Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2020 i FourFourTwo UK

It’s almost like football has never been away. But regardless, here we are with the start of a new season – so it’s time to start dreaming of what could be. Of course, things will be different. For starters, we kick off a month later than normal and fans won’t be allowed into grounds for the early part. But some things never change, and as long as there’s a new season on the horizon, you can be sure that FFT will produce a bumper preview issue. Flip the magazine over and you will be able to read our verdicts on each of the 92 Premier League and EFL teams, expertly reviewed and rated alongside previews for the WSL, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga. In the main magazine,…

MASON GREENWOOD Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has claimed Greenwood is perhaps “the best finisher” he has seen. Genuinely two-footed and capable of scoring from outside the box, he scored 10 league goals last season from an expected goals mark of 3.39. Euro 2020 may have come too soon for an 18-year-old with only 13 league starts and four under-21 caps, so a further year offers more experience – and Gareth Southgate could appreciate his habit of scoring as a substitute. JUDE BELLINGHAM The road to next year’s Wembley final can lead through Dortmund: just ask Jadon Sancho. BVB’s willingness to give English teenagers meaningful minutes in the Bundesliga and Champions League can comfortably propel them ahead of Premier League rivals. After making 44 appearances for Birmingham and a £25 million move,…

NAPOLI (2001-07) Twice Scudetto winners with Diego Maradona, Napoli plunged into Serie B in 2001. It got worse: bankruptcy pushed them into the regional third tier, then they lost a play-off to Avellino. A mere 51,000 fans turned up for one Serie C game, before back-to-back promotions. STADE REIMS (1979-2012) Reims reached two of the opening four European Cup finals, but relegation in 1979 was followed by 33 years outside the French top flight – cash woes meant they got kicked out of the third division in 1992. Rebuilding from the sixth tier, they return to Europe this season. DEPORTIVO LA CORUNA (2018-?) Reigning Spanish champions when Leeds beat them in 2001, Deportivo reached the Champions League semi-finals three years later. They have since become a yoyo team and have…

In footballing terms, Peterborough United were among the biggest victims of the coronavirus pandemic. When the League One season was brought to a sudden halt in early March, Posh were sixth following a 2-0 win over Portsmouth. When the season was curtailed and settled by points per game, Darren Ferguson’s side dropped to seventh and out of the play-offs… then watched beneficiaries Wycombe – who leapt from eighth place to third – triumph in the Wembley final. After some time to reflect after only four of the 23 teams voted to play on, FFT chatted to Peterborough chief Darragh MacAnthony about his thoughts on an uncertain future for Football League clubs... How do you see the landscape for clubs in Leagues One and Two? As football clubs, it’s our job…

Teddy Sheringham is sunning himself on the sandy beaches of the Arabian Peninsula. At 34 years old, a bit of R&R is vital, and the gold-dipped glamour of Dubai provides the perfect setting for his recovery. With a second Premiership winners’ medal around his neck, he has every reason to feel smug – but something is hanging over the Manchester United goal-getter. A phone call interrupts his holiday. “Hello Teddy, it’s Steve McClaren,” begins United’s assistant manager. “The manager wants to know what you’re doing – are you going to sign a new deal?” Sheringham has been considering the offer of a one-year contract extension after United cruised to a second straight title in 1999-00. Most players would have stayed put without hesitation. This was Manchester United, and he was…

Wait: haven’t they only just finished? The confetti has barely been cleared up at Anfield, yet here we are again, locked and loaded to go once more. Last term turned out to be the top tier’s strangest, most affected campaign since Britain was blighted by 1962-63’s big freeze. It took 11 months of madness to complete, punctuated by a global pandemic and postponements – but as we stumbled to the finish line, a number of things became clear. Liverpool, who had chiselled a 23-point chasm between themselves and Manchester City by the time their title was confirmed, are right among the all-time great Premier League sides. Reducing the gap behind Jurgen Klopp’s mob won’t be easy, but sustaining such excellence for a third straight season will be no mean feat…

