Premier League

ANDY TOWNSEND has recalled the time he made an “ugly” team of the year, only for it to backfire on him. The former Chelsea and Aston Villa star, who won two League Cups with the latter, lifted the lid on the day he was “most frightened” as a player.
Andy Townsend revealed how he made an ‘ugly’ team of the season
Townsend won two League Cups with Aston Villa and was named Chelsea’s Player of the Year in 1990/91Credit: Getty
Townsend had been handed a ballot sheet to vote for the PFA Team of the Season.
However, the ex-midfielder picked his XI based on how “ugly” a player was.
And this left then-Coventry goalkeeper Steve Ogrizovic fuming.
Speaking on talkSport, Townsend said: “The most frightened I’ve ever been going to any match in my career. This is about 30 years ago. Almost to the day.
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“You know how you get the ballot sheets for the PFA Team of the Season? So messing about I picked an ugly team. 11 of the ugliest lads in the division. And I had big Oggy in goal. Steve Ogrizovic.
“And that Saturday we had Coventry away [where Ogrizovic played his football at the time]. What I didn’t realise, I was only messing around, was that I put this up on the wall in the dressing room.
“Wisey [Dennis Wise] gave this to an up-and-coming young journalist called Lee Clayton, who was working at The Sun.
“All of a sudden this ugly team gets printed in The Sun. We’re playing Coventry away on the Saturday and of course big Oggy’s in goal.
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Steve Ogrizovic was not happy at being named in Townsend’s ‘ugly xi’Credit: Getty
“I’ve walked through the doors and Gary Mac [McAllister] says to me ‘By the way, loved the team.
“The goalie is gonna rip your head off, bounce it three times and volley it down the high street if you go anywhere near him’.
“Let me tell you. Stood in the tunnel. You know that look where the captains stand at the front and they’re so focused?
“I was petrified cause I could feel the steam coming out of Oggy’s nostrils about two foot behind me.”
Townsend later added: ” I don’t remember how I played. I think I went over the halfway line once. I didn’t go near the edge of the box.”
The 59-year-old was himself voted into the PFA Team of the Year on three occasions, while also winning Chelsea’s Player of the Year award in the 1990/91 season.
Townsend made 215 Premier League appearances across stints at the Blues, Aston Villa and Middlesbrough after playing 146 times in the First Division.
After retiring in 2000, Townsend moved into commentary and punditry work. More

CHELSEA and Mauricio Pochettino have reportedly reached a breakthrough in talks.And negotiations for the ex-Tottenham boss to become Chelsea’s manager are now in the “final stages.”
Chelsea are nearing an agreement to naming Mauricio Pochettino their next managerCredit: Getty
Todd Boehly has turned to Pochettino after working his way through four managers this season.
The tactician has a number of huge decisions to make, namely who he wants signed to improve Chelsea’s vast squad.
But Pochettino will also have to make decisions on a number of contract extensions for stars like N’Golo Kante.
And he needs to also sell up to an entire starting XI of duds to make his Chelsea side more manageable.
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Fans had been left wondering why it was taking so long for an agreement between Poch and Chelsea to be struck.
Talks were opened last month after Boehly identified the Argentine as the ideal man to lead next season’s charge.
But Fabrizio Romano claims the wait is almost over after talks entered their crucial final steps.
He tweeted: “Understand talks between Chelsea and Mauricio Pochettino are moving forward to the final stages.
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“Positive contacts took place in the last 24 hours.
“Nothing signed/done yet — but finally advancing waiting on the next steps.”
Chelsea hope to have a deal for Poch wrapped up before the end of the season.
The Blues will embark on a tour of the USA before the next Premier League campaign.
And Poch can experiment with his players in games against Wrexham, Brighton, Newcastle, Fulham and Borussia Dortmund. More

GREEK football bosses have struggled to find a location for their Cup final – even though it is due to be staged on May 24.  Greek FA president Panagiotis Baltakos had been keen on playing the game abroad.
Selhurst Park was a potential option to host the Greek Cup finalCredit: Rex
The final will be a high risk clash between AEK Athens and PAOKCredit: Reuters
That is despite it being a high risk clash between AEK Athens and PAOK.  
Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish was open to the idea.
Selhurst Park has a capacity of 25,486.
The Eagles are at home to Bournemouth this Saturday and then face Fulham the following week.
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They will conclude their Premier League back on home turf on May 28.
And even Australia, with a large Greek population was looked at.  
Cyprus have turned down the chance due to the potential behaviour of the two sets of fans. And now the game could be in Poland.  
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The city of Sosnowiec is an option.
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And the Greek FA could announce the venue on Friday – just 12 days before the showpiece.
Clashes between the two sides are known as the double-headed eagles derby with both clubs being refugees from Constantinople, AEK in Nea Filadelfeia and PAOK in Thessaloniki, after the Greco-Turkish War, the Asia Minor Catastrophe and the population exchange.
Both sides use the same double-headed eagle emblem but in different colours, and there have been numerous chaotic and terrifying clashes between supporters and players over recent years. More

