December
2000 News
This is the latest news
of all the players who appeared in the 1970-71
FKS Publishers Ltd
Wonderful World of Soccer Stars Album
19 December
Cormack
Returns ... Er ... Sacked
Peter
Cormack (Nottingham Forest) returned to football
management in charge of Scottish Third Division side,
Cowdenbeath. No sooner do I have chance to report this
however than the news comes through that he's been
sacked. That's pretty impressive, I wonder what he did,
or didn't do in the ten days in charge that caused such a
problem ? Peter did not actually take charge of a single
match.
The
Official website says this of Peter on taking him on ...
A
press conference was held at Central park Monday 4th
to announce the
new man to succeed Craig Levein as manager of the
Blue Brazil. The man
appointed is Peter Cormack, a player with Hibernian,
Nottingham Forest
and Liverpool and a former Scottish International.
Apart from his playing
experience, Peter has an outstanding C.V. and has
previously occupied
managerial positions at Partick Thistle, Hibernian
and Morton before plying
his trade in Cyprus for several years.
See Cowdenbeath Football Club
Official Web Site and BBC SPORT COWDENBEATH
Cowdenbeath sack boss after 10 days
Big Ron
votes for Johan Cruyff (Ajax)
Ron Atkinson's column in 'The Guardian' is always worth a
read. This week Ron talked about some of Bob's 70-71
stars. See Football Unlimited Columnists
Cruyff the conductor edges the successful solo artists
Ron Atkinson
Friday December 15, 2000
I notice Fifa fudged the issue of whether Pele or
Maradona was player of the century by giving an award
to both. For me Pele was the better of the two,
although top of the lot in my book is Johan Cruyff.
He was quick, lively and
agile, and he not only scored great goals but made
them. He orchestrated those fantastic Holland and
Ajax sides in the way Alfredo di Stefano did with
Real Madrid in the 50s and 60s. But as well as being
the conductor, Cruyff was a real team man.
I loved watching him. The
"Cruyff turn" against Sweden in the 1974
World Cup was unforgettable, and I remember going to
Villa Park to see him play for Barcelona in the
1977-78 Uefa Cup. I was manager of West Brom at the
time and it was billed as the last time Cruyff would
appear in England. Barca were winning 2-0 with a few
minutes left and took Cruyff off so the crowd could
pay their respects. The home supporters were
clapping, cheering and stomping, but then went
absolutely wild as Villa scored twice in the last
minute to equalise. Barca won the return 2-1.
Another Cruyff memory that
stands out was seeing him in his latter years with
Feyenoord. I was in Holland watching Jesper Olsen
before signing him for Manchester United and
Feyenoord hammered their bitter rivals Ajax.
A great moment, though, was
when Feyenoord had a free-kick about 30 yards out.
Cruyff was lining up to take it when a big,
precocious black guy came up and whacked the ball
into the net. It was Ruud Gullit. We made a few
enquiries about Gullit but were told he wouldn't
leave Holland.
For me there was something
extra special about Cruyff, with his individual
talent and team ethic, but Pele was hardly far
behind. Nor, of course, was Maradona, but for me the
Brazilian just gets the nod.
Pele had more all round. He
could do the unexpected but, if his side were up
against it, which admittedly Brazil weren't very
often, he could fit into a team pattern. He was a
better collective player in terms of joining in with
others, whereas Maradona was more a case of: we've
got a problem, give me the ball and I'll sort it.
Pele had everything: goals,
spring, vision, skill, and a lot of people don't
appreciate how powerful he was. One of his
stock-in-trades on the ball was the way he held his
arm out, almost rugby-fashion, to make it hard for
defenders to get close.
I can recall Pele coming to
Sheffield and playing in a friendly at Hillsborough
with Santos in 1962. He scored a memorable penalty
past Ron Springett, doing a hop, skip and jump before
stopping and coolly flipping the ball into the top of
the net.
Ten years later he was back
there again. The kick-off was switched to the
afternoon because of a power crisis and I'm told he
sat in the dressing room for two hours afterwards
signing autographs. The queue went from the dressing
room, out of the ground and along the back of the
stand to the main road.