LAST SEASON PREMIER LEAGUE 8th FA CUP Winners LEAGUE CUP Fourth Round TOP SCORER (ALL COMPS) Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (29) IS MIKEL ARTETA THE GUNNERS’ OWN GUARDIOLA? TIM STILLMAN @Stillberto Time will tell how high Mikel Arteta’s ceiling as a coach reaches, but he has modernised Arsenal’s approach already. It’s about more than the FA Cup. The Spaniard has dragged this team into the 2020s with his cultural reset of a club that had become too indulgent. He has created a long-awaited culture of accountability in north London by sidelining those whose application wavers. Crucially, he also welcomes players back into the fold if they correct their attitude. Although a great deal of power in football may have devolved away from coaches and into the hands of overarching, besuited hierarchies, Europe’s…

LAST SEASON PREMIER LEAGUE 10th FA CUP Fourth Round LEAGUE CUP Second Round TOP SCORER (ALL COMPS) Chris Wood (14) HAVE THE CLARETS REACHED THEIR CEILING? CHRIS BODEN @bodenknights Two top-10 finishes in three seasons still led to sections of the media asking manager Sean Dyche whether his ambitions can be fulfilled at Turf Moor. Success is an intangible concept for Burnley. Speculation continues to surround the future of the Clarets’ amiable boss, who was unafraid to vent his frustrations at a number of unresolved contracts during last season’s post-lockdown restart in June. Dyche has spoken for a couple of years now of the club “stretching, but not breaking” their finances, with an average net spend of around £9 million per season during his time in the Premier League. He…

LAST SEASON PREMIER LEAGUE 12th FA CUP Third Round LEAGUE CUP Quarter-Finals TOP SCORERS (ALL COMPS) Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison (15) WHICH EVERTON WILL ACTUALLY TURN UP? ELLIOTT BRETLAND @EllBretland It’s the million-quid question among Evertonians. Time and again in recent seasons, a convincing and dominant performance one week has been followed by a meek and toothless display. However, it really is now or never for Everton. This is the time to deliver. With Carlo Ancelotti in charge, the feeling among the Goodison faithful is simple: if one of the most decorated managers in football history can’t get a tune out of this expensively assembled mishmash of players, who else possibly could? The former Milan boss tweaked an improvement from the Toffees’ defence and frontline during his first six months on…

LAST SEASON PREMIER LEAGUE 5th FA CUP Quarter-Finals LEAGUE CUP Semi-Finals TOP SCORER (ALL COMPS) Jamie Vardy (23) HOW WILL LAST SEASON'S COLLAPSE AFFECT THEM? JOE BREWIN @JoeBrewinFFT It’s telling that the fifth-best season in this club’s 136-year history is considered disappointing. In the past five seasons, only two teams have cracked the established top six – and Leicester have done it twice (the other, Southampton, finished 6th in the Foxes’ title-winning campaign of 2015-16). Last term, Leicester recorded a joint-Premier League record 9-0 win. They reached the quarter-finals and semi-finals of England’s domestic cup competitions. And yet those long faces in late July were entirely justifiable. Expectations had been suitably revised after a thrilling run through to mid-December, as Leicester won 12 of their first 16 games to cling…

LAST SEASON PREMIER LEAGUE 3rd FA CUP Semi-Finals LEAGUE CUP Semi-Finals TOP SCORER (ALL COMPS) Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford (22*) ARE THE REAL MANCHESTER UNITED ACTUALLY BACK? ANDY MITTEN @AndyMitten Can Manchester United mount a first serious title challenge since winning the league in 2012-13? Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who always retained the support of match-going fans last season even when his team slipped as low as 14th, maintains that he needs “two or three” top-level talents to do that. His record in the transfer market has been encouraging. Champions League football was necessary for the club’s prestige as much as their finances – a second successive season without elite European competition meant a huge drop in revenues from key sponsors, broadcast revenue and matchday income. Solskjaer is feeling emboldened after…

LAST SEASON PREMIER LEAGUE 11th FA CUP Fourth Round LEAGUE CUP Fourth Round TOP SCORER (ALL COMPS) Danny Ings (25) CAN RALPH HASENHUTTL DO MORE WITH THIS TEAM? SIMON PEACH @SimonPeach He is loved by fans, respected by his players and committed to the club’s model. Combine that with Ralph Hasenhuttl’s style, personality and methods, and it’s hard to see how things won’t improve at St Mary’s this season. Only the two Manchester clubs won more points than Hasenhuttl’s developing side after the restart, with Saints recording five wins and just one defeat in their nine fixtures behind closed doors. Southampton finished 11th, having emphatically extinguished talk of relegation and underlined the strides they’ve made under their affable, tactically astute Austrian boss. Hasenhuttl would freely admit that the journey to…

