April
/ May 2004
News
News of other stars from the 1970-71
season will appear here ...
Smith leavea
25 May, 2004 Walter
Smith (Dundee United) leaves his coaching role at
Manchester United. For more information see BBC SPORT Smith backs Man Utd
revival
Ternent Era Terminated
On 9 May 2004, Stan
Ternent (Carlisle United)'s long spell at Burnley
finally ended when no new contract was offered at the end
of the season. Stan joined Burnley back in June 1998 and
was 7th in the list of longest serving English League
managers.
Stan was the manager
that saw Burnley promoted into Division One as runners-up
in 1999-2000, and the following season they finished 7th,
the club's highset League position since their relegation
from the old Division One in 1976 !
The following season
burnley finished just 17th and this season they finished
just 19th. Stan hopes to get a new job in football
management. The end of Stan's reign also marked the end
for his assistant, Stan Ellis (Sheffield
Wednesday).
N.B. Stan's replacement
at Burnley was Steve Cotterill.
See BBC SPORT Ternent bows out
Cups,Ups and Downs
Here's list of all the
managerial winners and losers among Bob 70-71 Players for
the 2003-2004 season....
Martin O'Neill
(Distillery) had the most exceptional
season of all Bob 70-71 Players. His Celtic team won the
Scottish League and Cup double...again.
On 18 April 2004, the
Championship was Britain's first major league title to be
confirmed when they beat kilmarnock 1-0 away from home.
At the time the side was unbeated in 32 games and had a
16 point lead ! By the end of the season Celtic had lost
just twice, but were undefeated away from home. They had
increased the lead to 17 points over Rangers, and hauled
in a massive 98 points with an 80 goal difference.
It was O'Neill and
Celtic's 3rd title in 4 years, and the 39th in their
history.
Then on 22 May, 2004,
the club had a straight forward 3-1 victory over
Dunfirmiline at Hampton Park. Henrik Larsson in his final game for the
club scored twice taking his season tally to 41 ! It was
Celtic's 32nd Cup victory - a new lead over Rangers, and
O'Neill's second Cup. The Double this season follows the
Treble success of 2000-2001.
Sir Alex Ferguson On 22 May 2003, Sir Alex won his 26th
trophy as manager, with what is a managerial record fifth
FA Cup win. Manchester United strolled to a 3-0 victory
over ever-hopeful Millwall from Division One at the
Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Manchester United have now
won the Cup 11 times, pulling clear of Arsenal's 9 wins.
But let's face it, the win came
in a damp squib of a season for Manchester United. For
Man U the FA Cup represents a consolation prize these
days as a club who routinely enter the Champions League
and hope for a Premiership title. For Millwall it would
have been the biggest prize on offer at the start of the
season, for Man U it was a poor third.
The real achievement was beating
Arsenal in the unnofficial Cup Final that was held in the
semi-final of the competition. This prevented Arsenal
from both winning the Cup three years on the trot, and
winning the Double without losing a match !
Joe Royle Ipswich Town finished 5th in Division
One, and won a 1-0 home leg victory against West Ham
United in the Play-off semi-final. But a 2-0 away defeat,
lead to 2-1 aggregate defeat.
Eddie
Gray as
reported elsewhere (see news),
caretaker manager Eddie Gray could do nothing to prevent
Leeds United being relegated.
David
Hay also
reported elsewhere (see news),
Livingston won the Scottish League Cup
Sir Bobby Robson Newcastle United may not have won
anything this season, and there were grumblings about
having a manager in his seventies, but it was still a
great season by any standards. Not least by the fact that
they reached the UEFA Cup semi-final.
The first leg home 0-0 draw
against Marseille, always looked difficult for Newcastle
United, and this proved to be the case when they lost the
away tie 2-0. Prior to this the club had been 12 UEFA
matches without defeat.
Further disappointment followed,
when the club lost out to Liverpool by finishing 5th in
the Premier League thus missing Champions League
qualification. However, the Newcastle United fans do have
another shot at the UEFA Cup to look forward to next
season.
Claudio Ranieri (AS
Roma ) Claudio
had an amazing season in which Chelsea had one of their
most successful on record, yet he is still likely to be
sacked for not doing better !
Chelsea reached the
UEFA Champions League semi-final for the first time in
its history, but had a poor 3-1 home leg defeat to
Monaco, followed by a 2-2 home draw, which saw the end to
their challenge.
A runners-up place in
the Premiership - also a club best - does ensure entry
into next season's Champions' League, though it is
unlikely Claudio will be their manager by then.
It is fair to say that
Claudio's dignity in the face of his inevitable sacking,
and his unique interview style won over many friends, and
he won't be long without a post if it does happen.
