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Bob's 1970 -71 Diary Autumn 2007
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This month's first edition of Back Pass a new football history magazine has a feature on the 1970-71 season!
November
28 November 'Arry Arrested
Five men have been arrested in connection with alleged corruption in football, police have said.
Those held included Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp, the club's chief executive Peter Storrie and its former chairman Milan Mandaric.
The five men were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting.
Mr Redknapp and three others have since been released on police bail. A 30-year-old remains in custody.
He is understood to be Charlton player and Senegalese international Amdy Faye, currently on loan to Rangers.
The City of London Police inquiry is believed to be centred around the transfer of Mr Faye to Portsmouth, a deal set up by agent Willie McKay.
Police refused to give details of those arrested and would only confirm they were aged 69, 60, 55, 48 and 30.
On his release Mr Redknapp said: "We all helped the police with their inquiries, but it doesn't directly concern me, it's other people involved.
"I've been answering questions to help the police. I am not directly concerned with their inquiries.
"They have to arrest you to talk to you, for you to be in the police station. I think that's the end of it, it didn't directly concern me."
The solicitor representing Mr Redknapp and Mr Storrie emphasised that his clients were cooperating with police.
Speaking outside the police station Paul Martin said: "The inquiries do not relate to either of those individuals, they relate to entirely different individuals.
"They are ongoing investigations in relation to those other individuals, and for that reason they are unable to comment further, and there is nothing that they can discuss."
The arrests are part of City of London Police's on-going inquiry into alleged corruption, a spokesman said.
The men were held as officers carried out raids on 12 locations across the country. Two of those searches are still ongoing.
Detectives from the economic crime unit of the City of London Police are investigating allegations of corruption within football and its impact on owners and shareholders.
In July, officers raided Newcastle United, Portsmouth and Rangers football clubs as part of the inquiry.
24 November Radford's Revenge Not many people realise that Hereford United's star goalscorer in the 1972 cup tie v Newcastle United, Ronnie Radford (Newport County) was an ex-Leeds United professional, signing to them in October 1961 from Sheffield Wednesday Amateurs. He did not play a first team match, however, and it wasn't till he turned out for Newport County in the 1969-70 season that he made his League debut. His name is famously linked to Hereford due to 'Ronnie's Rocket', the goal that won him Match of the Day's Goal of the Season in the 1971-72 season. He later clocked up League matches for Hereford when they entered the League in the 1972-73 season. It must have been very pleasing for Ronnie to see his Hereford United team beat Leeds United 1-0 in the first round replay of the FA Cup on Tuesday (20 November) at Elland Road. How much sweeter it must have been then, when today - only 5 days later - a second of Ronnie's former clubs also beat Leeds United 1-0! In Leeds United's first ever encounter with Cheltenham Town, played at Whaddon Road in League One, Cheltenham sneaked a victory in the final minutes in a match Leeds had dominated but failed to take their chances. Ronnie was at the club a number of seasons in the Sixties when they were still non-League, and before Ronnie moved on to Newport County. I'm fairly certain Leeds don't play another of Ronnie's clubs now, so they should be safe ... until the home fixture against Cheltenham in the League, that is! 23 November Dolan Out Terry Dolan (Huddersfield Town)'s reign as manager of Unibond Premier League side Guiseley has come to a shock ending. The club were riding high in 5th place and had a 9 match unbeaten spell in the League at the beginning of the season. The club website says that Terry and the club had had 'divergent views on how the club should develop and progress'. Terry had been manager since October 2006. 22 November Venables Out Terry Venables (QPR) reign as Steve McClaren's assistant has come to an end following the departure of McClaren from the post as England manager. England only needed a draw at Wembley against Croatia to quailfy for Euro 2008 and they managed to lose 3-2, in spite of pulling back a two goal deficit. Suddenly a whole new generation of boys and young men will know what it is like to miss a tournament, which those of us in our forties took for granted in the Seventies... Well I watched the BBC coverage and laughed out loud at mark Lawrenson's comment, that goalkeeping was more Frank Carson than Scott'... one for us fans of the 70s, but after the game the BBC cut frustratingly quickly to the News so I hopped on the Sky Sports News (Sky 405, Freeview...er...something