LAST SEASON PREMIER LEAGUE 16th FA CUP Fourth Round LEAGUE CUP Third Round TOP SCORER (ALL COMPS) Michail Antonio (10) WILL THE HAMMERS FINALLY PUNCH THEIR WEIGHT? JIM KEARNS @TheHList No, in short. The extended version? God, no. With the terms of the London Stadium deal meaning that any sale of the club before 2023 requires a payment to the public purse, West Ham fans remain in a curious purgatory: stuck with owners whose long-term strategies are constantly questioned, resulting in a club that has finished above 10th only once since 2012-13. In 2020-21, simply avoiding relegation again will represent a job well done by David Moyes. At a time when Liverpool’s Premier League triumph should usher in a new era of analytics and data-driven decision-making, West Ham are still…

SO, WHAT’S NEW? Whisper it, but Real Madrid are the new Atletico. In Zinedine Zidane’s first full campaign back at the Bernabeu, Los Blancos conceded just 25 league goals in winning a 34th title – a miserly return that was all the more necessary with big stars underperforming and younger players needing time to bed in. Now that Zizou has laid his foundations, the Frenchman will want more of the relentless attacking prowess associated with – and expected from – Real Madrid. Meanwhile, a couple of familiar faces from the Premier League have returned to clubs in La Liga. Manuel Pellegrini is the new manager of Real Betis, having been sacked by West Ham last winter, while Unai Emery is at Villarreal. The sad vampire’s Arsenal tenure was a car…

SO, WHAT’S NEW? With Milan, Inter, Napoli, Roma and Juventus all having hired new managers in the past 15 months, things already felt pretty fresh for Italian football’s giants. Then Juventus, despite winning another title with weeks to spare (top right), replaced Maurizio Sarri with managerial novice Andrea Pirlo, the Bianconeri icon having been Under-23s boss for all of nine days. He must have given some job interview. MAJOR STORYLINES The potential resurgence of runners-up Inter under Antonio Conte (above). The Nerazzurri finished only a point behind Juve, with Serie A’s meanest defence and second-deadliest attack. With full pre-seasons behind them, Christian Eriksen and a revitalised Alexis Sanchez will make Inter an even bigger threat. The red half of Milan is rising, too. Manager Stefano Pioli did such a good…

Let’s be honest: most of us would love Jurgen Klopp as our gaffer. But furtive thoughts are not uncommon either. Take the comedian Laura Lexx, whose yearning for Jurgen has changed her life. What began as some saucy tweets became a viral sensation and now a proper book, Klopp Actually. “It’s a bit weird, considering I’m not a football person at all,” she admits. “I only knew who he was because of coronavirus.” A memorable pre-lockdown Klopp presser got the creative juices flowing. Lexx had just begun a UK tour and was in a hotel worrying about gigs, so started tweeting about sexy times with The Normal One. “If I ever met Jurgen Klopp, I’d say, ‘OMG if we have a baby we should call it Klipp’, just so he’d…

01 Manchester United star Bruno Fernandes plays his international football for Portugal, but in which country did he kick off his club career? 02 Who is the top-scoring German footballer in Premier League history, having netted 33 goals? 03 Ian Holloway is leading which team into the 2020-21 season, after taking over in December? 04 PSG won last season’s Ligue 1 title on a points-per-game basis, but who finished as runners-up? 05 League One outfit Gillingham have played at which ground since their formation in 1893? 06 Which Arsenal goal-getter was named FWA Women’s Player of Year for the 2019-20 campaign? 07 Chelsea beat Manchester United in the 2000 Charity Shield with which Dutch forward scoring on his debut for the Blues at Wembley? 08 As a youngster at Tottenham,…

If you think British football has been disrupted in recent times, spare a thought for the people of Ghana. Since the summer of 2018, the country’s top clubs have barely played a game. Aduana Stars were crowned champions of the Ghanaian Premier League in October 2017, but since then it’s been chaos pretty much all the way. Eight months later, clubs were halfway through the 2018 season when an investigative journalist aired a documentary that would plunge domestic football into crisis. Entitled Number 12, it was a sting operation showing appalling corruption in Ghanaian football. In particular, it showed the powerful Ghana FA boss, Kwesi Nyantakyi, grabbing wads of dollar bills at a hotel in the UAE. All domestic football was promptly suspended, and Nyantakyi was banned from the sport…

