“Patrick Kisnorbo was recently fired at Troyes. During his coaching tenure, his record was W3 D14 L23, a meek 7.5% win record, and led his club to be relegated to Ligue 2. Yikes. Barring caretaker managers (I’d say 10 fixtures minimum), does he hold the title of worst manager in the ‘Big Five’ leagues?” mails Florian Labrouche.
It appears there are three Premier League managers with worse winning percentages, starting at Southampton in 2004-05, where Steve Wigley won just once in 14 top-flight games for a 7.1% record. Dancing down to a 5.6% record is Alan Pardew (West Brom, 2017-18), who won just once in 18 league games before getting the axe, but he’s still pipped by Terry Connor, who took charge of 13 Wolves games in 2011-12; he won none of them (0%). “The lads gave everything over the course of the season,” said Connor after Wolves were relegated from the Premier League. “It’s obvious we haven’t been good enough.”
On the spot
“Who has taken most penalties and who has the best success rate?” tweets Tony Jones.
Tony’s question is in response to news that Domenico Berardi has scored 47 of 56 penalties he’s taken in Serie A, and Tom Paternoster-Howe has risen to the challenge. “One possible answer is Matt Le Tissier,” mails Tom. “He also scored 47 goals from the 12-yard spot, but his were from only 48 attempts, a 97.9% success rate.
“Lothar Matthäus took considerably more penalties (76), but he missed nine of those (a comparatively paltry 88.2% success rate, but still notably better than Berardi’s 83.9%). Cristiano Ronaldo has apparently taken 187 penalties, scoring 158 of them, giving him a success rate of 84.5%. Some websites differ in the number they say he has scored, but it’s still streets ahead of everyone else and definitely the highest in the 21st century. I don’t know about 19th or 20th centuries, but given his longevity and the hideously unbalanced nature of La Liga, I doubt there’s anyone who has taken or scored more penalties than him.”
Mind the gap
“I follow the Swedish women’s top division, OBOS Damallsvenskan, and couldn’t help but wonder at the distance between the top and bottom half of the table this season, which saw Hammarby clinch the title,” begins Jonas Jacobson. “Early on there appeared to be a big gulf in class between the seven best teams and the seven in the bottom half, and the distance between seventh-placed FC Rosengård (champions in 2022) and eighth-placed Växjö DFF (newcomers from the second tier) was 19 points. So, naturally, I wondered: has there ever been a bigger gap between the top and bottom half of a first division table?”
Regular correspondent Chris Roe has done the leg-work on this one, in terms of answering from an English perspective. “This is a much larger gap than any examples that we have seen in the top four English leagues,” Chris begins. “Last year’s Premier League table had a gap of seven points between the 10th- and 11th-placed teams (Fulham 52 and Crystal Palace 45). This was actually the ‘best’ ever recorded in England’s top four divisions. The biggest such gap would have been nine points in the 2011-12 League Two season, had Port Vale not been deducted 10 points.”
It’s a team game
“Nine outfield players scored or assisted for Fulham in their 5-0 win over West Ham. Has a team ever had 10 or more different players do so in a single game?” asks Simon Phillips.
“I’ve done my research, gone through my files, dug deep into the recesses of Premier League history and yes, Newcastle had 10 players either score or assist in their 8-0 win over Sheffield United. That was a game with eight different scorers, which obviously helps, plus assists from Kieran Trippier and Elliott Anderson to bring it to the magic 10. Chelsea did it too in 2012, when they thumped Villa out of sight, with only seven different goalscorers that time.
“Going back a bit further, Liverpool managed the same in 1989 against Crystal Palace. Steve Nicol was the only player to net twice, John Aldridge came off the bench to make it 6-0 the day before he moved to Real Sociedad, and even Glenn Hysen got a goal to remind Liverpool fans that he was pretty good in his first season before he was very terrible after that. The only outfield player who managed 90 minutes without scoring or assisting was Alan Hansen, who retired shortly afterwards, presumably in shame.”
Knowledge archive
“What’s the story behind Dutch striker Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink’s unusually area-specific name?” asked David Atkinson back in 2004.
According to our research, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink was thus named because, way back in the 17th century, two farming families in the Enschede area of Holland intermarried. Both the Vennegoor and Hesselink names carried equal social weight, and so – rather than choose between them – they chose to use both. “Of” in Dutch actually translates to “or”, which would mean that a strict translation of his name would read Jan Vennegoor or Hesselink.
Can you help?
“A few weeks ago, I was driving home to Stockport from an insipid loss away to Wigan in the [checks internet] Bristol Street Motors Trophy, and in less than a hour, we saw while driving past; the DW Stadium, Bolton’s ground (still the Reebok to me), the AJ Bell Stadium, and finally Stockport County’s Edgeley Park,” writes Paul Jamieson. “Which got me thinking. What would be the shortest driving route whereby you could lay your eyes on at least one stadium from clubs from each of the top five men’s divisions in England? I’ve done almost zero work on this, but my first thought was around Greater Manchester: Oldham, Stockport County, Manchester United, and Bolton, on the way up to Preston. Google Maps has that route as being 1 hour and 32 minutes. Can this be beaten? Perhaps around London? What about other countries?”
In the 16 fixtures between Gillingham and Crawley, there have been 7 red cards issued. Has any fixture had a higher percentage of reds to games than 44%?
— James (@jamesv_t) January 2, 2024
“Looking at the foot of the Championship, I see Rotherham and Sheffield Wednesday in danger of the drop, with Huddersfield on the precipice,” mails Wayne Charlton. “What is the most local triumvirate of clubs that have been relegated or indeed promoted in the past?”
What is the earliest time of the year that a goal has been scored in top-flight competition or international football? Has a goal been scored just after the clock strikes midnight?
— Taufiq A. Utomo (@taufiqutomo) January 2, 2024
“After Chris Wood’s treble for Forest at Newcastle, just under a year from being transferred, what is the shortest period of time that a former a player has returned to their former club and scored a hat-trick?” wonders Masai Graham.
With Lee Johnson having already been sacked twice this season (by Hibs and Fleetwood), what is the record number of times a manager has been sacked in a season?
— Ralph Neville (@RNevofficial) January 2, 2024
“Roberto Mancini has the opportunity to win the AFC Asian Cup next month with Saudi Arabia, having won Euro 2020,” notes Teng Kiat. “Is there any coach who has won two or more different continental championships (including the corresponding women’s tournaments)?”
In Indonesian Liga 3, Sukur FC started their match against Josal FC with only 7 players because the college students that compose the team are having exams on the day of the match. Have there been other cases where teams start with less than 11 players? https://t.co/Fb6oT4I4MK
— Taufiq A. Utomo (@taufiqutomo) December 20, 2023
Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU. Festive special next week
