The Archive

Ian Plenderleith enters the egocentric world of footballers' websites to discover new blends of philosophy, art criticism and Frank Leboeuf's love of frocks

The world is not a big enough place to accommodate the egos of most professional footballers, so it is not surprising that many of them have embraced the internet as a new forum to promote themselves and their brilliant achievements. It would be wrong to avoid such sites simply on the grounds that pros have little to tell us beyond how misunderstood they are, because in many cases their homepages are not just a vehicle for self-promotion, but unintentional platforms for ­protracted self-prattery.

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Only in the caricatured land of football is the King's Road thought of as trendy, argues Harry Pearson. Are you reading Mrs Karembeu?

Planet Football is a peculiar place, an alternative Earth where nothing ever changes and the hopelessly inaccurate can become the truth simply by repetition. This is a world where all Frenchmen are urbane, the whole of Brazil is a beach, no one relishes a trip to Turf Moor in January and everything north of Hadrian’s Wall is in Scotland. (How lucky Alf Ramsey was, by the way, that the Charlton boys chose to turn their backs on their native land and opt instead for England; and why don’t Newcastle United play in their own country, I wonder.)

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Terry Venables might be the "people's choice" for the next England manager. But he won't get the job

So many names have been mentioned in connection with the England job since Kevin Keegan resigned that it seems absurd (and in fact it is) to talk about there being an “obvious candidate”. Among them are: Fabio Capello, Alan Curbishley, Sven-Goran Er­iksson, John Gregory, Gérard Houllier, Alex Ferguson, Roy Hodgson, Aimé Jacquet, David O’Leary, Egil Olsen, Peter Reid, Bobby Robson, Bryan Robson, Arrigo Sacchi, Alan Shearer (no, really), Berti Vogts, Arsène Wenger and Howard Wil­kinson. And that list doesn’t include the two men now squeezing into the hot seat, Peter Taylor and Steve Mc­Laren.

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Fake passports are being bought by non EU players in Italy. Filippo Ricci tells who and why

It’s never quiet at Lazio. After a long investigation, one of the club’s star players, Argentinian international Juan Sebastián Veron, is to face trial having been accused of falsely ob­taining an Italian passport.

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Michael Richardson thought it was all over in 1966. Haydn Parry reveals the man on the Wembley pitch.

English football, Ken Wolstenholme and Geoff Hurst in particular, owe Michael Rich­ardson a peculiar debt. For, as Wolstenholme stared down incredulously from his gantry at the impromptu pitch invasion prior to the fourth goal and final whistle in 1966, it was a young Mr Richardson who was doing his stuff, upstaging the main event in the top left hand corner of the nation’s TV screens. Mich­ael’s 15 seconds of fame came at the age of 18, although these days he still has a public pro­file, of sorts, as the drummer in Elkie Brooks’s band (ask your parents).

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