Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2023 i FourFourTwo UK

That audacious strike against Darmstadt didn’t show any indication whatsoever of a player struggling with his new surroundings, weighed down by a hefty price tag around his neck. Kane is England’s leading goalscorer and was on course to break Alan Shearer’s all-time Premier League record before his switch to the Bundesliga. And remember those faraway days when it was said that Kane couldn’t score in August? Those days are long gone, illustrated by three goals in his first two league games for Bayern. By October 28, he’d scored 14 times, including two hat-tricks – even if Bundesliga bureaucrats appear to keep moving the goalposts over what qualifies as a hat-trick in Germany. It’s not the same as in England, bafflingly. All in all, he’s doing pretty well, and seems to…

At the start of the season, we all wondered what type of Chelsea we would see this year. A new era under Mauricio Pochettino, no European football to contend with, an exodus of players, and even more heavy spending from the owners. We’re over a quarter of the way into the Premier League campaign and there are still many unanswered questions. The chaotic start under Todd Boehly’s ownership doesn’t seem to have completely settled just yet. After spending more than £1 billion in three transfer windows, his best business may be acquiring the man in the dugout. Chelsea’s results and performances have underwhelmed and lacked consistency up to this point, but there have been signs of progress and the powers that be must stick with Pochettino in order to restore glory.…

YES JAMES ANDREW EDITOR @JamesAndrew_ When VAR was introduced it was done so under the idea that it removes the capacity for human error, and it is difficult to argue against that. There isn’t a player, manager or fan in the land that wouldn’t want a system in which the correct decisions were made all the time and there was no scope for human error. And that is why it is so incredibly frustrating when clear and obvious mistakes are made by VAR, and they are then blamed on the very thing that this was brought in to eradicate – ‘human error’. And the truth is that even when VAR does work it is still one person’s subjective interpretation of where to draw the lines for an offside decision and…

Bayern Munich’s blockbuster deal for Harry Kane provided the club’s fanbase with someone who could do what the team really struggled with throughout last term: scoring goals in bunches. It was the big transfer that Bayern needed, especially after changes to the coaching staff over the past year. When Bayern decided to move on from Julian Nagelsmann and replace him with Thomas Tuchel last season, the club no longer felt like a European juggernaut. They became something we all generally feared – they became mortal again. By pure luck and an insane Jamal Musiala goal in the 89th minute of the final game of last season at Köln, Bayern somehow managed to win the Bundesliga, snatching it away from Borussia Dortmund. However, the team had been humiliated in the Champions…

This was supposed to be a miserable season for Tottenham. The trauma of losing goalscoring linchpin Harry Kane to Bayern Munich, paired with the growing pains associated with hiring such a philosophy-heavy new manager, meant fans were looking down as much as they were looking up. But the reality has been very different: after 10 games the Lilywhites sat atop the Premier League table, undefeated, with both an exhilarating attack and robust defence. Ange Postecoglou has become the first boss to bag the Premier League Manager of the Month award twice in his first two months in the job, while summer signing James Maddison won the player of the month prize in August, too. However, while it’s easy to pin the shiny new success onto the chests of the shiny…

How did your June move to Hibernian come about? Was it a big decision to return to the UK after living abroad? It was a surprise more than anything. I had a wonderful time at Sydney and was led to believe I’d be getting a new deal. I wanted to break the record and become their all-time top goalscorer. Once we got to the end of the season, it became apparent that the contract wasn’t coming. Brian McDermott, who I used to play under at Reading, had reached out to me. Me and my family were always going to come back to the UK, but I couldn’t ignore an offer from a big club like Hibs and the opportunity to play in Europe. I was really enthused by the project.…

After taking down opposition players, journalists and a pack of Romanian wolves during his long career in football, even WWE giants would cower at the sight of Nigel Pearson surging towards them. Little wonder, then, that ‘Big Nige’ was one of the first men to be featured in Soccer Slammers, a frankly inspired series of creations on social media, depicting football stars as wrestling action figures. Bristol City’s topless former manager has been joined by a host of other dugout icons, among them Neil Warnock, David Moyes, Roy Hodgson and Tony Pulis, while there’s also a Jamie Vardy model in ‘Chat S**t, Get Banged’ shorts. Most of the figurines even come with an accessory – Pearson’s is a stuffed ostrich, of course, while Steve Bruce is accompanied by a cabbage,…

