Won't Get Fooled Again?

So yesterday it was that time of year when everyone's a "prankster", you awake bleary eyed after one to many down the The Dog Inn  (our local hostelry) to be confronted by newspapers and TV channels spouting dubious nonsense that for the rest of the year we wouldn't have a problem believing, Ronaldo being sold to Spain? Fulham player's performing the moonwalk as a goal celebration in memory of the chairman's mate Wacko Jacko? West Ham & Spurs ground sharing the Olympic stadium? In the office The Midweeker had more tricks up his sleeve than Paul Daniels, from exploding fags to plastic vomit that nearly saw poor Edison recreate one of his own. But sometimes as we've discovered the truth is far more interesting than fiction....

  More than meats the eye....

With transfer fees already rocketing even back as far as 2006 maybe this is the way forward for football? Romania defender Marius Cioara was transferred for 15kg of sausages between Romanian Fourth Division teams UT Arad & Regal Hornia, to make matters worse after get fed up with too many sausage related jokes he retired from football the very next day and became a farmer in Spain! UT Arad demanded their sausages back and left Regal Hornia without meals for their team for the day.....

Meanwhile back in 2002 Norwegian striker Kenneth Kristensen was sold by league rivals Vindbjart to Floey for his own weight in shrimps!

Although maybe not food related it is sometimes the norm in this country when a non league player signs onto a league team, Ian Wright went from Greenwich Borough to Crystal Palace for a set of weights, while tracksuits or kits seem to be the main form of currency with Zat Knight, Tony Cascarino, Gary Pallister & John Barnes all being exchanged for some kits, ball and netting!

                                           Thank you & good Knighton

Those fans of a certain age will remember the scenes at Old Trafford before the first game of the '89/90 season against Arsenal, some moustached goon in full training gear ran onto the pitch during the pre-match warm up, did a few keepy ups, waved at the fans & volleyed the ball into the empty net. This wasn't one of those cheeky scallies who'd somehow blagged their way onto the hallowed turf though (see Karl Power for that), this was Michael Knighton. Knighton had agreed a deal with then Chief Executive Martin Edwards to buy Man U for £20 million pounds and had promised to take the club back to the as yet rediscovered Glory Days. Whether he had the money or not was debatable but apparently the investors he did have pulled out and the deal never came to fruition. He could be dismissed as a fame seeking charlatan with a dream of scoring at the Stretford End (which he did) and the team & kit man certainly got a shock when he appeared in the dressing room pre-game and asked for a kit, but he did go onto buy United albeit of the Carlisle variety. Still a bit of a cult hero and for that day only he had the Manchester Utd faithful in the palm of his hands. In a world of "what if's" had the takeover been successful we wouldn't have even heard of the Glazer family.
                                               

Football Crazy

• Other "you couldn't make it up" moments came courtesy of (amongst others) mad Chelsea owner Ken Bates who introduced electric fencing to Stamford Bridge back in 1985 after it's success on his farm controlling his cattle, the planned move was rejected by the GLC and the Bradford City stadium fire finally put paid to Bates crazy plans.

• During the World Cup of 1930 with the USA team being roughed up by the Argentinians during one game,  the American  trainer ran onto the pitch to have a go at the ref, throwing his medical bag to the floor so hard that it broke open a bottle of chloroform and knocked him spark out!

• Leroy Rosenior surely became the shortest serving manager in English Football when he took over at Torquay Utd in 2007, he lasted all of 10 minutes, the club was on the verge of a take over at the time and with the new owners in place their chose instead to go for Paul Buckle as the Gaffer!

• Back in the '70s of a Saturday Evening we'd settle down to watch highlights of the day's First Division football with the help of long chinned pundit Jimmy Hill, but during one game at which the ex-Coventry chairman was a mere spectator the linesman was unable to take his flag due to a calf injury, with this being before the advent of fourth officials the call went out for a qualified referee. Up stepped Hill who after changing into a track suit proceeded to run the line for the whole game! Imagine Andy Gray or Alan Hansen doing that......

• The geordie joker Gazza's infamous antics included, arriving at a Hampstead Pub an hour after playing for England still dressed in full kit ( including boots). Booking a series of sun bed sessions for black Newcastle team mate Tony Cunningham. During Italia '90 he was often found playing tennis out in the scorching midday sun, once got on a double decker bus in London asked the driver if he could have a go & promptly drove it down Oxford Street while still full of passengers and  finally while an apprentice at Newcastle Utd took home Kevin Keegan's boots to show his mates & ended up losing them on the underground!

I hope you like that way that I've not included in the above the facts that both Micheal Ricketts & David NugentNugent even scored! See I said the truth is stranger than fiction!

What would your most insane footballing moment be? Have you been caught out by any football related pranks? Let's us know! and with the footballing world becoming more and more bizarre as the weeks go by, be sure to keep up with us on Facebook, Twitter and here on our blog with all the news made up or otherwise.......