August 21 – Vieira Sees Red

THE headlines should have been all about Arsenal’s first win over Liverpool for six years today in 2000, but instead it was The Thing From Tring, Graham Poll that took the spotlight as he sent three players off in the Gunner’s 2-0 win at Highbury.

The two rivals had kicked their seasons off the weekend before, with Liverpool edging out Bradford 1-0 and Arsenal losing by the same score away to Sunderland. That match also saw Patrick Vieira sent off, and the same fate would befall the Frenchman against Liverpool when Poll gave him his marching orders in the second half after dishing out a second yellow card.

By this time Arsenal were leading 1-0 thanks to an early goal from debutant Lauren following his £7m summer move from Mallorca. This was the Gooners first goal against Liverpool, since Ian Wright bagged for them in 1997. Another debut-boy was Liverpool’s Gary McAllister, who was given a controversial straight red for his two-footed tackle on Vieira just before half-time.

Poll began to lose control in the second half when he dismissed Vieira for his second bookable offence and then sent off Dietmar Hamann minutes later, also for receiving two yellows. At least he remembered to send the pair off, unlike his antics six years later.

With the match quickly descending into a farce thanks to Poll’s over-enthusiastic performance Arsenal scored a last minute goal, courtesy of Thierry Henry to seal their 2-0 win and their first win over the scousers since March 1994. Their joy was tempered by the news that Vieira would miss their next five games, including matches against Manchester United and Chelsea.

Vieira was reportably ready to quit the Premiership in the aftermath of the game, fearing that referees would have him down as a marked man. His manager, Arsene Wenger, said after the game: “”It’s a very sad night for us. They will say I’m whinging but I believe he played the ball both times, maybe I am wrong – that’s how I see football.”

Wenger’s opposite number, Gerard Houllier was also unimpressed: “We are very unlucky with Mr Poll. I have never won with him – that is clear.” No sour grapes there then.

Because we’re still finding it very amusing, here’s a clip of Poll’s from the 2006 World Cup, so have a laugh there, check out what else was going on today here and come back tomorrow for more of the same.

August 20 – Barry’s Bombastic Barnet

AS THE phoenix club Aldershot Town FC are getting used to life as a Football League club, we thought we’d go back to another side that were making their League bow in back in 1991.

Barnet FC were promoted to what was then known as Division 4 after 103 years kicking around in the various Non-League institutions since their formation when they won the Vauxhall Conference with a reputation for fast, attacking football.

This reputation was strengthened by their early performances in their first season in the League, such as in their game today in 1991 when they drew 5-5 with Brentford in the League Cup. This came days after the Bees had lost 7-4 at home to Crewe as they began to make Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle sides of the mid-90s look dull.

Barnet were under the stewardship of colourful manager Barry Fry who was in his second spell at the club after he was brought back to Underhill following Stan Flashman’s purchase of the club in 1985 when they were heading for the brink of receivership.

Flashman was another of those characters we love so much here at OTFD. His first venture into the world of football was as a well-known ticket tout that boasted he could obtain tickets from anything from the Cup Final to the Queen’s garden parties at Buckingham Palace. Flashman and Fry enjoyed a tempestuous relationship, with the chairman sacking and reinstating his manager on no less than eight occasions.

This dynamic duo lead Barnet to the play-offs in their first season of League football where they would lose ton Blackpool in the semi finals. They would go one better the next season when they achieved automatic promotion to the third flight, but not without the help of some dodgy dealings on Flashman’s behalf.

At the end of the season disparaging allegations came out over the club accounts and players’ wages, which led to an expulsion vote at a Football League EGM which the club narrowly survived. However, they would then lose most of the side that got them promoted after a tribunal nullified the players’ contracts and the hastily assembled squad were relegated next season.

Following that another spell in the Conference followed when the club lost their League status in 2001. They yo-yoed their way back into League Two in 2005 and have not started well this term, losing their first two games and being knocked out of the League Cup.

