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Written by Ian Shine
As if Newcastle United weren’t making fools enough of themselves already by signing Kevin Nolan and sitting 18th in the Premiership, they’ve now decided to ban a reporter dubbed “Mr Newcastle” from St James’ Park.
According to Hold the Front Page Alan Oliver was banned for saying that Joe Kinnear suffered a health setback after undergoing heart bypass surgery last month.
As if that weren’t ridiculous enough it also transpires that Oliver had just days before received a lifetime achievement award for his coverage of the club over the past 30 years.
What’s wrong with a bit of trivia? Sure, it’s shallow, baseless knowledge. Sure, it’s often imparted by self-aggrandising people with a satisfied nod, as if to say ‘Aren’t I f**king smart’.
Well, some of them are smart. And some of it is interesting.
Peter Beardsley recently conquered a phobia of swimming.
The 90Minutes team had their shot at picking an England team, but it appears Fabio Capello isn’t a regular reader. The England manager’s side was different to that put forward by every one of our writers.
Other than Matthew Upson replacing the injured Rio Ferdinand, Capello sent out what you can assume is his ideal starting line-up (see below) for the game against Ukraine on Wednesday. But with the misfortune of Emile Heskey, Carlton Cole and Peter Crouch getting injured, his plans may have to change.
Watching Enzo Zidane pirouette his way through the Barcelona youth team, it’s difficult not to draw comparisons with his old man. And 5-year-old Daniel Maldini is clearly a chip off the old block as he demonstrates a perfectly timed sliding tackle on Clarence Seedorf.
However, not everyone is so lucky in the hereditary stakes. Some of the fruit of the greatest footballers’ loins have every right to feel somewhat shortchanged.
White Hart Lane has long been a source of humour to the impartial observer, but the late 90s was a high watermark.
There was Christian Gross and his London underground ‘ticket to the dreams’, a pre-‘Sir’ Alan Sugar struggling to juggle a failing club with a crumbling Amstrad empire, all coupled with the fans’ customary hubris. A heady mixture of farce.
Much like today, the club was characterised by a succession of over-priced, over-paid signings failing to deliver anything resembling ‘the goods’. But amongst names such as Chris Armstrong, Jose Dominguez, Ruel Fox and Paolo Tramezzani, there was one whose poor performances stood out above the rest. That man was Ramon Vega.