“With Martin Dubravka having a glove in both camps at the Carabao Cup final, I wondered if any player has appeared for both a relegated and a champion/promoted side in the same season?” tweets @AgaTieFan.
Every loser wins
Once the dream begins
So sang EastEnders pin-up Nick Berry in his winter 1986 chart-topper, an epic, piano-driven meditation on Kipling’s two imposters. At about the same time, the young midfielder Kevin Langley was enjoying a dream first season with Everton, having signed from Wigan. He made 16 appearances in their title-winning campaign, scoring two important goals early on – but then the mighty Peter Reid returned from injury and he was loaned to Manchester City just before the transfer deadline in March 1987. Different times, and not just because there was a transfer deadline in March: City were a minor shambles who went on to be relegated. (That’s the subject of another popular Knowledge question.)
The story almost had a strange twist when Langley went to Goodison Park with City at the start of May. Everton needed to win to clinch the title; it was also possible, depending on results elsewhere, for City’s relegation to be confirmed. Instead Langley helped City to an honourable, if ultimately futile goalless draw.
Langley joined City on a permanent deal in the summer but soon moved on to Birmingham, via a loan spell at Chester. He did at least play enough games for Everton in 1986-87 to earn a winners’ medal, which wasn’t the case for our next answer.
“Tony Agana started the 1991-92 season at Sheffield United in the old Division One,” writes James Kirk. “He signed for Notts County in November and then joined Leeds on loan in February, playing twice for the eventual champions [and being selected ahead of Eric Cantona in the second of those games – Knowledge Ed]. Notts County were relegated while the Blades finished ninth. So he turned out for the champions, a mid-table team and a relegated side all in the same season. To put the icing on the cake, he also managed to score against both Notts County and Leeds while at Sheffield United.”
And so the 21st century, where these peculiar tales are still being told. “This happened as recently as last season,” offers Paul Wilson. “Siriki Dembélé started 2021-22 at Peterborough, playing 25 times, before being signed by Bournemouth, where he made 13 appearances. At the end of the season, Peterborough were relegated from the Championship and Bournemouth were promoted to the Premier League.”
In 2013-14, the Brazilian striker Léo Baptistão made five La Liga appearances for his parent club Atlético Madrid, who broke possibly the strongest duopoly in football history by winning the Spanish title, before going on loan to Real Betis after Christmas. You can work out the rest.
The following season, Loïc Rémy took the opposite journey: he made two league appearances for QPR before joining the eventual champions Chelsea. And in 2010-11, James Beattie appeared for both Rangers (Scottish champions) and Blackpool (relegated from the Premier League).
And finally, an interesting variation on the original question.
One better than that (sort of): Mark Lawrenson suffered a career-ending injury during the 1987-88 season but had played enough games to qualify for a League winner's medal. He took over as Oxford United manager later the same season, taking them down to Division Two.
— Mike (@themikeslattery) February 28, 2023
He’ll take good care of you
“Antonio Conte is among the nominees for February’s manager of the month award,” tweets @khaa76. “Cristian Stellini was on the touchline for all three of Spurs’ league victories, which made me wonder: has a caretaker ever been the Premier League manager of the month?”
This has happened more often than we expected, so let’s proceed directly to some list-based information:
Stuart Pearce (Nottingham Forest, January 1997) Pearce was appointed caretaker when Frank Clark was sacked in December 1996. After a brilliant start, the new-manager bounce stopped and Forest were relegated.
Phil Thompson (Liverpool, November 2001) Thompson took charge while Gérard Houllier recovered from emergency heart surgery. He also shared the award with the returning Houllier in March 2002.
Stuart Pearce (Manchester City, April 2005) Pearce took over when Kevin Keegan left in March 2005. He won the award in both April and May 2005, though by the time he received the latter award he had been given the job full-time.
Darren Moore (West Bromwich Albion, April 2018) Moore stepped in when Alan Pardew was sacked and was soon given the job on a permanent basis.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær (Manchester United, January 2019) For Alan Pardew, read José Mourinho.
Mike Jackson (Burnley, April 2022) And for Jose Mourinho, read Sean Dyche. But Burnley were relegated after taking only one point from four games in May.
We’ve probably missed somebody. If so, email us or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.
Unlikely supporters’ clubs (2)
In last week’s Knowledge, we looked at some of the more unlikely foreign supporters’ clubs. There are always more …
“My team, Lisburn Distillery, currently of the NIFL Premier Intermediate League (the third tier of the Northern Ireland Football League), have a Scandinavian supporters’ club,” writes Peter Abram. “It was formed in March 2010 in Norway and boasts around 50 members from all over Scandinavia. More details here.”
