February 8 – Ron Greenwood Dies

RON GREENWOOD, the man who dragged England back into the international scene during his spell as manager and oversaw the development of West Ham’s World Cup winning stars, died today in 2006.

After taking his first steps in the football world as an amateur at Chelsea during the war he embarked on a modest career that, despite never being capped for his country, saw him pick up a First Division winners’ medal on his return to Chelsea when they won their first title in 1956.

Greenwood then moved into coaching where he soon caught the eye of influential figure Sir Harold Thompson, who would later become Chairman of the FA. This gave him the hook up on the England scene, where he would coach the England Youth and Under-23 teams and would later combine this post with that of Arsenal assistant manager.

In 1961 Greenwood was appointed top dog at West Ham, where he really began to make a name for himself. Soon after his arrival a trio of youth players that would make up the backbone of England’s World Cup winning side emerged under his tutelage.

Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters are as a good a batch of youngsters this country has seen this side of Manchester United’s early ’90s generation and helped the Hammers win the 1964 FA Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup the season after, their first ever trophies.

After 13 successful years he moved upstairs to become the clubs general manager, but soon got a call from his friends at the FA.

When Ron took over as England manager in 1977 the Three Lions found themselves in a bit of a pickle. Leeds legend Don Revie had failed to lead them into Euro 1976 and soon took the money and ran to Middle East, becoming boss of the United Arab Emirates.

England had not played in a major tournament since bowing out to West Germany in Mexico in the 1970 World Cup and although Ron was too late to get England involved in the 1978 vintage in Argentina he soon got the Three Lions back on the big stage at Euro 1980 in Italy.

A narrow group stage exit was disappointing, but certainly an improvement on the last ten years. Further progress was made in the 1982 World Cup as England topped their group, but would exit in the second group phase despite not having lost a game.

Greenwood decided to call it a day after the tournament in Spain, leaving Bobby Robson to take over the reigns, having left the national side in a much better state than when he found it. Following his retirement he was a regular pundit on the BBC and would also unfortunately struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, which eventually took his life aged 84.

See what else was happening in football today here and join us tomorrow when we do it all again.

February 7 – Great Brawl of China

ON this day in 2007 a team of Olympic sportsmen from China captivated a small crowd in west London with a display of kung-fu, karate and boxing. Unfortunately, they did so while in the middle of a football match.

Yes today was the day when the infamous ‘Great Brawl of China’ took place when the Chinese Olympic football team played a Queens Park Rangers XI in the unfriendliest friendly ever at QPR’s training ground.

The Chinese team were in the UK as guests of Chelsea as the Premiership team were doing that annoying thing of trying to tap into the vast Asian markets, and would be taking a team over to China in the summer.

The match soon descended into an all-out fight after several bad tackles and challenges saw players’ tempers rise. One Chinese player grabbed an opponent round the neck and wrapped his legs round his waist as he rained blows on him. As the pair fell to the ground, one of his Chinese teammates pushed another QPR player before almost every man on the pitch rushed to join in the melee. Within seconds it had become a mass brawl involving some 30 people as coaching staff and onlookers joined the players for a right old dust-up.

Referee Dermot Gallagher was forced to abandon the tie as the pitch started to resemble the set of a Bruce Lee movie and some of the players got seriously injured, including Zheng Tao who was knocked unconscious and and suffered a broken jaw. Police and paramedics had to be called to deal with what was fast becoming a major diplomatic incident.

As you would expect the incident prompted myriad investigations and enquiries from all the organisations involved. An FA lackey said: “We are in close communication with the police, and we are awaiting confirmation of whether or not they will be taking any action. We will then consider whether to take any disciplinary action of our own.”

While pre-Briatore QPR chairman Gianni Paladini said: “When we find out what went wrong, I will come down very strong. We will conduct our own internal investigation into this matter. We will go to work 24 hours a day to find out what happened.

“If people cannot control themselves they should not be there, in that position, because sooner or later something like that is going to happen again.

