The Archive

He may have failed to make a career in his native north London, but the Arsenal reject is riding high in the land of his forefathers, writes Gavin Willacy

Like many a mid-ranking European club who hope to snatch a UEFA Cup place come spring, Turkey’s Denizlispor have pinned their hopes on a combination of local talent and a handful of obscure foreigners, including a Slovakian defender, Czech, Finnish and South African midfielders, and a German striker – none of whom you will have heard of. And only the most ardent Arsenal fans will remember the English guy playing up front. After all, Omer Riza played only once for Arsenal – a few minutes as a sub for a second-string Gunners side in a League Cup win at Derby six years ago. Among his team-mates that night were current internationals Freddie Ljungberg, Alex Man­ninger and Matthew Upson, while a very young Ashley Cole was left on the bench.

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Selling a star striker was the worst mistake Scunthorpe ever made. George Young recalls how the Iron threw away their best chance to reach the top flight

Last season West Ham were disappointed by their fourth place in the First Division. Their failure to go up was linked to the sale of their best striker, Jermain Defoe, by an unpopular board. Which is pain­fully familiar to any middle-aged Scunthorpe United fan, since that fourth position, achieved in 1962, still represents the pinnacle of our achievements. Not only that, but the club’s best striker, Barrie Thomas, was sold mid-season – a decision that still has re­percussions for the Iron today.

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Armed gratefully with your votes, Ian Plenderleith picks out some of the very best sites, many of which have featured in this column over the past five years, though they appear in no particular order

Stadiums
Pyramid Passion Sister site to the excellent Nomad Online (covering Sussex non-League football), both run by David Bauckham, PP boasts great pictures and text about English non-League stadiums, plus galleries of dug-outs, floodlights, ground signs and even “rollers and mowers”.

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Arsenal’s move for Emmanuel Eboué of Beveren is just the latest example of a strange import-export trade in African footballers, as John Chapman explains

The thermometer is stuck on 4°C. There’s a cold wind blowing around Antwerp’s Bosuil stadium. Around 6,000 fans have braved the elements to see the locals, languishing in Belgium’s second div­ision, take on mighty Beveren, who qualified for this season’s UEFA Cup through being runners-up in the 2004 Belgian Cup. In theory, it’s a Flemish derby. In practice, it’s a visible sign of globalisation’s impact on football.

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Dear WSC
I have just about learned to cope with the inevitable moaning of Alex Ferguson every time so much as a throw-in is given against his little angels, but now we have to put up with Manchester United fans blathering on about how their “football club” is not for sale. Well, I hate to break it to you, lads, but it is. Manchester United (they dropped the football club bit some time ago) is first and foremost a plc and a stock market entity. So it is for sale every day of the week. And it was this state of affairs that led to Man Utd winning all those titles and cups back in the 1990s. It was the international money markets (along with a great many Roy Keane duvet covers being shifted in the Far East) that allowed Man Utd to spunk millions of quid on Van Nistelrooy, Rooney, Ferdinand and the rest. I didn’t hear Shareholders Uni­ted up in arms when this happened, nor when they receive their fat dividend cheques every year. Best of all, it was their club’s rampant commercial exploitation of the game that dragged football into the sorry state we currently have to put up with. Man­chester United’s supporters have got no­thing whatsoever to complain about. If they think they have, maybe they could pop down the road and visit Oldham, or Bury, or any number of clubs in the north-west and beyond who really are being exploited and run into the ground.
Alex Marklew, London (ex-Nottingham, so not a Gooner before anyone says otherwise)

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