Two Men, One Guv’nor: Paul Ince at Liverpool

As he sat in Massimo Moratti’s office in the summer of 1997, Paul Ince’s stock had never been higher. Viewed by Alex Ferguson purely as a neat and tidy holding midfielder, his desire for a more expansive midfield role dismissed as the delusions of a “f**king Big Time Charlie”, he’d spent two seasons in Serie A proving his former manager wrong. His committed, driving box-to-box displays for Internazionale had established him as a firm favourite with the Nerazzurri, and he’d shone too for England at Euro ’96. Now, Moratti painted him a picture of a glittering future for Inter, having just broken the world transfer record to sign Ronaldo. Ince, however, had a bombshell for the President. He wanted to go home.

Boys of Sammer: East Germany’s Last Hurrah

On 9th November 1989, the players of the East German national team were tucked away in a Viennese training camp, focused on one of the biggest games in the country’s history, just six days away. A point in Austria would take the GDR to Italia ’90, only their second ever appearance at a World Cup finals. It was a squad talented enough to make an impression too, with a midfield featuring the cultured likes of Thomas Doll and captain Matthias Sammer, and a potent strike force of Ulf Kirsten and future Celtic star Andreas Thom. As the players sought to relax after a hard afternoon’s training, someone turned the TV on. And suddenly, the World Cup didn’t seem quite so important…

‘El Duelo’: Argentina, Brazil and the Second Battle of Santiago

1991 was a vintage year for cup finals. On the same day in May, Spurs overcame Paul Gascoigne’s career-altering meltdown to deny Brian Clough the one domestic trophy that had evaded him, while the dugouts at Hampden contained more McLeans than a toothpaste factory as Motherwell pipped Dundee United 5-4 in the enthralling ‘Brothers’ Final’. The European Cup Final was a notorious, unexpected dud, but it did at least see the overdue crowning of a worthy Red Star side, just as their country was torn apart by civil war. Manchester United marked the return of English clubs to Europe by claiming the Cup Winners’ Cup with a fine victory over Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona, more than making up for their shock Rumbelows Cup defeat to second-tier Sheffield Wednesday – a triumph so prestigious that Yorkshire TV binned off the trophy presentation to screen War of the Monster Trucks instead…

Cruising at 12,000ft: Bolivia’s Golden Generation

Within the grand holy temple of South American football, the Bolivian game barely gets its own pew.

“We’re having a spiffing party”: The chaos of Barnsley’s Premier League season

The window between Euro ’96 and France ’98 was something of a coming out party for the Premier League. Previously considered little more than a retirement home for the big names, it was now able to attract international stars at their peak – your Zolas, your Overmars, your Ravanellis – and had produced some genuine glitz of its own in the form of young stars like David Beckham and Michael Owen.
It was into this increasingly glossy, glittery melange that a Yorkshire cannonball was fired in the summer of 1997.

Bah, Homburg: Bayern Munich’s Miserable 1991-92

Germany positively pulsed with feelgood factor at the dawn of the 1990s, the glow of reunification only brightening when the imperious West German Mannschaft enjoyed a mighty last hurrah at Italia ’90. Having wrapped up the 80s with back-to-back Bundesliga titles, FC Bayern were characteristically confident of dominating the 20^th Century’s final decade.

10 Nineties Football Gems on YouTube

Fall down a rabbit hole with these hidden treasures from the first half of the decade…

‘We’re not all arseholes in the Conference’: Bad blood between Newcastle and Stevenage

The temptation to sound the Ronnie Radford bugle is always going to prove irresistible to football writers and broadcasters whenever an FA Cup draw pairs Newcastle with a non-league club. Sure enough, the build for this fourth round tie initially ticked off all the usual tropes. Inevitably, the cost of the entire Stevenage side (£30,000) was compared to that of £15m man and recently deposed World’s Most Expensive Player Alan Shearer, while naturally, the Conference players had to be routinely patronised for having day jobs. “Aww, that one’s a painter-decorator! Look at the adorable delivery van driver! Eh Martin, get a picture of me with this foundry supervisor!”

Stevenage Borough, however, were not prepared to conform to the cuddly underdog stereotype, and relations between David and Goliath dissolved amid a hilariously unseemly squabble that somehow dragged in rival managers and Jeremy Paxman…

20 Things Everyone Remembers From France ’98

France ’98 never seems to get much love when great World Cups are talked about, even within the confines of its own decade.

The 10 Most Partridge Moments from Glenn Hoddle’s 1998 World Cup Diary

One thing that was lost in the furore that followed the publication of the England manager’s incendiary World Cup Diary was the picture Hoddle inadvertently paints of himself – that of a man one travel tavern and a toblerone addiction away from being North Norfolk’s premier disc jockey. Here are some particularly Alanesque sections…