About Hugo Greenhalgh

Hugo is co-founder and editor of The False Nine and a contributor to When Saturday Comes, In Bed With Maradona, Late Tackle and the Arsenal Collective. He can be found following his favourite clubs: Arsenal and Dulwich Hamlet.

Ghana’s Albert Adomah & the World Cup’s Non-League Connections

wpid-Albert-Adomah-made-thd-provisional-Ghana-squad-for-the-2014-World-CupTFN’s Hugo Greenhalgh profiles Middlesbrough’s Albert Adomah and looks at the other players with non-league connections at this World Cup…

Ghana’s squad for this World Cup might be one of the youngest at the tournament but it still features some illustrious names from Europe’s top leagues. In Michael Essien and Sulley Muntari they possess two Champions League winners with nearly 140 caps between them, while Kevin-Prince Boateng, André Ayew and Kwadwo Asamoah have been recent regulars in the competition.  Yet alongside stars such as these, there are a couple of players who started their careers in England’s non-league.

Albert Adomah currently plays for Middlesbrough but he started out at another ‘Boro, five divisions lower, in the Isthmian Premier with Harrow Borough FC. Adomah used to have kickabouts with his local street wardens when he was a teenager and they encouraged him to play for a Sunday team. This lead to trials at Harrow Borough, in North West London, who Adomah signed for while he continued to take a painting and decorating course at a local college. Continue reading

Lambert to Liverpool and 12 other big moves for British veterans

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Following Rickie Lambert’s move to Liverpool, we remember 12 other experienced British players who signed for big clubs…

Who are your favourite Indian Summer signings? Which twilight moves did we miss out that deserved to make our list? Let us know in the comments below.

David Platt, Sampdoria to Arsenal, 1995

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Best remembered for his volley against Belgium in the 1990 World Cup, David Platt shot to continental acclaim in the early 90s as a goal-scoring midfielder.  After spells at Bari and Juventus, Platt spent two seasons at Sampdoria under Sven-Goran Eriksson. Having just signed Dennis Bergkamp for £7.5 million, Arsenal manager Bruce Rioch swooped to bring in Platt (then 29) for a further £4.75 million to add some attacking flair. Rioch was sacked after one season but Platt was used by Arsene Wenger as an experienced head to play alongside a 20-year-old Patrick Vieria in midfield. He featured mostly from the bench in the Double-winning season of 1997-8 but did score the crucial winner in the 3-2 victory against Manchester United at Highbury. Hugo Greenhalgh
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Five Belgians staking a late claim for the 2014 World Cup

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TFN’s Hugo Greenhalgh picks five young Belgians who could yet find themselves on the plane to Brazil this summer…

1. Thorgan Hazard (Zulte Waregem, on loan from Chelsea, 20)

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As Eden continues to cement his reputation as one of the Premier League’s brightest stars, brother Thorgan is making waves of his own. Indeed, Francky Dury, his coach at Zulte Waregem, declared last week, “He is no longer Eden’s brother. He is Thorgan Hazard in his own right”. Now in his second season on loan at the Belgian side, Hazard was recently awarded the Golden Show Award for the best player in the League. Continue reading

Why Jermain Defoe’s MLS move makes perfect sense

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TFN’s Hugo Greenhalgh believes recent criticism aimed at Jermain Defoe is unfair…

“Live for today, plan for tomorrow, party tonight.”

Say what you like about the quality of the MLS, but the recent criticism aimed at Jermain Defoe for his move to Toronto FC seems somewhat unwarranted. The striker had been phased out at Tottenham, rarely used under Andre Villas-Boas except in the Europa League. He had fallen down the pecking order behind Roberto Soldado and more recently, a rejuvenated Emmanuel Adebayor. While a ‘little and large’ strike partnership in a 4-4-2 seems like the kind of idea that would have new manager Tim Sherwood licking his lips, it would appear that Defoe’s mind had already been made up. Money talks, as does the guarantee of first team football, but it would be crass to assume that Defoe’s move is purely avaricious.