“Therefore, it depends how much provocation was in it, and when we find out what went wrong, myself and [manager] John Gregory will act.

“I am sick about the whole thing, completely fed up. I hope we can find something out by Saturday.”

First on the naughty step was QPR assistant boss Richard Hill who was immediately suspended by the club, and then given a three-month ban by the FA. The FA also dished out a £20,000 fine to Rangers, with a further £20,000 suspended.

China coach Ratomir Dujkovic went all Arsene Wenger on us and said he did not see who started the fight but did take full responsibility for his team’s actions. “Whether the local guys (QPR) or our guys began it is not important. It is unacceptable,” he said. “I would like to make an official apology. Whatever the reasons for the incident, as the team manager, I will take the responsibility.”

Also on this day another English club was doing its bit for international relations, although this time without any gratuitous violence. Shame. More from us tomorrow folks so keep it real, keep it OTFD.

February 6 – Anfield of Dreams

ANYONE who watched Match of the Day 2 on Sunday would have seen the Liverpool’s two American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett in attendance at Anfield to watch the reds take on Chelsea. Pointedly the two men were sat as far apart as possible indicating relations between the two are about as cordial as those between Frank Lampard and Mike Riley.

It was all very different today in 2007 when they swept into town amid a sea of winning American smiles and announced they had bought the club from former chairman David Moores who said: “This is a great step forward for its shareholders and its fans.”

Gillett made all the right noises at their first press conference, promising a new stadium and money for players. “We believe in the future of the club, the future of the league, the new TV contracts are outstanding and we are proud to be a part of it,” he said.

“This is truly the largest sport in the world, the most important sport in the world, and this is the most important club in the most important sport in the world. What a privilege we have to be associated with it and we hope that with the good graces of Rick and his team that we will have on-the-pitch success and economic success.”

He also denied the pair had bought the club by loading debt on to it in the style the Glazers had purchased Manchester United. “We have purchased the club with no debt on the club,” he said, although he failed to point out the huge loans the duo had taken out to fund the deal which came to light some months later when they had to be renegotiated.

Unusually Hicks and Gillett are rivals in the NHL hockey league in the USA. Gillett owns the Montreal Canadians while Hicks owns rival team the Dallas Stars and it didn’t take long for the American dream to start to turn sour for the pair and Liverpool.

By November 2007 cracks had begun to appear in the partnership as the papers began to speculate they were at loggerheads over plans for the club. Various spokesmen and lackeys toed the party line and insisted they were as happy as larry but rumours persisted that they were bickering more than Statler and Waldorf.

As the months went on the problems began to mount up. The pair had a public spat with manager Rafa Benitez over his transfer policy and then it emerged they had approached Jurgen Klinsmann in November 2007 with a view to the German dive bomber taking over.

The proposed new stadium went through two redesigns in a bid to bring down costs, before the whole project was shelved altogether in light of the economy going more pear-shaped than a pear.

At one stage Gillett said his relationship with hicks had become “unworkable” and in September 2008 the fans staged a march against the owners. A statement from the Spirit of Shankly group who organised the protest said: “A march of passion, a march of anger, a march of Red solidarity that roars its message loud and proud: ‘enough is enough, go now’.”

They still haven’t gone, but the interest from Dubai International Capital investment group is said to persist and it is fair to say the American dream has turned sour for Hicks and Gillett and one or even both of them may be walking alone before long.

The snow that seems to have made the rest of Britain grind to a halt will not stop us so stop by this way again tomorrow if you’re snowed in.

Also on this day, one of the worst tragedies in the history of football.

February 5 – Big Sam’s Big Deal

FOOTBALL management is a fickle game. When a team is riding high populist chairman will claim that their beloved gaffer has a ‘job for life’, only to give them the short shrift a few games down the line when your local rivals have just put five goals past you.

Bolton big-wig Phil Gartside was putting his money where his mouth was today in 2001 when he gave manager Sam Allardyce a whopping ten-year deal as the club sought promotion to the Premier League.

