March 11 – KK Resigns… Again

WE’RE approaching the business end of the season, a time when, as Billy Ocean once said, the going gets tough and the tough get going. Today in 2005 one of OTFD’s favourites found that, not for the first time in his career, the going was indeed too tough. It wasn’t in the Wembley toilets and it wasn’t with his side fighting for the title, but Kevin Keegan decided he’d had enough at Manchester City.

Keegan had taken over at City in May 2001, following his spell in charge of the national side, with the Citizens finding themselves freshly relegated from the Premier League under Joe Royle. Doing what he did best, Keegan inspired his side to a record-breaking promotion season in 2001/02, with experienced players such as Stuart Pearce, Ali Benarbia and Eyal Berkovic helping the side to 124 goals in all competitions.

Once City were back in the Premiership Keegan brought in the likes of Nicolas Anelka and the late Marc Vivian Foe as they were able to establish their place in the Premiership and even reach the UEFA Cup, albeit thanks to the UEFA Fair Play ranking-loophole. This would also be the last season at Maine Road, with Keegan winning a place in the heart of City fans forever more when his charges won the last-ever Manc derby at the old stadium would ever see. Keegan marked it’s passing by coming out with some of his normal rubbish: “Maine Road was a great football stadium but as time moved on it stayed where it is.”

It was the next season that things started to get a little sticky for King Kev. A 16th-place finish and a UEFA Cup departure at the hands of Groclin Dyskoblia, coincided with a few more gray hairs on the head of Keegan and a worsening dress sense (anyone remember those horrible turtle necks?). A whole host of terrible signings didn’t help either. Danish defender Mikkel Bishchoff made four appearances for his £700,000 fee, the £5 million spent on Jon Macken harvested only seven goals in 57 games and, in one of the worst transfers ever, the Argentinean striker Vicente Matias Vuoso cost the club £3.5 million but never once turned out for the club.

A poor start to the 2004/05 season got worse when Oldham got their giant-killing-on and knocked City out of the FA Cup leaving Keegan to decide that he would retire at the end of the 2005/06 season. But, in true KK style, he didn’t make it that long. A home loss to Bolton saw City slip to 12th in the table and Keegan’s usual firebrand motivational-talk deserted him as he would say: We’ve got a history of not building on good situations. We could have jumped into the European shake-up, again we couldn’t make that leap. That’s seven or eight times in a year we could have jumped into something good for this club and we’ve failed.” Keegan’s three-year and ten-month spell had ended and Manchester City had lost their longest-serving manager for 26 years.

We all thought that would be the end of Keegan as a manager, as he moved up to Scotland to run his ‘Soccer Circus’ football school in Glasgow. In October 2007 he said that he was unlikely to ever work again and had not watched a live match in three years. We all know what happened next though, and if you ask us, not watching any football and working in a circus instead is ideal preparation for the Newcastle job.

We fancy a laugh, so we’ll leave you with our top 5 Keegan quotes, and another daft KK video (great threads Kev). Join us again tomorrow for the tale of another manager who knows how to make us laugh.

• “Despite his white boots, he has real pace… ”
• “The tide is very much in our court now. ”
• “In some ways, cramp is worse than having a broken leg. ”
• “Argentina won’t be at Euro 2000 because they’re from South America. ”
• “As far as I’m concerned, Danny Tiatto doesn’t exist.”

March 10 – Bubble and Squeek

THEY are viewed as one of the poor relations of the European football family yet Greece are the current European champions and the country is home to one of the most hotly contested derby matches in the world.

The Derby of the Eternal Enemies could be the title of an Indiana Jones epic but it is actually the name given to the matches contested between Panathinaikos and Olympiacos.

It was on this day in 1925 that one half of that rivalry was formed when Olympiacos were founded. The new club was the result of a meeting between members of Piraeus Football Club and Piraeus Fan Club who decided to join forces to create a new unified team, hence the club’s full name: Olympiacos Club of Fans of Piraeus FC; Piraeus being a suburb of Athens.

It didn’t take long for this new club to capture the imagination of the whole of Greece as their team including the five Andrianopoulos brothers Jimmy, Dinos, Giorgos, Vassilis and Leonidas collected titles galore in the 1930s. Certainly beats the hell out of the Nevilles. The team was so successful with the five brothers leading the attack that the team earned the nickname ‘Thrylos’ meaning Legend, which they retain to this day.