IT ONLY TAKES A MINUTE I was reflecting after reading your Rivaldo feature in FFT 315. It described how he was the real star of Brazil’s 2002 World Cup winners, but despite racking my brains, all I can remember of him was that play-acting against Turkey. It made me wonder if there are other players unfairly remembered for a single incident at a major tournament. Nigel de Jong for his best Bruce Lee impression in the 2010 World Cup Final? Zinedine Zidane for nutting Marco Materazzi in ’06? If that’s the case, it’d be a shame. Adam Clarke, via email…

For one brief moment as he speaks to FourFourTwo, Phil Foden is 11 years old again. He’s thinking back to the day when he witnessed history right in front of his very eyes at the Etihad Stadium. The day in 2012 when a young fan’s dream came true. The day Manchester City became champions of England for the first time in nearly half a century, in the most dramatic fashion. “I was directly behind the net when Sergio Aguero scored,” he says with a smile. “Then we celebrated on the pitch – I was on there at the end, with however many other people that afternoon. That was my main highlight as a City fan – it’s mad to think I play with those players now.” Since making his first-team…

Leeds’ Italian owner Andrea Radrizzani tells FourFourTwo about how he first got involved with the Yorkshire giants – and why they’ve been so successful under boss Marcelo Bielsa “When I first wanted to get involved with football, I initially thought about investing in two separate clubs – one in Belgium where I’d work on younger talents, and another in Italy or France where I could bring important talents to bigger teams. Before that, my primary activity had been trading rights for sports events, working with organisations like the Premier League, UEFA and Serie A. I decided I wanted to try to do something that would leave a legacy. In 2016, I was chatting to friends at lunch before a Champions League match between Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain. Kenny Dalglish…

Championship Manager will remain with me for the rest of my life – I’m honoured that people still talk and think about me like they do. I was probably the most famous England youth international in the country at one time, but I needed someone on my case because I was superior to everyone else in my age group. When a big move to Liverpool fell through, I collapsed on my kitchen floor and cried until I had nothing left. My appetite had gone. By the time I went to Spain in 2004, I felt like I’d failed in my own country. That’s when depression took hold. I didn’t want to be here any more. I wanted to end it all. I’m 100 per cent a street footballer. It all…

You spent seven years with Arsenal, from 2000-07, winning two league titles. What made that team so special? We managed to combine quality and ability with ambition and commitment, so everyone played at their very best. Dennis Bergkamp, Freddie Ljungberg, Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires, Thierry Henry, Jens Lehmann – they were all players at the top of their game. Even I was playing at my best! We had some big players, but Arsene Wenger was the leader and the one who coordinated that immense talent. Therefore, we were able to achieve so much success during that period. What was it like training with all of those great players you mentioned? There was so much quality on show, but we were also competitive at the training ground. Sometimes we’d play four…

LAST SEASON PREMIER LEAGUE 15th FA CUP Third Round LEAGUE CUP Third Round TOP SCORER (ALL COMPS) Neal Maupay (10) CAN THE SEAGULLS BECOME A TOP-HALF SIDE? JEM STONE @JemStone After the final match at the Amex Stadium before lockdown in March, Roy Hodgson said his Crystal Palace side’s 1-0 away win was “remarkable”. He was acknowledging how, once again, Brighton had flattered to deceive in a vital match. Despite being very easy on the eye all campaign, the Seagulls were sat just a single point above the relegation zone with 10 games to go, the only team without a win in 2020 and facing a daunting run-in. Yet, three months prior, Graham Potter’s contract as head coach had been extended from 2023 to 2025 – and he’d been appointed…

LAST SEASON PREMIER LEAGUE 14th FA CUP Third Round LEAGUE CUP Second Round TOP SCORER (ALL COMPS) Jordan Ayew (9) HOW DO THE EAGLES SOLVE THEIR SCORING WOES? KEVIN DAY @kevinhunterday Only Norwich netted fewer goals than Crystal Palace’s 31 last season. We became the first club never to score more than two goals in a game and not be relegated. Alexander Sorloth, on loan from us to Trabzonspor, scored more goals on his own than we managed all season. Get the picture? We can’t score goals. We can’t create goals. We can’t buy goals. Surely, there is no purchase more optimistic than a season ticket at Selhurst Park. So, what’s the problem? Well, it’s partly a manager in Roy Hodgson who is highly respected but seems more than happy…

