Some Villa fans would tell you that only one goal really matters in all their history – Peter Withe’s winner against Bayern Munich in the 1982 European Cup Final. Well, luckily for them, this compilation of some of the Villain’s finest moments in front of goal opens with the moment that the West Midlands club reached the very pinnacle of European football all those years ago.
It reminds us that Aston Villa …
He must be one of Botswana's Naughty Boys
Here at The Transfer Tavern, we pride ourselves on provoking serious intellectual debate whilst catering to a high brow and discerning audience.
If that doesn’t sound convincing, it’s probably because I’ve just made it up and clearly I would far rather spend my time getting kicks out of Googling amusing football club names.
Africa seems to be a hotbed of incredulous monikers such as the frightening …
Never has the need been so great for a distraction from events in South Africa that continue apace and persist in dominating our television screens without any further involvement from the mighty England. Whether we are feeling dejected, curious or simply in need of emerging ourselves in the delights of naked women, the internet is the place to go.
For us ardent football fans, out needs are both varied and great so …
To be honest, most of us rarely bother to look at who the sports news and match reports are written by as we idly flick through the back pages of the national papers so here are three of the names and faces behind some of the most widely-acclaimed football coverage in print.
Henry Winter (Telegraph)
Henry not only writes for the Daily Telegraph but can often be heard taking part in …
This is bound to ruffle a few feathers but with the start of the World Cup rapidly approaching, I have bravely stuck my head above the parapet to round up the greatest footballers ever to grace this most prestigious of tournaments.
So here goes…..
GK Peter Shilton (England)
Not only England’s most capped player (125), Shilton has helped himself to a number of goalkeeping records along the way including keeping 66 clean sheets …
The gift that keeps on giving, namely this season’s owners at Upton Park, have been at it again.You can almost picture David Sullivan sat in his threadbare office at The Boleyn.
With his Panatella knocking out only marginally less heat than his electric fan heater, mental military style coat on, fully buttoned up, our hero is sipping champagne out of a polystyrene cup.
Strewn across his desk an eye watering plethora …
Having recently peered into the murky world of Everton’s 5 worst signings in deprecating style (Click Here for Everton’s worst signings), its time to pick oneself up, dust oneself down, take the cue from The Life of some fella called Brian, and look on the bright side of life.
Hence, I’ve listed my top 5 Everton players. As with the worst signings, I’ve kept it relevant to my subjective memories …
It is fair to say that few things unite Chelsea and West Ham fans, let alone fans from across the globe, but one man does. The “clever little so-in-so” as Sir Alex Ferguson called him, Italian legend Gianfranco Zola.
Zola began life in Sardinia Italy, playing for two local teams,Nuorese and Torres before being snapped up by Napoli in 1989. At the time, the Neapolitan side could boast a footballing God in their ranks, Diego Maradona. Zola’s remit was simple at Napoli. He just had to take over where Diego had left off at the club. So no pressure on him then…
Zola admitted his time as Maradona’s back up at Napoli was key in moulding himself as a player. Like Maradona, Zola was small but would spend hours with the Argentinian honing his skills following training. It would be practice time well spent as the Sardinian would go on to fill the boots of the departed Maradona admirably for four years at Napoli, before the emerging Parma snapped him up. Three successful years at Parma ended when a certain Senor Carlo Ancelotti became manager and Zola found it hard to claim a regular place in Ancelotti’s vision of a more rigidly structured Parma side. Played out of position at the start of the 1996-97 season, Zola wasn’t happy at Parma and in November Ruud Gullit called and asked if he’d like to join up with him at Chelsea.
The £4.5m spent to acquire the Italian now seems a drop in the ocean and is arguably the best transfer Chelsea have ever made. Zola would prove to be the bright spark in a season tained by tragedy for Chelsea by the Matthew Harding helicopter crash as his mesmerising performances for the team saw him elected Football Writers Player of the Year in his first season at the club. An astonishing achievement.
His performances inspired Chelsea to the FA Cup in his first season and in his first full season at the club, the blues would lift the League Cup, Super Cup and most memorably for Zola, the Cup Winners Cup when injury forced him to start the game from the bench, however he came on and made an impact within 21 seconds, scoring the winning goal with a sublime first time shot from just inside the penalty box.