The club would keep up this level of success with relentless predictability for many years until the late 1980s when they went an unprecedented nine seasons without a league title. This period coincided with George Koskotas owning the club and while times were miserable on the pitch, they were no better off it and in 1988 Koskotas was arrested for embezzlement after some eagle-eye noticed $130m had gone missing.

Although he was released from prison in 2001 after serving 12 years of a 25-year sentence for embezzlement, forgery and obstruction of justice felonies, Koskotas is still not allowed to leave the country and has to report to an Athens police precinct twice a month.

After a new owner came in things began to look up in the mid 1990s and the regular flow of championships began again as their so-called decade of dominance started. Since 1997 the only year the championship was not won by Olympiacos was in 2004 when Panathinaikos spoiled a potential perfect ten.

This period of dominance is fairly representative of the histories of both Olympiacos and the Greek championship as Thrylos have won more titles than their nearest rivals put together. The all-time record reads Olympiacos (35), Panathinaikos (19) and AEK Athens (11). They have also sprayed the ouzo on 22 occasions when lifting the Greek Cup.

In recent years the club have attempted to spread their wings somewhat in terms of their squad and in 2004 they signed probably their most famous ever player when noted cheat and World Cup winner Rivaldo arrived at the Karaiskákis Stadium to help the club stay at the top.

See below as Lomana Lua Lua, once of Newcastle and Portsmouth, scores a screamer for Olympiacos against their Eternal Enemies Panathanaikos earlier this year. More from us tomorrow pop pickers so don’t go away.

March 9 – Scouts, Bandits, Vimto and Inter

THE year 1908 was notable for a number of reasons. It was the year that Lord Baden Powell started his scouting movement, Henry Ford launched the Model T car that would bring vehicle ownership to the masses, the FBI was founded, the IV modern Olympic games were held in London, bandits Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid were supposedly gunned down in Bolivia, and in Manchester a wholesaler of herbs, spices and medicines named John Noel Nichols invented Vimto.

Meanwhile on this day in that busy year FC Internazionale Milano was founded by disaffected members of the Milan Cricket and Football Club – AC Milan to you and me.

The story goes that a few Swiss and Italian members of AC were unhappy with the Italian domination of the team and wanted a more cosmopolitan feel to their new club, hence the Internazionale name. Foreign players were welcomed and the first team captain was a Swiss names Hernst Manktl.

The decision to form a splinter club was entirely vindicated just two years later in 1910 when Inter won the Scudetto for the first time with Virgilio Fossati captaining and coaching the team. Although Fossati was killed in the First World War, a second title is won in 1920.

In the 1920s Benito Mussolini and his fascist cronies came to power and went down the predictable oppressive dictatorship route of re-branding everything to suit the new glorious regime. Inter were no exception and in 1928 they were forced to merge with the Milanese Unione Sportiva and renamed Ambrosiana SS Milano. Fans pretty much ignored this and continued calling their team ‘inter’ and the club picked up a third Scudetto in 1930.

A first Coppa Italia was won in 1939 when the team was led by the first true world football superstar, Giuseppe Meazza – the man after whom the San Siro was renamed.

After the Second World War the club reverted to its original name and went on the enjoy the most successful period in its history, especially in the 1960s when league championships flowed like wine and the team won two European Cups on the bounce in 1964 and 1965.

By the 1990s the good times had largely dried up for Inter with hated rivals AC Milan and Juventus hoovering up all the silverware in sight. It remains the only decade in which the Nerazzurri failed to win the Scudetto, despite chairman Massimo Moratti lavishing millions on new signings like Ronaldo, Christian Vieri and Hernán Crespo.

Inter would have to wait until 2005 before they had to remember where they had stuck the keys to the trophy cabinet when they finally won the Coppa Italia which they would also life in 2006.

They were also the largest beneficiaries of the Calciopoli scandal that rocked Italian football when they were awarded the 2005-06 championship following the disqualification of AC Milan an Juventus. With Juve relegated for the following season and AC hit with an eight point deduction the way was clear for Inter to pick up another Scudetto in 2007.

With Juve’s demotion to Serie B Inter also become the only Italian club to have never been relegated in their entire history – a fact their fans take great delight in reminding their Milan counterparts during their derby matches at the San Siro.

Enjoy a very uncharacteristic high-scoring Milan derby from a couple of years back below and make sure you come back here tomorrow for more historical delights.

