What if I Collected the Premier League?

In 2003, I was single and living in a condo in Midtown Atlanta with my dog. At that time in my life, though I was pretty free generally, I had a fairly set schedule every day during the week. I'd get up around 6:45, take the dog out, and go to work. My drive was quite short, so I'd be in the office by no later than 7:45. Without a wife or girlfriend at that point, I'd go out when I wanted, I'd go to sleep when I wanted, and I'd try to get up when I wanted.

But, despite my best efforts, my dog generally would not let me sleep in too long in the morning.  So, I'd get up on Saturdays at around 7:15 or so and take her for a little walk. We'd walk to Starbucks a couple blocks away, and Clea would sit outside as I picked up my venti coffee.  

One morning -- it was probably February, but it might have been early March...it was after after college football season had ended, and it was also after the NFL had wrapped up for the year -- we got back home after our walk and I turned on the TV.  I flipped channels some before coming across Fox Soccer Channel. A live English Premier League game was on, and I stopped to watch. I had played a little soccer in college in intramurals, but I was hopelessly lost on the pitch -- I had no idea what I was doing, where I was supposed to be on the field, how difficult it is to put a shot on goal, how difficult it is to beat even the crappy keepers we were facing.  But, with very little else on TV that interested me, I started watching.

Almost immediately, I was hooked. 

I'd watched the Premier League on highlights shows in the past, to be fair. In fact, I distinctly recall watching Eric Cantona's kung-fu kick one day in 1995 on a "World Sports" show.

But, I'd never watched games live before. I started planning my Saturdays to watch games. I went to the local Barnes & Noble and found some books about the history of the game. I found one magazine called Four Four Two from England, and I bought it immediately.  In fact, I recall exactly which issue it was:

I even picked a team in those first few months. I had a sort-of friend who lived on my freshman hall in college and who then showed up in Athens unexpectedly to transfer to law school there who loved Arsenal. As a result, I immediately disliked Arsenal.  

I was trying not to like Manchester United. Everything I knew about them said I shouldn't like them.  People call them "the New York Yankees of England." That should have dissuaded me immediately. But whenever I saw them play, they were just fantastic to watch.  Great, attacking football -- swashbuckling, even.  They won games regularly.  They weren't Johnny-come-latelies either.  

Despite my efforts, I became a fan. Just another glory-hunting non-local Manchester United fan. It was cinched for me just a couple of months later.  

United went down 1-0 to Newcastle United before equalizing through Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Then, Paul Scholes scored first a great team goal and then a thundering shot from outside the box.  Ryan Giggs tucked away a rebound next, and suddenly it was 4-1 before the break.  Scholes finished his hat trick, then Ruud van Nistelrooy closed out the scoring for United by putting away a penalty won by Diego Forlan on a Titus Bramble tackle. Newcastle got a consolation in the end, but the attacking, foot-to-the-throat play had won me over. 

I could go even deeper into my backstory on English football -- I went to New York to see Man Utd. play AC Milan in 2004, I went to three games in England in 2006, I woke up at 3 AM local time in Sydney and watched games, and I still watch today and love NBC's coverage -- but all of this is a long way to introduce a trade package. Back a couple of months ago, I corresponded with Jackplumstead of the excellent blogs Pursuit of 80s, Pursuit of Red Sox, and Pursuit of Jacoby. I sent Jack a package of Red Sox cards that I think he needed. 

In return, Jack recently sent me a fantastic package of Brewers cards and a bunch of unopened packs of stickers and cards from the world of Football.  Not Gridiron. Football.

Here are a few of the highlights.  Let's start with the Manchester United cards and stickers:

Radamel Falcao came to United with a lot of promise. For years, his name would be heard every transfer window, tied to big clubs in England like ManUtd or rich clubs like Manchester City or Chelsea. When he came on loan last year, it was on eye-watering wages and for a loan fee that was crazy.  For all that money, we got to see Falcao falling over frequently. I'm glad Chelsea now have him.

Tyler Blackett played a fair amount last year out of necessity thanks to injury. I recall him costing United a game last year by giving the other team the ball back very politely. That allowed the other team to take a free kick quickly -- while United were out of position -- leading directly to a goal.  He's on loan at Celtic in Scotland this year.

Finally, there's a sticker of Chris Smalling.  Smalling is quickly becoming one of my favorite players. He's composed on the ball as a central defender and is quickly becoming a take-charge man in the defense.  Unfortunately, with Luke Shaw's terrible double-leg break at PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League today, Smalling will likely have to form a partnership now with the rotund Marcus Rojo.

