“Has a country’s transfer record ever been broken by a team outside its top division?” muses Shakir Islam.
So, to Italy and the curious case of Paolo Rossi. Yes, that Paolo Rossi. “In 1976 Vicenza paid £1.75m to secure the services of Paolo Rossi from Juventus, which was, at the time, not only an Italian transfer record but a world transfer record,” writes Niall Murtagh. “It was worth it, though. Rossi had previously been marooned on loan at Como, but spearheaded the Vicenza attack and was to score 24 goals in Serie A the next season after sealing promotion. Then, in 1981, Juventus signed him back – doing a Nemanja Matic before it was fashionable.” Rossi has since weighed in with his two pennies’ worth on the staggering £75.3m Juventus have paid out for Gonzalo Higuaín. “Perhaps he’s the best centre-forward in the world right now, but he is certainly among the top three,” said the 59-year-old.
Closer to home, Nick Kaye has more. “When legendary England centre-forward, Tommy Lawton, left Chelsea for Third Division Notts County in November 1947, the Midlands club paid an English record fee of £20,000,” notes Nick. “This broke the record of £15,500 that Derby County paid Morton for Billy Steel just two months previously.”
Juventus, who love a transfer record or two, made Gianluigi Buffon the most expensive goalkeeper of all time in 2001. The £41m they splashed out on the Italy goalkeeper remains a record but way before that, West Ham United held the world record for transfer outlay on a keeper. The mullet of Phil Parkes arrived on the scene at the Boleyn Ground in 1979 from QPR for £550,000. “He then went on to play in the last second division side to win the FA Cup,” recalls Jack Hart.
Elderly international managers
“Which international manager was oldest at the time of his appointment?” tweets Jim McGrath.
“My dad was working in Uruguay for a bit in the 90s and I started following stuff there a bit as a result,” emails Gareth Marshall. “I remember being pretty fascinated when they appointed an 80-something to the top job; a quick check shows that Roque Maspoli was indeed 80 when he took over for a second spell in charge in 1997. Can’t imagine many beating that.”
Club-wise, Raymond Goethals was 71 when he guided Marseille to Champions League glory in 1993. The late Sir Bobby Robson left Newcastle United aged 71, as did Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. At the other end of the scale, Julian Nagelsmann took charge of Hoffenheim aged 28 last year while Roy Hodgson guided Halmstad to the Swedish title at the age of 29. And the Welsh Premier League outfit, Rhyl, appointed 24-year-old Niall McGuinness as their new first-team manager in February this year.
Former home grounds
“When Edinburgh City hosted Livingston last week, Livingston, formerly Meadowbank Thistle, headed back for a competitive game at their former home ground, now Edinburgh City’s home stadium. Is this a unique circumstance?” asks Ian Smith.
“Hardly unique,” points out Michael Haughey, among others. “Half the Merseyside derbies ever played involve Everton going back to their previous home of Anfield. Charlton Athletic have played away games at both Selhurst Park and the Boleyn Ground since they re-opened The Valley. Half the Manchester derbies between 1949 and 2003 saw Manchester United return to Maine Road, which was their temporary home after Old Trafford was badly damaged by German bombing in the second world war. Each time Celtic play a cup semi or final at Hampden they are returning to the venue of their 1994-95 league season. Without counting one-off ‘home’ games at other club’s venues due to ground closures, wartime restrictions, building work, etc. I am sure there may be others.”
“I can give a rather convoluted answer to a slightly convoluted question,” offers Steven Young. “Tannadice Park, or Clepington Park as it was formerly known, was once home to many clubs including Dundee East End from 1882-1884. After leaving Clepington Park, East End merged with Dundee Our Boys to become Dundee FC. In 1909, upon their founding, Dundee Hibernian, later to become Dundee United, took over the lease and renamed the ground Tannadice Park and have regularly entertained Dundee ever since (although sadly not this season due to United’s relegation last season). The clubs of course still hold the record for having the closest professional grounds in the UK.”
