I suppose you’ve noticed the bandwagon jumpers by now. Happens every time, of course, and all that can be done is to grin and bear it. Like Christmas, though, it seems to come earlier every year and for months before it even started it seemed like you couldn’t move for people who wanted to declare an interest in- even, in some extreme cases, attempting to lecture us on- something we spend every day of our life discussing with friends and, for the even more dedicated souls, our online peers on the various message boards dedicated to the subject. Yes, the WAGs are back and, with them, the World Cup.
And, bloody typical, I get Montana Manning, significant WAG of Aaron Lennon, in the sweep. I bet those Johnnie- comes- latelies getting on your nerves in the pub tonight talking like amateurs about handbag linings and favourite facial kits have barely even ever heard of her. Or they have heard of her but they assumed they heard wrong and the person talking was actually referring to Hannah Montana.
Put it like this: she’s not going to be pulling up any trees out there in South Africa. Which, as well as opening up her afternoons for spa dates with Abbey Clancy, is probably a good thing from an environmental viewpoint, and a nail care one too. But it does leave her profile included on The Daily Mail’s Wag Wall-chart woefully short on information.
Under profession we’re offered ‘Model, Actress, Whatever’ which sound like an answer a bored teenager may give a tentative career advisor not picking up on the sardonic tone. (Though would probably come as little surprise to Daily Mail readers- most of whom probably imagine you can take a degree in Model, Actress, Whatever General Studies nowadays.)
And her attitude to clothes, the type of detail which really helps us objectify others? Less is more, apparently. A bit of a done to death line that one, but a classic all the same and one which may perhaps come in handy further on in the tournament if her partner finds himself fielding questions about his work rate.
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Whilst the nation continues to analyse England’s 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Germany with a fine-toothed comb, the powers that be have announced that Fabio Capello’s position as manager will be reviewed over the next two weeks. With Capello’s predecessors Sven Goran Eriksson and Steve McClaren also unable to get the best out of the nation’s so-called ‘Golden Generation’, the finger of blame must indeed be pointed at the players too. However, in failing to qualify for the quarter-finals, Capello has failed to vindicate the FA’s decision to pay him £6m a year. Was Capello the main reason why England performed so dismally at the World Cup?
Despite Capello’s illustrious background and the good work he carried out during qualification, I cannot help but feel that he was tactically inept at the World Cup. Like his predecessors, Capello suffered the affliction of believing that using all your star players, irrelevant of where they are positioned, would constitute a good team. Frank Lampard, an attacking midfielder, who benefits at club level so much from having hard-working defensively minded midfielders behind him at Chelsea, looked unsuited to his deep berth with the national side. Yet again, Steven Gerrard was a victim of his versatility, being consigned to a role on the left-hand side of midfield.
Unfortunately, England perennially look like a side who struggle in possession. For reasons unknown to myself, many of England’s illustrious names do not look comfortable when with the ball. As such, the side should’ve been set up to press and to harry the opposition. In opting to line up in an increasingly outdated 4-4-2 set-up, Capello let his midfield get outnumbered, and the unfortunate absence of Owen Hargreaves meant that he had no natural ball-winner to pressurise the opposition into relinquishing possession. Gareth Barry lacked the drive, determination and pace to effectively fulfil this role, and the manner in which Mesut Ozil found space and time with the greatest of ease highlighted how badly Capello got it wrong.
The likes of Spain, Brazil, Argentina and Germany have all had relatively successful World Cup campaigns thus far, and not a single one of them uses 4-4-2. Whilst it is arguable that their success is attributable to the more talented crops of players that they have at their disposal, their respective managers’ decisions to correctly use their finest talents highlight one of Fabio Capello’s flaws. Kaka is used in his favoured role for Brazil, and Lionel Messi is given free reign for Argentina. Following the final whistle on Sunday, Harry Redknapp stated “We need to produce a player like Ozil.”
But we do – and we use him on the left in a 4-4-2. Instead of using Steven Gerrard in the position where he is most effective (in the middle, behind Wayne Rooney), he was deployed out wide. The criminal misuse of Steven Gerrard bears an uncannily similar resemblance to the woeful treatment afforded to Paul Scholes earlier on in the noughties.
Whilst the players were to blame for their showings, the manager is entirely responsible for team selection and tactical preferences. It is clear that Capello got both of these hideously wrong on Sunday, and he must take responsibility for his mistakes.
