1996-97 The Rock And Goal Years: August 1996
Hello and welcome to Football Reloaded, your home of 90s and 00s football nostalgia.
It's time to start our exciting series as we travel back 25 years to the balmy summer of 1996. Football had popped home, the world transfer record was about to be broken and the rest of the Premier League were wondering just what they had to do to depose Manchester United at the head of the English football table.
Let's take a look at what was going on in August 1996 in the football world as well as remembering the number one hits of the time.
Newcastle United were the main headline grabbers as they smashed the world transfer record to bring local hero Alan Shearer to St. James' Park from Blackburn Rovers in an eye-popping £15 million deal. After his impressive five goal showing for England at Euro 96, a host of Europe's top clubs formed an orderly queue to try and secure the striker's services with Manchester United supposedly the clear favourites. For the second time in his career Shearer rebuffed Alex Ferguson's advances and joined his boyhood club in a deal that sparked joyous scenes on Tyneside with his unveiling resembling a championship winning team's homecoming.
Despite possessing Shearer in their arsenal, Kevin Keegan's Magpies made an indifferent start to the 96-97 campaign. After being humbled 4-0 at Wembley by United in the Charity Shield, the side fell to a 2-0 opening day defeat to Everton at Goodison Park. Shearer managed to notch his first competitive goal for his new club on his home debut as his side recovered to beat Wimbledon 2-0 but they closed the month out with a defeat after squandering a 1-0 lead (thanks to a Shearer penalty) to lose 2-1 to Sheffield Wednesday with Guy Whittingham scoring the winner for The Owls with ten minutes to go.
Hundreds of jubilant Geordies gathered at St. James' Park to see Alan Shearer unveiled as a Newcastle player in the summer of 1996.
Newcastle's local rivals Middlesbrough whipped their own fans into a transfer frenzy when they landed the surprise signing of a bona fide Serie A superstar. Just weeks after scoring for Juventus to help them win the 1996 Champions League final over Ajaz, Italian striker Fabrizio Ravanelli swapped Turin for Teeside in a £7 million deal.
The White Feather, as his new fans quickly dubbed him, made an instant impact for Bryan Robson's side as he notched a stunning hat-trick on the opening day of the season in a pulsating 3-3 draw against Liverpool at the Riverside. After a 1-0 away reverse to Chelsea, another of Boro's imports from the following season, Juninho was on the scoresheet as the team ended August with a 1-1 draw away at Nottingham Forest.
Fabrizio Ravanelli began to repay his hefty transfer fee with a hat-trick in Middlesbrough's opening game of the season. His trademark shirt-over-the-head celebration was soon copied on school playgrounds and Sunday league pitches across the country.
The lure of the upmarket King's Road in London was enough to tempt Ravanelli's Juventus team-mate Gianluca Vialli to join Ruud Gullit's Chelsea as The Blues splashed the cash in an effort to become a force in the Premier League. Vialli's compatriot Roberto Di Matteo joined the Stamford Bridge club as well as French international defender Frank Leboeuf.
Chelsea's new men were at the goalscoring forefront as they ended August unbeaten with seven points from their first three fixtures. After a goalless draw away at Southampton on the opening day and Di Matteo notching the winner in the aforementioned win over Middlesbrough, a goal apiece from Leboeuf and Vialli was enough to help the side to a 2-0 home win over Coventry City.
Fresh from captaining Juventus to Champions League glory, Gianluca Vialli soon endeared himself to the Chelsea faithful as The Blues ended August 1996 unbeaten.
Not to be undeterred after failing to bring Alan Shearer to Old Trafford, Alex Ferguson and Manchester United were still able to bring a number of new faces to the club as they aimed to emulate their double winning feat of the previous season. Norwegian defender Ronny Johnsen was first through the door and was quickly joined by Czech star Karel Poborsky who had lit up Euro 96 with his famous lobbed goal against Portugal. Dutch goalkeeper Raimond van der Gouw was brought in to provide cover and competition for Peter Schmeichel while Jordi, son of the legendary Johan Cruyff, swapped Barcelona for Manchester. For a fraction of Shearer's record transfer, Norwegian striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was brought to Old Trafford from Molde for just £1.5 million.
Despite the new faces, it was an academy product who hit the headlines on the opening day as David Beckham truly announced himself as a star player by scoring an outrageous lobbed goal from the half-way line to make certain of a 3-0 win over Wimbledon at Selhurst Park to add to goals from Eric Cantona and Denis Irwin to give the champions their first win of the season. The win in South London proved in fact to be United's only win of August 1996. After finding themselves trailing 2-0 at home to Everton thanks to two Duncan Ferguson goals, United needed Cruyff to pull one back before a late David Unsworth own goal spared Alex Ferguson's side's blushes to rescue a 2-2 draw in their first home game of the season. Dutch international Cruyff was on the scoresheet again in their final game of the month to give United the lead against Blackburn but again The Red Devils found themselves trailing midway through the second half as goals from Paul Warhurst and Lars Bohinen put Rovers into the lead. In a move that set the tone for his United career, new signing Solskjaer came off the bench to notch the equaliser with twenty minutes remaining to rescue another draw.
David Beckham celebrates the goal that turned him from young prospect to superstar almost overnight.
August 1996 closed with unlikely Premier League leaders as Sheffield Wednesday ended the month at the top of the pile. The Owls had brought in a number of new faces including prolific Huddersfield Town striker Andy Booth for £2.7 million as well as Rotherham goalkeeper Matt Clarke to provide competition to incumbent number one Kevin Pressman, midfielders Scott Oakes and Wayne Collins from Luton Town and Crewe Alexandra respectively while Dutch international Orlando Trustfull joined from Feyenoord.
Wednesday got their campaign off to a winning start with a 2-1 win over Aston Villa at Hillsborough with Ritchie Humphreys and Guy Whittingham on the scoresheet. Booth began to repay his transfer fee by notching the winner in a 2-0 Yorkshire derby win over Leeds United at Elland Road while goals from Peter Atherton and Whittingham were enough to overcome big spending Newcastle to ensure The Owls flew high as August ticked over into September.
Ritchie Humphreys was amongst the goals as Sheffield Wednesday ended August 1996 at the top of the Premier League.
'Wannabe' The debut single from The Spice Girls reached number one in the UK Singles chart on July 21st 1996 and held the position for seven weeks.
In Division One Stoke City led the way with three wins from their opening three games with striker Mike Sheron netting four goals including the winning goal against his former club Manchester City in a 2-1 win in the first home game of the final season at the Victoria Ground. Barnsley were snapping away at Stoke's heels as they also recorded a 100% winning record for the month of August as they backed up an opening day away win over West Brom with a pair of home wins over Huddersfield Town and Reading. Recently relegated Manchester City found life in the second tier difficult as they were only able to record one win from their opening three games. After Steve Lomas got the winner on the opening day against Ipswich Town at Maine Road, that was as good as it would get for City as they slumped to abject defeats to fellow recently relegated side Bolton and the aforementioned early pacesetters Stoke City. The poor results eventually led to City boss Alan Ball resigning from his job in the final days of August.
Mike Sheron's four goals in the opening three games of the season for Stoke City saw The Potters end August 1996 atop the First Division.
We'll be back next week as we go back in time once again with another blog post.
Until then, take care.
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