Topic: Six Degrees of Separation

[Iska]

1. Ki-Jana Hoever (born 2002) makes his debut last week, playing alongside James Milner.

2. Milner, in his Leeds days, celebrates in front of Marcel Desailly.

3. The 1994 European Cup final, and Desailly wheels away after his goal while Ronald Koeman is devastated in the background.

4. A young Ronnie The Red, playing for Groningen in 1983, is faced up by Johan Cruyff in his late-career return to Ajax.

5. Cruyff, aged 19 and in the knot of players at the top right, celebrates his first at Anfield in the return leg after the Fog Game in 1966 (his second, by the way, is pure Liverpool 2017/18).  Liverpool’s no.9, Ian St John is among those looking on.

6. I suppose that makes St John (born 1938) the sixth degree, but six pictures is more aesthetically-pleasing so in this bonus shot here he is challenging Bobby Robson (born 1935) at Craven Cottage in 1967.  This game is actually later than the one at no.5 - I was trying to find the two together during the England-Scotland game in 1960, but older photos are much harder to find.

So there you go.  I imagine it’s possible to do better and I’d hoped for pre-war - slightly disappointed I couldn’t find a shot of Milner crunching into Steve Bloomer - but I’m happy with this.  Start with a current photo, ideally a debut, and work back, the more distant and legendary the figure the better.  In-game photos only, preferably action shots for maximum kudos.

[Xabi Gerrard]

Good idea Iska!

Pic 1) OK, same starting point but can't find the photo to link so see above! Hoever (b 2002) with Milner.

Pic 2) Milner is the filling in a Shearer Kluivert sandwich



Pic 3) Southampton's Wor Alan being denied by Shilton in 89



Pic 4) Young Leicester whipersnapper Peter Shilton in the thick of it with Man Utd's Bill Faulkes (who debuted in 1952)





Soooooo, 2 more pics to go. I reckon we can easily get pre war from here. Got to go but feel free to expand on these 4. Will have a think about it later too...

[classycarra]

5. Cruyff, aged 19 and in the knot of players at the top right, celebrates his first at Anfield in the return leg after the Fog Game in 1966 (his second, by the way, is pure Liverpool 2017/18).  Liverpool’s no.9, Ian St John is among those looking on.

Great shout!

[Iska]

Great shout!

Isn’t it just.  Watching that live in 1966 must have been like seeing aliens land.

Back to the task in hand, this Shearer-Shilton link could be a game-changer.



5) Here’s Bill Foulkes watching Ray Wood come over the top of the Original Phil Jones in the 1957 European Cup semifinal.  Who’s that looking on?  Why, it’s only all-time legend Alfredo di Stefano.



6) But that’s still not enough to get us pre-war, or probably even to the war itself.  There doesn’t appear to be much in the way of early di Stefano action shots, but I found this on a Vietnamese website.  He’s involved in a proper goalmouth scramble here for River Plate, so it’s between 1945 and 1949, and there’s a date written of 15 July 1945, which would be just before the end of the war in the Pacific, but I suspect that’ll be the date of his debut.  How, though, would you even go about identifying this or anyone else in it.

[Xabi Gerrard]

Original Phil Jones

Yeah I think it's fair to assume that last game took place before the Japanese surrendered so kinda reached the target

It's actually quite mind blowing that we can get from Hoever to Di Stefano in just 5 steps.

I was trying to find a pic of Bill Foulkes on the pitch with Stanley Matthews - they surely must have shared a pitch together - which would have led us nicely to a prewar photo of Sir Stan. Couldn't find one though!

[Xabi Gerrard]

Out of interest, what's the furthest we can go back using just Liverpool teammates? I'm thinking

Hendo - Carra (or Gerrard) - Macca - Hansen - Callaghan - Liddell maybe? Takes us to 1946

[Iska]

Out of interest, what's the furthest we can go back using just Liverpool teammates? I'm thinking

Hendo - Carra (or Gerrard) - Macca - Hansen - Callaghan - Liddell maybe? Takes us to 1946

That does seem to check out, and takes us back to 1 January 1940 according to Wikipedia, which would be absolutely amazing.  Could other clubs do that?  I suppose there’s often a faithful club servant in the ranks.

PS I just noticed that the River Plate guy who’s being bundled over has the look of both Bobby and Suarez about him.  He must have been some player.

[Xabi Gerrard]

That does seem to check out, and takes us back to 1 January 1940 according to Wikipedia, which would be absolutely amazing.  Could other clubs do that?  I suppose there’s often a faithful club servant in the ranks.

It's the Liddell - Callaghan - Jockey chain that's especially ridiculous, 3 players spanning ~50 years!

Not sure about other clubs, the red Mancs maybe?

Young - Giggs - Robson - X - Charlton - Y

would run us close of they have a player that bridges the gap between Charlton & Robson (1973 to 81) and also a very long serving player who was in their team as Charlton broke through in '56.

PS I just noticed that the River Plate guy who’s being bundled over has the look of both Bobby and Suarez about him.  He must have been some player.

Haha, great spot! Not that I want to question the integrity of Bobby and Suarez's grandmothers, but this guy was clearly a cad spreading his seed (and his footballing gene) across South America!

[Kekule]

It's the Liddell - Callaghan - Jockey chain that's especially ridiculous, 3 players spanning ~50 years!

Not sure about other clubs, the red Mancs maybe?

Young - Giggs - Robson - X - Charlton - Y

would run us close of they have a player that bridges the gap between Charlton & Robson (1973 to 81) and also a very long serving player who was in their team as Charlton broke through in '56.


Haha, great spot! Not that I want to question the integrity of Bobby and Suarez's grandmothers, but this guy was clearly a cad spreading his seed (and his footballing gene) across South America!

Lou Macari or Sammy Mcilroy would maybe have been knocking about being obnoxious in a United shirt all that time.  No idea about the pre 1956 one though. Could barely name you a handful of players in total from that era.