else) and the panal there was filled with the 70-71 stars: Alan Mullery (Tottenham Hotspur), Sammy McIlory (Manchester United) and Gordon McQueen (St Mirren). Last week I heard Brian Little (Aston Villa) commentating on an England Under 21 match on Radio Five Live Extra. Also Dave Bassett (Walton and Hersham) was a pundit on Yorkshire Television's regional football show now that he is the Assistant Manager at Leeds United. My last sighting of him was back in 2003, though I'm sure he's done media work since this and before now. Get Out of Here! Rodney Marsh (QPR) is one of the guests on the celebrity survival come career reviving show, I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here! It is a TV reality show where people live in wilderness conditions being voted out by the public. It is in its 7th series in England all shown on UK's ITV1 channel. The only previous footballers on the series are John Fashanu (series 2 runner-up) and Neil Ruddock (series 3), but series 3 was notable for having George Best (Manchester United)'s Ex, Alex Best. Among the 1970s stars to previously appear are: series 1 winner Tony Blackburn; (Not so) Little Jimmy Osmond; Johnny 'Rotten' Lydon; Sheila '1/3 of Three Degrees' Ferguson; and Tommy Cannon and Bobby Ball. Famous football fan Eddie Large and his mate Sid Little must have been asked at some point! 19 November Billy McEwan (Hibernian)'s spell as manager of York City is at an end. Billy has been at the club since February 2005 and last season the club reached the Conferance National Play-offs, but this season the team has struggled and they are at the bottom end of the division. 17 November Don Steps up Don Givens (Luton Town) who has been the Republic of Ireland Under 21 coach, took over the first team for today's match against Wales following the departure of Steve Staunton. Don did act up into this role once before in November 2002. The Euro 2008 qualifier played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff it finished 2-2, neither team were in a position to qualify for the finals. 14 November The Brian Clough Trophy Brian Clough game raises £100,000
Clough, who managed both Derby and Forest, died in 2004
Derby County and Nottingham Forest have announced that the inaugural Brian Clough Trophy game in July raised £100,000 for East Midlands charities.
The match, on 31 July, attracted a crowd of 25,159 at Derby's Pride Park.
The Trophy, named after the legendary former manager of both clubs, will be contested whenever they meet - whether in a league, cup or friendly match.
The £100,000 will be divided between the two clubs' nominated charities and the Brian Clough Memorial Fund.
It has been divided up as follows:
£25,000 for Derby's nominated charities (10 designated charities for 2007/08 sharing £20,000, and £5,000 to the Derbyshire FA's charities).
£25,000 to Forest's annual nominated charity - the Danielle Beccan Memorial Trust.
£25,000 will be distributed by the Brian Clough Memorial Fund to a number of local charities, at the discretion of the Clough family.
All three parties have agreed to present £12,500 each to the East Midlands Air Ambulance and NSPCC (East Midlands). 11 November FA Cup Draw Trevor Brooking (West Ham United) once again oversaw the BBC1's televised FA Cup draw this time for the second. 10 November Welcome Back! Good to hear Jimmy Armfield (Blackpool) commentating again in the Radio 5 Live match Liverpool v Fulham. Jimmy had treatment for cancer recently, so it is especially good to hear him on the air again. See Commentators 9 November Smith Steps Down Jim Smith (Boston United) has stepped down as manager of Oxford United, but he remains a club director. England v Portugal 1969 Anyone watch Sky Channel 442, ESPN Classic this week? It has been running England internationals from the 60s and 70s. The first one I watched was England v Portugal played at Wembley 10 December 1969 and was a 1-0 England victory. The team: Peter Bonetti (Chelsea); Paul Reaney (Leeds United), Emlyn Hughes (Liverpool), Alan Mullery (Tottenham Hotspur), Jackie Charlton(Leeds United), Bobby Moore (WHU); Francis Lee (Manchester City), Colin Bell (Manchester City), Jeff Astle (WBA), Bobby Charlton (Manchester United), Alan Ball (Everton). (Teams are the both the site placings and, on this occasion, the team they were playing for at the time of the match). And for the record. Portugal's team was : Henrique; Conceiaco, Cardoso, Carlos, Murca, Tome; Grace, Toni, Guerreiro, Antonio, Joao. Jackie Charlton got the goal. A few things I noted was that this was: 1) I knew that England were going win even though I didn't know the match. Why? Well a lot of people do not realise that the first time Peter Bonetti lost in an England shirt was in his 7th match - the notorious 3-2 defeat to West Germany in the World Cup Quarter Final in Mexico 1970. Up to then he had played six won six, and indeed he had only let in one goal in those 6 matches. This match was his last game before the World Cup match - which proved to be his last for England. At 2-0 up England looked set to win, they lost 3-2 and Bonetti standing in for Banks was often blamed, I believe very unfairly. Alex Stepney and Gordon West also played 4 games between them in this period, but Gordon Banks was always considered the number 1. Current England manager, Steve McLaren would do well to remember this lesson from our history. We need a solid goalkeeping number 2 for the big tournaments - well if we reach one! 2) This was Paul Reaney's second game of 3 for England, he never lost in an England shirt. 