Legendary Spurs manager Bill Nicholson had a mantra — “Winning isn’t enough, it has to be done with a certain style.” If anyone epitomised the realisation of that “certain style” it was Spurs and Wales winger, the lightning-fast Cliff Jones.I said “winger” advisedly, because Cliff could play on either wing […]
Adrian Walsh
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In case you’re wondering who The Prof is or was, he was the man who, more than any other, was responsible for persuading the world’s greatest footballer, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, otherwise known as Pele, to go to New York and play for Cosmos.The Prof’s proper name was Professor Julio […]
This is my great friend Ken Aston who invented the Red and yellow cards anyone know where he got the idea from?? The picture putting on the white boots, which he was going to wear to referee an FA Cup final only to change his mind 30 minutes before kick […]
“The Lion of Vienna” The great Nat Lofthouse (and he WAS great — a fabulous 30 goals in 33 games for England) got his nickname from an Austria v England match in 1962.The game was tied at 2 – 2 when Lofthouse received the ball and slid it past the […]
Ken Aston was a primary school teacher the RAF rejected when he tried to join at the start of World War II. He went instead to the Royal Artillery, and ended up as a lieutenant-colonel in the Indian Army. But it was as football’s most famous and respected referee that […]
Mr Ball Control in Ireland’s Own Christmas Annual out yesterday, please support and help Cancer research, also support Irelands longest running magazine!!
It was Alf Ramsey (“Sralf)” who described him as “My captain, my leader, my right-hand man. He was the spirit and the heartbeat of the team. A cool, calculating footballer I could trust with my life. He was the supreme professional, the best I ever worked with. Without him England […]
That’s what they called Tom Finney, the amazing one-club footballer who spent his entire career with Preston North End. He won 76 international caps, played on both wings as well as centre forward, scored 30 goals for England, and was considered the most complete British footballer of all time.And together […]
The only reason I’m writing this is because I’ve been asked a few times what I was getting at when I mentioned Showcases. It all had to do with a dream concept I came very close to realising. Then the dream perished, for reasons that are irrelevant now.But whereas Martin […]
It’s difficult to know where to begin when it comes to talking about Stanley Matthews. He wasn’t only, as Bobby Robson said, “one of the greatest players the game has ever seen, ranking alongside Pele, Maradona and Cruyff ”, he was also the first footballer to be knighted, was twice […]
When Brighton and Hove Albion sacked their manager, Chris Hughton, earlier this year, it sent shock waves through soccer supporters who admired the high achieving quiet-spoken man who had steered the club into the Premiership for the first time in its history.It wasn’t the first time the former Spurs and […]
That was the nickname given to the most mesmerising member of Hungary’s fabled national team of the 1950s, the Magical Magyars —Ferenc Puskas. He was the top goal scorer in all of Europe in 1945, and he was soccer’s first international superstar.Think of just a few of his statistics: He […]
Show me a football fan that wouldn’t give his eyeteeth to spend time with George Best, and I’ll show you a fan that is a bit unsound in the brain department.I met George twice. It was a privilege and a thrill. Players with the skill and talent of George Best […]
Dribbling two footballs at the same time one on each foot This post is really just to show the copy of the world record certificate I received. THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT ADRIAN WALSH OF GALWAY, REPUBLIC OF IRELAND, SET THE FIRST-EVER DRIBBLING SKILLS RECORDS IN THE HISTORY OF ASSOCIATION […]
UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL Not having met Spurs manager Keith Birkenshaw before, I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived at the training ground at Cheshunt, 12 miles north of Central London. I needn’t have worried. He was genial and friendly and made me feel welcome and at home. […]
AN ORDINARY EXTRAORDINARY MAN Of all the many club managers I’ve met in the course of my life in football, Bill Nicholson of Tottenham Hotspur would rank among the very greatest. A blunt Yorkshireman, he was completely devoid of BS (all right, bullshit). “Any player coming to Spurs,” he once […]
There is little doubt but that Johan Cruyff, described in a list of the greatest-ever Dutch footballers as “a man beyond words”, was also one of the greatest European footballers of the past one hundred years. It has even been put out there that he invented modern soccer. I had […]
I’d often heard of it — of course I had! To anyone with even afaint interest in sport, the name Yankee Stadium was familiar. It was in the Bronx, and was one of the most famous venues in the whole ofthe United States and I was to give an exhibition […]
It’s generally agreed that the greatest footballer in history was Pele.I MET him — here’s how: It was in New York, and I had just completed an 11-city tour with Cork Hibernians, entertaining at each of their games by giving exhibitions of ball control (Juggling).When Hibs returned to Ireland, I […]