Line via Twitter our…

Club: Leicester Fee: £25 million Position: Striker Around a year ago, the Nigerian striker appeared the most likely of Man City’s highly-regarded crop of starlets to secure a starting spot at the Etihad Stadium, yet the arrival of Gabriel Jesus in January all but ended his hopes. Having made nine starts and scored six goals in the first half of 2016-17, he did not start any games after January 2 and netted only one more goal – a last-minute strike in a 5-1 FA Cup win over second-tier Huddersfield Town. His manager could clearly see the young goal-getter’s growing frustration. “It is an honour to work with him as a manager,” Pep Guardiola said over the summer. “It was not easy for him, I didn’t give a lot of chances.…

“I’LL ALWAYS REMEMBER AGUERO’S GOAL AGAINST QPR – NEWS OF WINNING THE TITLE LIKE THAT GOES ALL AROUND THE WORLD” Imagine the state you’re in after your weekly six-a-side or Sunday League run-out. Now imagine having to sit down and talk through the minutiae of your hopes for the following week and beyond in the immediate aftermath of said exertion. Let’s face it, talking football is probably the last thing you’d want to be doing. But not Bernardo Silva. Manchester City’s new £43 million man has only just ended an extended training session as he prepares for his first major interview since his summer arrival from Monaco. “It was long!” laughs the Portuguese as he greets FFT. “But good.” One thing that you quickly learn about the Blues’ latest diminutive…

Club: West Ham Fee: £16 million Position: Striker After three years away, Chicharito is back in the Premier League. “I have had three fantastic years playing in Spain and Germany – however, England was really the first big chapter in my career and I’m so happy to be back again,” the Mexican goal machine said after his move to the London Stadium was officially confirmed near the end of July. The frontman hit the back of the net at an incredible rate during his four years at Old Trafford – once every 130 minutes. But the big difference now, of course, is that the Hammers aren’t quite Manchester United. Leading the line for a club who last term struggled to create many opportunities, let alone win games, will be an…

Sunshine stretches out across the vineyards that encircle Nyon, a picturesque lakeside town 15 miles from Geneva. Tightly-packed streets that trickle down from the imposing Middle Age castle begin to hum with activity, as suits from UEFA’s headquarters spill out. After a long, hard day administering lots of red tape, a glass of wine harvested locally is top of the bill. Tucked away in one of the municipality’s cosy little watering holes, a few other members of the football fraternity are ordering an altogether different round of drinks. “We walked down the road about 100 yards and we were in the pub,” recalled Arsenal’s cult hero Ray Parlour in his autobiography, The Romford Pele. “There were only five of us and I’ll never forget, one of the boys went up…

“LOOK WHAT IT MEANS!” Goal-fest Handbags Stuff of champions Underdog Great comeback 25 DINAMO ZAGREB 1 LYON 7 Group stage, 2011-12 Hands up if you can tell us who scored the Champions League’s fastest hat-trick. Hands up if you were at a freezing cold Maksimir Stadium that December night to watch Lyon frontman Bafetimbi Gomis put hosts Dinamo Zagreb to the sword 7-1. Needing a second-placed Ajax to lose against Real Madrid and a seven-goal swing to reach the knockout stage, Lyon trailed to Mateo Kovacic’s rebound before all goalscoring hell broke loose. Gomis tapped in on half-time, Maxime Gonalons scored in the 47th minute and then the former bagged another two in the 48th and 52nd to secure his hat-trick. Lisandro Lopez, Jimmy Briand and a fourth effort from…

“Cheer up, lads, here’s a top-up” Franny Lee (left) and Colin Bell (centre) don’t look thrilled despite reaching the ’74 League Cup Final. Pure ’90s brilliance Modelling a fine warm-up T-shirt, Nicky Summerbee looked the part in November 1995. Bit big, though. Miss Manchester City A 10-day all-expenses-paid trip to Gibraltar awaited the winner of the club’s ‘Miss...’ contest. Nice. City take the Mick What. A. Tie. Mick Channon went all out to mark his summer 1977 transfer to Maine Road, even if it looks like he’d been held hostage. Pumping iron in style So determined were the City heirarchy that their players be in tip-top physical condition for the 1973-74 campaign, they splashed out £1,400 on a brand new multi-gym. Are flares, knitted jumpers and Cuban heels the right…

