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Search: ' Michael Laudrup'

Stories

Quick fixers

Saul Pope looks at the relationship between short-term solution, long-term planning and nationality in Russian football

Considering he was sacked by his club following a series of disappointing results, the warm send-off Dick Advocaat received from Zenit St Petersburg fans was unusual and pleasantly surprising. In a league where managers from outside the former USSR have struggled to make a serious impact and many have been fired within a few months, his achievements with Zenit should also not be underestimated.

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Fans’ man

The focus was on Paul Ince becoming the first black Englishman to manage a Premier League club but, believes Bruce Wilkinson, the headlines masked what is going on behind the scenes at Blackburn

Under the sensible stewardship of chairman John Williams, Blackburn Rovers have become the model of how far a well run team can be taken on limited funds. This stability is now threatened. With an increasing number of clubs prepared to risk millions to cling on to a Premier League place, Blackburn fans have been demanding more activity in the transfer market. But this pressure has come at a time when the trust that owns the club, set up by the late Jack Walker, is looking for buyers. The trust is said to be close to selling up to a consortium led by Chris Ronnie, chief executive of JJB Sports, which makes it unlikely that significant cash will be released over the summer. Ex-manager Mark Hughes admitted in a recent interview that he might have shunned Manchester City’s approach if the prospective takeover of Blackburn had gone through.

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Serie A 1984-85

Verona were the last team outside the provinciale to win a Scudetto. But, as Luca Ferrato explains, referees had a big say

The long-term significance
This was the last time to date that the Serie A title went to a provinciale rather than one of the big city clubs. “It’s a Scudetto on leave,” Gianni Agnelli, the owner of Juventus would comment, joining the one won by Cagliari in 1970. Verona’s triumph was a watershed between the domination of Juventus and Roma in the early 1980s and the AC Milan-Napoli rivalry at the end of the decade. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but this was also one of the few seasons in which match referees were selected by a random draw. Usually they are assigned to specific games by a technical committee, which has prompted claims that the big clubs get the officials they want, rather than those who might not be “pliable”.

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Marco Negri

Few players have made more impressive starts at a club than scoring 30 goals in half a season; few have then done less to earn their wages, writes Gordon Cairns

Marco Negri’s four years at Glasgow Rangers is one of the strangest episodes in the club’s history. Signed from Perugia for £3.5 million, the Italian striker scored 30 goals before Christmas in 1997-98, then barely made another appearance as he saw out the remainder of his four-year, £18,000-a-week contract.

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Over here and overlooked – Jon Dahl Tomasson

Apparent misfits in the Premiership, more than a few imports have gone on to have perplexingly good careers elsewhere. We tracked down three of them, Ernst Bouwes looking at Jon Dahl Tomasson

In the spring of 1997 his fellow players voted him Talent of the Year in the Dutch league, with Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Arnold Bruggink second and third. A couple of days after accepting the trophy, he scored a hat-trick against Vitesse Arnhem to go top of the goalscorers list, leaving quality players like Luc Nilis, Roy Makaay and Patrick Kluivert (and Gerald Sibon) behind him. While his goals took modest Heer­enveen to their first Dutch Cup final, about 20 clubs  were rumoured to be interested in signing him, with Ajax, Atlético Madrid and Bar­celona the most persistent. A transfer fee of about £2 million seemed a laughably small amount for a 21-year-old who had just made his international debut for Denmark. Yes, we’re talk­ing about Jon Dahl Tomasson.

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