Pochettino would be a perfect fit
He turns off the floodlights each night then sleeps at the ground. Meet...
Emirates believe Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino would represent the perfect fit but, given his allegiance to Arsenal’s arch-rivals, the chances of such a move seem non-existent. Borussia Dortmund’s Thomas Tuchel and Juventus’s Max Allegri would fit the profile Arsenal are looking for. With Wenger, 67, one of the last ‘managers’ overseeing the entire footballing operation of his club, Arsenal could appoint a technical director when he leaves. Meanwhile, Mesut Ozil’s agent believes the German was unfairly blamed for the chastening defeat in Munich. Dr Erkut Sogut told the BBC: ‘Mesut feels people are using him as a scapegoat. Eleven players were on the pitch but Mesut was singled out for criticism.’
THE biggest man at the smallest club in the FA Cup is letting out a belly laugh. It gets louder and louder as he reclines on the office sofa that doubles as his bed. Turns out he has been made an offer.
‘A publication askedd if they can photograph me naked,’ d,’ says the big man. ‘Like, everything g off, except a pair of goalie gloves, apparently. They said they’ll position me in a way that covers me up, if you know what I mean.
‘Not sure what I’ll say to them. It’s definitely the strangest thing that’s happened to me in all this.’
The big man is Wayne Shaw, Sutton United’s sub-- stitute goalkeeper,r goalkeeping coach and tackler of multiple e other odd- jobs inn between, from care-- taker of their plasticic pitch to live-in commu-unity liaison officer.
The thing is, he has as not played a minute in his club’s wonderful run un to the fifth round of the he FA Cup and is highlyhly unlikely to change thathat against Arsenal on Monday. But by virtue e of the television cameras s in the past two rounds, thishis 46- year- old has inadvertently become one of the faces of a great Cup adventure.
He is the former ice cream man who has gone on to feature in news bulletins from Argentina to Hungary; a 20st stopper labelled the roly poly goalie by others and sometimes by himself as well. It can sound unkind, except he says it isn’t.
‘My father-in-law thinks people are taking the mickey, but it’s all a laugh,’ says Shaw. ‘If it gets Sutton a bit more attention, then great. The club deserve any attention they get, however it comes.
‘Me? I’ve done nothing but sit there and be myself. Turns out I’m a big guy who people seem to want to look at.
‘It wouldn’t be the FA Cup if it wasn’t for the unusual stories and Sutton is a great, unusual story with lovely people.’
Shaw is one of those delightful people with an amusing tale to tell after three decades in football.
‘I wasn’t meant to be a goalkeeper,’ he says. ‘I was a striker on associate schoolboy forms at Southampton. I remember going to a tournament in Sweden with Alan Shearer in our team.
‘Three months later he was in the first team and scored a hat-trick on his debut — decent player now I think of it.
‘I left for an apprenticeship at Reading and then joined Basingstoke before going on loan to Bashley. One day they had a goalkeeping dilemma and the manager said I had to buy a pair of gloves. We beat Salisbury 1-0 and I’ve been in goal ever since.’ For 20 years or more Shaw has worked his way around non-League football, a well-regarded goalkeeper and predictable source of attention at Sutton, Gosport, Eastleigh, Totton and several others. ‘People tend to look at me and think they are in for a good game,’ he says. ‘They aren’t so happy when this 20st juggernaut charges up from behind them to get a high ball! I did take someone out once by accident and it wasn’t pretty. It was a game at Fleet Town — the ball has come over the top and I cleaned
‘I gave up being an ice cream man so I could just work here’
out the striker as he came through, full contact. Not intentional, but he is lying there sparked out. I had to pretend to be injured to avoid a red card. I obviously get banter from the fans as well. Usually it is good natured but sometimes less so.’
In December 2013, when he was warming up before a Sutton match against Kingstonian, a visiting fan made a series of weight jibes.
Shaw vaulted the hoardings and butted him. He was sacked by the club before being re-signed to Paul Doswell’s coaching staff and squad a year later. ‘I had a bad day at work,’ he says. ‘Usually it’s good fun and banter but sometimes it gets too personal.’ Shaw’s football these days is mostly limited to coaching, although he has been on the bench for four of Sutton’s five FA Cup ties so far. His role is diverse.
‘Sutton has a 3G pitch, which we lease out to the public all day,’ says Shaw. ‘I meet the people coming in, make them welcome. Then, every 10 hours the pitch is in use, I go out and sweep it because that’s what you have to do to look after it.
‘I live down in the south so I come up here to the stadium to work Monday to Wednesday and then train on Thursday before going back home. I have to turn off the floodlights each night at about 10pm so I sleep here on the couch on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Not sure if that’s the case for the Arsenal boys — I’ll ask them.
‘I love it here. I used to work for my uncle for about 23 years as an ice cream man but stopped not so long ago so I could just work here.
‘ It’s a great club. From the manager to everyone behind the scenes — all genuine.’
It brings the big man to a cracking yarn about Jamie Collins, the team captain who scored the winner against Leeds. ‘What a guy,’ he says. ‘Night before the game, the plan was to meet at 8pm for dinner. JC, though, is hungry and decided to have burger and chips and a couple of pints of Guinness at seven.
‘At 8.30pm he is tucking into his pasta and chicken with everyone else and six pints later decided to call it a night. OK then.
‘Next morning, he is already up at 7.30am having a full fry-up. Then he has a kip before a second full fry-up. How does the game go? He scores the winner. Great bloke, great club.’
Shaw is rocking back on the couch again. ‘The more he eats the better he gets,’ he says. ‘I’d like to say it’s the same for all of us.’
Arsenal are next on the menu.