Welcome to my weekly blog “The Igor Bišćan Hall of Fame”
every week I’ll be adding two new additions, one will be a Liverpool Legend or
fans favourite, the other a Player, Manager or Club who have contributed to the
world game we all love (Gary Neville need not worry). This weeks addition is
dedicated to Uruguayan fan rogerdodger99, Please comment below who you’d like
to see make the IBHoF, here are this weeks entries. YNWA
JOHN ALDRIDGE
1986/87 - 1989/90
It was like a worthy but run-of-the-mill county cricketer
taking over from prince of batsmen Viv Richards, or a rookie rider climbing
into the saddle of master jockey Lester Piggott; when John Aldridge replaced
Ian Rush as Liverpool centre-forward public expectations were not especially
high. But Scouser John had the perfect response. He scored so freely that Ian
was not missed and when the prodigal hero did return after a frustrating year
in the Italian sun he found that reclaiming the role of the Reds'
goalscorer-in-chief was no formality. Indeed, a hefty slice of the Welshman's
first campaign back at Anfield was spent on the bench as he languished in the
shadow of his so-called stand-in.
John had achieved his lifetime ambition of joining Liverpool
in January 1987 when, with lan's departure in the offing, Kenny Dalglish signed
him from Oxford United for £700,000. His Manor Ground strike-rate of around 1.5
goals every two games might have made him one of the most feared strikers in
the land yet, strangely, there was widespread reticence in recognising his
achievements. True, he had never played for a glamour club and his style was
efficient rather than flashy, but that record – which included 18 months of
First Division experience - would surely have made it surprising if he had failed
at Anfield, instead of provoking the amazement in many quarters which followed
his success.
In his first half-term as a Red, John started only two
League matches but, significantly, scored in both, although it wasn't until
1987/88 that the headlines started coming his way. Even when he netted in the
opening nine League matches - admittedly six of his strikes were from the
penalty spot - he was accorded but a fraction of the acclaim deservedly
bestowed on John Barnes. As the season wore on, however, it gradually dawned on
the media that perhaps the unobtrusive front-runner who unfussily rounded off
so many flowing moves should be given a share of the credit. After all, his
finishing was clinical and he was better in the air than Rush; his selfless
running created countless openings for Messrs Barnes and Beardsley and if John
could match neither the ball skills of his team-mates nor the pace of his
predecessor he made up for it with the positional sense of a born opportunist.
Add to that his inbuilt passion for Liverpool - never more evident than in his
utter devastation on missing his first penalty for the club in the 1988 FA Cup
Final against Wimbledon - and his all-round value becomes apparent.
Despite the triumphs of his first full term at Anfield, in
which he scored 26 times on the way to a title medal, it was widely predicted
that he would quietly shuffle out of the limelight when Ian Rush returned for
1988/89. Once again John confounded the pundits. Ian spent most of the League
opener against Charlton in the Selhurst Park dugout before replacing not
Aldridge but Beardsley; John, meanwhile, was weighing in with a little matter
of a hat-trick! That performance set the tone for a campaign in which 'Aldo'
outscored an often unfit Ian and capped his Reds career by sweetly sweeping
home the opening goal against Everton in the 1989 FA Cup Final.
Come 1989/90 it was clear that Dalglish must make a choice
between the two men and, not surprisingly, he chose the one for whom he had
paid more than £2 million. John, though, had one more moment of glory before
joining Real Sociedad for £1 million. Just days before his September move,
'Pool were five up at home to Crystal Palace when they won a penalty and the
Kop called for the Eire international. The boss betrayed evidence of a heart by
sending him on, and he duly signed off with a goal; the man whom the critics
had continually expected to fail had succeeded to the last.
Even then Aldo's Merseyside exploits were not finished.
After two years of prospering in Spain, he signed for Tranmere as a 32-year-old
in 1991, going on to register well in excess of a century of League strikes
over the next seven campaigns. He became player-boss guiding them to a League
Cup final at Wembley against Leicester City. Wherever he has played, at
whatever level, John Aldridge has scored freely; it is tempting to wonder just
what he might have achieved had he been allowed to remain at Anfield in 1989?
BORN: Liverpool, 18.9.58. GAMES: 88 (15). GOALS: 61.
CLUBS: Newport County 79/80-83/4 (170, 69); Oxford United
83/4-86/7 (114, 72); Real Sociedad 89/90-90/1 (63, 33); Tranmere Rovers
91/2-97/8. (242, 138).
HONOURS: League Championship 87/8. FA Cup 88/9.
INERNATIONAL CAREER: 69 Republic of Ireland caps (86-96), 19
Goals.
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PENAROL
FULL NAME: Club Atlético Peñarol
CITY: Montevideo
COUNTRY: Uruguay
LEAGUE: Primera División
FOUNDED: 1891
STADIUM: Estadio Centenario (76,609)
COLOURS: Black, Gold
NICKNAMES: Aurinegros, Manyas, Carboneros, Mirasoles
RIVAL: Nacional
WEBSITE: peñarol.org
DESCIPTION:
The club that would someday be known as Peñarol were founded
on September 28, 1891 as the Central Uruguay Railway Cricket Club. This was a
club for workers and managers of the English-owned Central Uruguay Railway
Company. As the name suggests the club played cricket but also football. Nine
years later the club was involved in the formation of the first national
association - the Uruguay Association Football League. In 1913 the club was
reorganized and the football section broke off to form Club Atlético Peñarol,
open to all members and not simply those involved with the railway company.
Peñarol is the neighborhood of Montevidieo where the club is based. The full
name translates as Peñarol Athletic Club and has sponsored teams in many sports
over the years, although football is by far the most important.
The derby with Nacional, El Super Clasico, is one of the
oldest in the world.
The 11 stars of the logo represent the 11 players in a team.
The vertical black and gold stripes are seen at the front of railway cars
throughout Uruguay. The nickname Aurinegros means The Gold and Black. The
nickname Mirasoles refers again to the club colors. Mirasol (or more commonly
girasol) means sunflower in Spanish. A carbonero is the train's fireman, the
one who supplies the coal to a locomotive.
The nickname Manyas is quite a unique one. In the early part
of the 20th century a player named Carlos Scarone (son of an Italian immigrant)
began with Peñarol before emigrating to play in Buenos Aires for Racing. He
later returned to Uruguay to play for Nacional and was asked by the press why
he didn't return to Peñarol and he replied in a mix of Spanish and Italian - ¿A
qué me iba a quedar en Peñarol?, ¿a mangiare mierda? which translates as
"why would I go back to Peñarol? To eat s**t?". Mangiare became
manyar in the Spanish/Italian mix of the city, the insult was turned on its
head by Peñarol supporters and manyas became one of the most common nicknames
for the club.
ESTADIO CENTENARIO:
Peñarol play most matches in the enormous Estadio
Centenario, also used by arch-rival Nacional as well as the Uruguayan national
team. The club also owns (and occasionally uses) a smaller stadium named the
Estadio José Pedro Damiani - Las Acacias.
HONOURS:
Uruguayan Amateur Championship (1900, 1901, 1905, 1907,
1911, 1918, 1921, 1924, 1926, 1928, 1929)
Uruguayan League (1932, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1944, 1945,
1949, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968,
1973, 1974, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996,
1997, 1999, 2003, 2010
INTERNATIONAL TITLES:
Copa Libertadores (1960, 1961, 1966, 1982, 1987)
Intercontinental Cup (1961, 1966, 1982)
Supercopa (1969)
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