3) It was Jackie's 6th of 6 England goals in 35 games. He played in just 2 more games for England after this. 4) It was Hughes and Astle's second games for England. Astle went on to only play 5 games and never scored. Don't we know it - he missed a sitter v Brazil in the famous 1970 World Cup Finals' Group match! 5) But most notably, no less than 4 of the team have died, Hughes, Astle, Ball and Moore. That seems such a lot out of 11 men, for whom even the oldest player (Jackie) is still only 72 now. 6 November Commentators Update Radio Leeds' coverage of Leeds United matches is usually by Adam Pope and Eddie Gray (Leeds United), but tonight's match Bournemouth v Leeds United Eddie's place has been taken by Eddie's brother, Frank Gray (Leeds United youth). Frank is very good and sounded like he's being doing it for years though this is the first time I have heard him commentate. Frank is currently the manager of Woking in the National Conference League. Funnily enough Frank had the briefest of brief appearences on BBC 1 last night in the programme Movie Connections about Gregory's Girl. John Gordon Sinclair who played Gregory went on to sing the 1982 Scotland World Cup song, We Have a Dream, from which they showed a clip which definitely showed Frank Gray and Asa Hartford (West Bromwich Albion). Another gem of information that came from the programme was that Dee Hepburn, who played Dorothy, the footballing playing girl that Gregory has a crush on, played all her own stunts having spent time with Partick Thistle to learn how to play. (The programme joked about this so I won't...) She named checked Alan Rough and Partick coach who's name I didn't catch.
Barlow Steps Up Frank Barlow (Sheffield United) who was Chris Hutchings' Assistant Manager at Wigan Athletic has stepped up into the Caretaker Manager role following Chris's departure from the position. It seems that Frank is unlikely to want the full post. 4 November TV Appearances Update I see from The Championship (ITV Sunday am) that Lawrie McNenemy (Doncaster Rovers Manager) was on the pitch at Southampton's game on Saturday having just been awarded the Freedom of the City in Southampton. Meanwhile on Match of the Day 2 Duncan McKenzie (Nottingham Forest) had a brief appearance in their special report on Everton, I presume he must do match day duties for the club. And this one is very obscure, but on UK Gold (plus actually!) I watched some of Victoria Wood Live at the Albert Hall recorded in 2001, and Sir Bobby Charlton (Manchester United) was given a mention in one of her songs for his famous wrap over hairstyle! Big Fat Mention Hot on the heels of a last minute Radio 4 comedy mention (see below, 31 October), Geoff Hurst (West Ham United) gets a last minute Channel 4 comedy mention on the Big Fat Anniversary Quiz. Quizmaster Jimmy Carr asked teams to name the different zones on the Chrystal Maze. Richard Ayoade & David Mitchell's team suggested a Geoff Hurst zone which doubled as the Chill Out Zone. The programme first aired on 2 November 2007 at 10:00pm. 1 November Taylor Returns Peter Taylor (Southend) has become the new manager of Stevenage Borough in the Conference National. Peter left Crystal Palace on 8 October, 2007. October 2007 31 October Dave 'Harry' Bassett (Walton and Hersham) has returned to football as Dennis Wise's Assistant Manager at Leeds United. Leeds United began the season on minus 15 points due to the League disliking the club's method of getting out of administration, causing great joy in the football World, in spite of being an obvious injustice (yes I am a Leeds fan). But Dennis ably supported by Gus Poyet soon wiped out the deficit and charged up to 6th place in the League by refusing to get beaten in the opening 13 matches. But good fortune is a stranger to Leeds United and Gus was hand picked out by Tottenham Hotspur when they they appointed Juande Ramos to replace Martin Jol as their manager. Dennis had little choice but to wave his mate goodbye and has brought in his old Wimbledon manager, Dave Bassett as his assistant. Dave and Dennis were joint caretaker managers at Southampton in 2005, when Harry Redknapp (West Ham United) left the club. Dave was there just three games, a win, a lose and a draw, and has not been around in football since. Hall of Fame 2007 Terry Venables (QPR) has been inducted into the National Football Museum's Hall of Fame in his role as a manager. Ten new people are inducted every year. This year also sees 70-71 players Graeme Souness (Tottenham Hotspur) and Nobby Stiles (Manchester United) enetered in the players category. See |
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