LAST SEASON CHAMPIONSHIP 1st FA CUP Third Round LEAGUE CUP Second Round TOP SCORER (ALL COMPS) Patrick Bamford (16) WILL BIELSA-BALL WORK IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE? DANIEL CHAPMAN @MoscowhiteTSB For 45 minutes at the Emirates Stadium in January, Leeds United were a Premier League club. Playing without pressure in the FA Cup, they made the game so painful for Arsenal that Mikel Arteta said it was “like going to the dentist”. There will be a lot for Marcelo Bielsa to get used to in the Premier League – for real, this time. He already despaired of press coverage in the Championship, and the top flight’s media and sponsor requirements are a potential Bielsa minefield. On the pitch, however, El Loco should be in his element. He has refused to speculate…

LAST SEASON PREMIER LEAGUE 2nd FA CUP Semi-Finals LEAGUE CUP Winners TOP SCORER (ALL COMPS) Raheem Sterling (30)* HOW CAN PEP GUARDIOLA’S SIDE REASSERT THEIR DOMINANCE? STEPHEN TUDOR @SteTudor123 Ceding so much ground to Liverpool was clearly Manchester City’s major failing last season, but of greater concern to Pep Guardiola will be how far they’ve fallen behind their former selves. In previous campaigns, City earned cool nicknames like the ‘Fourmidables’ and ‘Centurions’, such was their unparalleled dominance. Now, they’re playing catch-up. At times, they’re a pale imitation of a team that, not long ago, raised the bar for English football. There are mitigating circumstances for the drop-off – mainly, the long-term losses of Aymeric Laporte and the now-departed Leroy Sané, which each proved so costly. And, in hindsight, it was…

LAST SEASON PREMIER LEAGUE 9th FA CUP Quarter-Finals LEAGUE CUP Third Round TOP SCORER (ALL COMPS) Oli McBurnie, Lys Mousset (6) CAN THE BLADES PUSH ON FOR EUROPE AGAIN? DANNY HALL @dannyhall04 It’s not a question that Sheffield United fans thought they’d be contemplating ahead of the new campaign – but then the Blades’ 2019-20 season didn’t exactly match expectations. Having been written off as relegation favourites – words which were quite literally pinned on their dressing room wall at the season’s start – United were in the hunt for European qualification until the 37th game of 38, only to fade away after lockdown. No Blades side has finished higher than ninth in the top flight since 1974-75, but manager Chris Wilder is determined that last year won’t be a…

LAST SEASON CHAMPIONSHIP 2nd FA CUP Fifth Round LEAGUE CUP First Round TOP SCORERS (ALL COMPS) Charlie Austin (11) CAN SLAVEN BILIC KEEP THE BAGGIES IN THE TOP FLIGHT? CHRIS LEPKOWSKI @chrislepkowski The promotion-induced hangovers have gone. The next headache is how West Bromwich Albion will survive in the Premier League in 2020-21. While it’s pertinent to ask whether Bilic can ensure that the Baggies remain bouncing, the more pressing question is how far his club will go to help him with recruitment. Their messaging suggests they will follow a model closer to Sheffield United than to Aston Villa. In other words: over to you, Slav. Much has changed since Albion last started a Premier League campaign. In 2017-18, they spent a relatively large sum on transfers, only to endure…

With a pandemic exacerbating overstretched finances, few Championship promotion races could end up being more important than this one. England’s second tier has been variously described as “a bubble waiting to burst” and “a runaway train ready to hit the buffers” recently, after its 24 clubs lost a combined £300m in 2018-19, with an average wages-to-turnover ratio of 107 per cent. And that was before coronavirus arrived. With huge chunks of income already lost and such problems far from over, some need the Premier League gold more than ever. But which three clubs will grab those riches? Norwich will aim to go again after a miserable end to their Premier League campaign in which they lost all nine games after lockdown; Bournemouth and Watford were closer to survival, but both…

Controversy and uncertainty have blighted League One this summer. Though finally restored to its full 24-team quota after Bury’s expulsion last season, deductions and disgruntlement have arguably trumped pre-season excitement. None of the three relegated Championship sides return to this level in rude health. For Hull, fan unrest and an alarming run of one win from their last 20 league games last season leaves little reason for optimism on Humberside. Wigan were a mid-table side last season, meanwhile, but administration has dumped them back in League One shorn of boss Paul Cook. They’re not the only aggrieved side: Charlton are livid that Sheffield Wednesday’s own 12-point docking was suspended to this season, sending them down instead. Adding to their feud with the EFL over the latter’s refusal to ratify a…