There seems to be significant indignation that Defoe would rather play for Toronto than for another top-flight club in England. But is this ire really justified? Let’s think about which Premier League clubs Defoe would realistically start for. It’s fair to say he would be a squad player at the rest of the top ten, like he is at Spurs. In the bottom half we can assume that he could start at most, if not all. With the greatest respect to Aston Villa, Norwich, West Brom et al., what can they offer Jermain Defoe? At 31, he’s a player who probably wants a new challenge. Is the prospect of a half-season relegation battle really that desirable? Perhaps he could have been reunited with Harry Redknapp at QPR for similar money but this seems no more credible than moving to the MLS. Overall, there’s a semi-nationalistic air of pomposity that playing in the Premier League is the ‘be all and end all’, when it’s really not. Continue reading

Bayer Leverkusen, Deportivo La Coruna and the 2001-02 Champions League

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TFN’s Hugo Greenhalgh remembers two teams who left a lasting impression in the 2001-02 Champions League…

The football memories of our youth are naturally the most rose-tinted. We all remember our first World Cup and for the core group of writers behind this blog, it is France ’98. We’ll be sharing some of our favourite World Cup memories in the run-up to Brazil, but what of football’s other major tournaments? These days the Champions League has been raised to the same plinth as the World Cup and is viewed as the real test for any player worth his salt. Yet early memories of Europe’s stellar competition are somewhat complicated. While we all remember Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s winner against Bayern Munich, its context seemed confusing. What was its relevance and why was this the crown jewel in Manchester United’s treble? A few seasons on and all these questions had answers.

Champions League nights were genuinely exciting evenings and crucially they were available to watch on terrestrial television. It is almost hard to imagine a time when world football was not there to watch at our fingertips. Today it is possible to become an expert in a foreign league without leaving one’s sofa. But at the turn of the century, opportunities to watch Europe’s hottest stars were few and far between so European nights were to be made the most of. Step forward Bayer Leverkusen and Deportivo La Coruna – two sides who made the 2001/2 Champions League a memorable and enjoyable tournament. Continue reading

Aitor Karanka, Oscar Garcia and the Globalisation of the Football League

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TFN Editor Hugo Greenhalgh argues that the globalisation of the Football League can only be a good thing for the national game…

“This is a real change for our club but football is global now…and we were searching for a first-class coach”

In a year when the future of English football has been debated as intensely as ever, Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson’s comments last week made for interesting reading. Gibson was speaking to the media as he unveiled former Real Madrid assistant Aitor Karanka as Boro’s new manager. By his own admission, he was breaking out of the mould of the “little Englander” in appointing the first non-British manager to the Teesside club.  Gibson carried on, “Greg Dyke’s got his self-interest which is the FA and I’ve got my self-interest which is Middlesbrough Football Club”, referring to Dyke’s recent speech bemoaning the lack of English coaches as a contributing factor in the decline of the national game.

The FA Chairman may have had a point that the presence of foreign players and managers can stifle the progress of their English counterparts. However, if handled responsibly, a foreign influence can surely only bring benefits to England’s archaic football convention. Not only is Karanka an exciting appointment for Boro fans, it is a move that hints at a developing symbiotic relationship in Europe’s football landscape. Whilst the English leagues have much to gain from continental involvement, it would appear that European managers themselves are keen to coach in this country. Continue reading

“It was like winning the FA Cup” – Woodford United’s losing streak comes to an end

woodford picWe caught up with Woodford United manager Mitch Austin after a very memorable weekend for his football club…

After this weekend’s 2-1 victory against Blackstones FC, Woodford United ended a run of 65 successive defeats dating back to April 2012. That’s around 100 hours, or 6,000 minutes of football. Two goals from Harry Beckley were enough to see out the away win in the United Counties League (UCL) Division One which is Level 10 of the football pyramid. In the words of manager Mitch Austin, “It was like winning the FA Cup!”.

“It’s been a long time coming”, said Austin. “The club’s been in a bad place for the past 18 months.” After relegation from the Southern League last season, Woodford decided to drop down another division in hope of finding their level. Over the past year and a half, their plight has been picked up on and Andy Ollerenshaw had earmarked this fixture as a game they were capable of winning in his piece for When Saturday Comes last week. Continue reading