There were also some great World Cup cards and stickers that Jack sent. Here are three former United players.  First, here on the bottom, is Angel di Maria. di Maria looked as happy in Manchester as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. It didn't help that someone -- probably a Scouser -- broke into his home in January.  But di Maria always wanted to be in Paris and not Manchester.  

The top two cards are far more pleasant to discuss.  First, there's Robin van Persie. van Persie was probably pushed aside a year too soon by Louis van Gaal. Okay, he definitely was let go a year too soon.  Perhaps van Gaal figured he didn't need more than one true striker on the team? I don't know.  But van Persie came over from Arsenal and provided the goals to give Sir Alex Ferguson one last league title to knock Liverpool off its f**king perch. For that, everyone loves RVP.

Then, there is Patrice Evra.  Evra was always a favorite of mine, bombing up the left sideline from his fullback position to drive attacks and provide crosses. He made 273 appearances for United before Louis van Gaal told him he could leave Manchester United. So, he did -- and got to play in the UEFA Champions League Final for Juventus.  

Jack sent a bunch more stuff, so tune in later this week (or tomorrow...not sure yet!) for more.

I promise that I won't keep telling my soccer stories.

A Dutch Treat

In our blogging world, there are very few Europeans. Perhaps due to this, it seems that everyone knows our European friends.  There's the Frenchman, The Card Papoy, who burst onto the blogging scene a year ago and is now having an anniversary contest to celebrate. Just yesterday, I had my first contact with The Italian Completist, the only Italian collezionista di carte di baseball of which I am aware (and please, blame me for the translation if it sucks, because I tried learning Italian 7 years ago for a trip there and barely any of it stuck).

The longest tenured blogger from Europe of which I am aware -- that is still around, at least -- is Jeroen, the Dutch Card Guy.  Back when I had my 1-year anniversary/300th post giveaway, he asked me if I might send him a few cards.  I packaged up some cards for the Netherlands and sent them off.  Jeroen recently returned the favor and sent me some cards.

I've mentioned in the past that I follow European soccer/football -- mainly the English game, and mainly Manchester United.  So, to come up with a theme for this post, I'm going down that road.  Yup, let's talk Dutch players for United and use them to introduce the cards.  To make sense of it, I'm going from most appearances to fewest, using mufcinfo.com as my guide...which, to be fair, has different numbers for appearances than Wikipedia has.

Most Appearances: Edwin van der Sar
Van der Sar joined United from Fulham in 2005 at the age of 34 and stayed through the end of the 2011 season, making 266 appearances for the Red Devils. At first I was a bit surprised by the move, in part because I didn't know much about van der Sar and because his move to United hastened Tim Howard's move to Everton soon after.  Van der Sar, though, was really the first goalkeeper at United to truly replace the great Peter Schmeichel in net, and he was in goal when United defeated Chelsea on penalties in Moscow in 2008 to win the Champions League.  I follow VDS on Twitter, but most of the time he tweets in Dutch because he is a marketing director with Ajax, his boyhood club.

Goalkeepers are kind of like catchers in a way -- keepers get to use their hands, wear big gloves, and rarely venture away from their position, while catchers are the only ones to face the rest of the players, wear big gloves, and rarely venture away from their position. So, here's a Dave Nilsson card that Jeroen sent to me:

Second: Ruud van Nistelrooy
Ruud joined United in 2001 from PSV Eindhoven. His transfer was delayed by a year due to a terrible knee injury that he suffered. Van Nistelrooy got his knee worked on in the United States, learned English well, and even became a commentator in the United States for the 2014 World Cup. RVN made 219 appearances for United, scoring a whopping 150 goals in that time.  He left United in 2006 for Real Madrid after falling out with United's rising star, Cristiano Ronaldo, for Ronaldo's ball hogging.  The rift between van Nistelrooy and Ronaldo led to a rift between van Nistelrooy and Sir Alex Ferguson. Ronaldo was younger and, frankly, the more vital player for the team, so Ruud left.

Somewhat similarly, the Brewers tried, but failed, to keep Prince Fielder happy. There was no rift between the remaining superstar, Ryan Braun, and Fielder of which I was aware, but Fielder left for greener pastures nonetheless.  Here are the Fielder cards that came my way from the Netherlands:

Third: Jaap Stam, 127 appearances
Stam played just three seasons in Manchester after he joined United -- also from PSV -- in 1998.  Stam was an imposing center back who got in trouble with Sir Alex Ferguson for being too honest in his autobiography. Stam said that Ferguson made the approach to buy Stam and sign him without PSV's approval -- that's called "tapping up" and, as you might guess, is not allowed.  