The deal was the longest ever given out to a manager in the English game, and if all had gone to plan, Big Sam would still be at the club, giving it another couple of years before riding off into the sunset as one of the longest serving managers in the country.

Gartside’s confidence in his man proved to be justified at the end of that season, as Big Sam led Wanderers to the promised land of the Premier League as they defeated Preston 3-0 in the Division 1 play-off final a the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

As favourites to go straight back down Bolton shocked pundits across the land, beating Leicester 5-0 in their first game and winning their next two, including the scalp of Liverpool as they went top of the table. They soon came back down to earth, finishing the season in 16th, as their reputation began to grow past that of plucky survivors.

Over the next few seasons Big Sam would bring in players such as Youri Djorkaeff, Fredi Bobic, Ivan Campo, Fernando Hierro and the fan favourite Jay-Jay Okocha as their league position steadily began to improve. This was supplemented with a Carling Cup final appearance, but the Trotters would lose to Steve McClaren’s Middlesbrough 2-1 in 2004.

Two years later McClaren would pip Allardyce to the England job after Big Sam had talked himself up after his side has finished sixth and eighth over the previous two seasons.

In April 2007 he broke from his record-breaking contract, as he left the club after eight years and soon joined Newcastle. Like so many before him, this would prove to be a terrible career move, as the club that has irrevicably damaged so many careers ran into another turbulent period as Mike Ashley soon came in and didn’t like the cut of Big Sam’s jib and broke Kevin Keegan out of suspended animation.

After a few months taking the easy life as a pundit Allardyce can now be found back in the north-west, picking up the pieces from Paul Ince’s brief reign at Blackburn and making outlandish statements about not selling Roque Santa Cruz for £40m.

We’ve got a story of another plucky underdog tomorrow, but until then have a look at what else happened today here.

February 4 – City Stun Spurs

WITH Tottenham’s transfer policy this January bring about more comebacks than last time we went down to that dodgy curry-house down the road, we thought we’d bring you the story of the greatest FA Cup fightback in recent seasons.

Today in 2004 Spurs were throwing away a three goal lead against 10-man Manchester City in a Fourth Round replay at White Hart Lane.

After the two teams had played out a 1-1 draw at Eastlands they knew that the winner of the replay was a mouth-watering clash against Manchester United. Spurs used the opportunity to parade their new signing Jermaine Defoe to the crowd prior to kick off (and we thought Groundhog Day fell on February 2nd).

It was Spurs that were first out of the blocks, as Ledley King opened the scoring after two minutes.
The Londoners’ lead was soon doubled when Robbie Keane (remember him Spurs fans?) slotted home and Christian Ziege’s superb free-kick made it 3-0 just before half time.

City had already seen Nicolas Anelka limp off in the first half and their task was made nigh on impossible when Joey Barton did what he does best and was sent off for descent as the two sides left the pitch after the half-time whistle.

Lord knows what City boss Kevin Keegan came out with in the dressing room, but it was no doubt a speech that even Barack Obama’s people would be proud of.

Sylvain Distin gave City a lifeline after only three second-half minutes and when Paul Bosvelt’s deflect shot pulled the score back to 3-2 the bookies that had offered 500-1 on a City win at half-time were beginning to sweat.

Shaun Wright-Phillips gave his adopted father something to shout about with a superb equaliser with 10 minutes to go and Anelka’s replacement Jon Makin headed in the winner at the death to secure a famous win for the Citizens.

“They’ll talk about this game long after we’ve all gone”, opined Keegan after the game in his usual restrained manner. Somewhat predictably City would be unable to beat the odds in the next round as they went down 4-2 to their cross-city rivals as United would go on to lift the famous trophy in Cardiff at the end of the season.

We’ll be back tomorrow for some more stories from days gone by, but if you can’t wait that long, see what we were banging on about this time last year here.

