“German football magazine 11Freunde asked for ‘two further football players beside the ever-present George Best’ to find on the cover of Oasis’s Definitely Maybe. I’m only able to spot Rodney Marsh – is there another?” asks Ulrich Stolze.
This is the problem with MP3s: you can’t consult them when you need to answer obscure questions for weekly internet-based football columns. We did find the front cover, but despite studying it so hard that our visual acuity went down by 22.24%, we could only find the aforementioned Best and Marsh.
Thankfully, Graham Randall prefers the tangible to the digital. “On the inside cover of the vinyl version, Liam is reading a newspaper,” says Graham. “On the back page is Leicester’s Steve Walsh celebrating his winner in the 1994 play-off final against Derby.”
Walsh completes an unlikely trinity. There is a photograph of Best on the windowsill and another of Marsh by the fireplace. “George Best is the greatest footballer of all time!” said Noel Gallagher in a 2003 interview with FourFourTwo. “I was going to Liverpool to watch City play last season and I was standing at Manchester airport and there was George Best. He threw his arms around me and gave me a big hug.
“I was with Gem from the band and he said, ‘Shouldn’t you hate him?’ How can you hate Georgie? He was the first superstar; he’s on the cover of my first album – everybody loves George. The United fans love him because he was such a great player but City fans love him too because he liked to have a good time.”
Liam was equally effusive about Marsh in a 2000 NME interview. “He’s fucking amazing. That programme on Sky Sports where he slags everyone off? Top. He is the geezer. I’d love to have a beer with him.” The Gallaghers’ thoughts on Walsh are not, as yet, on record.
Win! Win! Win!
“Manchester City won 18 consecutive Premier League matches. Who holds the world record for consecutive competitive wins?” tweets Reza Hardy.
We assume Reza means consecutive league wins, as City lost to Shakhtar Donetsk and drew a couple of League Cup games before winning on penalties. We’ve sort of covered this before, but it’s worth an update as new evidence has emerged.
As is often the case, the record books are splattered with mud. According to the official Uefa site, these are the longest European winning streaks:
- 29 Benfica (Portugal, 1971-73)
- 28 Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia, 2006-07)
- 25 Celtic (Scotland, 2003-04)
- 25 Dinamo Tirana (Albania, 1951-52)
- 23 Malmo (Sweden, 1949-50)
We also think East Kilbride’s Ajax-trumping 27 consecutive wins in 2016 – and Welsh Premier League titans The New Saints matching that mark in the same season – are worthy of mention, while the marvellous RSSSF suggests a couple of other contenders. Sparta Prague, who won 51 (FIFTY-ONE) in a row between 1920 and 1923; and Al-Faisaly, who managed 32 consecutive victories in the Jordan league (2001-03).
We think Sparta’s feat was in the regional Central Bohemian League, as the Czechoslovak League was not formed until 1925, but even so: 51! Some sources suggest it was actually 54. The internet hadn’t reached Czechoslovakia in the 1920s, so it’s hard to be sure.
Clubs with more than one shirt sponsor (2)
In a recent Knowledge we looked at teams with different shirt sponsors for different kits, including Arsenal (Dreamcast at home, Sega away) in 1999-2000. But …
“At the risk of being pedantic,” notes Ben Cordes, with justified relish, “the Dreamcast was a Sega product, so even the question about Arsenal’s kits was off-track: they were the same sponsor, just different products. The situation where multiple kits are sponsored by different companies is much more rare.” A few of you wrote in with examples – even if, in most cases, they were two sides of the same coin.
- “No mention of Manchester United 1993-99 (Sharp/Sharp Viewcam) and 1999-2000 (Sharp/Sharp Digital)?” sniffs Joe Paxton.
- “From 2003-06 my beloved Norwich City had different sponsors on our home and away shirts,” notes Charles Sizeland. “Proton Cars (home) and Lotus Cars (away). Lotus are headquartered in nearby Hethel and I believe the sponsorship came about when Proton bought a majority stake in Lotus.”
- “I vaguely recall my old Dublin team, UCD, sponsored by Budweiser during the 1990s – except for away games, when they would have ‘Kaliber’, a low-alcohol lager, on them,” says Michael Holmes. “I liked to assume this was an effort to encourage safer driving to and from away games. Not that UCD ever had much of a travelling army – as fellow fan Dermot Morgan (or Father Ted) is reputed to have said when asked why he went: ‘Because I hate crowds.’”
- “Nottingham Forest had Shipstones and Labatt’s on the Garibaldi in 1992-93,” mails Jim Hearson. “I always thought it was Shipstones at the City Ground and Labatt’s elsewhere, but it seems the latter was used for TV games, as it was a more widespread brand. And people think commercialism is killing football today!”
- “You have missed out Tottenham’s 2010-11 and 2011-12 kits,” writes James Bowers. “The league shirts were sponsored by Autonomy and later Aurasma, a software product of Autonomy. The cup kits meanwhile were sponsored by Investec.”
- Chris Parker: “While not significantly different, Newcastle United had ‘NTL:’ as their 2002-03 sponsor and ‘NTL: Home’ as their away sponsor. In the same season Aston Villa home shirts were sponsored by Rover and away kits MG.”
- And Peter Usher: “In 2011-12, both Sheffield teams had the same pair of sponsors (Westfield Health and a VW dealership) – each sponsored the home shirt of one and the away shirt of the other (Westfield Health had Blades’ home shirt and Wednesday away) in an attempt not to annoy half the city.”
Knowledge archive
“Have any other brothers ever scored for the same club team in a match?” asked Irfan Hussain in January 2011.
We had to go back no further than February 2010 and no further afield than Scotland. The Paixao boys, Marco and Flavio, were on target for Hamilton Academical at Dundee United in the visitors’ 2-0 victory. “It’s the best night of my career,” said Flavio. “For my brother and I both to score in the same game is just fantastic. I’ll be rushing to speak to my mum and dad who’ll be so thrilled back in Lisbon. They’ll be very proud of us.”
Can you help?
“Watching this vintage MLS penalties clip got me wondering: what are some rules in use or were once used in certain places that differ from what we are used to seeing in the ‘traditional’ game?” wonders Jithvan Ariyaratne.
“What is the record for most matches started and abandoned for independent reasons in a matchday?” asks Daniel Koytchev.
“Which players have frequently been suspended most between Christmas and New Year?” ponders Lee Longstaff. “A friend suggested Kevin Nolan, who he thinks may have been suspended over five or six festive periods.”
@TheKnowledge_GU Sure you’ll get this asked a lot but is this occasion, with Garry Monk and Carlos Carvalhal, the first time that both managers have been sacked shortly after the same game?
— Darren Smith (@DS_Thunder) December 24, 2017
Ragnar Klavan recently became the first Estonian to score in the Premier League. Which nationality has made the most appearances without ever scoring?
— Nathan Eaton (@nate_1983) January 2, 2018
- Send questions and answers to knowledge@theguardian.com or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU
