retired_kathydonatto

elaborate for those of Stateside/not in the know. </BLOCKQUOTE>

a million and one small things to **** the opposition, from having the grass left long in the corners of the pitch so his team's long balls wouldn't go out, to over-sugaring the opposition's tea urn

was succesful at cambridge with a horrific form of long ball football, right up until the moment all the other teams in the league worked out how simplistic it was to beat it, leading to them getting beaten every week, thus providing the inspiration for si coders as regards how the ai deals with tactics </BLOCKQUOTE>

i've read about him before

on cold winter days he'd make sure the heating in the away dressing room was broken, maybe it'd be conveniently damp in there. And on hot summers he would make sure the heating was on full blast. </BLOCKQUOTE>


Another part of that legend is that Beck ordered the groundsman to leave the grass longer in the corners of the pitch to slow the ball up. No idea how true it is. </BLOCKQUOTE>

For his first game in charge at preston he put soo much sand down in the corners of the pitch (plastic pitch!!) that Port Vale (our opponents) complained to the ref, he came out and inspected the pitch and the next minute said sand was being swept away.

Another good John Beck story - i was at reading festival in 96 or 97, was queing for some chips, wasnt paying much attention tbh got to the front of the queue and who should serve me but the legend that is John Beck. no one else seemed to know who he was - i got his autograph. As i was walking away owner of chip van scame out & stopped me, asked how i knew who he was, explained was preston fan etc, i asked what john beck was doing, turns out the guy in the van used to do the catering at north end and thats how they knew each other!

retired_bouka12

the legendary Cliff Hercules had a great free kick routine. He would pretend to argue with another player about who was going to take the free kick and then have a pretend sulk and "storm off" into a good position, the opposition would be baffled by this and leave Hercy completely unmarked for the cross to come in.

Actually worked on a few occasions, Aylesbury almost scored against the England National side this way

retired_txanya

Beck used to tell players to go down with a "head injury" in the box after scoring a goal (only ones that put Cambridge ahead, obviously), thus forcing the ref to stop the game while it was "treated".

He once substituted Steve Claridge in the first half for playing a short pass

retired_bigsean999

elaborate for those of Stateside/not in the know. </BLOCKQUOTE>

a million and one small things to **** the opposition, from having the grass left long in the corners of the pitch so his team's long balls wouldn't go out, to over-sugaring the opposition's tea urn

was succesful at cambridge with a horrific form of long ball football, right up until the moment all the other teams in the league worked out how simplistic it was to beat it, leading to them getting beaten every week, thus providing the inspiration for si coders as regards how the ai deals with tactics </BLOCKQUOTE>

exactly why I stopped supporting my home town team. Was absolute ***** to watch :thdn: </BLOCKQUOTE>

So you decided to support liverpool then Captain Logic?

retired_kathydonatto

once substituted our keepr at north end for rolling the ball to the full back a couple of times, brough on some muppet at half time who whilst seemed to be able to kick the ball where JB wanted he unfortunately conceded two soft goals and we lost 3-2. genius

mitch_mcintyre

Does that penalty that Johan Cruijff took with *I think* Muhren counts? If not, it still was the greatest penalty. Ever.

retired_hern1001

Was with Jesper Olsen, wasn't it?

Shermanez

didn't John Beck used to pump the radiators up in the away dressing rooms claiming they were 'broken', and coincidently, so were the windows meaning they were nailed shut and couldn't be opened?

retired_reptilian72

That was the day my Grandad died, we had gone down to Highbury to watch the match with my uncle, been given some dodgy tickets which where duplicates, got in anyway found some empty seats anyway.

Came back and mum came out to tell dad that his old man had passed away, he got straight back in the car and drove back down to London.

retired_sacclover@yahoo

The 5-0-5 that osvaldo ardiles persisted with during his stay as spurs boss.

The tactical foul, getting sent off rather than conceding a goal. Perfected by Slaven Bilic and copied by such greats as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.