Should Capello stay, or should he go?
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Oh joy of joys; it’s another blog about Manchester City killing football. And as a City fan, I of course present the backlash to the backlash.
There’s no doubt that things are changing in English football. The old guard is retreating (very slowly). Liverpool is in turmoil, United being bled dry, even Chelsea are looking at austere times, and a tightening of their Russian owner’s belt.
There’s no greater clue to the changing times than how lame Fergie’s “mind-games” have become. Once upon a time, Alex could will whole opposition teams and referees to fall before him with just a few achingly-sharp words. The story goes that after one such rebuttal to an opposition manager in a post-match “presser”, the manager in question’s hair fell out overnight, and he ended up living in a cave in Somerset surviving only on carrots and cup-a-soups. Now though, he’s no more than a mouthpiece for the Glazers. There’s no value in the market, you see?
One of the first criticisms I heard of Manchester City is that they are no longer likeable – “City used to be everyone’s second team”. Another way of phrasing this is City are no longer utter pants. Because that’s what likeable teams are – failures. Successful teams are hated, unsuccessful teams pitied. Sod being liked by other supporters – football is not a popularity contest, it is a series of competitions.
“The soul of the club has gone,” the writer and journalist Simon Hattenstone wailed, as he announced his detachment from the club he supposedly loved (he’ll soon came crawling back). Of course, he had no idea what this soul was, but hey, it sounded good. I can only imagine this soul was constant failure, a misshaped ground, poor players, boardroom turmoil, debt and mismanagement. I prefer being soulless to be honest. We were a Manchester-based club with an outdoor ticket office, because, what’s the worst that could happen?
Essentially, we were liked because we were a bit of a shambles – a comedy club (the Theatre of Base Comedy as Stuart Hall called Maine Road, until Kevin Keegan told him to shut up), unthreatening to anyone, fuelled by hope and nothing more. It’s when we started becoming a threat that people stopped liking us. “Nobody knows your name” sang United fans. They certainly do now.
Or perhaps it was when we started flashing the cash around. Now, you could argue it’s possible to be successful and well-liked. I’m sure it is, but you won’t find many examples. Barcelona springs to mind, but as we’ve seen in recent months, it’s partially built on a myth. They’re skint, with debts of 400m Euros (they can’t even afford to put a roof over the stands), they openly chase other teams’ players, their players dive and feign injuries for club and country (yes you, Iniesta), they’re much like the rest of us. The fact is, it isn’t a possibility for City. They could spend 20 years slowly, slowly building up a team, making value-for-money purchases and not stepping on any toes –who knows, by 2025, we might have crept into the Big 4. Or we can say sod it, we’re building a whole new legacy here, and we’ll go for it now. We’ll transform the club and the community beyond it, invest in the local economy, and lays the foundations for generations. Because we can.
In the end, what other fans think is irrelevant. History doesn’t record outlays, balance sheets and profit margins, just trophies, just success, however it is earned.
Another accusation is that City have now been accused of buying a history. Well there’s no need to, as we already have one. As Martin Samuel said, even MK Dons have a history. It seems there was no football before 1992 – it was all a dream. Nope, it all started with the launch of the premiership, and any achievements prior to that count for nothing. City won the NW Masters for the 3rd time recently, and still people claim we have no history.
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The media agree as a whole that spending what you earn is doing things the right way. Success guarantees cash, the riches of the Champions League, and thus more success. This devalues leagues where the same teams win season after season, especially in smaller leagues where a team with champions league revenue can then go on to dominate their league for a decade. But this is the right way. Or becoming a PLC just as the Sky cash starts rolling in. Perhaps City should double their ticket prices to match Arsenal’s, thus gaining more revenue, and thus be spending what we earn, and thus be doing things the right way (and we have started that process already). Everything was so much better before City ruined football, in the gold old days when loads of teams competed for the league, well except when United won 11 out of 17 league titles.
The right way is setting up a cartel, let’s call them the G14, then threatening a breakaway league unless UEFA keep the money flowing so that the status quo is maintained. This isn’t really a criticism – all clubs will try and protect their interests.
Oh and debt – that’s fine, especially with Platini. God forbid you are debt free and spending money you already own. That’s why clubs like Aston Villa and Everton are put forward as the sensible, prudent face of football, run sensibly and within their means, with little if any comment of the fact that collectively they are reportedly over £100m in debt. What has killed football throughout the leagues more than anything over the past 10 years has been clubs spending beyond their means. How ironic then that one of the few teams not to be doing this are accused of destroying the beautiful game.