Peter Taylor (Southend
United) Peter
finally helped to lead Hull City out of Division Three by
coming runner's-up. Automatic promotion was just reward
to a club that had an average attendance of 16,846 in the
League - over 6,000 more than Huddersfield Town, and over
9,000 more than Bristol Rovers, the next two best
attended clubs.
Graham Turner (Chester
City) Hereford
reach the National Conference Play-offs in second place
having amassed a staggering 91 points and being only one
point behind the champions, Chester City (Graham's team
in 70-71!). Hereford were no less than 17 points clear of
third place Shrewsbury Town. This counted for zilch when
they crashed out to Aldershot in the semi-finals. After a
1-1 draw away, and 0-0 draw at home- and in the absence
of an away goals rule, they lost 4-2 on penalties.
Aldershot went on to lose on penalties in the final to
Shrewsbury Town.
Keegan Laid Up - Cox Takes Over
Kevin
Keegan at Scunthorpe United
Anyone remember the
song,
'There's a circus
in the town,
Kevin Keegan is a clown
And Arthur Cox
Has got the ---ing pox
And Newcastle are going down.' ...?
Man. City fans will be
hoping that the song is not due a re-write. Manager Kevin
Keegan
has been laid up for a couple of weeks with back surgery.
Doctors have insisted Kevin takes a complete rest from
football, leaving him unable to even take part in
training sessions.
In his absence, his
long-term football mentor, and current Assistant Manager,
Arthur Cox, has taken over the day to
day running of the club. Matters are not helped by Man
City's slow decline down the Premiership, such that they
are one of only 6 clubs realistically involved in this
season's relegation battle.
Arthur's place on Bob's
70-71 Pages, has long been subject that needed
addressing. Arthur had been a player at Coventry City
from 1955-58, but a broken leg ended his career when he
was just 18 years old. His picture has been on the Preston
North End page
for some time as part of the Third Division Championship
winning team. However, Arthur did not join North End
until February, when he was brought to the club by Alan
Ball senior (Preston North End) from Halifax
Town.
Alan Ball had been
manager of Halifax Town in the 1969-70 season, and moved
to Preston North End in the pre-season. This was Preston
North End's first ever season below (the old) Division
Two, and during the season Mr Ball gathered a back-room
staff that would help succeed in getting promotion as
Champions at the first attempt.
Success was short lived
at Preston. Ball was sacked in 1973, Bobby
Charlton took over for his only League spell as a
manager, and in 1974 the club were relegated again.
Arthur, meanwhile had
left Preston and had since joined up with Sunderland
under Bob Stokoe (Carlisle
United), and he
was the coach of the side that famously won the FA Cup in
1973 and the Second Divsion Championship in 1974-75.
He had a short spell as
Assistant Manager at Galatasaray in Turkey and in 1976, he finally rose to the
role of manager at Chesterfield then in the old Division
Three. He stayed until 1980, when he took over at
Newcastle United, a post he held till 1984, a difficult
time for the club that were struggling to get out of the
old Division Two. He finally succeded with promotion in
1984, thanks to help from Kevin Keegan in his final season as a
player. But he fell out with the board and moved on to
Derby County, his successor at Newcastle being Jack
Charlton.
Arthur was 9 years at
Derby County, a time which began with the injection of
money from Sir Robert Maxwell. Derby
rose from (the old) Division Three back to (the old)
Division One in successive seasons.
In 1986-87 they were
promoted to the top flight as Champions of Division Two,
and they remained there till relegation in 1990-91.
Arthur steered them back to Division One at the first
attempt, but later left Derby County in 1993.
The story is brought up
to date by a return to Arthur's links with Kevin Keegan,
first forged at Newcastle United, when Kevin was still a
player. He rejoined Kevin
Keegan as his assistant manager at Newcastle United, and
then became Director of Football at Fulham when Kevin
took over as manager there in 1997. He also worked in a
part-time coaching role for the national team when the
Kevin managed England.
Most recently, when Kevin became
Manchester City's Manager in 2001, he quickly appointed
Arthur his Chief Scout and in the following year he was
promoted to Assistant Manager.
If Man City are
relegated, perhaps the management duo will be forced to
move on again !
Horton Returns
1 April 2004 Brian
Horton (Port Vale) has returned as manager of
Macclesfield Town until the
end of the season. John Askey, the caretaker manager
since the dismissal of David Moss in
October (see news),
becomes the assistant manager.Macclesfield were in the
relegation position at the time Brian took over but there
is a good chance that the club can escape relegation in
an incredibly tight division this season.
See BBC SPORT Macclesfield Town appoint
Horton
Further April / May 2004
news can be found at ...
|