GOOD TIPS Their midfield genius Willem van Hanegem (right) was once fined 200 guilders because of misconduct. So he gave manager Ernst Happel 300 and told him: “Use the rest to buy something for your girlfriend.” STAMPING FEET Joop van Daele was the hero in the 1970 Intercontinental Cup, scoring the winner in the second leg after his glasses had been pinched by Estudiantes’ Oscar Malbernat and crushed by Carlos Pachame. BIRD OF PREY Eddy Treijtel’s goal-kick killed a seagull during a derby clash against Sparta Rotterdam in 1970. Several months after the game, a local taxidermist turned up at his front door with a gift. The stuffed gull now has pride of place in the club’s museum. SWEET REVENGE Not offered another contract by Ajax in 1983, a 36-year-old…

 Hi David. You seem to have a very laid-back personality – how do you remain so relaxed during a match? “The day before a match starts I’m already living it. I plan strategy and focus on my opponents until the final whistle” I’m anything but relaxed! But thanks, I’m happy you think that. When you play at this level of football there’s no room to be relaxed for any second at all. As a Chelsea player, I am involved in top-level competitions for the entire season and my level of concentration is just as high as my responsibilities. The day before a match I am already living it. I think about the game, plan my strategy, focus on my opponent’s ability and so on. This thought process continues right until…

v Lionesses England’s women got to the semi-finals of Euro 2017 and pulled in a big TV audience. v Steve Claridge Salisbury’s manager, 51, came on as a sub in a league game at home to Paulton due to a string of injuries. v Barry Richardson The Wycombe coach designed the garish pink and yellow kits for their goalkeepers to sport this season. Yeovil Town They became the first Football League side to leak eight goals in their season opener since 1962 by getting gubbed 8-2 at Luton. Transfer reveals Dramatic montages, Twitter hashtags and music videos – what happened to a short statement on Ceefax? Antonio Cassano The ex-Italy striker ended his career in a bizarre manner – retiring twice in the space of three weeks after joining Verona…

Safety bar half-squat Sets: 6 Reps: 4  If you are looking to get the better of the opposition full-back in a foot race, then this drill will give you a decent head start. “In football it’s very rare to find yourself in a deep squat, so I think a half-squat will translate better for any running and jumping movements while on the pitch,” explains Perryman. Single step-up Sets: 4 Reps: 8-10 There’s nothing better than watching a speed demon slip through the gears – master this routine and that could soon be you. “This mimics your movement at top speed. Start with one foot an inch above the box, then slam it down and drive up, keeping your hips firm.” Split stance trap bar deadlift Sets: 6 Reps: 4  Rapid…

Umbro UX Accuro If there’s a boot out there that doesn’t get the credit it deserves, it’s the Accuro. Compared to the UX1 and UX2 it’s a different beast entirely, with a redesigned upper that features one of the best vamps around. The textured Touch Control pods and Poron Xrd pad combine to give you a sumble first touch and greater control over sidefoot passes - in addition to giving the boot a slick, futuristic look. You’ll get more than a few teammates asking what you’re wearing when you start pinging the ball about in these. Mizuno Made in Japan Only good players wear Mizuno, and Mizuno boots in general are a bit special. But if you really want to make a statement, go for the top of the range…

BEAT THEM With the skills to pay the bills, you’ve always got your opponent’s number, beating them with either a bit of trickery or just outright speed. BOSS THEM You’re the leader on the pitch, taking control for your team and influencing the game with your ability on the ball to pick out defence-splitting passes. OUTCLASS THEM Sometimes you just can’t beat a classic pair of boots, with their traditional shapes and beautiful leather uppers.…

There are some genuinely nice guys in football, and we were lucky enough to spend some time in the company of one of them: Watford’s No.1, Heurelho Gomes. We were able to cover a range of topics with the Brazilian, including his late start in football and his pre-match ritual of shaving his head! Talk inevitably turned to his new adidas Ocean Storm Ace Transition gloves though. “It’s so comfortable on the wrist, and sometimes this is more important than the palm because you have to be comfortable to play and this is just amazing.” Check them out online now.…

EDWIN VAN DER SAR “I arrived at Ajax in 1997 as a teenager and he was already a senior statesman in the team. He had the finest footwork of any keeper I’d ever seen and was as good as an outfield player. He took me under his wing – each day after training we would practise for 30 minutes, doing one-on-one drills where he’d work on his shot-stopping and I honed my finishing. He used to call me and say: ‘Benni, let’s take 30 footballs and do two repetitions.’ He wanted me to test him – in order to work on his agility – but he wanted me to improve my striking prowess as well.” DECO “When I first went to Porto, on loan from Celta Vigo, he was entrenched…