The shame was that the
English public were robbed of seeing Pele's full
majesty in 1966. I was at Everton when the Portuguese
kicked him out of the World Cup, and the best we saw
of him was in 1970. I watched on the telly and will
never forget some of the things he pulled out: the
dummy on the Uruguayan keeper, the long shot against
the Czechs, the pass to Carlos Alberto.
Pele was also involved in
one of the funniest things I've seen. After Brazil
reached the 1994 World Cup final I saw him in the VIP
car park doing an interview. The Americans had put
Alexei Lalas in with him discussing World Cup
football and I was thinking: "Hold on a bit, one
of them knows everything and the other's a
guitar-playing American."
Having said that, I
understand Pele could play guitar. Some of the lads
who were involved in Escape to Victory with him said
every night he would come down, open a bottle of Jack
Daniels and sit with the boys and strum.
As for Maradona, I admired
not just his power, pace and supreme confidence but
his bravery too. Hard as people tried, it was
difficult to kick him out of a game. He played
against my United team for Barcelona in Europe,
although he was carrying an injury and made little or
no contribution.
The same doesn't go for the
first time I saw him live. That was for Argentina
against England at Wembley, when he had a phenomenal
dribble, went past everybody and stroked it just
wide.
I had been introduced to him
earlier in the day at a hotel in Kensington, where
Alberto Tarantini, who had a spell at Birmingham
City, told me: "This is the best player you'll
ever see."
He was close, but my vote
goes to Cruyff.
12 December
After-Life
Good to
see Bobby Moore getting several mentions this month. First off
Bobby is a star guest at Stephen Fry and Naomi Campbell's
meal when the 'After Eight' after dinner mints are being
handed out. The advert, which uses trick photography of
the style made famous in the film 'Forest Gump',
introduces a number of stars generally considered to have
died, such as Marilyn Munroe, and James Dean. Bobby is
asked by Marilyn if he's a baseball star!
Bobby is
already regularly appearing in an advert for raising
money for Imperial Cancer Research which is shown on Sky
television. Bobby, who died from cancer himself, is shown
in 1966 footage lifting the World Cup held aloft by his
England team mates. It is placed in a segment of high
achieving individuals such as the astronauts and Ghandi !
Finally,
Rio Ferdinand, the Leeds United star who cost a World
record fee of 18,000,000 pounds when he moved from West
Ham United, has been compared to our Bobby by his former
manager, Harry Redknapp, it seems. In an article on the official Leeds
United Website Rio said to Chris Bargh,
"Harry Redknapp would talk about Bobby all the time.
Not just about his skill as a player but also about the
way he conducted himself off the pitch," added
Ferdinand.
"If I can achieve anywhere
near what Bobby did in the game, I will be more than
happy."
See Leeds United Football Club - The
Official Website
Pelé Award
FIFA are to award Pelé
as the leading player of the centuary. The award had to
be rustled up from nowhere because a free vote run on the
internet was won by Maradona. Meanwhile, UK journalist
for the 'Daily Mirror', and author, Harry Harris. No
relation To the Portsmouth player with the same name on
this site, has just written a book on the Brazilian star.
8 December
Officially
Best
Well any
regular readers to Bob's 70-71 Pages will know that
unofficially the very best George Best site is run by Ian Corry (Click to see). But long
overdue, there is now an official site for one of the
greatest players in the World to emerge from the United
Kingdom. Flash in more than one sense of the word, it is
worthy of the man, and is presently available in a
pre-view form at George Best Official
Elton
and George
Top
singer-songwriter, Elton John has been known to share
centre stage with George Michael many a time, but this
picture shows the Watford Chairman with another friend
called George, our very own George Best.
George
Best and Elton John
This great
picture was sent by Jim Ross and it's from "The Complete
Handbook of Soccer" 1976 issue. which is all about
American soccer in 1976. I'm sure Elton would not have
hit on George back in '76, and I suspect Bestie would
prefer to NOT be labled as John's partner these days.
Terry
Decides
After a
week or two of yes-he-is / no-he-isn't - in the Press,
Terry Venables (QPR) IS to become chief coach at
Middlesbrough to help out his mate and Boro manager,Bryan
Robson. Perhaps now 'The Match of the Day' cameras can
concentrate on showing highlights of the Boro matches
instead of highlights of Robson watching Boro matches.
See Middlesbrough F.C.- Venables.
See more December news at the following
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