ON THIS DAY FEBRUARY 4

1948

Transfer fees were going mad with a new record transfer fee being set on 4th February 1948 when Len Shackleton made the short move from Newcastle to Sunderland. At £50 more than the previous record the £20,050 fee was as newsworthy as the £50m fee is nowadays. His debut for Newcastle in 1946 was probably the perfect one - he scored 6 goals for the Magpies in their 13-0 defeat of Newport County. Later in his autobiography one of the chapters was entitled 'What the average director knows about football' - it was blank!

2017

The trouble with a manager getting a touchline ban is usually means that they end up sitting with the plebs...that us us supporters! And that can be an uncomfortable experience as Arsène Wenger found out when sitting with the paying spectators at Stamford Bridge during a fourmatch touchline ban received at the start of 2017 for abusing a fourth official. The Arsenal manager sat next to an Arsenal fan who was his gardener - but the Frenchman had no idea who he was! “But I do have a big garden..." was Wenger's get-out clause!