“Martin Allen has just been appointed Barnet manager for the fifth time. Is this a record? If not, which manager has had most stints at one club?” asks George Jones.
“Mad Dog” would define the term “well-travelled manager”, having had 12 separate stints, were it not for his frequent returns to Barnet, a club to which he has not been completely loyal. After each of his previous four stints, from March 2003 to March 2004, three matches in 2010-11, three more at the end of the 2011-12 season, and his longest spell, two-and-a-half years that ended in December 2016, he has taken up a better offer, the last when moving to Eastleigh. This time, he has eight matches to prevent the bottom club from dropping out of the Football League.
Allen certainly appears to hold the record for English league football. The Fleetwood manager, John Sheridan, goes close with five spells at the helm of Oldham, but loses on the technicality of two tenures as caretaker, and one of those as co-caretaker from December 2003 to March 2004 with David Eyres. He held the Boundary Park reins on a more permanent basis from 2006 to 2009, before a three-month spell during 2015-16 was followed by eight months last year from January to September.
Three appears the optimum in English football. Jimmy Sirrel managed Notts County in three spells, from 1969 to 1975, 1978 to 1982 and 1985 to 1987. Jim Gannon is in his third spell at Stockport County, having returned in January 2016 to the club he served as a centre-half in the club’s 90s glory days and managed from 2005 to 2009 and then 2011-2013. Perhaps most famous of all is Howard Kendall, who in his two latter spells at Everton, from 1990 to 1993 and the 1997-98 season, could never match the glory of 1981 to 1987 when the club won two league titles, the FA Cup and the European Cup Winners’ Cup.
In the rest of Europe, four is more common. Jupp Heynckes, 72, is having a fourth go at Bayern Munich and Fatih Terim, 64, is back again at Galatasaray. Former Swansea manager Francesco Guidolin coached Palermo four times. Another victim of the Palermo revolving door is current Genoa boss Davide Ballardini, who had three spells in charge, as well as three at Cagliari.
Equalling Mad Dog is Franciszek Smuda, now 69 and at Widzew Lodz for a fifth spell. Beating that, but only on a technicality, is Emerich Jenei, who the Knowledge of March 2017 revealed had left Steaua Bucharest six times, though his initial spell came as an assistant coach.
Clubs named after political figures (2)
It turns out we only just scratched the surface when tackling this subject last week …
Kit Hunwicks writes: “O’Higgins Futbol club (currently third in the Chilean 1st Division) are named after Bernardo O’Higgins, who helped to liberate Chile from the Spanish in the 1800s,” he notes. “According to Wiki, he was a wealthy landowner of Spanish and Irish ancestry. Although he was the second Supreme Director of Chile (1817–1823), he is considered one of Chile’s founding fathers, as he was the first holder of this title to head a fully independent Chilean state.”
“Look no further than Spurs, named after Sir Harry Hotspur,” reckons Ray Adams. “Hotspur is most famous as a slightly fictionalised character in Shakespeare’s Henry IV (Part 1), and slain by Prince Hal, who would go on to be Henry V, Agincourt and all that. The real Hotspur was part of the Percy family from Northumberland; White Hart Lane lies adjacent to the Northumberland Park area of Tottenham.”
Ed Round weighs in: “The one that sprung immediately to mind was Willem II. While he was a monarch, he was absolute leader of the Netherlands before 1830. There’s also Arminia Bielefeld in Germany, named after Arminius, a local chieftain who fought in the battle brought to the big screen at the beginning of Gladiator.”
Finally, here’s James Beesley: “Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield of Buenos Aires indirectly takes its name from Dalmacio Vélez Sarsfield, a 19th-century lawyer and one time finance minister of Argentina. According to Wikipedia, in 1909 three participants in a casual football match took shelter in a nearby railway station named after Vélez Sarsfield when rain interrupted their game. At the station they discussed the idea of setting up a football club and they ultimately named the club after the station.”
Ballboys and ballgirls intervening
“Are there any examples of ballboys or ballgirls’ actions directly leading to a goal or affecting the outcome of a game?” asks Andy Lawn.
Richard Baum has just such a story to tell. “In 1991 Blackburn met Liverpool in the FA Cup. Liverpool were champions, whereas Blackburn were in their pre-Jack Walker second division doldrums. Rovers were on the verge of a shock 1-0 victory at Ewood Park when Liverpool equalised in injury-time. Liverpool’s goal came immediately after a throw-in, and the Blackburn ball girl was blamed by some for having hurriedly returned the ball to Liverpool. You can see it here at 7min 50-ish.”
“She was clearly thinking several moves ahead though, knowing Liverpool would win the subsequent replay, that they’d then play Everton in the fifth round, draw 4-4, and cause Kenny Dalglish to resign due to the stress of it all, thus opening the way for him to be re-employed by Blackburn the following October, and subsequently lead them to the Premier League title in 1995.”
Knowledge archive
“Sir Alex Ferguson once fined Aberdeen’s John Hewitt for having the temerity to overtake his manager on a public road,” wrote Christian McKenzie in 2011. “Is that the most ridiculous reason for a fine in football?”
“Brian Clough (who else?) once fined Kenny Burns for playing a square ball across his own 18-yard line,” recalled Paul Miller. “He even presented Kenny with the typed-up fine at half-time.” Alex Bromley offered: “In 2002, everyone’s favourite prankster, Robbie Savage, was docked two weeks wages for using referee Graham Poll’s toilet.”
In 2008 Sir Alex Ferguson fined Cristiano Ronaldo £8,000 for sending a text message during training. Then there was Crystal Palace defender Damien Delaney, fined £235 and handed four points on his licence after speeding while at Ipswich. Delaney told magistrates the reason he was doing 44mph in a 30mph zone was that he was late for training and “I had an unreasonable boss [Roy Keane] and was worried I’d be docked two weeks’ wages.”
Can you help?
“What is the longest distance from where a player has scored a direct free-kick?” asks John Sandy.
Ron Cruz: “Against Bulgaria in their opening match of the 1970 World Cup, Peru wore black ribbons on their sleeves in remembrance of those who had perished during an earthquake that had hit the country two days earlier. Was this was the first occasion a team wore something black on their sleeves in tribute to loss of life? And who were the first to wear armbands?
Nick Pepper
(@Nicky_Pepper)Who is the most exotic player to have played for England Schoolboys? @SchoolsFootball @TheKnowledge_GU Gpt as far as Wales’ Ryan Giggs, so could do with some help clearly