“Someone reminded me the other day that in the Premier League era (currently 23 years), no English manager has won the title,” writes Ankur Jain. “Has there been any other domestic league which can match such an absence of a domestic title winning manager?”
We had a dig around Europe’s leagues and a few notable top flights in the rest of the world and, as it is with so many things, the Premier League proved to be a bit of an outlier:
England 1991-92 (Howard Wilkinson, Leeds United)
China 2009 (Hong Yuanshuo, Beijing Guoan)
Greece 2009-10 (Nikos Nioplias, Panathinaikos)
Scotland 2010-11 (Walter Smith, Rangers)
Germany 2012-13 (Jupp Heynckes, Bayern Munich)
Mexico 2013 (Miguel Herrera, América)
Sweden 2013 (Rikard Norling, Malmo)
Russia 2013-14 (Leonid Slutsky, CSKA Moscow)
Switzerland 2013-14 (Murat Yakin, Basel)
Hungary 2013-14 (Elemer Kondas, Debrecen)
Norway 2014 (Tor Ole Skullerud, Molde)
Ireland 2014 (Stephen Kenny, Dundalk)
Latvia 2014 (Jurgis Pucinskis, FK Ventspils)
USA 2014 (Bruce Arena, LA Galaxy)
Argentina 2014 (Diego Cocca, Racing)
Brazil 2014 (Marcelo Oliveira, Cruzeiro)
Japan 2014 (Kenta Hasegawa, Gamba Osaka)
Spain 2014-15 (Luis Enrique, Barcelona)
Italy 2014-15 (Massimiliano Allegri, Juventus)
France 2014-15 (Laurent Blanc, Paris Saint-Germain)
Portugal 2014-15 (Jorge Jesus, Benfica)
Holland 2014-15 (Phillip Cocu, PSV)
Belgium 2014-15 (Hein Vanhaezebrouck, Gent)
Turkey 2014-15 (Hamza Hamzaoglu, Galatasaray)
Austria 2014-15 (Adi Hütter, Red Bull Salzburg)
Poland 2014-15 (Maciej Skorża, Lech Poznan)
Czech Rep 2014-15 (Miroslav Koubek, Viktoria Plzen)
Croatia 2014-15 (Zoran Mamic, Dinamo Zagreb)
Romania 2014-15 (Constantin Galca, Steaua Bucurest)
Ukraine 2014-15 (Sergei Rebrov, Dynamo Kiev)
Denmark 2014-15 (Glen Riddersholm, FC Midtjylland)
Bulgaria 2014-15 (Georgi Dermendzhiev, Ludogorets Razgrad)
Australia 2014-15 (Kevin Muscat, Melbourne Victory)
If anyone can find a league that has gone more than six years (never mind 23) without a domestic manager winning the title, then drop us a line at the usual address: knowledge@theguardian.com
EARLY HAT-TRICKS
“Last Saturday Callum Wilson of Bournemouth scored the season’s first EPL hat-trick which made me wonder when was the last time (if ever) that the first hat-trick of the season in the top flight was scored by a player from a promoted club?” writes Allastair McGillivray
It has happened relatively frequently, though the most recent was a decade ago when Marlon Harewood scored three in 25 minutes for West Ham against Aston Villa on 12 September 2005 (as pointed out by Nick Kaye). The first arrived 25 minutes in, assisted by Teddy Sheringham, before Harewood made it 2-0 four minutes later after Anton Ferdinand nodded down Matthew Etherington’s corner. The third arrived five minutes into the second period when Harewood capitalised on Thomas Sorensen flapping and missing another corner to take the match ball home.
Two years previously Sheringham scored a hat-trick of his own in another 4-0 win – for Portsmouth at home to Bolton on 26 August 2003. That victory put Pompey on top of the table, clear of Manchester City on goal difference. Steve Stone had opened the scoring two minutes after half-time, with Sheringham’s goals coming in the 57th, 88th and 90th minutes.
In August 2000 Paulo Wanchope, making his home debut, scored the first hat-trick of the season for newly elevated Manchester City against Sunderland. Having lost their opening game 4-0 to Charlton, Joe Royle’s team had a two-goal lead wiped out by former striker Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips but Wanchope, who had opened the scoring after three minutes while Alfie-Inge Haaland scored the second, made it 3-2 on 78 minutes before extending the lead soon after. As a side note, George Weah played a crucial part in the build-up to all four of City’s goals.
And we must not forget Charlton’s Clive Mendonca against Southampton in 1998 (mentioned by Stefan Glosby among others) – the first top-flight match at The Valley since 1957. John Robinson scored the opener before Neil Redfearn, assisted by Mendonca, made it 2-0. Mendonca then won a penalty, which he converted, scored again in the 81st minute then rounded a mighty day off in the final minute.
