Narrow The Angle's Football Quiz, No. 2

So, 2013 is pretty much done, and some footballing year it's been. Two German heavyweights battled it out in the Champions League Final; Wigan won the FA Cup and got relegated; messrs Van Persie, Carrick and De Gea won the Premier League by themselves; QPR imploded and not even 'Arry could save them; and England made it to the World Cup... but then got a stinky draw and found out their first game would be played just under a mile from the sun. Ultimately though, who cares, at least we're going.

But what you really need to round off your footballing year is a well-hard football general knowledge quiz. Right? Right.

Get your colleagues and/or Twitter people involved with this if you like.

Here goes then...

QUESTIONS:

Q1: Which TWO players did Tottenham Hotspur sign from Hertha Berlin during the 2007/8 season?

Q2: Who is the only Scotsman with multiple Premier League hat-tricks?

Q3: Whose career progression is this: Odd Grenland, Stabaek, RB Salzburg, West Brom, Augsburg.

Q4: Who was Everton's caretaker manager for several weeks when Joe Royle departed in 1997?

Q5: What was the original inspiration behind Lazio's decision to play in a blue-and-white strip?

Q6: Which footballing statue does this arm belong to?

Q7: Who succeeded Tony Barton as Aston Villa manager in July 1984?

Q8: Which football moment of 2013 was responsible for the biggest spike in UK Twitter activity?

Q9: What is the main link between Bobby Gould, Ian Holloway and Gerry Francis?

Q10: What is the main link between Chris Kamara, Brian Little and Alan Ball?

Q11: Who is Manchester City's all-time record player sale?

Q12: In June this year Ronaldinho launched a new product called 'Sex Free'. What was he selling?

Q13: Who or what are the following: Domagnano, Faetano, Murata, La Fiorita, Tre Penne. 

Q14: Who scored a hat-trick for Bayern Munich in a 2010 Champions League Semi-Final?

Q15: Name either of the finalists in the 1996 Cup Winners Cup Final.

Q16: In which city did Liverpool beat Alaves in the 2001 Uefa Cup Final?

Q17: Whose career progression is this: Farnborough, Barnet, Southampton, Fulham, Birmingham, Leeds, Millwall.

Q18: Which ex-footballer is being described in this sentence: "He had a Welsh mother and a Belgian father. On 19 June 1993 he married model Mandy Smith, the former wife of Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman, but they separated two years later and divorced in 1997."

Q19: Who is this former Premier League player, pictured after scoring against Arsenal in 2009?

Q20: Which Paris Saint-Germain player started the 2010 World Cup Final?

ENDS

ANSWERS:

I know it may look like there's no answers here but... I've put the answers below this paragraph, in white text. This is to make it easier to resist the temptation to cheat. If you drag your cursor you should be able to select the text and the see the answers. It's like a sort of low-rent 'Reveal' button on Ceefax...

Q1: Kevin-Prince Boateng; Gilberto
Q2: Kevin Gallagher
Q3: Somen Tchoyi
Q4: Dave Watson
Q5: The Greek flag and also the Olympic movement that came out of Greece, due to Lazio being a mixed sport club
Q6: Thierry Henry, Emirates Stadium
Q7: Graham Turner (current Shrewsbury manager)
Q8: Real Madrid knocking Man Utd out of the Champions League
Q9: They have all managed Bristol Rovers
Q10: They have all managed Stoke City
Q11: Shaun Wright-Phillips to Chelsea for £21m
Q12: Condoms
Q13: Teams from the San Marino Championship (Campionato Sammarinese di Calcio)
Q14: Ivica Olic
Q15: Paris Saint-Germain, Rapid Vienna
Q16: Dortmund
Q17: Maik Taylor
Q18: Pat Van Den Hauwe
Q19: Vladimir Weiss (then of Manchester City)
Q20: Gregory van der Wiel

Thanks for playing - Merry Christmas!

An interesting infographic (if that's not an oxymoron) about Euro 2012

Euro 2012: it's going to be way
better than the rather creepy
logo would have you believe.

A chap I don't know called 'Jonas' from a gambling affiliate site emailed me about this Euro 2012 infographic that he and his affiliate buddies have made (see below).

Ninety-nine times out of a hundred I roll my eyes when I get something like this, but at least Jonas's email was courteous and didn't start with some ludicrous opening gambit like "Hey, how are you today? Hope you're having a great day!" In fact, he only used one cliché in his entire email, which was mildly refreshing.

