Month: October 2007

Put together any list of the greatest British football managers: the same names always recur. Chapman, Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Don Revie, Alf Ramsey, Jock Stein, Bob Paisley, Brian Clough, Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger.. and there’ll be one or two other names others would add to their own version of this list. I’d add Jose…

So often, seen only in retrospect. Take Busby’s Manchester United: a 2-0 defeat in the San Siro against Inter in 1969, in a European Cup semi-final, is followed by many, many years of entirely unlooked-for disaster, mediocrity and decline. Another 2-0 defeat, this time for Leeds United in the 1975 European Cup Final, spelt the…

.. in one of the least satisfying FA Cup Finals ever, 1957. This Final was filmed in colour, which you can see in full on DVD but not here. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sob0cvIK3p4]

Well, as it were. It was his first, and would prove to be his last, for all that he was 21 years away from a World Cup Semi-Final: Manchester City v Leicester City FA Cup Final 1969: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Ag47jTLlw]

It’s not the most prestigious award of its kind, and can’t match William Hill’s largesse, but our winner is not in, and is better than, the William Hill Long List. The William Hill Sports Book of the Year Long List is dominated by sport at the top end – professional, monied, unexperienced by normal people…

The last real footballing innovation that came from England was the W-M formation – the Chapman/Buchan third back game, invented in 1925 as a response to the mayhem inspired by a change in the offside laws. My previous post on this subject mused on some of the reasons why Britain ceased to be the engine…

Not easy, I admit: the picture below shows an early Brazil match. Using your skill, judgement and blind luck, identify the opponents, the year, and the score.