In seven wonderful years with Chelsea, Zola made 229 league appearances for the club, scoring 59 goals but his contribution to the team was far greater than the mere stats suggest as a quick glance through this video collection of his best moments will show.
And special mention should be made of this goal that he scored against Norwich City… special indeed.
Such was Zola’s influence at Chelsea that he was voted recently as the clubs greatest player ever. He received an OBE for his services to the game in England whilst at the club and in seven years he played a large part in laying the foundations for the Chelsea team that we see today.
He left Chelsea in 2003 to finish his playing career back in Italy with Cagliari in Serie B. He led the team to promotion in his first season and capped his career in style by returning to Serie A and scoring 10 goals in 23 games, including a double in his final ever professional appearance against old foes Juventus. It is worth remembering that for all his time in England, Zola was equally impressive in Serie A.
Currently Zola is manager of West Ham United, where despite financial constraints, he has the team playing an exciting brand of attacking football that is in keeping with his own personal belief about how football should be played. He has brought on several youngsters at West Ham such as James Tomkins, Junior Stanislas and Zavon Hines and it seems to be no coincidence that Carlton Cole’s emergence as an England striker coincided with the little Italian becoming his manager.
Gianfranco Zola the man, the footballer, the legend.
Welcome to our series which looks at a star of yesterday compared to a star of today and makes the all-important judgement as to who is the greatest. Up this week is Manchester United legend George Best taking on the Red Devils’ Welsh wonder, Ryan Giggs.
Each week we will judge the players against the same five criteria and the contest will be scored as in a boxing contest, with 10 for the winner in each section and 9 for the other, unless there is an obviously large discrepancy when 8 will be scored.
This week see’s the legend that is George Best…
Take on current Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs…
Skills : While Giggs has wonderful ability on the ball, Best was one of the greatest of all time with the ball at his feet. The word genius is bandied about today far too liberally at times, but as brilliant as Giggs is on the ball and it does him huge credit to be mentioned even in the same breath as Best, he just wasn’t a genius. George Best was. So as great as Giggs is, Best wins takes the opening round. BEST 10, GIGGS 9
Loyalty : While George Best’s name is synonymous with Manchester United, it is worth remembering that he left the club aged 27 after 470 appearances and 179 goals, going on to play for a succession of lesser lights across in America as well as in England and Scotland. Giggs is, for many, the embodiment of the golden era of Manchester United, there from the start and a vital part of that success ever since. 815 appearances, 150 goals and counting. Giggs is the winner here, hands down. BEST 9, GIGGS 10
Achievement : Best’s achievements as a player are in stark contrast to his ability. Two league titles and a European Cup winners medal are stark reward for a player of his ability although he did achieve a notable double of Football Writers and European Footballer of the Year in 1968. Giggs however trumps Best once again with an incredible list of achievements; 11 Premier League titles, 4 FA Cups, 3 League Cups, 7 Charity Shields, 2 Champions League victories, PFA Young player of the year twice and current PFA player of the year. It’s another hands down victory for Giggs. BEST 9, GIGGS 10
Adoration: To say Manchester United fans are fortunate to have had two players of this quality to watch over the years is an understatement. Giggs is revered by the Old Trafford faithful, the embodiment of a successful one club man blessed with ability and skills befitting the worlds biggest club. However even that isn’t enough to get him ahead in this round. George Best, along with Denis Law and Bobby Charlton, formed the holy trinity for United. His tragic death in 2005 only made him more revered. There is a saying in Northern Ireland that sums up how many feel about their Belfast Boy. “Maradona Good, Pele Better, George Best”. That says it all really. BEST 10, GIGGS 9
Summary in a clip : There is so much to choose from for both players and to pick one moment of brilliance from each of them is difficult. However Ryan Giggs wonderful effort in the FA Cup Semi Final against Arsenal leaps to mind, a goal that Best himself would have been proud of
For Best, while there are many moments in a United shirt that I could have picked it is this truly amazing goal for San Jose Earthquakes against Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the old NASL that perhaps shows what Best was truly capable of
A difficult, difficult choice and how can you separate them? BEST 10, GIGGS 10
Who is the Greatest?
