UPFROnT
NO LOVE LOST Kilmarnock keeper Zach Hemming
posted enthusiastically on Instagram following
a win at rivals Ayr – setting his location as ‘s**thole’UPFROnT
DID YOU
KnOW?
In 1988, Larissa became the only club ever to clinch the
Greek league from outside Athens or Thessaloniki. Today,
they’re in the second division squabbling about cake.
Things have been chaotic for the Queen of the Lowlands
since they formed in 1964. Situated roughly halfway between
Greece’s two major cities, they were denied promotion in
1966 after ending with seven fit players in a 6-0 late-season
loss at Vyzas – not helped by a one being hit on the head with
a ladder thrown from the stands prior to kick-off.
By the mid-1980s, they’d won the Greek Cup and reached
the quarter-finals of the European Cup Winners’ Cup, but
their 1988 title triumph came after more drama: Larissa
were deducted four points when Bulgarian forward Georgi
Tsingov failed a drugs test, prompting supporters to block
the country’s north-south motorway and train line for five
days, splitting Greece into two, before the deduction was
annulled. They eventually won the league by three points.
Financial issues plunged them to the bottom of the third
tier in 2003, but ex-Blackburn man George Donis became
manager and guided them back to the top flight. Then they
won the Greek Cup and stunned his old club Rovers in the
UEFA Cup, much to the delight of their fans (above). Larissa
even opened a smart new stadium.
But the rollercoaster started to plummet again: relegation
was followed by the appointment of Chris Coleman (right),
who quit after eight months citing the club’s cash problems.
Larissa threatened to sue when he was named Wales gaffer
a week later – and soon they had to leave their new ground
after the exit of president Kostas Piladakis, who owned it.
In 2015, they were taken over by lawyer Alexis Kougias,
who’d once represented a Satanist in a high-profile trial.RAnDOM CLUB PROFILE
The Greeks’ Satanist-defending owner sacked the coach after a row over cake
He steered them back up, but later slapped the team’s (now
former) keeper and has gone through 18 bosses in six years.
Kougias installed ex-Greece midfielder Kostas Frantzeskos
when Larissa dropped out of the Super League again in May,
but sacked him last month after two games – both of which
he’d won. In a 1,300-word statement, Kougias complained
that Frantzeskos had upset two star players who were late
because they’d been buying cake for their team-mates. “You
insulted them in front of all of the players,” huffed Kougias.
If only Frantzeskos had blocked the rail line for five days in
protest, he might have been reinstated.DON REVIE:
THE BIOGRAPHY
Christopher Evans
(Bloomsbury, £20)
OOOOORevered at Leeds but reviled by
dugout rivals like Brian Clough
and Bob Stokoe, Revie remains
one of English football’s most
controversial figures.
Obsessive, superstitious and
an inveterate worrier, his Whites
sides were accused of bullying
their way to glory – and Revie of
treachery, when he stood down
as England coach in 1977 and
headed for the UAE.
In this well-crafted biography,
Evans does a fine job of delving
into the Revie psyche. The death
of his mother when he was 12
left him with a lifelong fear that
things could go wrong at any
point. Evans says this lay at the
root of the meticulous dossiers
that he presented to his players
before matches, and which
Peter Lorimer insisted led to the
team fretting too much about
opponents during big games.
Described by Clough during
their infamous TV stand-off as
“cold”, Revie’s old Leeds players
refute the suggestion, recalling
how their much-scoffed bowls
matches and bingo forged team
spirit at club level, but left many
England stars feeling cold. It’s
a poignant and engrossing read.
Jon SpurlingREQUIRED
READInG
LARISSA
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