No, what City are doing is buying better players to try and gain success. You might disagree with this, which is fair enough. But it is no different from doing what already successful teams have done and will continue to do. So do already successful teams have a greater right to splash the cash, due to having earned more money on the back of their success?
Well whatever your opinion, many other sports in the world would not allow this financial domination by a successful team. In fact, I cannot think of many other situation in world sport that rewards success more than being an English top four side.
In the US, you’ll probably be aware they have a draft system, first seen in 1935 to prevent sporting domination by one team. This system can also be found in sports in Canada, Japan, Australia, Russia and the Philippines.
It can be very complicated, and the rules are slightly different across the main sports, but fundamentally, it’s a case of the teams that finished ‘last’ in the season get the first pick of the new talent that becomes available the next year. Getting the first pick in the NFL or NBA draft can instantly change a team’s fortunes almost overnight.
In baseball it is harder to use the draft to turn around fortunes, but teams do try to use the draft to stockpile talent, with the idea that “2 or 3 years down the line” a team can contend -this worked for Oakland over many cycles throughout the years.
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It’s not quite that straight forward, as ownership of young players tends to last 5 years, after which they could become free agents and get signed by one of the big boys.
You can also factor in salary caps which exist in the NBA, NFL, NHL and decent collective bargaining agreements for merchandise and TV deals which prevent teams in large markets having a HUGE advantage in terms of getting money through local fan bases. I’m sure some Premiership teams (including City) would love their own TV deals like Barcelona and Madrid to stretch the gap between rich and poor.
So do City fans care about how we go about our business now? Well I can’t speak for all of them of course, but almost everyone I know seems pretty comfortable with it all. Served our dues and all that. Thirty years, and not a sniff of a trophy (the scars of that 1986 Full Members Cup defeat still run deep).
Ideally I’d like to see City successful and loved, but then I’d like world peace, the end of all disease, beer running out my taps at home and an endless supply of ice cream, but it’s not going to happen.
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The whole scenario is ridiculous, no doubt, and some City fans have become greedy about big signings. I saw a link to an article online the other day that said “City to bid £70m for Torres”, and I couldn’t even be bothered opening it. In the old days I used to scan 289 pages of Ceefax or ring up premium hotline numbers to catch an update on the possible loan signing of Egil Ostenstad. Sorry about that phone bill mum, I’d heard we were after Rob Hulse.
Then of course there is the media coverage. The Sun talks of how Toure will pocket £56m in wages from City. Obviously all these mercenaries coming to City don’t have to pay this thing called TAX, which the British government have set at a very fair rate of 50%. Obviously The Sun are aware of this thing called TAX, so are claiming that Toure’s wages before tax are £112m, or the equivalent of around £430,000 per week. He must have one hell of an agent.
Duncan White in the Telegraph said that City’s splurge is money bleeding out of the English game – this is a continuation of the ridiculous ill-thought comments that began two years previously with Mark Lawrenson saying that the money could be used to build hospitals and schools. Of course it suited White’s agenda to ignore our pursuit of Milner, and our previous acquisitions of Johnson, Barry, and Lescott. And Bellamy, and Adebayor. And Given and Toure. But more pertinently, it is not English money anyway, so how could he have a problem? We weren’t spending anything when we were previously skint, so either way the English game is not going to be reliant on City is it? And if it is, that’s a sad day. And if we buy £6 billion pounds of players from abroad, we would presumably have to sell some players – probably some to other English teams. It’s not rocket science is it?
As one agent commented, other clubs are waiting for each City transfer to occur. They create a ripple effect, and their money feeds right through the football system.
And not just from transfer activities. Ask the school in New York transformed by the rooftop pitch, or Hyde United, whose future has been secured by City (though some Hyde fans are still not happy, probably due to the kit colour changing from red!). Ask the taxman how many hundreds of millions will be pumped into the British economy, ask the local community in Beswick about the £1 billion project for the area around the ground. Whatever the right and wrongs, the season ahead should be an absolute cracker. I can’t wait.
