On a chilly October evening in 2003, Rotherham United arrived at Highbury for a third-round Carling Cup tie relieved that Patrick Vieira, Arsenal’s formidable captain, was unable to play because of injury. In the Frenchman’s place Arsene Wenger had selected a midfielder from Catalonia. Francesc ”Cesc” Fabregas had arrived from Barcelona just four weeks earlier.
On Saturday, after the end of the first FA Cup final at the new Wembley, John Terry is hoping to do what he likes to call a ”Wisey”. Seven years ago the Chelsea captain was 19 and, having just returned from a six-game loan spell at Nottingham Forest, watched from the bench as the last final to be decided in north-west London was won by a 73rd-minute Roberto Di Matteo goal.
A blistering afternoon at the Amahouro stadium in Kigali last October and deep into the second half Angola seem powerless to break the deadlock against Rwanda in the final game of their World Cup qualifying campaign. Angola need to match Nigeria’s victory against Zimbabwe, a 5-1 success that finished slightly earlier, to ensure an improbable berth in the finals for the first time.
A Saturday evening in 1991 and Sam Allardyce is tramping the streets of Limerick with a priest. They are searching for local businessmen willing to help pay the wages of Limerick City footballers. It is difficult finding the £100 a week that keeps Allardyce’s better players happy and it is a routine that manager Allardyce and the club chairperson will repeat through the season.
”Ashley Cole looks tired. Which, considering the tumultuous season the talented Arsenal and England left back has had, is not surprising.” Cole talks to Jamie Jackson about racism, his relationship with Girls Aloud pop starlet Cheryl Tweedy and his future with Arsenal.
When Nick Barmby signed for his home-town team last month, the player Pele predicted would be a world star when he was just 21. But at just 30 years old and with 23 international caps, it may just seem a little early for the player, who was Leeds’s last cash signing in 2002, to be playing first-division football.
The FA Cup final will mark a remarkable progress from non-league football to the big time for Millwall’s young forward, Paul Ifill. On Saturday you can catch Ifill if you are near a television or have a ticket to the Millennium stadium in Cardiff. He will be playing on the right of Millwall’s midfield, trying to outsmart Manchester United in the final.
Millwall, long vilified for dirty play and racist fans, are trying to rebuild their image. According to cliché, they are the baddest club in town, the Mike Tyson of football. Now in the FA Cup they’re at it again, with their thuggish, racist behaviour. Or so says Alastair Campbell.