Search: 'Jan Age Fjortoft'

Promotion to the top flight should be cause for celebration. But what if a club are simply not prepared for the task ahead? David Squires remembers when Swindon conceded 100 goals in a Premier League season

In 1993, Swindon Town reached the top flight of English football for the first time in their history. A dramatic 4‑3 victory in the play-off final against Leicester City led to scenes of wild jubilation, as supporters gleefully celebrated their team’s ascent to the Premier League – an uncharted land of squad numbers, fireworks and dancing girls.

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Ian Plenderleith dissects a biographical account of Lars Leese's career to discover that, unlike his wife, the German never quite felt at home in South Yorkshire

When German goalkeeper Lars Leese signed for Barn­sley at the start of their Premiership season in 1997, he was one of six foreign players at the club that year. As the journalist Ronald Reng describes it in his excellent biography of Leese, published in Germany earlier this year, Barnsley boss Danny Wilson was “like a kid in a toyshop who was finally allowed to buy international stars – or rather, players who were international and were taken for stars in Barnsley”.

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In a brief spell at Middlesbrough, he won the hearts of the fans and the local TV celebrity, if you believe the gossip. Harry Pearson recalls a German cult hero

No doubt there are many players whose careers illustrate Rupert Pupkin’s maxim “Better a star for a night than a schmuck for a lifetime”, but on Teesside none illuminates the point quite so brightly as a former Germany Under-21 international who was brought in from Kaiserslautern by Bryan Robson.

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Jan Age Fjortoft talks to Mike Ticher about his own adjustment to English football and the effect foreign players have had on the game

When I arrived in English football I found you could walk into the dressing-room and be completely accepted. I was taken into the group straight away at Swindon, although it probably helped that it was a small club. I’ve never had a problem at any club, but I think that’s a bit to do with my personality as well. And of course I already spoke English. But the English mentality is that in principle you are valued as part of the team. There’s lots of selling and buying in English football and so you get used to having new faces in the dressing-room. I don’t think that affects foreigners in any different way from anyone else.

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Csaba Abrahall explains how Mauricio Taricco went from unknown to hero during his time at Portman Road

When John Lyall was in South America in the summer of 1994, searching for new recruits to join Ipswich Town’s impending relegation battle, some national papers suggested Gabriel Batistuta was set to arrive at Portman Road. Those of us who knew better laughed off this fanciful notion, yet, had Town some­how found the millions to persuade Batigol and his flowing locks to swap the Ponte Vecchio for the Orwell Bridge, it’s unlikely he would have been as popular as the unknown full-back Lyall brought back for £175,000.

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