March 8 – The Black Flash is Born

ON this day in 1956 in Archway, London, a child was born who would go on to rack up more ‘firsts’ than Michael Schumacher and become an inspiration to many future players.

Laurie Cunningham was one of the first top English black footballers – and he first achieved real prominence under the management of Ron Atkinson at West Bromwich Albion.

He began his career at Leyton Orient before he was snapped up by West Brom in 1977 where he would team up with Cyrille Regis and Brendon Batson to form the attacking trio dubbed The Three Degrees after the Motown group.

Some stunning displays for the Baggies prompted the big boys of Europe to take note and in 1979 Real Madrid paid £995,000 to take him to the Bernabeu and make him not only the club’s first Englishman, but also their first black player.

Dubbed the ‘Black Flash’ by the Real fans he won La Liga in 1980 and the Copa del Rey in 1980 and 1982 before he had a loan spell at Manchester United. This was followed by a move to Spanish side Sporting de Gijón before a year in France at Olympique Marseille.

In 1985 he swapped the grand setting of the Stade Vélodrome for the rather less auspicious surroundings of a stadium named after an obscure form of hazelnut. Leicester’s Filbert Street ground was his footballing home for just a year before he made perhaps the most random move of his career when he signed for Belgium side Charleroi.

Perhaps appropriately for this by now much travelled footballer Cunningham would return to England as part of Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang, even coming on as a sub in their famous FA Cup victory over Liverpool. This would be the only trophy he would ever win in English football.

The Black Flash had one last mission in him and in 1988 he returned to Spain where he helped Rayo Vallecano to promotion.

On the international front Cunningham had a couple of firsts there as well. He was the first black player to represent his country at any level when he played for the England Under 21 team in a friendly against Scotland at Bramall Lane on April 27, 1977, scoring on his debut.

Although Viv Anderson was famously the first black player to play for England at senior level, Cunningham was not to be outdone and on making his debut against Wales in a Home International on 23 May 1979, he became the first black man to play in a competitive game for England. Anderson’s appearance had been in a friendly some six months earlier.

Tragically Cunningham’s life was cut short when he was killed in a car crash in Madrid at the age of 33, on the morning of 15 July 1989.

Enjoy some footage below of Laurie at his best in West Brom’s 5-3 win over Manchester United and come back tomorrow to break up the monotony of Sunday with a bit of footy trivia from us.

March 7 – O Brother, Where Art Thou?

IT’S not easy being the little brother. Younger siblings everywhere have always had chips on their shoulders concerning over-achieving elders, whether it’s Anton Ferdinand, Phil Neville or Liam Gallagher. Today in 1933 big brother Danny was cooing over the newest arrival to the Blanchflower family, as his mother gave birth to another talented football sprog in the shape of Jackie Blanchflower.

Whilst Danny was off making a legend of himself as the key part of Bill Nicholson’s historic double-winning Spurs side, Jackie could only look on and dream about what could have been.

As a youngster Jackie was picked up by Manchester United, graduating from the club’s youth system when he made his first-team debut at Anfield in 1951. He became a regular in the side, picking up two league titles during the 1950s. Proving himself to be at ease anywhere on the pitch, he started his career up front before being moved to the heart of the United defence, where he could use aerial power and intelligent reading of the game to the full effect.

Unfortunately, most football fans will know where this story is headed. Jackie was on that infamous Flight 609 that decimated the Busby Babes when it crashed in Munich in 1958. Blanchflower sustained broken arms and legs, as well as a fractured pelvis. His right arm was almost severed and his kidneys were crushed, but unlike 23 of his fellow passengers he survived.

Jackie attempted a comeback, but was told by doctors that any further damage to his kidney would leave him in bad shape, so he called it a day a year later. His career was prematurely over by the age of 24, when he could look back at 117 appearances for United and 12 for his country.

It seemed that his luck got no better the older he got. He was from an age where players weren’t the gazillionaires that they are today, so he had to make a living the normal way, but fate kept conspiring against him. When he opened a paper shop in Manchester a supermarket would soon open around the corner. After getting a job as a bookmaker, the country soon found itself covered in snow, meaning all horse racing was abandoned and Jackie was laid off. He bounced back and did the old footballer’s trick of opening a pub, but after two weeks the breathalyser was introduced.

All this was while big bro Danny was becoming one of the greatest players of the era. Some people have none of the luck. Well leave with some footage of Jackie and his fellow Busby Babes in action, so younger siblings of the world unite in praising Jackie and head over here tomorrow for the story of a Brit who broke down barriers in Iberia.