There are more. Here’s Marc Harrison: “Sangju Sangmu, the team for South Korean professional players completing their mandatory military police, were known as Gwangju Sangmu between 2003 and 2010, playing home matches at the Gwangju World Cup Stadium. When the military team left for their new home in Sangju, a new team, Gwangju FC, began playing at the stadium. The two teams teams have since met 14 times, with Sangju returning to the Gwangju WC Stadium on six occasions (with a seventh to come in September).”
Finally, Dale Farrington mails in with a Thai example. “There are plenty of examples of clubs moving and then returning ‘home’ for an away fixture,” he begins. “My club – Chonburi FC – have done it and also the reverse (playing away first and then returning to a ground for a home game). At the start of the 2011 season, we moved into our new (and current) home, Chonburi Stadium. During the course of that campaign, we revisited the IPE Stadium (our home in 2009 and 2010) for away matches against Navy and Pattaya Utd, who were ground sharing. I’ve also seen us play home and away games against Thai Port and PEA at the same ground, but they were both there before us – Port in 2006 and PEA in 2007. However, the events of the 2008 season trump all that. Midway through the year we were evicted from our then home – Chonburi Municipal Stadium – and were forced to return to one of our previous stadiums, Princess Sridhorn in SriRacha – which was also being used by our local rivals Bangphra. Three months after the move, we had an away fixture against … you’ve guessed it … Bangphra. Therefore, that year, we played an away game at our current home ground, which was also our former home stadium. Beat that.”
On Stefan Thordason
“During some betting research on the Swedish League, I noticed that IFK Norrköping have retired the No18 shirt in honour of Icelandic forward Stefan Thordason,” writes Colm Noone. “During two spells at the club (2005–2007, 2009) his league record is a mere 25 goals in 87 appearances. This goalscoring ratio hardly seems to merit the retirement of a striker’s shirt number. Why was his shirt number retired and has anyone done so little to merit such an accolade or being awarded an even greater honour by a club (excluding posthumous as a mark of respect, obviously)?”
“I am by no means an expert in Swedish football, but I have learned the language of the country where I now live, so I’ve found some more information on that case,” reports our local sleuth Daniel Cavanillas. “It appears that this story has more to do with IFK Norrköping than with Stefan himself. While the club won the Swedish Allsvenskan league last season, between 2003 and 2010 they spent seven out of eight years in the second division (or ‘Superettan’).
“Enter Stefan Thordason. During his first stage at IFK Norrköping (2005-2007), he scored 23 goals in 75 matches and helped them get back into the Allsvenskan for the first time in six years. Thinking that his job there was done, and missing his homeland, he left to play in the Icelandic league. Fast forward another two years, and IFK Norrköping are again in the Swedish second division. Not only that, but they are in real danger of getting relegated to the third division. So they called Stefan and asked him for help, and in July of 2009 he returned to Norrköping on a short loan to save the team. After a successful month he returned home to Iceland in August thinking – again – that his job was done, but Norrköping got into trouble again so he had to arrange another loan for the last four games of the season where he ensured that the team did not get relegated.”
Keeper one-twos
“Goalkeeper Adam Bogdan recently moved on loan to Wigan Athletic, joining his former Bolton Wanderers team-mate and fellow goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen at the DW Stadium,” notes Ben Polak. “This made me think, are they the first goalkeepers to be first and second choice goalkeepers for two different teams?”
“Pompey signed Shaka Hislop the year we were promoted to the Premier League (2003-04) and Pavel Srnicek signed the following season as back-up,” writes Jack Barker. “They had also played as No1 and No2 at Newcastle United in the nineties, although I am not sure who was first choice at Newcastle after Shaka arrived.”
Knowledge archive
With the transfer window still open and money being thrown around for fun this summer, spare a thought for this trio of – coincidentally – former Arsenal players. “In his 10-year professional career, Mathieu Flamini has thrice changed clubs on a Bosman transfer,” parped Chai three years ago. “Both his transfers to Arsenal (in 2004 and 2013) and to Milan (2009) were free. Has there been any other professional footballer who has moved more than three clubs in a career longer than a decade without any transfer fee being paid?”
