On their way to winning the Worthington Cup, consider this 4th round tie the coming of age party for Martin O’Neill’s Leicester City. Whacking a strong United side including Keane, Scholes, Cryuff and Poborsky (the latter of whom cost more than the entire Leicester first XI), was typical of O’Neill’s disregard for bigger clubs, and in his time as manager, Leicester won at Anfield three times in a row as well as securing famous victories at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge.
Steve Claridge’s brilliant first was added to by 18 year old Emile Heskey (whatever happened to him) 13 minutes from time, with a Paul Scholes missed penalty in between. United scored three times in the last fifteen minutes to win the league match a week later, but Leicester recovered to finish the season in 9th.
Bolton Wanderers 6 Tottenham Hotspur 1
27/11/1996
Another stunning result on the same night, as First Division leaders Bolton trounced Premier League comedians Tottenham Hotspur. Super John McGinlay bagged a hat-trick, and further goals from Gerry Taggart, Nathan Blake and Scott Taylor were answered to only by a Teddy Sheringham freekick.
Even back then it was customary for sides to rest players for the League Cup, yet incredibly it was Bolton who had left their three key players on the bench. Less incredibly, Gerry Francis was out of work 12 months later, his huge mullet following him out the door a few days later.
Arsenal 5 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1
2/12/2003
The night Cesc Fabregas, at the age of 16, entered the record books as the youngest goalscorer in Arsenal’s history, as the next generation of Wenger starlets battered fellow Premier Leaguers Wolves, in a devastating display of attacking power. Whilst the first team were proving to be literally unbeatable that season, Wenger was showing that the future was pretty bright too
Interestingly, only Cesc and Gael Clichy have survived to the Arsenal first team, whilst MOTM Jerome Aliadiere is currently plying his trade in the Championship
The players who fell from grace but refused to quit
Such is their love of the game, a number of former Premier League stars have forged managerial careers in the ever-so-slightly less glamorous world of non-League football: Luton’s Mick Harford and Newport’s Dean Holdsworth are notable examples. Some however, are still plying their trade on the pitch in the lower echelons of the football pyramid.
Spoiler correspondent Russell Greaves brings us ten former top flight heroes who have swapped the international acclaim of the top flight for the bumpy pitches and humble attendances of the grass roots game…
Paolo Vernazza (4 Premier League appearances for Arsenal)
Once a promising youngster at Arsenal, Paolo even got a run out in the Champions League, but has since worked his way down the leagues - way down. Having scored the winning goal against Coventry City in front of 37,000 fans at Highbury in 2000, the midfielder’s most recent goal was for Conference South giants Woking, and 2,000 people were fortunate enough to see it. A cautionary tale for the current crop of Arsenal youngsters. Credit where it’s due, though, his supporting lady is top-class.
Jason Lee (69 Premier League appearances for Nottingham Forest) If you recognise the name, it could be because he scored over one-hundred career league goals, but it’s more likely to be because he was relentlessly lampooned on Fantasy Football League. He’s now banging them in for Corby Town in the Conference North, minus the pineapple.
Alan Wright (Over 300 Premier League appearances for Blackburn Rovers and Aston Villa)
Perhaps best remembered as the shortest player in the history of the Premier League (a pocket-sized 5’4’’), Alan Wright is now best known as the shortest player in the Blue Square North. Aston Villa once paid £1m for his services, but Fleetwood Town recently secured his signature without a fee and gave the 38-year-old his non-league debut in a 2-1 victory at Solihull Moors.
Second, The Spoiler very much enjoys your work on talkSPORT, although if you could occasionally let callers finish their remarks before reaching for the megaphone, you would be an even better broadcaster.
Third, the hat-trick you scored for Leicester against Sunderland was one of the finest three-goal efforts ever assembled, and one I’m not sure Sunderland have ever recovered from. Leicester certainly haven’t.
But that’s enough flattery. Let’s move on to your observations.
Just a small point, but you’re wrong about this being an anonymous blog. Every post has the name of the poster beneath it, right underneath all those mysterious hieroglyphics and after the date the story was posted. Furthermore, if you go to the very bottom of the site and click on “About Us” you can also see the names and contact details for the names of the people who run the site.