February 3 – Snow and Pompey Death Chimes

ALL this snow is rather exciting isn’t it? Proper snow! We’re feeling all schoolboyish here at OTFD reminiscing anout sledging and snowball fights and best of all, school being closed. Ah the anxious wait by the radio hoping against hope that you would hear the name of your school read out. Joy unconfined when it was, it was almost better than Christmas as you realised that not only did you have a bonus day off, but that it would be spent frolicking in the snow. It was just like that Simpsons episode when the Mayor decrees the snow day as ‘the funnest day ever in the history of Springfield.’

All this snowy fun is all well and good, but it can of course play havoc with football fixtures and it just so happens that today in 1940 the weather was the cause of the most postponements to occur in a single day. Amazingly 55 out of 56 planned fixtures were cancelled with only Plymouth and Bristol City able to take to the field. City probably wished they hadn’t bothered as Plymouth went goal crazy on them, thrashing them 10-3.

Today in 1999 was also a pretty bad day for Portsmouth FC, but for entirely non-weather related reasons. No, it was those pesky financial problems that are so common for football clubs, credit crunch or not.

The club were teetering on the edge of survival ten years ago today after the Inland Revenue issued a winding up order in the face of crippling debts.

Pompey were given until today in 1999 to settle a £435,000 or they would be closed down by the High Court.

The club were £5m in debt and losing £5,000 a day and as well as the tax bill owed another £500,000 to a building firm for work they had done on the Fratton End stand at Fratton Park.

In perhaps the most embarrassing incident, and one which points to how close the club was to folding entirely, even manager Alan Ball had his club car repossessed by the local Mercedes dealership who supplied it, so fearful were they of not receiving the money owed on the vehicle.

“I’m afraid it is another slight on the club,” said Ball at the time of the humiliating loss of his motor. “It is degrading and I hate it. The football club should be well respected in the community but this shows how far our esteem has sunk.” He did not mention whether the World Cup winner would be forced to catch the bus in future.

Things were looking bleak for the south coast club that was trying to celebrate its centenary year amongst all this disaster, but as the saying goes, it is often darkest before the dawn. Enter stage left Milan Mandaric who bought the club in May 1999 and then proceeded to invest in the playing staff and, crucially brought Happy Harry Redknapp on board to steer the club to promotion and eventually, an FA Cup win last year.

Well we’re off to build the biggest snowman ever so we’ll say goodbye for now and don’t forget your booties cos it’s cold outside! If you need another story from us to warm yourself up, have a look at this to see which diminutive former England player was making one of his many entries/exits to/from Newcastle United on this day.

Podcast Review: The Game from The Times

Doing battle with Football Weekly at the top of the podcast charts is The Game from The Times. Fronted by the pair of respected journalists Gabrielle Marcotti and Guillem Balague, it ditches the free-flowing style of the Guardian for more grown-up journalistic fare. At worst this can mean it sounds scripted and forced, but usually the combative Marcotti succeeds in sparking up debate with whichever special guest they have got in. The calibre of it’s guests is what sets it apart from other pods, with Steve McClaren, David Moyes, Luca Vialli and Frank Lampard all appearing recently. Marcotti and Balague even managed to get Lampard talking a great deal of sense, which coming from a fully-paid up member of the anti-Lampard club is hard to admit. By covering more than just the obvious issues, The Game will certainly give you food for thought on your daily commute (or hanging from monkey bars if that’s where you prefer to listen – ah, the beauty of the technology).

If it was a member of the England 1990 World Cup Squad it would be: Terry Butcher – authoritative and always up for a fight.

February 2 – Chelsea Ruin Arsenal Record

CERTAINLY the most exciting conclusion to a top-flight title race in living memory has to be the corker between Liverpool and Arsenal when the Gunners scored a last minute goal to get the 2-0 victory they needed to steal the trophy from the Merseysiders. Sport at its dramatic best and the inspiration for Nick Hornby to put pen to paper and write the seminal football book Fever Pitch.