Previewing a season like no other, we have to begin with the reasons why England’s magnificent fourth tier is shrouded in uncertainty and concern. Many clubs have released first-team players they would have otherwise liked to keep due to financial anxieties which linger. How long can they afford to play behind closed doors? On average, 40 per cent of a League Two side’s income comes on matchday. Add the potential cost of regular coronavirus testing, and the strain on those who own clubs to foot the bill for losses increases. Some may not be able to last. Despite it all, the return of Actual League Two Football will provide relief for many – and from an on-pitch perspective, the division is as fascinating as ever. Last season, three teams were…

SO, WHAT’S NEW? Not even a global pandemic has managed to shift the status quo in France. Crowned back in April following the league’s immediate cancellation, Paris Saint-Germain (above) are reigning champions on points-per-game, Kylian Mbappe is the Golden Boot holder and Neymar has again been linked with a move back to Spain. Plus ça change, indeed. In non-Paris news, Rennes (right) will play their first ever season in the Champions League after finishing third, while Stade Reims have made the Europa League qualifying rounds, having been in Ligue 2 as recently as 2017-18. Lorient and Lens return to the top flight after being awarded promotion – the latter were last French champions in 1998 which, as you may remember, was a pretty good year for football in l’Hexagone, what…

1 “I CAN SEE FINLAND FROM HERE” It hasn’t exactly been a great few months for fans of Ostersund, but they remain undeterred. The Swedes won at Arsenal in the Europa League in 2018, having risen from the fourth tier under Graham Potter – with chairman Daniel Kindberg boldly stating they could win the Champions League one day. Things have gone a bit wrong since then. Potter left for Swansea, with Ostersund narrowly avoiding the drop last year under new English boss Ian Burchnall. Then in November, Kindberg was jailed for three years for funnelling public money into the club. He soon appealed, but with the team again struggling, Burchnall departed in July – even if English players like Blair Turgott and Charlie Colkett stayed. Optimism has waned, but Ostersund’s…

UP THE VILLA The superbly named Eston Villa have reached the last 64 of the Estonian Cup, thanks to a 2-0 win over Rasmus Varki XI BEST: Ben Foster, Steven Reid, Jonny Evans, Gareth McAuley, Kieran Gibbs, Zoltan Gera, Youssouf Mulumbu, Chris Brunt, Matheus Pereira, Romelu Lukaku, Peter Odemwingie. WORST: Lee Camp, Goran Popov, Diego Lugano, Darren Purse, Jason Davidson, Oliver Burke, Sebastian Blanco, Andy Townsend, Silvestre Varela, Georgios Samaras, Markus Rosenberg. PLAYER B: For a lot of older fans it would be Cyrille Regis, Jeff Astle or Tony Brown. For a younger fan like me, it could be no one else but Brunt. He’s left after 13 years and will go down as a club legend. We’ve had more talented players, but none more committed than Brunty. We’ll always…

Liverpool had won the Premier League seven days earlier, but Jurgen Klopp was angry. As the Reds’ boss stood pitchside at the Etihad Stadium, fielding questions from Sky Sports’ roving reporter Geoff Shreeves, his agitation grew greater with every passing second. No matter that Liverpool had become league champions for the first time in 30 years, and that Klopp had been the man to deliver it with no fewer than seven games to spare. No matter that he had been the happiest man in the world earlier that week. His team had just lost 4-0 against closest challengers Manchester City, and he was irritated. Eventually, growing tired of the interview, he put his hands on his hips as if gearing up for a stand-off. Then he let rip. “If you…

Leeds United fans stood disconsolately in the rain at the compact Glassworld Stadium, as a postman rose highest to meet a corner-kick and deliver the moment they had dreaded. Champions League semi-finalists just seven years earlier, now defender Matt Langston’s header had put them on course for defeat against a village team in the second round of the FA Cup. Being down in League One was bad enough, but this was even worse – Histon 1 Leeds 0. “In the dressing room after the game, I sat there thinking, ‘What the hell happened out there?’” midfielder Jonathan Douglas recalls to FourFourTwo, 12 years on. “You’re playing on live television, you’re representing Leeds United and you should be beating teams like that. But somehow we weren’t able to. I felt really…

