A bargain at just pounds 2.99, the wig will help you to fool your friends into thinking you’re the Italian maestro, especially if you speak pidgin English and maintain a chirpy demeanour in the face of spending another season at Selhurst Park.Who Ate All The pies?HUDDERSFIELD TOWN’S Alfred McAlpine Stadium is arguably the best ground in England for pigging out on pork. This item is a must for all fans who want to don something which resembles a tight, rubber shower cap, but has none of the shower cap’s style. Even then I knew the team wearing red were the Foreign Office team – embodiment of the dour British establishment – and the team in white were rock and roll.” www.football365.co.ukSeen But Not BoughtTHE VERY attractive “Lombardo Wig” from the Crystal Palace gift shop. A family friend, Andy Nolan, took me to see them against West Brom in the early Sixties, and then the next week he took me to Tottenham For some reason, as a six-year-old I liked the white shirts. Presumably thinks the Spurs’ job won’t be too much of a good wheeze.MY TEAMDANNY KELLYTOTTENHAMSelf-confessed media whore and editor of the on-line newspaper, football365.”Out of luck – terrible luck some might say – I was born and brought up in Islington, and therefore an automatic candidate to be an Arsenal fan.
Will also be a shrewd advisor with inside knowledge should the Office of Fair Trading rule current TV deals – with BSkyB and the BBC – are restrictive and clubs become able to negotiate their own TV deals rather than collectively inside the Premier League.Nicknamed “the rottweiler” for his tenacity in negotiations, Chisholm suffers from asthma, a condition which led to him stepping down from the chief executive’s job at BSkyB last year. Arsenal meet Nottingham Forest at Highbury on Monday, and as they trounced the newly promoted Bolton and Barnsley at home early last season, pounds 1 on the Gunners to win 4-0 is money well speculated, especially at 16-1 (generally).NICK HARRIS’S SELECTIONSTotal kitty start: pounds 100Total waged today: pounds 5.25 + 47p tax = pounds 5.72ON THE BOARDName: Sam Chisholm.Position: Non-executive director of Tottenham Hotspur plc.Form: Chief executive and managing director of BSkyB for seven years (until last year); previously head of Australia’s Nine Network for 15 years; currently deputy chairman of the New Millennium Experience, aka The Millennium Dome.Big Ideas: When Chisholm was appointed to the board last Tuesday, Spurs’ chairman, Alan Sugar, said: “Sam’s knowledge of international broadcasting and future trends in the industry will be a major asset to Tottenham Hotspur plc.” Chisholm, a New Zealander who was one of Rupert Murdoch’s most powerful executives, said: “Football is on the cusp of an exciting era and I am delighted to be given the opportunity to contribute to it.”In other words, he’ll be paving the way for pay-per-view, and is in an excellent position to advise Spurs when the Premier League opens talks next year with bidders wanting to screen live football. Mark Hughes is prefered to Michael Owen to score the first goal and pounds 1 is on Sparky at 7-1 (generally) to do just that. The fixture ended 1-1 last season, and both sides have at least doubled their attacking potential since, so pounds 1 at 14/1 (generally available) is a must. Liverpool versus Southampton at The Dell tomorrow is this weekend’s Desmond (match most likely to finish 2-2).
Ian Wright, also taking a Premiership bow for a new club, will score the first goal at Hillsborough this afternoon in a 3- 1 win for West Ham. Of that we’re so certain that 25p has been wagered on the permutation at 100/1 (Corals). Losing is not something Ferguson likes, and although he seemed relaxed enough (right) at last Sunday’s 3-0 Charity Shield defeat by Arsenal, he’ll be planning not to repeat it.The price is rightBlackburn’s mighty pounds 7.5m gamble on Kevin Davies faces its first major test today, but he should prosper against Derby and pounds 2 on him to score the first goal at Ewood Park (best price 13/2 with the Tote) seems a good investment. In November 1986 he became the manager at Old Trafford, where he had to wait until 1990 to secure a major trophy, the FA Cup. The European Cup-Winners’ Cup followed in 1991, and, amongst other triumphs, four Premiership titles.
Ferguson remains the only St Johnstone player ever to have scored a hat-trick against Rangers, whom he later joined. In 1974, he became the manager at East Stirling, and then – after a successful spell at St Mirren – at Aberdeen, where he won three Premier League titles, four Scottish FA Cups, a Scottish League Cup and the European Cup-Winners’ Cup. “Vets are on call at night and are also expected to work Saturdays, which may make things difficult.” James Herriot never attempted both jobs though he did borrow his name from a Birmingham goalkeeper of the Sixties.As You WereTHE YOUNG Alex Ferguson (above) became a St Johnstone legend on 23 December 1963 when he scored a hat-trick against Rangers at Ibrox to produce one of the all-time shock results in Scottish football. “I would hope to be able to continue playing football at as high a level as possible,” said Walton, who scored 14 goals in the Scottish League Third Division last season. A clause in his contract entitles him to a free transfer if he lands a permanent job with a practice outside Scotland or North-east England, which seems to rule him out of a transfer to Sunderland, where the late James Herriot was a vice-president. Walton, 23, has just gained three A-grade science A- level passes and wants to be a vet.
Tough game, this accuracy business.IT SEEMS some players will do anything to wriggle out of contracts these days, but at least Kevin Walton’s reason for resigning from Berwick Rangers is down to earth. To be fair, even the Italian journalists present didn’t recognise half of them. And as for the Italian trio, well, none of them ended up playing.At least they were a bit more accurate than Portsmouth FC, who in their pounds 3 programme for last weekend’s four-team tournament, involving Sochaux, Genoa and Wimbledon, failed to get a single name in the Italian team right – not even the manager’s. For this week’s friendly between Newcastle and Juventus at St James’ Park the club took out a half page advertisement in the local press in order to promote the game. The advert depicted a pitch with the Juve players Zidane, Deschamps and Davids on one side and David Batty on the other, with the words “David is going to need all the support he can get.” Nice idea, except Batty was out injured with an operation, so last week they changed the Newcastle player in the advert to Stephane Guivarc’h, who duly went down injured. Whereupon in Monday’s edition of the Newcastle Journal, the name of Dietmar Hamann was substituted, although in the event he appears to need nobody’s support. So much for the Saints.FOOTBALL CLUBS bitterly complain about inaccuracies in newspapers, but sometimes it’s unavoidable, as a couple of them have discovered first hand in the last week.