Written By Howard Hockin
Click on image to see a gallery of the BEST BABES at the World Cup this summer
The general perspective surrounding Craig Bellamy can be likened to an English summer, when the sun is shining everything is grand but we conveniently forget the imminent showers and occasional thunder storms right around the corner.
On the back of a very good season with Manchester City, Bellamy has been strongly linked with a move to Tottenham Hotspur who pipped his side to that illusive final Champions League place towards the end of last season.
Spurs boss Harry Redknapp said on Wednesday that he would like “two or three more players who can make the difference” and the Welsh forward is apparently one of them
While Bellamy has shown signs of his ability at some of his previous clubs, they are commonly in patches, eventually fading out due to loss of form or fallouts with fellow staff members, sometimes both.
In his first season at Newcastle United he won the ‘PFA Young Player of the Year’ award but left two season later after an ongoing row with manager Graeme Souness and also sent Alan Shearer a taunting text message whilst on loan at Celtic after the Magpies FA Cup Semi-Final defeat to Manchester United which sums up his fiery character to a tee. In fact, using former Liverpool team-mate John Arne Riise as a tee was a catalyst to his eventual exit from Anfield after he attacked the Norwegian with a golf club during a training session
Bellamy has been somewhat of an enigma as his electric pace and good finishing have proven too tempting for managers to reject over his bad attitude and inconsistency yet his repeated transition from ‘hot to cold’ is why he keeps moving from one club to another.
Spurs already have the qualities Bellamy possesses in abundance; for his pace and dribbling there is Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon, for his sharpness in front of goal there is Jermain Defoe and for an impact substitute they will now welcome back World Cup star Giovani dos Santos.
Under Daniel Levy, the Lilywhites have created a trading philosophy of signing players in their early to mid-20’s who are both in their prime years and will also gain an add-on value should both club and player feel it is a suitable time for them to go their separate ways.
At 31 years of age, Bellamy is hardly that ‘special’ player to break this successful structure. If Spurs were to sign someone reaching the latter stages of their career then it should only be for a world class player of the caliber of Diego Forlan or Luis Fabiano whose undoubted quality and proven ability could take the club to an even higher level.
Written By Andrew Vou
Click on image to see a gallery of the BEST BABES at the World Cup this summer
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England captain Steven Gerrard hit out at some of his and his team-mates' critics after the 2-1 Wembley friendly victory over Hungary.
Gerrard's two goals enabled Fabio Capello's side to recover from a 1-0 deficit to record a morale-boosting win, following a dismal showing at the World Cup finals earlier this summer.
A bullish Gerrard commented:"The players have had a lot of criticism of late, a lot of it really fair and some of it unfair.
"A lot of criticism had been directed at us saying that we don't care and it doesn't mean anything for us to play for England.
"So I think from my reaction for the first goal, you can see how much it means to myself and the players to be part of this group.
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Last season Inter were out of the flailing grasp of any of their opponents. Cantering to their fifth title in a row, along with victory in the Copa Italia, seemed to go relatively unnoticed after they claimed their first European crown since 1965. For incoming boss Rafa Benitez, expectations will be as high as he has ever experienced.
Although Inter possessed a decent squad last season, and had in my opinion, the best manager in the world orchestrating things, few would have considered them to be genuine contenders for the Champions League: Real had spent so much money, Chelsea and Man Utd had the experience and Barcelona had the most beautiful team of recent memory. I still maintain that with any other manager, those Inter players, as good as some are, would not have won the Champions League. Mourinho gave them that belief.
What Benitez does have in his favour, is that his team are comfortably the best in Serie A. Julio Cesar, Maicon and Lucio are amongst the best in the world in their respective positions, and in Samuel Eto’o, Diego Milito and Wesley Sneijder they boast explosive and clinical firepower (and don’t get me even started on Javier Zanetti – the man is a scaled-down version of God). Roma, who finished two points behind Inter last season, cannot make similar claims about their squad.
Roma remain the only one of what we could call contenders who hasn’t changed their manager. Claudio Ranieri, as proud a Roman as they come, is still in charge and must now accommodate the signing of Adriano, which was forced upon him by his board. AC Milan, Juventus and Sampdoria have all had managerial changes, and the former two have been busy in adding to their squads. Samp on the other hand, must rely on the brilliant, but potentially implosive, strike partnership of Giampaolo Pazzini and Antonio Cassano. Having missed out on qualification for the Champions League after a battle with Werder Bremen, they are already a wounded beast and will be worth keeping an eye on, although their biggest opponent could be themselves.