So since his email was alright, I gave it the time of day and actually read it [spammers note, I will still delete most of your nonsense without reading it, so don't get your hopes up].

It turns out that his infographic is reasonably interesting for those of us planning to have a few bets during this summer's tournament.

Obviously, like all infographics these days, it's hoping to sell or get you to do something. In this case, it's hoping to drive traffic to Jonas's website. But that's obviously optional. If you want to just look at the infographic, indulge in its pretty patterns and statistics, and then click it away - as indeed I did - then fill your boots.

I can't vouch for the quality of Jonas's website because I haven't had more than a cursory glance at it. It's an affiliate site, so you know what you're going to get. Lots of links to deposit with bookmakers, and if you deposit then the affiliate website gets a cut. That's how these things work. If you're lucky then you get some decent content too, but I'm unable to comment on the quality of the content on Jonas's site because I haven't read it. Notice I'm not giving it a name-check, lest I get emails from people saying "I think you have a vested interest in that site!" I don't. I'm not really a fan of affiliate websites because for every good one there are several dozen crap ones.

But taking the infographic on its merits as a standalone thing, it's pretty good as a punter's tool ahead of the tournament. You're safe to click it to enlarge it to full size, though I should note that the text link below it is theirs not mine, and takes you to their site.

  
  

Provided courtesy of the Euro Betting Weblog

Narrow The Angle's Football Quiz, No. 1

Well, as the footballing 2010 draws to a close and a new year of hope, optimism and lots of Ian Holloway looms into view, I thought I'd bring the curtain down on this blog for the year with a taxing little football quiz for you anoraks out there. I've had a very pleasant afternoon with my Rothmans annual and have come up with this for you. I've put the answers at the end, but frankly, if you skip straight to the answers without trying to guess them first, you may wish to consider a career working for FIFA, you sneaky so-and-so. No peeking! Right, here goes, I'll start with a toughie...

1) Who was Fulham manager in between Kevin Keegan (1998-99) and Jean Tigana (2000-03)?

2) Who were the top goalscorers (in all competitions) in all four divisions in the 2009/10 season?

3) Who did Cardiff City beat over two legs in the Championship play-off semi final, before losing to Blackpool at Wembley?

4) As we begin a new decade, Arsenal have had just five managers in the previous three decades. Two of them are, of course, Arsene Wenger (1996-present) and George Graham (1986-95). Who are the other three?

5) Carlisle United's player-coach is one of the most dynamic and industrious midfielders to grace the Football League in recent seasons. Name him.

6) What was unique about Torquay United's goal difference in the 2009/10 season?

7) According to Rothmans, who is Ipswich Town's all-time record signing, from which team and what was the fee involved?

8) In 2009/10 season, five teams in the top four divisions won fewer than two league games away from home. How many can you name?

9) Sheffield United have just appointed Micky Adams as manager. Who is the only other manager in their history with a five-letter firstname and five-letter surname?

10) In the opening match of the 2010 African Cup of Nations, Angola lead Mali 4-0 with 11 minutes left on the clock. What happened next? Why was this apparently bad news for one English university student?

11) True or false? Jimmy Bullard has scored more than five goals in a season just once in his career.

12) Who is this Wolves assistant manager, pictured here with Mick McCarthy?

13) Bolton Wanderers signed Bulgarian winger Martin Petrov in the summer. How many of his five previous clubs can you name?

14) Two members of the current Stoke City squad have the colour blue in their national flag. Who are they, and what are their nationalities? Note: I have discounted Diego Arismendi (Uruguay) as he is on a season-long loan to Barnsley. There are two others.

15) Name the six different sponsors that the League Cup has had in its history.

Scroll down below this completely random Panini sticker of John Aldridge in his Oxford United days for the answers...

