Football

Claudia Beckford asked:


The recent news regarding the retired Italian footballer Gianfranco Zola becoming the new West Ham United manager has brought many smiles and positive thoughts to the English team fans.  

Zola’s professional career background is very extend as he played for many senior Italian clubs including; Napoli, Parma and Cagliari but he spent his longest period outside Italy when he played for Chelsea from 1996 to 2003 where he achieved with the team two FA Cup victories, one League cup win in 1998, one UEFA Cup win and the 1998 European Super Cup besides being voted as Chelsea’s greatest player ever.

At the press conference with the London media Zola was very happy with his new task with the Blues and he expressed that “Football is joy. The best part of the game comes when you are enjoying what you’re doing,” he said. “So my first target will be to make it as enjoyable as possible for the players.”

He also pressed on the issue that his 20-year of experience have make him believe in playing offensive football as well as trust the hard work and a deep commitment but the most important thing is to make the players feel comfortable among each other and the possibility to talk openly as a group with a common goal.

Besides the Italian other candidates were also interviewed for the position, along some of the names mentioned there were; the Italian Roberto Donadoni as well as the Croatian Coach Slaven Bilic and John Collins, but at the end the Blues chose Zola who became West Ham’s twelfth manager with a three year contract. The former 42-year-old Italian forward and incredible talented striker retired only in 2005 and immediately began his coaching career back in his home land.

 

Zola’s mission ahead is not easy and he is very aware of this fact particularly due to his short experience managing clubs which has been one of the main critics he has received in the short period since the news became public. Another problem could be that the Premier League season is already on course with most English teams already in position with their moves in acquiring new players and new directors working for a common goal. 

Over the weekend West Ham’s encounter with the West Bromwich Albion did not go very well as they lost by 3 to 2, one goal difference that was a real disappointment for many fans. But let’s not forget Zola has not yet taken full charge of the team and this will happen until next week, he will then have the time to plan and guide his players in the way he trusts to be more suitable for the strategies he will implement to win this year’s title in the Premier League.



Rosa

Manu Geol asked:


Big Match programmes are those that are considered to be very widely collectable by supporters of any football club or international team. The sub-categories within this set are endless. A collector could choose to collect programmes for a specific team, country, competition, or any other weird and wonderful combination that can be imagined.

The most obvious type of Big Match is a cup final of a competition such as the FA Cup or League Cup. These collections can be limited to a certain date, depending on how ambitious you are with your collection. Another source of programmes are sponsored tournaments. Competitions such as the Autoglass Trophy, Watney Cup and Texaco Cup are a little harder to acquire and give us an interesting segment of the history of competitive football, especially when the cup is now defunct.

Programme collectors who are particularly enthusiastic about European based competitions will be interested in those printed for the European Cup, Cup Winners Cup, UEFA Cup, Intertoto Cup, European Super Cup. Those programme collectors who have a passion for non-league football would look for programmes relating to the FA Trophy, FA Vase Finals and the FA Amateur Cup Finals. In both of these categories, collectors would aim to go beyond the scope of finals, and may collected the varied styles of the semi-finals and quarter-finals programmes.

Also worth considering in this category are the programmes printed for international fixtures. British collectors will often collect the four home nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in friendlies, qualification and tournaments. Some may even decide to add a fifth nation to their collection and collect programmes for the Republic of Ireland. Of course, there are also several options within the context of international matches, when one considers Under 21, Youth and Schools level.

The proliferation of European soccer matches from the Champions League, UEFA Cup, Intertoto Cup and various others on television in recent years has increased the demand for programmes from this category of competition. There are many potential avenues to explore in this subset of programmes, such as home and away matches from a particular team’s campaign, or the involvement of British clubs within any given competition. One of the advantages of exploring this subset is the fairly recent development of these types of matches, having occurred only in the last sixty years.

All of the different sets described would make for a very interesting collection to a programme enthusiast. Due to the difficulty in obtaining match programmes from often quite remote corners of the globe for international matches, perhaps your greatest tool in acquiring additions to your collection is through programme dealers and shops. The Big Match issues will be well stocked as these are in demand from clients due to their contextual value, and potential added value they may acquire in the future. These sorts of programmes will be resalable in the future as they make up part of football history.



Elias