However, it was not even Mendonca’s most famous hat-trick. That came against his hometown club, Sunderland, in the play-off final the season before – the final treble from a club player at the old Wembley. The game finished 4-4 and he also scored in a 7-6 penalty shootout victory.
But what bearing does that have on those newly promoted teams staying up? Not much, really. West Ham and Portsmouth survived but Charlton and City were relegated.
“On the theme of first hat-trick scorers of the season for any Premier League club, on 17 August 1996 Fabrizio Ravanelli and Kevin Campbell, of Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest respectively, both scored hat-tricks,” adds Stuart Harriman in Manchester. “Both clubs were then relegated at the end of the season. Middlesborough also managed to lose both the FA Cup and League Cup Finals in the same season, as well as being docked three points in the league.”
ON MY HEAD, SON. ON MY HEAD, SON.
“I noticed last week that during Newcastle’s 2-2 draw with Southampton all the goals were headers, which I thought was rather rare for a high-scoring game,” writes Tom Fieldhouse. “My question is, what is the highest-scoring game in which all the goals were headers?”
We can’t definitively call it the highest-scoring but this effort will take some beating: “When Oxford beat Shrewsbury 6-0 in the third tier on 23 April 1996, all six goals were from headers,” writes Justin Horton.
https://youtu.be/9Bo3nxGOV4Y
KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE
“What was the last case of a club actually carrying out the threat: ‘We’ll let him rot in the reserves’?” asked Chas Banks back in 2007.
We’re not sure about the last time, Chas – there are probably players being left to rot somewhere at this very second – but the most high-profile recent case must be that of Valencia’s David Albelda, Santiago Cañizares and Miguel Ángel Angulo. All three had been first-team regulars at the Spanish club but were dropped by Ronald Koeman soon after he was appointed as manager last year, then forced to train with the reserves and even banned from team photos and official events.
Brian Foley pointed us in the direction of an interview Albelda gave to World Soccer magazine, in which he insisted the club had given no reason for dropping the trio, and yet also refused to sell them. Albelda went on to suggest the decision may have been taken by the club president, Juan Soler, rather than Koeman.
“As we had long contracts and could see that we might be stuck in an uncomfortable position for a long time, I think they hoped that we would get tired of the situation and say ‘right, I’m off,’ breaking our contracts unilaterally,” said Albelda, before explaining that they had even taken the club to court over their treatment. “What we did was try to negotiate an exit but they were never prepared to talk. That was why we ended up in court: it was the only way to force them to sit down and negotiate.”
All three players were finally reinstated at the end of last season, after Koeman was sacked, though Cañizares has now left the club.
For thousands more questions and answers, take a trip through the Knowledge archive.
Can you help?
“Which team holds the world record of the longest unbeaten home run in a domestic league?” wonders Chibuzor Amos. “NB: Kano Pillars of Nigeria just ended a 202 home games unbeaten run.”
“When Manchester City beat Everton 2-0 at Goodison I thought to myself, yes! (because I’m a City fan), maybe now we’re going to beat Everton 2-0 all the time (because it felt like Man Utd always beat Everton 2-0, at least back in the 90s),” begins Phil Grey. “And that got me wondering, which two teams have produced the longest run of the same result each time they’ve played each other, with the same team winning each time? Or put another way, which team has beaten another team by the same score the most times in a row? Or which two teams have drawn with the same score the most times in a row?”
“In US Women’s College soccer (football) the other day, University of Texas senior goalkeeper Abby Smith scored from 90 yards in the 60th minute, leading her team to a 1-0 shutout victory,” writes Steven Mintz. “How often has a goalie scored the game-winning goal and led his team to a clean sheet? Has it happened in other major leagues?”
“With West Ham having managed five red cards under Bilic already this season,” notes Mr Hachiii, “and with him, from what I remember reading, having averaged one red card per month for the last 25 months what is the record number of red cards by a team in a single season?”
“Whilst looking through my copy of Rothmans Football Yearbook 1998-99 (for book research, not solely pleasure) I happened to notice that five teams in the Arnott Insurance Northern League Premier Division had points deducted that season - South Shields, Tow Law Town, Easington Colliery, Stockton and Murton all fell foul of some league rule or another and were hence deducted three points apiece,” writes Ian Bendelow. “It got me wondering, however, what is the highest number of teams who have had points deducted in a single league in a season?”
“I know Alfredo di Stefano played for the national teams of Argentina, Colombia and Spain,” Alexander Ediassen writes. “I am sure a few players can equal that, but who are they, and has anyone played for more than three national teams?”
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