“I thought I’d mention the support for League of Ireland side Drogheda United, from fans of Trabzonspor in Trabzon, Turkey,” adds Donal Flynn, whose knowledge is even mpre impressive given he’s a Cork City fan. “A couple of articles explaining the link can be found on RTE and the Drogs website.”.”
@TheKnowledge_GU For your "unlikely supporters clubs", can I offer @suttonunited's wonderful supporters clubs in Brazil (@SuttonUnitedBR) and the United States (@SuttonUnitedUSA)?
— FishingForBoots (@fishing4boots) March 6, 2023
“How about a supporters club for a club no longer in existence?” mails Michael Woulfe. “Bury FC: a group of Norwegian supporters still run their Twitter and Facebook accounts.”
Knowledge archive
“Has a player ever scored without wearing a boot?” asked Chris O’Sullivan back in 2008.
“This happened to the great Danish striker Preben Elkjær,” began Copenhagen resident Troels Halgreen. “One of his first games upon being sold to Hellas Verona in 1984 was against Juventus. Elkjær was running down the left wing with the ball when he lost his right boot; he kept running and ended up shooting home with his bootless right foot. Verona went on to win the game 2-0, before going on to claim the Scudetto for the first time.”
“The once-great Paul Gascoigne was already so good by 1988 that he could score in north London derbies sans footwear,” recalled Mark Buttery. “It had been taken off him by a clumsy combination of Nigel Winterburn and John Lukic at White Hart Lane. Unfortunately for Spurs fans, he wasn’t yet good enough to prevent his team getting beaten 3-2 by their neighbours.”
Kenneth Aitchison remembered Hearts’ Sandy Clark losing his boot in a tackle during a 3-2 Scottish Cup win over Rangers in 1986, but carrying on to find the back of the net. And Carlos Machado noted that “Brazilian legend Leonidas da Silva, the ‘Black Diamond’, scored against Poland in the 1938 World Cup finals having lost his boots during extra-time”.
But it would have been remiss of us to forget the Indian national team, who qualified for the 1950 World Cup finals with their entire team going bootless. Spoilsport Fifa suits then forced them to withdraw from the tournament because the players were not allowed to play in bare feet.
Can you help?
“Alex Neil’s Stoke won 5-1 at Sunderland last weekend. Earlier in the season, Alex Neil’s Sunderland won 1-0 at Stoke. Has a manager ever ‘done the double’ in this way before?” wonders Phil Boyle.
i was a bit late last week, so this: https://t.co/6jDiGPefUa
— Хардкуна Матата (@sviraman) March 7, 2023
“QPR were top of the Championship on 24 October. At the time of writing, they are 20th. What’s the latest point in a season that a relegated team has topped the table?” asks Andrew Tracey.
@TheKnowledge_GU Arsenal played a first XI that didn't feature a player who played under Wenger for the first time since 1986. What's the record? Alex Ferguson (1974-now), Tony Waddington at Stoke? Dario Grady at Crewe? Tom Watson at Liverpool maybe?
— Paul Savage (@comedysavage) March 6, 2023
“Jim Goodwin has taken over at Dundee United. His first game was against Aberdeen, the club who sacked him on 28 January. Have any other managers faced clubs who sacked them in their first game, and has anyone done it in fewer than 35 days?” wonders David King.
@TheKnowledge_GU Man United conceded 7 goals in the space of 46 minutes on Sunday, or every 6 and a half minutes. Has any top flight team conceded as many as 7 at such a rate, and what is the record rate for 4, 5, 6 etc goals conceded?
— Omar Chaudhuri (@OmarChaudhuri) March 6, 2023
“Second-tier side Annecy are into the Coupe de France semi-finals after beating Marseille on penalties, following previous shootout wins over Belfort and Paris FC,” notes Niall McVeigh. “Can any team beat three consecutive wins on penalties in one Cup run?”
@TheKnowledge_GU Southampton XI on Saturday included Maitland-Niles, Bella-Kotchap, Walker-Peters, and Ward-Prowse. Has an English team ever had more than 15 names in their starting lineup?
— Ben Jones (@unholysmoke) March 5, 2023
“Middlesbrough and Hartlepool have only met once competitively, yet are 15 miles apart by road. Are there any lesser-spotted derbies involving two teams who are so close geographically?” muses Adrian Burns.
Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.