THIS time last year, ‘lifelong Manchester United fan’ Sir Jim Ratcliffe was trying to buy Chelsea.Now, by happy accident, the INEOS petrochemicals billionaire at least has a perfect blueprint for how NOT to take over an elite Premier League club.
British INEOS Group chairman Jim Ratcliffe is the preferred bidder to buy Man UtdCredit: AFP
Chelsea owner Todd Boehly has made plenty of mistakes since taking charge of ChelseaCredit: PA
Slim Jim, a 70-year-old ironman triathlete, is ready to be crowned King Rat at Old Trafford after being named as the preferred bidder to buy a majority share of the club from the hated Glazer family.
Many successful, wealthy and seemingly sensible businessmen have bought football clubs, lost their minds and a substantial part of their fortunes.
So the fact that Ratcliffe started life in a council house in Failsworth — a small town between Manchester and Oldham — yet ended up as Britain’s richest man is no guarantee of success in club ownership.
When losing out to Todd Boehly and his clear-as-mud Clearlake crew in the bidding for Chelsea last year, Ratcliffe had no idea that the club he claims to support was about to come up for grabs.
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His £4.25billion offer for Chelsea matched the amount on the table from the Boehly consortium but, crucially, it arrived after the deadline set by kingmakers Raine — the American bank who dealt with offers for the Blues, and now for United.
Yet Ratcliffe was serious enough about wanting Chelsea that the publicity-shy tax exile gave a rare interview to the BBC.
He claimed he had ‘great intentions’ and ‘long-term commitment’ to the Stamford Bridge club and made a play about the apparent advantage of his ‘Britishness’.
Nobody is pretending that Sir Jim is a diehard Stretford Ender, that he invaded the pitch when United were relegated in 1974 — or that he was to be found roaring ‘Glory, glory Man United’ at the Nou Camp during injury time of the 1999 Champions League final.
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But by seeking to make a positive out of his nationality, Ratcliffe was claiming an innate understanding of the basics of English football culture.
And after witnessing the car crash of Boehly’s first year in charge at Stamford Bridge, that must be seen as a potential plus for United.
Boehly has blundered his way into the Premier League, initially appointing himself as interim director of football, then scatter-gunning the best part of £600million on new recruits, leaving a super-sized squad which lacks balance and sufficient motivation.
He sacked a manager, Thomas Tuchel, who knew what he was doing, replaced him with Graham Potter, a man seemingly out of his depth, then appointed Frank Lampard as caretaker in an ill-judged foray into nostalgia.
Boehly has also mouthed off into a TV microphone, predicting a 3-0 win at the Bernabeu when his side were about to play Real Madrid, having already invited ridicule by proposing a North v South Premier League All-Stars match.
It feels inconceivable Ratcliffe will repeat any of those mistakes — and he is sure to be Erik ten Hag’s preferred bidder, over his rival, the Qatari royal Sheikh Jassim.
United’s Dutch manager — who ditched Cristiano Ronaldo to improve morale — would not have enjoyed life under anything like the Galactico model employed by the Qataris at Paris Saint-Germain.
Yet that enthusiasm is not shared by many fans.
If Ratcliffe’s takeover is completed, he will keep on the Glazer brothers as minority shareholders, which is anathema to most supporters, whose green-and-gold protests have been raging intermittently for more than a decade.

Under the Qataris, though, United would have suffered similar scrutiny over alleged human-rights abuses as Newcastle’s Saudi ownership and Manchester City’s Abu Dhabi paymasters.
Ratcliffe is a fracker — the controversial process of extracting gas and oil which is hated by environmentalists — and lives in income tax-free Monaco.
Yet where are the ethical billionaires who made their fortunes by running petting zoos? If there are any, they haven’t got on the blower to Raine and made a bid for United.
Ratcliffe, who has dipped into club ownership with limited success at French club Nice and Swiss outfit Lausanne, says success in business depends on appointing the right people.
Given the mess of United’s player recruitment since Sir Alex Ferguson’s 2013 retirement, this surely means an overhaul of that department.
Hiring elite people to oversee recruitment must be Ratcliffe’s priority, rather than a Boehly-style splurge in the transfer market.
The INEOS boss is likely to stick with Ten Hag, whose first year in charge has been a qualified success.
A slick corporate operator, Ratcliffe will know the importance of long-term strategy, with an overhaul of the crumbling Old Trafford stadium at the centre of it.

But he will not be gobbing off to the microphones, making idle boasts and proposals as Boehly has done.
His regime is likely to provide a quiet evolution, as opposed to Boehly’s botched and noisy revolution — and that might be what United need. More