March 6 – Accrington Stanley? Who Are They?

ACCCCCRINGTON Stanley? Who are they?

Well my boy, pull up a chair and a glass of milk and I’ll tell you.

It was on this day in 1962 that the directors of the famous old Lancashire club sent a resignation letter to the Football League secretary to become the first league club to resign from the competition mid-season.

The club has a slightly complicated history as the original town team Accrington FC were founder members of the Football League before they folded in 1893.

Meanwhile, a second club, Stanley Villa was formed in 1891, taking their name from their base at the Stanley Arms on Stanley Street. They adopted the ‘Accrington’ into their name in 1893 after the demise of Accrington FC.

After World War One the club reformed and entered the League in 1921 where they would play until their sad demise in the 1960s. They never managed to win promotion from the Third Division and sometimes struggled to fill their Peel Park ground with big-boy neighbours Burnley and Blackburn attracting all the punters.

The storm clouds started gathering over Peel Park in February 1962, and the whole thing would go on to unravel with startling pace.

The crisis began with the arrival of a letter, dated 18 February, from the Football League, asking for clarification of Stanley’s financial status. The board called in vice-president Sam Pilkington to sort things out, who in turn recruited Burnley owner Bob Lord to help.

Lord asked all six directors of the club to resign, but the League ruled out Lord taking control of Stanley while he was still owner of Burnley.

A creditors meeting on March 5 revealed the true extent of the club’s debt which totalled £62,000, of which £4000 was needed immediately just to keep the wolf from the door. Considering you could buy a house in 1962 for half a shilling this was a colossal amount of money. (Note, our half a shilling house valuation may be, and is, wildly inaccurate).

Given this dire financial situation the directors concluded the club was bust and decided the resign from the League. The Accrington Observer ran with the headline: “STANLEY – THE END” on their March 6 edition. The players obviously weren’t much for reading and they all turned up and trained on the pitch at Peel Park.

Just two days later a man walked into the club’s office and put a bag with £10,000 inside on the table. “You can borrow that interest free,” he said, “and pay it back whenever you can manage it. I don’t want to see this club go under.”

Club president William Cocker saw a chance to save the club and told the press they would fight for survival. The club wrote a second letter to the League asking them to ignore their previous letter of resignation. Things were looking up… for a bit.

On March 12, despite a presentation to the League Management Committee from Stanley chairman George Clarkson and club solicitor Harry Disley, the end was nigh.

League secretary Alan Hardaker decided to accept the original letter of resignation and the club was dead. Their last match had been a 4-0 loss to Crewe Alexandra.

It would be 44 long years before Accrington had a club in the Football League again when Accrington Stanley FC, a new club formed in 1968 in the wake of the Stanley’s demise, were promoted as conference champions in 2006.

In the mean time the club had gained notoriety from a milk advert shown in the 1980s. Have a look at the famous ad below, and come back tomorrow for more from your favourite football history site.

March 5 – David Does Birmingham

THEY are two forms of entertainment that actually have a lot in common. Both can be addictive yet at times unsatisfying, your girlfriend is always complaining you watch too much, and there are always balls on show.

Today was the day in 1993 when the adult entertainment industry and football became bedfellows. Porn baron David Sullivan turned up at St Andrews, not to fix the plumbing, but to call the shots when he became the new owner of Birmingham City FC.

The owner of the Sunday Sport and Daily Sport began his business life selling match programmes before turning his hand to producing adult movies. Perhaps some early clues that he might one day be involved with Brum were the titles of two of his films: Come Play With Me and Queen of the Blues were among the offerings that helped make him millions.

Sullivan soon got his two mates David and Ralph Gold to join his Blue revolution but the Midlands club was not their first choice when the millionaires were deciding which football club they might like as their latest accessory. Sullivan and David Gold had previously held a large shareholding in West Ham but after they were not invited to join the board they felt a bit unloved and sold to Terry Brown.

Birmingham City was their second bite at the football cherry but since taking control they have let the good times roll in the blue half of the second city.

Since Sullivan and the Golds turned up life has been pretty darn tootin’ for Brum fans who have seen their club promoted to the Premier League (twice), celebrated a couple of derby wins over Aston Villa and had players such as world cup winner Christophe Dugarry and, erm Emile Heskey strutting their stuff round St Andrews, which has itself benefited from new ownership with three of its sides having been rebuilt since 1993.