‘The Old Lady’ of Juve have kept things relatively domestic with the additions of Simone Pepe, Leonardo Bonucci, and Marco Motta, not to mention Alberto Aquilani’s latest attempt to convince people he is indeed a professional footballer.
For AC Milan, it could go one of two ways. The Rossoneri have appointed former Cagliari boss Massimiliano Allegri as their manager, and as the transfer window began to shut, made some very bold statements. Exactly how Pato, Robinho, Ronaldinho and Ibrahimovic will fit into a starting eleven (assuming that they will, an assumption that the concerned individuals will no doubt be making) will be an interesting development; big name players for a small name boss is not always a renowned recipe for success.
It will come as no shock to any followers of the Italian game, or anyone else for that matter, that pre-season has been riddled with controversy, bureaucracy and crowd trouble. Laws regarding the quota on foreign imports have been debated back and forth, with clubs only allowed to buy one non-EU player each year. There has been rioting and fighting across the breadth of ‘the boot’ and the league’s authorities have split over differences of one too many opinions. And yet, last season saw the league’s highest average attendances for nearly twenty years. Controversy is what Italians do.
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And so, amongst the Bickering Italians, is a Spaniard who would freely admit himself that the league is the absolute minimum that he must achieve. No team has won the Champions League back to back, and if Inter fail to retain their European title it wouldn’t be an earth-shattering shock. But this is a man who took Liverpool to two Champions League finals in his time at Anfield; it’s what Benitez does best. In the meantime, the status quo remains and the league should take care of itself.
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4-2-3-1 seems to be the formation in vogue at the moment. It was used by a number of national teams in the World Cup, most noticeably Holland who used it to great effect. Now a number of Premier League teams are fielding the formation in order to give them defensive strength, a balanced midfield and hopefully, an attacking threat. The formation though, can be quite a negative one, it was proven by Holland in South Africa who used to be one of the great entertainers but were condemed during the World Cup by legend Johan Cruyff as being too negative, and not particularly good to watch. Whilst it does offer defensive strength, it can limit sides in the attacking sense and there are two prime candidates in the Premier League who seem to be suffering from this; Liverpool and Manchester City.
Liverpool have been playing a 4-2-3-1 for a while now, last season Lucas and Javier Mascherano played as defensive midfielders, and whilst many fans believed this was fine in some games, in others it looked like an overly negative formation against fairly limited opponents. Roy Hodgson has largely stuck with the same formation, in their 0-0 draw with Birmingham on the weekend Christian Poulsen and Lucas played defensive roles. Liverpool did not have a good game and in fact it was Birmingham who had the better of the match and it was only due to some spectacular Pepe Reina saves that the Midlands side did not get a goal.
The problem is that while it does offer defensive strength, Lucas and Poulsen are fairly limited going forward and as a result the team does not create a great deal of chances. When Xabi Alonso was filling one of these roles, it was fine because the Spaniard is a fantastic passer of the ball and a creative influence, and in fact when Raul Meireles came on Liverpool looked better against Birmingham. If Hodgson does carry on playing a 4-2-3-1, he might be better off dropping Lucas or Poulsen in favour of Meireles, to give them a more creative influence in one of these positions.
Manchester City have also suffered some disappointing results when playing two or even three defensive midfielders. In the game against Blackburn Patrick Vieira and Yaya Toure played and the result was a 1-1 draw at home, not good enough for a team hoping to reach the Champions League. On the weekend previous to that Man City lost away to Sunderland, and Roberto Mancini started with Gareth Barry, Nigel de Jong and Yaya Toure, all of whom would be regarded as defensive midfielders. When using this trio Toure is pushed forward but it still leaves City with a limited attacking threat in central midfield.
The 4-2-3-1 can be an effective one, Arsenal have started with it this season and have looked excellent so far, but in their version of it, Jack Wilshere has been playing in one of the defensive roles whilst also offering much going forward, unlike those who have been playing in these positions at Liverpool and Man City.
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Playing two defensive midfielders is not automatically bad for the team, but it is important that at least one of these players has a creative or attacking influence as well. Xabi Alonso is the world’s best exponent of the deep lying playmaker position, and it was Andrea Pirlo before him, both of these players are capable defensively, but they also play creative roles which gives their team more options. Players like these are hard to find, but Liverpool and Man City might benefit from being a little more adventurous.
