When Newcastle lost the Tyne–Wear derby at St James’ Park in August 1999, Duncan Ferguson says the damage was already done the day before.
Ruud Gullit ran the usual 11v11 at training, the one that was meant to show you the team for Sunderland.
Ferguson says he looked around and realised both him and Alan Shearer were on the “reserves” side, like they were the bomb squad.
They beat the side that was meant to start.
Normally a manager clocks that and changes it.
He says Gullit didn’t.
The next night, Newcastle lose 2–1 and Gullit starts talking afterwards about what happened when Shearer and Ferguson came on, essentially just blaming the whole defeat on the two of them.
Shearer being the club captain was absolutely fuming at this.
So instead of taking it to the press, he decided to show up early to training. So he could give the manager an earful before anyone else had arrived.
After dropping his kids 2 hours early at school, he raced dow the motorway and just as he was about to barge into the managers office.
He noticed the door was completely off its hinges and the whole room turned upside down.
With Ruud just sitting there like he’d just seen a ghost.
As Shearer put it, “Big Dunc had beat me to it”
“There is no superior race.”
“There is no chosen people of God.”
“It is neither the United States nor Israel.”
“The chosen people of God is all of humanity.”
President of Colombia - Gustavo Petro
🇮🇱🇧🇦 Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu met with the pro-seperatist Bosnian Serb president.
The flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina was not displayed; only the flag of the Republika Srpska entity was visible.
The leaders agreed to deepen cooperation.
Israeli foreign minister also met with the Bosnian Serb president, saying that "Serbs are true friends of Israel" and discussing the need to "protect" Bosnia's Christian minorities.
Israel flattened Beirut in 1982.
No Hamas. No Hezbollah. No October 7 to point to then.
Just 17,000 dead Lebanese and Palestinian civilians.
Even US president then Ronald Reagan, who armed Israel, called Begin furious after seeing a photo of a 7-month-old baby with its arms blown off and said “It is a holocaust”.
They killed so many innocent people that the survivors had no choice but to pick up weapons.
Then Israel had the audacity to keep using “Self-Defense” excuse every decade.
Israel didn’t stumble into endless war. Israel built it. Brick by brick.
Own it.
Australian female doctors making a statement in Gaza:
📍We are filming this video because we could die at any moment.
📍70-80% of our patients are children and pregnant women.
📍 I delivered a baby from a woman who was 9 months pregnant and whose head had been severed.
the zone of interest is a film about the idyllic, everyday life of an Auschwitz commandant and his wife, who raise their children in a home located directly adjacent to the concentration camp.
below is an unrelated photo showing Gaza from an israeli settlement.
Sad news of the death of Tyrone and Ardboe legend Frank McGuigan.
His display in the 1984 Ulster final will always be remembered.
Left foot 0-8
Right foot 0-2
Fist 0-1
Solo dummy x 4
Too young to have seen him live but those who did have him among the greatest
When Andy Goram had three months left on his Motherwell contract, he already knew he was not getting another one.
He was coming towards the end of his career, driving to training with his wife Miriam, and the phone rang at half nine in the morning.
It was Ally McCoist.
That was suspicious enough on its own.
Ally did not usually phone people at half nine in the morning unless he was still coming in from the night before.
So Goram spoke to him, thought nothing more of it, and went into training.
At lunchtime, the phone went again.
This time it was Walter Smith.
Walter was at Everton then, but he told him to keep his phone on because somebody was about to ring him.
“What is it, gaffer? You got a job for me?”
Walter just told him:
“Just keep your f****** phone on.”
A couple of minutes later, the phone rang again.
“Goalie, it’s Alex Ferguson here.”
“We’ve got Bayern Munich on Wednesday and Liverpool at the weekend. Barthez is injured and Raimond van der Gouw is struggling. I need you to come down on loan until the end of the season.”
Goram knew exactly what was happening.
Ally McCoist could do Ferguson’s voice perfectly.
So he gave the only answer that made sense.
“Coisty, f*** off.”
And he put the phone down.
Then the phone rang again.
This time Goram told Miriam to answer it.
“Miriam, this is Alex Ferguson, and you can tell that fat b****** he’s got ten seconds to say aye or naw.”
It really was Sir Alex Ferguson.
So Andy Goram went to Manchester United.
Steve McClaren took him round the dressing room and introduced him to the squad.
Goram knew most of them already.
Then they got to Roy Keane.
No handshake.
Just Keane staring at him.
Goram looked at him and said:
“There’s no point is there?”
Keane just said:
“No.”
And that was it.
Keane was a Celtic man.
Goram was a Rangers man.
They did not exchange a civil word in three months.
Training did not exactly help.
They were playing eight-a-side one day, and Keane and Luke Chadwick were up front for Goram’s team.
Goram pinged a half-volley straight on to Chadwick’s foot.
Chadwick snatched at it and put the volley over the bar.
Keane turned on Goram straight away.
“Hey you, give me the f****** ball.”
Goram was not having that.
“What, do you get the ball just because you’re Roy Keane? F*** off.”
From that moment, the atmosphere was gone.
On the way off the pitch, Gary Neville came over to him.
“Goalie, we don’t talk to Roy like that down here.”
“We just don’t.”
Goram wasn’t ready to start building relationships.
“F*** off Nev, do you just do everything Roy wants? Now do one.”
Neville just walked away without saying another word.
#football