Under George Graham Arsenal were not noted for their excitement factor but that day they delivered in fantastic style. Sadly for Gunners fans the club was not able to retain the championship – something they have never managed since either – but in the 1990/91 season they found their mojo once more.

This was the heyday of the famous five defence of David Seaman, Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Nigel Winterburn and Lee Dixon and the club conceded just 18 goals in the league all season.

They stormed to the championship losing only one league match all season – on this day when they took on London rivals Chelsea away at Stamford Bridge.

Going into the game Arsenal were cruising while Chelsea were a mid-table side, not really expected to cause the unbeated Gunners too much of a problem.

One crucial factor in Chelsea’s favour was the absence of defensive lynchpin and club captain Tony Adams. Convicted of drink driving in December Adams was serving eight weeks in jail when this match took place.

Graham Stuart and Kerry Dixon were certainly pleased they didn’t have to face Adams and without him marshaling the Gunners’ defence they were both able to score.

Alan Smith managed to claw one back for Arsenal but his 90th minute strike was too little, too late. The unbeaten record was gone and Chelsea had pulled of something of a minor shock.

There was no question of the team imploding though. Their next match was a 4-0 drubbing of Crystal Palace at Highbury which they followed up with an equally impressive 1-0 over reigning champions Liverpool at Anfield.

They would not be beaten again all season and wrapped up the title with ease, finishing seven points clear of second-placed Liverpool, despite the fact they were stripped of two points after their players were involved in a brawl with Manchester United at Old Trafford in October.

They were just one game short of a whole season unbeaten but the fans would not have to wait too long for that to happen either as Arsene Wenger’s men managed that feat in 2003/04.

Just to show you the Gunners are not quite invincible, that was also the season when Gazza scored his famous long range free kick against them at Wembley in the FA Cup semi final. Have a look at the beauty below, and come back tomorrow for more from us.

February 1 – Pat and Roy Get Ready to Rumble

IT’S back to 2005 today, as two of the Premier League’s most battled-hardened midfielders almost took ‘pinch-punch, first of the month’ a bit too literally.

For nine years the bi-annual clash that pitted together Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira was one of the highlights of the Premiership season and the 2005 clash at Highbury was no exception.

The two rivals went into the clash playing catch-up behind Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea and produced a classic encounter, with the fireworks being lit before the players even got on the pitch.

As the teams lined up in the tunnel an irate Keano gave Vieira an four-lettered tirade of abuse as he took offence to the Arsenal skipper’s Gary Neville-baiting, producing this gem of a clip.

If looks could kill, eh Gary?

It looked like the Frenchman’s mind-games had worked, as he scored the opener after only eight minutes, before Ryan Giggs levelled. Arsenal went in 2-1 up at the break thanks to a Dennis Bergkamp goal as a fractious first-half came to a close.

Whatever words of wisdom that Fergie imparted at half-time obviously did the trick, as United took the lead before the hour-mark, thanks to a quick-fire Ronaldo brace. John O’Shea added a fourth in the last minute as United emerged 4-2 winners.

The result more or less ended Arsenal’s title hopes, but the post match discussion centred around Keane and Vieira’s face-off in the tunnel. After pulling Vieira up for picking on Gary Neville, he allegedly condemned Senegal-born Vieira’s decision to play for France, but as the Arsenal captain later pointed out: “For someone who leaves his team in the World Cup – he should keep the remark to himself.”

Vieira would leave Arsenal at the end of that season, but not before the two sides clashed again in the FA Cup Final, where Vieira had the last laugh, slotting home the winning penalty in the shoot-out following a tepid 0-0 draw.

Clashes between the two sides since has missed these two rivals squaring up as they appear to be calming down following episodes such as Pizzagate, Martin Keown’s goading of Ruud van Nistlerooy and their mass-brawl in 1990.

See the on-the-pitch action below and if you ever wondered if a group of artists and social activists have ever named their group after a former Watford striker then you’re in luck, as you can click here to see what else was going on today.