Plus: Player-manager swap deals; Strange trophies (2); and the deadliest group of death ever. Send your questions and answers to knowledge@guardian.co.uk and follow us on Twitter
"Everyone knows Lee Dixon won the League on multiple occasions with Arsenal, but fewer know he actually reached quite the opposite end at the start of his career, finishing bottom of the Football League with Chester City in 1983-84," writes Philip Kent. "Has any other player in the modern age managed this auspicious feat?"
Dixon is far from the only player to have finished both first and 92nd in the Football League. Indeed plenty, like Dixon, spent time in close confines with Alan Hansen – although in the Liverpool dressing room rather than the Match of the Day sofa.
The Reds teams of the late 70s and early 80s produced a series of players who went on to finish their careers in the lower reaches of the Football League, with at least five finishing bottom of the pile. The first was Ian Callaghan, who played more times for Liverpool than anyone else – 857 – and won five league titles with the club – in 1964, 1966, 1973, 1976 and 1977. After spells in the US, Australia and Ireland he ended his career at Crewe, making 15 mid-season midfield appearances for Alex as they propped up the other 91 clubs in 1981-82.
The 1990-91 Wrexham team who finished bottom of the Fourth Division contained Alan Kennedy (who won four league titles at Anfield) and Joey Jones, who took a winners' medal after the 1977 season. And the Halifax side of two years later contained Howard Gayle (who played for Liverpool between 1977 and 1983, though only very occasionally) and, though he left before the end of the season, Jimmy Case (who, again, won four titles at Liverpool).
Dixon's achivement is also matched by another Arsenal old boy. Eddie Kelly, who won the Double with the Gunnersin 1970-71, scoring in the Cup final, made 22 appearances for Torquay as they finished rock bottom 14 years later. Derek Mountfield also took more than a decade to go from top to bottom – the defender won league titles with Everton in 1985 and 1987, then made six appearances for 92nd-placed Scarborough in 1998-99.
The Shrewsbury side of 2002-03 throws up further answers. "Shrewsbury Town's inglorious, disaster-ridden season of 2002-03 can provide two solutions (or one and a half)," writes Ross Knight. "Mark Atkins, who won the Premier League with Blackburn in 1995 before ending his career at Town, and Joe Hart, who as a 15 year old made a handful of appearances on the subs bench that season, a year before making his full debut."
Finally (and stretching things slightly), Noel Whelan was a trainee at Leeds when they won the title in 1991-92 and part of the Darlington side that went down in 2009-10, and, perhaps the record-holder in terms of the swiftest switch from top to bottom, Harry Worley made six appearances for relegated Luton in 2008-09 having been a non-first-team member of Chelsea's championship-winning squad in 2005-06.
Any more for any more? Send them to the usual address.
PLAYER-MANAGER SWAP DEALS
"There's a rumour that Roma have offered Alessandro Crescenzi in exchange for Catania releasing Coach Vincenzo Montella," writes ZonalMarking on Twitter. "A player-manager swap deal? Would that be a first?"
In a word, no. "In the US, player swaps are more usual than in Europe, but player-manager swaps are just as rare," writes Dan Ryazansky of MetroFanatic.com. "Nevertheless, in 2002, the MetroStars (now NY Red Bulls) sent striker Rodrigo Faria to the Chicago Fire for manager Bob Bradley. Faria was MLS Rookie of the Year in 2001 and led the Metros with 14 goals in all competitions in 2002. He didn't last a full season for the Fire, was sent to San Jose, helped them to the 2003 MLS Cup, and was out of soccer soon after. Bradley coached the Metros for two and a half seasons, before being fired by the clown Alexi Lalas in one of the most idiotic moves in history of MLS."
STRANGE TROPHIES (2)
Last week we had a look at some of the building-shaped baubles that pass for trophies in Brazil, and this week we've had a few more suggestions.
As several correspondents pointed out, Australia's A-League trophy affectionately as 'the toilet seat', because of it's somewhat, well, lavatorial shape. But the undisputed kings of the quirky trophy are Real Madrid.
"If your correspondent enjoys an odd-shaped trophy, I'd highly recommend that he take the tour at the Bernabéu - for there, if he can find it among the league titles and European cups, he can see the wonders of Real Madrid's Cabinet Of Wacky Trophies," writes Dave Willbe. "I make that one censer/pepper pot, one castle, one tower and a rather lovely ship."
KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE
"Is next year's group of Holland, Italy, France and Romania the deadliest group ever at a European Championship or World Cup?" asked Michael Ellis in the pre-Euro 2008 days of 2007.
While the "group of death" label may have become a fairly devalued currency, Holland, France and Italy (not to mention Romania) will certainly be facing a struggle to survive at next year's European Championship. The average Fifa ranking of the teams in Group C is 8, but this is not the most statistically perilous collection of hopefuls to have been thrown together since the ranking system began.
The "deadliest" group of death, by some way, belongs to Group C in the 1996 European Championship. While England dealt with Holland and Scotland, eventual victors Germany (at the time ranked No2 in the world) were lumped in with Russia (3), Italy (7), and Czech Republic (10), giving a bone-chilling average of 5.5. France were also forced to negotiate a hazardous passage through the group stage on the way to winning Euro 2000. Although the average team ranking was 9.75, this was skewed by Holland being positioned at 21 when the tournament began, despite going on to top the group.
Before the ranking system came into existence in 1993, however, the title surely must go to Argentina, Brazil and Italy being drawn together in the second group stage of the 1982 World Cup, with only one to qualify. This system was only used once … perhaps because it killed off big teams rather too quickly.
For thousands more questions and answers take a trip through the Knowledge archive
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"Whilst ruminating about the career of Owen Hargreaves (don't ask) I discovered that he'd racked up 42 full England caps, despite only playing 173 club games throughout his career (that's excluding his 15 appearances for Bayern Munich's second side)," begins Mike Dunn. "It means that 19.5% of his appearances were in internationals. Given Hargreaves's lack of action since moving from Germany, I thought that this must be a record. But it isn't. Michael Owen has played a higher proportion of international games versus total appearances with 90 full caps to 354 competitive club appearances. That's 20%! I couldn't find anyone else remotely near that percentage, so does little Mickey Owen hold the record?"
"I've just read that Sinisa Mihajlovic has dropped Adam Ljajic for failing to sing the pro-Nationalist Serbian anthem before the recent friendly loss against Spain," writes Mick Reynolds. "Are there any other cases of players being dropped by their country for failing to show sufficient national pride during the pre-match anthems or other activities?"
Next will see the first of our Euro 2012 specials, so send your European championship questions and answers to knowledge@guardian.co.uk Read More
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