Later, Ferguson said that the decision to sell Stam wasn't because of the book but rather because Stam was struggling a bit to come back from injury.  Stam was sold to Lazio for a lot of money, but showed Ferguson up by playing another 6 years at a top level -- 3 seasons at Lazio, two seasons at AC Milan, and one final season (and a couple of extra games) with Ajax.

One blemish on Stam's career was being suspended in 2001 for testing positive for nandrolone, a steroid.  I bet you can see where this is going:

Fourth:  Robin van Persie, 105 appearances
Another Dutch striker is fourth on the total appearances chart with 105.  In those games, he's scored 58 goals.  Van Persie came over from Arsenal in 2012 after playing for Feyenoord in the Netherlands until 2004.  Sir Alex Ferguson viewed Van Persie as the missing link to securing a 20th league title and go past Liverpool for the most league titles in England.  Or, as Ferguson put it: "My greatest challenge is not what is happening at the moment, my greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their f**king perch. And you can print that."

Van Persie may be on his way out of Old Trafford despite having his countryman Louis van Gaal as the manager, though.  If he does leave now, he'll still be thought of fondly.

Is there a good analog in the Brewers cards from Jeroen? Not really, though maybe Jeromy Burnitz might qualify as a guy who came up elsewhere, did well for my team, and then/now moves on.

Fifth: Arnold Muhren, 98 appearances

Muhren was the first Dutchman to play for United.  He made his name in England with Ipswich Town after transferring to the Tractor Boys from Twente. Wherever Muhren went, he won -- even winning the UEFA Cup with Ipswich before winning two FA Cups in Manchester.  After leaving United in 1985, he went back to the Netherlands and to Ajax. He closed out his international career by providing the great Marco van Basten with the cross that van Basten volleyed in against the Soviet Union to win the European Championships in 1988.

There really is no analog for Muhren in Brewer history, so here are a couple of middle infielders instead: Jose Valentin and Rickie Weeks.

Sixth: Raimond van der Gouw, 60 appearances

We're getting into the lesser names here now.  Van der Gouw is another goalkeeper. He spent six years with United, mostly as a backup to Peter Schmeichel and Fabian Barthez though getting his chance to play in the 1999-2000 season when Mark Bosnich became a nightmare in goal.  Van der Gouw was always wanting to coach and teach and even served as the youth goalkeeping coach while he served as an active player for United in the late 1990s.  He played all the way until the age of 44 with AGOVV Apeldoorn, a club which went bankrupt in 2013 and no longer exists as a professional club.

A similarly good soldier in my opinion is Geoff Jenkins.  Jeroen sent me two of his cards:

Seventh: Jordi Cruyff, 58 appearances
Jordi Cruyff.  What an odd name.  His father is, of course, the great Johan Cruyff -- he of the uncompromising style of football that calls for constant movement and a lot of passing. Johan played for and coached in Barcelona for many years, and Pep Guardiola credits Johan for the tiki-taka style of play that led Barcelona to the top of the Champions League and Spain to the World Cup in 2010.  

That matters because Sant Jordi -- Saint George -- is one of the most important saints in Catalonia and is the second most important national Catalonian feast.  Thus, Jordi Cruyff reflected his father's place of professional happiness and importance.

The problem with Jordi, though, was he was always injured.  He missed games for knee injuries and ankle injuries, and he also had the distinct disadvantage of playing best as a left winger -- the home of the legend, Ryan Giggs.

Injuries ruined Ben Sheets, Cal Eldred and Corey Hart too.  All tried or continue to try to play on after the injury problems, but they have never been (or never could be) the same.

Eighth: Daley Blind, 29 Appearances

I admit it: I really like Daley Blind as a player.  I feel much more secure watching the defense when Blind is at left back rather than Luke Shaw, though Blind might be better as a defensive midfielder.  Hopefully, he continues to develop his offensive skills, because his play in midfield could be a bit ponderous at times.  He seems better suited to play as a ball-playing defender rather than a midfielder, oddly enough.

What scares me is that I felt the same way when the Brewers drafted B.J. Surhoff back in 1985. I thought he was the answer at catcher, even if his skills were not necessarily "catcher" skills.  The team plugged him in where needed -- sort of what van Gaal did this year with Blind -- and eventually Surhoff left to find a place where he could play one position.  We'll see what happens with Blind, but here's a great Stadium Club card from Jeroen of Surhoff that went in my player collection:

Jeroen, I hope I have done your Brilliant Orange proud with this post.  Thank you for the great cards and the great Dutch players at Manchester United too!