See a fascinating documentary on the dodgy goings-on at Underhill in the early 1990s below and check out what else happened today here. We’ll be back tomorrow for more of the same so don’t go changing.

August 19 – Sky Blue Keano

WELL folks another exciting new season has now begun and for Liverpool fans that means waiting to see how long it takes before their team falls away from the title race, or even if they get in to it in the first place.

Nearly 20 years have passed since the Reds last won the title and this season will be no different, in our humble opinion, with or without the midfield genius that Gareth Barry must be for someone apparently worth £18m. No matter though Kopites, £20m has been spent on Irishman Robbie Keane. Rafa Benitez is hoping Keano will form a partnership with Fernando Torres that is a lethal as one of the imaginary arrows or bullets Keane fires into the crowd after he scores.

Keane’s move to Anfield takes his combined transfer fees to around £58m, through the course of his career, and today in 1999 he made his first big-money move when he signed for Coventry City from Wolverhampton Wanderers.

As a youngster Keane had the chance to join Liverpool but decided to go to Wolves where he thought he had a better chance of first-team football. After breaking into the first team in 1997 aged 17, he established himself as a major goal threat and it was clear there would soon be Premiership clubs huffing and puffing at Wolves’ door to take the Irishman from Molinueux.

Speculation about his future was rife, and despite Alex Ferguson claiming he would pay no more than £500,000 for the player, Aston Villa and Coventry were soon battling it out with Coventry eventually signing the 19-year-old for £6m – a British record for a teenager at the time.

He scored twice on his debut against Derby County and looked at home in the top-flight immediately playing under Gordon Strachan at Highfield Road. His stay in the midlands was to be a short one however when less than a year after he arrived, Keane joined Internazionale in a £13m deal – more than doubling his value in one season.

His Italian sojourn did not work out after Marcello Lippi, the manager who had signed him, was sacked soon afterwards. A move to Leeds and then to Tottenham followed, before he signed for Liverpool this summer.

In Nick Hornby style, here are Robbie’s top five goals. More from us tomorrow, but click here to find out which Scottish pundit was making an absolutely shocking prediction on this day in 1995.

August 18 – Nutter Knighton Nearly Nabs United

WITH the daft sums of money being branded around the Premiership by Russian oligarchs, Texan bond barons and former Thai despots it seems crazy that Manchester United were hitting the headlines today in 1989 when they accepted a bid of just (!) £20m for the club.

The man with his eyes on the Old Trafford prize was Michael Knighton, one of those unique and eccentric characters that football seems to attract far too often.

At the end of the 1980s English football was not in the best of shape. The game was attempting to put it’s house in order following the Hillsborough disaster and it would be three years until Rupert Murdoch would ride in on his white horse, splashing his Sky TV money all over the shop.

Despite his family having controlled the club for over 25 years Martin Edwards was all-too ready to give up his position at the head of the club, that had not won the League for 22 years and were pondering whether to give their manager Alex Ferguson the boot or not. Five years earlier Edwards had resisted the charms of Robert Maxwell when the media mogul and boating enthusiast waved £10m of his employees pension savings his way.

Coming in with the cash this time was Michael Knighton. Once a promising young footballer, Knighton’s dreams were dashed when he ruptured a muscle in his thigh whilst at Coventry City, which led to him becoming a player in the property game, where he would make his millions.

Once accepted, Knighton’s offer for United was the biggest in British football history. Fans at Old Trafford were first alerted to Knighton’s ways when they turned up to their next home game to see him dressed in a full team kit performing a series of keepy-uppies. If only the gnome-alike Malcolm Glazer had done the same 16 years later.

Knighton promised to invest £10m into redeveloping Old Trafford, but in a move they surely now regret, his financial backers pulled out. If his trying-to-hard show in the United centre circle wasn’t enough, then the moneymen probably caught wind of his other passion: UFOs.

In the 1970s Knighton and his wife claimed that they saw a UFO zipping around the sky at their Yorkshire home before it telepathically told him: “Don’t be afraid, Michael.” Right. And we thought Ken Bates was an odd ‘un.

