Table of contents for Summer 2020 in FourFourTwo UK

25 BEST FOOTBALL LEAGUE STARS OF THE NOUGHTIES FourFourTwo runs down the decade’s finest players outside of the Premier League, based on their stellar performances at that level between 2000 and 2009 25 LEE TRUNDLE 24 DAVID NUGENT 23 DEAN WINDASS 22 SYLVAN EBANKS-BLAKE 21 ROBERT PROSINECKI 20 ROBERT EARNSHAW 19 DARREN BENT 18 PETER WHITTINGHAM 17 LEIGHTON BAINES 16 MARCUS STEWART 15 DAMIEN DUFF 14 ANDY JOHNSON 13 SHAUN GOATER 12 STEVE SIDWELL 11 MATT JANSEN 10 JASON KOUMAS 9 GARETH BALE 8 KEVIN NOLAN 7 PHIL JAGIELKA 6 TIM CAHILL 5 EIDUR GUDJOHNSEN 4 KEVIN PHILLIPS 3 PAUL MERSON 2 LOUIS SAHA…

Hello Mick. You’re a legendary Luton Hatter – how many hats do you own? Hi. I don’t have any hats, me. Not one. Not even a bobble hat for the cold. I’ve got a good head of hair that keeps me warm, and a lot of people are jealous. My mate Tony Coton always mentions the hair – everyone thinks I dye it too, but I don’t. Actually, I do have one hat. I’ll sometimes wear a cap when I play golf, if that counts? It must. Should an Englishman ever wear a baseball cap? Does it rob him of his dignity? If it’s worn back to front, yes. It doesn’t work for me if the peak is reversed, but if you’re trying to play golf with the sun in…

Your start to the noughties was mixed – you were relegated with Atletico Madrid despite being the second-highest scorer in La Liga. What happened that season? I left Leeds with lots of negativity from the club and fans, and then went to Atletico – a huge club. Yes there was pressure, but I loved that. My year there was chaotic, though. Personally I was playing well, but the club was in financial trouble and I didn’t know that when I signed. Certain players weren’t getting paid or hadn’t been paid for a long time. The president [Jesus Gil] went to jail, too. Things were happening in the background, and that’s why we were losing games – some players didn’t care. It was hard to accept relegation because we had so…

THE GAFFER LOUIS VAN GAAL “He left nothing to chance, focusing on every little detail. I’ve called him my second father, as I owe him a lot – sometimes, he gave Frank and I a lift home during our early days at Ajax.” THE SUBS EDWIN VAN DER SAR “Edwin was as cool as ice – very relaxed. He was strong with a ball at his feet and always knew how we wanted to execute our game plans. Louis van Gaal used to tell his defenders, ‘Don’t make any risky tackles, because even if an opponent is through on goal, we have Van der Sar’.” DANNY BLIND “An underestimated player. Danny had distinct qualities that weren’t noticed by everyone. He surged forward in a kind of sweeper role, as he…

CLUBS 1996-98 Rennes 1998-99 Inter 1999-2008 Manchester United 2008-10 Arsenal 2010-12 Werder Bremen 2013-14 Portland Timbers 2014 Chennaiyin COUNTRY 2001-06 France The task that FourFourTwo has given Mikael Silvestre is a simple one. Or so we thought. “I’m struggling to choose a best XI of my team-mates,” he says, sighing. “Even my bench is crazy... it’s impossible. I can make two teams.” To be fair to Silvestre, even that is a tad cautious. For strikers alone, he can pick from Ronaldo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka, David Trezeguet, Dwight Yorke, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Andy Cole, Robin van Persie, Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney. Not bad. It reflects well on the defender who turned out for Inter, Manchester United, Arsenal and France. He won 40 caps for Les Bleus, and…

Manchester City scored more goals in a season than any other Football League team of the noughties – and their creative star was Ali Benarbia. An Algerian who moved to France as a youngster, the 5ft 7in midfielder guided Jean Tigana’s Monaco to the Ligue 1 title in 1997, when a squad featuring Emmanuel Petit, Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet knocked Newcastle out of Europe. A year later, Benarbia was pivotal as Monaco beat Manchester United in the Champions League quarter-finals on away goals. Transferring to Bordeaux in 1998, Benarbia immediately helped them win Ligue 1, too – named its player of the year before switching to PSG and captaining a side containing Jay-Jay Okocha. When Ronaldinho arrived in 2001, Benarbia was 32 and looking for a new challenge to…

You’re a big Brighton fan, but we have it on good authority that you used to support hated rivals Crystal Palace – how do you plead? Guilty. I grew up closer to south London geographically, so Palace was my team. I ended up going to Selhurst Park many times during my youth, but never fell in love with them. Then I moved down to Brighton for college, and my mates took me to watch Albion. It was love at first sight. I suddenly realised what I’d been missing – a proper football team playing attractive football! From then on, I went to every home game for the next three years. I know we’re not the best team in the world, or the richest, hardest or best dressed – but we…

Those who call Rupert Murdoch cynical should note Oscar Wilde’s definition that a cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Murdoch may be price-conscious, but he knows the value of many important things. Football is one of them – and like any good manager, he knows the value of destroying a rival. Having gambled his business empire on launching satellite TV, and with the booming Premiership symbiotically powering Sky’s penetration into both the nation’s heart and hearth, Murdoch wasn’t exactly thrilled with the government-proscribed late-90s arrival of digital terrestrial television (DTT) prior to the inevitable analogue switch-off. Delivered through the traditional aerial as well as a set-top box, DTT threatened his bin lids with its massive potential for bandwidth and channels. However, that breadth was Murdoch’s…

