Football: The Knowledge - the players who announced their transfers ...

Tag : Sound Proof Board

"In the wake of the Ashley-Paul Robinson furore ," wondered Ryan Brownlee last week, "have any other footballers revealed their transfer plans via asocial networking site?"
Robinson is not the only footballer to experience the perils of theinformation super-highway. Paul Cook got in touch with the tale of17-year-old Leon Osbourne, a trainee with Bradford City who, afteronly one appearance during the final 10 minutes of the 2006-07season, announced on his Bebo page that he didn't like the city,didn't like the team, missed Doncaster and was only there to getanother club. Boss Stuart McCall issued a clip round the ear and asmall fine for being so naughty.
Even naughtier was goalkeeper Martin Rice who, when dropped byExeter City prior to the club's Conference play-off final atWembley last year, vented his displeasure on his MySpace site.
"The real reason why im not goin is because hes dropped me becausehe thinks i havent played well in the last three games. But theblokes an absolute W*NKER im no longer anythin to do with ECFC butill support the boys tomo. Im gonna be there for the players f*ckthe BOARD AN THE MANAGEMENT they deserve f*ck all its all theplayers hard work. [Carries on with expletives far too vulgar torepeat] ⬦ Ill just let all EXETER CITY FANS KNOW THAT I LOVE YOUALL THANKS FOR THIS SEASON YOUR THE BEST FANS IN ENGLISH FOOTBALL.You deserve league football. see you all tomo love ya loads RICEYNUMBER 1.UP THE CITY."
Martin Rice doesn't play for Exeter anymore.
Ian Dickinson got in touch with arguably the most famous example;speedy Dutch winger Marc "meep meep" Overmars. The ambidextrousdribbler blew the whistle about his move from Arsenal to Barcelonaon his page at icons.com, where top-flight footballers bang onabout cars and inane dressing-room insight while, last month, whenJosh Gowling announced his transfer from Bournemouth to CarlisleUnited, he changed his Facebook status to: "Josh Gowling is movingup north to Carlisle" which is factual if nothing else.
If you know of any instances that we have omitted, email them to knowledge@guardian.co.uk .
ARRESTED ON THE PITCH (2)
A couple of weeks ago we looked at players who had felt the long arm of the law on thefield of play. You've been pointing us towards a few more.
Arjan Plantinga takes us back to 1969 and a particularly violentIntercontinental Cup second leg between Estudiantes and Milan.Nestor Combin, an Argentinian playing for Milan, was called a Judasby his countrymen, left the pitch covered in blood following anoutrageous elbowing incident and was then arrested in the changingroom for failing to complete his national service in what must godown as a fairly bad day at the office.
He wasn't arrested but maybe Croatian Zvonimir Boban should havebeen after karate-kicking a policeman in the head during a game between Dinamo Zagreb and Red Star Belgrade. Thanksto John Lynch for reminding us of that one.
Stuart Goodacre recalls when manager John Beck, while in charge ofLincoln City, was arrested at Sincil Bank by Her Majesty's Customsinvestigators just as his team were about to kick off againstLeyton Orient in August 1996. "He was suspected of involvement in awhisky tax scam but eventually cleared," writes Stuart. "Ironicconsidering City played that year as if they were permanentlypissed."
Colin Leeds writes in with a rather tall tale that doesn't fit thequestion but is interesting nevertheless. "Jimmy Stewart was on therun when he scored the winning goal for Reading against SouthamptonSt Mary's in the FA Cup on November 25 1893. He was in detention inthe army at Aldershot when he escaped after Reading's secretary gothis gaoler drunk." A right Royal ruse if ever there was one.
And, before we go, Hugh Gleave has one more: Anthony Boswell (alsoknown as Anthony Newton) of Southern League Division One sideWillenhall Town, was arrested earlier this year as he ran on to the pitch and later sentenced to three years for dealing in heroin and crackcocaine.
GREATEST SCORING STREAKS (2)
When, last week , we compiled the top 10 prolific scoring streaks of all time, weassumed that would be the end of the matter. We were wrong.
"I can't believe you didn't include Dixie Dean in your top 10prolific scorers," writes Glenville Williams. "In the 1927-28season he reached the unequalled record of 60 league goals in aseason with nine minutes of the final game remaining."
On 51 goals, with just three games still to play and bookies givingodds of 10,000-1 (according to the Liverpool Echo) that he wouldn'tbeat the previous record of 59 goals in a season, Dean scored twoin Everton's 3-2 victory over Aston Villa, then four in a 5-3 awaywin at Burnley, followed by all three goals in the last-day drawwith Arsenal.
Rob Moline flags up the fierce Florentine firepower of GabrielBatistuta who began the 1994-95 Serie A season with 13 goals in thefirst 11 games, having scored three in the last two of the previousseason. A person by the wonderful name of Charbel Boujaoude notonly recalls when Marco Negri flew out of the blocks with 23 goalsin Rangers' first 11 games of the 1997-98 season but also a Gersstreak from 1933-34 starring Jimmy Fleming who, having scored onceon January 6 1934, then notched twice, then nine times, and thenfive times in four consecutive weekends. That's 17 goals in 22days.
Henk de Brievenbus harks back to the 1951-52 season and southYorkshire legend 'Dreadnought' Derek Dooley of Sheffield Wednesday."Having played one game in each of the 1949-50 and 1950-51 seasons,Derek was given another chance for the Owls in October 1951,knocked in a couple of goals against Barnsley but then went anothercouple of games without scoring," recalls Henk. "The manager [EricTaylor] stuck with him and Dooley paid him back in the next game[only his sixth as a pro] embarking on a run of 1-5-2-2-2-2-3-1-4."
"At the risk of finally outing myself as an anorak of the firstorder, I seem to recall there was a huge amount of suspicion overthe Rodion Camataru streak," writes Duncan Kesseler of one of ourcontenders last week.
The suspicions surround Romania's meddling, oppressive Ceause