When the takeover fell through, Edwards kept control of United until he accepted another offer in 2005, this time from Florida billionaire Malcolm Glazer. The price this time? An estimated £800m, so it appears that Edwards is having the last laugh.

Knighton meanwhile took ET’s advice and wasn’t scared to get back into the beautiful game, buying Carlisle United in 1992. Carlisle were in the fourth tier of English football, but that didn’t stop Knighton boasting that the Cumbrians would soon be playing the likes of Manchester United in the top flight.

After two promotions and a relegation found them in Division Two, Knighton let his ego get the better of him when he sacked popular manager Mervyn Day and took over as manager himself. Anyone with half a brain cell would’ve been able to tell you how this would end, as the club were relegated back to Division Three and Knighton could go back to watching the skys.

Despite witnessing one of English football’s most dramatic moments when Jimmy Glass scored in 1999, Carlisle fans had to endure more farcical going-ons at the hand of Knighton until John Courtenay took over the club in 2002 after they were put into voluntary administration.

Sadly we can’t find any footage of Knighton’s Old Trafford ball-juggling, so we’ll use this as an excuse to remember Carlisle’s most famous moment.

August 17 – Welcome back Big Dunc

“DUNCAN Ferguson elbowed me in the neck three times and I was beginning to get a bit angry. I swore at him in Austrian and I know he couldn’t possibly have understood it. Even so, he suddenly swung round and thumped me in the stomach. He got sent off, but I began to appreciate how he earned his reputation as a hard man. It was a nice punch, I have to say.” Wigan’s Paul Scharner learns how football is played Big Dunc style.

Some players and clubs just seem to be a good fit from the word go: Eric Cantona and Manchester United, Kevin Keegan and Newcastle, and Billy Bremner and Leeds were all player/club combos that worked right from the off, despite there being no prior connections between the two. Cantona was French, Keegan a Yorkshireman and Bremner a Scot, but all clicked immediately with these clubs and became part of the. Duncan Ferguson and Everton can be added to the list, as his former manager Joe Royle said: “Duncan became a legend before he became a player at Everton.”

Initially brought in to the club on load from Rangers in 1994 to try and help the club stay in the top flight, Dunc was then bought outright for £4.4m and immediately made an impact at Goodison, scoring in a 2-0 derby win over Liverpool on his debut proper, and helping the team win the FA Cup.

Despite problems with injuries, Big Dunc’s goals were keeping Everton in the Premier League and the fans loved him just as much for his style as for his goalscoring. Every defender’s worst nightmare (Sami Hypia and John Terry both named him as their toughest opponent), Ferguson was more like a Challenger tank than a footballer and would fling himself at the ball to try and score, no matter who or what was in the way.

The marriage between club and player looked a happy one, but dark forces were conspiring to bring it all to an end. In 1998, with Everton in serious financial straits, Dunc was sold to Newcastle in a secret deal hatched when the two sides were playing each other. The man with an Everton tattoo had been sold for £8m without manager Walter Smith’s knowledge.

After two years on Tyneside, it was today in 2000 that Big Dunc re-signed for Everton for £3.75m to the delight of the player himself.

He said: “I couldn’t imagine it in pre-season. I was, at the time, very happy at Newcastle but since then an opportunity has arisen to come back and I’m delighted. All the fans know how I feel about the club.

“There was never a doubt in my mind once Newcastle had decided they no longer required my services.

“When I first came here the fans just took to me right away. Everton’s in my blood – it has always been there and this opportunity is fantastic for myself.

“I never asked for a transfer. I was happy before at Everton and I am more than happy to come back.”

His second spell at the club was not as effective as his first as a continual series of injuries hampered his playing time. By the time David Moyes had taken over as manager, Ferguson’s role had become that of super-sub as he spent more time on the bench than he did assaulting defenders. He still managed a couple more red cards though to equal Patrick Viera’s record of eight since the beginning of the Premiership. His most notable was an away game at Leicester where he strangled Steffen Freund.

