August
/ September 2003
News
News of other stars from the 1970-71
season
Mathias Sacked
Ray Mathias (Tranmere
Rovers) has
been sacked as the Tranmere Rovers manager after ten
games of the new season. The news came on 28 September
2003 when Tranmere were 5th from bottom and had won just
once in the League. Ray had been in post for a year, and
has been replaced by John McMahon as caretaker manager.
See BBC SPORT Tranmere sack Mathias
Pleat Returns, Gorman Leaves.
David Pleat
(Peterborough United) has repeated the feat of
fellow Bob 70-71 star, Steve Kember at Crystal Palace, by taking
over as caretaker manager at Tottenham Hotspur for the
third time !
And rather more like
another site favourite, Trevor Brooking (see below), David will be responsible in
part for selecting his own replacement in his role as the
club's Director of Football.
David took over the
caretaker role from Glenn Hoddle on 21
September 2003. Glenn was sacked after winning just 4
points in the first six games, but this followed two
seasons where Spurs have finished mid-table in the
Premiership - too low to qualify for Europe.
David's two previous
spells as caretaker, included 2 games between 16 March
2001 and 2 April 2001, and 6 games between 7 September
1998 and 1 October 1998.
On top of that, of
course, David was the full manager for 71 games from 16
May 1986, when he succeeded Peter Shreeves,
to 23 October 1987, when he was replaced by Terry
Venables.
During David's spell as
the Spurs manager, Spurs reached and lost the 1987 FA Cup
Final 3-2 (after extra time) against Coventry City. David
also took the club to third place in the old Division
One, a position the club has matched only once, in
1989-90, but never beaten since.
David's full managerial
record include: Luton Town (25-01-1978 to 16-05-1986),
Spurs (see above), Leicester City (24-12-1987 to
29-01-1991), Sheffield Wednesday (14-06-1995 to
03-11-1997), and Luton Town again (06-06-1991 to
14-06-1995) .
Whilst David has a long
and distinguished career, the only honour I can see he
has won is the Division Two Championship in 1981-82 with
Luton Town !
David has not ruled
himself out of the possiblity of taking on the Spurs
managerial role permanently, but it is generally believed
he would not want to risk his present role as Director of
Football by going for the job.
Along with Hoddle, his
assistant manager, and Bob 70-71 star, John
Gorman (Celtic) also loses his post. John has
been Glenn's assistant in his last three posts at England
- even though John is Scottish himself - Southampton, and
Tottenham Hotspur. His last role as Manager was 10 years
ago at Swindon Town.
Also see:
BBC SPORT Spurs sack Hoddle
BBC SPORT Spurs take their time
LeagueManagers.com Managers
Profiles - David Pleat
Managerial record - w
ww.soccerbase.com - The Internet Soccer Database
Sir Alex Ferguson Update
Temper Temper
Sir
Alex Ferguson's feud with David Beckham
continues to be worthy of front page news. The 31 August
2003 News of the World had Sir Alex emblazoned
on the cover with the headline, ' Beckham: My Fergie
torture'. Page 2 drove the message home with 'I'd grown
up, but he just didn't like what I'd become'. Bless.
This all came with the
paper's world exclusive serialisation of David Beckham's
book 'My Side'. The serialisation continued all week in
'The Sun', which at one hilarious moment had a cartoon
breakdown of THAT incident where Sir Alex kicked a boot
into Beck's face.
It was a style of
graphic usually reserved for, say, a reconstruction of
Princess Di's car crash, or generalised plane crashes and
terrorist attacks. But hey it was a big day Beckham's
life, and he is the England captain, so let's not knock
the importance of this event in the scheme of things.
See:
News Of the World - Online
Edition
http--www.the-sun.co.uk-news-
Sending Off
A few days earlier,
Fergie's violence had led to him being sent
off !
It came in the Man U
Premiership 2-1 home win versus Newcastle United on 24
August 2003. BBC SPORT Ferguson vows to cool
down (click to see whole article) reports:
Manchester
United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has vowed to improve
his behaviour after being sent off during his side's
2-1 win over Newcastle on Saturday
Ferguson reacted angrily to referee Uriah Rennie's
decision not to punish Andy O'Brien for bringing down
Ryan Giggs on the edge of the Newcastle area.
The United manager kicked a ball away in disgust and
remonstrated with fourth official Jeff Winter on the
sidelines.