“Sulzeer Jeremiah Campbell,” says Denis Hurley, nominating the same player as several Spurs fans still struggling to push the syllables through gritted teeth. “He played for five clubs – Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal (twice), Portsmouth, Notts County and Newcastle United – without ever commanding a fee.” That he did: in a career spanning almost two decades, Campbell played more than 500 club games in English football without ever having had a price tag. He did usually manage to upset somebody, mind.
When he decided to leave White Hart Lane after nine years, it came as something of a shock. When it was revealed that he, arguably Tottenham’s most valuable player, would be making a free transfer to Arsenal, the fallout was nuclear. Even the hacks at the press conference choked on their sausage rolls, given that they thought they were there for Richard Wright’s unveiling. “I could have earned more money by going abroad,” Campbell said, “but I felt this was the place to be.”
Five years later, Arsène Wenger was persuaded to cancel Campbell’s contract after a difficult season in which the defender had asked to be substituted at half-time against West Ham United and left the stadium, disappearing for several days. He needed to get away from England, he told his manager. And then signed for Portsmouth on a free. “Have you sold Portsmouth to a foreign country?” Wenger asked through a knowing smile. “No.”
That was in 2006; three years later, Campbell had come to the end of his Portsmouth contract, and decided to sign for the newly enriched Notts County, who could only offer him League Two football but that as part of a £10m, five-year deal. “It’s a trade-off,” Campbell said of the three-division drop. Less than two months later he left County as it became evident that the promised investment in the club was little more than a fairy tale, and began training at back at Arsenal. The plan was to get fit and get a club in January; as it turned out, that club was Arsenal, who offered him a contract until the end of the 2009-10 season. In the summer, Newcastle United picked Campbell up on a free for one year, releasing him in May 2011. For a while it looked as though Campbell might sign for another club sans transfer fee (he even trained with Arsenal again in pre-season), but he retired in 2012 without hitting six.
“I reckon current Reading goalkeeper Stuart Taylor hasn’t had a fee paid for him in over 16 years,” suggests Russell Yong, pointing out that this covers the Knowledge favourite’s entire career. “He signed with Arsenal in 1997 as a trainee and was on their books until he was signed by Aston Villa in 2005 (a fee might have been paid here, but I can find no evidence of it).”
For thousands more questions and answers take a trip through the Knowledge archive.
Can you help?
Giorgi Pirtskhelani emails from Tbilisi, Georgia, with a photo below from the 1997 top-flight meeting between city rivals Dinamo and Locomotive. “As we see, Locomotive are wearing Manchester City’s 1994-96 away shirt and they played with it for the whole season. There was another case, as well; Tbilisi-based club Merani 91 wore Sheffield Wednesday’s 1995-96 away shirt. I wonder if there are similar cases when one team plays under another’s crest?”
“I did enjoy the recent ‘least impressive winners’ question,” writes Graeme Harley. “If we opened it up to major club competitions, who’s the worst? Off the top of my head, the 2010 Europa League-winning Atlético Madrid team springs to mind, with a stunningly bad 1.11 points per game (using the 90 minutes rule previously established). However if you include their prior ‘qualifying’ run in the Champions League, they picked up 13 points from 15 games – 0.86 points per game. Bad, but I’m sure there is worse out there …”
“Just reading about Tony Carr leaving West Ham after 43 years,” begins Ankur Jain. “His first big find was Paul Allen, who has the odd achievement of winning an FA Cup in 1980 and then winning the Youth Cup version a year later. Can anyone else match this rare feat?”
“Has a club ever had a cigarette brand as a shirt sponsor?” tweets Nick Hayhoe. “Google can’t find one.”
“What is the highest shirt number that has yet to score in a major European top division?” ponders Nick Parmenter.
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