As for “The notion that you cannot be man of the match because one misses several chances is probably the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard,” well, where to begin? In your Mirror column you didn’t call Bendtner man of the match but “Hero of the weekend,” a weekend on which Steven Gerrard orchestrated an historic evisceration of Man United. Even within the Arsenal game, you would struggle to find anyone to agree that Bendtner played better than Arshavin. The Spoiler probably also suspects that if you took a moment to reflect, you’d have to admit that you have heard more ludicrous things before.
It’s only four weeks until the January transfer window opens and all eyes turn eagerly towards Manchester City in the hope they they will pump some money around and get a merry-go-round started. What better time than now then for The Spoiler to bring back it’s daily transfer rumour round-up? Here are the latest whisperings that we’ve heard:
Dean Ashton to the highest bidder
Everybody is expecting a FIRE SALE! at West Ham next month but which player do the Daily Mirror think is on top of every Premier League club’s wishlist? Not Robert Green, who starred against Arsenal and Liverpool, nor Matthew Upson, who has established himself as England’s third-choice centre-back. Instead it’s injury-prone pizza fan Dean Ashton, who may not play again this season, who West Ham are supposedly expecting £18 million for.
The Spoiler Truth-o-meter: Any sale would surely happen in the summer and for a seven-figure fee
Former Spurs player belittles Redknapp’s attempts to snare Given
Joe Kinnear today laughed off suggestions that Shay Given would leave Newcastle for Tottenham in January by saying: ”Why would he want to go to Spurs? This is a bigger club than Spurs.”
It’s normally supporters who attempt to elevate their own club and it was because of Tottenham and Newcastle fans’ inflated sense of their own importance that neutrals took so much pleasure from seeing the two clubs suffer earlier this season. However, that hasn’t stopped Kinnear jockeying for position with the team he spent most of his playing career at in the big club stakes.
Newcastle’s claim to being a big club is that they came second twice over a decade ago and that they have lots of fans, some who are so passionate that they take their shoes off to support their team. Tottenham of course won the Carling Cup, the same highly-regarded trophy that launched juggernauts such as Leicester, Blackburn and Middlesbrough on the path to greater glories earlier this decade, and nearly finished ahead of Arsenal two years ago.
The league table, which surely fans should consider the most important measure of a club’s prominence, shows Tottenham are the sixteenth biggest in the Premier League right now, while Newcastle are eighteenth. But which club do you consider the biggest? Let us know with a vote and comment below:
Sheffield United’s successful tribunal ruling against West Ham could cost the Hammers £30m in compensation, and it also sets a dangerous precedent for results on the pitch being overruled by men in suits. The Spoiler decided to examine other potential footballing matters that could end up being settled by lawyers:
1) Watford miss out on the play-offs by a point
The Football League have decided there will be no replay of Saturday’s Watford/Reading match, despite the fact that the Royal’s opener was clearly not a goal. If Watford end up finishing just outside the play-off places, or if Reading wind up just inside them - does that give Watford the right to sue the Football League, the referee and the linesman?
2) Germany claim the 1966 World Cup
Sheffield United were able to win their case relying predominantly on ‘what ifs’, rather than solid facts. Imagine how successful a Germany appeal could be when they have digitally-enhanced evidence that Geoff Hurst’s second goal didn’t cross the line - another example of West Ham cheating!
3) England gain passage to the 1986 World Cup semi-finals
Maybe England could compensate for losing that World Cup by sueing Argentina for Diego Maradona’s
Newcastle executive is a stand-up guy, according to himself
In case you didn’t know, Dennis Wise - the chap who Alex Ferguson said “could start a fight in an empty house” - is a thoroughly upstanding citizen who is adored by fans across the nation for his refusal to acquiesce to demands of the the money men. That is, according to the jacket of his 1999 autobiography:
In an age when football is dominated by glamorous foreign players chasing multi-million-pound contracts from club to club, Dennis Wise represents the traditions of team loyalty, dogged determination and fighting spirit.
It is perhaps this, as well as his charmingly irascible nature, that makes Dennis - Wisey to his teammates and fans - such an enduringly popular player.
‘Enduringly popular’? Leicester, Leeds and Newcastle fans would probably disagree…
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