He has been at Chelsea since before the fall of the Berlin wall, yet has played barely 100 games. Mike Ticher looks at the enigma of the underemployed keeper
“Yesterday upon the stair I met a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today. I wish that man would go away.”
John Earls remembers the former Luton and Manchester United keeper who was a fearless cockney wide-boy
Of course, the news came as a shock. However, as anyone who saw and above all heard him in action, that Les Sealey had suffered a fatal heart attack was, unfortunately, not a total surprise. For the Manchester United defenders who played under both keepers, there would probably be some who felt that Peter Schmeichel’s roastings were lukewarm compared to Sealey yelling at them like Brian Blessed doing an Alex Ferguson impression.
Leyton Orient are in their secon season in the hands of Barry Hearn and the PR hype continues to flow. Tom Davies looks at the substance behind the talk
It was a bizarre experience: in conversation in a Doncaster pub last month before our game at Belle Vue, a Rovers fan announced his opinion that Leyton Orient were one of the “sleeping giants” of the lower divisions. The Os! Imagine! But 18 months on from Barry Hearn’s takeover of the club that is how some people seem to perceive us – a dynamic, well supported, lean, mean ’90s football club.
Dear WSC
Whatever else happens this season, one thing’s for sure – a lot of clubs are going to find themselves looking for a new manager at some time during the next nine months. They all know what they want: a hard but well-loved leader of men who can turn a club used to decades of trophyless mediocrity into a giant of the game. They want a manager who, by the time he regretfully hands over the reins of power to his successor, will have won just about everything there is to win and made his name, and that of his club, synonymous with success. They want, in short, someone who can do for their club what Matt Busby did for Manchester United. But how do you find such a man? I say: don’t bother reading the application form, just check the name on top of it. Think of the great managers in English football history: Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Don Revie, Alf Ramsey. Notice how similar their names are? The forename shortened to a monosyllable, the surname comprising two syllables, the last ending in ‘ee’. The lesson is clear – get a manager whose name follows this simple pattern. But make sure you follow the pattern exactly, or you will find yourself repeating Celtic’s traumas with Liam Brady and then Lou Macari. That extra syllable makes all the difference. So, who out of the current crop of Premiership players is destined for great things in the dugout, rather than on the pitch? The one who springs to my mind, at least, is Les Sealey. If he ever does decide to go for a career in management, I’d advise his first employers to put him on a ten-year poacherproof contract. And if I was David Batty, I’d start insisting that everyone call me ‘Dave’ right now. A pity that it’s probably too late for Peter Beardsley to start doing the same. Or are there any clubs who have been ruined by being placed in the hands of some incompetent egomaniac who happened to have a name out of the ‘Blank Blankee’ mould? I can’t think of any. Anyway, if there are, I bet plenty more have suffered irreparable damage under the ‘leadership’ of people with names like, for example, ‘Graham Ball’ or ‘Alan Taylor’.
Brian Whitby (but my friends call me ‘Bri’, honestly), Buochs, Switzerland