He scored his last goal in his last game for the club at the end of the 2005/06 season when he knocked in the rebound after West Brom’s Tomasz Kuszczak had saved his penalty.

Have a look at Dunc’s time with the Toffees below, and come back tomorrow for the tale about a man whose grip on reality was about as tenuous as Dunc’s grip on his temperament. Also on this day, remember when Beckham did this?

August 16 – Macca has us believing

AS false dawns go, this one was a belter.

The appointment of Steve McClaren as England manager was the most underwhelming piece of news England fans had had since Michael Rickets was called up to the squad.

Brian Barwick, chief suit at the FA, had made a right hash of the selection process for Sven’s successor, with his insistence that the position be filled before the 2006 World Cup putting the kybosh on any chance of Big Phil Scolari taking the job.

Barwick then inexplicably ignored Martin O’Neill and instead plumped for the man who had been the monkey to Sven’s organ grinder.

You could almost hear the country collectively sigh with disappointment when Second-Choice Steve was announced as the new man who would make the Three Lions roar.

Aware that he was not a universally popular choice, Macca set about trying to win over hearts and minds, firstly by drafting in twinkle-eyed crooner Terry Venables as his number two, and then employing publicity guru Max Clifford to help mould his media image.

Today in 2006 McClaren faced his first test as England’s latest saviour when his side played Greece in a friendly at Old Trafford.

Eager to put distance between himself and his predecessor, McClaren had made a series of high profile decisions designed to persuade everyone that this was an entirely new and dynamic regime. He dropped many of Sven’s trusted old guard including David Beckham, Sol Campbell and David James, and promised he would finally solve the tactical Rubik’s Cube that is playing Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard in the same midfield.

To the surprise of well, us for starters, and probably quite a few others, it all seemed to work. With Owen Hargreaves anchoring the midfield and Stevie G replacing Beckham on the right wing, England looked balanced and lively against Greece, eventually running out 4-0 winners to give McClaren the perfect start to his tenure with new captain John Terry opening the scoring, before Frank Lampard and Peter Crouch added the rest.

Even the fans were convinced and chanted Steve McClaren’s name during the match. Sure, it was only Greece, but they were European champions at the time, and the old boys club of BBC pundits trotted out the you-can-only-beat-what’s-in-front-of-you line. Lee Dixon said: “It was a poor Greece side, but you can only go out and beat what’s in front of you.” See, told you.

Oh how we rejoiced. Finally an end to the insipid displays under Sven, finally some purpose to the England team, it would all be different from now on.

Erm, not quite. After the Greece game, vice captain Stevie G said: “We have set the standards and now we have to maintain them.”

Sadly, that was not to be and it all started to fall apart in the Euro 2008 qualifier away at Croatia where a Venables-inspired switch to 3-5-2 proved disastrous as England lost 2-0. After a couple of uninspiring friendlies, England drew 0-0 with Israel and at the following game with Andorra McClaren was subjected to vicious abuse from England fans. He had come into the job without the usual honeymoon period afforded to most new managers, but by now the relationship had broken down entirely and divorce looked a distinct possibility.

Stretched marriage metaphors aside, Macca’s fate was sealed when England lost to Croatia at Wembley in November, ensuring the only English involvement at Euro 2008 would be Colin Kazim-Richards and referee Howard Webb.

The whole time he was stood underneath that ill-advised umbrella, McClaren must have been thinking back to this day in 2006 when 70,000 fans were chanting his name.

Here is Crouchino bagging his second, and England’s fourth in the win over Greece. This is what we were telling you about this time last year, and tomorrow we will be looking at a man-mountain returning to his spiritual home.

August 15 – Beardsley’s Reds Debut

IN the 1980s there was only one club in England footballers wanted to play for. Liverpool were still head and shoulders above everybody else in the glory stakes, having been top dog in English club football for years.

In the summer of 1987 Kenny Dalglish was continuing to add to his side, after they had been beaten to the First Division title by cross-city rivals Everton in the 1986/87 season.