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Liverpool have received a major injury boost following news that Dirk Kuyt does not require surgery on an ankle injury.
The Reds feared their Netherlands forward was facing a number of months on the sidelines after picking up the injury during a Euro 2012 qualifier against Sweden two weeks ago.
But Kuyt, who had only just returned to action following a shoulder problem, believes he will be back playing again before December.
"I had a second scan and the doctor has now told me that they do not need to operate on my ankle. That is such a relief," he explained.
"The doctor says I could be back in the Liverpool team within one month.
"I can't wait to play again and help the team.
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Stoke City striker Ricardo Fuller is winning his race to be fit enough to feature in Sunday's Premier League clash with Manchester United.
The Jamaica international has been given the all-clear by a specialist to play after making a rapid recovery from a troublesome shoulder injury.
Fuller had feared that he would need surgery on the problem after his right shoulder popped out for the second time in three games during Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Bolton Wanderers.
However, Potters boss Tony Pulis said:"It looks as though he's been given the thumbs-up, so he should be in the shake-up for Sunday.
"You're always sweating when you see Ric go down and then get carted off to hospital like he was on Saturday, but the reports back are very encouraging and he's in good spirits himself.
"Of course the shoulder is a concern, that's why we are giving him extra strengthening work and the physios are closely monitoring his progress.
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If you were talk about the great youth academies in England, the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal and West Ham United would be the first ones that come to mind. However, there is one side that has helped nurture plenty of Premier League talent – and I bet you haven’t even heard of them.
Dulwich Hamlet, who play in the Isthmian League Division One South (how about that for a mouthful), currently seven levels below the Premier League. However, a quick glance at a list of their former players reveals the true value of the club from Champion Hill.
The first name that jumps out is Tottenham striker Peter Crouch, who spent time on loan with the Hamlet in 2000. Although the loan spell lasted just six games, Crouch, who was just a teenager at the time, managed to score the first goal of his career. Ironically, the club that sent him on loan there was his current club Spurs. As we know, Crouch has gone on to have a great career, spending time with the likes of Liverpool, Portsmouth and Spurs – as well as a becoming regular member of the England side.
Moving down the list, the next name that you notice is Marlon King, who has recently signed with Championship side Coventry. King started his footballing career as a Youth with the Hamlet, before moving on to become a trainee at nearby Barnet. Along with spells at Gillingham and Leeds, King spent several seasons in the Premier League with the likes of Watford and Wigan.
Wolves’ defender George Elokobi is another player to have benefitted from the football education offered by the club. He spent just one season with Dulwich shortly after arriving in the country, before he was snapped up by Colchester. The left-back then moved to Wolves, who he helped gain promotion to the Premier League and helped them avoid relegation the following year. He has also recently been called up the Cameroon national squad.
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Burnley defender Leon Cort began his football career as a youth player at Champion Hill. After proving himself in the lower leagues with Southend, he went on to have spells with Crystal Palace and Hull. A loan spell at Stoke was made permanent and he played in the Premier League under Tony Pulis. He joined Burnley last year but suffered relegation from the top flight.
Norwich striker Simeon Jackson also began his career with the Hamlet. Moving to the country from his native Canada, Jackson joined Dulwich in an attempt to kick-start a career in England. A prolific career with Rushden and Diamonds helped earn him trials with Premier League clubs, but he settled for a move to Gillingham. After proving himself at League level, he joined Norwich on their return to the Championship earlier this year. He has also earned caps for Canada.
It’s not just modern day footballers that have progressed from Dulwich. Alan Pardew, who is currently known for his managerial career, can list the Hamlet as one of his first clubs in the mid-80s. A playing career included time with Crystal Palace and Charlton, before going on to have successful spells in charge Reading, West Ham and Charlton (again).
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Striker George Ndah, who is perhaps not as well known as some of the other names, also began his career with Dulwich. He went on to play for Crystal Palace and Swindon, before coming a cult hero at Wolves, before injury forced him to retire in 2006. Another retired player who started with Dulwich is Carl Asaba, who enjoyed success with the likes of Brentford, Gillingham and Sheffield United.
There are plenty of other players who spent time with the Hamlet and have gone on to play in the Football League. The modern game has seen young players move for millions, but it is important to remember the quality of players that could cost next to nothing, but prove to be priceless.