TACKLE! Jilly Cooper transworld £22 A surprise venture into football by an acclaimed romance novelist, Tackle! gets off to a flyer courtesy of its crazy cast list. There’s goalkeeper Byron ‘Stopwell’ Stockwell, “deeply daffy Wag” Daffodil Clark-Rogers and Hong Kong trillionaire Ghengis Tong, not to mention Midas Channing, Millwall Johnson and Zeus Martinez. There are 11 glorious pages of this mania, and I only made up one of these names… But to paraphrase Ray Winstone, when the fun of the cast list stopped, I really should have stopped. Instead, I ploughed on through a sub-Dream Team giddy romp ignited by leading man Rupert Campbell-Black buying local team Searston Rovers, despite thinking the beautiful game is a sport “full of players dancing around like ballerinas and having group sex every time…

When a teenaged Dean Saunders made his debut for Swansea in the Second Division, it probably seemed unlikely that, a decade later, he would be playing for Galatasaray with Mike Marsh and Barry Venison. But life moves in mysterious ways and an eventful career took Saunders to Turkey, Portugal and beyond, via a British record transfer, more than 250 goals, three major trophies, 75 caps for Wales… and eight relegations. In 1991, the year he went down with Derby, his Rams goals and then his European heroics for Liverpool helped him to 13th in the Ballon d’Or voting, level with Hristo Stoichkov and above Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten. His competitive spirit hasn’t left him. Before speaking to FFT, the 59-year-old has been battling it out over 18 holes.…

What was the first match that you ever attended? York against Peterborough. My brother took me but, to be honest, I was very young and I don’t remember a thing! The first match I properly remember was in February 1980: I went on my birthday with my father and a group of school friends. We saw York beat Portsmouth 1-0 in the Fourth Division and my standout memory was the Portsmouth goalkeeper, Peter Mellor, who had the most incredible blond hair. I thought he was really famous when it was pointed out that he’d played for Fulham against West Ham in the 1975 FA Cup Final. Who were your childhood heroes? Have you met them? That’s an easy one: the two strikers from the first Football League team ever to…

Liverpool have proved an exhilarating watch for neutrals this term, hitting three or more goals in eight of their opening 14 encounters, but from their perspective there are two big issues: a) They’re conceding the first goal with alarming frequency and b) They’re picking up red cards like they’re going out of fashion. The first one is a peculiar combination of statistical anomalies and a midfield that, while very, very good, remains unfamiliar and takes a bit of time to get on the right wavelength. As for the second… we won’t get into that. Let’s say they’ve been unlucky with some decisions. Yet despite the Reds having a staggering four players sent off in their first seven league games, they’ve arguably looked much better and cohesive in the matches when…

Cork hats and inflatable kangaroos – not sights traditionally seen at Roots Hall, but they might just be here to stay in coastal Essex. Southend fans have been donning Australian fancy dress since October, when antipodean businessman Justin Rees (below) announced his six-man consortium had saved the club from liquidation. The following day, the Shrimpers had been due in the High Court to face a potentially fatal HM Revenue & Customs winding-up order. “It was such an incredible relief,” Southend diehard Liam Ager tells FFT now. “We came agonisingly close to losing our club forever. We’re not out of the woods yet, and Rees still has to prove to fans he’s the right person to lead us back to where we belong, but after all that’s happened this is a…

As a professional footballer himself, did your dad have an influence on your career? He had the influence that any father has – he showed me football and brought me into the football world. He gave me great advice and he coached me, but he never put pressure on me to become a footballer. He always said, “You need to finish school first, then we’ll see where it takes you”. Like any kid, I dreamed about one day representing my country and also playing abroad. Why did your 1996 move to Middlesbrough from Fortuna Köln take so long to happen? It was the summer when Jean-Marc Bosman won his case in court, so it changed football’s whole transfer system overnight. My contract ran out, but my former club insisted that…

Over the past few months, I’ve been learning Welsh. Not intentionally – I’ve been attempting to watch Wales’ qualifiers for Euro 2024, and become fluent by accident. If you need the Welsh for ‘Luka Modric is in Ethan Ampadu’s pocket’, or ‘Oh no! Armenia have scored again’, I’m your go-to guy. ‘Mae Luka Modric ym mhoced Ethan Ampadu’ and ‘O na! Armenia wedi sgorio eto’, since you asked. OK fine, I used Google Translate. JOHN HARTSON DOING PUNDITRY IN WELSH WAS AS IMPRESSIVE AS RIDING A UNICYCLE As an Englishman but well-wisher of the other UK teams, I’ve been tuning into their games on S4C. After spending your entire life only hearing John Hartson speak English, listening to him doing punditry in Welsh has been oddly impressive – as impressive as…