"I am aware that the fourth official has been
given stricter guidelines this season," Ferguson
told the News of the World.
"I suppose I will have to curb my behaviour in
the future."
Contract
Talks
Headlines
in early September involving Sir Alex have centered on
his summertime refusal to move to Chelsea. It seems Sir
Alex was approached by Chelsea who have had millions put
their way by the Russian billionaire, Roman Abramovich,
but Sir Alex said he couldn't move because his 'whole
life is Manchester United. See Sir Alex Ferguson Rejected
Chelsea - SoccerAge
By the end
of the month The Daily Mirror was breaking news
that Sir Alex may be negotiating a new 2 to 3 year
extention to his Man U contract worth 3.5 million pounds.
See News Ferguson Confirms Contract
Talks - SoccerAge
Give Peace a Chance
Sven-Göran
Eriksson (Karlskoga) has launched a football for
peace campaign with his partner Nancy Dell'Olio. Click Guardian Unlimited Football News
for the full
version of this item
The
UN can't do it. Nor can the Pope. Now it's Sven and
Nancy's turn to try for world peace By
Vivek Chaudhary
Most England football managers would confine
themselves to seeking peace on the terraces. But then
Sven-Goran Eriksson has never had much in common with
most England football managers.
So it is
not a total surprise that in addition to focusing on
England's forthcoming fixture against Turkey - widely
expected to threaten violence between the fans - Mr
Eriksson is dedicating himself to a new cause: the
pursuit of world peace.
Together
with his partner Nancy Dell'Olio, and with the
backing of some of the country's best-known soccer
stars, Mr Eriksson has formed a charity called Truce
International. Its mission: to use football as an
inspiration for ending global conflict.
His vision,
he says, "is to try to help the peace in the
world, and the world you see around you". For
one day a year, he wants "people around the
world to play football instead of fighting and
killing each other".
To show he
means business, he is presenting a football (the one
which knocked England out of last summer's World Cup
at the hands of Brazil) to the secretary general of
the United Nations, Kofi Annan.
Ms
Dell'Olio, a flamboyant lawyer, is better known for
her dress sense than an interest in the 31 wars
currently flaring around the world. She once told
Hello! magazine: "My priority is to please my
man, and that gives me much more pleasure than
anything else."
She
has explained the philosophy behind Truce
International to the music channel VH1, which has
made a documentary about the charity. "No other
language is so international like football," she
said. "When you talk about football you don't
need to use any other words."
The
organisation will be formally launched on September
21, the UN International Day of Peace.
David
Beckham, ... along with the striker Michael Owen is
(also) lending his support.
The Great Lambino Retires
John Lambie
(St Johnstone)- former winner of the Top Bob
in 2001 - has retired from his post as the manager of
Partick Thistle. Lambie announced his retirement in
February of last season, and his last home match v Dundee
United had a party atmosphere, as he said goodbye to the
fans.
Lambie turned Partick's
fortunes around as he lifted them from the Scottish
Division Two to the Premier League with successive
Championships. Last season his achievement was to keep
the side in the Premiership when they finished 10th.
He is succeeded by his
former right-hand man Gerry Collins.
See BBC SPORT Football Teams Partick
Thistle Lambie to leave Jags
and ptfc.co.uk the official site
See pictures of his final home match at http--www.ptfc.co.uk
Brooking Returns Again !
Once again, Trevor
Brooking has
taken over as the caretaker manager of West Ham United.
Last season Trevor took over when Glenn Roeder was taken
ill with a brain tumour. The side were all but
mathmatically relegated when Trevor took over, but he
helped to inspire a late rally which resulted in 3
straight victories.
The side still went
down, but in 18th place with pride restored, and, with 42
points, they disproved the adage that a Premiership club
is safe with 40 points in the bag...
This season an average
start in Division One has led to Glenn's sacking, and
Trevor has taken over again. As with last season Trevor
has insisted he is not going to take on the full time
role - and was even heard commentating as ususual, on the
BBC coverage of the England Euro qualifiers versus
Macedonia and Liechtenstein.
Problems in securing a
replacement in Reading's former manager Alan Pardew, who
has resigned his post just to become available, has led
to further speculation that Trevor will continue as
manager, but he continues to deny this.
See BBC SPORT West Ham sack Roeder
BBC SPORT Brooking remains in
the dark
Further August / September
2003 news can be found at ...
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