ANSWERS

1) Paul Bracewell.
2) Didier Drogba, Peter Whittingham, Rickie Lambert, Lee Hughes.
3) Leicester City.
4) Terry Neill (1976-83), Don Howe (1984-86) and Bruce Rioch (1995-96).
5) Graham Kavanagh.
6) They were the only side in all four divisions to finish in the bottom half with a positive goal difference. They ended up with a goal difference of +9 in 17th place in League Two.
7) Matteo Sereni, £5 million from Sampdoria (August 2001).
8) Fulham, West Ham, Burnley, Hull, Gillingham. (Doesn't say much for the quality of last season's Premier League, does it?)
9) Steve Bruce (1998-99).
10) Mali scored on 79, 88, 90+3 and 90+4 minutes to draw 4-4. The English university student allegedly bet £4,400 (with the score at 4-0) that Angola would win the game. The odds were 1.01, so he stood to win just £44 profit from his £4,400 stake.
11) True.
12) Former Leeds, Brighton and Portsmouth striker Terry Connor.
13) CSKA Sofia, Servette, Wolfsburg, Atletico Madrid, Manchester City.
14) Asmir Begovic (Bosnia) and Eidur Gudjohnsen (Iceland).
15) Carling, Worthington, Coca-Cola, Rumbelows, Littlewoods, Milk.

Hope that got the old grey matter working. If people like it, I'll do another one sometime. Happy new year everyone. Hope your team rips it up in 2011.

You, me and Rothmans

This week, it was with no small amount of delight that I took delivery of this season's Sky Sports Football Yearbook  (or 'Rothmans' as all football fans still refer to it). I haven't had one for a long time - not since my teens - and had forgotten what a pleasure it is to leaf through its thin, cheap pages.

Reassuringly still edited by father and daughter team Jack and Glenda Rollin, it does a brilliant job of reminding you all the stuff from previous seasons that you'd forgotten about - particularly the most recent season.

But what it's even better at is alerting you to interesting (depending on your definition of 'interesting') facts and stats that you'd completely missed.

In an attempt to prove how gloriously nerdy, fascinating and useful this book is, I am setting myself the challenge of finding one interesting nugget of information every three minutes, for thirty minutes, and then I'll report back on what I discover. Ok here goes...

As Fist of Fun's Simon Quinlank used to say in the 1990s, "You may drink your weak lemon drink now."

1. I had no idea that the following four individuals had all managed Doncaster Rovers: Lawrie McMenemy (68-71), Billy Bremner (78-85 and 89-91), Dave Mackay (87-89), Kerry Dixon (96-97).
2. The 1950 FA Charity Shield was contested between, bizarrely, the "World Cup Team" versus "Canadian Touring Team". What the heck? Anyway, the Canadians went down 4-2. 
3. Chelsea goalkeeper Hilario scored two goals in one season, playing for Academica in the Portuguese league.
4. Celtic once lost 8-0 to Motherwell.
5. Sir Alf Ramsey managed Birmingham from 1977-78 - how did I not know this? (Incidentally, Birmingham's managerial history features some cracking names including: Billy Beer, Bob Brocklebank and Roberts McRoberts.
6. On 17 December 2009, Lazio hosted Levski in Europa League Group G. The score was a shock 0-1 victory for Levski. More surprising is the recorded attendance in Rome that night: 3,000. Youtube footage suggests most of these were Levski fans. Anyone know where the Lazio fans were that night?
7. Milton Keynes Dons, a team formed as recently as 2004, mysteriously has a managerial history dating back to 1955 including Dave Bassett, Bobby Gould and Joe Kinnear. I assume this is a mis-print, right? 
8. In a nod to the modern world, crusty old Rothmans now lists on each club's entry the official email address you should use if you want to contact the club. Most, rather boringly, have "info@clubname" style corporate email address. Not Swindon though. If you want to get in touch with Swindon, you have to email "Brian P". Rothmans says so.
9. Wing-half George Farrow completed five years in all four Football League divisions in 1936 after a spell at Second Division Blackpool followed spells at Wolves (Div 1), Bournemouth (Div 3 South) and Stockport (Div 3 North).
10. Since WWII, total attendance figures for England's top division have always been above 10 million, with the exception of the period 1982-1993, when they were consistenly below this number, dropping as low as 7.8 million. In fairness, football was quite rubbish during this period.

So there's 10 quickfire reasons why Rothmans is a geeky delight. This genuinely was researched under timed conditions - this stuff is everywhere once you start flicking through. I'll find a thousand more little nuggets like this over the course of the season no doubt, with Rothmans always in easy grabbing distance from the sofa.

If anyone's interested, here's a gallery of the first 30 years of Rothmans covers. 1986/87 is a belter. 

Go on, admit it, your inner nerd is itching to head over to a famous rivery-sounding online bookshop isn't it? If it's not, then I'm sorry I've wasted your time and I'll let you get back to listening to Talksport.