WELCOME
With football still on hold, we’re turning back time to relive one of our favourite decades. So in the words of Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker: let’s all meet up in the year 2000.
If the ’ 90s was the decade that truly changed football in this country and on the continent, then the noughties was the one in which everything got supersized. The clubs got richer, the players earned more money, the stadiums got bigger and the profiles of star names exploded.
Manchester United and Arsenal were still the two teams to beat at the start of the decade, but Roman Abramovich and Jose Mourinho combined to make Chelsea a brand new threat to be feared in west London. By the end of the decade, the Blue Moon was starting to rise in Manchester.
In this issue, we guide you through the noughties and highlight 99 things you’ve possibly forgotten about it – from Asprilla at Darlington to a pitch- invading Karl Power.
Meanwhile, former Manchester United defender Mikael Silvestre answers your questions and Jerzy Dudek chats about the night he became a Liverpool hero in Istanbul, while we chart the rise of El Clasico and fall of ITV Digital. If that’s not enough, we also celebrate Thierry Henry and go behind the scenes with Harchester United: the fictional side from Sky’s popular drama Dream Team.
Take care and enjoy the mag.