30 BRADLEY WRIGHT-PHILLIPS After productive spells in League One and the Championship, Wright-Phillips joined New York Red Bulls in 2013. By the time he retired in 2021, the striker had scored 117 goals in MLS (including eight for LAFC and one for Columbus Crew), making him one of the top marksmen in the league’s history. 29 TAMMY ABRAHAM Roma forked out £34m for the Chelsea striker in the summer of 2021 – he then struck 27 goals in all competitions in his first Giallorossi campaign, winning the Europa Conference League. His second was less successful, but still yielded 14 Europa League appearances as the Italians lost out to Sevilla in the final. 28 ASHLEY YOUNG Inter bought Young in January 2020 and he soon became a regular under Antonio Conte,…

CONMEBOL South America was the first continent to get 2026 qualifying underway, when the usual 10-team group phase commenced in September. Brazil soon slipped behind Argentina in the standings after defeat in Uruguay, but they’ll have to go some not to advance – four direct qualifiers have now become six, with a possible seventh via the intercontinental play-off. A chance then for Venezuela, the only CONMEBOL country never to reach the tournament? CAF With African qualifying beginning this month, nine automatic places are up for grabs – four more than in 2022. A 10th country will also secure a play-off berth after qualifying’s strung-out group of 10 matches over 25 months. Based on the latest rankings, Africa’s top 10 nations are as follows: Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon,…

For all of the Tynesiders’ newfound riches, they kicked off this campaign in shaky style: a battling 1-0 defeat against Manchester City, then a desperate late collapse at home to 10-man Liverpool, and rounded off with an ineffective display to lose 3-1 at Brighton. Understandable reverses, given the opposition, but three matches that had alarm bells ringing around the North East for both the lack of threat and focus. One goal scored, six conceded, and looking a shadow of the side who surged into the Champions League months prior. But boss Eddie Howe is nothing if not a problem solver, and while numerous stars have arrived at St James’ Park during his time at the helm, it was actually a midfielder many assumed would have slipped down the pecking order…

ANDREI KANCHELSKIS RYAN SHAWCROSS MIKKEL BECK TEAMS Zirka Kirovohrad Dynamo Kyiv Shakhtar Donetsk Manchester United Everton Fiorentina Rangers Manchester City (loan) Southampton Al Hilal Dynamo Moscow Saturn Ramenskoye Krylia Sovetov Soviet Union CIS Russia What was life like in the USSR during your upbringing at the height of communism? It was a good life and we had a traditional system – I think everyone was happy. I had friends from all over the Soviet Union; from Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, everything’s become really politicised. Look at what’s happening between Ukraine and Russia – it’s so terrible. Your father was Lithuanian, your mother Ukrainian, but you played for the Soviet Union, the CIS and Russia. Why was that? My father was sent to Ukraine…

ADIDAS MARINERUSH PACK From £80 adidas.co.uk Slip yourself into Jude Bellingham’s Predator Accuracy boots. You’re still only 20 years old, an England mainstay (with the pathway to captaincy paved) and the first name on Real Madrid’s team-sheet. Then Adidas bring out new cleats in the same colour as your beloved Birmingham – heaven. Only Lionel Messi has a custom Adi boot at the moment, but could Jude soon bag his own studs? The ‘Bellissimo’? You can thank us later. KAPPA X SURGEON SHIRT $250 kappa-usa.com Kappa’s football heritage cuts deep, having been the first ever brand in Italy to sponsor a club (a local Turin team called Juventus in the ’70s), while Surgeon are a high-end, LA-based collective of creatives offering custom fashion options at money-can-just-about-afford prices. So, this a…

THE GAFFER FATIH TERIM “A great coach and great human being. He was demanding, but if you worked hard for him you’d be rewarded. I can’t separate the man from the coach and I appreciated that part of Fatih a lot.” THE SUBS 01 PREDRAG MIJATOVIC 02 ANGEL DI MARIA 03 DECO MICHEL PREUD’HOMME “I was fortunate to play alongside Michel at Benfica for two seasons before he retired. He was an example of how to be a professional footballer because he was always competing and striving to improve. He was so agile and difficult to beat. I also worked with Vitor Baia, Ricardo and Francesco Toldo, but Michel was the most complete keeper.” CARLOS GAMARRA “We didn’t play together for long, but he was really focused and intelligent with a…