Their ownership also allowed the Guardian sub-editors to come up with a contender for headline of the decade when the Blues’ former manager purchased a new striker: ‘Steve Bruce has splattered David Sullivan’s porn cash all over Mike Newell’s face, snapping up striker Rowan Vine for £2m’. Oh the imagery.

After a slight blip a couple of seasons back when not even all the mucky money in the world could prevent them from relegation the Blues are now back in the big time with Alex McLeish having taken the management reigns from Steve Bruce.

It did seem as if the love affair between Messers Sullivan, Gold and Gold might be in need of a bit of fluffing late last year when the man described universally as Hong Kong-based businessman Carson Yeung looked like he might swoop in as the new owner, but since he failed to come up with the cash to buy the club Sullivan has been telling anyone who will listen that Alex McLeish has reignited his passion for the club.

Now just like Gazza, here at OTFD we never make predictions, and we never will, but after their 4-1 tonking of Spurs last weekend we reckon Birmingham might just have the staying power to stay up this season, and with that Hong Kong-based bounder Yeung dispatched and plans for a new stadium in the pipeline it looks like the future is pretty rosy.

Just as a special treat for all you blues fans here is former Aston Villa goalkeeper Peter Enckleman looking about as assured as the dialogue from a porno in a Birmingham derby a few years back. Look away now Villa fans, but come back tomorrow when we’ll have more historical treats for you.

Apologies for our absence for a large part of yesterday – rest assured an army of white-coated technicians were working round the clock to rectify the problem, but we are now fully operational once again so thanks for your patience.

March 4 – Lazarus Resurrects The R’s

PICTURE this: you’re a third division club playing in the League Cup final in what is the biggest game of your history, facing one of the biggest clubs in the country and you’re two-nil down at half-time. Probably time to start praying, right? Well, perhaps this is exactly what QPR did today in 1967, as they completed one of English football’s greatest ever comebacks thanks to the most appropriately named goalscorer ever: Lazarus!

Back in the ’60s the Superhoops were on the cusp of being London’s most exciting and trendy side, but they weren’t quite there in 1967. Legendary manager Alec Stock was transforming the club, helped in no small part by the maverick striker Rodney Marsh. For those too young to have seen him play, we can assure you that his skills on the pitch were better than those in the punditry booth. 
”Football is an entertainment as well as a sport, and we have to give the customers what they want. They want success and they want goals” was Stock’s philosophy and that’s exactly what he brought to the club, but not in the rubbish 2008 Kevin Keegan Newcastle-style.

The ’67 League Cup final featured a number of firsts. It was the first time that the final had been held at Wembley and the first time that the seven-year old competition was decided in a one-legged final. It was also QPR’s bow at the old Twin Towers.

West Brom went into the Wembley showpiece as massive favourites, two divisions above Rangers and lead by the former Fantasy Football sing-along hero Jeff Astle. They wasted no time asserting their dominance as they raced to a two-nil half-time lead thanks to a brace from former QPR winger Clive Clark.

The Ranger’s fans prayed for a miracle and that’s pretty much what they got. Roger Morgan and Marsh pulled it back to two-all with fifteen minutes left, leaving the stage set for Mark Lazarus to pick up a loose ball following Ron Hunt’s forward run and coolly slot the ball home. The R’s had risen from the grave, just like Mark’s great-grandad (possibly) did, leaving Mike Keen to walk up the 39 steps and pick up what remains QPR’s only major trophy.

Buoyed by their success at Wembley, QPR went on to win the Third Division title that season as they embarked on the most successful period in their history. Since then they’ve had more ups and downs than a day in the life of Stan Collymore, but the future looks bright as they can boast of being the richest club in the world following the investment of F1 big-wigs Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone and ludicrously rich steel-magnate Lakshmi Mittal.

Check out some of the roller-coaster action that is following QPR below, including their big day out at Wembley at the end. We’ll be back tomorrow with more old school tales, so head over here for that.

March 3 – Milan Hammer Inter

THEY call it the ‘Derby della Madonnia’ and there’s nothing that your average Milanser geezer likes more than a win over their cross-town rivals in the Milan derby. And never has there been a bigger win than today in 1918 when the red and black half of Milan were revelling in a record-breaking 8-1 win over their bitter rivals.

