| Talk 60's 70's Football at Yahoo! Groups sixtiesandseventiessoccer | ||
 |
World of Soccer Stars | |
| Home | March 2003 NewsThis is the latest news of all the players who appeared in the 1970-71 FKS Publishers Ltd Wonderful World of Soccer Stars Album 29 March Terry Venables Sacked On 21 March, Ell Tel (QPR) retured to plain old El Tel again, as Leeds United of Elland Road have finally called an end to his reign as the club's manager. Things have gone from bad to worse during his spell in charge, which saw a series of top players being sold due to club debts and a slump from 5th (last season's final placing) to 15th in the Premier League. Terry saw World Cup heroes Rio Ferdinand and Robbie Keane leave at the beginning of the season, and internationals Olivier Dacourt, Lee Bowyer, Robbie Fowler and Jonathan Woodgate all leave later. Only Ferdinand's sale was of good value to Leeds, most of the others had a feel of being a wage bill saved rather than money retrieved. It was not as if any of the dosh could be used to buy new players. 55 million pounds raised in transfers was all swallowed up in the vast hole of the mysterious Leeds' finances. Debts were reported as being as high as 78 million pounds, but the public have been kept in the dark as the the current amount.. But it was the sale of Jonathan Woodgate to Newcastle United that was the biggest blow for Terry. Famously described as one of the 'Crown Jewels' of the the club, on which a future Leeds team could be built, Chairman Peter Ridsdale over-ruled his manager to make sure his market value was realised rather than lost to a future administration-led bargain sale. The internal politics of all this will never truely been revealed to Leeds fans till long after it has all become irrelevent, but it is unlikely anyone will come up smelling of white roses. Terry himself could be accused of hiding behind the excuse that forces were beyond his control to divert attention away from the dreadful performance of the team under his spell. The Champions League semi-finalists of 1999-2000, are deep in relegation trouble at the end of 2002-2003. The club were also dumped out of both domestic knockout competitions to Sheffield United, the Yorkshire rivals from Division One. The UEFA Cup challenge never got going, and there is no way of qualifying for Europe next season. And for all the sales, Leeds can still field an International 11. On the plus side Leeds finally beat Man U, Paul Robinson and Harry Kewell thrived under Terry, Jamie Milner emerged from the youth side, Alan Smith looks more like a future England regular, and El Tel will now be available for what he does best, talk a good game on telly. Terry left the club after a spell of four straight defeats, and the news was tellingly announced first to the London Stock Exchange ! It was initially described as being by mutual agreement, but has subsequently been viewed as a sacking. Peter Reid has since taken over as the caretaker manager till the end of the season. His former club, Sunderland look set for the drop to Division One, so he could have the honour of managing two of the relegated Premiership sides in one season ! Meanwhile Terry is negotiating his compensation, which is quoted as being over a million pounds. My life time's combined-wages for doing nothing, taking yet more money from the cash-starved club I love.... Personally, I will not be signing his 'Good Luck in your new career' card. BBC SPORT Football My Club Leeds United Venables leaves Leeds 18 March Kids' Stuff (Part ii) Last month's report on various Bob 70-71 highlights for the under-tens (see February 2003), has led to more sightings this month, too. For those of us approaching forty, rather than being over that particular hill, you may remember playing 'Top Trumps', in the playground. Well they are back big style. Returning partly due to the popularity of a 'Lord of the Rings' set, the game was voted 'Game of the Year' last year. (Probably by the manufacturers..) Anyway, the Arsenal set that has been knocking around Bob 70-71 Towers includes most of the current squad, plus George Graham, Charlie George and Bob Wilson (Arsenal). though I'm afraid getting Bob Wilson is the equivalent of getting a British car in the Formula One set circa 1976, almost impossible to win with. This assumes that you follow the under-ten's assumption that a person born in 1941 automatically loses to a player born in say 1980 in the 'Year of Birth' choice. My son insists that this is because 1980 is a higher number than 1941, NOT because anyone born that long ago must ipso facto , be a loser... And talking of Bob Wilson, he turned up in a 1998 episode of 'Renfield Rejects' - a series being re-shown on Nickelodeon Replay currently. A player was making a video of how to play and cheat, so the team played that way against him. Bob is shown as a television presenter commenting on this at half time. In the second half, they all make up and play nicely, rather too nicely in fact. Bob joins fellow Bob 70-71 star, Harry Redknapp in being spotted on this programme. The Sun Whilst going for a haircut this weekend I read the Saturday The Sun newspaper. In the excellent sports section, I see that Bob70-71 Star Harry Redknapp has a regular column. Sothebys Sale On 18 February, 2003, Sotherby's had a football memorabilia sale. There were 346 lots and it raised 445,776 pounds. Terry Neill Amongst the many items on sale were 8 lots of football shirts that belonged to Terry Neill (Hull City). Everyone of the lots sold raising 4,404 pounds. The top individual one of his items was the Northrn Ireland shirt in which he scored the winner against England in 1972. I don't know about you, but I think some Bobby Dazzler got a bargain at 900 pounds. Terry also had a number of shirts that he had swapped with other players over the years, plus several that were listed as being sold by Terry Neill's Sports Bar, Holborn London. These extra 11 lots sold for a further 11,520 pounds., the star shirt being a George Best signed number 11 Northern Ireland shirt from the early 1970s. It sold for 6,240 pounds. The other shirts swapped by Terry Neill included:
But the star item, for this site was a Cyprus shirt swapped by Neill with Kallis of Cyprus on 3 February 1971. Played in Nicosia, Northern Ireland won 4-1. And the shirt sold for just 240 pounds. Once again shirts from Pelé did well. A signed shirt from his Santos days sold for 1,320 pounds, but a shirt swapped with Ladislav Kuna of Czechoslovakia after the 1970 World Cup match, which Brazil won, and Pelé scored sold for 13,200 pounds. This was the 4th largest sale of the entire auction. Esso Coins Do not get confused here, the 1970 World Cup coins that Esso gave away for free usually sell for about 10 to 20 pounds. A lot of two Franklin mint edition sold at Sotherby's for 1,080 pounds ! This was because it include one silver edition, which was presented to official members of the England World Cup party, and one bronze edition, which was given to senior officials of Esso. Others Other shirts sold include Steve
Heighway (Liverpool) - signed by the 1976-77
Liverpool Championship squad- which sold for 540 pounds Further March 2003 news can be found at ...
|
|
| Bob Dunning 18 March 2003 |
Click here for the latest Soccer headlines www.bobdunning.net |