Bill Williams was a 20-year-old at QPR during the famous Big Freeze of 1963, when Britain endured its coldest winter since 1740 and the FA Cup third round took 66 days to complete. He’s not been out of football since, having finished his playing career in 1973 and then turned his hand to management – firstly in South Africa, then the United States. For a decade he’s been the chief executive of Maidstone United in the National League South, and also managed them when they ceased to exist as a club in 1992. But these baffling last few months are a first even for him. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” he tells FFT, reflecting on a period which has turned English football upside down at every level. “We’ve all…

UNITED WE STAND | est. 1989 MANCHESTER UNITED • uwsonline.com • @UWSmag ANDY MITTEN FAVOURITE COVER We’d already gone to print when Jose Mourinho was sacked and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was appointed in his place. I asked readers what they wanted, as we had the option of this new cover showing the greatest moment of UWS’s lifetime – but we would have had to pay the printers again Feedback was unanimous: we had a surge of orders and changed the cover. I stood outside Cardiff’s ground to sell the mag for Solskjaer’s first game. It was a few days before Christmas, I felt like the only sober person at the match, and there was such a buzz at the start of a honeymoon which lasted three months. So I’m…

It’s back! So soon, sure – but who’s grumbling? The new season is upon us, and there are plenty of questions to be answered en route to next summer’s Euros. Can Liverpool defend their title? How will Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds get on in the Premier League? Can Eoin Doyle win successive promotions from League Two, this time with Bolton? Will we actually make it to the end this time? All those and many more will be answered in what promises to be one of the most interesting and exciting seasons yet. Here’s why... WANT MORE? FIND US HERE... FourFourTwo.com @FourFourTwo @FourFourTwoUK FourFourTwo FourFourTwo…

LAST SEASON PREMIER LEAGUE 17th FA CUP Third Round LEAGUE CUP Runners-up TOP SCORER (ALL COMPS) Jack Grealish (10) CAN THE VILLANS AVOID YET ANOTHER RELEGATION SCRAP? MAT KENDRICK @MatKendrick After a Premier League journey with more twists and turns than Spaghetti Junction, Dean Smith will be keying ‘quickest route to top-flight safety’ into Aston Villa’s sat nav for the 2020-21 season. “Last season we were able to navigate a very difficult transition into the Premier League and are happy with the effort to stay up,” noted owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens in a joint-statement after Smith & Co. pulled off their agonisingly late emergency escape. “But we will not be satisfied until we achieve our goal of bringing sustainable success to Aston Villa at the top tier of…

LAST SEASON PREMIER LEAGUE 4th FA CUP Runners-up LEAGUE CUP Fourth Round TOP SCORER (ALL COMPS) Tammy Abraham (18) ARE CHELSEA UP TO BEING TITLE CONTENDERS? GARRY HAYES @garryhayes ‘Making history, not reliving it.’ That’s been the mantra – and stadium banner, no less – by which those at Stamford Bridge have lived and died since Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003. The Blues have been rather impressive in living up to it, too, winning 16 major trophies in that time. Look at the Premier League table over the past three campaigns, though, and the danger has felt increasingly real that Chelsea fans would be turning to the history books for their future kicks. Since 2018, the Blues have finished 30, 26 and 33 points behind that season’s Premier League…

LAST SEASON CHAMPIONSHIP 4th FA CUP Fourth Round LEAGUE CUP Second Round TOP SCORER (ALL COMPS) Aleksandar Mitrovic (26) WHY WILL THE COTTAGERS BE ANY DIFFERENT THIS TIME? JAMES ANDREW @JamesAndrew_ Everyone remembers the headlines from Fulham’s last summer going into a Premier League season. In 2018, the Cottagers became the first promoted side to spend £100 million in one transfer window, signing 12 players in an ominous shopping spree. It’s fair to say things didn’t go well after that. Before we look at why this time will be different for Fulham, now under the management of Scott Parker, let’s first dispel some myths that haunted them the last time they came up. Yes, they signed 12 players in that sad summer. And yes, collectively, they cost over £100m in…

