Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks

Retro football writing from Football Bloody Hell. Long reads, classic matches and forgotten heroes, with new stories every week. ⚽📼

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

Before the 2000 FA Cup final, against Villa again, Vialli put Terry on the bench and told him: "You're the future of our football club." He was right, as he usually was about football. He just wasn't there to see it.

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

Terry's memory of his debut is gloriously unromantic: "There's not much you can mess up in five minutes so I just went on, didn't think anything of it. Wisey got sent off after about 20 seconds of me being on the pitch and that was my debut over really."

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

As an apprentice, Terry ran Vialli's baths. "He used to like it really hot with a little bit of bubbles, so he could get in with his boots on and they would mould around his feet." The Diadoras, naturally.

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

The player-manager picked himself and scored three. Then, 4-1 up in the 86th minute, he took off Dan Petrescu and sent on a teenage centre-half to play right-back. Petrescu, by Chelsea's own account, "did not take kindly to being withdrawn".

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

On 28 October 1998, 28 years ago tonight, Gianluca Vialli scored a hat-trick against league leaders Aston Villa, then sent on the 17-year-old apprentice who ran his baths. His name was John Terry.

https://t.co/dyQSyvILbW

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

Chelsea 4 Aston Villa 1, League Cup third round. Chelsea were missing eight of the side that had drawn at Leeds the Sunday before; Villa, top of the Premiership, made six changes. One report that night called it "a run-out for both clubs' squad players". It was.

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

@JNKnowsTooMuch Hope the power's back soon. Champ Man withdrawal is a real thing.

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

@fmbIog Every save starts the same way: the free agent list and a hope that nobody else has spotted him. Some things never change since the Champ Man days.

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

@JoshDxly The lower-league challenge saves are always the ones people talk about for years. Small club, small budget, big stories. Same appeal as the old Champ Man diaries: I wrote a comic novel in that spirit, Johnny Cooper – Championship Manager (link in my profile).

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

@PremiershipYrs Wrighty up front in CM 97/98 felt like a cheat code. Always wonder who everyone else paired him with.

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

@TheFMEditor85 Lower-league first save, every time. Tiny budget, one scout swearing he's found a gem, and a chairman who's "delighted" with everything. There's a comic novel in that exact feeling. I wrote one, set on CM 99/00: Johnny Cooper – Championship Manager (link in my profile).

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

@SamVale29 Championship Manager, no contest. 99/00 specifically, a Mansfield save that got so out of hand I turned it into a comic novel.

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

@McGroin83 Brilliant. Nothing gets a CM generation going like 01/02 running natively again. The forums are going to lose a lot of sleep this winter.

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

@oldyzach 99/00 has to be in the conversation. Scouts ringing about "excellent prospects", Barry Fry haggling over every kid, and a chairman who's delighted about everything. I loved that version so much I wrote a book set inside a save.

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

@nocontextfm1 Nottingham edition: forget Forest and County, take Mansfield and make Field Mill the big ground in the East Midlands. Tried it on CM 99/00 years ago and ended up writing a whole novel about it.

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

Before FM, there was Champ Man 99/00 and a Mansfield save I couldn't stop thinking about. So I wrote it up as a comic diary novel: Johnny Cooper – Championship Manager.

Kindle, £1.99 until 31 October, then £2.99: https://t.co/2BFIf25CJW
Paperback: https://t.co/GY5X7PlS6q

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

"London Road smells of onions and overconfidence."
Peterborough away, after half a week of Barry Fry on the blower haggling over one of my players. Some lines write themselves when the game hands you Barry Fry.

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

"The lads turn up in sombreros because they’ve heard I’m scouring South America."
Every save has the moment you go all in on one country's bargain bin. Johnny's was South America, hoping someone would take £500 a week. #CM9900

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

"Stace reckoned it was the best night of football nobody came to see."
Golden goal, a few hundred in the ground, their keeper having the game of his life. If you ever played a cup tie in front of nobody on Champ Man, you'll know the feeling.

[Football Bloody Hell | The Football Pinks @FootballPinks]

Lovely to see CM 01/02 having a revival. Confession: my save was a couple of years earlier. Mansfield on CM 99/00, no transfer budget, a chairman called Hazza and a Spaniard the scout rang about at the crack of dawn. I wrote the lot down as a diary. #CM0102 #CM9900