A quick add up reveals Ryan Giggs 48, George Best 48 : A tie! These two legends cannot be separated in my view. The passage of time has given Best the aura of legend that perhaps overrides his weaknesses. In 30 years time, it may well be the case that Giggs achievements may be viewed as the greater, but for the time being at least I cannot separate them. Two wonderful players and truly deserving of the accolade of The Greatest.
But what do you think? Make your case for Best or Giggs below… we’d love to hear from you!
If you stop to think about who was the greatest striker of the modern era, some of you would no doubt leap up and state Didier Drogba, or Fernando Torres, maybe even Wayne Rooney. Others may suggest Ronaldo or Romario of Brazil? Ian Rush? Gary Lineker? Jurgen Klinsmann? The list of possible superstars to claim the crown is almost endless and I’ll save you the bother.
The best striker of the modern era was and is Marco Van Basten and by quite some considerable distance.
Born in Utrecht on hallowe’en in 1964, the only thing scary about Van Basten was his ability with a football. His hometown club Utrecht signed him up but he never played a professional game for them, instead Ajax snapped him up in 1981 as a sixteen year old and he made his debut in 1982, scoring in a 5-0 victory over NEC Nijmengen. For the next eleven years, Marco Van Basten would catapult himself to international superstar status. His statistics while at Ajax are worth reading because they are truly incredible. He scored 128 league goals in just 133 league games. That is an incredible strike rate. Still it would not be until 1987 that Marco Van Basten really began to attract some attention, when football fans across the world first saw this goal, arguably the finest overhead kick that has ever been scored. I can remember Bob Wilson introducing the goal at the end of football focus by simply stating in the preamble to the goal ”The goal came in a match between Ajax and Den Bosch and all you need to know first time around…Is that it is a bit special.”
What makes Van Basten truly special is that goals like that were not a one off. In 1988 he finally began to get the acclaim he deserved when he played a pivotal role in leading Holland to the 1988 European Championship final, including scoring an incredible hattrick against England in the group stages.
However that would not be Van Basten’s sole contribution. In the final, Holland faced USSR and a Ruud Gullit header had put the Dutch in front against a team who had previously beaten them in the tournament. In the second half Russia pressed for an equaliser but a poor pass out of defence saw the Dutch break quickly. Van Tiggelen fed Arnold Muhren who hoisted a ball hopefully to the far post for Van Basten. What he did then simply defied belief, as you can see by the reactions of his manager and his teammates, including No 7 Gerald Vanenberg who seems so stunned by what he has witnessed, he seems unable to comprehend it.
To further enhance his position as the greatest striker of the modern era, Van Basten moved to Milan and was an integral part of Arrigo Sacchi’s fantastic Milan side of the late 1980′s and early 1990′s. Even in Serie A, where the top strikers would be lucky to average a goal every three or four games, Van Basten scored 90 goals in just 147 appearances. A stunning return. He led Milan to several Scudetto successes, two European Cup wins and was named European footballer of the year on three occasions, joining Johan Cruyff and Michel Platini as the only other players ever to achieve this incredible feat.
What makes this career all the more remarkable, is that for a large part of it, Van Basten was jinxed by injury. In many games he was not fully fit and would often play through the pain barrier for his team. The chronic problems in his ankle eventually proved too much and in 1993 his ankle injury recurred in a game with Ancona. At this point Van Basten was at the peak of his powers, expected to shine for Holland in the 1994 World Cup and lead Milan onto Serie A dominance again. However after two years toil to try and regain fitness, Van Basten was forced to retire in 1995. Aged just 31 and having missed almost two full years of football before being forced to retire.
It was one of the saddest days in football for a player still revered in Milan, Holland and indeed across the world. A consummate striker with impeccable technique, wonderful physical skills and that special ability to do something utterly special and make it look effortless. Truly a legend and truly the greatest striker of the modern era bar none.
Escapini, LOL! Point taken! Got a little carried away (removing bug from ze a**)! Craig, mate, no offense!
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