There aren’t many matches in world football that can match the intensity of the Milan derby. It all started back in 1908 when two opposing factions within the Milan Cricket and Football Club split over a disagreement stemming from the signing of foreign players. This lead to the formation of FC Internazionale Milano and a rivalry was instantly born.

Traditionally Inter have been seen as the bourgeoisie club, with Milan taking their support for city’s working class. Locally they are nicknamed the ‘casciant’, which literally means ‘screwdriver’ in a reference to their blue-collared support. However, in recent times Milan and Inter’s place on the social hierarchy has become a tad blurred, as Milan are now owned by conservative former PM Silvio Berlusconi whilst centre-left businessman Massimo Moratti rules the roost over at Inter.

The success of both sides in the 1960s fuelled the rivalry as both clubs hovered up trophies both in Italy and on the continent. During this period both sets of players openly disliked each other, even refusing to play side-by-side in the national team. Azzuri managers would have the headache of having to sub the rival Milanese players for each other at half-time to avoid any confrontations.

Another low-point in Milan relations came in the late 1980s and early ’90s when Milan’s tasty “Invincibles” side were putting Inter firmly in their place. It didn’t help that Milan were lead by the Dutch triumvirate of Marco Van Basten, Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit, whereas Inter were built around the German trio of Andreas Brehme, Jurgen Klinsmann and Lothar Matthaus. If there’s ever been two nations that don’t get on in the world of football then it’s Holland and Germany.

This particular chapter in the history of the Milan derby boiled over in the second round of the 1990 World Cup, where Germany and Holland took on each other, in of all places, the San Siro. This was acting as a pseudo-Milan derby and it was Inter that could claim the moral victory as the Germans won 2-1 in a match that is most famous for Rijkaard spitting in Rudi Voller’s horrible ’80s perm.

The two sides are still going strong at each other, as proved by the scenes in the 2005 Champions League quarter-final, where Dida was struck by a flare thrown by an Inter crowd that were baying for blood. Sadly, footage from Milan’s 1918 rout is pretty hard to come by, so we though we’d leave you with Rijkaard’s spat with Voller from 1990, as it’s, quite frankly, hilarious. Have a giggle there and come back tomorrow for one of the greatest comebacks since Lazarus.

March 2 – Diego Fesses Up

IT was the moment that saw England’s world cup hopes evaporate (yet again), and saw a young player vilified by the press and the public.

David Beckham’s petulant kick at Diego Simeone in the England Argentina knock-out match of the 1998 World Cup in France got young Becks sent off at a crucial point in the finely balanced game.

England predictably went on to lose on penalties and Becks was blamed for the whole thing. It was on this day in 1999 that Simeone, the pantomime villain of the piece, admitted that he had conned the referee into red-carding Becks.

His confession came in the build up to his club side’s Champion’s League match with Becks’ team as Internazionale prepared to face Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Simeone told the BBC at the time: “Let’s just say the referee fell into the trap.

“It was also a difficult one for him to have avoided because I went down well and in moments like that there’s a lot of tension.

“You could say that my falling transformed a yellow card into a red card. But in fact, the most appropriate punishment was a yellow one.”

He added: “Obviously, I was being clever. By letting myself fall, I got the referee to pull out a red card immediately.

“In reality, it wasn’t a violent blow, it was just a little kick back with no force behind it, and was probably instinctive.

“The referee was right there, just two steps away, and probably punished that intention to retaliate.”

Old Diego really must have been a glutton for punishment to come out with this just a day before he had to face an Old Trafford crowd that were no doubt relishing the opportunity of giving him not just a bit of stick, but probably the whole tree.

It seems he is from the Robbie Savage school of players who love to be hated as he said: “I’ll be going there willingly, to one of the best football stadiums in the world. Old Trafford, which I happen to know, is a really marvellous place and I’m delighted to be going back there.

“Obviously, the atmosphere is going to be boiling and I might get whistled. But if that happened, the English fans would only make me happy. I adore it when rival fans whistle at me. It really fires me up.”

It didn’t fire him up that much though as Inter were beaten 2-0 in Manchester and could only manage a 1-1 draw back in Italy to see Man United go through to the semi-final, before they beat first Juventus and then Bayern Munich to lift the trophy in their famous treble winning season.

Needless to say Beckham had the last laugh in 2002 when his penalty gave England a 1-0 over Argentina which helped dump the South Americans out of the competition.

Have a look at Becks’ lonely walk to the tunnel below and make sure you come back tomorrow to get your daily fix of football nostalgia right here.