As well as buying Watford winger John Barnes, King Kenny also splashed the cash to bring Peter Beardsley to Anfield from his hometown club, Newcastle United. ‘Pedro’ cost Liverpool £1.9m – then a British record fee – but it would turn out to be a bargain for the Merseysiders.

Today in 1987 Liverpool played their first match of the new season, with both Barnes and Beardsley put straight into the starting line up for the clash with Arsenal at Highbury. Along with John Aldridge, the new ‘B and B’ signings were to form Dalglish’s new attacking trio, with goal machine Ian Rush having left for Juventus, which he was memorably surprised to find was in a different country.

Both the new signings played well as goals from Aldridge and Steve Nicol meant the reds took all three points on opening day. Beardsley did not score that day, but he did not have to wait long to open his account, netting at the end of August against Coventry City and Highfield Road.

In his first season at Anfield he became an immediate kop favourite as his often spectacular skills meant the team suffered just two League defeats all season as they cantered to the title.

He even ‘scored’ in the famous FA Cup Final loss to Wimbledon, but had his goal ruled out as dreams of a double in his first season on Merseyside were dashed.

However, he did go on to win the FA Cup with the club, and picked up another League winners’ medal in his four years in a red shirt.

In 1991, with Dalglish departed, and one-man cat-amongst-the-pigeons Graeme Souness now in charge, Beardsley found himself sidelined and Souness shocked fans by selling him to Everton for £1m.

His move across Stanley Park enabled Beardsley to lend his name to another piece of trivia when he became only the second player, after David Johnson, to score the winner for both sides in the Mersey derby.

There’s only one way to end an article about Peter B, and that is a montage of his on-field genius. Last year on this day we had this to say, and we’ll be back tomorrow for the tale of another false dawn for the England team.

August 14 – Hoddle Strikes Again

JASPER Carrot once famously said: “I hear Glenn Hoddle’s found God . . . that must have been one hell of a pass.”

It really is a pity footballer’s careers only last until their mid-thirties, especially in Hoddle’s case. Where once he simply let his football do the talking and was lauded as a genius, his body eventually forced him to give up playing, and he moved into management where suddenly he had to let his, umm, talking do the talking, and everyone realised any talk of genius was just barking.

Glenn was in trouble again today in 1998 after the serialisation of his ill-advised book Glenn Hoddle: My 1998 World Cup Story was published in The Sun, and he was forced to defend his tome on BBC Five Live.

Hod had decided that the best way to help his England charges over their disappointing World Cup exit was to write a book detailing all the dressing room secrets from the England camp, and publicly pick apart his players individual failings. All this while he was still the England boss and expecting the very same players to run through walls for him in the Three Lions shirt.

Hoddle claimed Beckham needed help from his faith healer Eileen Drewery, and dished the dirt on Gazza’s reaction to being told he was not going to the World Cup.

“He was a different person now. He had snapped,” writes Hoddle. “I stood there and he turned as if to go again, then came back with a barrage of abuse. He was ranting, swearing and slurring his words. He was acting like a man possessed.”

Hoddle was pilloried for the bizarre decision to release the book thereby destroying any level of trust between him and his players, with his account of Gazza’s actions drawing particular criticism.

The PFA Chief Executive Gordon Taylor said he was “astonished” that the book was allowed to be published. “A manager’s relationship with his players should be like a doctor with his patient,” he said.

Hoddle defended his decision to publish the book, and predictably blamed the media for the whole brauhaha. He said: “It’s not a surprise in some ways because of how the headlines have been portrayed.

“It is disappointing. The situation has unfolded because of the headlines.

“People are reacting to something that they haven’t read yet, quite frankly. Things like ‘Gazza trashed my room’ are just not in the book and it’s just something I would not have said.”

The Sun’s football writer Brian Woolnough said Glenn was reaping what he had sowed.

“He has made a big mistake in doing the book, he has made a big mistake in publishing it so soon after the World Cup.