LAST SEASON PREMIER LEAGUE 1st FA CUP Fifth Round LEAGUE CUP Quarter-Finals TOP SCORER (ALL COMPS) Mohamed Salah (23) HOW DOES JURGEN KLOPP IMPROVE ON EXCELLENCE? MATT LADSON @thisisanfield A 97-point haul in 2018-19 – then the third-highest in Premier League history – was excellence for Liverpool. Somehow, however, they bettered it in 2019-20, ending their 30-year wait for the title by racking up 99 points. To continue such sparkling form over three seasons is extremely difficult, as Manchester City demonstrated last term – but that is the challenge ahead for Jurgen Klopp & Co. Thankfully for the grinning tactician, his Liverpool side have repeatedly shown the will to go one better. They followed up their 2018 Champions League Final defeat by lifting Ol’ Big Ears 12 months later, then…

LAST SEASON PREMIER LEAGUE 13th FA CUP Quarter-Finals LEAGUE CUP Second Round TOP SCORER (ALL COMPS) Miguel Almiron (8) WHAT THE HELL HAPPENS NEXT FOR NEWCASTLE? TAYLOR PAYNE @TaylorandBesty I’ve come to realise over the past 30 years that expecting nice things as a Newcastle fan is foolish – but this summer, the gut punch felt completely different. This time, it really, really hurt. This time, we got within one signature of a new era for Newcastle United. The change that has been so needed at St James’ Park – the end to owner Mike Ashley’s 13-year reign of mediocrity, occasional flirtation with the Championship and fireplace vomiting – was within touching distance. Instead, geopolitics and the piracy of broadcasting rights in Saudi Arabia – rather than the abuse of…

LAST SEASON PREMIER LEAGUE 6th FA CUP Fifth Round LEAGUE CUP Third Round TOP SCORER (ALL COMPS) Harry Kane (24) ARE SPURS AND JOSE MOURINHO REALLY SUITED TO EACH OTHER? SEB STAFFORD-BLOOR @SebSB It may have seemed as if the end came quickly for Mauricio Pochettino, but in fact, that crisis was long in the making. Tottenham’s squad had been allowed to grow stale for some time. Key positions didn’t benefit from the investment they so badly needed. And so, the popular Argentine paid for the inevitable decline with his job. But his sacking didn’t really solve anything. Instead, it just passed the issues which defeated him on to another manager – and history shows that Jose Mourinho is far less forgiving when he isn’t afforded what he deems to…

LAST SEASON PREMIER LEAGUE 7th FA CUP Third Round LEAGUE CUP Fourth Round TOP SCORER (ALL COMPS) Raul Jimenez (27) ARE NUNO’S WOLVES SERIOUS CHAMPIONS LEAGUE CONTENDERS? TIM NASH @TimNash_1 Fosun International have flipped expectation levels on their head since buying Wolves in 2016. From the moment they handed Steve Morgan £45 million for the club, ambition has been the watchword at Molineux. The West Midlanders have had a truly exceptional rise since hiring Nuno Espirito Santo as their head coach in May 2017. The former Porto goalkeeper won the Championship in his first season, then led Wolves to successive seventh-placed finishes in the Premier League. It’s the first time they have hit those heights in consecutive top-flight campaigns since 1960-61. Quietly, Wanderers’ target was to break into the top…

ARSENAL PROSPECTS England’s most successful club were still in reach of the title before the WSL season was cancelled, and Joe Montemurro’s side will be hungry to reclaim the prize they won in 2018-19. A lack of European competition may give the Gunners an advantage over their main rivals, Chelsea and Manchester City. SIGNINGS Swiss defender Noelle Maritz (above) has joined from Wolfsburg, along with 20-year-old compatriot Malin Gut. Australian keeper Lydia Williams and left-back Steph Catley have arrived from Melbourne City. VERDICT A strong set of transfers should secure a top-three finish – but the Gunners are capable of far more this term. No Europe could be the difference. 1st ASTON VILLA PROSPECTS The newly promoted side have shown ambition in the transfer market, after cantering to last season’s…

SO, WHAT’S NEW? Arminia Bielefeld are back in the big time after an 11-year absence in which they twice slipped into the third tier. Uwe Neuhaus’ side (right) were worthy 2. Bundesliga winners, losing just two matches in a wild league that rivals the Championship for unpredictability. They scored more times than any other team and conceded the fewest – so expect a strong showing from their well-balanced squad. Fellow new boys Stuttgart also return after a year in the second tier, restoring one of the league’s founding teams to the top flight. MAJOR STORYLINES Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: can anyone halt Bayern Munich’s bid for a record-extending ninth straight title? Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig both remain prime candidates, but appear to lack the consistency…