How did your move to West Ham at the start of the noughties materialise? I was at Lyon, where I grew up. I wasn’t really playing, so lost a bit of patience and wanted to get out of the club. I heard from my agent that West Ham were interested, and basically went overnight. It was a loan with an option to buy, and I scored the winner on my debut at home to Wimbledon. What were your initial impressions of West Ham and English football? I really liked it. I think it coincided with the fact that I suddenly had to become a man. I was in England on my own and had to make it work. It was difficult at the beginning, but I enjoyed the independence and…

France’s 2006 World Cup finalists; Manchester United in 1999-00; and United’s 2007-08 Double winners. Which team was the strongest? Tom Joy, via Instagram That’s a tough one – different players in different times. The United team I joined in ’99 had some unbelievable players – Beckham, Giggs, Scholes, Keane, Cole, Yorke, Stam and Neville – and then in 2008 we had Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez, Ferdinand, Vidic and Van der Sar. I played at the top level with top players. It was very exciting.…

THE QUALITY OF MADNESS Tim Rich (Quercus, £20) It’s fair to say Marcelo Bielsa – whose grandfather and and father both practised law – doesn’t shirk disputes. When Newell’s Old Boys lost 6-0 to San Lorenzo in 1992, and miffed members of the barra brava turned up at his house, the Argentine emerged with a grenade and threatened to pull the pin if they didn’t disperse quickly. The Quality Of Madness focuses clearly on Bielsa’s brand of ‘revivalist football’ that he brought to Athletic Bilbao, Marseille and Leeds. The book adopts a refreshing view on why several of his teams have petered out in the latter stages of seasons, as Leeds did in 2018-19. There’s no doubt Bielsa is a complex and controversial character. His passion for the game was…

fourfourtwo@futurenet.com FourFourTwoUK FourFourTwo GREAT SCOT So Jock Stein is ranked 30th in your 100 Greatest Managers Ever list [FFT 313], while Alex Ferguson is at No.1? Sorry, but knocking all-conquering Rangers off their perch from the very beginning, winning nine league titles on the spin and lifting the European Cup in his second full year at the helm – with 11 lads born within a 30-mile radius of Celtic Park – means Stein is the greatest manager of all time, in my view. That’s not even mentioning his outstanding achievements with lowly Dunfermline before that, and with Scotland afterwards. I suspect Sir Alex would himself say the same. Tony Fearon, via email HERE’S AN IDEA With all this talk about resuming the Premier League season, how about resuming the 1939-40…

The match was only 79 seconds old when the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza was sent into a frenzy. Milan were hosting Fabio Capello’s Roma, their rivals for the Serie A title. Secure victory on that May day in 2004, and the Scudetto was theirs. In his first season with the Rossoneri, a 22-year-old Kaka picked up the ball on the right wing. Drifting past Olivier Dacourt, the Brazilian quickly curled in an inch-perfect cross for Andriy Shevchenko, hovering around the penalty spot, to expertly nod past Ivan Pelizzoli. As 80,000 people went berserk, the noise almost raised the San Siro roof. It was the only goal of the game. Milan were crowned champions with two matches to spare, thanks to their brilliant double act. They would both win the Ballon d’Or…

JULY 2000 The starting pistol for a decade’s ill feeling: Barcelona superstar Luis Figo crosses the Spanish divide and joins Real Madrid, and president-elect Florentino Perez, for a world-record fee. JUNE 2001 While Real Madrid lift the title, Rivaldo’s final-day hat-trick – arguably the greatest individual treble ever scored, ending with a late bicycle-kick winner – seals fourth place and Champions League football for Barcelona. MARCH 2002 Figo’s second Camp Nou coming as a Real Madrid player delivers El Clasico’s defining moment. Along with golf balls, whisky bottles and many coins, a roasted pig’s head is chucked onto the pitch during the 1-1 draw. APRIL 2002 Rocks, lighters and, er, flowers (a traditional gift presented on Sant Jordi, the national day of Catalonia) are thrown at Real Madrid’s team bus,…

KARL FLETCHER Idolised marksman who enjoys three spells with Harchester. ‘Fletch’ gets accused (but acquitted) of murder, serves a ban for cocaine use and even survives a bus crash, but is finally iced by bonkers boss Don Barker. Legend. LYNDA BLOCK Glamourpuss with liking for Argentine frontmen. She rises to chairwoman when her ex-hubby flees to Brazil, before bashing chief exec Prash Dattani on the head. Eventually released from the nick after three years inside. LUIS RODRIGUEZ The subject of Block’s affections, for which he becomes the subject of a murder attempt. After its failure, he continues as player-manager and negotiates a nice move to Real Madrid, but ends career at Boca Juniors. MONDAY BANDELE High-profile striker who arrives from PSG in 2000. Magic Monday does the business on the…

You made your name at Bolton in the ’90s – what was the club like at that time? It was as if the club had started to be reborn. Bruce Rioch was a fantastic manager who was great for me – I think I can speak on behalf of Jason McAteer and the other players who were there back then. It was a brilliant time to be at Bolton and we had some very good cup results against Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool and Aston Villa. It was up-and-coming talent mixed with experience. We really surprised sides with the amount of quality we had. Is it true that Rioch almost signed you for Arsenal in 1996? Yeah. When I signed for Celtic, I’d already had a conversation with Bruce and everything was…