“His agent, Denis Roach, rang me complaining about all the fuss of the book and the impact it has had.

“I just said ‘Denis, you take the money you pay the consequences’ and that’s what Glenn Hoddle has to do.”

Some people were even calling for Hoddle to resign over the incident, but those naysayers would not have to wait long for Glenn to open his big mouth again, when he went on his disabled people/karma rant just seven months later.

To remind yourself that before he was a managerial buffoon Hoddle was a beautiful player to watch with the clip below. Read the tale of another England manager making waves on this day here, and come back tomorrow for more from us.

August 13 – The Shevy Went Dry

THE Community Shield is an odd contest. Rarely are they classics, save for the Keegan and Bremner-inspired clash between Liverpool and Leeds in 1974. One thing they are good for though is giving the fans a first glimpse of their team’s big-money summer signings.

Today in 2006 champions Chelsea were parading £30m man Andriy Shevchenko as they took on FA Cup winners Liverpool at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

The two sides had met 18-months earlier in the League Cup final where John Arne Riise’s first-minute goal couldn’t help his side lose 3-2 and it was the Norwegian who drew first blood again, bagging a goal in the ninth minute.

Chelsea equalised just before half-time, courtesy of debutant Shevchenko, as his pal Roman Abramovich smugly began to believe that he had spent his rubles wisely.

The second half turned into a Sven-esque sub fest, with Chelsea winning that particular battle 6-5, but that’s all they won that day. Peter Crouch, who had arrived at Anfield a year earlier for less than a quarter of Shevers’ price, roboted his way to a late winner, and Liverpool had another trophy to crow about.

As the season went on Roman’s investment began to look more and more shaky. Four Premiership goals was not what was expected from the most feared striker in Europe, but that’s all he managed in the League that year and he hasn’t fared much better since.

Aerodynamic Football Italia frontman James Richardson recently remarked that: “Chelsea paid a levy for the Shevy, but the Shevy went dry” and we’re inclined to agree.

However, our memories aren’t that short here at OTFD, so we’ll leave you with some footage of the Ukrainian in his pomp. Enjoy his goalscoring antics for the Rossoneri, check out what else happened today here and come back tomorrow if you fancy taking five minutes off from the drudgery of work.

August 12 – He Heart Huckerby

TODAY in 1999 David O’Leary was proving that he was getting the hang of this spending money lark, as he signed Coventry City striker Darren Huckerby for £6m.

O’Leary had been in the Elland Road hotseat for a year and was gaining plaudits across the game for his attacking style of play and finishing fourth in the Premiership to qualify for the Uefa Cup at the end of his first season.
He was also striking up a good working relationship with the Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale that seemed to consist of O’Leary asking to buy and a player and Publicity Pete stumping up the cash, no questions asked.

Huckerby had flourished under the stewardship of former Leeds midfielder Gordon Strachan who paid £1m to bring him to Highfield Road in 1996.

Whilst Huckerby was not O’Leary’s worst big-money buy during his four-year spell at Leeds (step up £7m one-cap wonder Seth Johnson), the striker only scored two Premier League goals in 40 appearances for the Yorkshire club and was sold to Manchester City.

This then encouraged O’Leary to go striker-crazy as Alan Smith, Robbie Keane, Robbie Fowler, Michael Bridges, Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell were all under his bokos at some point during his reign.

Hucks meanwhile, spent three years at City, playing an instrumental part of their return to the Premiership in 2002. One of those players who never quite got to grips with scoring in the top flight, Huckerby again struggled and was sold to Norwich where he became a huge hit with the fans, twice winning their Player of the Year award in his five-year spell at the club.

Last month the Nottingham-born striker answered Burt Bacharach’s 1968 question ‘Do You Know the Way to San José’ with a resounding YES, as he moved to MLS side San José Earthquakes and has banged in two goals in his first three games. See him bagging against Becks and the Galaxy below to help get Ruud Guillet and Alexi Lalas the boot and find out what else was happening today here.