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The Knowledge | Has a player featured in all their team’s wins in a season, and no losses?

“Has a player ever featured in all their team’s wins in a season, but none of the losses? Or vice versa?” asked Eric Bader.

Who has got the golden touch? Ian Burns has been a clever so and so, nominating the entire Arsenal Invincibles side. Darren White has a contender: “Not quite on the button, but in Sheffield United’s League One title winning season in 2016-17, defender Jake Wright played 29 out of 46 games and was never once on the losing side. Though United did only lose six games all season.”

“Kevin Kilbane played 24 league matches (including one substitute appearance) for Huddersfield in 2010-11, with 14 wins and 10 draws,” writes Richard Askham. “His only defeats were at Arsenal in the FA Cup, at Carlisle in the Mickey Mouse Paint Trophy and – this was really hard to bear – his final appearance for the club in the League One Play-Off final. Juninho Bacuna didn’t start a league win for Huddersfield between his full debut in December 2018 and a win, at the 20th attempt, against Barnsley on 26 October 2019.”

For our next answer, we’re going down under. “Not quite the 100% correct answer – but in season 2018-19, Kye Rowles of Central Coast Mariners featured in 21 of the Mariners 27 regular season matches in the (Australian) A-League. The Mariners won only three games that particular season (finishing bottom), and Rowles missed the first two victories (against Melbourne City & Newcastle Jets). He did appear in their final success of the campaign – a 3-1 win over Western Sydney Wanderers – but was sent off in the 71st minute – so technically, he went an entire season without being on the pitch to celebrate ANY of his teams wins that particular season, despite being a regular selection.”

Crowdless trophy presentations

Jerry Higgins
(@JerryHiggins86)

If the rest of the PL season goes ahead behind closed doors, Liverpool (undoubtedly) will win the title with no fans there to see them lift the trophy.
When is the last time a club was presented with the league trophy in an empty stadium/in a private ceremony?

May 19, 2020

William Hogg (and others) remind us of John Greig’s autobiography, My Story, and the story of the defender being presented with the European Cup-Winners Cup in a backroom at the Nou Camp in Barcelona while Rangers fans were battling with Franco’s Guardia Civil on the pitch:

The next thing I knew, Willie Waddell and I were being led back along a corridor by a Barcelona club official to a long narrow room with a table at one end and several Uefa officials surrounding the Cup. I was still dressed in my strip and boots and the situation felt a bit unreal. One of the officials said something to the effect of ‘Glasgow Rangers, winners of the European Cup-Winners Cup 1972’, handed over the trophy and then more or less added, ‘Right, you can go now’”.

PictureThis Scotland
(@74frankfurt)

Rangers captain John Greig is presented with the European Cup Winners’ Cup at Camp Nou, Barcelona. (1972) pic.twitter.com/O4ghQijCoa

April 10, 2018

Champions going out of business (II)

Following on from last week’s marquee question, we’ve had a few more answers from around the world. “I’m surprised that I don’t see this,” says Kevin Smith, “but the US surely has the best example. The San Francisco Deltas were founded in 2016, playing in the more recent version of the NASL, won the championship in their debut 2017 season, and folded 12 days later.” Ooof.

Next, Jon C takes us to Belfast. “In addition to the clubs who went out of business soon after winning the league I’d like to offer Belfast Celtic who were fairly dominant in the pre-war League of Ireland, winning 14 league titles, their last one in 1948, but they withdrew from the league following a mini riot after their traditional Boxing Day game versus Linfield. A number of players were attacked by Linfield supporters at the end of the game and two were seriously injured.

“Sectarian politics played a role, both clubs released statements blaming each other and the Celtic directed their anger at the police, who stood back and failed to arrest any of the pitch invaders, and the IFA, who they felt failed to sanction Linfield effectively, seeing no easy solution they decided to withdraw from the Irish league. They withdrew from the league at the end of the 1949 season just one calendar year after lifting the league title.

Belfast Celtic goalkeeper Kevin McAlinden and centre half Charlie Currie watch the ball head into the goal, during their 3-3 draw with Philadelphia Nationals on their 1949 tour of the USA.



Belfast Celtic goalkeeper Kevin McAlinden and centre half Charlie Currie during the 3-3 draw with Philadelphia Nationals on their 1949 tour of the USA. Photograph: Topfoto/PA Images

“They did go on to undertake a very controversial tour of America where the team marched under an Irish tricolour, which cause some consternation back home, but they also managed to beat Scotland, who were British Isle champions, 2-0, despite fights breaking out repeatedly during the match. Celtic were officially defunct by 1952, their ground is now a shopping centre. There was a really good Guardian article about the whole thing a while back.” You can read that here.

Knowledge archive

What – excluding stadiums – is the most expensive thing that has been named after a footballer?” asked Detroit’s T Weir in 2015.

The Jackie Milburn locomotive, a steam train in Northumberland was refurbished in 2008 at a cost of £138,000. But Ablett House in Liverpool, an 11-storey 397-room student block in Hatton Garden cost £25m, according to the Liverpool Echo. It is named in honour of Gary Ablett, the only player to lift the FA Cup with both Liverpool and Everton, who died in January 2012 aged 46. The Cahill Expressway in Sydney – briefly renamed the Tim Cahill Expressway in 2014 – is another multi-million pound stretch of tarmac.

“There is of course Brian Clough Way, the main A52 trunk road that links Derby and Nottingham,” wrote Mathew Mitchell. “Stadiums can be expensive but roads often spiral way over budget. Wikipedia claims a collective total of something like £50m at a conservative estimate.”

Dwarfing the old A52, though, is the Steven Gerrard Tower, the £150m housing block in Dubai. George Best Airport in Belfast would be another candidate, and while it’s difficult to calculate a current value it was sold to ABN Amro in 2008 for £132.5m. And in other aircraft news Flybe have a Q400 plane named “The Matt Le Tissier” which could be yours for around £20m.

The Knowledge

Can you help?

“Adrian Justiniussen of Faroese side HB set a world record this weekend when he scored direct from three free kicks in eight minutes, improving on Sinisa Mihajlovic’s previous record by 15 minutes,” writes Kári Tulinius. “But my question is: who was the first player to score a free kick hat-trick?”

“On the last day of the 1993-94 season, I watched Buckingham Town draw 0-0 at Tonbridge, to finish our campaign with a record of P42 W14 D14 L14 F43 A42 Pts 56,” says Philip Cornwall. “If it had still been two points for a win we would have had 42 points. Buckingham already had 43 goals so the perfect mid-table season of 42-14-14-14-42-42 was beyond us at kick-off. But has anyone actually achieved it?”

“How often have club mates faced each other in the World Cup final?” asks Mukhtar Khan.

”I stumbled upon Mbo Mpenza’s Wikipedia page and despite a consistent scoring record at club level he only scored three times for Belgium in 56 games. Has any striker got such a worse record after playing 50 games or more?” asks Rob Davies.

“What is the shortest time it’s taken a team to get a two goal lead from the start of a game?” writes Paul Landsberg. “Has anyone managed to get 2-0 up by the second minute?”

Send your questions and answers to knowledge@theguardian.com or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.

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